For the second year in a row, the birthrate among American teenagers has dropped, hitting a record low point in 2009, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. So what’s the reason for the good news? Well, according to some hopeful experts, the teen birthrate dip might be one positive side effect of the recession.
Continue reading …There’s always got to be the kids who are naughty and naughtier at Christmas. This year it’s John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Tom Coburn. They’re playing games with the lame duck in an attempt to stall as much as possible, but some of them are downright mean. First, we have Lindsey Graham whining for his jammies and tea because he’s tired . Poor guy. It must be rough sitting on everything all year long, blocking it as much as possible only to have to stay late and maybe miss hanging his balls on his Christmas tree. Or maybe he’s a little nervous over the possibility of being outed . Whatever the case, he threw the first hissy fit today over all the work he’s still got to do. After he was done with that hissy, he went on to apologize to Senator John Kyl for the Senate ratifying the new START treaty with the full co-operation of Republicans . “I stand here very disappointed in the fact that our lead negotiator on the Republican side… basically is going to have his work product ignored and the treaty jammed through in the lame duck. How as Republicans we justify that I do not know,” Graham said. “To Senator Kyl, I want to apologize to you for the way you’ve been treated by your colleagues.” Oops, Lindsey. No goodies for you this year. You’ve got to do better than that. Meanwhile, we have John McCain playing the role of Scrooge McGrumpy in a petulant, whiny sort of way. In a last-ditch effort to scuttle the DADT repeal, McCain came to the floor tonight ready to bring the Defense Appropriations bill up for a vote. Of course, he was ready to do that because he and his bitch Mitch McConnell had inserted a poison pill amendment that would have undone the actual repeal. Joe Lieberman, on the other hand, probably just earned an extra package under the tree for blocking their pathetic bigoted attempt to shoot holes in something the President is set to sign at 9:15 am today. The amendment was on John McCain’s wish list this year. But he’s been naughty, so no amendments for him! Finally, we have Tom Coburn, who may qualify for the Ebenezer-Unredeemed-Scrooge-Forever award for his random block on Harry Reid’s effort to resurrect the 9-11 responders bill. In what could be one of the most cynical moves ever, Coburn claims the bill was never debated in committee. Chris Hayes, sitting in for Keith Olbermann, reminds us all that yes, it was debated. It’s just that Coburn ditched the committee that day. I’m guessing he ditched to bloviate on the Senate floor about how horrible the Affordable Care Act was. Or he was out fundraising with his tea party buddies. Either way, Coburn wins the prize for being the meanest, most selfish, cynical, ugly SOB in the Senate. If I were Santa, I wouldn’t even bother with coal. I’d pick up after the dog and put it in his stocking.
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The Senate has moved to close a loophole that allows fishing concerns in America’s corner of the Pacific Ocean to engage in finning—that’s when you catch a shark, cut off its fin and dump the mutilated, still living-but-not-for-long animal back in the water so it can suffer to death. It’s not just a matter of shark torture; overfishing poses a threat to some shark species.
Continue reading …Fox & Friends appalled Daily Show gets 9/11 responders credit: People ‘think his show is real news, which is a problem’
December 22, 2010 No Comment
Click here to view this media Now that the 9/11 first responders’ health bill has passed the Senate , Jon Stewart and the Daily Show obviously deserve a round of applause for stepping up and playing a critical role in getting it done. That really seemed to stick in the craws of the crew at Fox & Friends this morning. Check out this exchange between Gretchen Carlson (who I think is just still mad at Stewart for calling her out on the dumb-blonde schtick ), Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade, culminating with this: Carlson: I think it’s interesting when you have Jon Stewart, who apparently decided to get really serious on this topic, have a serious show about it. That’s like mixing apples and oranges, c’mon! I mean, people already think that his show is real news, which is a problem. So then when you have comedy and then one day you decide to just get totally serious — Doocy: He’s an activist. Carlson: But I don’t know if that works in the mind of the — mind of the American people. You know what’s an even bigger problem, Gretchen? That people already think every show on Fox News other than Shep Smith’s is real news. When in fact, it’s demonstrably little more than lying, smearing, fearmongering propaganda. Now THAT’S a problem.
Continue reading …Tom Tancredo just asks whether military can "segregate in their own ranks" after repeal of DADT
December 22, 2010 No Comment
Mr. Tom ‘Miami is a Third World Country’ Tancredo went on radio and just brought up what he feels is a relevant question about the repealing of DADT: That is, can the military segregate the troops based on sexual preferences? What a guy. People like him openly foment hostility, the kind that usually leads to violence. Political Correction: Unsurprisingly, Tancredo, who has made his anti-immigrant views well known, isn’t in favor of the DREAM Act (which, he claimed, will give special affirmative action treatment to tons of people sneaking in from Latin America and Africa). He was also skeptical about the “political” repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” but fortunately for the large majorities of Americans and military personnel who wanted DADT to go away, Tancredo isn’t in charge; President Obama signed repeal into law this morning. Yet, knowing what was coming, Tancredo clung to hope that our combat troops might be saved from actually having to serve in close quarters with those scary gays. “I wonder,” he mused, “to what extent this ruling allows the military to segregate within their own ranks.” TANCREDO: I have a feeling there may be other problems that develop. Certainly those kinds of things have been expressed by the head of the — by the common head of the Marine Corps. And I would — among other things I wonder to what extent this ruling allows the military to segregate within their own ranks. That is to say, it’s okay, just as we said that it was ok to have females in the military but we would segregate them into non-combative roles, then would this be — I wonder if we could do the same thing in this situation, saying that just the environment in combat does not lend itself to having these other pressures on the people that we ask to do the fighting. I don’t know. I’m just asking a question. I do not know if that was part of the bill that was passed today by the Senate, whether it really went into that kind of detail. I doubt it. Usually these things go over to the military and you know the military is just simply told, “implement.” Tancredo is already well-established as a vicious nativist who always takes the low road, so what do you expect from him? No wonder he’s a Tea Party favorite. Click here to view this media In this clip Alan Colmes tells Tancredo that Jeb Bush called him a “nut” because he called Miami a ‘third world country’. Tom’s response was to of course equate being called a nut was like being called the “N” word if you’re African American. Tancredo: Did he use the “N” word? We got into an argument into what it means to be a third world country. Here’s a few of his other greatest hits. Tom Tancredo to the Tea Partiers: Lack of ‘civics literacy test’ meant illiterates put ‘a committed socialist’ in White House Tom Tancredo Calls La R aza a “Latino KKK Without the Hoods or Nooses” Tom Tancredo calls Sonia Sotomayor a racist Tom Tancredo boycotts Univision/Spanish Debate: Attacks their entire viewership And let’s not forget his “bombing Mecca,” statements either.
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The Washington Post’s Dana Priest has another phone book’s worth of terrifying revelations about our national security/police/prison state. One that really chills given the FBI’s track record is the “vast repository” the Bureau is building that “stores the profiles of tens of thousands of Americans and legal residents who are not accused of any crime. What they have done is appear to be acting suspiciously to a town sheriff, a traffic cop or even a neighbor.” The Washington Post: At the same time that the FBI is expanding its West Virginia database, it is building a vast repository controlled by people who work in a top-secret vault on the fourth floor of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building in Washington. This one stores the profiles of tens of thousands of Americans and legal residents who are not accused of any crime. What they have done is appear to be acting suspiciously to a town sheriff, a traffic cop or even a neighbor. If the new Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative, or SAR, works as intended, the Guardian database may someday hold files forwarded by all police departments across the country in America’s continuing search for terrorists within its borders. The effectiveness of this database depends, in fact, on collecting the identities of people who are not known criminals or terrorists – and on being able to quickly compile in-depth profiles of them. Read more Related Entries December 22, 2010 CIA Launches W.T.F. December 21, 2010 Foreign Policy Review Suggests a Losing Effort
Continue reading …Fox host calls out Republicans by name for blocking 9/11 responders bill
December 22, 2010 No Comment
Click here to view this media At least one Fox News host is willing to hold Republicans accountable for blocking a bill that would provide health benefits to 9/11 first responders. Fox News’ Shepard Smith called out Republicans by name Monday, placing individual responsibility for their successful filibuster of the bill and refusals to come on his show to talk about it. While Smith noted that they blocked the bill “in lockstep.” “We called a lot of Republicans today, who are in office at the moment,” he said. “These are the one who told us no: Sens. Alexander, Barrasso, Cornyn, Crapo, DeMint, Grassley, Kyl, McConnell, Sessions, Baucus, Gregg, and Inhofe.” In addition, Sens. Bunning, Coburn, Ensign, Graham, Hatch, and McCain failed to respond to his request at all. “I’m not really surprised, but what is your take? Why does no one want to talk about this?” Smith asked former Republican Gov. of New York George Pataki. “I can’t tell you why they didn’t come on and talk about it but I do believe that it’s important that the Senate act and I hope they act before they break,” Pataki said. House Resolution 847, the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010, would provide $7 billion in benefits to workers that responded to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Many of those workers are now experiencing health problems such as cancer, heart disease and respiratory disease. For his part, Smith seems to be the exception at Fox News, where only one other personality has gotten angry about the 9/11 first responders bill — but he neglected to mention that Republicans were the reason for its failure. “Shame, embarrassment, outrage, anger, all are proper reactions to the conduct of our Senators, who will now find one excuse after another to explain away the fact that they have turned their back on American heroes,” Peter Johnson Jr. said last week. “Heroes whose only sin was to expect nothing for their service and were then promised the world by politicians who couldn’t take enough pictures with them.” While other mainstream media outlets have yet to cover 9/11 responders during their nightly news coverage of the lame duck session, Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart devoted his final show of the year to the subject. Stewart noted that the only network that fully covered the topic was Al-Jazeera. “Our networks were scooped with a sympathetic Zadroga Bill story by the same network Osama bin Laden sends his mix-tapes to!” he exclaimed. “This is insane!” ——————————————————————————————————————————– Edit: Today Shep Smith called out Tom Coburn (R-OK) for vowing to block the bill until the next session, for no real reason other than personal pique. SHEPARD SMITH: He is the man who is vowing to slow this down or block it, so that the necessary funding for the illnesses of the first responders who made it to Ground Zero to try to save lives on the day that America changed — remember? This is the Senator who is vowing to block it so that it doesn’t make it through. Sen. Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma.
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Time's Joe Klein, ABC's Christiane Amanpour, and CBS's Lesley Stahl were just three journalists to see an outrageously baised quote of theirs land in the Best of Notable Quotables 2010 . A panel of 46 radio talk show hosts, magazine editors, columnists, editorial writers, and expert media observers chose the winners, and our news analysts introduce them and a few others in this highlight lowlight reel put together by Media Research Center video producer Bob Parks: read more
Continue reading …From Associated Press, via MSNBC: The U.S. Senate approved a new strategic nuclear arms treaty with Russia on Wednesday, handing President Barack Obama a major foreign policy victory in his drive to improve ties with Moscow and curb the spread of atomic weapons to other countries. The Senate voted 71-26 in favor of ratification after a contentious debate that threatened traditional bipartisanship on national security affairs. The treaty limits each country’s strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550, down from the current ceiling of 2,200. It also establishes a system for monitoring and verification. U.S. weapons inspections ended last year with the expiration of a 1991 treaty.
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What will those clever minds at the CIA think of next? The agency has assembled a task force to gauge the effects of WikiLeaks’ recent intelligence exposés on its operations, dubbed the WikiLeaks Task Force—or W.T.F. for short.
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