Rachel,

Great job, you are the best out there. I think the GOP is choosing the war to focus on is to distract from the economy and how really traitorous the the GOP is. The war is a much better(a loser still) topic to argue than the economy because the economy is a direct result of the war policy.

Go get 'em,

Dave Welch

You are brilliant.
Thank God for voices like yours. Articulate, sensible, and TRUE. So much light, so much clarity. We NEED this so much right now. Thank you thank you thank you.
I caught your Countdown tonight, and I want to join my voice to all the others and wish you well and great continued success.

I think you now know the truth about Obama. He's actually a Chicago Machine politician. As far as I can tell he's the only honest one. He's more like a shark than a bunny facing a snowplow. His races before weren't that easy - he beat some tough machine dems before the rethugs imploded in his Senate race.

He's had the backbone to sidestep a lot of temptation and now today I heard what I have been waiting 8 years to hear. He called Bush a liar in public. He can go the distance. He just makes it look easy.

He's taking the calm thing a little too far though, no one is that even tempered!

Outstanding to see you on Countdown. You totally rock.

Those who hate government should not be in charge of government.

Rachel... I have always been disappointed when Keith Olberman was absent from his show... Until you were given the spot. To my knowledge, This was your second time subbing for Keith & you bring the essence of his show to me, the Viewer & I enjoyed it. I always enjoy seeing you on MSNBC's various programs... If I could email Mr Olberman, I'd tell him that only you are worthy of stepping in for him... If you get your own show on I will be a fan for sure!!

I have a few thoughts on the Huckster's joke:

1) It wasn't funny. And I don't mean "not funny" to suggest the joke offended me. I mean it just wasn't worthy of laugh energy. Some people simply shouldn't improv.

2) Many people took the joke WAY too seriously, bringing up their outrage. They read into his joke about what he might have been suggesting (e.g. Is it okay to assassinate Barack Obama? Is he saying people should shoot him? Is he saying Obama is a klutz? etc.). This leads to my third point.

3) If you're a news nerd like me, you've seen plenty of examples of Huckabee's morbid sense of humor. He has a preacher's sense of humor, appropriately enough. Honestly, I think he's a funny guy. Remember his comment during a debate about the government "...spending money like John Edwards at a beauty shop."? How about the time he said to reporters on a hunting trip, "Well ... these three birds all said they would not vote for me on caucus day. You see what happened?" That's his dark sense of humor, and while many people don't think it's funny, some do. Personally, the darker and more potentially offensive, the more I love it.

Yes, the joke was very poorly placed and given his position in politics, he should have known better. But I don't think he meant to suggest anything malicious by his joke. He wanted to grab a quick laugh at the expense of the Democrat nominee to-be and color him as unmanly or a coward. A stupid thing to do, certainly, but hardly worth the energy of outrage - especially when there are so many things Huckabee has said that you can really get mad about.

Watched our dear Dr. on Countdown last night - so nice to see her smiling face on TV = )

Imagining what it must feel like for Mom & Dad to see their kid in the big time = J

& I felt a pang of sympathy every time she blinked - it looked like someone slathered on the liquid eyeliner there....?

Also, finally listened to the OTM interview & was wondering what, exactly, was meant by 'gunning' for my own show....?

(& yes I'm familiar w/ the term, but it's rather open to interpretation, isn't it?)

& yeesh! Those crappy, LAME jokes by Huckabee aren't dark - they're in SUPREMELY poor taste = P

David: West Virginia is one of the most backward, racist states in the Union, it was ever thus. 20 years ago when I was with Mutual Radio, I was out there with a friend of mine, a black radio engineer. We'd gone to look at the disastrous flood damage -- and we were run out of a small town. At one point 4 armed men, wearing red plaid jackets and carrying shotguns, surrounded the car and asked me: Is this "n%#$$@" with you? When I said yes, they told us to get out of town and not come back. We left.

When we later drove into New Town, W.Va, we were seated in a diner by the toilets in the back... again, because my companion was black.

I asked him if he knew this would be the case and his reply was - sure but you have to see life outside of DC. And again, months later when his father died and I went to pay my respects at the funeral home in North East Washington DC - I was asked to leave - because I'm white.

I would have been shocked if West Virginia had voted any differently -- and I expect Kentucky to be the same. After all Kentucky is where a recent potential candidate for Governor decided not to run because, I was told, Kentucky is not ready to elect a Jew.

If I were Hillary I wouldn't be claiming these states as huge victories. They are embarrassing reminders of the US at its worst.

HEY HOTTIE LOVED YOU ON COUNT DOWN

TERMINATE Vs FLOOR FIGHT

It's not about the rules, it's about tactics. (D-NY) US/Senator Hillary Diane Rodham-Clinton, does not intend to TERMINATE her campaign, but proceed to a FLOOR FIGHT at the convention.

TERMINATE: End the Clinton Campaign totally and release her delegates to (D-IL) US/Senator Barrack "Barry" Hussein Obama.

FLOOR FIGHT:
(1) Continue to campaign an gain as many "Pledged Delegates" as possible.

(2) With Puerto Rico gain a "Popular Vote" advantage, making her appear much like (D-TN) Former Vice President Al Gore having been denied the Presidency by the "Electoral College".

(3) Have Florida & Michigan seated taking as many delgates as Hillary can get.

(4) Keep the total "Pledged & Super-Delegates" count VERY close, and do not allow Obama to have a large cushion of delegates.

(5) Between 4th June and 25th Aug. Poach delegates to stop a first ballot nomination, of Obama.

(6) Force a FLOOR FIGHT, and gain the Nomination.

My hometown (pop. 6000) had a furniture dealer who was supposedly the grand dragon in the state KKK. These days, when I visit the hoamland, I've observed an interesting phenomenon among the good ole boy older Republican men who run things. At parties, the call-and-response Masonic-handshake-equivalent is to loudly and slowly say something against Martin Luther King Day. It's imbued with extra meaning, quite formal and ritualistic. Answer correctly and they might give you a job, if you're not female. The county worthies (= good ole boy older Republican men who run things) have also recently developed a new longstanding tradition of renting a bus and driver and partying together on Martin Luther King Day and St. Patrick's Day.

There are those who believe that human nature is so twisted that human’s cannot be left to decide for themselves what they should do. They fail to see the logical fallacy of a government run by humans being somehow more suited to making decisions for people. There are some who feel that the rules of economics are so inviolable that humans should be left to their own devices. They fail to see that wealth begets wealth and that the cycle ends in bloody revolution if left to run its course unabated. The system of government in the United States is brilliant in that it is designed to dampen the oscillations between these extreme positions. The party of the people and the party of the privileged take turns steering the ship to and fro with neither party gaining enough headway to allow complete disaster to ensue.

What would happen, however, if one segment of society were hoodwinked? What if the party of the privileged were able to masquerade as the party of the people? What if the people who only bought Chevy, Ford, or GM were the same people that supported union breaking, outsourcing, and global corporate governance? What if the people who called themselves Christians stood for governance that was not really all that compassionate? What if national security meant alienating the rest of the world with unilateral acts of aggression? If people fell for such schemes and believed them, then the pendulum could stop swinging. The wealthy would continue to act in their own best interests while the hapless majority would proudly vote for their own oppression. Unfortunately, the pendulum must swing or the cycle will run the course that Marx projected and history has demonstrated. If the viscous cycle of the concentration of wealth is allowed to continue too long, it ends in revolution. The Republican Party in the USA is indeed the party of the privileged and it is perpetuating its rule by masquerading as a party of the people, a masquerade that must be uncovered to avoid an imbalance too extreme to be easily corrected.

While some fly the Confederate flag, some buy only American Made Goods, and others are content to proudly display American flags, most Republicans consider themselves proud Americans. In the meantime, their party is granting major military contracts to Airbus over Boeing, signing trade agreements that make unregulated jobs overseas much more appealing to employers than creation of US jobs, and doing everything they can to weaken organized labor in the United States.

While the Republicans talk about eliminating dependence on foreign oil, they offer huge incentives to corporations to build new refineries that increase the demand for foreign oil. While talking about honor and responsibility, they refuse to sign the Kyoto accord, handcuff the EPA, and make only token gestures to encourage renewable energy development while other countries lead the way in those areas.

Claiming that economic development will only occur if corporations are untaxed, the Republicans imply that only the wealthy can create wealth. Many ideas die idle in the minds of a stifled middle class that the Republican policies would further stifle. These ideas would create jobs if middle class tax breaks allowed some in the middle class to accumulate enough of a safety net to risk starting a small business. But while the Republicans claim to represent small businesses, they represent only those who are doing well enough to afford to pay a higher tax bracket. Those doing this well are not going to throw in the towel because they are taxed on their wealth. By reducing the burden on those who are not doing as well, however, more will be allowed to get from point A to point B. This generates jobs and also gets them to the point where they can afford to pay higher taxes.

The Republican Party has a lot of people hoodwinked. They believe that economic activity is an end rather than a means. They believe that social injustice is not a moral problem. They have been convinced that the wealthy will provide opportunity to the commoners out of the goodness of their hearts without the need for government intervention. People will see; let’s hope it doesn’t take starvation to open their eyes. When the pendulum swings, as it will swing, lets hope it swings within the scope of American government rather than swinging as a hammer swung by commoners upon the American nobility.

I think it's a mistake to identify white supremacy groups with any party. In this day and age, the people who join the Klan are young and extremely marginalized. The modern race-based hate groups focus their recruitment efforts on disenfranchized youth -- kids who have slipped through our economic and justice systems -- kids who are homeless, in trouble with the law, poor, alienated from their families, often abused, uneducated, and angry. These kids don't give a whit about politics or political parties. They'll join up with any group that gives them shelter, a sense of dignity, and an explanation for their lot in life. And the Klan's often right there -- ready to provide them with a false sense of superiority and entitlement (based on race) and to channel their anger against others who have nothing to do with the failures these kids have experienced.

Before the 1980s, the Klan did occasionally support one party or the other on a sheerly opportunistic basis, and which party they chose varied from place to place. They've often tried to form third parties that more accurately match their ideology. But if you look at their history as a whole, they're basically against government itself. Even in colonial times, they attacked the crown's governors and agents of the crown (judges, tax collectors, census takers, sheriffs). This is true right through to modern times (e.g. Timothy McVeigh targeted a federal office building). And from the very beginning, they've operated shadow governments, complete with oaths, "courts," militaries, and "law enforcement," flags. They want to run or overthrow the government, and they'll do it by sedition, insurrection, or co-opting what exists. They just don't care about party, per se.

In a way, it's good news that, presently, they can recruit successfully only among people who are falling out of or neglected by the system. It means the groups, themselves, are marginalized. In fact, white supremacy groups are arguably more marginalized now than they ever have been in our history. That's good news. The bad news is that more and more people are falling out of the middle class and into hard times, and that means more of them will be looking for explanations and causes. Education helps them reject the stuff the Klan peddles -- helps people reject vacuous zero-sum gain theories of civil rights and governance -- helps them identify the real sources of their difficulties.

I am a proponent of a two-pronged approach. First, punish their criminal activity severely through (a) vigorous prosecution of crimes, and (b) money damages from civil suits. Second, recognize and remediate the root causes of the desperation that makes the Klan look good to ignorant people (re-enfranchise the poor and ignorant through education, information, fair economies and opportunities to earn a decent and honest living). The Klan recruits the vulnerable. Eliminate the vulnerability.

Orangutans stage twin breakouts on either coast!

http://www.kval.com/news/national/19054864.html

They were only waiting until Charlton Heston was safely dead, I'm thinkin'.

:cheese:

"You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not by the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists"--Abbie Hoffman

Former twice elected (D-NY) New York State Governor Mario Cuomo, came out on Face The Nation, in favor of a dream ticket, between (D-IL) US/Senator Barrack “Barry” Hussein Obama and (D-NY) US/Senator Hillary Diane Rodham-Clinton, calling it the union of “Pros & Poetry”.

Now, being the cynical skeptic, it had entered my mind that it was more about New State politics, than national or party politics, and more about family politics than Hillary. Could it be that Mario was looking more at keeping Hillary out of New York in the Senate out of politics after two terms as Vice President? With all the rumors of getting Hillary out of the campaign by offering Hillary Gracey Mansion!

Was Mario thinking more long term say like (2016) or so? By then the FOPAR of son Andrew Cuomo, The New York Attorney-General, and son of Mario will have been forgotten;

"You can't shuck and jive at a press conference." That "shuck and jive" dates back to the 1870s and, says the dictionary, was an "originally southern 'Negro' expression for clowning, lying, and pretence". The only word not used was N*****R, but it is always inferred when you say Shuck’ in and Jive'n. (Are you Shuck’n and Jive’n me N****R?)

(SOURCE: The New York Attorney-General Andrew Cuomo).

Is Mario really looking long term, with the Clinton’s out of the way, to another Cuomo in the Governors Seat in New York, moving on up to “President Cuomo”?

Mario is there a method behind your madness?

US GI removed from Iraq for shooting Koran.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=11512

"You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not by the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists"--Abbie Hoffman