Federal judge throws out challenge from Joe Arpaio calling the President's immigration reforms unconstitutional.


Courtesy of Reuters: 

A federal judge on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit brought against Barack Obama by an Arizona police chief who called the U.S. president's sweeping immigration reforms unconstitutional, saying the plaintiff lacked legal standing in the case. 

Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied the demand by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for a preliminary injunction to halt the policies. 

Arpaio, who calls himself "America's Toughest Sheriff," filed the case last month, saying Obama had overstepped his powers by bypassing Congress and ordering the changes himself.

No the President did not overstep his powers, but you sure did you pink underwear pimping piece of shit.



President Obama's poll numbers on the rise. Just in time to ruin the new year for Republicans.


Courtesy of CNN:  

Improving views of the economy have helped hike President Barack Obama's approval rating to a 20-month high, a new CNN/ORC poll showed Tuesday, as markets climbed to record levels at news of an economy in overdrive. 

More Americans still disapprove of the job Obama is doing as President. But at 48%, Obama's approval rating is at its highest point in CNN polling since May 2013. 

The gains were driven by newfound backing among women, independents and millennials — groups where Obama's approval numbers jumped 10 percentage points from a month ago.

You know the only thing better than good news, is good news that you know will irritate the GOP.

I have a feeling that if the President continues his new "Fuck you I'm going to do it anyway" attitude that his poll numbers will probably keep right on climbing.

And if he manages to get Gitmo closed....well then all bets are off.


President Obama wears crown. Republican heads heads to explode in 3..2..oh let's face it they're still all 'sploded from the last thing he did.


Courtesy of Politico:  

Sporting a tiara in a photo posted Wednesday, President Barack Obama seems to have broken his own rule of “you don’t put stuff on your head if you’re president.” 

But that’s the power of the Girl Scouts.

White House photographer Pete Souza shared a photo on Instagram on Wednesday of the president donning a tiara with a group of Girl Scouts from the White House Science Fair earlier this year in May. In the caption, Souza wrote the girls from Tulsa “convinced” Obama to join in on the fun. 

Yeah let me tell you as the father of a daughter of my own, little girls can talk dads into doing ANYTHING.

I myself have attended more than one tea party where the only other attendees were my daughter and her stuffed animal collection. (Sat in chairs so tiny that my knees were up my nose the entire time.)

Personally I like Michael Cohen's take on this:

And let's hope he spends the rest of his presidency not giving a f**k. (You know about conservative opinions, not the American people.)

P.S. Don't bother pointing out the difference between tiaras and crowns, like I said I have a daughter.

I just thought the word "crown" made a better headline. 


President Obama brought an early Christmas present for the Democrats, and the rest of the country.


Courtesy of The Hill:  

Democrats on Tuesday received a gift high on their wish list — an invigorated economy that they believe will give President Obama much-needed clout when he faces off with a Republican Congress next year. 

Current and former Obama aides say they expect the White House to get a year-end boost from the 5 percent expansion rate of the economy in the third quarter, and expect the president to aggressively talk up the gains in the months to come. 

The growth figures also could give the White House new leverage as it seeks common ground with Republicans on a range of policy areas, such as trade and taxes, and as it prepares for battle in others, like changing the healthcare law. 

"The proof is in the pudding," one former senior Obama administration official said. "There's really nothing else to say."

Yeah there really is nothing left to say is there?

It seems the minute that the polls closed on November 4th, and before the Republicans could even uncork their champagne bottles to celebrate what they thought was a victory, the President was already opening the can of whoopass that he was planning to present them with for the next two years.

God I love the holidays, don't you?


MSNBC presents the 9 most Sarah Palin being Sarah Palin moments.


MSNBC's Anna Brand has compiled a list of incidents in 2014 of Sarah Palin essentially being the most Sarah Palin.

And they are as follows:  

1. The time she decided Putin wrestles bears and Obama wears mom jeans

Sound bite: “People are looking at Putin as one who wrestles bears and drills for oil. They look at our president as one who wears mom jeans,” Palin said “Anyone who carries the commonsense gene would know that Putin doesn’t change his stripes,” she said. “He wants to exert huge power and dominance, so he has to get to those border areas and he has to capture them.”


2. The time she sort of quoted Dr. Seuss.

This of course was several months after Ted Cruz read from "Green Eggs and Ham" during his ridiculous and self serving filibuster.  In March Palin did the same in front of CPAC:  

Sound bite: “I do not like this Uncle Sam. I do not like his health care scam. I do not like these dirty crooks, or how they lie and cook the books. I do not like when Congress steals, I do not like their crony deals,” she continued. “I do not like this spying man. I do not like ‘oh yes we can.’ I do not like this spending spree. We’re smart, we know there’s nothing free. I do not like reporters’ smug replies when I complain about their lies. I do not like this kind of hope, and we won’t take it, nope, nope, nope.”

3. The time she said being a grandma might turn Hillary Clinton conservative. 

Sound bite: “I think anyone who is a grandparent really starts looking further down the road. We start thinking about things like $17 trillion dollar debt that our nation is under and what we’re going to hand that to our grandkids for them to pay off,” she said. “That’s not fair to our grandkids. Hopefully, she’ll start thinking along those terms, too.” 

4. The time she thought drinking Diet Dr. Pepper was the Ice Bucket Challenge

Sound bite: “C’mon, at this stage of my life, in my career, aren’t I a little too prim and proper for all that ice bucket water dumping?”

"Prim and proper?" Hardly.
5. The time she said let’s all bless the haters.

Sound bite: “Hey, the more they’re pouring it on, the more I’m going to bug the crap out of them by being out there, with a voice, with the message, Hopefully running for office in the future too … Bless their hearts, those haters out there. They don’t understand that it invigorates me. It wants me to get out there and defend the innocent,” she said. “It makes me want to work so hard for justice in this country!” 

6. The time her family got into a bloody, shirtless drunken brawl

Sound bite: No sound bite. No one reportedly listened to her when she tried to intervene in Bristol’s defense and was sitting safely inside her white stretch limo when police arrived, according to the report. 

Okay well clearly this Anna Brand did not do her research. Because as all of us already know, and the link above proves, Palin was not only NOT in the stretch Hummer, she was a full participant in the brawl itself.

The bloody shirtless part is right however.

7. The time she was stopped for speeding, which she called “qualifying.” 

Sound bite: “I wasn’t speeding, I was qualifying.” 

8. The time she declared that gun-free zones are ‘stupid on steroids.’

Sound bite: “Maybe our kids could be defended against criminals on the spot if more Mama Grizzlies carried [guns]. And [the] Obama administration wants you ID’d for that? Well, then go ahead and carry a sign too. A sign that says ‘Yeah, I carry a gun because a cop is too heavy.’” 

9. The time she launched a digital channel dedicated to herself. 

Sound bite: “Are you tired of the media filters? Well, I am! I always have been. So we’re going to do something about it. Together, we’ll go beyond the sound bites and cut through the media’s politically correct filter.”

Boy can you believe all of that happened in only one year?

Well I still think my favorite moment of Palin being Palin (And her family doing the same.), was the Throwdown at the Hoedown.

I mean if anything defines this lunatic and her inbred Wasillabilly family that was it. Cussing, fighting, attempting to hijack the media, it was all there for everybody to see, and hear, for themselves.

Gee, I can only imagine what next year will bring.


Sarah Palin's ghostwriter finally got off her fat ass and wrote her something to say about Cuba.


The video starts off with these words:

"President Obama's recent decision to normalize relations with the oppressive communist regime in Cuba, it puts me in mind of how another president handled relations with the communists." 

And after that it is just blah, blah, Ronald Reagan, blah blah, cold war, blah blah, evil empire, blah blah.......Obama sucks.

It's almost Christmas and I have no intention of transcribing the entire seven minutes of this thing.

However the sycophants over at Breitbart were forced to transcribe a portion of her holiday babble so I will simply link to them and share some of it here for the mocking. (And don't forget every time you visit Breitbart.com an angel has its wings torn off. So think before you click.)

Let us begin: 

“I am so ashamed with what the Obama administration has done to Cuban people. I do not support it,” Palin, speaking in front of a lit candle, says in a video that will be seen on The Sarah Palin Channel. (Aww Sarah Palin is ashamed of the President. Well then you KNOW he must be doing something right.)“This Christmas eve, I intend to light a candle and put it in my window to show my solidarity with every brave Cuban fighting for freedom and every political dissident languishing in Castro’s prisons. 

“I encourage you to do the same. Let’s join together in this. Let’s show them that the light of freedom shall never be extinguished.”

Yes lighting candles. Such an effective method for overthrowing a government. 

(Actually the idea comes from a Reagan documentary that Palin pimps during this warm over serving of word salad.)

Palin contrasted Reagan’s “moral clarity” (She confused "moral clarity" with "ignorance about diplomacy.") during the Cold War against the Soviet Union with Obama’s recent appeasement on Cuba. She mentioned that Reagan knew that the Soviet Union’s economic model was “a total failure” but did not collapse only because the Soviets were able to manipulate Americans into propping it up with grain deals and technology exchanges. She blamed “naive diplomats” and “Wall Street greed” for combining to “prop up the most repressive regime in human history” that “would have crumbled so much sooner under the weight of its own incompetence if it were not for” the policies of appeasement. 

Reagan, Palin notes, had the “moral clarity” to call the Soviet Union an “evil empire” and declare that his strategy for the Cold War was simply, “we win, they lose.” (Yes and if Mikhail Gorbachev had not taken the initiative and reached out to Reagan then nothing would have changed on his watch. Reagan's so-called toughness did nothing except slow down the process by which the cold war ended.)

Palin urged viewers to contrast Reagan’s moral clarity with Obama’s decision to “spit in the face of every human rights activist in Cuba.” (Well according to Palin, the President has stopped shoving things down throats and is now spitting in the face. Is that progress?) She said Obama’s decision to reverse U.S. policy toward Cuba “enriched their oppressors and sanctioned their abuse.” (She does realize that we currently trade with a number of countries which have terrible reputations for oppressing human rights, doesn't she?) She said that “greedy crony capitalists are propping up a failing Communist regime” in Cuba, and Obama just gave the “Castro regime the hard currency and the economic boost to remain in power forever.” 

Palin said it is “ludicrous” to think that Cubans will enjoy democracy and human rights because corporations can sell products there. 

“Ask human rights activists in China how that’s working for them,” Palin said, noting that the Cuban government will pocket 92% of wages of their workers to empower the apparatus that controls them. 

She ultimately accused Obama of giving “away all of our leverage to fight for human rights” (And boy hasn't that leverage been working out well so far.) and betraying “the people who are courageously putting their lives on the line fighting for freedom.” She even said Obama was “spitting in the face of every human rights activist on the globe” before asking Americans to light candles to support the Cuban freedom fighters that the Obama administration betrayed.

 Palin also uses the President's middle name during the video which I am assuming she still considers an insult.

You know for fun I would like to ask Palin on video to point to where Cuba is on a map. Fifty bucks says she couldn't find it in ten tries.

Okay so after working on this for a couple of days, the best Palin's ghostwriter could do was to steal some tape from a Reagan documentary, string a bunch of words together that almost make Palin sound like she once read a book, and change the attack against the President from accusing him of "shoving things down our throats" to "spitting in the face" of human rights advocates.

Color me unimpressed.

But even worse than the actual words that the ghostwriter had Palin vomit forth, is the image that Palin presents in the video of a poorly bewigged mental patient, with too much lip gloss, the glow of a teleprompter reflected in her man glasses, and a hideous fur collared suit with shoulder pads left over from the eighties.

I mean is anybody even trying to make her look professional these days?

I think I probably spent more time typing this up just now, and trust me I went through it as quickly as I possibly could, then her team spent putting that whole video together.

I have half a mind to start covering Ted Cruz instead of wasting my time on Palin. I mean at least Cruz comes up with new crazy all the time instead of regurgitating the same old partially digested talking points over and over again.

You know I think it might be about time to have a glass of the Gryphen family's famous eggnog.

It's made from a recipe that my father came up with;  Six ounces of rum with three tablespoons of nog added to give it that holiday flavor. 

It doesn't really taste that good but typically I pass out part way through my second glass. So who really cares?


Just a site with some of the best President Obama pictures you have ever seen.


You know every once in a while I will need a great Obama picture to complete a post.

Well now I know where to find them. Right here.


Instead of accepting defeat after the 2014 drubbing at the polls, President Obama has decided to come out swinging.


"So you're saying I can just kick ass, and not bother to take names?"
Courtesy of Politico: 

Obama’s turnaround in recent weeks – he’s seized the offensive with a series of controversial executive actions and challenges to leaders in his own party on the budget — can be attributed to a fundamental change in his political mindset, according to current and former aides. He’s gone from thinking of himself as a sitting (lame) duck, they tell me, to a president diving headlong into what amounts to a final campaign – this one to preserve his legacy, add policy points to the scoreboard, and – last but definitely not least – to inflict the same kind of punishment on his newly empowered Republican enemies, who delighted in tormenting him when he was on top. 

“'Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose' — Barack and Bobby McGee,” says former Clinton press secretary Mike McCurry. “President Obama is free to take the risks and use executive authority that will either make him a much more popular president with rising approval rates or get him impeached by a Republican Congress that won’t be able to control itself. We can contemplate the possibility of each result while smoking a Cuban cigar.” 

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says Obama’s newly aggressive stance – exemplified by his unilateral moves on immigration and Cuba – poses an early challenge to new Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and to House Speaker John Boehner, who are trying to re-shape the GOP into a party that can actually run a government. “Mitch and Boehner have to deal with the fact that Obama is becoming bolder and more radical,” Gingrich told me a few days before Obama announced his move to normalize relations with Cuba. 

I don't know about everybody else but I REALLY like the change in our President and I hope he only gets more confident and aggressive as the last of his final term plays itself out.

Hell he may actually finally achieve that fundamental change in American that Sarah Palin is always warning us about. And it will most likely be a good fundamental change that history will forever attribute to the hard work and tenacity of the 44th President.


Bristol Palin's ghostwriter blames the perception that there is an increase in racism on President Obama.


Courtesy of Brancy's blog: 

When Obama took office, his supporters were very optimistic about what having the first black President would do for our country. We could finally get past racism, and prove it to the world. But it hasn’t turned out like they said. 

Having a black President promised to make things fair and equal for everyone. In his campaign, Obama said the U.S. had been “stuck” in “a racial stalemate… for years,” and he wanted to help the country “move beyond some of our old racial wounds.” 

Obama himself thinks he’s done a pretty good job at that — he recently said that even though racism is “deeply rooted” in our society, we’ve made progress as a country. 

However, most Americans don’t agree with him. A poll by Bloomberg Politics says that 53% of Americans think race relations have gotten worse since Obama took office — 56% of whites and 45% of blacks. 

Only 9 percent of the people in the poll said race relations had gotten better under Obama. 

Another poll by Wall Street Journal and NBC discovered only 40% of white people and 35% of black people thought race relations were “good” in the US. It’s the lowest those numbers have been in almost 20 years. 

Instead of becoming less charged, conversations about race have become more controversial. People’s reactions to the decision in Ferguson and NYC are recent examples. The country is much more divided on race now than it was when Obama took office. 

Why is that the case? 

I’m not here to analyze politics. (Could you even imagine Bristol Palin trying to analyze anything?) But I sure do think that if we could look past color instead of constantly pointing out our differences, that would go a long ways toward making relationships between races better instead of worse. Sometimes it seems like the President and the people he appoints are more interested in pointing out the bad, instead of pointing people towards the better America that they say they want.

Okay well first off obviously we know that this is all Nancy French as directed by Sarah Palin, and Bristol probably does not even know the post exists. 

But since she allows her name to be used to pimp this garbage let me respond as if the Palin baby factory is actually capable of stringing words together to make actual sentences. (I've read some of her e-mails and texts. Trust me she gives stupid people a bad name.)

So listen here Bristol, if you are looking for somebody to blame for the increased racism, look no further than the house you grew up in. That is where Alaska's own little Miss Race Baiter resides for a little less than half of each year.

After all the very first signs of a resurgence in racism was found at one of Palin's rallies back in October of 2008. Which of course came after Palin herself had started claiming that our future President palled around with terrorists and wanted to fundamentally change the country for the worst.

From there it simply expanded exponentially and soon they were accusing him of not being born in the country, being a Muslim, having an anti-colonial mindset, being gay, being a communist, and just about everything else under the sun.

President Obama is not responsible for any of that.

All he did is, by daring to win the presidency, set a match to a barely concealed powder keg of racism to which that much of the country seemed completely oblivious.

Racism did not increase, it simply refuses to stay hidden any longer.

Today the white sheets and pointy hats are replaced by the tri-corner hats of the Teabaggers, the suits of the Fox News pundits,or simply a pair of red, white, and blue cowboy boots.

So let me say this as nicely as I possibly can.

Fuck off!

If any one person is to blame she is in the picture up. NOT sitting in the White House doing his job day in and day out, against an unprecedented sea of opposition.


North Korea claims they had nothing to do with Sony hack. Offer to participate in joint investigation.


Courtesy of HuffPo:

North Korea said U.S. accusations that it was involved in a cyberattack on Sony Pictures were "groundless slander" and that it was wanted a joint investigation into the incident with the United States. 

An unnamed spokesman of the North's foreign ministry said there would be "grave consequences" if Washington refused to agree to the joint probe and continued to accuse Pyongyang, the official KCNA news agency reported on Saturday. 

On Friday, President Barack Obama blamed North Korea for the devastating cyberattack, which led to the Hollywood studio canceling "The Interview," a comedy on the fictional assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. 

In its first substantive response to the accusation, the isolated North Korea said it could prove it had nothing to do with the massive hacking attack. 

"We propose to conduct a joint investigation with the U.S. in response to groundless slander being perpetrated by the U.S. by mobilizing public opinion," the North Korean spokesman said. 

"If the U.S. refuses to accept our proposal for a joint investigation and continues to talk about some kind of response by dragging us into the case, it must remember there will be grave consequences," the spokesman said.

Just a suggestion, but if you want to convince America you were not involved in a cyber terrorist attack you might want to avoid making any further threats. 

Okay well now I don't know WHAT to think.

I mean it does not seem likely that the President would go on national television accusing this country of being behind the hack if he were not 100% sure of that. However this response from North Korea is completely unprecedented.

You know the more I think about this story the more I imagine Seth Rogen and James Franco high as shit sitting in a room several years ago saying "Let's make a movie that will attract all kinds of bad attention from a country that hates us and see how that goes."

One of the things to keep in mind is that in this day and age something like this was always going to happen at some point. In a way Rogen and Franco were simply in the right place at the right time.


President Obama on Sony's decision to pull "The Interview" from its Christmas release: "Yes, I think they made a mistake." Update!


Courtesy of NBC News:  

President Barack Obama said Friday that Sony Pictures Entertainment "made a mistake" by nixing the release of a comedic film after the company was hacked and received cyber threats. 

"Sony's a corporation. It suffered significant damage. There were threats against some of its employees," he said "I am sympathetic to the concerns that they faced. Having said all that, yes, I think they made a mistake." 

In a year-end press conference, Obama said that he wishes Sony had spoken to him before deciding to back down on the film "The Interview," which depicted a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "I would have told them 'Do not get into a pattern in which you're intimidated by these kinds of criminal attacks,'" he said. "That's not who we are," he said. 

"That's not what America's about."

I agree with the President's remarks 100%.

Just like I did with George Clooney yesterday

By the way the Sony executives are none too thrilled that the President talked about them yesterday.

It must be noted that George R. R. Martin, author of the incredible Game of Thrones books, has offered to show The Interview in his own theater in Sante Fe, Mexico.

He also had this to say: 

"The level of corporate cowardice here astonishes me. It's a good thing these guys weren't around when Charlie Chaplin made THE GREAT DICTATOR. If Kim Jong-Un scares them, Adolf Hitler would have had them shitting in their smallclothes."

Well stated.

Update: It looks like Sony is rethinking their position in response to the President's remarks: 

Sony Pictures Entertainment has said it still wants to release its film The Interview which mocks the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and it is considering alternative platforms. 

The remarks come after President Obama said the film company made a mistake by cancelling the movie's release.

That is somewhat different than what they were saying before. 

Larry Flynt, founder of Hustler magazine, is also jumping into the fray with a porn parody of The Interview: 

“If Kim Jong-un and his henchmen were upset before, wait till they see the movie we’re going to make,” Flynt said. “I’ve spent a lifetime fighting for the First Amendment, and no foreign dictator is going to take away my right to free speech.”

I guess when you've already taken a bullet, a little hacking seems quaint by comparison. 


Chris Rock provides a little perspective.




Last night's musical Colbert Report send off. Might need a hankie.


Ah man that was so good.

I ma going to really, really, really, miss this show.

As a bonus here is Stephen Colbert and President Obama backstage at George Washington University last week practicing this song together.


President Obama restores diplomatic relations with Cuba. Republican heads to explode in 3..2..1 Update!


Courtesy of Reuters: 

The United States will restore diplomatic relations it severed with Cuba more than 50 years ago, a major policy shift ending decades of hostile ties with the communist-ruled island, President Barack Obama said on Wednesday. 

Announcing the end of what he called a "rigid" policy of isolation of Cuba that had been ineffective, Obama said the United States would move toward normal ties and would open an embassy in Cuba. 

Obama discussed the changes with Cuban President Raul Castro on Tuesday in a nearly hour-long telephone call. Castro spoke in Cuba as Obama made his announcement on a policy shift made possible by the release of American Alan Gross, 65, who had been imprisoned in Cuba for five years.

At the end of this article the reporter writes this:

Obama will likely face resistance on this.

Gee, ya think?

Republicans are going to lose their freaking minds over this. Especially since he is doing it on his own, and without working with Congress.

In fact Hillary's 2016 opposition has already expressed his displeasure.

Here is a timeline of US relations with Cuba just to give you an idea as to how big of a deal this will be.

Update: Oh yeah Marco Rubio is throwing quite the hissy fit over this:  

"This entire policy shift announced today is based on an illusion, based on a lie,” Rubio, who is the son of Cuban immigrants, told reporters on Capitol Hill. 

"The White House has conceded everything and gained little." "I’m committed to doing everything I can to unravel as many of these changes as possible," he added. 

"This Congress is not going to lift the embargo," Rubio declared at the end of his news conference.

You know I think Rubio is just pissed that Obama undermined his base with this decision, and is making all of the Republicans look like obstructionists on ending an embargo that has gone on for far too long.

I think he just needs to take a drink of water and calm down.


Better?


Tea Partiers hold rally outside of White House. Talk soon turns to lynching.


On Wednesday a group of Tea Party enthusiasts gathered outside the White House to protest immigration reform. And then thinks got just a touch racist.

Courtesy of Right Wing Watch:  

“Hang the traitor!” 

“Hang the lying Kenyan traitor!” 

“We’ve got rope.” 

“Plenty of trees in the front yard, wouldn’t be the first one hung on one of them trees.” 

“Whatever happened to those good ol’ days?” 

“Don’t snap his neck, you watch him choke to death.” 

“He’s just biding his time until Satan takes him home to where he belongs.” 

Gosh isn't it great that we live in a country where just about any toothless inbred dipshit can stand outside the home of the President of the United States and discuss exactly how they would hang him from a tree?

I simply cannot imagine why people keep insisting that the Tea Party is racist. Can you?


Unhappy with continued defense of CIA torture techniques Senator Mark Udall discloses findings of classified "smoking gun" report on Senate floor.


Courtesy of The Nation:  

The debate in Washington over Bush-era torture at the Central Intelligence Agency took a large leap forward Wednesday morning when Senator Mark Udall took the Senate floor and disclosed portions of an internal CIA review, while renewing his demand for a change in the intelligence agency’s leadership and criticizing the Obama administration for not doing enough to ensure torture doesn’t happen again. 

The so-called “Panetta Review” has dominated much of the drama leading up to the torture report’s release. The document is an internal CIA examination that reportedly validated many of the worst claims about the torture program, including much of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s findings. (The CIA was after this document when it breached Senate computers in January.) 

On Wednesday, Udall described the Panetta Review as a “smoking gun”—proof from the CIA itself that there were serious problems with the torture program. It undercuts almost every contemporary statement made by CIA Director John Brennan and other top intelligence officials, he said, who have vocally been defending what occurred.

Here is what Udall disclosed on the Senate floor today:  

"The Panetta Review found that the CIA repeatedly provided inaccurate information to the Congress, the president, and the public on the efficacy of its coercive techniques. The Brennan Response, in contrast, continues to insist that the CIA’s interrogations produced unique intelligence that saved lives. Yet the Panetta Review identifies dozens of documents that include inaccurate information used to justify the use of torture—and indicates that the inaccuracies it identifies do not represent an exhaustive list. 

The Panetta Review further describes how detainees provided intelligence prior to the use of torture against them. It describes how the CIA—contrary to its own representations—often tortured detainees before trying any other approach. It describes how the CIA tortured detainees even when less coercive methods were yielding intelligence. The Panetta Review further identifies cases in which the CIA used coercive techniques when it had no basis for determining whether a detainee had critical intelligence at all. In other words, CIA personnel tortured detainees to confirm they didn’t have intelligence—not because they thought they did.

To date, there has been no accountability for the CIA’s actions or for Director Brennan’s failure of leadership. Despite the facts presented, the president has expressed his “full confidence” in Director Brennan, and demonstrated that trust by making no effort at all to rein him in. The president stated that it wasn’t “appropriate” for him to wade into the issues between the Committee and the CIA. […] 

The White House has not led on this issue in the manner we expected when we heard the president’s campaign speeches in 2008 and read the executive order he issued in January 2009. To CIA employees in April 2009, President Obama said, “What makes the United States special, and what makes you special, is precisely the fact that we are willing to uphold our values and ideals even when it’s hard—not just when it’s easy; even when we are afraid and under threat—not just when it’s expedient to do so. That’s what makes us different.” 

This tough, principled talk set an important tone for the beginning of his presidency. However, fast forward to this year, after so much has come to light about the CIA’s barbaric programs, and President Obama’s response was that we “crossed a line” as a nation, and that, quote, “hopefully, we don’t do it again in the future.” 

That’s not good enough. We need to be better than that. There can be no cover-up. There can be no excuses. If there is no moral leadership from the White House helping the public understand that the CIA’s torture program wasn’t necessary and didn’t save lives or disrupt terrorist plots, then what’s to stop the next White House and CIA Director from supporting torture?"

Excellent question!

Senator Udall is damn right. If nobody is punished for this, and some are even allowed to keep their jobs, then there is NOTHING to prevent this same thing from happening again the next time the terrorists successfully attack us here at home.

Which I think we all know id bound to happen at some point.


The Comedian-in-Chief took over the Colbert Report last night and it was actually quite hysterical.


Click image to play video
Courtesy of TPM: 

President Barack Obama did his best Stephen Colbert impression Monday night when he crashed "The Colbert Report" set early and kicked the host out of his chair. 

Obama came out just in time for a segment called "The Word," which he renamed as the more presidential "The Decree." 

"Nation, as you know, I, Stephen Colbert, have never cared for our President," Obama began. "The guy is so arrogant, I bet he talks about himself in the third person." 

The segment was ostensibly about healthcare, but the Colbert writers poked fun at Obama throughout. As Obama touted HealthCare.gov's nearly one million new sign ups, the text to the right of the screen read "so, half as popular as a Grumpy Cat video."

For some reason the President's  sometimes halting delivery made this even funnier.

The guy may have the best sense of humor in presidential history.

Afterward there was a legitimate, if sometimes silly, interview which you should not miss either.

You can see part one here. And part two here.


President Obama goes to the doctor, ends up becoming an unwitting participant in a future Prilosec commercial.


Courtesy of Reuters:  

President Barack Obama, who had medical tests on Saturday after complaining of a sore throat, is suffering from acid reflux, the president's physician said. 

"The president's symptoms are consistent with soft tissue inflammation related to acid reflux and will be treated accordingly," Obama's doctor, Captain Ronny Jackson, said in a statement.

Now of course that is the official explanation, however  some conservatives are convinced that Obama's sore throat is simply proof that he is gay.

Which of course is a ridiculous contention, because my ex-wife had sore throats all of the time and I can assure you it was not due to any activity that she might have had in common with gay men.

However I would also like to voice my skepticism about this diagnosis based solely on the fact that I think acid reflux is one of those fake TV diseases, like restless leg syndrome, and erectile dysfunction that advertisers use to sell us medications that we do not really need. (I mean seriously who CAN'T get an erection?)

Not only that but the medications to "cure" these diseases always seem to have side effects significantly worse than the problem they are curing. Such as fracturing bones, increased risk of liver failure, and rectal bleeding.

That's right RECTAL BLEEDING!

Guess what, if my choices are legs that move around at night or bleeding out of my ass I will simply tie my damn legs together with rope or something.

Anyhow whatever the President really has, and I would assume it is probably a sore throat from swallowing all of the conservative BS these last couple of years, I hope he gets better,

Because we still need him.

Perhaps now more than ever.



Newest jobs report exceeds all expectations. Probably the one thing the conservatives will not blame on Obama.


Courtesy of CNN Money: 

Hiring surged in November as employers added 321,000 jobs, crowning 2014 as the strongest year for job growth since 1999. The unemployment rate remained steady at 5.8%, according the government report released Friday. That's down from 7% this time last year. 

Hiring blew out the consensus forecast from economists surveyed by CNNMoney, who expected a gain of 228,000 jobs. 

"The number is almost off the charts, given what we've seen over the past 10 years," said Patrick O'Keefe, director of economic research at accounting firm CohnReznick, who does not feel it's an anomaly. "Companies are making up for hiring that was deferred earlier in the cycle." 

The U.S. economy has been gaining an average of 224,000 jobs a month over the past year. Any month with job gains over 200,000 is considered strong.

Gee it's too bad that President Obama made the poor choice of being born with too much pigment in his skin, or this might really really impress people. 

I swear if they announced that this man had cured cancer the conservatives would bitch about all of the doctors and researchers that he had put out of business.

By the way somebody remind me, who was the President in 1999? And WHICH party did he belong to?


A Deficit of Dignity.


I read this New York Times article this morning by Timothy Egan that is ostensibly about the disrespect shown by Elizabeth Lauten toward the First Daughters. However the article makes the case that this is the kind of disrespect the President, and his entire family, have been receiving since the day he took office.

Here. take a moment to read what he says: 

We know President Obama wants a lasting deal on immigration, something to make taxes fairer, a little help from a caveman Congress on climate change. If he’s lucky, he might get some of the above. But one thing his worst opponents have never given him, and probably never will, is respect. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. 

From the day he took office, his legitimacy has been challenged, his American birth has been suspect, and he’s been personally insulted, lectured, yelled at and disrespected in public, by public figures, in a way that few if any American presidents have ever faced.

At this point Egan discusses the Lauten incident, which I think we all know quite a bit about so I will leave that out and instead share what he says a few paragraphs down:

I want to believe this is not about race, but it sure looks that way. Barely nine months into his presidency, a Republican congressman, Joe Wilson, shouted out “You lie!” at the president in the decorous setting of a joint session of Congress — a flagrant show of disrespect for the man and the office. For this, Wilson became a hero in conservative media. 

The biggest slap at the president was the smear about his birth. It’s insulting and humiliating that Obama — alone among presidents — has been forced to release his long-form birth record to satisfy a clutch of fact-deniers. Leading the attack on the president’s very citizenship is the professional vulgarian Donald Trump, who gets away with the kind of preposterous, race-based comments granted few black public figures. 

Trump’s displays of idiocy on Fox News are a staple of that network. I wait for the day when something Trump says that is both stupid and incendiary is held up as representative of all white people — and he’s asked to apologize for his race. 

Also on Fox, Sean Hannity recently blamed President Obama for the troubles in Ferguson — because, I guess, he’s black. 

The list goes on and on: Arizona’s governor, Jan Brewer, wagging her finger at President Obama while lecturing him on an airport tarmac, as if he were some errand boy and not the commander in chief. The complete fraud of the Benghazi nonstory — as even a Republican House panel had to conclude recently. The endless millions spent finding nothing scandalous about the president on Benghazi proved just one thing: how grass-roots conservative hatred of the president drives Republican congressional action.

The article goes on to talk about the disrespect demonstrated toward Michelle Obama as well, which included this rather satisfying paragraph: 

The first lady cannot go on vacation without the Drudge Report hyping elaborate travel bills, playing to race insinuations. But when the family of Sarah Palin was involved in a beer-fueled, fist-flying brawl in Alaska this year, conservative media did not call them out for bad white family values, or failures as role models.

Yeah, I always love when the brawl shows up in an article just to remind all of us that despite all of her attempts to make it go away this thing stuck to Palin and her family, like a dingleberry on a dog's ass.

I don;t know about the rest of you but I found myself yelling "Goddamn right!" over and over as I read this article.

And that is really the thing after all. When people argue that this President could have done more, or  that he failed to keep all of his campaign promises, or that he is "ineffectual," I want to grab them by the shoulders and shake them vigorously while yelling "What could YOU have accomplished with this level of disrespect, obstructionism, and  partisan entrenchment?"

In light of what this President has faced since the very day of his inauguration, he is a fucking miracle worker.

His list of accomplishments is actually quite staggering, even without considering that he is piloting the country into unrelenting partisan headwinds that essentially never let up.

I told my brother during Thanksgiving that history is going to completely exonerate this man, and that he would hardly recognize his presidency in ten to fifteen years. After the historians get the chance to wipe way all of the mud that is being thrown at him everyday by the Right Wing politicians and conservative media, they are going to reveal some amazing accomplishments of which I really think most Americans are not even completely aware.

Ultimately, and I think this is going to anger the racists most of all, President Obama might really turn out to be the "Magic Negro."


 

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