Not long ago, some libertarians were hailing Keith Olbermann because he attacked George W. Bush (correctly) and his wars. Today, we do not see Olbermann complaining about these wars, now that his people are in the White House. Unfortunately, we libertarians are learning a hard lesson once again; the Left is not anti-war. Instead, the Left is against war when leftists believe that wars consume too many resources that could be used in the government’s war against peaceful, private exachange. However, we see that today, Obama’s government is engaged in war both at home and abroad. Olbermann is a big supporter (as is Michael Moore).
Bill, that’s because Olbermann is kind of green when it comes to politics. The dude is a sportscaster for Christ’s sake. What do you expect?
Has Olbermann uttered one word against Obama’s war?
Well, if you consider the heavy sighing and hand wringing that he’s now doing; as a word against the Obama Administration and the war that now belongs to them. Yes, He has. But seriously; Olbermann is quite the partisan. To her credit, Rachel Maddow is not. But Keith? Oh Yes, quite partisan. To his credit, Olbermann did his fair share of screaming about Bush Administration’s Wilsonian foreign policies. But now that the Obama Administration is in there. It’s a whole other ball game at MSNBC HQ. I mean, Tucker Carlson even left. What does that tell you?
Chastity Bono, civil rights advocate, journalist, author and musician, is in the early stages of changing his gender — transitioning from female to male, TMZ has learned.
Chastity Bono
Bono, the child of legendary entertainers Sonny and Cher, began the process earlier this year, shortly after his 40th birthday.
“Yes, it’s true — Chaz, after many years of consideration, has made the courageous decision to honor his true identity,” confirmed Bono’s publicist, Howard Bragman.
“He is proud of his decision and grateful for the support and respect that has already been shown by his loved ones. It is Chaz’s hope that his choice to transition will open the hearts and minds of the public regarding this issue, just as his ‘coming out’ did nearly 20 years ago.
Believe me, she does not have far to go. She’s already ugly enough to be a man now. I wonder, are they gonna dig up Sonny Bono’s dick and sew it on her? They couldn’t do much worse; if they tried. 🙄
Please note: This is supposed to be something to make one think, not be taken seriously.
—-
When neo-Nazi James Von Brunn opened fire at the U.S. Holocaust Museum and Europe’s far-Right won major victories in the same week, the fascist, terrorist threat to the U.S. both home and abroad became too large to ignore.
You know, I’m not wild on the idea of Nationalized Healthcare; but this crap right here is just plain lame:
But in comments submitted to the Senate Finance Committee, the American Medical Association said: “The A.M.A. does not believe that creating a public health insurance option for non-disabled individuals under age 65 is the best way to expand health insurance coverage and lower costs. The introduction of a new public plan threatens to restrict patient choice by driving out private insurers, which currently provide coverage for nearly 70 percent of Americans.”
If private insurers are pushed out of the market, the group said, “the corresponding surge in public plan participation would likely lead to an explosion of costs that would need to be absorbed by taxpayers.”
As someone; who’s parents have just lost their Optical and Dental Coverage, through the health plan that was offered by G.M., only to have it taken away, because of G.M.’s bankruptcy; Which, by the way, was caused by this whole economic meltdown that was caused by the Clinton Administration’s forcing of the mortgage giants, Freddie and Fannie to float housing loans to those who normally could not afford them. Which when the economy collapsed, those people lost their jobs and defaulted on their loans, and because these loans were traded, this caused a vacuum.
Also as someone, who has NO health insurance, at all. I find this statement to be quite lame. In other words, “We don’t support this, because our Doctors won’t make the money that they’re making now.” That has to be the most tone deaf statement, that I have ever heard in my life.
Their doctors are not going to make the money that they’re used to making; Boo Freaking Hoo!
If the AMA is going to be against this Bill, they’d better come up with the better excuse than this. Because the one that was just presented to this masses, is not going to resonate with anyone, except maybe John McCain who owns about 8 houses.
Sorry to those who might be shocked, but this one hits home with me. 😡
I blogged on this last night, and I made some comments that might have been interpreted by some, as if I did not care if someone died in this shooting. That post was written before I knew that someone had died in the shooting. As for what some might have taken away from what I have written; please, allow me to clear some things up, okay?
Colleagues called Stephen T. Johns “Big John,” for he was well over 6 feet tall. But mostly friends recalled the security guard’s constant courtesy and friendliness.
“A soft-spoken, gentle giant,” said Milton Talley, a former employee of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, where Johns was killed yesterday in the line of duty — shot, authorities said, by an avowed white supremacist who entered the museum with a rifle.
Stephen T. Johns
Details of the shooting remained sketchy last night, but apparently the 39-year-old, who was armed with a .38-caliber revolver, did not have time to react when James W. von Brunn walked into the museum, according to police sources.
“Immediately upon entering the front doors of the museum, he raised the rifle and started shooting,” D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said of von Brunn, 88, adding that he “was engaged by security guards, and there was an exchange of gunfire.”
When the smoke cleared, von Brunn was critically wounded. The only casualty among the guards was Johns, who lived in Prince George’s County. At least one bullet from a small-caliber rifle hit Johns in his upper-left torso, according to Johns’s employer, the Wackenhut security company.
“Two other . . . armed security officers opened fire with their service revolvers,” the company said. “The intruder was hit at once” and wounded.
Johns died at George Washington University Hospital.
“There are no words to express our grief and shock over these events,” the museum said in a statement, describing Johns as “an outstanding colleague who greeted us every day with a smile.”
Johns, a 1988 graduate of Crosslands High School in Temple Hills, lived in an apartment in the Temple Hills area. Friends said he had a son.
Allen Burcky, another former museum employee, said last night that workers there considered each other “like family” and that Johns was “very courteous, very helpful.”
Lourdes Padilla, the mother of a close friend, said that Johns trained as a plumber but that she didn’t think he had ever entered the trade. He remarried about a year ago, Padilla said.
Johns’s sister, Jacqueline Carter, declined to comment as she entered her home in Temple Hills. “She’s in bad shape right now,” said a man who was driving her.
Wackenhut describes itself as the U.S. government’s “largest contractor for professional security services.” An official with the union that represents Wackenhut employees at the museum said Johns was paid about $20 an hour.
“It’s a heavy loss,” said Assane Faye, the Washington district director of the Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America.
Okay now to make myself absolutely clear. I feel the shooting of this fine officer to be a horrific tragedy. Further more, let me please state something, that should be very obvious to everyone; no matter what one’s personal political or personal convictions are about anything or anyone, there is NO and I repeat there is ABSOLUTELY NO JUSTIFICATION for committing acts of violence or murder. That goes for anything, whether it be this murder here or the murder of the abortion doctor; this was a act of cowardice, as was the murder of the abortion doctor.
Further more, let me say this to my follow bloggers on both sides of the political aisle. No amount of political sniping, dogmatic positioning or any other sort of idiotic nonsense is going to bring this poor man back from the dead. The short and blunt truth is, that there is a man dead tonight who was simply trying to do his job. Further more, let me state that anyone, of any political persuasion or personal conviction status, who would attempt to say that this homicide was justified; is no better than the person that pulled the trigger in this tragic event. There is, I do not care what the reasoning was; no justification for murder at all.
Again, because of the sensitive nature of this story, I am closing comments; because I just do not want to risk some troll coming in here and causing me any problems.
Update #2: Here’s the shooter’s website, For what it’s worth; I do not defend what he writes, but I do defend his right to believe it and publish it, there is a thing called freedom of speech still in this country. I DO NOT, AT ALL, DEFEND HIS ACTIONS TODAY. IT WAS WRONG!
Israeli TV newscasters Tuesday night interpreted a photo taken Monday in the Oval Office of President Obama talking on
Insult or no? You decide.
the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an “insult” to Israel.
They saw the incident as somewhat akin to an incident last year, when the Iraqi reporter threw a shoe at President Bush in Baghdad.
It is considered an insult in the Arab world to show the sole of your shoe to someone. It is not a Jewish custom necessarily, but Israel feels enough a part of the Middle East after 60 years to be insulted too.
Was there a subliminal message intended from the White House to Netanyahu in Jerusalem, who is publicly resisting attempts by Mr. Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to force Israel to stop any kind of settlement activity in occupied territories once and forever?
Whether or not it is true, it shows the mood in Israel. They feel cornered. The reactions out of Israel reflect that feeling.
and then there’s this:
Israel’s Channel One TV reported that Netanyahu was told Tuesday by an “American official” in Jerusalem that, “We are going to change the world. Please, don’t interfere.” The report said Netanyahu’s aides interpreted this as a “threat.”
While I am not a big fan of the large influence of the various Israeli Lobbies in Washington D.C.; I think that angering some of our stanchest allies in the world is nothing short of a bonehead move on the part of this President. It would cost him in the ratings.
News Corp. is near a deal to sell its right-wing political magazine, the Weekly Standard, to conservative media mogul Philip Anschutz, according to people familiar with the situation.
Launched in 1995 and edited by William Kristol and Fred Barnes, the Weekly Standard has been a pet political project for News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch. While its circulation, according to the magazine’s website is only 83,000 (it hasn’t been audited by the Audit Bureau of Circulation since 1996), it reaches the upper echelon of Capitol Hill insiders and gave the media mogul cache among the Washington elite.
Now that Murdoch owns the Wall Street Journal, however, whose conservative editorial page wields a much bigger political stick, he may no longer really need the Weekly Standard, which preaches much the same message, but to a considerably smaller audience. Murdoch’s own political views seem to have swung more toward the center over the last few years, and that, too, might be a factor in his decision to sell.
Or, to be blunt, News Corp., as the prospects for print media shrink, may be reviewing all its assets and deciding what stays and what goes. Using that rationale, holding on to what we suspect is a money-losing magazine doesn’t make much sense.Anschutz
A spokeswoman for News Corp. declined to comment. A spokeman for Anschutz could not be immediately reached.
I personally attempted to contact the Weekly Standard for a comment. I got the voice mail system there. I also left a message for Jack Horner, who is the Director for corporate affairs at News Corporation ; maybe I will get lucky and Jack will actually e-mail back with a comment. An exclusive on this story would be nice. I will post, if and when I do get a response to the inquiry.
The problem is, the only people that are surprised are the in-the-tank media and possibly some of Obama’s loyal followers.
It’s looking more and more like Barack Obama’s pledge to usher in a new era of openness in government may well go unfulfilled.
Yesterday, administration lawyers cited national security concerns to argue that Bush-era documents detailing the videotaped interrogations of detainees should not be released. And in the wake of that news, open-government advocates are reluctantly acknowledging that, despite Obama’s campaign promises, his approach to secrecy on issues of national security will likely not depart significantly from that of George Bush.
“The Obama administration is not going to represent an abrupt departure from Bush-era policy,” Steven Aftergood, who runs the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy, told TPMmuckraker. “If we thought they were, we were mistaken.”
He added that it’s no longer realistic to think that Obama’s administration will take a strong stand in favor of openness on national security issues. “We have to recalibrate our expectations.”
The above is why I believe that Blogs, especially Independent bloggers; like myself, play important role in our Nation’s political process. Because I blogged long ago, on this blog and on my previous blog; that whomever was elected President, would end up not fulfilling all of the campaign promises. As long as our Government is controlled by outside forces, I.E. The UN and others; promises like that ones that President Obama made during his campaign, will go unfulfilled. It is a plain and sobering fact. The President just does not control as much as people are lead to believe.
However, I will make this observation. I do not believe that Obama is totally to blame for some of the reversals. I believe that some of them were forced, because of National Security concerns. Again, more of that “big Government” that the Democrats and Neo-Conservatives just love and what true or Paleo-Conservatives and Libertarians loathe. We must protect our own misdeeds in the interest of National Security. It has been practice of our Government for years, to cover up. There are a great deal of examples of this.
So, while it might be convenient of the Liberal grass roots to go after Obama on this, I believe doing so masks the true issue at heart here, and that’s our already oversized and quite centralized Government.
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