Politics Plus: GOP supports banksters who starve children.

Black Magpie Theory: Why the grudge against Sharron Angle is personal.

Empty Wheel: A curious way to celebrate Independence Day

MadKane: Orrin Hatch is why Elena Kagan has no judicial experience.

Pruning Shears: Why Looking Back Matters

Guest round up by Blue Gal. Send tips to bluegalsblog AT gmail.

Scarborough and the Scum Sucking Bottom Feeder

TRACY CONNOR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Prepaid cards that unlock one of the raunchiest X-rated sites on the Internet are being peddled by bodegas and newsstands across the city - even to underage kids, the Daily News has learned.

On Scarborough Country last night, Tracy Connor talked about how she broke the story. transcripts here

Joe, the crack interviewer that he is, asked this riveting question.

SCARBOROUGH: And why would somebody go out and buy these porn cards? What is the attraction of them?

Well Joe, the answer is, it's porn!

CONNOR: Well, normally, you have got to give your credit card information to get on to an Internet pornography site.

Penny Nance of the Kids First Coalition had some choice words for Peter Shankman, spokesman for the Pre-Paid Porn Card

SCARBOROUGH: Penny, did you call—is it true that you called these people in the pre-interview scum-sucking bottom-feeders?

NANCE: Hey, I might have said that, but I meant it in the nicest way possible.

Video

SHANKMAN: I have yet to see—I have yet to—I‘m sorry. I didn‘t interrupt while you were calling me a scum-sucking bottom-feeder.

What Happened In Ohio

Greg Palast

November 04, 2004

Bush won Ohio by 136,483 votes. Typically in the United States, about 3 percent of votes cast are voided—known as “spoilage” in election jargon—because the ballots cast are inconclusive. Palast’s investigation suggests that if Ohio’s discarded ballots were counted, Kerry would have won the state. That's assumingToday the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports there are a total of 247,672 votes not counted in Ohio, if you add the 92,672 discarded votes plus the 155,000 provisional ballots.

Kerry won. Here's the facts.

I know you don't want to hear it. You can't face one more hung chad. But I don't have a choice. As a journalist examining that messy sausage called American democracy, it's my job to tell you who got the most votes in the deciding states. Tuesday, in Ohio and New Mexico, it was John Kerry.

Most voters in Ohio thought they were voting for Kerry. CNN's exit poll showed Kerry beating Bush among Ohio women by 53 percent to 47 percent. Kerry also defeated Bush among Ohio's male voters 51 percent to 49 percent. Unless a third gender voted in Ohio, Kerry took the state.

So what's going on here? Answer: the exit polls are accurate. Pollsters ask, "Who did you vote for?" Unfortunately, they don't ask the crucial, question, "Was your vote counted?" The voters don't know.Here's why. Although the exit polls show that most voters in Ohio punched cards for Kerry-Edwards, thousands of these votes were simply not recorded. This was predictable and it was predicted. [See TomPaine.com, "An Election Spoiled Rotten," November 1.] read on

Happy Mother's Day to one and all. Not to be a downer, but I want you to take a moment and step away with me from the lovingly prepared breakfasts in bed, crayon-scribbled Mother's Day cards, bouquets of flowers and sweet kisses from your little ones and remember those mothers who are having to experience their Mother's Day without their child. The newly revamped BagNewsNotes (one of my favorite sites--do check them out) has a photoessay by Ashley Gilbertson called "Bedrooms of the Fallen" chronicling the bedrooms of fallen Iraq/Afghanistan service members. Gilbertson intended it to be a look at the lives of the service members themselves, but as I watched the video, I imagined the grieving mother, unable to take down those last connections to their son or daughter. Because to pack away that trophy or throw away that poster is to acknowledge the finality of that loss. One family has left their daughter's room basically intact for six years. Can you imagine the emptiness that mother must feel today? So for my fellow mommies, especially those grieving for their sons and daughters, I salute your strength, your resilience and the powerful love that still connects you.

On to the Sunday shows. For as pleased as I've been with Jake Tapper's hosting of This Week of late, I'm disappointed to see the booking of Rudy Giuliani today. What value could Mr. "A Noun, A Verb and 9/11" possibly bring to any discussion? At least he'll give Politifact lots to work with. The Times Square "bomber" (I'm loathe to give anyone that inept such an official-sounding title--a bag of fertilizer and some personal fireworks are hardly the tools of a serious terrorist) has caused the GOP to trot out the tired talking points of how Democrats are weak on terror--the fact that the bombing was thwarted and the terrorist arrested within 72 hours notwithstanding. So of course, the White House goes on defense, sending out counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, AG Eric Holder and Coast Guard commandant Thad Allen to argue that there really wasn't much more the White House could have done. "Holy Joe" Lieberman will cozy up to his neocon buddies on Fox News Sunday and Richard Shelby will be on Face the Nation and State of the Union to concern troll both the banking bill and homeland security. Not on the official schedule but possibly worth checking out: Howard Kurtz will have on Jon Meacham to discuss the Washington Post's decision to sell Newsweek.

ABC's "This Week" - Attorney General Eric Holder; former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - John Brennan, President Barack Obama's homeland security and counterterrorism adviser; Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Richard Shelby, R-Ala.; Adm. Thad Allen, commandant of the Coast Guard.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Holder.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Joe Klein, Cynthia Tucker, Kathleen Parker, John Heilemann. Topics: Growing Outrage Over Immigrants Among Us/The Sale Of Newsweek: Is There No Hope For Old Media?

CNN's "State of the Union" - Brennan; Shelby; Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - To understand recent economic crises, Fareed talks with the foremost economic columnist in the world. Plus, we discuss terrorism and the Times Square plot with counter-terrorism expert Richard Clarke. Later, how does a guy like Faisal Shahzad - with a good job, a wife, kids and a mortgage - get radicalized? Who is to blame? Bernard Henri Levy joins our panel.

"Fox News Sunday" - Brennan; Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.; Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.

What's catching your eye this morning?

We start with 100% beef jerky, and SEAR your contact information into it with a 150 WATT CO2 LASER. MEAT CARDS do not fit in a Rolodex, because their deliciousness CANNOT BE CONTAINED in a Rolodex.

Open Thread below...

I've been criticizing the president for not speaking out more forcibly that a a public plan MUST be included in health care reform. I know he's playing his cards tight to the vest so republicans have less to work with as they apply their usual attacks on any kind of meaningful health care reform, but I still don't like it. On Meet the Press, David Axelrod gave one of the strongest indications I've seen that President Obama firmly stands for a strong public option. He also called it "the Public Choice." I can't tell you how important the latest polling was on health care which told the politicians that America wants the government to be involved in fixing the health care system. Gregory used Howard Dean's statement on The Hill about America voting for change to get the segment rolling.(rough transcript)

Axelrod: We believe strongly in the public choice, not something ...what the President was saying was illogical were the same people saying that the government is incompetent, that the government can't run anything, that the government shouldn't be involved in anything, but we can't let that be involved in any of the choices because it'll be an unfair advantage against the insurance companies.

Gregory: When it comes to the public plan though, no ultimatums from the President?

---

Axelrod: Well, the president believes strongly in a public choice, he's made that very, very clear. He's made that clear private and publicly and we're going to continue to do so.

Gregory: But the president is not going to ram this through, his priorities through?

Axelrod: Well, I just told what the president's priorities were are and he won't sign a bill that does not meet those priorities.

Gregory: Can there be a successful outcome in the president's mind without a health care reform plan without a public plan?

Axelrod: I think the president wants a robust public option to compete against the private plans.

We're getting closer to finishing up our Blue America/Blanche Lincoln/Public Option ads as we fight to make Democratic politicians stand up for us and not the health insurance companies on health care reform. You can still donate here: Blue America's Campaign For Health Care

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We've been trying to figure out why, whenever Rush Limbaugh speaks these days from the comforts of his studio, all we ever see is placeholder cards or really bad webcam video. We also noticed, in his last couple of live public appearances, he was looking a bit, ah, portly, and naturally we wondered if there might be a health issue.

So we sent one of our C&L special investigators to get actual live footage from inside Rush's studio to find out what was up. This is what he sent us from this morning's remarks on Sonia Sotomayor.

Well, the truth, as they say, is Out There. Let's just say that Rush is now the living embodiment of the transformational power of right-wing politics.

Mark Halperin has the full transcript:

Continue reading »

Our great Media should be shouting down these claims as soon as they come out of the president's mouth. Factcheck.org

Summary

The ad by the pro-Bush group Progress for America Voter Fund claims the economy was already in a recession when Bush took office, but the National Bureau of Economic Research (which dates business cycles) says the recession actually began in March 2001, after Bush took office in January.

The facts also get stretched when the ad claims "41 million seniors now have access to lower cost prescriptions (emphasis added)." Bush's new prescription drug benefit will cover seniors on Medicare for an extra premium of about $35 a month, but not until 2006. Even the currently available drug discount cards have been used much less than expected. Current enrollment is less than 5 million.

NonnyMouse sent this article from The Motley Fool UK, and while this is focused on the UK banking system, it was still as disturbing to me as the thought of Madonna trying to make an updated version of Casablanca set in Iraq (which is to say, on so many levels). But it also occurred to me that given the hyper-partisan and crony-favored atmosphere fostered by the Bush administration, this wouldn't be a completely out-of-left-field thing to be happening here in the US too, if only tacitly:

You may have noticed that, for the past few years, this website has compared personal loans. Thousands of people have used the comparison tool.

As a writer, my involvement with it has largely been limited to looking through data to see patterns in the loans market. We survey users to find out how their applications went, so that we can identify patterns and provide better guidance in our articles. We've found that, of course, sometimes people don't get the loan they apply for, or that the lender offers them a worse rate than the typical APR that was shown.[..]

However, analysing the data we've collated, it's clear that who you vote for in elections affects whether you'll get a loan with a bank. If the bank supports one political party through donations or other means, and you vote for that party, you're more likely to get a loan. If you aren't a known supporter, you're less likely to get the loan. If you're a known supporter of a different party, you're even less likely.

Also, you're more likely to get the cheapest rates (the 'typical' APRs) if you support the same party as the bank!

This has serious implications about data protection, amongst other things.

I'd be curious to know how private banks in the UK would get voter information...but it should serve as a HUGE red flag on the dangers of the Voter/REAL ID cards here in the US.

President Bush has driven the GOP right into the gutter and it's finally starting to show in the wingnut media. Remember BillO going nuts in New Hampshire when he was given the B-list treatment by Barack Obama? We've covered a few of the latest warriors to fall, but my friend TRex has a more complete list of the losers: (Caution, may not be suitable for work)

Actually, it’s illustrative of the fact that the Pox News Cargo Cult is either dying off in waves (they are all 90 years old, after all), that Heath Ledger’s ghost is having a laugh at Gibson’s expense, or just that the wheels are totally coming off the Right Wing Propaganda Machine.

In the last six months, we’ve seen:

1. Michelle Malkin fired from “The O’Reilly Factor”.

2. Ann Coulter’s book sales tanking and her credit cards getting declined by Publix.

3. Melamine Misstatement fired from her job.

4. Tucker Carlson tossed out on his amply padded backside.

5. And now Jumpin’ John Gibson being taken away to be rendered into fat for cheap tallow candles for The Poor or whatever. Read on...