Dr. Martin Luther King: “I would submit two sentences written a century ago by Victor Hugo. ‘If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness'.”
I can think of several people causing the darkness right at this moment. And they are being paid handsomely for it.
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(LBJ Signing Medicare Bill - hysteria conspicuously absent)
On July 28, 1965, the Senate passed by large margin the Medicare bill. Despite grumblings from the right of "socialized medicine" and other fear-based rants, common sense prevailed and one of the milestones of 20th century social programs became law.
Dallas Townsend: “Now awaiting Presidential signature in Washington, is the milestone program of Social Security expansion and health care for the elderly, or Medicare. The Senate passed it yesterday, 70-24 thus completing Congressional action.”
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Fox News pundits said President Barack Obama was arrogant and unwilling to apologize for his handling of the arrest of Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. Sunday.
"The president could have said that was a stupid thing for me to say, but he can't say that for some reason. That would be too self-deprecating and he is an arrogant man and he is entitled to pass judgment on cambridge cops," said Bill Kristol.
Brit Hume seems to think that the Gates arrest will be an issue that will concern the next president. "I fear we will have to await the arrival of the next president who can apologize for Barack Obama on this as he so repeatedly does about previous presidents," said Hume.
After reading this piece from Hannity's new pal, Erick Erickson, I'm really at a loss for words:
Peter, under pressure and fear, denied Christ not just once, but three times. Peter, though, feared death. The strain on Peter was great. The rest of us, though, typically fear the opinions of others.
There are those who like it when we feel guilty for associating with someone. More troubling, in the conservative movement and in the greater right-of-center coalition, there are many, many fellow traveler who would rather spend their time throwing their own under the bus than fighting the left....
....The incidents of late with Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Dick Cheney, and others is why I raise this. Putting it bluntly, were these guys on the left, their fellow leftists would at best be cheering them on and at worst silently nodding along. There wouldn’t be any on that side rushing to the nearest microphone to condemn them.... Peter denied Christ three times. Our goal should be to not deny Christ and also to not deny the valuable members of our own movement. Embracing them does not mean we embrace every word and every deed. But it should likewise mean we don’t race to the nearest microphone to condemn our own when they do something [indiscreet]. The people we should shun are the ones who are quick to throw the rest of us out for daring to stand up for our friends.
When guys like Erick resort to Biblical analogies in this way, it always raises the question in my mind: Who will be the Judas who betrays Jesus -- and in essence the entire conservative movement?
I'm sure they'll come up with someone. They're good at that.
Oopsie, I guess we really can't count this as a mark for "out of the mouth of babes", but Liz Cheney, perhaps inadvertently, admitted that part of the reason we've seen Dick Cheney more in the last two months than we did in the eight years of the Bush administration is that he is very nervous that there will be investigations and prosecutions in his future:
(M)any in the media have asked why Cheney — someone who had avoided the media at all costs during his eight years as vice president — would be airing his opinions in such a forceful and public way. Indeed, Cheney himself has answered this question, claiming he is speaking out because he believes that torture and other Bush administration anti-terror policies — many of which Obama is abandoning — were “exactly the right thing to do” and that “there isn’t anybody there on the other side to tell the truth.”
In turn, media figures have answered the question in much the same way. “I think he genuinely believes we are threatened now more because of what Obama is doing,” MSNBC’s Pat Buchanan has said. CNN’s David Gergen said, “I think Dick Cheney almost has a Churchillian view of this, and that is somebody has got to stand up and be the voice in the wilderness.” But while the narrative of Cheney’s motives focuses mainly on the righteous, it has all but ignored the selfish — that Cheney is trying to muddle the public debate with the goal of reducing public support for a criminal inquiry into the torture regime that he authorized.
Last night on CNN, however, Cheney’s daughter Liz revealed that fear of prosecution is indeed a motivating factor in the former vice president’s current media campaign:
L. CHENEY: I don’t think he planned to be doing this, you know, when they left office in January. But I think, as it became clear that President Obama was not only going to be stopping some of these policies, that he was going to be doing things like releasing the — the techniques themselves, so that the terrorists could now train to them, that he was suggesting that perhaps we would even be prosecuting former members of the Bush administration.
Sad that this "Get Daddy Out Of Jail Free" ploy seems to have all the news outlets lapping it up with nary a word on what the motives might be for a former Vice President to break with protocol and criticize a sitting President (and by doing so, implicitly admitting that Cheney--not Bush--was in charge). Can you imagine how the right wing noise machine would have gone into overdrive if Clinton had started criticizing Bush for not taking the al Qaeda threat seriously at the beginning of his presidency? By all reports, that's what happened. Richard Clarke was demoted, his reports ignored, and then 9/11 happened on their watch. And now terrorism has increased worldwide four-fold. However, even with this miserable track record (kept from the public by these media outlets eager for a Cheney appearance), Cheney thinks his opinion has any value to the discussion?
The hottest Republican property out there isn't former Vice President Dick Cheney but his daughter Liz, who has taken to the airwaves to defend her dad and the whole Bush administration on national security and Guantánamo Bay issues. Liz Cheney, who followed the former veep's hard-hitting speech criticizing President Obama's policies with a CNN appearance, is becoming so popular in conservative circles that some want her to run for office. "She's awesome. Everyone wants her to run," said a close friend.
Blue America's Alan Grayson and Florida's new rising star just keeps coming. And he hits on an important problem for our government. Do you get this? Because I really don't get this. The Federal Reserve has lent out TRILLIONS of dollars to private banks, and is keeping the recipients and the amounts a total secret. In an e-mail I received:
In a hearing yesterday, Congressman Alan Grayson asked
the Inspector General of the Federal Reserve whether she's keeping
track of the money. What money, she pretty much asks. You really have
to see this to believe it. I guess literally no one in government is overseeing what the Federal Reserve is doing with OUR money.
And it's no shock that Republicans are targeting Grayson as their public enemy # 1. He puts fear into their hearts and well he should.
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Stephen Colbert joined the cable networks in their coverage of the swine-flu outbreak with his own special report titled: "Enemy Swine: A PigCalypse Now, The Coming Oink-Mageddon"
Unfortunately, Colbert's guest from the WHO is sick and can't make it. So he winds up answering questions from viewers and offering his usual, ah, sage advice.
The final question: "How do I get rid of this swine flu hysteria once and for all?"
Colbert:
Remember: swine flu feeds on our fear. All we have to do is stop being scared and follow the rational advice of experts. We've got to start thinking calmly so the panic will starve itself out. Because if we don't, we're all doomed. DOOOOOMED!!!
