Last Year, Americans Voted For Real HEALTH CARE REFORM For Themselves & Their Families... DAMNIT!

If families don't get HEALTH CARE REFORM, somebody's gonna get BEAT-UP! Don't mess with 'em...Specifically, OBSTRUCTIONIST Republicans and Insurance-Company-Whore Democrats who are stopping real reform should be removed from office in 2010, if they're up for re-election. In other words, they'll (rightly) get "beat-up" at the polls.
[And Senate whiner Joe Lieberman ought to have his Government Health Care revoked. Filibuster yourself, pathetic little-whiner.]

FOX NEWS is a JOKE...

Fox News is an insult to the word "News."
Get these Bumper stickers @ Buzzflash, here.

.......DOG DAYS OF SUMMER.......

THE END OF AN ERA: Ted Kennedy Dies...

ThinkProgress summarizes this sad day
for the Kennedys and The Country:

Edward M. Kennedy, the “liberal lion” of American politics, passed away this morning after serving in the U.S. Senate for nearly 50 years. President Obama said that the country had lost “the greatest United States Senator of our time,” adding, “For five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts. … An important chapter in our history has come to an end.”

NY Times story has more.

I liked the man, Herb.

Even THE WHALES: "SAVE THE PONTIAC!"

GENERAL MOTORS Files For BANKRUPTCY, Plans To Eliminate Half Its Car Lines... SAVE THE PONTIAC!!!

NO; No, no... NO!
Amidst positive approval ratings for President Obama, the economy still crumbles from the BUSH/CHENEY train that crashed into, and wrecked our Country...

Today, one-time automotive leader and powerhouse General Motors [GM] filed for BANKRUPTCY. Adding insult to injury, their stock-price CRASHED to levels below what the shares sold for in 1930, during the GREAT DEPRESSION. AND: The company, along with Citigroup, was DELISTED from the Dow... OUCH!

GM is KEEPING their largest Lines: GMC Trucks, and Chevrolet; As well as (wisely): Buick, and Cadillac.

GM is dumping:
[1] The Hummer; which is a no-brainer: Thank God! (Tractors w/ chrome?)

[2] The Saturn; I guess the 1990s just wasn't the time to start a car from scratch.

[3] The Volvo; For which I have no-comment... Except: Aren't Volvoes(pl-sp?) from Sweden, like Abba?

AND FINALLY, THE REASON FOR THIS POST:
[4] GM plans to DUMP their whole line of PONTIACS!
We should not allow this to happen.

PONTIACS are Americana, baby! (Look at their logo, up-top... It's like Star Trek even copied the Pontiac, man!) They're an iconic symbol of America, like Apple Pie, or Hot Dogs. Right? Think about the mid-to-late 70's without Smokey & The Bandit... The Trans-Am? Well, whatever the reason, we hope you'll JOIN US in urging GM to Save The Pontiac!
Sign our Online Petition, here.

Thanks for your help and support, Herb.

No Shortage of Bush/Cheney TORTURE Stories & Revelations... [War Crimes!]

Definitely the COOLEST PRESIDENT... Since Kennedy, For Sure*

*...at which point, we certainly would anticipate some fine arguments from our Irish and/or Catholic friends.

President Obama's Three-Legged-Stool vs.Republicans' No-Leg-To-Stand-On

[Link here, you can watch it...]
Today on ABC’s This Week, Karl Rove slammed the cost of President Obama’s new budget. The Nation’s Katrina Vanden Heuvel quickly fired back at Rove’s newly-discovered sense of fiscal responsibility, observing that Rove and President Bush “helped plunge this nation into trillion dollars of debt”:

VANDEN HEUEVEL: But, Mr. Rove –

ROVE: Call me Karl.

VANDEN HEUVEL: It’s laughable for you to talk about fiscal responsibility from someone who helped plunge this nation into trillion dollars of debt, through tax cuts for the very rich and a war we never should have fought. And also starving the beast. Starving government has been a Republican role in terms of government. And, therefore, when George asks why government hasn’t functioned, people have not seen the role of government improving the conditions of their lives for decades.

"Call me Karl?" Ha! Then she calls him a "laughable" FOOL! It would admittedly be funnier if Karl Rove wasn't such a corrupt evil bastard. Thanx Ms. Vanden Heuvel,
for NOT calling him "Karl," Herb.

EXCLUSIVE! The Bush/Cheney 2000 SUPREME COURT FIVE... Original Mugshots! [Hypocrites--impeach!]

Obsessed? Yeah, yeah, okay. [We're in therapy!]

WE'RE NAMING NAMES...

The Bush/Cheney 2000 SUPREME COURT FIVE
Clarence Thomas,
Antonin Scalia,
William Renquist - deceased,
Sandra Day O'Connor - retired,
Anthony Kennedy.

YEAH THAT'S RIGHT... IMPEACH!
WE'VE BEEN HOLDING A GRUDGE! AND WE ADVOCATE THE CURRENT CONGRESS IMPEACHING ANY/ALL OF THE BUSH/CHENEY SUPREME COURT FIVE THAT ARE STILL ON THE BENCH OF OUR HIGHEST COURT. [And, yeah, SORRY, Roberts and Alito; You're fruit of the poison-tree. Therefore, we find: You're out! (Please clear out your offices within 72 hours...)]

IF WE'RE INVESTIGATING ANY OF THE BUSH/CHENEY LIES, SCHEMES, AND COVER-UPS, WE MAY AS WELL [START AT THE BEGINNING!] INVESTIGATE THE FIRST FRAUD THEY PERPETRATED...

[AND BUSH HAD THE NERVE
TO TALK ABOUT
"FRIVILOUS LAWSUITS"
WHEN HE WAS PRESIDENT.
Uhh... BUSH V. GORE, 2000?]

*There's only two places, on the internets, where you can get the names AND (individual) mugshots of the shameless Bush/Cheney-Supreme Court Five -- here @ the Juncture, and the place we stole the pics from, and we don't remember where that was.
Have a nice day, Herb.

What happened to the G.O.P.?

THEY'RE: DONE BABY, DONE!

...GONE, BABY, GONE...

Unless you listen to Rush "Fatty" Limbaugh. He says Sarah Palin is the de facto leader of the Republican Party... [Oh goodie, can't wait for 2010?] ... I wonder if that made her happy: It's a compliment, but it's from a slobbering heroin junkie, who also said he wants The United States of America "to fail."

~Compliment~~~Fatass Junkie~

That's a tough one, Herb.

OKAY... FINALLY MOVING ON: President Obama in the Oval Office...

We've got to admit, beyond our obsession w/ the bushies and the damage they wrought... President Obama(!)...

President Obama in the White House Oval Office...
THAT IS PRETTY F**KING COOL!

And a relief too... It's like being able to see sunlight, feel it on your face, and breath deeply, after being in a dark, oxygen-starve mine cave-in -- for the past 6-7 years.Sincerely & thankfully, Herb.

OKAY, HERE'S THAT QUOTE FROM A COUPLE POSTS BACK...

FOR POSTERITY, THAT APT QUOTE:

"To initiate a war of agression, therefore, is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.

If certain acts in violation of treaties are crimes, they are crimes whether the United States does them or whether Germany does them, and we are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct against others which we would not be willing to have invoked against us." --Supreme Court Justice Robert S. Jackson, U.S. Prosecutor, Nuremburg--

UH... DOH-!

In case you missed it*, Barrack Obama's Presidential Inauguration is today...

WE CELEBRATE THE START OF A NEW ERA, AND THE END OF A LONG NATIONAL NIGHTMARE(BUSH/CHENEY), WITH EVERYONE ELSE!Admittedly, however, we may not be quite as giddy as some, it seems...

* CNN had 18-hours-straight coverage of the (pre-innaugural) Obama/Biden train trip to D.C.,
we thought it a bit excessive.

[BUSH/CHENEY] George W. Bush, WORST U.S. PRESIDENT, EVER!

...GOOD RIDDANCE...

AS MUCH TO BLAME... & JUST AS GUILTY AS BUSH/CHENEY... (UH... EVERYTHING!) "The Supreme Court Five"

KENNEDY...........O'CONNOR.........REHNQUIST


SCALIA..............THOMAS







It's expertly formatted; and it all lines up perfectly, on my computer. Here's a clip from the article below, highlighting some of the "problems" the Five caused w/ their judicial-coup-de-etat:

...It can only be understood as a politically partisan decision."

He said the decision went completely counter to the justices' own often-expressed judicial and constitutional philosophies. Sandalow cited three areas where the five justices deviated from their own conservative judicial philosophy.

"First, their previous decisions have emphasized their respect for state judiciaries," said Sandalow. "Second, has been their reluctance to expand the interpretation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. And third, has been their belief that they have no warrant to cure every social ill.

"All three strands of the conservative philosophy they previously expressed are inconsistent with their decision. One can only conclude that they voted as they did because they wanted Bush to be president. And that's very disturbing.

I'll second that... "Very disturbing." And poor old Sandra Day O'Connor, we hear she can't even get to the front door without some "help." Wild Turkey, Herb.

The Five Republican Supreme Court Justices, who STOLE the 2000 Presidential Election, for George W. Bush... THE SUPREME COURT FIVE

THE SUPREME COURT FIVE:
Kennedy, O'Connor, Rehnquist, Scalia, and Thomas...

DATELINE: December, 2000; Bush vs. Gore for President...

On December 9, 2000, five members of the U.S. Supreme Court stunned the nation by halting the Florida manual recount. Justices Rehnquist, Scalia, Thomas, O'Connor, and Kennedy claimed they wished to review its constitutional validity.

With two rounds of Florida election litigation behind them and the presidency hanging in the balance, Americans of all political stripes trusted the U.S. Supreme Court to provide for a satisfactory means of assessing the will of Florida's voters.

When night fell on December 12, that faith was betrayed.

There would be no accurate and complete count of votes in Florida.

**************************
And, then, there's this...

As George W. Bush and his backers descend on Washington for days of celebration and years of governing, other Americans insist on reminding the world of the unprecedented use of political and judicial power that got Bush here.

On Saturday, 554 law professors from 120 law schools signed a full-page New York Times ad protesting the Dec. 9 halting of a Florida recount that had threatened to reverse Bush's tiny lead.

"By stopping the vote count in Florida, the U.S. Supreme Court used its power to act as political partisans, not judges of a court of law," read the ad.

In an interview, one of the law professors deplored the fact that one of his primary teachings to his students over a 40-year career in constitutional law -- that the U.S. Supreme Court acts as a nonpartisan institution despite differing judicial philosophies -- had been rendered null and void by the actions of the five justices who stopped the count.

"Only Bush's political influence was threatened, and correcting that is not a function of the Supreme Court," said Terrance Sandalow, dean emeritus of the University of Michigan Law School.

Sandalow considers himself to be a moderate judicial conservative, having opposed the Roe v. Wade abortion ruling and having supported the appointment of conservative jurist Robert Bork to the Supreme Court.

The newspaper ad also stressed the political diversity of signers. The ad stated:

"We are professors of law at 120 American law schools, from every part of our country, of different political beliefs. But we all agree that when a bare majority of the U.S. Supreme Court halted the recount of ballots under Florida law, the five justices were acting as political proponents for candidate Bush, not as judges.

"It is not the job of a federal court to stop votes from being counted. By stopping the recount in the middle, the five justices acted to suppress the facts. Justice [Antonin] Scalia argued that the justices had to interfere even before the Supreme Court heard the Bush team's arguments because the recount might 'cast a cloud upon what [Bush] claims to be the legitimacy of his election.'

"In other words, the conservative justices moved to avoid the 'threat' that Americans might learn that in the recount, [Vice President Al] Gore got more votes than Bush. This is presumably 'irreparable' harm because if the recount proceeded and the truth once became known, it would never again be possible to completely obscure the facts.

"But it is not the job of the courts to polish the image of legitimacy of the Bush presidency by preventing disturbing facts from being confirmed. Suppressing the facts to make the Bush government seem more legitimate is the job of propagandists, not judges.

"By taking power from the voters, the Supreme Court has tarnished its own legitimacy. As teachers whose lives have been dedicated to the rule of law, we protest."

Break with Philosophy

In the interview, Sandalow said the Florida decision "cannot be explained by the conservative judicial philosophy of the five -- I want to call them Republican, rather than conservative -- justices. It can only be understood as a politically partisan decision."

He said the decision went completely counter to the justices' own often-expressed judicial and constitutional philosophies. Sandalow cited three areas where the five justices deviated from their own conservative judicial philosophy.

"First, their previous decisions have emphasized their respect for state judiciaries," said Sandalow. "Second, has been their reluctance to expand the interpretation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. And third, has been their belief that they have no warrant to cure every social ill.

"All three strands of the conservative philosophy they previously expressed are inconsistent with their decision. One can only conclude that they voted as they did because they wanted Bush to be president. And that's very disturbing.

"I am hard pressed to think of any Supreme Court case -- ever -- that was decided on partisan grounds, although some students of the Court believe these same justices' recent decision not to allow statistical sampling in the Census comes close."

Like the Bush v. Gore decision, statistical sampling would have undoubtedly helped Democrats whose constituents are consistently undercounted.

The Three Points

Sandalow, addressing the first point, said: "The idea that the Supreme Court is the highest court in the land is not true. It is only true with respect to issues of federal law.

"Regarding issues of state law, a state supreme court is the highest authority, and has the final word on the meaning of state law. In Bush v. Gore, the Supreme Court Five failed to show deference to the Florida Supreme Court, and three of the five actually reversed the Florida court on the meaning of its own law.

"There are very limited situations when the Supreme Court overrules a state supreme court, but none were involved in this case. And even when the Court does have that power, it can do so only when the state court is extravagantly wrong. And as [justices] Ginsburg and Breyer demonstrated, one cannot say that about this case."

As to the second point, the interpretation of the equal protection clause, Sandalow said, "the decision of the five so-called conservative justices -- and they should be named, William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy -- that the way in which the recount would be counted was a violation of the equal protection clause was unprecedented.

"Although justices [David] Souter and [Stephen] Breyer joined in this judgment, they at least would have allowed the Florida Supreme Court an opportunity to establish uniform counting standards, and would have allowed the count to go forward.

"It's extremely unfortunate and quite unwise to have done this in a politically charged case," said Sandalow. "There have always been issues about vote counting, but we've never had a decision that the failure to have consistent standards is a violation of the equal protection clause.

"To decide so important an equal protection issue in two days without the opportunity to think through their decision was very unwise. And that's especially true because the Constitution gives to Congress the power to decide disputes such as this.

"For that reason alone, they should have left it to the Congress. What troubles me is my fear that these five Republicans inappropriately injected themselves into the case because they feared that Gore would get more votes than Bush."

On the third point, that the Supreme Court does not have the authority to correct every social ill, said Sandalow, the five justices "may have felt that the Florida judges were being excessively partisan, but if that were true, the constitutional remedy is in Congress, not in the Supreme Court.

"Lawsuits are limited in what they address. For instance, the disenfranchisement of African Americans could have been taken into account in Congress, but not in that lawsuit.

The 'Deadline'

"Also, the Court was quite aware that the so-called Dec. 12 deadline was not a mandatory deadline under federal law. The context did not appear to require that the date was to be met at the expense of counting the votes.

"The question whether the Florida legislature intended it to be so under state law should have been left to the Florida Supreme Court. The failure of the five Republican justices to do so was an outrageous usurpation of the Florida Supreme Court's authority."

Finally, said Sandalow,
"Scalia wrote:
that there would be
irreparable harm to Bush if illegal votes were counted. But that's quite wrong. If illegal votes were counted and threatened the stability of the government, that's one thing, but there was never any danger of that.

"Only Bush's political influence was threatened, and correcting that is not a function of the Supreme Court."

Link to: msnbc TV Show Transcripts

Here, you'll find
TRANSCRIPTS FOR MSNBC PROGRAMS...
Chris Matthews, HARDBALL transcripts;
COUNTDOWN w/ Keith Olberman transcripts;
RACHEL MADDOW SHOW transcripts...

So, if you see/hear something good on an msnbc-show,
like those listed above, you can find the full-text transcript, print it out and stick it in your boss's face, or your wife's, or whatever... Or so I can post 'em here w/ a snappy title. NOTE: It usually takes about a day for a night's-show's transcript to be available...