James O'Keefe, a conservative activist who had posed as a pimp in order to set up ACORN has been arrested by the FBI for having attempted to commit a felony. O'Keefe and two others, wearing telephone company uniforms, were busted last night for allegedly wiretapping the phones in Senator Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office.
Landrieu said: "This is a very unusual situation and somewhat unsettling for me and my staff. The individuals responsible have been charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purposes of committing a felony. I am as interested as everyone else about their motives and purpose, which I hope will become clear as the investigation moves forward."
Brace yourselves folks as the list of Texas Republicans who honored James O'Keefe is quite long. My U.S. House Rep. John Culberson is on the list. Is your representative? See the list below the fold.
Gee whiz. I sure hope, for their own sorry sakes, right wing Republicans have decent health care coverage. I mean, at the rate at which they are blowing fuses and blood vessels over literally everything proposed by President Obama, good health care coverage sure is necessary for one's survival in avoiding and overcoming strokes and heart attacks.
OK, so the latest hysteria emanating from the right has to do with a speech President Obama will make to school children about staying in school, working hard to achieve good grades and taking personal responsibility for one's actions. This should be music to a parent's ears, especially in Texas where we have the highest number of school dropouts and our schools rank second to last nationwide.
But oh no, au contraire and God forbid, should a child work hard to stay in school, earn top notch grades, graduate with honors and gain acceptance in a top tier university.
It seems that the right has plenty of problems with staying in school, at least according to comments posted by on-line readers of the The Houston Chronicle.
Some object to Obama speech to students
According to the right President Obama will "indoctrinate" and "brain wash" students.
About?
Getting good grades? Taking responsibility?
No one howled when President G.W. Bush read to school children on the day our nation was horribly and ruthlessly attacked.
Nick Anderson, the Houston Chronicle, 9/3/09.
And where were these very same wingnuts when President George H.W. Bush spoke to school children at the eve of his campaign in 1992?
I guess a little ol' indoctrination and spin is harmless when it comes from a really rich white guy.
Ok folks, I've had it. I am so over Republican double-talk, double standards and not so thinly veiled racism, sexism and anti-intellectualism. I am completely fed up with the Republican raking of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor over the coals for ridiculous non-existent nonsense.
First of all I would like to point out at least one level of hypocrisy and double standard where Sotomayor's Republican naysayers are concerned.
Sonia Sotomayor's academic credentials are not only impeccable they are extraordinary. She is clearly brilliant. Her judicial record speaks for itself. Three Presidents, including George Bush, nominated Ms. Sotomayor to federal benches. All of her confirmation hearings received wide bi-partisan support. So what is the Republican's real problem with Ms. Sotomayor now?
Who needs to worry about foreign terrorists when we have domestic ones right here at home who are encouraged to spew hate and wish us dead on national cable TV.
According to Michael Scheuer who appeared on FOX's Glenn Beck show today:
The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States.
This is absolutely outrageous and unacceptable.
Scheuer is the former CIA chief of the Osama bin Laden unit from 1996-1999. He obviously did a brilliant job of keeping tabs on OBL during his tenure on the unit.
Important news that is fit to print, some of which one will rarely, if ever, see printed in the mainstream press.
A blast from the past: The 2008 Presidential Campaign
Apparently there was a big rift between John McCain and Sarah Palin. His staff knew Palin was not up to the task for which she had been chosen but alas, the campaign staff worked 24/7 for a successful outcome for the Republican Party.
Let the country be damned. So much for putting one's country first.
Had John McCain won and subsequently passed away, we'd be stuck with a President 20 times worse, even more incurious, dumber and consequently more dangerous than W. We'd likely be at war with the rest of the planet and they'd be drill, baby drilling in all of our backyards in Alaska, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and anywhere else where oil might be found. There would also be monthly book burnings and political Rovian witch hunts 24/7/365.
One McCain staffer and friend apparently called Palin a
So, we've been hearing a lot of chatter on cable TV this week about a Fox News/GOP Tea Party Revolution. Fox News and the right wing fringe of the GOP have obviously gone completely bat bleep crazy over something. They are screaming day in and day about something. I am not sure what it is at this point. I've heard rants like "taxation without representation."
Huh? As I've mentioned before, we had an election recently that did not require lawsuits or recounts. This week President Obama has a 66% approval rating. The Democratic Party is at 51% while the Republican Party has a 26% approval rating. A majority of Independents and some moderate Republicans support President Obama's agenda.
So why is there so noise spewing from the right? Is this tea party thing merely a childish tantrum thrown by a bunch of sore losers and clowns?
Let's explore a few events of this past week to try to find an answer.
According to Media Matters, despite the attempts by some in mainstream media to pin our economic woes and recession on President Obama, recent polls show that 80% of Americans blame our current financial misery on the banks, Wall Street and the Bush Administration.
That would be eight in ten Americans.
We the eight in ten people are obviously light years ahead of the media's water carriers for a failed Republican agenda. Our opinion of the spewers of Republican lies and misinformation?
Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.
On our left bar, you'll find an advertisement for what I call Media Matters Take Back Sunday campaign. Instead of linking here, I ask you to click the advertisement since it helps TexaKaos.com out.
The campaign is based off their report which found that news programs on Sunday still favor Republicans and rightwing viewpoints despite the 2006 election results. Sunday news shows, despite the relatively small audience, set up the news cycle for the week and greatly influence the frame for Americans who watch and drive the news.
America sent a clear message in 2006 when it elected Democrats. We took over Congress. It's high time that we took back the Sunday news!
Demand more balance coverage and equal billing to Democrats on Sunday news shows.
On the Sunday after the midterm elections, in which Democrats took control of Congress for the first time in a dozen years, viewers tuned in to NBC's Meet the Press to hear what the Democratic win meant for the country -- only to discover that host Tim Russert did not have any Democrats on at all. Instead, Russert's guests were Republican Sen. John McCain (AZ) and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (CT), who ran in the general election as an Independent after losing the Democratic primary. And after an election in which the public's opposition to the Iraq war was a central issue, Meet the Press hosted two guests who support the war.
While you're at it check out Clinton's call for Gonzales' resignation. Whether you like her or not, it's good to see that message go out.
