Obama Offers Social Security & Medicare Cuts

President Barack Obama continues to handle negotiations with the terribly. Obama offered Social Security and Medicare cuts. The Republicans have refused to even consider ending tax breaks for corporate jets to help pay off the federal debt. Obama once again forgot which caucus backs him. Obama failed to tell the Democratic caucus that he was putting Medicare and Social Security on the table.

“We would have preferred to hear it from the president instead of from the press,” said Sen. Barbara Mikulski (Md.), a senior member of the Senate Democratic conference. “We first have to go after tax earmarks.”

Mikulski and Sen. Kent Conrad that they are open to Social Security cuts. Social Security is running on a surplus. Republicans have long hated Social Security and wish to turn it into Chile dictator Augusto Pinochet's pension plan. Social Security isn't the cause of the federal debt.

Obama gave the the pay freeze to Republicans without getting nothing back. Obama dropped the public option to garner Republican votes. The result was House Republicans attempted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Obama's poor negotiating skills have created friction with the Democratic caucuses and the progressive base. Howie Klein urges progressives not to vote for President Obama in 2012.

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Brit Hume: Spiritual Counselor

Brit Hume said the only way for Tiger Woods to redeem himself is to leave his Buddhist faith and become a Christian. Exactly when did Hume become Fox News' version of Billy Graham?

The extent to which he can recover seems to me depends on his faith. He is said to be a Buddhist. I don't think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. So My message to Tiger would be, "Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world."

The Christianity of Pat Robertson and James Dobson is the demographic Fox News is attempting to appeal to. The Christian Right, corporate anti-taxers, and conservative media have merged intro a bizarre twisted monster. It kills me when conservatives bitch about how liberal the media is. Imagine Katie Couric dissing the Buddhist with the same disregard as Hume.

It is hard to believe Hume was a rfespected journalist at ABC News.

White House v. Fox News

White House senior adviser David Axelrod told George Stephanopoulos Fox News is not really a news network. The Daily Show has successfully made that point for several years.

It's really not news. It's pushing a point of view. And the bigger thing is that other news organizations like yours ought not to treat them that way, and we're not going to treat them that way. We're going to appear on their shows. We're going to participate but understanding that they represent a point of view."

The White House attack on Fox News has forced the network to make laughable arguments about how tough they were on President George W. Bush. Brit Hume and Bill O'Reilly claim the network held Bush accountable for mistakes in Iraq.

"I haven't seen any evidence of GOP intrusion," O'Reilly said.

What about Fox News passing Senate Republican Communications Center talking points as actual reporting? How about Fox News saying, "All-Out Civil War in Iraq: Could It Be a Good Thing?" Fox News does not do investigative journalism. The running joke is the network worker bees marched to John Moody's orders.

From: John Moody
Date: 4/6/2004

The events in Iraq Tuesday are going to be the top story, unless and until something else (or worse) happens. Err on the side of doing too much Iraq rather than not enough. Do not fall into the easy trap of mourning the loss of US lives and asking out loud why are we there? The US is in Iraq to help a country brutalized for 30 years protect the gains made by Operation Iraqi Freedom and set it on the path to democracy. Some people in Iraq don't want that to happen. That is why American GIs are dying. And what we should remind our viewers.

MoveOn.org is running a petition asking Democrats to stay off Fox News.

Enhanced Interrogation Techniques Are Torture

Andrew Sullivan explains to Brit Hume and Mitt Romney that enhanced interrogation techniques is torture. Sullivan cites 18 U.S. Code § 2340.

"As used in this chapter— (1) 'torture' means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control;

(2) 'severe mental pain or suffering' means the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from— (A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering; (B) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality; (C) the threat of imminent death; or (D) the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality; and

(3) 'United States' means the several States of the United States, the District of Columbia, and the commonwealths, territories, and possessions of the United States."

The bullshit wording by conservatives has changed. Rush Limbaugh described torture as a "fraternity prank." What Romney and Hume don't have the courage to discuss are the murders committed under the Bush administration's policy.

This is the body of Manadel al-Jamadi. He was tortured by the CIA.



Here we see Charles Graner gleefully posing over the body of al-Jamadi.



These are the enhanced interrogation techniques used on al-Jamadi.

Manadel Jamadi was an Iraqi prisoner who died in United States custody during interrogation at Abu Ghraib prison in November 2003. His name became known in 2004 when the Abu Ghraib scandal made news; his corpse, packed in ice, was the background for widely-reprinted pictures of grinning United States Army Specialists Sabrina Harman and Charles Graner, each offering a "thumbs-up" gesture. But the cause of his death was not generally known until February 17, 2005, when it was revealed that he had died after a fruitless half-hour interrogation, during which he was suspended from a barred window by his wrists, which were bound behind his back. News reports introduced the term "Palestinian hanging," a coinage attributed to the alleged frequent use of this technique by Israeli troops on Palestinian prisoners. Since at least the sixteenth century, this torture has been known as strappado.

Associated Press correspondent Seth Hettena reported that 30 minutes after beginning his questioning of the prisoner, the interrogator called for guards to reposition al-Jamadi, who he believed was "playing possum" as he slouched with his arms stretched behind him. But the guards found otherwise.

"After we found out he was dead, they were nervous," Specialist Dennis Stevanus said of the CIA interrogator and translator. "They didn't know what the hell to do." [1]

"They didn't know what the hell to do."

That sums up our interrogation policy.

Quote of the Day

"I don't -- his record -- I've seen efforts to try to construct a racist background, and it's a little skimpy."

Brit Hume on Don Imus.

Read this post if anyone has doubts about Don Imus making racist statements.