You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: (1252)

PLAYS: (2764)

(h/t CSAPNjunkie)
Tweety's love for Tom Delay is mythic as we all know so it's funny that he has to try and argue with him against the looney-birther movement. The fact that he loves them explains a lot. By the way, watching the Bugman talk about how he dealt with town halls is hysterical. He obviously treated town hallers better than members of his own party, but even Delay would probably have brought some pesticide with him at one today because many of the birthers are Ron Paul fans and they hate Republicans almost as much as they hate Obama.

Matthews: You're a man of the right and proudly so, I wonder whether you're even comfortable with the way it's headed. We've got people that we have people that question whether the president is legitimate or not. Whether he was born in the US or not and they mean it viscerally. It isn't something they just want to check his papers. They don't think he is. Where are you on that one?

We have people on the far right but they say they are birthers. How far do you go these days, Mr. Leader? Are you over with the birthers are you over with them?

Delay was trying not to answer the question and Chris kept coming back to it.

Delay: Well, I’d like the President to produce his birth certificate.

Tweety laughs...

Delay: Yeah, I can. Most illegal aliens here in America can. Why can’t the President of the United States produce their birth certificate?

Matthews: Are you actively seeking that paper?

Delay: Yeah.

Chris, will you do me a favor? Will you ask the President to show me his gift certificate — I mean, his — gift certificate — his birth certificate?

Matthews: No, I’m not going to ask him.

So he's looking for Obama's papers. The president better watch out. He also wants to get rid of Medicare and SCHIP and maybe the state of Texas too. Who knows....

One day after proclaiming on Meet the Press that he and George W. Bush share a common philosophy, John McCain took to a stage in Cleveland Monday to attack the President's economic policies. As it turns out, of course, when it comes to ideology and policy on the economy, John McCain and George W. Bush are virtually indistinguishable.

The feebleness of McCain's effort to distance himself from Bush was revealed in its brevity. Despite the AP's headline that "McCain says Bush policy on economy is wrong," McCain's critique was limited to a single sentence. And in those nine words and the attack on Barack Obama that followed, John McCain wasn't telling the truth:

"This is the fundamental difference between Senator Obama and me. We both disagree with President Bush on economic policy. The difference is that he thinks taxes have been too low, and I think that spending has been too high."

Leaving aside for the moment his dissembling on the Obama tax plan (which the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center concluded would offer larger tax cuts to Americans at every income level below $112,000), McCain simply lied about parting company with George W. Bush.

A quick glance at their shared approach to tax cuts, the deficit and health care confirms that George W. Bush and John McCain are joined at the hip.

Continue reading »

In another sign of the media's sheepish acceptance of the Barack Obama "elitist" story line, the New York Times on Tuesday described the Illinois Senator as "tagged as elitist." But just as disturbing as the Republicans' apparent success in establishing the "out of touch" narrative as a fixture in campaign coverage is John McCain's seeming inoculation from it.

After all, John McCain isn't merely fabulously well off, courtesy of his wife Cindy's $100 million beer distribution fortune. At almost every turn, the Republican presidential nominee has shown almost a total ignorance of – or yawning disinterest in – the real lives of American voters. From the growing financial hardships of the economic slowdown and the foreclosure crisis to the disintegrating American health care system and the dangers U.S. troops face on the streets on Baghdad, it is John McCain who is truly "out of touch." Yet voters and pundits alike agree that the supposed maverick is treated with kid gloves by the press, an elitist masquerading as a man of the people.

Here, then, are John McCain's Top 10 "Out-of-Touch" Moments:

Continue reading »

While President Bush made the bogus claim Friday that SCHIP will actually move "millions of American children who now have private health insurance into government-run health care [and raise] taxes to pay for it," Rockridge Nation points out just how much private health insurance profits cost all of us:

In our current health insurance system, companies can't maximize their profits unless they turn people away. According to Princeton economist Paul Krugman, in any given year about 80% of us need very little medical care. Some aspirin and cough syrup, more or less. But 20% of us have an accident or illness that requires major medical treatment. That's expensive.

Currently, we don't spread the risk and costs evenly. Instead, we have lots of insurance companies all competing against each other to maximize their profits. Which they have—to the tune of billions of dollars a year. But they make their billions by not getting "stuck" with the people needing expensive medical treatment...And we know the result: over 100 million Americans who are un- or under-insured, pushed into the health care cracks between insurance companies by the companies themselves...

We already know that we can have better health care for everyone for less money, if we remove the competition and distrust that insurance company profits have injected into the process. SCHIP is a prime example of just this approach. It demonstrates what we can accomplish when we put lives before profit. Those who voted against expanding SCHIP, know that. That's their fear. And, that SCHIP might become a powerful rallying point toward rebuilding a thriving American community through health care for all.

Read more...

Both Neil Gabler and Jane Hall from FOX News Watch (they cover the media)---were livid over the treatment of Graeme Frost, the 12 year old boy that was attacked by the right wingers after he came out and did promotion for the SCHIP program. Cal Thomas and James Pinkerton wank away, but Jane smacked them down. Good for her.

Download | play Download | play (rough transcript)

Gabler: Everything that the Republicans and the bloggers were saying about this guy were wrong. That should have been the story. Republicans lie about a 12 year old boy's family...

<Cal Thomas repeated the bloggers talking points...>

Hall: Cal, you've just repeated many things that were erroneous...The right wing bloggers swiftboated a twelve year old kid!

Thomas: Oh, please...

Hall: That is what happened. That is what Paul Krugman said and it is true.---They go after the kid. They go after the kid.

Pinkerton: You can debate whether you should put him out there or not, that's a fair thing to debate about...

Hall: SLIME a twelve year old kid..It's false.

Pinkerton: The Democrats put him out there,

Hall: So he's fair game?

Pinkerton: Of course he is...

Hall: To be slimed?

Pinkerton: You can't be wrong about your facts.

Hall: They weren't wrong about their facts.

Cal Thomas and Pinky defended the attacks even after it was proved that all the evidence the wingers put out against the Frosts were lies.

They defend the indefensible.

(Remember this ad for Bush in '04?) Do you actually think I would ever have considered attacking her and her family because of their support of Bush? I mean, it boggles the mind, doesn't it?

The utter depravity of it all. The sickness that dwells inside the Malkinites must run deeper than I thought. That's the only way they can continue to dwell in such slime. I have an exclusive quote from an anonymous source close to the story:

"What these right wing bloggers and some of their Republican friends in Washington have done to this family is simply unconscionable. Instead of attacking the issue, they decided to attack a 12-year old boy. This entire smear campaign by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin and their allies has been a perverse distraction from the issue at hand - the plight of millions of uninsured children in this country. It also needs to be remembered that the Frosts were viciously attacked for simply speaking their minds and voicing their support for the SCHIP program that was so instrumental in saving the lives of their children. From the Frosts' perspective, what could be more American?

Hmmm...just debating the issue at hand. Now there's an idea. You may remember that Howard Kurtz wrote a glowing profile of the right wing's very own Michelle Malkin a while back. It was rather odd, but not surprising. Soon after he attacked the Huffington Post for having some nasty comments about Dick Cheney on their site, which is a favorite trick of the mmm-essss-mmm. It was dirty pool because he understands the nature of blogging. Since you write about the bloggers quite often, Howie, will you denounce the right wing/Malkin attempts to smear a family and a 12 year old boy? (Here is a public email: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/email/howard+kurtz/. Be polite if you send anything along) Outside of the obvious fact that nobody with any credibility or empathy would do something that odious. Then compound it with the fact that all their idiot reasons are flat out lies.

One critic, in an e-mail message to Graeme’s mother, Bonnie, warned: “Lie down with dogs, and expect to get fleas.” As it turns out, the Frosts say, Graeme attends the private school on scholarship. The business that the critics said Mr. Frost owned was dissolved in 1999. The family’s home, in the modest Butchers Hill neighborhood of Baltimore, was bought for $55,000 in 1990 and is now worth about $260,000, according to public records. And, for the record, the Frosts say, their kitchen counters are concrete.

Republicans on Capitol Hill, who were gearing up to use Graeme as evidence that Democrats have over-expanded the health program to include families wealthy enough to afford private insurance, have backed off.

An aide to Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, expressed relief that his office had not issued a press release criticizing the Frosts.

As for accusations that bloggers were unfairly attacking a 12-year-old, Ms. Malkin wrote on her blog, “If you don’t want questions, don’t foist these children onto the public stage.”

All the proof you need is Rep. Mitch McConnell backing off of the Frost family. Would he so willingly fade away? Actually the real message is that if anyone stands up against the Republican agenda, the right wing bloggers will smear and stalk you with the desired effect of "STFU or we'll ruin you." Intimidation, plain and simple. How many times have we seen this? But to be so low as to go after a child. Joe Gandleman--who isn't a liberal--has a great take on it:

But no, it’s easier to go after a 12 year-old. After all, these days, anyone who is in the way of an agenda has to be discredited so that no one listens to them anymore. Yet, once upon a time, American society would pull out all stops not to go after a kid. The bar has been lowered yet again. This time it has been lowered so far, it has struck oil amid the sleaze...read on

Download | play Here's an old Daily Show Clip with Malkinite...(small file WMP only)

The wingnuts have been in full force attack against the family of Graeme Frost, the twelve year old boy that gave the Democratic radio address a couple of weeks ago. In their typical ignorance of the facts, Malkin and the rest on the right side of the blogosphere are trying to paint this family as phonies. Think Progress has noted the important facts the attack monsters are forgetting.

So what would you do if you saw that face snooping around your house? That might be a good question for the Frost's:

Update 2:50pm Eastern: I (Malkin) just returned from a visit to Frost’s commercial property near Patterson Park in Baltimore. It’s a modest place. Talked to one of the tenants, Mike Reilly, who is a talented welder. He said he had known the Frosts for 10 years. Business is good, he told me, though he characterized Frost as “struggling.” Reilly was an outspoken advocate for socialized health care without any means-testing whatsoever and an insistent critic of the Iraq war. Despite all that, he did agree with me that going without health insurance is often a matter of choice and a matter of priorities. Or maybe we were speaking two different languages.

I also passed by the Frosts’ rowhouse. There was an “01 - 20 -09″ bumper sticker plastered on the door and a newer model GMC Suburban parked directly in front of the house. I’ve seen guesstimates of the house’s worth in the $400,000-plus range. Those are high. But Mark Tapscott’s point remains: “[P]eople make choices and it’s clear the Frosts have made choice to invest in property and a business, but not in private health insurance. The Maryland-administered version of the federal SCHIP program, by the way, does not impose an asset test on applicants.”

Now isn't this the same Malkin who has complained about hate mail and threats? Ironically she did this on the same day that Free Republic decided to post the Frost's' home address. Of course this is also the same Malkin who tries to act like she is concerned about children. Well we see how much she really "cares" now.

John Amato:

This is just sick, but not surprising coming from her. On 04/17/06---I broke the story that she posted the phone numbers of some UC Santa Cruz students over the issue of military recruitment on campus and they received a ton of death threats as a result. A few right wing bloggers were so appalled that they de-linked her.

She endangered the life of Jamil Hussein, when she tried to discredit this AP report. The AP then responded: "AP executive editor rips into bloggers who have now endangered Jamil Hussein's life."

Not to mention that she posted Cindy Sheehan's divorce records to smear her...more reactions to that here.

Digby has more:

This is so loathsome I am literally sick to my stomach. These kids were hurt in a car accident. Their parents could not afford health insurance --- and sure as hell couldn't get it now with a severely handicapped daughter. And these shrieking wingnut jackasses are harassing their family for publicly supporting the program that allowed the kids to get health care. A program, by the way, which a large number of these Republicans support as well.

They went after Michael J. Fox. They went after a wounded Iraq war veteran. Now they are going after handicapped kids. There is obviously no limit to how low these people will go...read on

UPDATE (below the fold):

Continue reading »

Download | play    Download | play

From Thursday's show, Jon Stewart looks at the logic-- or lack thereof -- behind Bush's veto of SCHIP.

No healthcare for poor kids? You know, I thought something like that was only done by cartoon villains. You're slowly going from Nixon to Mr. Burns.

[snip] 

BUSH: ...I believe in private medicine, not the federal government running the healthcare system...

STEWART: Yes, I don't think there's an uninsured kid out there who wants to be suckered into some slippery slope socialized medicine scheme. These kids don't want the government telling them what they can or cannot die from. It's just wrong.