MSNBC’s Ed Schultz Calls Radio Host Laura Ingraham A ‘Right Wing Slut’. Specifically a “right wing talk slut”

Could have called her a hypocrite, Ed.

Haven’t been blogging much lately because I went away on vacation and still haven’t really caught up to work and life. A lot of things to write about, some things I am glad I can skip. But one thing I want to comment on is the press release that is a symptom of Newt Gingrich’s self sabotage. You don’t get to be president when your campaign’s definition of crisis management is to paint a fairly accommodating David Gregory as a malicious foot soldier for a secret society of well read authors and commentators who exist to derail Gingrich 2012.

Sullivan is a Trig Birther so this tidbit regarding President Obama’s birther opposition shouldn’t be that surprising:

Nonetheless, I think this should have been done long ago. Because a president has to put his public responsibilities before his pride and his privacy. That’s the price of the job – to defuse or debunk conspiracy theorists or just skeptics with all the relevant information you have.

It’s also the job of the media always to press for more information, not less. But so many spent their energy arguing that Obama need do no more and piling on the Birthers. They still seem to think they are gatekeepers, possessors of the power to decide what is or is not legitimate for citizens to ask of their public officials.

via Why Did Obama Wait So Long? – The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan – The Daily Beast.

It’s not the media’s job to always press for more information. It’s their job to press for more information relevant to an issue, topic or subject that can aid them in the tasks of investigating, editorializing or documenting. Any skeptics were persuaded by the short form birth certificate, numerous investigations, newspaper clippings and his books and his childhood pictures.

Birthers should be ignored. As should 9/11 truthers. After thresholds of proof were defined met and reviewed repeatedly, they still say their theories hold. Conspiracy theorists cannot be convinced or debunked. They are fanatics and with regards to this birth certificate they cannot be convinced.

Obama provided a short form birth certificate which is accepted by state and federal law for identification purposes. The MSM should ignore people who demand we:

• prove a negative
• continually change the threshold for acceptance of proof of the affirmative (without the fundamental context changing)
• accept a single news personality as a definitive source

What Birthers demand that we prove Barack Hussein Obama II is not a Manchurian, Kenyan Born, Indonesian Madrassa trained plant under control of the Illuminati, USA Branch that they know he is. Yes. Let’s dig deeper into that. That should be the next question posed to Press Secretary Jay Carney. And who the hell said citizens questions are illegitimate when they ask to see proof of Obama’s citizenship. Citizens questions are illegitimate when they ignore that proof that answers that question.

Multiple media outlets sent a reporter to Hawaii so they could talked to people, newspaper officials and the Dept. of State of Hawaii to get the information (See FactCheck.org, Politifact, CNN and others). A variety of pictures from his childhood exist. I have never seen all of that type of information from Clinton, either Bush or Reagan or Carter. The MSM pressed for more information and they got it.

Sullivan is out of line here.

International Association of Fire Fighters to congressional Democrats: no more money.

“We’re feeling taken for granted,” the union’s president, Harold Schaitberger, told The New York Times, which seems reasonable—after all, they don’t just donate money and support Democratic candidates; they also fight fires, in peoples’ homes. IAFF’s dough will now go to state and local-level candidates, especially in states where unions are being threatened by Tea Party jerkoffs.

via Firefighters Break Up With National Democrats.

More specifically:

The firefighters’ union was disappointed that the Democratic-led Senate and House failed to pass legislation last year that would have given firefighters and police officers nationwide the right to bargain collectively. The union also voiced frustration that Congressional Democrats did not fight harder to prevent cuts in funding for emergency response equipment and training, a move that would have helped prevent the layoffs of firefighters.

via Irked at Democrats, Firefighters Suspend Federal Contributions – NYTimes.com.

Meanwhile, 9/11 First responders must explicitly prove that they are not terrorists before receiving First Responder benefits thanks to a McCarthyite amendment…

The provision was tacked on by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) during the contentious fight over the bill in December, which was blocked by Republicans at the time. Stearns’ amendment adds a paragraph stipulating the “disqualification of individuals on the terrorist watch list,” and requiring each potential beneficiary to be run through the list.

McAuliff reports participants “will soon be told that their names, places of birth, addresses, government ID numbers and other personal data will be provided to the FBI to ensure they are not terrorists.”

via 9/11 First Responders To Be Run Through FBI Terrorism Watch List Before Getting Health Care Benefits | TPMMuckraker.

Nine years and an FBI background check to receive health care for responding to the largest terrorist attack on our soil. Look at Henry Waxman’s response to the amendment in the Daily Show clip embedded below.

Have to be a prick about this:

I stand by my previous defense of the right of lawyers to represent clients without being targeted or pressured because of those clients. Without that, how would any mass murderer get a fair trial?

via Pressuring Lawyers, Ctd – The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan – The Daily Beast.

How would anyone accused of mass murder get a fair trial? is the proper question.

PM Carpenter comments on the Times report on Britian after a year under Cameron’s Austerity measures that Sullivan loves:

We need not welcome ourselves to the Paul Ryan vision of a Path to Poverty. David Cameron is doing it for us, which J. M. Keynes could have told him 80 years ago would result in further misery and decline.

via p m carpenter’s commentary: Britain’s miracle.

It’s time for the Democratic legislators to draw some hard lines so we can avoid a double dip recession and strengthen this recovery while in its infancy.

A good thing.

Donald Trump is in 1st place for the 2011 Douchebag of the Year and he is capturing the hearts of conspiracy theorists everywhere.

A statement I can’t disagree with.

To remain an unalloyed objectivist for one’s entire life is really, it seems to me, a form of arrested development.

via Growing Up Objectivist – The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan – The Daily Beast.

Unless, of course, you happen to be objectivist Paul Ryan:

One conservative making that point was Ryan. His citation of Rand was not casual. He’s a Rand nut. In the days before his star turn as America’s Accountant, Ryan once appeared at a gathering to honor her philosophy, where he announced, “The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand.” He continues to view Rand as a lodestar, requiring his staffers to digest her creepy tracts.

via The GOP’s War on the Poor – The Daily Beast.

US Defense spending has doubled since 2001 and tax revenues have dropped from 36.93 (in FY2000) to 28.95 percent of GDP (in FY 2010) mainly due to tax cuts for the wealthy. Despite of this, Ryan proposed a budget that doesn’t address increasing defense spending nor decreased tax revenue.

And what does he want to do with Medicare? Repeal the ACA and then hand out vouchers to the so that people who are dependent on Medicare (usually the elderly and severely infirm), will have to use vouchers to purchase their insurance through the private market.

“The most important thing about the individual market — more important than the high prices and the lousy policies — is that no one has to sell you a health insurance policy. If you have the wrong medical profile, you could be simply uninsurable. That’s how a free market works.” That quote is from a Baseline Scenario report on why you must care about Medicare.

via Scripting News: To the young brilliant minds.

Ryan’s plan is serious.