Chris Hedges: Why Liberal Sellouts Attack Prophets Like Cornel West - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig

Chris Hedges: Why Liberal Sellouts Attack Prophets Like Cornel West - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig

Mrs. Bush, Abstinence and Texas - NYTimes.com

Mrs. Bush, Abstinence and Texas - NYTimes.com

It's official, we now live in the most ignorant state in the union.

What Would the Tea Party Think of Reagan Tax Policy?

What Would the Tea Party Think of Reagan Tax Policy?

I know the Tea Party sees Ronald Reagan as one of their heroes, but that is only because most of them don't know how to read and therefore don't know the actual history of his administration.

What Would the Tea Party Think of Reagan Tax Policy?

Walter Shapiro notes that even though Ronald Reagan "persuaded a Democratic Congress to approve his massive 1981 rate reductions, the Gipper reversed field in 1982 to staunch the deficit and agreed to a tax increase (equal to about one-third of the original cuts). That single act of tax realism would have prompted today's tea party movement to denounce Reagan as a RINO (Republican in Name Only) and to threaten to find a real conservative to challenge him in the GOP primaries."

"That was nothing compared to the tax-code apostasy of Reagan's second term. He championed, and in 1986 signed into law, a sweeping bipartisan tax reform bill that (warning: be sure you are sitting down before reading further) raised capital gains taxes. In one of the great progressive reforms of the last half century, Reagan eliminated tax loopholes and special preferences like capital gains in exchange for lowering individual tax brackets. At the core of Reagan's tax reform triumph was the liberal principle that unearned income (stock market swag) should be treated the same ways as an autoworker's wages."

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Aren't Both Sides Guilty of Inflamed Rhetoric?

Aren't Both Sides Guilty of Inflamed Rhetoric?

The short answer is NO!

George Packer: "In fact, there is no balance -- none whatsoever. Only one side has made the rhetoric of armed revolt against an oppressive tyranny the guiding spirit of its grassroots movement and its midterm campaign. Only one side routinely invokes the Second Amendment as a form of swagger and intimidation, not-so-coyly conflating rights with threats. Only one side's activists bring guns to democratic political gatherings. Only one side has a popular national TV host who uses his platform to indoctrinate viewers in the conviction that the President is an alien, totalitarian menace to the country. Only one side fills the AM waves with rage and incendiary falsehoods. Only one side has an iconic leader, with a devoted grassroots following, who can't stop using violent imagery and dividing her countrymen into us and them, real and fake. Any sentient American knows which side that is; to argue otherwise is disingenuous."

Drug Makers Win Administration Support in Price Dispute - NYTimes.com

Drug Makers Win Administration Support in Price Dispute - NYTimes.com

On January 22, 2006 in a broadcast of Meet the Press candidate Barack Obama responded to a question about the problem of money in politics with a general response that "money in politics is bipartisan". He went on to give specific examples of lobbyists from specific industries writing the bills which would result in immense profits for their companies. He went on to say:

"The specific problem of inviting lobbyists in who have bundled huge sums of money to write legislation, having the oil and gas company companies come in to write energy legislation, having drug companies come in and write the Medicare prescription drug bill-which we now see is not working for our seniors-those are very particular problems of this administration and this Congress. And I think Jack Abramoff and the K Street Project, that whole thing is a very particular Republican sin."

Now it appears that the last sentence of that paragraph was not true. In stunning contradiction to the conventional wisdom now President Obama has decided that the pharmaceutical companies don't have to obey the law when it is inconvenient for them. In 1992 a drug discount program was created for large hospitals and clinics who serve the poor. The law directed the Secretary of HHS to set maximum prices for drugs sold to certain health care providers. Those hospitals have recently been filing law suits against Big Pharma to recoup their losses from routinely BEING OVERCHARGED for drugs in contravention of the law. The Obama justice department now has filed a friend-of-court brief with the Supreme Court suggesting that only the federal government can enforce the the drug-discount law.

From the NYT's article:

Several Democratic lawmakers expressed surprise at the Justice Department’s position. “The administration had a chance to put health care reform into action by defending the discounted drug program,” said Representative Sam Farr of California. “Instead, it chose to side with the pharmaceutical companies to preserve a loophole that overcharges providers and undermines the president’s efforts to expand access to affordable health care.”

The adds to the numerous reasons I will no longer support the Democratic Party at any level and I will not vote for Obama in 2012.

Regulators are finding opportunities at firms looking for government experience

Regulators are finding opportunities at firms looking for government experience

The Obama administration is just as corrupt as the Bush administration was. These scum are just plain old professional thieves and the REASON that Wall Street got away with their crimes.

Ezra Klein - What the tea party wants from the Constitution

Ezra Klein - What the tea party wants from the Constitution: "In reality, the tea party -- like most everyone else -- is less interested in living by the Constitution than in deciding what it means to live by the Constitution. When the constitutional disclaimers at the bottom of bills suit them, they'll respect them. When they don't -- as we've seen in the case of the individual mandate -- they won't."

Section 1501 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the so-called "mandate" was put there at the insistence of the health insurance industry and their Republican water-carrier's. Now the rethugs want to run away from responsibility for it and hide under the Tea Party's skirts.

Quiet deal on Obama's judge nominees in the Senate - AP News Wire, Associated Press News - Salon.com

Quiet deal on Obama's judge nominees in the Senate - AP News Wire, Associated Press News - Salon.com

Oh boy! The rethugs will 'let' Obama appoint a few judges. This is big news.

Haley Barbour Praises Racist Group - The Daily Beast

Haley Barbour Praises Racist Group - The Daily Beast

Hey, at least he's honest about his racism.

House Republicans Block Child Marriage Prevention Act

House Republicans Block Child Marriage Prevention Act

As if the rethugs could act any worse. They have completely lost any moral compass. Their party is quite literally evil in their rhetoric, intent and actions.