Political News Bits of the Day

[Doug]

Nigerian authorities will charge former Vice President Dick Cheney over a bribery scandal that is alleged to involve Halliburton, BusinessWeek reports. An arrest warrant "will be issued and transmitted through Interpol," said Godwin Obla, the prosecuting counsel at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in Nigeria.

The charges center on an alleged $180 million bribery payment used to secure a $6 billion liquefied natural gas contract. Prosecutors are also looking into international companies Saipem and Technip. Cheney was the CEO of Halliburton from 1995 to 2000, before becoming George W. Bush's running mate. "As the CEO of Halliburton, he has the responsibility for acts that occurred during that period," Obla told the AFP.

See here.

[Doug]

DOUG writes:
Alan Grayson on why the GOP pundits, from Rush Limbaugh to Sarah Palin, want the Bush tax cuts extended. And how much each would profit from this extension.



See here.

“I have a better idea," said Grayson. "Instead of placating these people and letting them spew out onto the airwaves their lies about the Bush tax cuts without ever revealing the fact that they stand to gain millions, millions of dollars each year from their selfish desire to take advantage of the rest of America, let’s do this: let’s take that money and create jobs.”

[Dardedar]

Two minute Bush clip from a Dutch comedy show.


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[Dardedar]

Good overview of the reason Obama is getting his butt kicked from the left. From the Wonk Room:

Obama Agrees To Extend All Bush Tax Cuts And Cut Estate Tax In Deal With Republicans

[Dardedar]

This just in... dog bites man or, how they cook the "news" in the news kitchen at Fox News:

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"According to the report at Media Matters, in August of 2009 after Fox News' Sean Hannity used the term "public option," Luntz encouraged him to say "government option" instead.

"If you call it a 'public option,' the American people are split," Luntz said. "If you call it the 'government option,' the public is overwhelmingly against it."

"It's a great point, and from now on, I'm going to call it the government option," Hannity replied.

Luntz also claimed that the "government option" would be "sponsored by the government." In fact, the proposed public option bills would have funded the program with the fees paid by those who enrolled in it.

Only a day before Sammon sent the e-mail, Brett Baier had referred to the "public option" as well as the "government-run option."

An e-mail titled "friendly reminder: let's not slip back into calling it the 'public option'" was sent to Baier and other Fox News reporters the next morning.

"Please use the term 'government-run health insurance' or, when brevity is a concern, 'government option,' whenever possible," Sammon wrote.

"When it is necessary to use the term 'public option" (which is, after all, firmly ensconced in the nation's lexicon), use the qualifier 'so-called,' as in 'the so-called public option,'" he continued.

"Here's another way to phrase it: 'The public option, which is the government-run plan,'" Sammon said.

That night, Baier and Fox News reporter Jim Angle followed Sammon's script. Baier referred to the public option as "government-run health insurance" and "government-run health insurance option."

Angle called the proposed program "a government insurance plan, the so-called public option" and "a government insurance option."

Fox News has repeatedly said that Special Report with Bret Baier is an objective news program."

Media Matters

[Dardedar]

In Tapes, Nixon Rails About Jews and Blacks

Excerpt:

"In his discussion with Ms. Woods, Nixon laid down clear rules about who would be permitted to attend the state dinner for Meir — he called it “the Jewish dinner” — after learning that the White House was being besieged with requests to attend.

“I don’t want any Jew at that dinner who didn’t support us in that campaign,” he said. “Is that clear? No Jew who did not support us.”

Nixon listed many of his top Jewish advisers — among them, Mr. Kissinger and William Safire, who went on to become a columnist at The New York Times — and argued that they shared a common trait, of needing to compensate for an inferiority complex.

“What it is, is it’s the insecurity,” he said. “It’s the latent insecurity. Most Jewish people are insecure. And that’s why they have to prove things.”

Nixon also strongly hinted that his reluctance to even consider amnesty for young Americans who went to Canada to avoid being drafted during the Vietnam War was because, he told Mr. Colson, so many of them were Jewish.

“I didn’t notice many Jewish names coming back from Vietnam on any of those lists; I don’t know how the hell they avoid it,” he said, adding: “If you look at the Canadian-Swedish contingent, they were very disproportionately Jewish. The deserters.”

[L.Wood]

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Warren Stephens, the multi-billionaire heir of Stephens Media, ARKLA Gas and Stephens Investments
spoke to Regional Little Rock Chamber of Commerce today.

When asked about joining Gates-Buffett Giving Pledge, the pledge of other multi-billionaires to give charities half of their wealth, Stephens responded "We ain't doing that."

Arkansas Business reports the story.

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[Dardedar]

I must say, this warms the cockles of my heart:



And Obama whups her in all polls. Maybe the country isn't nuts?

[Doug]

Maybe the country isn't nuts?

It's nuts. Maybe Palin could bring her numbers up by picking Silvia Browne as her running mate. Or Bigfoot. (Who is already in an undisclosed location.)

[Dardedar]

You're right. In a reasonable country she'd be in the single digits.



http://www.evolvefish.com/fish/magnets.html#3154

[L.Wood]

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Lie of the Year: Readers' poll results

"We asked PolitiFact readers to pick what they thought was the most significant lie of the year in 2010, and 3,289 people voted. The decisive winner was the same one PolitiFact editors and reporters selected for the Lie of the Year: the claim that the new health care law is a "government takeover."

Here are the readers' poll results:

1. ObamaCare is a "government takeover" of health care. -- Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio; Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla.; the Republican Party of Florida; Lt. Gov.-elect Rebecca Kleefisch, R-Wis.; and others: 43.9 percent

2. "The president of the United States will be taking a trip over to India that is expected to cost the taxpayers $200 million a day." -- Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., 19.2 percent"

PolitiFact complete list here.

If this is posted elsewhere on the forum please delete. LW
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[Dardedar]

Chris Matthew gives a defense of Obama

Transcript:

Let me finish tonight with our president.

Some have been brutal toward him of late. They've used terrible words to describe the decision he made about the tax cuts.

Here's my cut at it. People who say he's sold out - and they have a right to say anything they want to - have it wrong. There's a difference between what the French did in World War II and what the English did.
The French sold out. They turned their country, proud France, into a collaborator with the Third Reich. That's what Petain did; that's what De Gaulle, the greatest man in French history refused to do.
What did the British do. They pulled the greatest strategic retreat of the war. They got their troops off the Continent at Dunkerque. They evacuated and, by doing so, saved the British army to fight again. They avoided catastrophe.

What did Obama do? He knew what was coming. The Republicans won the House of Representatives in the election. They are coming into power this January 5. Their first order of business - HR 1 - would have been to cut taxes for everyone, to take historic credit for cutting the taxes on everyone that the Democrats let go up. It was as clear as day for anyone willing to look straight ahead and see what was coming.

This is what President Obama did and made the necessary decision: cut the best deal he could to get extended unemployment benefits and a cut in the payroll tax for employees. He got that plus a number of other Democratic measures and avoided, in the decision, giving the Republicans a giant hammer to use against them in 2012 and future elections: that they, the Republicans, cut taxes after the Democrats had let them rise.
Again, and one more time, there's a huge difference between a sell-out and a strategic retreat. Our President did the smart and therefore good thing for the country, for his party and for history. The critics, well, are critics. They have a right to criticize. He, Barack Obama, has the "job" to lead.

As a result we've got a good shot at two vital successes that could have easily been crushed - the end to "Don't ask, don't tell" and ratification of the new START.
The alternative, let's never forget, was to end this Congress with taxes rising on the Democratic watch, the Republicans randy to lower them, a continuation of DADT and a very good chance of a renewed hostility with Russia.

If President Obama can do with well with a pair of twos in his hand - and that's certainly the best you can say he got handed by this election in November, just think what he'll be able to do the moment - and it will come when he gets dealt a decent hand.

MSNBC

[Betsy]

thanks for sharing that, Darrel.

[Dardedar]

Senator Jon Kyle made the cover of the New York Times today. He led the republican opposition to the START treaty. He failed. I find this picture so profound I bought a copy of the paper today. The expression on his face seems to sum up the three main forces driving the republican party:

Evil, Scared, Stupid.

Link to article

Arms Treaty With Russia Headed for Ratification
By PETER BAKER
December 21, 2010

WASHINGTON — An arms control treaty paring back American and Russian nuclear arsenals won a decisive vote in the Senate on Tuesday, clearing it for final approval and handing President Obama an important foreign policy victory."

[Dardedar]

The MOST productive two years in generations:

http://3chicspolitico.com/president-oba ... lishments/

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/

[Dardedar]

Via Larry W.

***
Latest Right-Wing Freak-Out: Obama Wants To Give Manhattan Back To Native Americans

The good news is that the right-wing isn't talking about President Obama being a secret Muslim right now. The bad news is that they're now concerned that he's going to use his honorary status as a Crow Tribe Indian to return the United States to Native Americans.

The outrage began after the President announced on December 16 that the U.S. would reverse course and support the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. The Declaration was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 2007, but the U.S., under President Bush, opposed it.

"The aspirations it affirms -- including the respect for the institutions and rich cultures of Native peoples -- are ones we must always seek to fulfill," the President said of the Declaration at White House Tribal Nations Conference where he announced the reversal. He went on to describe efforts to improve health care, education, and unemployment rates in tribal areas.

"While the declaration is not legally binding, it carries considerable moral and political force," the State Department wrote of the Declaration, "and complements the President's ongoing efforts to address historical inequities faced by indigenous communities in the United States."

...Last week, the "Director of Issues Analysis" for the Christian conservative American Family Association, Brian Fischer, wrote a blog post claiming that "President Obama wants to give the entire land mass of the United States of America back to the Indians. He wants Indian tribes to be our new overlords."

TPM

[Dardedar]

A year in birtherism, summarized:

http://ohforgoodnesssake.com/?p=15083

[Dardedar]

Happy New Year to our "friend" Mr. "Galt."

"Obama's job approval rating, which had been languishing in the mid-40-percent range for more than six months, rose to 50 percent, according to Gallup Daily tracking."



LINK

Bonus: The Tea Part Movement, favorable rating, 12/17-19/10:

Favorable: 37%
Unfavorable: 43%
Never heard of: 13%

LINK

Also... CBS News Poll. Nov. 29-Dec. 2, 2010.

"Do you consider yourself to be a supporter of the Tea Party movement, or not?"

ALL
Yes: 22%
No: 68%
Unsure: 10%

Republicans
Yes: 45%
No: 47%
Unsure: 8%

Democrats
Yes: 8%
No: 81%
Unsure: 11%

Polling Report

[Dardedar]

Republicans don't care about debt or the deficit. All they care about is concentrating wealth and power with wealthy and powerful.

"WASHINGTON -- Repealing health care reform will add $230 billion to the deficit over the next decade, leave 32 million fewer people with insurance and lead to higher costs for those who are covered, the Congressional Budget Office said in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) Thursday."

LINK

[Doug]

Glenn Beck website random image generator for the background--vs his hypocritical message on the right.

See here.