Brietbart crushed ACORN with Big Lies

Two lessons come from this:

BALTIMORE — The community organizing group Acorn, battered politically from the right and suffering from mismanagement along with a severe loss of government and other funds, is on the verge of filing for bankruptcy, officials of the group said Friday.

Acorn is holding a teleconference this weekend to discuss plans for a bankruptcy filing, two officials of the group said. They asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the news media.

via Acorn on Brink of Bankruptcy, Officials Say – NYTimes.com.

The first: Legislators that support grass roots organizations need to tighten up. Don’t align with one, unless you can stay that way in hard times. All the rats bailed and de-funded every Acorn office without investigation because of the lies pushed by Brietbart’s operative O’Keefe. If legislators were so quick to assume Acorn guilt, then they shouldn’t have overtly supported Acorn to begin with.

The second: a big lie can withstand nuanced truth long enough to become fact. Acorn helps pimps hide hoes effectively trumped well actually, he presented the hoes as his relative and/or girlfriend who he wanted to get away from a pimp along with other minors forced to be hoes.

...one of finest of all time?

Yglesias believes the historic passing of Health care reform cements Obama’s place as one of the finest Presidents in history.

Now that it’s done, Barack Obama will go down in history as one of America’s finest presidents. It’s always possible of course that, like LBJ, he’ll get involved in some unrelated fiasco that mars his reputation. But fundamentally, he’s reshaped the policy landscape in a way that no progressive politician has done in decades.

via Matthew Yglesias » Perspective.

We have Afghanistan, Iraq, a teetering economy, climate change policy, immigration and Middle East initiatives still yet to be resolved. This establishes him as an important President, but there is too much to do to allege that he will revered for what may be 2 or 6 more years in White House.

At A March 18, 2010 press conference in the Capitol, Kim Moldofsky of Illinois (at Podium) talked about how she desires health insurance reform in front of House Majority Whip James Clyburn, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi

photo credit: Speaker Pelosi

An honest conservative viewpoint regarding the political implications of health care reform from David Frum (via Waterloo | FrumForum):

Only, the hardliners overlooked a few key facts: Obama was elected with 53% of the vote, not Clinton’s 42%. The liberal block within the Democratic congressional caucus is bigger and stronger than it was in 1993-94. And of course the Democrats also remember their history, and also remember the consequences of their 1994 failure.

This time, when we went for all the marbles, we ended with none.

Could a deal have been reached? Who knows? But we do know that the gap between this plan and traditional Republican ideas is not very big. The Obama plan has a broad family resemblance to Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts plan. It builds on ideas developed at the Heritage Foundation in the early 1990s that formed the basis for Republican counter-proposals to Clintoncare in 1993-1994.

Barack Obama badly wanted Republican votes for his plan. Could we have leveraged his desire to align the plan more closely with conservative views? To finance it without redistributive taxes on productive enterprise – without weighing so heavily on small business – without expanding Medicaid? Too late now. They are all the law.

No illusions please: This bill will not be repealed. Even if Republicans scored a 1994 style landslide in November, how many votes could we muster to re-open the “doughnut hole” and charge seniors more for prescription drugs? How many votes to re-allow insurers to rescind policies when they discover a pre-existing condition? How many votes to banish 25 year olds from their parents’ insurance coverage? And even if the votes were there – would President Obama sign such a repeal?

We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.

Frum has been against conservative politicians and talk radio screaming about “Death Panels” and saying that Democrats are intending to “kill grandma”. No one listened.

Christiane Amanpour named host ABC News "This Week"

photo credit: Global X

“I am delighted to announce that Christiane Amanpour will join ABC News as the new anchor of “This Week,” Westin said in an e-mail to the ABC News staff. “A highly respected journalist recognized around the world for her reporting, she brings to her new position a wealth of experience and knowledge, as well as a deep commitment to bringing news of the world to the American people.”

Westin said Amanpour will appear on other ABC News programs and platforms to provide international analysis on the issues of the day, as well as anchor primetime documentaries on international subjects for the network.

“With Christiane we have the opportunity to provide our audiences with something different on Sunday mornings. We will continue to provide the best in interviews and analysis about domestic politics and policies. But now we will add to that an international perspective,” Westin said.

Amanpour will join ABC News in August and replaces George Stephanopoulos, who became the new anchor of “Good Morning America” in December. ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper will be the regular, interim anchor of “This Week” until Amanpour’s August premiere.

via Christiane Amanpour Is ‘This Week’ Anchor.

I like his move, first off because Amanpour is a journalist who has a view not dominated by the overly high regard for Washington political gamesmanship and who often has been able to look beyond the lazy left/right equivocation that passes for analysis on many political news shows.

Benjamin Netanyahu

photo credit: The Jewish Agency for Israel

Those pesky in-laws always show up at the worst time, don’t they?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s brother-in-law Dr. Hagai Ben-Artzi on Wednesday called U.S. President Barack Obama an anti-Semite in an interview with Army Radio.

“It’s not that Obama doesn’t like Bibi,” he referring to Netanyahu using his nickname. “He doesn’t like the nation of Israel.”

Netanyahu was quick to distance himself from Ben-Artzi’s remarks, saying he completely disagrees with his brother-in-law.

Netanyahu said he has a deep appreciation for President Obama’s commitment to Israel’s security, which he has expressed many times, and also for the deep ties between the two countries.

[…]

He went on to say that Obama’s anti-Semitism stems from years of indoctrination by controversial preacher Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whom Obama distanced himself from during the election campaign.

“When there is an anti-Semitic president in the United States, it is a test for us and we have to say: We will not concede. We are a nation dating back 4,000 years, and you in a year or two will be long forgotten. Who will remember you? But Jerusalem will dwell on forever.”

Ben-Artzi added that Netanyahu is aware of his views, but declined to say what the two discuss in private conversations.

On Tuesday a group of far-right activists announced their plan to hang hundreds of posters across the country depicting Obama under the headline “agent of the PLO.” The banner is already on display in the office of National Union MK Michael Ben Ari.

Obama’s speech to the Muslim world in Cairo last year stirred tension in Israel and the U.S. regarding the president’s new policy towards the Middle East, and created the impression that he was biased towards Arab countries, as he began with the Arab saying “salaam alaykum.”

via Netanyahu’s brother-in-law: Obama is an anti-Semite – Haaretz – Israel News.

And this ridiculous position is where the right wing, which is part of Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, stands in Israel. Haaretz’ Carlos Stenger describes the paths in front of Netanyahu.

This bold move requires Netanyahu to work against his instinct to preserve his long-term alliance with right wing parties. He will have to stop being afraid of ruining his relationship with Shas, because he must begin to understand that he may not get another chance to form a government. He will have to appreciate that is little value in preserving the possibility for future cooperation with Lieberman, because he is now up against history; not potential coalition parties in ten years.

If he has arrived at this point, he may go for the bold move. He may burn the bridges behind him, knowing that there is nothing to go back to. He may try to overcome the personal animosity that has evolved between him and Kadima leader Tzipi Livni, and to go for a coalition that will allow him to make difficult choices: to dismantle settlements, and to truly move towards rescuing the two-state solution that his right-wing coalition partners are trying to make impossible by creating ever more facts on the ground. Yes, he may lose some of his right-wing Likud “rebels.” Yes, he may even have to call for left-wing Meretz to join the coalition if enough of his party members defect. And he may try to make the historical move that can save Israel as a democracy with a Jewish majority.

Or he may opt to continue doing what he has done until now: trying to gain some more time; to galvanize the Christian hard core in the U.S. to stop the Obama administration from pressuring Israel; to hope that AIPAC will mobilize Congress against the administration and try to keep his current coalition together for the sole purpose of staying in power. If so, he will go down in history as a man who simply didn’t have it in him to jump over his own shadow.

via Netanyahu’s fateful midlife crisis – Haaretz – Israel News.

We can negotiate with one coalition, we cannot work with the other. Its up to the direction set by Netanyahu’s leadership from here out.

photo credit: gtorelly

New Jersey, when the GOP says “small government” they mean less teachers, hospitals, schools, infrastructure repair and raising the tax burden for middle and lower income folks.

TRENTON — Christopher J. Christie, the first Republican elected governor of New Jersey in 12 years, unveiled a $29.3 billion budget on Tuesday that relies almost exclusively on spending cuts to reverse the sagging fortunes of a state he sees as battered by the recession and choking on its tax burden.

To close a deficit that he asserted was approaching $11 billion, Governor Christie called for the layoffs of 1,300 state workers, closings of state psychiatric institutions, an $820 million cut in aid to public schools, and nearly a half-billion dollars less in aid to towns and cities. He also suspended until May 2011 a popular property-tax rebate program, breaking one of his own campaign promises.

Democrats were quick to characterize Mr. Christie’s proposal as falling disproportionately on the backs of the middle class, the poor, the elderly, schoolchildren, college students and inner-city residents, while leaving largely unscathed the wealthy and most businesses.

[…]

But a budget relying almost exclusively on spending cuts puts the state in a much smaller peer group, along with Florida, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia — all led by Republicans, a number of them with national aspirations.

“Time has run out, and the bill has come due,” Mr. Christie said in a speech frequently interrupted for applause, mostly from Republicans.

The budget would probably mean higher property taxes for most homeowners, at least in the short term, as local governments try to make up for the diminished state financing. But the governor is also proposing constitutional amendments and legislation to cap property taxes and spending at the local, county and school-district level.

[…]

In his speech, Mr. Christie affirmed his stance on the issue, saying New Jersey’s tax burden was already the nation’s costliest. “Mark my words today: If a tax increase is sent to my desk, I will veto it,” he said.

via Christie Seeks Spending Cuts to Close Gap in New Jersey – NYTimes.com.

You get what you vote for.

Why is this in a school cafeterias in the first place?

photo credit: dylancantwell

PepsiCo, the world’s No. 2 soft-drink maker, says it is removing its full-calorie sweetened drinks from schools in more than 200 countries by 2012.

This is the first time a major soft-drink producer has undertaken such a wide-sweeping policy, which essentially admits that sugary soda is not the best thing for your kids to be drinking.

via Pepsi Will Remove High-Calorie Sodas from Schools by 2012.

Soda shouldn’t be offered in school at all. Its that simple.

photo credit: timsnell

Or rather, he should stick to making movies.

Then he becomes serious. “I want to see if people see the movie and say, ‘What are we gonna do tomorrow?’ You can’t go home and say ‘yay Mike, great film’ You have to do something.

“I’m waiting to see if people will rise up, and if so, I’ll rise with them.”

via Michael Moore: ‘Waiting To See If People Rise Up – And If So, I’ll Rise With Them’ | Crooks and Liars.

He is guilty of the same “no, you first” mentality that he accuses his viewers of being guilty of.

photo credit: The U.S. Army

US/Israel relationship is getting a little less special.

Certainly, it was thought, Israel would get the message.

Israel didn’t. When Vice President Joe Biden was embarrassed by an Israeli announcement that the Netanyahu government was building 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem, the administration reacted. But no one was more outraged than Biden who, according to the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, engaged in a private, and angry, exchange with the Israeli Prime Minister. Not surprisingly, what Biden told Netanyahu reflected the importance the administration attached to Petraeus’s Mullen briefing: “This is starting to get dangerous for us,” Biden reportedly told Netanyahu. “What you’re doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace.” Yedioth Ahronoth went on to report: “The vice president told his Israeli hosts that since many people in the Muslim world perceived a connection between Israel’s actions and US policy, any decision about construction that undermines Palestinian rights in East Jerusalem could have an impact on the personal safety of American troops fighting against Islamic terrorism.” The message couldn’t be plainer: Israel’s intransigence could cost American lives.

There are important and powerful lobbies in America: the NRA, the American Medical Association, the lawyers — and the Israeli lobby. But no lobby is as important, or as powerful, as the U.S. military. While commentators and pundits might reflect that Joe Biden’s trip to Israel has forever shifted America’s relationship with its erstwhile ally in the region, the real break came in January, when David Petraeus sent a briefing team to the Pentagon with a stark warning: America’s relationship with Israel is important, but not as important as the lives of America’s soldiers. Maybe Israel gets the message now.

via The Petraeus briefing: Biden’s embarrassment is not the whole story, by Mark Perry | The Middle East Channel.