Stephen M. Walt, commenting on Obama’s recent AfPak escalation and the incongruity of domestic spending initatives vs expensive foreign military endeavours on the part of the US:
As I’ve said before, Americans have come to believe that spending government revenues on U.S. citizens here at home [...]
This gives new meaning to the worlds oldest profession.
Mohammad, a 40-year old Lebanese Shiite who lives in Hezbollah’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs, was holding forth on the virtues of resistance, loyalty, and sex. “You could create the most loyal army by providing political power, social [...]
I don’t want to say I reluctantly voted for Obama. I was never totally enamored with him, but during the 2008 campaign I can’t say I didn’t feel the hope, either. Finally, a younger candidate who wasn’t bred out of the older, Clinton and Bush-esqe generation of [...]
When your entire political system is based on finding “language” that disguises your actual intentions this is what you get.
While arguing why the Senate’s proposed “0.5 increase in the Medicare payroll tax on upper-income people: individuals earning more than $200,000, families earning more than $250,000″ is [...]
Ok, I know I have been out of the loop for a while here but how did this one completely miss my radar? 52% of Republicans think ACORN stole the election for Barack Obama? That is either some serious mass delusion or highly effective propaganda.
The poll [...]
(Image:Â Tacoma Urbanist, Flickr)
Sarah Palin is back — and, seemingly, everywhere, as she launches a book tour (and, perhaps, a run at the White House in 2012).
In a Republican Party hoping to rebound in 2010' [...]
If you are into photography you know that Tilt-Shift – the process of making a normal scene look miniature – is all the rage these days. Once you have seen these photo’s you will know why.
Traffic approaching [...]
Thirty two times according to Andrew Sullivan.
Remember: we are not including contested stories that we cannot prove definitively one way or another or the usual spin that politicians use, or even hypocrisy or shading of facts. We are merely including things she has said or [...]
According to this AP piece there is at least one shadowy group that wishes to remain unknown.
One clue to the mystery group may lie in its goals: to oppose any government-run insurance option, the approach favored by President Barack Obama and most Democrats, and to [...]
Talk about a trailer park upgrade!
Designed by Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects
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Michael Agger at Slate got the ball rolling by putting Google Suggest through it’s paces and trying to identify the most awkward Google suggestions. What he has uncovered is that there are some seriously messed up people out there. Seriously.
[...] 
Then realized she would lose.
At one point, according to people familiar with the discussions, Ms. Palin considered pursuing a libel suit against at least one blogger, the Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan. Ms. Palin decided against such a move because of the publicity it would bring.
Mr. Sullivan, in [...]
I give you, “God’s Hands.”
Click here to view the embedded video.
ht to Gizmodo.
Share and Enjoy:
In the words of President Obama (as contained in the fund raising email that hit my inbox a scant 1 hour and 24 minutes after the event),
“This evening, at 11:15 p.m., the House of Representatives voted to pass their health insurance reform bill. Despite countless attempts over [...]
Ban-happy GOP purity gatekeeper Eric Erickson struggles with maintaining his already tenuous hold on reality as he gamely attempts to squeeze broken eggshells into lemonade (or something):
The race has now been called for Democrat Bill Owens.
This is a huge win for conservatives.
“Whaaaa. . . ?” you say.
There are two big victories at work [...]
Matthew Hoh, a Marine veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan, was rising quickly through our Foreign Service ranks, serving as a Senior Civilian Representative for America in Zabul Province, Afghanistan. Hoh had a bright government career ahead of him until he quit because the Afghan war is bullshit.
The Washington Post [...]
David Weigel has the story:
Central District of California Judge David O. Carter has dismissed Barnett et al v. Obama et al, Orly Taitz’s most successful lawsuit — that is, the one that got the furthest through the legal system — demanding proof of the president’s citizenship.The [...]
Matthew Yglesias has some interesting thoughts on conflicting values for progressives in the Israel-Palestinian conflict:
I was debating with Jon Chait at a J Street panel this morning on the subject of “what does it mean to be pro-Israel?” As expected, we disagreed on a number of points, [...]
Chris Floyd links to an opinion piece by Sami Ramadani, an Iraqi exile who opposed the U.S. invasion. Ramadani writes about post-surge Iraq in the context of Sunday’s suicide bombing, which at most recent count has killed over 150 people — including an unknown number [...]
This really is bizarre. I don’t know what to make of it:
President Barack Obama is actively discouraging Senate Democrats in their effort to include a public insurance option with a state opt-out clause as part of health care reform. In its place, say multiple Democratic sources, [...]
Steve’s right — the tangled web of Peggy Noonan’s neural pathways are particularly difficult to navigate this week (italic is Steve’s, quoting Noonan):
At a certain point, a president must own a presidency. For George W. Bush that point came eight months in, when 9/11 [...]
Barbara, the blogger at Mahablog, is getting jerked around by her landlords so badly that she could lose her apartment before Christmas. I hope this isn’t a growing trend, but at CFLF, this is the second time this year we’ve published a post asking you to donate some money [...]
Emptywheel (aka Marcy Wheeler) examines Dick Cheney’s latest rantings — on missile defense, on Iraq and Afghanistan, on America’s success in keeping its moral bearings while torturing confessions out of prisoners, on how his administration’s policies kept us safe (except for 9/11 itself, of course, [...]
Or at least for Jake Tapper. Here, Jake: here is what makes Fox so different from any other news organization:
In response to the WashPost’s Ruth Marcus who on Tuesday obediently typed up what virtually every Beltway journalist has said about the White House and Fox News (i.e. it’s the [...]
Sam Stein at The Huffington Post:
There is a growing sense on Capitol Hill that the White House’s refusal to weigh in more forcefully in the health care debate could come at the cost of a public option for insurance coverage.
Democratic aides said that a “handful” of [...]
When do you fight for something? When you think it’s the worst possible option?
Obama ”will obviously weigh in when it’s important to weigh in” on the possibility of a public option, chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said. Added Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett: ”He’s not demanding that it’s [...]
By becoming a fan of Comments from left Field on Facebook.
H/T to TPM.
Share and Enjoy:I know that batshit insane has become the default setting in certain quarters of the right, but the response at RedState to Rush Limbaugh’s failed attempt to buy the St. Louis Rams is so far gonethat I seriously considered the possibility it was meant as satire. Unfortunately, I don’t [...]
Maureen Dowd gets only one detail wrong in her lacerating take-down of the newest Cheney Family venture — the probable name:
It’s hard to believe that the Bush dynasty, which limped away in disgrace after smashing our economy and the globe, has spawned another political dynasty.
But Jason [...]
If there is anything funnier than Michael Steele’s trying to convince everyone that he’s down with the hip-hop nation, it’s airhead Dan Riehl completely missing the boat — actually, not just missing the boat, but falling into the water thinking the boat is still there:
The Left, [...]
Health care reform, nuclear war, global climate change, hunger and poverty…. and the huge mistake Pres. Obama made in accepting the Nobel Peace Prize. Yes, really. This is what Ross Douthat wants to write about in his New York Times column:
This was Barack Obama’s chance.
Here was [...]
In other words, it’s a typical Friedman column. Today, he tells Pres. Obama what he should say in his Oslo acceptance speech. Long story short, he wants Obama to give a GWB speech. Of course, GWB did not win the Nobel Peace Prize. He did not [...]
Sen. John McCain and Minnesota’s Gov. Tim Pawlenty, at least, chose the classy route. McCain told Greg Sargent through his press spokesperson, “I congratulate President Obama on receiving this prestigious award. I join my fellow Americans in expressing pride in our President on this occasion.” And [...]
These are the questions that pretty much everyone has been asking — in tones ranging from the pleased but perplexed to the pissed-off to the rude and hostile to the outright contemptuous — since early yesterday morning, when the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced to the world that the winner of [...]
By giving a peace prize to a president who hasn’t yet been in office for a year (indeed, he was nominated for the prize only two weeks after taking office), thus we haven’t seen the result of his policies in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Israel/Palestine (to mention nothing of [...]
Several Republican leaders in the House announced their intention today to vote against the latest Defense Authorization Bill, because it includes a provision to include gays and lesbians as a protected group under existing hate crimes law:
Boehner, speaking at his weekly press conference Thursday, said the inclusion of [...]
Anne Kornblut of the Washington Post!
Glenn Greenwald presents this richly deserved recognition of Ms. Kornblut’s advanced stenographic abilities:
The Washington Post’s Anne Kornblut today produces an extreme piece of government-serving, stenographic “journalism,” publishing a dubious administration press release masquerading as a lengthy news article on Obama’s approach to [...]
Funny, yes, but only because it’s sickening.
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Democratic Super Majority www.thedailyshow.com Daily ShowDespite having a “supermajority”, the Democrats inability to fight the Republicans on, well, anything in Congress will be the biggest [...]
Here is a great film review of a movie that will likely never run in the U.S. (but from the sounds of it should) by an excellent Vancouver blog, Beyond Robson.
If you are interested in economic theory, social justice, world trade, and financial systems then you will probably [...]
Earlier today, the British paper Telegraph reported on Pres. Obama’s response to Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s very public criticism of the approach Obama is taking to Afghanistan:
According to sources close to the administration, Gen McChrystal shocked and angered presidential advisers with the bluntness of a speech given in London [...]
… read this:
Stephanie Smith, a children’s dance instructor, thought she had a stomach virus. The aches and cramping were tolerable that first day, and she finished her classes.
Then her diarrhea turned bloody. Her kidneys shut down. Seizures knocked her unconscious. The convulsions grew so relentless that [...]
That’s E.J. Dionne commenting on Meet the Press – along with Rachel Maddow and David Brooks –Â on the right-wing explosion of joy after the International Olympic Committee rejected Chicago as host for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Share and Enjoy:Galbraith’s op-ed in today’s Washington Post is an important read for anyone wanting to understand why sending more troops to Afghanistan is doomed to failure. Here is a key paragraph:
Afghanistan’s presidential election, held Aug. 20, should have been a milestone in the country’s transition from 30 years [...]
Fred Hiatt the Self-Righteous, Dishonest, and Craven:
Roman Polanski’s apologists — as typified by the comments of Swiss filmmaker Otto Weisser, Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, film and TV celebrity Whoopi Goldberg — don’t let basic facts, or even simple decency for that matter, get in the way of [...]
No, not f0r the hell of it but rather because it simply made sense. Good job BC.
Taking Tamiflu within the first 24 hours of becoming ill will [...]
Holy flaming hell, tell us what you really think.
His voice strengthens. “One thing I have hated all my life are LIARS [he says that with bristling anger] and I live in a nation of them. It was not always the case. I don’t demand honour, that can be lies [...]
Josh Gerstein at Politico:
About a dozen retired generals and admirals, trying to add momentum to President Barack Obama’s effort to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison, are accusing former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz of scaremongering about the dangers of closing it.
“It’s up to all [...]
The other day I wrote a piece detailing one Congressman’s opinion about heath care reform and the public option. Today I found this excellent breakdown of the current White House position on passing health care reform by the always prescient Pennsylvanian, BooMan. The crux of his argument is [...]
There is a huge controversy building over something that should not be controversial at all: the arrest of 76-year-old film director Roman Polanski on charges going back to his rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
Kate Harding has a superb piece in Salon reminding [...]
It seems that haunting right-wing refrain about waiting for all the facts to be in only applies to liberals and Democrats. There’s been a fair bit of speculation about who might have killed Bill Sparkman and why, based on the relatively few facts that are known in the case right [...]
As reported today, Pres. Obama has freed three more Guantanamo detainees. One is headed for Yemen; the other two are going to Ireland:
There are more than 220 detainees remaining at the prison. In the last couple months, the White House has made it increasingly clear that the [...]
It looks like Dr. Evil is in charge of the pricing scheme for drugs we get in hospitals which, when taken at home, would be cheaper. Much, ahem, cheaper:
Medicare and supplemental insurance covered most of the costs, but there was still a bill of $730. Charges [...]
Insurance industry lobbyists have crushed them, every one.
But seriously, folks… Glenn Thrush asks an excellent question: Where is the alternative health care reform bill that Republican leaders promised they would have for Democrats…. 100 days ago?
Share and Enjoy: [...]Well, well, well. Look at what the New York Times has buried on page 3 of its article about the joint announcement by Pres. Obama and by French and British leaders Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown that Iran is building a secret underground plant to manufacture nuclear fuel. First, [...]
As I alluded to in this post on Tuesday, I participated in a conference call between the Canadian membership of Democrats Abroad and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich on the topic of health care reform. The reason for my participation is simple. I am an American citizen working [...]
Pres. Obama is considering revamping Afghanistan strategy toward an approach that does not involve sending more troops:
President Obama is exploring alternatives to a major troop increase in Afghanistan, including a plan advocated by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to scale back American forces and focus more [...]
I am sitting on a conference call with the folks from Democrats Abroad Canada awaiting the arrival of Congressman Dennis Kucinich. I plan to provide an update later but in the meantime I ask that you pay a visit to the website Health Care Stories from American’s In [...]
I know it sounds unlikely, but why would the Honduran military be using tear gas and truncheons to drive off thousands of Honduran citizens rallying in support of Manuel Zelaya (who is inside the Brazilian embassy) unless the embassy staff, led by Zelaya, were getting ready [...]
[Howdy Left Fieldians, I've been away for a while. Following American politics became a trying matter, then I transferred to Cairo for a semester to brush up on my Arabic. What follows is a dispatch from a country that is very, very unlike yours.]
Back in the' [...]
The big news story today is Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s report on Afghanistan, leaked to the Washington Post, in which he basically gives Pres. Obama an ultimatum: Give me more troops or we lose the war.
The commentary on the WaPo article is voluminous, but [...]
From Steve Benen:
Fox News spent months promoting last weekend’s right-wing protests in Washington, encouraging viewers to go register their outrage. And during the event itself, the Republican news network went a step further, encouraging the crowd to get louder once the cameras were on.
As Danny Shea [...]
This morning, on Meet the Press, he nailed John Boehner on the “Obama is a socialist” canard (emphasis in original):
RNC Chairman Michael Steele recently sent out a fundraising letter saying that President Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress are attempting a “socialist power grab.” Today on [...]
Honestly, I don’t know what to believe in this story. It would appear that Andrew Young’s book proposal makes some seriously damaging allegations surrounding the paternity of his child with Rielle Hunter. Remember, Young had claimed this child was HIS not Edwards’.
The New York Times said the book proposal [...]
Between health care reform and missile defense, this news kind of got buried, but it’s important. Here is the story from Threat Level, the national security blog at Wired:
The Obama administration has told Congress it supports renewing three provisions of the Patriot Act due to expire at year’s [...]
Yesterday, Michelle Obama talked to a group of activists for women’s issues about the disproportional effect that lack of health insurance and substandard health care have on women:
Michelle Obama said women are being “crushed by the current structure of our health care” because they often are responsible for [...]
Head out to the Blim Monthly Community Market! h/t to Vancouver is Awesome.
Sunday September 20 | 11 – 5 PM | By donation
@ Cambrian Hall (215 E.17th Avenue)
Blim will be presenting a monthly Main Street Community Market this month to take place back inside @ the Cambrian [...]
Mary Shelley could be heard from her grave whispering, “why didn’t I think of that?”
Share and Enjoy:As promised, here is the “more” about Mary Travers.
Here is the New York Times article about her life. Travers’ “long blond hair and willowy figure” made her the focal point of the group. And there was that rich, smoky voice. Together with Paul Stookey and Peter Yarrow, Peter, Paul and [...]
Piggybacking on Mike Tedesco’s post about the Health Reform Committee meetings being aired on C-Span now, here is a roundup of analysis and commentary about the health care reform bill that Max Baucus just released from the Senate Finance Committee.
Pretty much nobody likes the bill. [...]
First off, I can’t put into words how pleased I am to see Dennis Kucinich swearing in the group testifying before this committee. The Bush era practice of not requiring people to swear in was simply reprehensible.
Second, this hearing is a MUST SEE for [...]
Arguably the most relevant bit of data in the health care debate was presented today by the Kaiser Family Foundation…Simple Arithmetic.
This week we put out our annual benchmark survey of employer health coverage and costs. Two numbers jumped off the pages.
The first number was the average cost of a [...]
Politico has the story:
House Democrats dealt South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson a formal rebuke Wednesday, taking the rare step of passing a resolution of disapproval for his famous “you lie!” outburst last week in the House chamber.
The vote was 240-179, falling almost exclusively along party lines.
While Democrats said [...]
Michelle Malkin, Pamela Geller, and three other far right XX’ers I don’t recognize have put together a video to tell us that. .. they are Sarah Palin.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Via Firedoglake, to honor the day we learned, from one of George W. [...]
ABC News reports on an FBI raid that disrupted a possible terror attack. I would like to draw your attention to one sentence, which I have bolded:
Authorities raided properties in New York City today in an effort that was intended to disrupt the plans of a terror [...]
Andrew Romano of Newsweek looks beyond the argument about whether Obama is lying when he says his health care reform package will not cover illegal immigrants or whether it’s Joe Wilson who is lying when he says it will, and asks “Why shouldn’t we insure illegals?”
Of course, insuring [...]
He does it as only he could, weaving his complex and compelling personal story into a clear picture of what is right and what is wrong with the U.S. health care system.
There are many valid criticisms to be made of American healthcare, but let me tell a story that [...]
…and divide it by 15 then maybe you are in the ballpark. Jeez Glenn, I have been away for a year and you are still the same old blow hard.
Talk about fuzzy math.
Share and Enjoy:
[...] It would appear that Olympia Snowe, the sole remaining “moderate” Republican the Democrats in Congress can look to for political cover in this health care reform initiative, has made it clear she wants all likelihood of a “public option” off the table.
President Barack Obama “should take it off [...]
The Washington Post has decided to take a crack at demystifying this question in the following article; 8 Questions About Health-Care Reform. Good stuff, too bad they waited until the 11th hour to do this. It might have prevented some of this scary wing-nut crap.
Share and Enjoy: [...]h/t to my old friend Froth for this link of Al Franken using the under-used tactic of reason to deal with a mob of Tea Baggers.
Click here to view the embedded video.
[...]One of Josh Marshall’s readers asks a rhetorical question:
How long did it take the right to go from: “if you criticize the President you are a traitor” to “School children should not trust the President.”
[...]Rebecca Dana writes at The Daily Beast:
There’s a story people at ABC News tell about the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson were cozily ensconced in the Good Morning America studio when the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center. Being [...]
In the wake of Senator Kennedy’s passing, we were told Ted really just wanted to agree with all of his conservative friends in the Senate.  For conservatives, as a tactical and political matter, history is not about facts but about creating a narrative that will best push forward their agenda.
[...]Spencer Ackerman is cautiously optimistic about the details emerging on the interrogation teams that a task force within the Obama administration has been putting together. Ackerman was the first journalist to report the administration’s plans for these teams, which are being publicly [...]
Upon reading his latest public statement on health reform legislation, it seems all-too-apparent that co-op-luvvin’ DINO Sen. Kent Conrad, one of 6 senators inexplicably tasked with determining the fate of US health insurance, has officially lost the plot, as publius notes:
When law students learn about murder, [...]
We get a bonus Paul Krugman column today, because he is subbing for David Brooks, and it’s a must-read. Krugman is “shocked and surprised” that Pres. Obama is “shocked and surprised” by the growing reports of progressive anger with Obama on health care reform.
What is particularly great [...]
Another point I’ve been thinking about regarding the Whole Foods boycott is the double standard of defending CEO John Mackey on the grounds that a boycott chills free speech while saying nothing of the numerous employees who have been fired over the years for speaking on line.
For those who haven’t seen it yet, this report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD) provides some insightful facts and figures regarding our healthcare system when compared to other OECD countries.
For example, we spend 16% of our GDP on healthcare –Â number that greatly exceeds any [...]
It sounded a lot better when Bonnie Raitt sang it, but it’s still the catchiest tune in D.C. these days.
The general public appears to be saying, Screw health care reform without a [...]
TPM has up a Reuters story on allegations being made by Mousavi and Karoubi (second and fourth, respectively, in the recent, tainted Presidential election) that protesters have been raped, tortured and murdered.
So not only should the international community condemn the mass arrests and kagaroo courts, but we also need [...]
On Memeorandum right now, there is an avalanche of commentary about the White House’s signaling that it’s ready to cave on the public option. Because there is so much progblog analysis, and because there are so many distinct issues involved with this legislation, I’ve decided to organize the [...]
In The Washington Post, Two former Baltimore police officers set forth their argument for the legalization of drugs. You should read the whole thing, but here are a couple of ‘graphs to give you a taste of an argument I find persuasive:
Cities and states license beer and tobacco sellers [...]
Apparently, the New Saddams in Iraq - including the government we helped install and still protect - are massacring gays.
So gays are worse off, women are worse off, and the people are governed by many brutal thugs instead of mainly just one.
It’s just one, big sick joke.
Also, how much [...]
So Rasmussen asks “1,000 likely voters” this question: “Which would be better… passage of the bill working its way through Congress or no health care reform passed by Congress this year?” and gets the following response:
35% Passage of the bill working its way through Congress
54% No [...]
Michael Tedesco, tas, matttbastard
[...]