Quote Of The Week

Sully on Sister Sarah:

She remains the hood ornament for a marketing campaign that now passes for the conservative movement.

When he's on, brother he's dead on.

No Longer Buying What You're Selling, Mike

Poor Michael Steele. He holds a conference call with reporters to attack the President on health care (which is not news, because the GOP is irrelevant on health care reform by their own admission), and then makes the mistake of attacking the President on the Olympics (which the Village, being the Village, thinks is news.)

Dems are now seizing on that as proof that reporters don’t believe the GOP has credibility on health care, or at least have no interest in Steele’s views on it.

“It speaks directly to the RNC’s complete lack of credibility on health insurance reform that they would hold a conference call on health care and no one was at all curious about how Republicans felt about health care,” emails DNC spokesperson Brandi Hoffine. “I guess that’s what happens when you have no plan.”

To be fair, the Republicans who might better be questioned about health care are those with a direct say over it: Members of Congress. And Steele did get in some health care licks, hammering Obama’s reform plans as imposing untold costs on “businesses and families that will not hasten recovery but prolong recession.”

It’s also worth noting that the GOP’s health care opinions just aren’t relevant. The final proposal will pass with a handful of Republicans at best. It’s up to Dems.

But Dems counter that the RNC billed the call as being about health care — and couldn’t even get a reporter to ask Steele for his views about the big topic of the day.

I don't honestly know what's worse, the Village, or how completely awful Michael Steele is at playing their games.

[UPDATE 3:50 PM] Speaking of attacking the President on the Olympics, why do the GOP insist on saying idiotic stuff like this?

"I think it's baffling that the president has time to travel to Copenhagen," said Sen. Kit Bond, R-Missouri. "[Obama's] got a lot of responsibilities. His number one responsibility is to keep our country safe."

Yes, because at this point in George W. Bush's first term we had just been hit by the worst terror attack in our nation's history. I'm going to say in comparison, Obama's doing a great job on that.

No Longer The Big Cats

The Bengals and the Lions now have better records than my 0-3 Carolina Panthers after last night's interception debacle cost them the game on MNF.

I like coach John Fox. But I think he just lost his job last night. The bye week Charlotte media is not gonna be happy.

Ray Ray Versus The Birthers

Rachel Maddow takes on the "Birthermercial" I talked about last week.

Classic watching here.

The Loyal Opposition

Following up on last night's post, the GOP has pretty much given up on civility towards Obama as GOP Rep. Trent Franks proves:

A Republican member of the House of Representatives accused President Barack Obama of being "an enemy of humanity" during a conservative values forum this past weekend.

In a speech Saturday before the How to Take Back America conference, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) made comments that went far beyond the limits of traditional White House criticism. At one point, Franks demanded that Obama release his birth certificate to prove his constitutionally eligibility to hold office. The bluntest charge, however, centered on the president's position on abortion, which the congressman derided as "insane" and godless.

That's nice. At this point Obama is the Enemy and must be dealt with. Sitting Republican members of Congress are publicly calling him inhuman. Trent Franks's exact words:

"Obama's first act as president of any consequence, in the middle of a financial meltdown, was to send taxpayers' money overseas to pay for the killing of unborn children in other countries," said Frank. "Now, I got to tell you, if a president will do that, there's almost nothing that you should be surprised at after that. We shouldn't be shocked that he does all these other insane things. A president that has lost his way that badly, that has no ability to see the image of God in these little fellow human beings, if he can't do that right, then he has no place in any station of government and we need to realize that he is an enemy of humanity."

Now I ask you, if a sitting Democrat would have said that about Bush, that Democrat would have a firestorm crammed so far up their ass they'd be spitting charcoal. But Republicans saying Obama is an enemy of humanity?

No problem. Hey, at some point a liberal said something bad about Bush, so it's okay.

North Of The Border

Sen. Byron Dorgan is tossing about lit sticks of dynamite into the Baucus plan's deal with Big Pharma, and I for one am willing to supply the matches.

A Senate Democratic leader is hoping to blow up the deal reached between the White House, drug makers and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), by introducing an amendment on the floor to allow prescription drugs to be re-imported from Canada.

It's one of the simplest ways to reduce health care costs but was ruled out by the agreement, which limits Big Pharma's contribution to health care reform to $80 billion over ten years.

North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan, a member of Democratic leadership, isn't a party to that bargain. "Senator Dorgan intends to offer an amendment to the health reform bill and his expectation is that it will be one of the first amendments considered," his spokesman Justin Kitsch told HuffPost in an e-mail. "Prescription drug importation is an immediate way to put downward pressure on health care costs. It has bipartisan support, and has been endorsed by groups such as the National Federation of Independent Businesses and AARP."

U.S. patients pay far more than the rest of the world for prescription drugs. The Canadian government keeps prices down by using its purchasing power to negotiate for lower rates. Dorgan wants American consumers in on the deal.

A bill to allow re-importation -- S. 1232 - has 30 cosponsors, several Republicans among them, including Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, John Thune (S.D.) and David Vitter (La.).

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill would result in $50 billion in direct savings over the next decade, with $10.6 billion of that being savings to the federal government.

The problem is that $50 billion is going to Big Pharma, and that's just a small slice of the pie for the drug industry that they are expecting to get.

Threatening to cut off that windfall is going to spark a rather nasty battle, but it's one that needs to be decided and decided now. Good for Byron Dorgan.

A Blue Streak In The Bluegrass State

Here in KY, the buzz is all about Lt. Gov Dan Mongiardo (and current Democratic candidate for Jim Bunning's Senate seat) tore into current Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear, as Bluegrass Politics reports.

Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo used profanity as he criticized Gov. Steve Beshear and his support of Mongiardo’s U.S. Senate candidacy in a recording posted last week on the Internet.

In the recording, which was placed on YouTube by someone using the name “senrace2010,” Mongiardo is heard saying he is so frustrated with Beshear that he is “close to saying f— it all. I do not need this job. I do not need the U.S. Senate.”

Mongiardo is also heard saying that Beshear, who has endorsed Mongiardo, will be remembered as the state’s “worst” governor and that a “blowup” is coming.

Mongiardo spokesman Kim Geveden said the audio tape was “edited” and that Mongiardo “strongly supports” Beshear.

“He supports him now and he supports him for reelection in 2011,” Geveden said in a statement. “He believes Governor Beshear has provided strong leadership and a steady hand during some of the most difficult times in our Commonwealth’s history.

Geveden declined to answer specific questions about the veracity of the tape, including when and where it might have been recorded.

Somewhere, KY AG and Mongiardo primary opponent Jack Conway is laughing his ass off.

You Say Potato, I Say War Crimes

A UN report on last winter's Israeli attacks into Gaza holds nothing back, suggesting Tel Aviv has committed war crimes against the Palestinians.

Israeli officials condemned Tuesday a scathing United Nations report that accused the nation of war crimes in its military offensive into Gaza.

Palestinian officials applauded the report, which was presented at a U.N. meeting, and urged U.N. members to address the alleged crimes documented in the report.

In the report, released earlier this month, a U.N. group accused Israel of committing "actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity" during its military incursion into Gaza from December 27 to January 18.

The group, called the U.N. Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, is headed by South African judge Richard Goldstone.

Goldstone presented the 500-plus page report the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva Tuesday.

"The lack of accountability for war crimes and possible crimes against humanity has reached a crisis point," Goldstone said Tuesday. "This is the time of action."

Naturally, the Obama administration isn't happy, but they stopped short of full condemnation of the report.

The U.S. representative, Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner, said some of the recommendations in the report were "deeply flawed" and called for Israel and Palestinian authorities to be allowed to finish conducting their own investigations before passing judgment.

Translation: the White House needs some time in order to talk down Russia and China, who are both satisfied with the report. Any serious action against Israel is inconceivable, even Obama will assure any sanctions will be vetoed by the United States.

But accusations of war crimes by the UN is a deadly serious thing, and the report pulls no punches:

The report claims that the Israeli Defense Forces "failed to take feasible precautions required by international law to avoid or minimize loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects."

The U.N. report also said Israel fired the chemical agent white phosphorous in civilian areas, intentionally fired upon hospitals using high-explosive artillery shells, and failed to provide effective warnings to civilians or U.N. workers before attacks. It also claims that Israel used Palestinian civilians as human shields and deliberately attacked Palestinian food supplies in Gaza.

The report recommends that the U.N. Security Council require the government of Israel to launch appropriate independent investigations into the findings of the report within three months. The findings also recommend that the alleged Israeli war crimes be explored by the International Criminal Court's prosecutor.

The findings also call on Palestinian leadership to investigate alleged war crimes, for militants to respect humanitarian law, and for the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit on humanitarian grounds.

A spokeswoman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that a resolution on the issue could be drafted by the human rights council by Friday.

In other words, this is a serious problem for Obama, and an even more serious problem for Israel. How Tel Aviv reacts to this will be anyone's guess, but reaction of the Wingers I can tell you will include cries of "pervasive anti-Semitism throughout the UN" for daring to say that using Willy Pete on Palestinians is a bad thing.

Do You Like Coffee? Real Colombian Coffee?

In a sign of the times, Starbucks is expanding their business model...not to include more stores and more upscale barista brews, but the opposite: they're getting into the instant coffee market nationwide starting today with their new brand, Via.

Starbucks will trumpet Via's debut in the United States and Canada with a week-long advertising campaign that will highlight in-store taste tests pitting Via against Starbucks brewed coffee.

Some analysts have questioned whether U.S. coffee drinkers will flock to Via, particularly since it will compete with familiar and far less expensive products.

Schultz said that due to the higher quality of Via, it would not compete with existing instant coffee products. He added that Via did not cannibalize Starbucks main business in markets where it was tested.

"This is not your grandmother's instant coffee," Schultz said. "The quality of Starbucks Via is a mirror image of the quality and taste of Starbucks brewed coffee."

While the CEO said that Via "exceeded expectations" when it was tested in Seattle, Chicago and London, he declined to reveal expectations for Via profits, the cost of the advertising campaign or the timing of Via's launch in other parts of the world.

A trio of single-serve Via packets will sell for $2.95 in the United States and 12 packets will sell for $9.95.

Those prices are significantly higher than Nescafe's Taster's Choice single-serve packets that sell in Los Angeles for roughly $1.50 for six and around $4 for 20.

Starbucks aficionados "won't balk at the price" of Via if they believe it delivers on taste, said Bill Smead, portfolio manager of the Smead Value Fund in Seattle.

A decently smart move. Americans are definitely cutting back on the daily trip to pick up their mocha half-caf lattes with no foam, and like everyone else, Starbucks is trading down a notch to go after the instant market instead.

The economy that gave rise to the ubiquitous Starbucks on every corner is dead and gone, folks. Look for the company to keep concentrating on the home market and closing more stores around the country.

And I choose to respond through the power of comedian Lewis Black.

He was more right than he knew five years ago when he said this. End of the universe, indeed...

StupidiNews!

• An infamous YouTube prank video at a Domino's Pizza in North Carolina has now led to the store's closing.
• Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's memoir, "Going Rogue", will be on sale in November.
• A number of energy companies are withdrawing from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce due to that group's intense lobbying against climate change legislation.
• Flooding deaths from heavy rains in the Philippines has reached 240 as the government comes under fire.
• A new EU "volume policy" means cell phones and MP3 players will have to comply with noise level guidelines.

Last Call

It's not really paranoia if they really are out to get Obama, you know.

At the How To Take Back America Conference last weekend, conservative speaker Kitty Werthmann led a workshop called “How to recognize living under Nazis & Communists.” Announcing the panel in a column preceding the conference, talk show host Janet Porter gushed how Werthmann’s description of Austria in the 1930s is a “mirror to America” today — noting “They had Joseph Goebbels; we have Mark Lloyd, the diversity czar.” The room was packed over capacity to hear Werthmann, who grew up as a Christian in Austria and serves as Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum South Dakota President.

During her session, Werthmann went through a litany of examples of how President Obama is like Adolf Hitler. She noted that Hitler, who acted “like an American politician,” was “elected in a 100% Christian nation.” Although she failed to once mention Antisemitism or militarism, Werthmann explained how universal healthcare, an Equal Rights Amendment, and increased taxes were telltale signs of Nazism. Werthmann also warned the audience:

If we had our guns, we would have fought a bloody battle. So, keep your guns, and buy more guns, and buy ammunition. [...] Take back America. Don’t let them take the country into Socialism. And I refer again, Hitler’s party was National Socialism. [...] And that’s what we are having here right now, which is bordering on Marxism.

Well, alright Zandar, you say, but these people are mad, fringe lunatics. Surely the GOP is keeping a safe distance from people advocating armed revolt against the government given our recent history over the last 20 years.

You would of course be COMPLETELY WRONG.

Werthmann noted that her Nazism speech is gaining popularity. She not only has delivered it to several tea parties, but has been asked by “a group of bankers” to address them this month.

Before the event, ThinkProgress asked Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), one of several Republican members of Congress also speaking at the conference, to autograph Werthmann’s DVD about National Socialism. She happily obliged:

Bachmanniac again. Anyone else surprised? Well, who else was there, you ask? How about World Net Daily founder Joseph Farah, conservative pain in the ass Phyllis Schlafly, GOP Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, and GOP Congressmen Steve King, Tom McClintock and Tom Price...and Joe The Plumber!

It's a Hollywood Squares of squares who hate Hollywood. And Obama. And anyone who isn't exactly like them.

But don't dismiss them as harmless cranks. These guys mean business, folks. The GOP is backing their play with the Pretty Hate Machine. Who will it set off next, and how many people will be hurt or killed when it happens?

Keep that in mind.

Auto Sales Running Out Of Gas

Without Cash For Clunkers, car sales have hit a pothole again.

U.S. auto sales likely fell in September back to the nearly three-decade lows of early 2009 without government incentives to spur buying, leaving in doubt the timing and pace of a recovery for the battered industry.

Nearly 700,000 new cars and trucks were bought by U.S. customers through the government "cash for clunkers" incentive program from late July through the first three weeks of August, a leap from recession-stunted sales earlier in 2009.

The massive jump in buying versus earlier in 2009 depleted the stores for all the major auto manufacturers, leaving industry inventories at historically low levels.

Major automakers made sharp production cuts due to the economic downturn in general. Chrysler, now under management control of Italy's Fiat, and GM, also broadly halted output around their restructurings in bankruptcy.

The exhaustion of the government incentive program and a dearth of key vehicles at dealerships curtailed activity at many dealerships through the first half of September, but there have been some signs of sales improving late in the month.

"We have started to get little rumblings that maybe the consumer isn't quite so flat on their back, that they have been responding to some of the incentive programs and the fact that leasing is coming back," said Rebecca Lindland, an automotive research director at IHS Global Insight.

The gas tank for the auto industry is down to "rumblings". Who's going to buy a car at this point unless you absolutely need one, and if you need one, you're going to be buying used.

But here's the larger, scarier problem: replace "Cash For Clunkers" with the "stimulus bill", and "car sales" with "the economy", and you have America roughly 12 months from now. We're in trouble, folks...and once the stimulus is gone, do you think we'll get more?

Obama Derangement Syndrome, Farmville Edition

Via Bob Cesca's place, NPR has the story:

A blog called The Political Carnival is getting credit this afternoon for calling out the ridiculous "Should Obama be killed?" poll that showed up on Facebook over the weekend (and is now being investigated by the U.S. Secret Service).

GottaLaff, one of the blog's authors, pointed out the offensive post last evening. Today, says GottaLaff, the Secret Service tracked her down to say thanks for having posted a screen grab of the poll.

Facebook, the company, had nothing to do with the poll, according to spokesman Barry Schnitt. It's no longer on the site.

Nice. "Should Obama be killed?"

Proof that John Gabriel's Greater Internet F'ckwad Theory is in full effect. Combine that with Obama Derangement Syndrome, and you get Facebook polls asking if the President should be assassinated.

Yeah, but it's okay because liberals did that to Bush, right?

Desert Storm

The Saudis are giving the thumbs up for whacking Tehran.

Excellent news for nutjobs! According to the always accurate and never at all hysterical Daily Express, Saudi Arabia has given Israel permission bomb Iran:

INTELLIGENCE chief Sir John Scarlett has been told that Saudi Arabia is ready to allow Israel to bomb Iran’s new nuclear site.

The head of MI6 discussed the issue in London with Mossad chief Meir Dagan and Saudi officials after British intelligence officers helped to uncover the plant, in the side of a mountain near the ancient city of Qom.

As you are no doubt aware, according to the US Constitution as interpreted by geniuses of the Mark Steyn class, this Saudi move compels President Obama to launch nuclear missiles at Tehran no later than 9PM EST next Wednesday.

It's 2002 all over again, unless Obama changes the script. He might, as commenter Paul W. has said on a number of occasions.

I'm hoping Paul is right. Me? Hope in one hand, a bunker buster bomb in the other, see which one fills Tehran's skies first.

Irony Science Theater 3000

Dennis Kneale: Financial genius and film critic.

Just spent two hours watching the upcoming film from Michael Moore— "Capitalism: A Love Story." It ends on a most hopeful note: The populist provocateur may be leaving the U.S. (Beat.) For good!

"I don't want to live in a country like that," he concludes at the end of two hours of ultra-liberal polemics and Wall Street bashing. To which I and a few colleagues cried out in instant unison: "So move!"

"Capitalism: A Love Story" is a truncated piece of trash, an utterly unbalanced, poorly argued screed. Its real title should have been "Vainglorious Bastard," for it skimps on facts and context in favor of unspooling Moore's own loopy, jaded and paranoid view of the world.

This meandering, ponderous flick deplores the past 30 years of the Reagan Revolution and free markets—and dotes lovingly on the wonders of socialism. Moore wishes we were more like France and Germany and Japan.

Freakin' JAPAN??? Replete with its 20-year slump?

The irony is lost on Kneale, apparently. He's not allowed to call anyone's work trash. Now, Michael Moore is a vainglorious bastard...but so is Dennis Kneale.