I have been mulling about this post for weeks and simply can't write a good one, so I will just say it in a sloppy way. It is true that Obama, Reid, and the leadersheep is blowing health care reform, but the press has created a toxic environment. The press is inciting violence for crying out loud.

I am glad that Glen Beck is losing his advertisers, kudos to the bloggers behind that. We need to step up these kinds of efforts. We need to start making formal complaints to the FCC. We need to step up pressure on advertisers. We need to start contacting institutional investors and fund managers and ask them if investing in lies and inciting violence is consistent with their fiduciary responsibility.

I have been watching more cable TV news recently and it is MUCH worse than I expected. It is Soviet, no, scratch that, it is like radio Rwanda. It is amazing there isn't more violence in this country.

One of the reasons our leadersheep internalize every lie that is told is that they all, elected and staff, watch the news every waking hour. In every office on Capitol Hill TVs are turned on to Cable Nonsense Noise. It just isn't necessary and actually gets in the way of understanding what is going on.

It would also send a very loud signal to the cable harpies if it were known that Capitol Hill Dems had pulled the plug on their lies.

I'm sure you all recall the early days of the NSA Hoovering up all domestic data warrantless wiretapping scandal, when they referred to it as the "Terrorist Surveillance Program" and assured us that they were only targeting Al-Qaeda operatives.

Naturally, this turned out to be a lie enhanced duplicity technique, because it turns out they were spying on all of us everyday American citizens. Nobody was off the target list, and we were all potential Al-Qaeda operatives.

Now, there's a big hubbub about some sketchy CIA assassination ring, apparently answering to Cheney himself. Nobody's willing to talk about the nitty-gritty details, but it's enough to have even Nancy "off the table" Pelosi spooked or pissed off enough to start publicly discussing how fucked-up it was, whatever "it" was.

The public justification for this shadowy, super-classified, apparently reprehensible death squad?

They were only targeting Al-Qaeda operatives.

Yeah, okay, I'm gonna go ahead and call bullshit. Does anyone seriously doubt that what we'll eventually learn is that they formed a group to assassinate American citizens in the National Interest? Consider this, via TPM:

Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief, told TPMmuckraker that because we've been in a state of war against al Qaeda since just after September 11, there would have been no need for a secret CIA program that received special legal authorization...

As for what the program did involve, Cannistraro suggested that it involved Americans as targets, and that it went beyond surveillance, but declined to elaborate. He added that, though Cheney may have directly ordered the CIA to keep Congress in the dark, the veep wasn't acting alone. "The approval was from the president," said Cannistraro.

Hmm, I wonder...

(I'll try to place spoilers below the cut, but there will be plenty of them about the rebooted Star Trek franchise.)

This has nothing to do with politics save the tendency of marketers to copy what works. I saw Star Trek (XI), and agree with most critics that it's a lively, fast, fun movie with nothing else on its mind but entertainment. (That's its problem, but I'll get to that in a bit.) What its larger marketing phenomenon has reminded me of is a certain space of days in 2008, between the end of the primaries and the DNC, when blog posts flew fast and furious in an attempt to discredit anyone who did not support Obama. This was when the irregularities in seating and counting were still quite fresh, when caucus legitimacy had not yet been overshadowed by disinfo birth certificate disputes.

Interesting times:

(TPM link)

So, as far as I can tell, Rep. Jane Harman [D-Ca] was conspiring with the Israelis to drop some spy charges in exchange for some lobbying on her behalf, and Alberto Gonzales had an NSA warrantless wiretap™ (wait for it) on her phone and overheard the deal.

In exchange for not investigating, Gonzales asked her to attack the NYT's exposé on (wait for it) NSA warrantless wiretapping. The one she had personally requested be held back until before after the 2004 election (Department of With Democrats Like These, anyone?)

And so she goes free, although the Israelis didn't get her that committee chair she wanted in the first place.

One has to wonder just how much dirt Hoover Gonzales and Rove had on everyone in Washington, and more importantly, how many other favors they blackmailed out of people. And it certainly explains some of those bizarre, neo-Maoist ritual apologies.

Health Insurance Industry’s Smoke and Mirrors ‘Reform’ Proposal

“If private industry is always more efficient and less costly than government, why is the health insurance industry worried about competition from a government program?” Sinibaldi wonders.

How many of those of you who still have health insurance through you employer would like to give it up in exchange for paying for yourself? Nobody? Well it seems that is what, wait for it, a bi-partisan group of senators have in mind.

Ezra Klein does a good job of summarizing this:

Working for the State of Texas in the area of public health I learned that you can in fact pick up valuable knowledge in online courses -- and get a really good idea of what you need to brush up on periodically. Hence my intrigue with "Our Fading Heritage."

I challenge you all:
take the Civics Test at this site, and then take a look at the results recently. Compare your score to the most recent national averages if you'd like, and come back and discuss your results here.
We can't know where we want to go unless we're clear on where we started, and where we are now.

Maryland Public Television is broadcasting a series on the health care debate: Health Care '08: Search for Solutions Television Series

Check out the past guests. Notice anything missing? As in any advocates of HR 676, Medicare for All? This is how we get shut out of the discussion. It is outrageous that PBS is yet again pulling a stunt like this. We do not have to put up with it.

Single Payer has enormous support in our country. Any objective discussion of health care in America must include advocates of single payer or your just doing agit-prop.

[Bonjour, mon general! --lambert]

An imminent threat

So, yesterday morning, a 16-year-old boy in Ozark, Missouri fell off a 30-foot I-65 overpass for unknown reasons. When the police arrived on the scene, they promptly administered first aid Tased him 19 times because he wouldn't "comply" with their orders to stand up. (Thank god for Tasers, otherwise they'd have had to put him down like a broken racehorse, eh?)

Mace ended up in intensive care at a hospital. His parents believe the actions of Ozark police officers contributed to his injuries and slowed doctors’ abilities to speed his recovery.

The official explanation:

“He refused to comply with the officers and so the officers had to deploy their Tasers in order to subdue him. He is making incoherent statements; he's also making statements such as, ‘Shoot cops, kill cops,’ things like that. So there was cause for concern to the officers,” said Ozark Police Capt. Thomas Rousset.

Yeah, I'm sure that's exactly what he said after falling off a fucking bridge. They must have felt very threatened indeed by a possibly-paraplegic child. No word on whether he announced to the world that he was high on crack and PCP yet.

I don't even know what to say anymore. It really is a gaslight scenario. I wish I could at least attribute this to racism or something, but it appears these cops are bona fide sociopaths. _{Subliminal Stanley Milgram: No, they're not! Subliminal me: Harumph...}

I can't say I'll be surprised with they start Tasing motorcycle crash victims. We Are All Violently High On Crack And PCP Now.

This is the actual bag that will be given to attendees at this year's DNC.

Somebody call for the Bucket Brigade?

UPDATE And Kudos to TalkLeft for the Fourth Amendment tote. -- Lambert

Cass Sunstein cautions against prosecuting criminal conduct from the current Administration. He thinks that Alito and Roberts are "minimalists."

Robert Bauer advocated pardoning Scooter Libby.

I have a very bad feeling about this.

Via Booman, read the whole thing.

Back in the great state of Louisiana, Baron "Scooter" Pikes was spotted by the police while walking peacefully down the street. Given his outstanding warrant for possession, one Officer Nugent gave chase, and Pikes was cornered. Due to his failure to submit, Nugent tased him. Nine times. In 14 minutes. While Pikes surrendered and begged him to stop.

Pikes died shortly thereafter. He was a healthy man of 33 years. Nugent claimed that, in an apparent Bob Woodward-style near-death confession, he told them (in between the screams of pain and death rattles) that he was high on crack and PCP (never heard that one before!) and had asthma. The coroner found no evidence for any of these claims and ruled the death a homicide, but hey, what are you gonna believe, hearsay from a hardly-impartial participant or hard science from a 33-year veteran?

In an apparent goodwill gesture to shock Pikes back to life, Nugent admitted that he tased Pikes twice while he was unconscious and in custody.

I really wish I could link to the part of the Milgram experiment wherein the actor "dies" and the unwitting partipant shocks him again, and again, and again. Gee, I don't know why. A person administering an electrical shock that they are told is, well, maybe-sorta-safe, but they definitely won't be held responsible if things go awry... nah, never mind, there's no similarity there whatsoever. I don't know what I was thinking.

How on earth did this Op Ed get published? That is what I want to know.

Here is Edward Luttwak, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a member in good standing of the Washington foreign policy establishment, all dues paid up, (which probably answers my opening question), speculating in this morning's New York Times about the security implications of an Obama presidency, for Obama himself and for the country, unembarrassed to tell us that Obama's conversion to Christianity makes him ripe for punishment by beheading, no less, or at best, by stoning or by hanging.

I'm sure this may come as a shock to you, but military is hiring bloggers to work as moles, "verbally attack[ing] specific person[s] or promot[ing] a specific message."

Wait, sorry, wrong link.

Here's the article.

In the red corner... Richard "Hillary Clinton Shot Vince Foster" Mellon Scaife.

In the blue corner... Hillary Clinton.

Oh, to be a fly on the wall...

via.

Lord..
You can just see the faux outrage..
After going on about Clintons legitimate complaint regarding biased media coverage: "Complaining about the refs apparently worked a little bit this week," Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, told reporters today. "So in addition to my call to Lorne Michaels, hopefully now people think everything has evened out."

Umm..
So, the Obamessiah may not have actually picked up the phone and called SNL..
but one has to wonder..did he also call MSNBC as well? You know...to complain about the bias that MSOBAMA shows as well?

Via the always excellent talkleft..

via the great folks at talkleft:
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/3/4/1...

"As I entered my polling place wearing a Clinton button, Obama's supporters (about 6 of them) literally gave me dirty looks and turned their back on me. Other voters were greated with hellos, good mornings, and hope you'll vote for Obama. The attitude of Obama's campaigners to me was rather nasty. It was a real turn-off to me, and if he's the nominee, I'll really have to think twice about voting in the general election.

Via Digby:

Delahunt: You said if an opinion was rendered, that would insulate him from any consequences.

[Mike Mukasey, Attorney General of the United States, before the House Judiciary Committee today]: We could not investigate or prosecute somebody for acting in reliance on a justice department opinion.

...

Delahunt: If that opinion was inaccurate and in fact violated a section of US Criminal Code, that reliance is in effect an immunity from any criminal culpability.

MM: Immunity connoted culpability. [Well, is anyone culpable? -scar]

...

Delahunt: I find that a new legal doctrine. The law is the law.

 Read more…

...and she was holding an iron. That's the only conclusion I can draw from this headline:

"Clinton responds to seemingly sexist shouts"

Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign stop was interrupted Monday when two men stood in the crowd and began screaming, "Iron my shirt!" during one of her final appearances before the New Hampshire primary.

Clinton, a former first lady running to become the nation's first female president, laughed at the seemingly sexist protest that suggested a woman's place is doing the laundry and not running the country.

Yes... That suggestion does seem awfully sexist... [strokes chin thoughtfully]

seeming[2,adjective]

Main Entry: seeming
Function: adjective
Date: circa 1557

: outwardly or superficially evident but not true or real

Via John Cole:

Donnell Williams had just gotten out of the bath tub, wearing only a towel around his waist, when he turned the corner to see guns pointing right at him.

“I ain’t never been so scared,” says Williams.

Police forced entry into Williams home while responding to a shooting, but it turned out to be a false call. They had no idea at the time the call wasn’t real and that Williams is hearing impaired. Without his hearing aid he is basically deaf.

“I kept going to my ear yelling that I was scared. I can’t hear! I can’t hear!”

Officers were worried about their own safety because at the time it appeared Williams was refusing to obey their commands to show his hands. That’s when they shot him with a Taser.

Okay, so, I can understand what happened here. They thought they were dealing with a guy with a gun. Training, etc, etc. I've got one problem with this defense, though:

Times, three minutes ago:

A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains on hold, contradicting an assessment two years ago that Tehran was working inexorably toward building a bomb.

Gee.

It's almost like all the sabre-rattling and threats and bullying were designed to get Iran to restart its program, isn't it?

what do ordinary, everyday police officers do?
Herewith a random sampling from blotters, which gives you an idea:

When a Tonawanda motorcyclist struck a parked car, police were called. They found the driver sitting atop the bike, smelling of alcohol. When asked if he had
been drinking, he replied, “Way too much.”

Asked to check on a Town of Tonawanda resident's welfare, upon entering the subject's apartment police found several marijuana plants. The woman begged police not to confiscate them because “they were not big enough to smoke yet.”

Get a load of this:

The head of the federal agency investigating Karl Rove's White House political operation is facing allegations that he improperly deleted computer files during another probe, using a private computer-help company, Geeks on Call.

Scott Bloch runs the Office of Special Counsel, an agency charged with protecting government whistleblowers and enforcing a ban on federal employees engaging in partisan political activity. Mr. Bloch's agency is looking into whether Mr. Rove and other White House officials used government agencies to help re-elect Republicans in 2006.

At the same time, Mr. Bloch has himself been under investigation since 2005. At the direction of the White House, the federal Office of Personnel Management's inspector general is looking into claims that Mr. Bloch improperly retaliated against employees and dismissed whistleblower cases without adequate examination.

Recently, investigators learned that Mr. Bloch erased all the files on his office personal computer late last year. They are now trying to determine whether the deletions were improper or part of a cover-up, lawyers close to the case said.

So, to recap: Karl Rove is accused of retaliating against employees and then illegally deleting the evidence. The man in charge of investigating him is accused of retaliating against employees and then deleting evidence.

Fuck. This. Shit.

Wait, though, it gets better!

The Air Force announced today 70 airmen are to blame for the August 29-30 "inadvertent flight" of six nuclear-tipped