"Philip Crowley, a State Department spokesman, committed the classic mistake of a Washington mouthpiece by telling the truth about Private Manning to a small group (including a blogger): that the military’s treatment of Private Manning was “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.” He resigned on Sunday.
Far more troubling is why President Obama, who has forcefully denounced prisoner abuse, is condoning this treatment. Last week, at a news conference, he said the Pentagon had assured him that the terms of the private’s confinement “are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards.” He said he could not go into details, but details are precisely what is needed to explain and correct an abuse that should never have begun."
"What happened next was surprising to those in the Courtroom. Judge Facciola got up out of his chair, while pacing, gave a speech about the history of the civil rights movement in the United States. He intimated that there were trumped up charges back in the 50s and 60s, too. And, he evoked the Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham case, Martin Luther King's 'letters from the Birmingham jail' and how civil rights protesters were often brought to court to face stricter charges. The judge clearly linked the protest over Don't Ask, Don't Tell to those earlier civil rights protests."
"Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), lamenting the passage of health care reform: 'I wish that we had continued that bipartisan effort that took place prior to the President coming into office.' Watch."Why, look at how the Republicans tried and tried and tried with all of their squinted eye might to be bipartisan.
– Dick Morris, Fox News commentator, November 4: “A deathblow to ObamaCare.”
– Fred Barnes, Fox News commentator, January 20: “The health care bill, ObamaCare, is dead with not the slightest prospect of resurrection.”
– Robert A. Levy, chairman of the Cato Institute, January 26: “That’s why Obamacare is dead.”
– Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Minority Whip, February 24: “Speaker Pelosi doesn’t have the votes in the House. . . . It is futile for for them to continue to try and push something on the American people that frankly won’t result in better health care.”
– Rep. Dan Boren (D-OK), March 3: “I think the votes are not there and I don’t see where we get them.”
– Cantor, March 5: “Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi doesn’t have the votes needed to pass a health-care bill in the House of Representatives.”
– Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), Minority Leader, March 14: “If she had 216 votes, this bill would be long gone. They tried to pass it in September, October, November, December, January, February. Guess what? They don’t have the votes.”
– Boehner, March 17: Health care reform will pass “over my dead body.”
– Cantor, March 19: “[T]here’s no way they can pass this bill.”
"So now all of a sudden, he's an effective and able President that fights for his convictions? Who knew? Not from reading the papers prior to today.
LA Times:
What's clear now, however, is that Obama is a president with a combative stubbornness that's not often visible in his cool, above-the-fray public style. And he has demonstrated that a president who picks a goal, adopts a battle plan, and sticks with it is not easy to knock out."
"Instead, I want you to consider the contrast: on one side, the closing argument was an appeal to our better angels, urging politicians to do what is right, even if it hurts their careers; on the other side, callous cynicism. Think about what it means to condemn health reform by comparing it to the Civil Rights Act. Who in modern America would say that L.B.J. did the wrong thing by pushing for racial equality? (Actually, we know who: the people at the Tea Party protest who hurled racial epithets at Democratic members of Congress on the eve of the vote.)
And that cynicism has been the hallmark of the whole campaign against reform."
"'It's safe to say that she's going to change some of the ways that we look at effective speakers, and maybe create a new definition of how to get things done under incredibly difficult circumstances,' said Ray Smock, who was House historian for a dozen years under former speakers Tip O'Neill, Jim Wright and Tom Foley."
"On the other side of the aisle, Democrats are empowered and energized. In the best tradition of great presidents who have learned on the job, President Obama has shown a willingness to course correct and an ability to do so. In the wake of Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts (a victory that led Fred Barnes to declare health care reform 'dead with not the slightest prospect of resurrection'), Obama finally moved off the sidelines and took charge of moving health care forward. He finally gave up his obsession with bipartisanship, finally took on the health insurance industry, and finally adopted the populist rhetoric the times call for.
As a result, he created the kind of momentum that builds upon itself -- the kind that delivers the votes you never have until, well, you have them. The kind of momentum that says, this train is leaving the station, you better get on board or get left behind. The kind of momentum he and his fellow Democrats can use as they tackle the huge problems ahead."
"'There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year,' McCain said. 'They have poisoned the well in what they've done and how they've done it.'"
"“For someone who campaigned on ‘Country First’ and claims to take great pride in bipartisanship, it’s absolutely bizarre for Senator McCain to tell the American people he is going to take his ball and go home until the next election. He must be living in some parallel universe because the fact is, with very few exceptions, we’ve gotten very little cooperation from Senate Republicans in recent years.
“At a time when our economy is suffering and we’re fighting two wars, the American people need Senator McCain and his fellow Republicans to start working with us to confront the challenges facing our country—not reiterating their constant opposition to helping working families when they need it most.”"
"GOD HATES #TAGS"
"SALISBURY, Conn. � Actor Elmore 'Rip' Torn has been charged with breaking into a Connecticut bank and carrying a loaded handgun while intoxicated."
"He rebuked a questioner who insisted that the monthly deficit is higher now than Bush's annual deficit. 'That's factually just not true,' he said. 'And you know it's not true.' He lampooned Republican lawmakers seated in front of him for portraying his health care legislation as 'some Bolshevik plot.' He mocked Republicans for railing against the stimulus package and then showing up at 'the ribbon-cuttings for some of these important projects in your communities.' And he did it all while calling for 'a tone of civility instead of slash and burn will be helpful.'"
"RUSSERT: Tom Cole — former head of the NRCC, congressman from Oklahoma — said, “He scored many points. He did really well.” Barack Obama, for an hour and a half, was able to refute every single Republican talking point used against him on the major issues of the day. In essence, it was almost like a debate where he was front and center for the majority of it. … One Republican said to me, off the record, behind closed doors: “It was a mistake that we allowed the cameras to roll like that. We should not have done that.”"
Ant: Taylor Swift got joewilsoned!
"Let's return to 1,100ad, when tribal warlords called all the shots, and everyone else just starved, or died of illness or injury. When there were no government rules and regulations for safety of the food supply, no attempts to maintain a society of laws and justice, and no public services to take your taxes and 'waste them' by government organizing and operating the most complex factors in society to create a safe and healthy environment. (Oh, wait!! You think you'll be one of the warlords, don't you? Sucker...)"
"A clear line can be drawn from the red-baiting and Muslim-baiting of Obama during the campaign, to the birther movement, to shouting down Democratic members of Congress at town hall meetings to the accusation that the President of the United States was a Nazi because he sought to expand health care to a greater number of Americans to Joe Wilson's behavior last week. Parenthetically, it should be noted that other American presidents who have sought to expand health care coverage to more Americans include Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, two presidents whose anti-Nazi credentials are reasonably strong.
The Republicans, to their credit, have done a remarkable job of lowering the bar for what passes as acceptable political dialog in recent months. It is hard to believe that only a few months ago people were outraged that Rush Limbaugh, the blowhard in chief of the right wing of the Republican Party, suggested that he wanted to see President Obama fail. After what we have seen the last few months, Limbaugh's comments seem positively bipartisan in nature."
"In every region of the country, a majority of physicians supported a combination of public and private options, as did physicians who identified themselves as primary care providers, surgeons, or other medical subspecialists. Among those who identified themselves as members of the American Medical Association, 62.2 percent favored both the public and private options."
"Under the cold logic of the insurance industry, it makes perfect sense: If you are in a marriage with someone who has beaten you in the past, you're more likely to get beaten again than the average person and are therefore more expensive to insure.
In human terms, it's a second punishment for a victim of domestic violence.
In 2006, Democrats tried to end the practice. An amendment introduced by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), now a member of leadership, split the Health Education Labor & Pensions Committee 10-10. The tie meant that the measure failed.
All ten no votes were Republicans, including Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming), a member of the 'Gang of Six' on the Finance Committee who are hashing out a bipartisan bill. A spokesman for Enzi didn't immediately return a call from Huffington Post."
"In the garage, the student told police he discovered a man and when the student told the man to get out, the man accosted him, Guglielmi said. The student defended himself with the sword, cutting off the man's hand and causing a severe laceration to his upper body, he said."
"An 11-year-old boy gets high marks in storytelling after staging a hoax to cover up his bad grades. Police said the boy faked his kidnapping Friday to avoid bringing home a bad report card, saying that a man with a pistol snatched him after he left Ed White Middle School. The boy said the man forced him into a 'beat-up car' and threatened to kill him.
The student said he escaped by jumping out of the car but wasn't able to grab his bookbag, which contained the report card."
"A year ago I criticized Hillary Clinton for saying 'this (Bush) administration will go down in history as one of the worst.'
'She's wrong,' I wrote. Then I rated these five presidents, in this order, as the worst: Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, Ulysses Grant, Hoover and Richard Nixon. 'It's very unlikely Bush can crack that list,' I added.
I was wrong. This is my mea culpa. Not only has Bush cracked that list, but he is planted firmly at the top."
"LOS ANGELES -Al Gore announced on Thursday a series of worldwide concerts to focus on the threat of climate change, with a powerhouse lineup from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Snoop Dogg to Bon Jovi."
"WASHINGTON - Who says food fads can't last? Thousands of years before the advent of Tex-Mex, ancient Americans were spicing up stew with red hot chili peppers."
"(AP) - TENERIFE, Canary Islands _ A fast-thinking pilot with passengers in cahoots fooled a hijacker by braking hard upon landing, then accelerating to knock the man down. When he fell, flight attendants threw boiling water in his face, and about 10 people pounced on him, Spanish officials said Friday"
