Dale Robertson, the man who claims to be the "President and Founder of the Tea Party" (is he the one who didn't check Google before describing them as "teabaggers?") is shown in this picture from Gawker wearing a "Man of Faith" hat while carrying a hand-lettered sign that includes the N-word (misspelled, no less).
From Gawker via WTF Is It Now
There really is a company selling laser-weight-reduction and laser-quitting-smoking programs, which they claim work by "stimulating endorphins when the pulsating light is absorbed by the skin and cells at acupressure points." They're working now to find a way to add bacon to the process.
Right after Fox's management emailed a memo about eliminating errors on their news (I know, they were serious!), the chart below was used to explain some poll results.
63% + 60% + 70% = 193%! Don't be too discouraged, though. That's 193% of just Republicans.
Some highlights from the memo:
The memo was sent after Fox recently ran stories that used films of larger crowds from past stories as background for reports on a rally and for Sarah Palin's book tour. The memo didn't address whether Fox's usual dishonesty is included in the memo's warnings.
Memo from MediaBistro's FishbowlDC. Chart via Wonkette: All 193% of Republicans...
ABC News reports that top officials of the Bush Administration, including Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and Ashcroft, discussed and approved detailed interrogation plans and methods of torture to be used. President "We-Don't-Torture" Bush said he knew about and approved of the discussions. The significance of this story is the shocking admission that top officials not only approved of the use of torture, but that they discussed and approved of specific techniques against specific prisoners.
Jan Crawford Greenburg's ABC News Blog posted a summary with links to key stories, and Digby sums it up by saying that:
"There was a time when the Village clucked and screeched about "defiling the white house" with an extra marital affair or hosting fund raising coffees. I would say this leaves a far greater stain on that institution than any sexual act could ever do.
The vice president, national security advisor and members of the president's cabinet sat around the white house "choreographing" the torture and the president approved it. I have to say that even in my most vivid imaginings about this torture scheme it didn't occur to me that the highest levels of the cabinet were personally involved"
Jurassicpork of the Welcome to Pottersville blog has done a terrific job of collecting some astounding screenshots of Fox News stories that are, at best, dishonest. A few show simple mistakes, like putting a volcano in Indonesia instead of the Philippines, and some demonstrate Fox's militant fanaticism ("Why the fuss about torturing people who want us dead?"). But too many reflect clear attempts to mislead viewers, such as repeatedly referring to Republican gay pedophiliac predator Rep. Mark Foley as a Democrat.
Read all of Fox News at Its Finest
I would never have guessed that I'd ever quote from conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan without criticizing what he said. But on this momentous day we have Andrew Sullivan united with liberal columnist Molly Ivins in opposition to the Military Commissions Act passed by the Senate yesterday. Sullivan calls the Democrats cowards for not standing up to the President, and notes that Bush will use opposition to torture as a campaign weapon against Democrats in upcoming elections.
Habeas Corpus is a legal right that allows those arrested to challenge in court the reasons for their arrest. It was first implemented in the Magna Carta in 1215 to eliminate the then-common practice of secret arrests, and has always been a part of American law. This bill allows secret arrests of enemy combatants with no timeline for charging the arrestee with a crime and no right to a lawyer other than one appointed by the military.
Of course, we're assured that only dangerous "enemy combatants," someone who “has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States” will be arrested under this bill. According to Ivins, "One person has already been charged with aiding terrorists because he sold a satellite TV package that includes the Hezbollah network."
The bill also allows those dangerous cable TV salespeople to be tortured, but only up to "serious pain, "defined as “bodily injury that involves extreme physical pain." In the secret trial before a military panel the government can use information collected without warrants to convict the detainee.
Ivins quotes George Bush in a speech from July 2003: “The United States is committed to worldwide elimination of torture, and we are leading this fight by example. Freedom from torture is an inalienable human right. Yet torture continues to be practiced around the world by rogue regimes, whose cruel methods match their determination to crush the human spirit.” I guess the example is that torture is OK, even if it is a human right.
The image above was posted by Andrew Sullivan yesterday pointing to a post from David Corn's blog with photos from Tuol Sleng Prison in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which has been turned into a museum documenting Khymer Rouge atrocities. We'll probably just create our torture museum in the Smithsonian, don't you think?
The IRS has proposed a change in rules to allow tax preparers to sell any and all information from income tax returns. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer "accountants and other tax-return preparers will be able to sell information from individual returns - or even entire returns - to marketers and data brokers."
In true Orwellian fashion, the IRS announced the proposed change in a release with the headline: "IRS Issues Proposed Regulations to Safeguard Taxpayer Information." They claim that more protection is provided by requiring signed permission from the taxpayer before any non-tax use of information is allowed. Because we know that everyone will read every word of the dozens of forms they sign after having their taxes done, right?
It would be more efficient if the IRS just went into the business of selling the information themselves. Maybe they could make enough to fund another tax cut for upper income taxpayers.
Via Sunbelt Blog
