Archive for April, 2010
Mainstream Intolerance
According to Mike Fuckabee, once and possibly future Republican presidential candidate, being gay is like doing drugs or incest or polygamy: Huckabee went on to draw parallels between homosexuality and other lifestyles that are considered by some to be morally aberrant. “You don’t go ahead and accommodate every behavioral pattern that is against the ideal,” [...]
Anatomy Of The Republican Lie-Of-The-Week
It is rumored that Newt Gingrich once told the truth about the current political topic of the day. But that was apparently a long time ago. And he was under medication at the time. This week he pushed the Republican Lie-of-the-Week on Fox News: One of the things in the health bill is 16,000 additional [...]
Environmental Disasters In The Time Of Bush (And Their Legacy)
Steve Benen relates a little story from Massey Energy’s murky past that could stand as the dictionary definition of the word “impunity”: Ten years ago, the Big Branch Refuse Impoundment, a giant coal-waste reservoir owned by Massey in Inez, Kentucky, sprung a leak that flooded nearby waterways with so much sludge that it was declared [...]
Bubble Boy, Take Two
Look who’s inherited the mantle of George Bush: media mogul and CEO of Fox News’ parent company, Rupert Murdoch. It seems he draws the line at consuming his own product — or even monitoring it for quality control — so he has no idea what sort of news (or not) Fox News puts out. Even [...]
Citigroup And The Mortgage Market Meltdown
According to the AP, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission circus may get a little interesting today and tomorrow, with former executives of Citigroup slated to appear before the commission: Former executives of Citigroup Inc. could be in for some surprises when they appear before a panel investigating the roots of the financial crisis. Commissioners and [...]
When Will They Ever Learn?
How many times are we going to watch this same movie? There is a military incident that results in charges of misconduct of one kind of another. First, the military denies that the alleged misconduct occurred. Then, they deny that the official version of events constitutes a cover-up. And then, just as surely as Lucy [...]
When Will They Ever Learn (Contd.)
Different war, same script. It’s always the same damn script. Calling it a case of “collateral murder,” the WikiLeaks Web site today released harrowing until-now secret video of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter in Baghdad in 2007 repeatedly opening fire on a group of men that included a Reuters photographer and his driver — and [...]
The Questionable Judgment Of Dr. Jack Cassell
Dr. Jack Cassell, if you don’t recognize the name right away, is what can only be described as a political urologist. He received his 15-minute dose of fame last Friday, when there was a storm of outrage over a sign he posted on his office door: A doctor who considers the national health-care overhaul to [...]
Reimbursement Roulette
Michael Steele, hapless chairman of the RNC, doesn’t just suffer from Loose Lips Syndrome. He’s also been running a really loose ship. On the heels of the recent revelations about the RNC cheerfully reimbursing expenses for a group trip of young donors to a topless lesbian-bondage nightclub, we learn about seriously misrepresented reimbursements: At the [...]
NSA Wiretap Program NOT Declared Illegal
Yesterday, Judge Vaughn R. Walker handed down a ruling that the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping of Al Haramain, and two of its lawyers, in 2004 was illegal. At first blush, it may seem that Judge Walker held the NSA warrantless wiretapping program to be illegal. Especially when The New York Times‘ lede reads: A federal judge [...]