You Have Got to Be Kidding Me pic.twitter.com/Gy3vQcax0r
— lawblob (@lawblob) June 30, 2014
Monday, June 30, 2014
HOWEVER HOBBY LOBBY COVERS MALE VASECTOMIES
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Saturday, June 14, 2014
REPORT: Bush Released 171 Gitmo Prisoners Who Returned to Battle; Obama? Just 7
http://firebrandprogressives.org/report-bush-released-171-gitmo-prisoners-returned-battle-obama-7/
By now, anyone who follows politics and is able to think with a rational mind can clearly see the double standards in the reactions from Republicans to similar events which occurred under both George W. Bush and President Obama.
Lets start with BENGHAZI! The typical malleable Fox News viewer likely has the impression that nothing similar occurred under the Bush regime, probably because Fox conveniently didn’t bother to cover it extensively, or much less ever question the circumstances surrounding those events, or criticize the Bush administration for anything that they might have done wrong. They have a viewpoint to live up to, dammit, as well as a willfully ignorant audience to cater to.
But under Bush, there were 13 similar events that occurred when he was
ruining the countrypresident for (gulp) 8 years. Under President Obama, Benghazi is the
only attack which resulted in fatalities, four in that case. Under Bush,
a total of 60 people were killed – not counting any attackers who
perished – including a total of 11 Americans.
Where were the congressional investigations into those attacks, especially given that in some of those attacks, there were sufficient warnings that American consulates were about to be attacked by foreign interests? We’re now on our 8th congressional investigation of what happened with Benghazi, because apparently the first 7 didn’t do enough to implicate President Obama or the likely next president if she runs, Hillary Clinton. Where were all the Republicans and right-wing media gasbags when these embassy and consulate attacks took place under President Bush?
Well, we know the answer to that. They were looking the other way, or were too busy trying to justify a clusterf*ck war being fought on false pretenses in Iraq. And they were fighting a culture war, trying to save Christmas from the millions and millions of Americans who are out to destroy it.
That brings us to the latest trumped up scandal: The swap of 5 Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay for the release of American soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who had been held captive for 5 years in Afghanistan. In between obsessing over Bob Bergdahl’s Muslim-y beard, Fox News and other conservative outlets have been railing on President Obama for releasing 5 bad guys from Gitmo who may end up attacking U.S. interests again.
Well, here again we must take a hard turn away from the Fox News script and point out that while even President Obama acknowledged the released bad guys could indeed end up back on the battlefield against U.S. interests, there were just a few more bad guys released from Gitmo under Bush. A total of… wait for it… 532! And out of those 532, 171 of them were confirmed or suspected of having returned to the battlefield. Under President Obama, only 7 have met that description.
And according to the U.S. Intelligence Agency, that includes Ibrahim Sen, who was later arrested in Turkey charged as the leader of an active al Qaeda cell, and Abdullah Mahsud, whom Pakistan government officials accuse of directing a suicide attack in April 2007 that killed 31 people.
And further throwing a monkey wrench into the conservative media’s talking points is that another one of the bad guys released under Bush is suspected of having been involved in the Benghazi attack.
How’s that for irony?
Apparently, the Republican strategy consists of throwing as much mud as possible at Democrats and hoping enough of it sticks so they have a fighter’s chance of winning back the Senate and even the presidency in the coming elections. And to conveniently ignore their own transgressions, which occurred under a much greater scale on many fronts under the disastrous George W. Bush reign of terror.
H/T: Liberaland
By now, anyone who follows politics and is able to think with a rational mind can clearly see the double standards in the reactions from Republicans to similar events which occurred under both George W. Bush and President Obama.
Lets start with BENGHAZI! The typical malleable Fox News viewer likely has the impression that nothing similar occurred under the Bush regime, probably because Fox conveniently didn’t bother to cover it extensively, or much less ever question the circumstances surrounding those events, or criticize the Bush administration for anything that they might have done wrong. They have a viewpoint to live up to, dammit, as well as a willfully ignorant audience to cater to.
But under Bush, there were 13 similar events that occurred when he was
Where were the congressional investigations into those attacks, especially given that in some of those attacks, there were sufficient warnings that American consulates were about to be attacked by foreign interests? We’re now on our 8th congressional investigation of what happened with Benghazi, because apparently the first 7 didn’t do enough to implicate President Obama or the likely next president if she runs, Hillary Clinton. Where were all the Republicans and right-wing media gasbags when these embassy and consulate attacks took place under President Bush?
Well, we know the answer to that. They were looking the other way, or were too busy trying to justify a clusterf*ck war being fought on false pretenses in Iraq. And they were fighting a culture war, trying to save Christmas from the millions and millions of Americans who are out to destroy it.
That brings us to the latest trumped up scandal: The swap of 5 Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay for the release of American soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who had been held captive for 5 years in Afghanistan. In between obsessing over Bob Bergdahl’s Muslim-y beard, Fox News and other conservative outlets have been railing on President Obama for releasing 5 bad guys from Gitmo who may end up attacking U.S. interests again.
Well, here again we must take a hard turn away from the Fox News script and point out that while even President Obama acknowledged the released bad guys could indeed end up back on the battlefield against U.S. interests, there were just a few more bad guys released from Gitmo under Bush. A total of… wait for it… 532! And out of those 532, 171 of them were confirmed or suspected of having returned to the battlefield. Under President Obama, only 7 have met that description.
And according to the U.S. Intelligence Agency, that includes Ibrahim Sen, who was later arrested in Turkey charged as the leader of an active al Qaeda cell, and Abdullah Mahsud, whom Pakistan government officials accuse of directing a suicide attack in April 2007 that killed 31 people.
And further throwing a monkey wrench into the conservative media’s talking points is that another one of the bad guys released under Bush is suspected of having been involved in the Benghazi attack.
How’s that for irony?
Apparently, the Republican strategy consists of throwing as much mud as possible at Democrats and hoping enough of it sticks so they have a fighter’s chance of winning back the Senate and even the presidency in the coming elections. And to conveniently ignore their own transgressions, which occurred under a much greater scale on many fronts under the disastrous George W. Bush reign of terror.
H/T: Liberaland
Saturday, June 7, 2014
Friday, June 6, 2014
What Republicans Don’t Want You to Know: 500 + Detainees Were Released from GITMO Under Bush
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/06/05/500-detainees-released-transferred-guantanamo-george-w-bush.html
Yet another exercise in exploring the depth of
Republican hypocrisy and hysteria. This one is about OH MY GOD
IMPEACHING OBAMA BECAUSE GITMO TRANSFEREES!
In a June 2nd press briefing, questions were asked
regarding the transfer of the five Guantánamo (Gitmo) detainees in
exchange for the successful recovery of Sergeant Bergdahl, a prisoner of
war in Afghanistan. Press Secretary Jay Carney explained that there
were restrictions made in the prisoner exchange, which is not an
uncommon occurrence in armed conflicts.
From the White House transcript:
Q As you know, there have been detainees who have returned to the battlefield. What are the guarantees, other than just a one-year ban on travel on these five detainees that they won’t go back and target U.S. interests, U.S. personnel, U.S. military?MR. CARNEY: Again, I’ll re-stipulate that prisoner exchanges are not uncommon in armed conflicts. Secondly, I’ll say that without getting into specific assurances, I can tell you that they included a travel ban and information-sharing on the detainees between our governments, between the United States and Qatar. I can also tell you that the assurances were sufficient to allow the Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, in coordination with the national security team, to determine that the threat posed by the detainees to the United States would be sufficiently mitigated and that the transfer was in the U.S. national security interest.So this was done after the appropriate consideration and analysis, and it was the judgment of the Secretary of Defense in coordination with the entire national security team that there was sufficient mitigation in place and assurances in place to allow the exchange.
Republicans are acting as if Obama never should have done this. Senator Lindsey Graham is talking impeachment if Obama releases any more prisoners or tries once again to close Gitmo. Yet, in 2009, PolitiFact confirmed that “More than 500 Guantánamo detainees were released or transferred under Bush.”
Indeed, government documents indicate more than 500 detainees were released or transferred from Guantanamo while George W. Bush was president. A White House executive order issued on the second day of Obama’s presidency said, “The federal government has moved more than 500 such detainees from Guantánamo, either by returning them to their home country or by releasing or transferring them to a third country.”
That’s backed up by a fact sheet from the military task force that runs the detention camp, which says 520 detainees had been released or transferred by March 2009.
PolitiFact then got into the weeds of release versus
transfer, with a transfer being a situation where there are
restrictions (as appears to be the case with the prisoners transferred
in exchange for Bergdahl). Maybe someone should tell Lindsey Graham,
too.
But the Pentagon says there is a difference between a release and a transfer to another country. The vast majority of detainees leave Gitmo under a transfer, which means they are transported to another country that places them under some type of restrictions. Some are incarcerated in those countries because of criminal charges, while others face monitoring or travel limitations.
Carney noted we successfully recovered Sergeant
Bergdahl (this is exactly the sort of discussion Republicans are hoping
to avoid), “(T)his was the right thing to do, because we in the United
States do not leave our men and women in uniform behind during an armed
conflict. And five years is a very long time to be a prisoner.”
The bottom line is Obama got Osama, and now Obama
successfully recovered our single prisoner in the Afghanistan war. So,
Republicans are attacking Bergdahl and his family in dishonorable and stunningly disturbed ways, hoping to mitigate what they see as another Obama success.
Republicans have muddied the waters of every single
Obama success. There has not been one occasion upon which they have been
able to set aside their partisan agenda in order to cheer or praise a
positive occurrence under Obama. They made sure no one gave Obama credit
for bin Laden and now they’re at it again.
Ironically, even if the Republican smear campaign
against Bergdahl and his family was accurate (and no one judging
Bergdahl is in any position to sift through the facts as broken down here, so the discussion is irrelevant and ridiculous), the bottom line is we don’t leave our troops behind.
Clueless Republicans might want to note that it’s
not because we deem them all heroic characters fit for the black and
white world in which conservatives live — the ultimate Good Guy. It’s
because practically speaking, we need to protect our assets, including
information. If we have reason to suspect an asset has been compromised
it behooves us to determine to what extent.
Republicans have chosen to troll Obama’s national
security successes until the press is embroiled in discussing their
accusations rather than the success. We can’t have a moment of national
pride in a job well done—oh, no. Not while a Democrat is in the White
House.
Note: Per the Pentagon’s distinction, the title
to this article should read “released or transferred”. However, for the
sake of brevity and due to common usage in the national dialogue on this
issue, we’ve used “released”.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
VOTE!!
Disrespectful NOT to Vote - let alone Not Voting is a Vote AGAINST your
best interest - we fought hard to make our voices heard - at the very
least make your voice heard - even if what you vote for loses - put your
voice on record - it Really is the LEAST you can do for America.
http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/Voting.shtml
http://registertovote.org/index.html
http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/Voting.shtml
http://registertovote.org/index.html
Murder, So Rote - The Daily Show
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is sadly all too on point with this segment.
"Of course there's nothing we can do to stop this from happening. Even though pretty much every other developed country has somehow stopped this from happening."
Love Jon Stewart - weird that a Comedy Show is on Point and the So-called News is so Off Point. We
need to go back to regulating Journalism & Real News - you used to
have to face jail time if you aired an news story without facts or
relieving your news source - now it is ALL lies and spin - so sad that
Truth is sniffled and all we have are stories to pacify America - to
make us 'Good Puppies' to be easily controlled so the 1% can keep
stealing from the rest of us and taking Our Money Out of America - they
are literally Raping America & All Americans!!
Sunday, June 1, 2014
tax on wealth (such as suggested by Thomas Piketty) “un-American?
I
debated a conservative Republican yesterday who insisted that a tax on
wealth (such as suggested by Thomas Piketty) was “un-American.” He said
it would be “double-taxation” since the income that created the wealth
had already been taxed. I explained we already have a tax on wealth.
It’s called the property tax on home values. But because homes are the
major (and often sole) asset of the middle class, while most of the
wealth of America’s rich is held in stocks and bonds, the property tax
is regressive. So why not get rid of the property tax and substitute a
broad-based wealth tax, whose revenues could be used to give all
Americans a first-class education? What do you think?
Saturday, May 31, 2014
'Inequality for All' by Robert Reich
Just watched this Movie - a MUST SEE - I am a MAJOR fan of Robert Reich (www.robertreich.org) and soooo agree with this Movie - I learned sooo much - I hope everyone
watches this Movie - Please spread the word. (Now on Netflix, iTunes, and DVD.) BTW: Even though I know you are enjoying your much
needed vacay - missing my Randi Rhodes Randi Rhodes -sweet dreams!! oxox
www.robertreich.org
Friday, May 16, 2014
Randi Rhodes - She Loves Us More - Always! oxox
I'm sorry that I'm leaving before those militia nuts in Bunkerville, Nevada leave the Bundy ranch. Maybe I should stick around until they leave. Oh that's right - they're never going to leave. The craziest domestic terrorists in the United States are all sitting in the middle of nowhere, defending the cows of a complete moron. If the FBI had had a plan to bottle them all up, they could hardly have done any better.
I'm also leaving before Donald Sterling - and he's being pushed. The guy is in his 80's. Why does he even want to continue to run the L.A. Clippers? Hasn't he seen enough losses in his life already? By the time a person is in their 80's, they have all experienced many losses. But if you're in your 80's and you've owned the Los Angeles Clippers for 33 years, then you have endured more losses than any person on earth.
I'm also sorry to be leaving before the Republicans sort this whole Benghazi thing out. I'd like to stick around until they do, but I doubt that any of us is going to live that long. The Republicans won't stop with the Benghazi investigations. What exactly do they think they're going to find? Benghazi has been examined more thoroughly than the Zapruder film. Darrell Issa is never going to give up the hunt for the smoking gun in Benghazi. He's like Captain Ahab hunting for Moby Dick...except of course that Moby Dick existed.
So Donald Sterling is digging in to fight to stay for the long haul, the crazies in Bunkerville are already dug in, CNN is never going to let go of the airplane, and the Republicans will be investigating Benghazi forever - and still blaming the Clintons for whatever is going on then. I get the feeling I could come back in 20 years, and nothing will have changed.
In closing, just promise me that you'll remember to vote. Voting doesn't guarantee winning, but not voting guarantees losing. So vote - I'll know if you did or not by whether or not there's an impeachment trial going on in the Senate next year.
Call the show today at 866-87-RANDI (866-877-2634)
Randi’s blog
Today’s Randi Rhodes Homework
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For the fans. Love you - all ways.
Read more: http://www.randirhodes.com/articles/daily-blog-380723/on-todays-show-fri-may-16-12363085#ixzz31vIRJJF3
Randi`s LAST Homework - Mama bird has left the Nest - Now it is our Turn to Share her teachings - we have done the Homework - Now the Test!
| Brown Vs. Board of Education: The 50th Anniversary | |
 Yw |
A Decision That Helped Shape A First Lady Background: Brown v. Board Of Education Decision: Brown v. Board Of Education The Re-Segregation Of America's Schools |
| Photo Credits: STAFF/AFP/GettyImages | |
| Women In America: The Majority Minority | |
 |
New York Times Keeps Changing Story About Jill Abramson's Salary Ken Auletta: Jill Abramson, Arthur Sulzberger, And The New York Times: What Went Wrong? Marketwatch: Five Times It's Now More Expensive To Be A Woman In America Daily Meme: The Ugliness Of Being A Woman Boss |
| Photo Credits: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for the New York Times | |
| Communications Breakdown | |
 |
The FCC Voted On Net Neutrality Rules Thursday. Here's What You Need To Know. New York Times' Own Internal March Report Painted Dire Picture Of The Grey Lady In The Digital Age From Bad To Worse: Limbaugh's California Ratings Debacle Deepens |
| Photo Credits: Alex Wong/Getty Images | |
| Meanwhile... | |
 |
Report: Donald Sterling Refuses To Pay Fine, Threatens To Sue NBA More Signs Of An Improving Economy: Housing Starts Up Sharply; Permits Highest Since 2008 Insurance Company Sues Illinois Cities For Climate Change Damage |
| Photo Credits: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images | |
Read more: http://www.randirhodes.com/articles/homework-364336/randis-homework-fri-may-16-2014-12362238#ixzz31vHnh9Im
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Randi Rhodes: Same as it Ever Was
Take the mixed-up right wing projection machine. Fox News and Karl Rove are trying to walk back Karl Rove's assertion that Hillary Clinton has brain damage - while promoting Karl Rove's assertion that Hillary Clinton has brain damage. Rove is not a good one to determine who has brain damage. As a regular on Fox News, most of the people he deals with have it already. It's just that in the case of Fox, the brain damage is self-inflicted. I know this much: If rightwing media is obsessed with Hillary's brain damage that doesn't exist, then they're worried about the effectiveness of their obsession with the Benghazi scandal… that doesn't exist.
Meanwhile, the GOP Civl War keeps going. The Tea Party is now trying to take down Eric Cantor. Cantor is Jewish, and he's being treated just like Israel is treated by the rightwing extremists: They'll only allow him to exist for as long as he serves their purposes. Cantor's Tea Party challenger is named David Brat. It's rare that a name is that appropriate, or Eric Cantor's name would be Eric Schmuck.
They still keep sticking their feet in their mouths too. Tucker Carlson did just this week! Carlson said "All of us should be happy about one thing, and it's that for the first time in human history you have a country whose poor people are fat." Great! They won't die of starvation - they'll all just die of heart disease. That takes longer, right?
They're still blind to reality too. Discussing white privilege this week, Bill O'Reilly said "I'm going to have to exempt myself" from having benefitted from white privilege. Do you know what just arbitrarily exempting yourself from white privilege is? An example of white privilege! If there is no white privilege, then how does Bill explain his success? Is there such a thing as blowhard privilege?
And yes - they still want a theocracy on the right, too. Ben Sasse - the Tea Party nutjob - won the Republican primary in deep red Nebraska, which makes him a virtual lock to win the Senate seat. Sasse declared after winning this week, "Government cannot force citizens to violate their religious beliefs under any circumstances." So after the 2014 elections, America will have a Senator that believes Christians are legally entitled to stone gay people to death. Or to be more accurate, America will have another Senator who believes that.
Call the show today at 866-87-RANDI (866-877-2634)
Randi’s blog
Today’s Randi Rhodes Homework
Randi’s message board
Randi’s comedy bit archive
Randi’s daily blog archive
Randi on Facebook & Twitter
Even while the right has remained wrong, Randi's still tried to educate her listeners, year after year. Listener Bob from Phoenix, back in Septmber of 2013, was insistant that Randi was wrong about the debt - and it was all President Obama's fault. Not only was Randi right, but as Steve Benen showed just this week, the Federal budget deficit is now on track for a six-year low. These are called facts, Bob. Good luck, listeners - folks lik
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