Mother's Day Music

Always remember to remember what Mama said! Happy Mother's Day!

The Feckless Five

We don't think many people bothered to tune in to the Fux Channel last night to watch a debate among five Rethug losers who have combined poll numbers in the single digits.

Perhaps the best known among them -- Tim "No Good 'N'" Pawlenty -- didn't distinguish himself, and declined to take shots at potential rivals Willard "Mittens" Romney and Mike Hucksterbee, who were absent from the debate. Daily Kos' Jed Lewison has an account of the sad affair.

According to a focus group convened by the Fuxers, Herman "Raise" Cain, former head of Godfathers Pizza and extreme nutbag, was the winner. As an African-American, Raise Cain is the 2.0 version of equally nutty Alan "Give Me The" Keyes, and represents the 0.2 percent of African-Americans who would actually consider voting for a right wing bro.

(photo: The Rethug debaters dressed to blend in with their audience)

Bouncing Back

A strong jobs report for April is further indication that the economy continues to recover. Some 244,000 private sector jobs were added last month, making it the third month in a row with significant job gains, and the biggest monthly gain in 5 years.

Economists were quick to point out that other indicators were still weak, and that gas prices were causing a drag on the overall economy. However, the decline in oil prices below $100/barrel caused some to predict that oil prices may have peaked in reaction to a drop off in demand. May the good economic news continue.

Campaign Posters We Like

Hair today, gone tomorrow?

At Ground Zero

Days after the death of Osama bin Laden, President Obama visited Ground Zero in New York City today to proclaim, "When we say we will never forget, we mean what we say." One of the President's campaign promises was to hunt down and bring Bin Laden to justice.

The President laid a wreath at the National Sept. 11 Memorial at Ground Zero and met privately with family members of some 9/11 victims. Earlier, he visited Engine 54, Ladder 4, Battalion 9 (photo above), which lost 15 members on 9/11, and NYPD's First Precinct, whose members were first on the scene. To the firemen, Obama thanked them for their work and said they had a president who has "got your back."

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

The Rethugs' War on Women

While America's far-right pays lip service to the denial of womens' rights in conservative Islamic countries, here at home they wage war on womens' reproductive choice. One of the more despicable pieces of legislation, H.R. 3, the so called "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortions Act," passed the Rethug-controlled House yesterday. The Washington Monthly's Steve Benen notes in an article this morning:

"Indeed, the closer one looks at the bill, the more odious it becomes. The final version included a provision to ensure that only victims of 'forcible rape' are eligible for federal funding if they seek abortions. It also raises taxes. It also effectively calls on the IRS to conduct rape audits. And how many House Republicans voted for this offensive bill? All of them."

Clearly, the bill is nothing more than a gesture to the religious radical base of the Rethug Party (a.k.a., the American Taliban), since the bill has no chance of passing the Senate or being signed into law by President Obama. This country already prohibits public funds from being used for abortions except in the case of rape or incest (the Hyde Amendment), out of appropriate deference to those taxpayers with religious objections. This is simply a cynical grandstand gesture to further polarize Americans for perceived political gain.

On the Hat Fashion Front, Cont'd.

YIKES!! Call animal control! There's a raccoon running around with a bow on its head!

(Photo: Princess Beatrice at last week's royal wedding; even our Anglophilia can't overcome this one!)

Mid-Week Song

The daring operation that took out Osama bin Laden was executed brilliantly by a brave group of Navy SEALS. Hats off to the U.S. Navy.

Lest We Forget

After shifting priorities away from pursuing al Qaeda to start an unnecessary war against a country that wasn't involved in 9-11, Rethugs now want to, again, rewrite history to put themselves back in the picture of Obama's victory. After 2005, when the Bushit Assministration dismantled the bin Laden task force, the terrorist leader likely felt secure in his cushy safe haven in Pakistan.

For those with selective memories, here's an idea of where we'd be if Arizona Sen. John McNasty had been elected, courtesy Daily Kos:

In July 2008, CNN's Larry King interviewed then-presidential candidate John McCain. The host asked the Republican senator, "If you were president and knew that bin Laden was in Pakistan, you know where, would you have U.S. forces go in after him?" McCain said he would not.

"Larry, I'm not going to go there and here's why: because Pakistan is a sovereign nation."

Lest we forget.

(photo: "Iraq and Libya are sovereign nations, too? Didn't know that")

No, Numbnuts, It Wasn't The Waterboarding

Contrary to what evil- spawn- of- The- Dick, Liz(ard) Cheney and others have been saying, the available facts show that waterboarding of terror detainees did not contribute information leading to the killing of Osama bin Laden (see also the Senate Intelligence Committee Chair's confirmation). Not that that would stop these and other far-right Bushies and their apologists who typically want to alter history to give their bad decisions an un-earned validity. Fortunately, history is written by historians, and reality has a well-known liberal bias.

But, will the he-said, she-said "mainstream media" keep the wingnuts from getting away with this falsity? =crickets chirping=

(Image: Hey, isn't that...)

Your Moment of Zen

BONUS: Here's why it's ok to gloat for a while, and why we call them "Rethugs."

BONUS II: Rethugs are cynically trying to shift the credit from Obama to Dumbya; here's a recap of how Dumbya walked away from hunting bin Laden.

BONUS III: Sully comments:

"In my view, the president who found and killed Osama bin Laden will be very hard not to re-elect. Now the association between his name and his enemy's [ed. note: a favorite and continuing Limpballs ploy] will be an asset: Obama killed Osama. A few tea-party fanatics will have their heads explode. And the Big Lie that Obama is somehow not a strong president is debunked - because strength doesn't actually mean being inflammatory on Fox News, it mean exercising patience, quiet and resolve to get what you want. That Obama also helped prevent a Great Depression - with zero Republican votes - and brought universal health insurance to America? All we need now is a debt deal. And the only way that's possible before the election is if Obama looks highly likely to win it. That likelihood just increased today."

President Obama on Death of Bin Laden

Here's the White House video of President Obama's announcement of the death of Osama Bin Laden.

Death of a Monster

Was watching normal programming at 10:15 EST when a breaking news report came across saying that President Obama would be making a major announcement at 10:30. . .waiting. ...10:45, word on each network and cable nets that Obama would be announcing the death of Osama bin Laden. . .waiting for Obama's announcement at 11:00. . .more confirmations and some details that bin Laden had been killed by U.S. forces and that his body was in U.S. custody. . .finally, after 11:30 Eastern time, Obama appears in the East Room to provide details of the killing of bin Laden. Special operations and military ground forces stormed bin Laden's compound in Pakistan and shot him. Great speech by Obama, touching all the right notes about 9-11, sacrifice and courage of those serving. Looking very confident and Presidential in perhaps his finest hour. Large, spontaneous crowds are forming outside the White House, chanting, cheering and singing. This will be quite a Sunday night.

So almost ten years after 9-11 the monster has been killed. Whether it's the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning for the al Qaeda network, it's a huge victory for the U.S., and a defeat for the killers of innocents.

Discovering Journalism

A small glimmer of hope appears on the front page of today's Kaplan Daily in an article describing how the federal budget deficit ballooned into the trillions of dollars over the past decade. The hope is that the Kaplan Daily (once the respected Washington Post) will return to its tradition of informing the public, rather than its recent habit of regurgitating talking points in a he-said-she-said attempt to provide an inoffensive "balance" of opinion at a time when one side is clearly (ahem) unbalanced. Here's one of reporter Lori Montgomery's aha! revelations:

"...All told, Obama-era choices account for about $1.7 trillion in new debt... Bush-era policies, meanwhile, account for more than $7 trillion and are a major contributor to the trillion-dollar annual budget deficits dominating the political debate."

And what has been the "biggest culprit, by far" in this Bush-era inherited debt? "...[a]n erosion of tax revenue triggered largely by two recessions and multiple rounds of tax cuts."

Teatards! Where were you when the country needed you?! Oh, now I remember -- it was a white Rethuglican president and Congress running things, so all must've been well.