It's Chinatown, Jake

.
Last night, snowed under up on the northern prairies, needing a little ol' timey feelgood, we watched Mr. Smith Goes to Washington on TCM.

This morning I'm perusing my deadtree edition of the hometown paper, while it lasts, and a coupla thoughts occur. First, yesterday the front page featured a headline right out of the RNC Propaganda Playbook, courtesy the AP Washington bureau (yeh, I know, surprise, suuuurrrrrppprrrizzzzeee): "Is class warfare in plan?"

They don't even make a pretense of keepin' it on op-ed anymore.

And today, another teeny-tiny wee little article: Gregg aided base he invested in.

Yeh. Judd Gregg. Patron saint of santimonious flip-floppery. But, but, but, he broke no laws, he violated no Senate rules.....

That's the problem, now isn't it. And the sanctimony and hypocrisy play on.

Or as Gordonskene said over at C&L: Who ever said Politics was ethical? It's politics, fer chrissake!
.
crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette

Coleman and Burris—The Senators Who Won't Go

.
The machinations of former Senator Norm Coleman and current-as-of-this-keyboarding Senator Roland Burris to occupy seats in the U.S. Senate have now taken on the toxicity of the Menendez brothers.

You know: don't sentence us for murdering our parents...we're orphans.

Norm Coleman breezes into lunch with the GOP caucus—doubtless to attempt some kind of public appearance framing on a day when he will not be in the well of the House for the President's speech. And doubtless to solicit more funds for Ben Ginsberg aka Red Skull's legal fees in the we'll stall for a bazillion years before we let a Democrat sit in that chair court case.

Roland Burris scuttles behind closed doors to meet with fellow Illinois Senator Dick Durbin. And doubtless hints, whines, blathers about the legal fees [thousands of dollars, says Durbin] he's accumulating as the Blagojevich circus plays on.

Meanwhile, two states—Minnesota and Illinois—are deprived of the full representation and effectiveness their citizens need in these challenging economic times.

We're heading into blarney month. Maybe soon the luck o'the Irish will liberate both states from these two tainted story spinners so the rest of us can meet the challenges ahead.
.
crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette

Lost faith

.
Asked this morning on the Imus Show...have the American people lost faith in the government?

And answered...by Mr Sunshine: No, they've lost faith in the institutions of the private sector...

Adds Mrs. Sunshine [that would be moi]: We need to channel FDR's New Deal and Teddy Roosevelt's trust-busting.

Both.

Now, please.
.

Taking Chance

.
We are a nation forever defining ourself in our journey. The great American experiment. The immigrant voyages to these shores. The cross-country train rides to the frontier. The pioneer treks on oxcart trails and narrow footpaths.

Our culture celebrates the journey--from Wagon Train to boldly going where no one has gone before.

And this Saturday night, we watched another journey, the most basic, the most profound. The journey home.

Taking Chance brings to life the journal of Marine Lt. Colonel Michael Strobl, who volunteered for the duty of escorting the remains of 19-year-old PFC Chance Phelps to his home, his family, his friends, his community. His final resting place.

There is no shrieking shrill of partisans and pundits and politicians and gasbags of talk radio blustering about who was right, who was wrong about the decisions that led to the young man's death in this extraordinary HBO film.

No news cameras and pontificators opining.

There is only and solely the awakening of the Lt. Col. as he meets ordinary people along the way--airline ticket takers, fellow passengers, old vets, a funeral home director, his fellow soldiers. And the family of one fallen Marine. If there was any moment

Cabine-try

.
Oh, the horror. Josh gives a milemarker to a Politico article decrying the total absence of CEOs in Obama's cabinet.

Hey. I'm a CEO. Can I be Commerce Secretary?
.

Abortion Politics: Agenda in Search of a State

.
Nothing sets off the emotional and political Richter scale higher and faster than the subject of abortion. So the front page headline in the local daily (the Forum of Fargo, ND) caught people's eyes, including mine.

Since, as it turns out, the article was riddled with errors, including the actual bill number, which was HB 1572, I decided to directly contact legislators about the bill, not just rely on the public reporting.

And my take is, this bill was pushed through mostly under the radar and with an orchestrated contact campaign, based on misrepresentations and oh wait, what's that word? Lies. Yeah, that's it. Lies. The bill's sponsor, Minot representative Dan Ruby, sold the bill o'goods to fellow legislators as benign, and said, no prob, even Dorgan's supporting like legislation in DeeCee....

Benign? Yeah. Right.

As the Forum puts it today: "House Bill 1572 defines fertilized egg as a human being."

So consider the consequences: stem cell research—criminal act. birth control—criminal act. in vitro fertilization—criminal act (I mean, really. You think somebody's not gonna scream "child abuse" about freezing embryos? It's the next step.).

Bearing false witness about benign. Ironic, considering the anti-abortion

NY Post and its Cartoon Cross Racist, Incendiary Lines

.

First reaction, WTF was the New York Post cartoonist thinking, drawing the cartoon in the first place?

Second reaction, WTF was the New York Post doing publishing it?

Rush Limbaugh's recent "I hope he fails." campaign has reached down to small town American talk show hosts like Fargo's Scott Hennen's "I hope Pres. Obama's socialist policies fail miserably." [Yes, he is the guy who chortled with Chee-knee about waterboarding. Figures.]

The rightwing Wurlitzer is ramping up the hate.

Now this disgusting cartoon published in a supposedly sophisticated marketplace like New York City. By the global empire of Rupert Murdoch.

Well, there's a tradition Murdoch's probably run across in his world travels — seppuku.

For the New York Post, and all of Murdoch's global propaganda machine for that matter, I hope they commit media seppuku. Ritual disembowelment of the Murdoch presses and the Murdoch websites and the Murdoch networks.

No entity deserves it more than the Partners in Propaganda brainwashing machine that is Murdoch Media.

.

crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette