Creator Of The Hillary-1984 Video Speaks Out

Rush Limbaugh's Excellent Award

I feel that putting the word 'excellent' together with Rush Limbaugh in a sentence is a travesty in itself. However when an organization in media gives that lame excuse for a man an award in 'media excellence,' it is downright nauseating. Don't worry though, the Media Research Center aims to find 'liberal bias' in the corporate media so there is no reason to give creedence to them, the award and especially Rush Limbaugh.

More from Crooks and Liars:

Here are just a few examples of Rush's "media excellence," including even, yes, an attack on the man who the award he won is named after:

Rush Limbaugh attacks Michael J. Fox: ” …he was either off the medication or he was acting. He is an actor, after all.”

Latching onto L.A. Times op-ed, Limbaugh sings "Barack, The Magic Negro"

Limbaugh: Gonzales is "under fire by white liberal racists in the Senate"

Limbaugh: "Could we not say that if Obama wins … he will own Al Sharpton?"

And on and on and on. What "excellence!"

The only thing that can compare to that is Michelle Malkin receiving an "Accuracy in Media Award." Yes, that Michelle Malkin:

Limbaugh...and Malkin's egos are big enough as it is, does society have to allow this bullshit to take place? Yeah, yeah, I know, freedom of speech and all that jazz. Nevertheless, it still amazes me that this crap goes on. Perhaps one day the talking-head parrots of the right-wing will lose their gigantic microphones and talk to an audience more befitting of them, like the loony bin.

Lights Out In Sydney

For an hour earlier this evening, most of Sydney, Australia was shrouded in an unusual cloak of darkness. The problem was not a lack of electricity but the effects of a campaign to increase awareness for reducing energy consumption. It was a city-wide effort where the world-famous opera house, businesses and ordinary Sydneysiders (as they are called down under) took the time to shut their lights and remember that we need to conserve our natural resources.

Of course the one hour event will not do much in the overall scheme of things. Instead the organizers of the event were looking for people to realize their impact on the world and the reality of climate change. Australia may not consume oil and other natural resources like the U.S does, but they do keep the lights on like most countries in the Western world.

From the BBC:

Greg Bourne of environmental group WWF, one of the driving forces behind Earth Hour, said the big switch off took months to plan.

"The logistics is really quite amazing in the sense every tower block is owned by one company, maybe leased by another company, have 10 tenants in and a manager and working through all of these people has been fantastic."

Many restaurants signed up and planned to serve diners by candlelight.

The owner of the Newtown Hotel, which says it is Australia's oldest gay bar, told the BBC before the blackout that they would have fun while trying to send a serious message.

"Sometimes drag queens [female impersonators] do look better in the dark anyway," said Roger Zee.

"It's up to the patrons. They'll actually have their own torches so they'll be able to light up the drag queens on the stage themselves."

If the queens of drag can get involved so can the rest of us. No offense to drag queens of course. In all, climate change is serious business and we all need to do our part to sustain the planet that we live on. Conserving energy is the least we can do.

Stewart Raps On Rove

I couldn't bear to watch the whole video of Karl Rove's rapping debut from the other night. The only plausible alternative was to see Jon Stewart give his take on the debacle, and a rap of his own:

Bribes Against Abortions

You got to hand it to some of the lawmakers down south. This gem out of Texas is brilliant absolutely ridiculous. Apparently State Senator Dan Patrick (R- Of course) has proposed to give women $500 instead of having an abortion. Nothing like appealing to the pocketbook when it comes to the heart-wrenching choice of having an abortion or not.

More from CNN:

Republican State Sen. Dan Patrick, who also is a conservative radio talk show host, said Friday the money might persuade the women to go ahead and have babies, then give them up for adoption.

He said during a legislative conference in New Braunfels, 45 miles south of Austin, there were 75,000 abortions in Texas last year.

"If this incentive would give pause and change the mind of 5 percent of those women, that's 3,000 lives. That's almost as many people as we've lost in Iraq," Patrick said.

Patrick has filed legislation to make the payment state law, but the legislature has not voted on it.

To call this an insult to women would be an understatement. This proposal shows the naivety of Sen. Patrick and all thick-headed men like him. What makes his remarks even worse was to speak of the victims of the war in Iraq. To even try and equate the loss of life in our occupation of Iraq and those of unborn fetuses is insane. Shame on Senator Patrick and anyone else that tries to support his arrogant legislation.

Sweet Jesus!

The leaders of some Catholic groups are up in arms over a certain edible piece of art. Here in New York, an artist by the name of Cosimo Cavallaro has drawn considerable press over a 200lb piece of chocolate. The uproar comes from the fact that it is sculpted to look like a naked statue of Jesus on the cross. News of the gallery's presentation has been made widespread due to the play on religion and the ability of self-proclaimed Catholic leaders to spin themselves silly over the matter.

From the BBC:

The gallery's creative director, Matt Semler, said the gallery was considering its options in the wake of angry e-mails and telephone calls.

"We're obviously surprised by the overwhelming response and offence people have taken," he said. "We are certainly in the process of trying to figure out what we're going to do next."

Mr Semler said the timing of the exhibition was coincidental.

Mr Cavallaro, the Canadian-born artist, is known for using food ingredients in his art, on one occasion painting a hotel room in mozzarella cheese.

There are many different opinions being expressed about the artwork. Some would call it tasty and others like Bill Donahue call it an assault on Christian sensibilities. However, the whole controversy is over expressive art. It is art and nothing more. Art has created feuding debates in the past and will continue to do so as long as people exhibit creativity.

Fox News Hates Black People, So Whats Up With The CBC?

Sorry Kanye, I had to borrow your line and ascribe it to Fox News. Like a good propraganda outlet for the right-wing, Fox is very good at attacking minorities and any other group that would threaten the wingnut power-base. If you don't believe it, just watch this video from FoxAttacks:



Now that you know the bias of Rupert Murdoch's cable news network, why on earth would the Congressional Black Caucus host a debate with Fox televising the event? Apparently some members of the CBC do not agree with the decision, but none have the courage to stand up to the Caucus.

I'll let Jesse Jackson take over from here:

Rev. Jesse Jackson today denounced the Congressional Black Caucus Institute’s planned presidential debate partnership with FOX. He called for yesterday’s decision to be reversed and for presidential candidates not to attend a FOX debate.

Jackson said, “I am disappointed by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute's partnership with FOX, and strongly encourage them to reverse that decision. Why would presidential candidates, or an organization that is supposed to advocate for Black Americans, ever give a stamp of legitimacy to a network that continually marginalizes Black leaders and the Black community? FOX moderating a presidential debate on issues of importance to Black Americans is literally letting the Fox guard the henhouse – FOX should be rejected.”

Fox’s smears against the Black community are compiled in Outfoxed director Robert Greenwald’s new YouTube video called Fox Attacks: Black America – which is located at www.ColorOfChange.org and has been viewed by over 230,000 people in two weeks.

Yesterday’s decision came after Black Members of Congress and the CBC Institute were contacted by thousands of members of ColorOfChange.org – a 75,000 member online citizen lobby for Black Americans. Privately, some CBC members expressed that the Fox deal was a bad idea, but not a single member would take a public stand like Jackson did today.

"The CBC cannot claim to represent Black Americans and at the same time legitimize a network that calls Black churches a cult, implies that Senator Barack Obama is a terrorist, and uses the solemn occasion of Coretta Scott King’s funeral to call Black leaders ‘racist,’” said James Rucker, head of ColorOfChange.org. “The CBC Institute’s decision is shamefully out of step with most Black voters -- and now Black voters will hold our leaders accountable and demand they end their partnership with Fox."

Today, an online petition is being launched at www.ColorofChange.org demanding the CBC end their partnership with Fox, and asking presidential candidates to reject the Fox debate in favor of CBC Institute’s CNN debate – which has already been announced.

Thousands of new members have joined ColorOfChange.org in recent weeks as the organization started putting pressure on the CBC not to embrace Fox – showing the high energy of this issue.

“Fox has a long history of treating Black people unfairly. They are not a trusted news source for most Black Americans,” added Benjamin Todd Jealous, former executive director of the National Newspaper Publishers Associations (NNPA), a 98-year old federation of more than 200 Black community newspapers.

After Sampson Talks, Gonzales Does A "D'Oh"

The Washington Post aptly described Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' reply to yesterday's testimony by Kyle Sampson as the "Homer Simpson " defense. Sampson's answers to the Senate inquiry were damning to Gonzales and directly contradicted Alberto's earlier statements. Now that the AG is caught lying he will have to make up new lies to cover the ones he has already uttered. He is trying to scam the Senate and the American people into believing that he didn't do anything seriously wrong. Yet, once a liar is caught, it is hard to be seen as believable anymore.

From The Washington Post:

You just cannot make this stuff up. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' former chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, spends much of his Thursday deflating his former boss' story about the eight fired U.S. Attorneys and how does the Attorney General respond? By issuing a written statement late in the day that essentially says this: Yes, Sampson may have been keeping me in the loop on the firings after all but I wasn't really paying attention ("never focused" was the exact phrase) to what he was saying. It's the Homer Simpson defense to the Kyle Sampson story and if this were a Little League game they would have invoked the 10-run rule by now and sent Gonzales go home to Texas to once again become a lucrative private attorney.

But, alas, the Attorney General is still with us, at least for today, his credibility and reputation tattered and the wolves-- not just Democrats, mind you, but increasingly creeped-out Republicans-- howling at the door. Even if Gonzales is now telling the truth about his role in Firegate, even if somehow his story can be synched up with Sampson's, we all deserve so much more from our Attorney General that the next 18 days or so-- leading up to Gonzales' testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee-- will be excruiating. How badly does an Attorney General have to behave, how badly does he have to lead, how much prestige and trust does he have to lose, before he is forced, by his own conscience if nothing else, to make way for someone else? You tell me.

The only one doing the howling is going to be Gonzales. He'll be begging for mercy soon enough, but for now he will continuing lying his ass off until he is firmly pressed into the corner with nowhere to go. Until then he'll blame anyone, do anything and say whatever it takes to shield himself from the responsibility of his actions. Just like everyone else in the Bush Administration.

Lieberman Has Serious Blinders On

Holy Joe continued yesterday to parrot the new right-wing talking point on how great things are becoming in Iraq. Recently John McCain claimed (then disavowed) that General Petraeus rides around in an unprotected Humvee. Now Lieberman is talking about how much safer things are and how confident the troops are becoming around Baghdad. Unfortunately after he said this to Wolf Blitzer, on the ground reporter Michael Ware interjected a heavy dose of reality into the show.

From CNN:

LIEBERMAN: But I'll tell you most significantly, the American soldier is more confident walking the streets of Baghdad today. And that's a very important change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: You speak to American soldiers all the time.

Are they more confident walking the streets of Baghdad today?

MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're certainly never fully confident.

But do they see that there has been some kind of adjustment in the broad climate?

Absolutely, as has been well noted by these soldiers' U.S. commanders. Their enemies, the insurgents and the Shia militias, are, by and large, laying low at the moment, waiting to get the shape of this surge.

Nonetheless, in one of these areas that has been so prominently second by the U.S. military and its Iraqi partners, where U.S. troops are now basically patrolling all the time with this great confidence, an area that had been controlled by the Mahdi militia, today more than 70 people died when two men detonated themselves in a busy market.

And don't forget, we're looking across the country at about 80 American soldiers, sailors and Marines being killed. In March, we're approaching that number again, the third month in a row.

Things are definitely changing in Iraq. Adding 20,000 troops will alter the situation....to a degree. Unfortunately no amount of troops is going to prevent the civil war from happening now. Eventually Al-Qaeda and other groups will reassess the situation and keep attacking Shias, Sunnis and our own U.S. troops.

Sing Louder Mr. Sampson

The former Chief of Staff to Alberto Gonzales spent a grueling day in the Senate today. Here's a clip of him admitting to Senator Specter that he abused the U.S. Attorney's office procedures concerning the termination of the eight prosecutors and the means of replacing them. Check out the grilling:

Bongs For Bob Barr

The transformation of Bob Barr continues today on the social issues front. It seems that in nine years, Mr. Barr has gone from opposing medical marijuana at all costs to wholeheartedly endorsing the practice. Bob's very own amendment in 1998 prohibited all forms of medicinal use, but now times have changed.

From The Politico:

Bob Barr, who as a Georgia congressman authored a successful amendment that blocked D.C. from implementing a medical marijuana initiative, has switched sides and become a lobbyist for the Marijuana Policy Project.

But that doesn’t mean he has become a bong-ripping hippie. He isn’t pro-drug, he said, just against government intrusion.

“I, over the years, have taken a very strong stand on drug issues, but in light of the tremendous growth of government power since 9/11, it has forced me and other conservatives to go back and take a renewed look at how big and powerful we want the government to be in people’s lives,” Barr said.

Aaron Houston, the project’s government relations director, said Barr brings a “great deal of credibility, particularly among people on the Republican side of the aisle.”

“He certainly would not have been the first person I would have expected to sign off to us, but I’m very pleased that he has,” Houston said. “I’m very pleased that he has come around, and I hope he serves as an example to his former colleagues.”

I don't know if Mr. Barr has 'credibility,' he did go as far as appearing in Sacha Cohen's 'Borat' flick for some public exposure. His facial expression after drinking breast milk was priceless and perhaps his addition to MPP will add priceless material to their fight to allow marijuana to be used to treat those in need.

Republicans are one group where outreach is sorely needed. However the former Congressman has had quite the independent run after leaving Congress in 2003, so we'll have to see if his past credentials still hold up, especially with the wingnuts penchant for eating their own for straying from the party line.

The Rich Are Getting Richer And You Know What That Means

As the rich get richer, the poor inevitably get poorer. The old saying is as true today as it was when it was first uttered, whenever that was. The truth of the matter is that the discrepancy in incomes between the top percentiles and the rest of us is growing at an alarming rate. The top one percent have their highest share of the national income since the year before the Great Depression came crashing in during the late 1920s.

More from The New York Times:

While total reported income in the United States increased almost 9 percent in 2005, the most recent year for which such data is available, average incomes for those in the bottom 90 percent dipped slightly compared with the year before, dropping $172, or 0.6 percent.

The gains went largely to the top 1 percent, whose incomes rose to an average of more than $1.1 million each, an increase of more than $139,000, or about 14 percent.

The new data also shows that the top 300,000 Americans collectively enjoyed almost as much income as the bottom 150 million Americans. Per person, the top group received 440 times as much as the average person in the bottom half earned, nearly doubling the gap from 1980.

The news is grim for most Americans but the rich should not be too excited, despite their increasing purchasing power. The current economic circumstances cannot support a growing national economy for an indefinite amount of time. Much like the roaring 20s, things can come tumbling down in the 2010s just like they did in the 1930s. Unfortunately our leaders have not learned any lessons from the greed that predominated the upper class eighty years ago. As the cliche goes, those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.