Remember Betsy McCaughey?

She’s the woman who came up with the death panel argument that Sarah Palin made famous. It looked like she had some traction too, until she got smacked down by Jon Stewart last month. The results forced her to resign from her job (indirectly or directly). You can see all that here.

Yet she’s back. Getting smacked down once more, this time by MSNBC Morning Meeting host Dylan Ratigan and Congressman Anthony Weiner.

The Conservative argument for health insurance is generally emotion based without any facts. Yet Betsy is a rare exception, she deliberately uses her facts to deceive. Ratigan doesn’t let her get away with it, however, and calls her out. McCaughey’s argument degenerates into name calling and blaming Ratigan for his biased moderation.

“This may go down in history as one of the most brow-beating interviews in television history.” declared McCaughey.

“I hope it does” remarked Ratigan.

Biased or not, it is most satisfying to see her get the smack down she deserves. As Jon Stewart declared, her interpretation of Obama’s health reforms is “dangerous” and “misleading".

/>Weiner really drills her too. He get’s her to admit …

Have you ever heard a Bible-thumper tell you that the Bible was written by God and only God? Did they try and tell you that you must take the Bible literally and any attempts to do so otherwise was a violation of God’s law? Did they tell you that the Bible has not changed since its conception? Well get ready to watch these theories thrown out the window.

A Conservative group called Conservapedia (because we all know how knowledge has a Liberal Bias), has founded the Conservative Bible Project. Which is attempting to eliminate the Liberal passages in the Bible to better suit the Conservative political agenda. It is a Wikipedia-like project with a clear objective: to eliminate the possibilities of Jesus’ clear Liberal bias.

Imagine, that! Changing the Bible outright because the original author was too Liberal. Wait, doesn’t that mean God?

Steven Colbert has asked his viewers to add him to the re-authored Bible:
The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c…

Republican Minority Leader, John Boehner (R-Ohio) must be having some serious social problems these days. With such a lovely mug and wonderful scowl, who would have guessed? He declared today that he hasn’t met one “Real American” who supports the Public Option. As political writer Glenn Thrush noted, he said it with a “semi-straight face".

Even Republican leaning polls (which effectively ask “Do you still support a Public Option if it radically alters your health experience, which is so laughably deceitful but anyway) still claim at least 43% in favor of a Public Option. So in order to believe that he has not met a single one we must assume that he’s been hanging around with nothing but tea-baggers lately. LOL

“I’m still trying to find the first American to talk to who’s in favor of the public option” claims the Boehner.

When you are in a position to miss as much as %65 of the country, it is clear that you’ve fallen in with the wrong crowd.

So I decided to correct this little problem and introduce myself to the ill-informed Republican Leader. You can warm his cold lonely heart …

I have been debating on YouTube with Conservatives lately. Most of it is “you Lefty wacko” nonsense, which seems to be the typical response to anyone they disagree with, even Progressives like me. However I did get one intelligent responder who wanted to go beyond the entrenched political boundaries and discuss the differences.

I tried to convey the point that we need to work together and that I see the Democratic Party as a means to an end and not an ideology. I don’t know if I succeeded, yet the effort was there.

Question: If your not a lib and I’m not a neo con what the fuck are we arguing over than?

Good point. As a Progressive, I believe first and foremost in getting things done. In the spirit of Teddy Roosevelt, we need to work from the center to create a peaceful revolution, and our great nation is in serious trouble after the disastrous 8 years of Bush. The Conservatives of Teddy’s time worked against him and the Dixiecrats did too. We must come together to create positive change as democracy is like a …

It appears that pleasing your whacko-Conservative base may not be the end-all, be-all when it comes to Republican politics, even in the Red-State districts of South Carolina.

The big S.C., fresh of its heals from the its “next big thing” governor-turned-scandal-prone-embarrassment, Mark Sanford (here is the Fox, I mean Fixed, News story) is growing tired of its high profile morons and the tide may be turning for entrenched Republicans. Huff-Po did a story on the logistics and it doesn’t bode well for the Rightie Whackos.

Could it be that the Republican line of BS is not playing well, even in the Red-States?

I wouldn’t buy property in rural Alabama just yet. Still, the tide seems to be turning even regionally against the Republican’s grand strategy of appealing to Middle-Class White Voters in the South.

Let me put it this way. Picture the Cleveland Indians stacked full of Dominican and Puerto Rican players. One day, the owner completely insults Latin America as an affront to American civilization. How hard do you think said employees will fight to make their boss rich?

LOL

The tide has turned, the world has changed. Republicans, however, still believe in Reagan’s dying city on the hill. Too bad …

At long last, video has surfaced that shows Fox News manipulating the backdrop. Footage showing a Fox producer rallying an audience to show support during a reporter’s story that is supposed to be about the unbelievable outrage of the crowd. In other words, they took a crowd of folks, told them they’d be on TV and even gave them the big’ol applause sign.

You know what’s cool? Try to align the video so you can see the event happen real-time. It is hilarious as hell. Huffington Post has a page that pulls this off. You can see that nerdy chick do the “producer” role, than cower at the camera that she notices managed to capture her likeness.

No big deal you say? Reporters have coaxed audiences before, surely. Yeah, on crappy local morning shows who struck a deal with a movie or event. Those are mainly fluff stories that show a bunch of nerds at a Star Trek convention getting all revved up. This is clearly different.

This was supposed to be a grass roots …

The recent flap over Obama’s televised speech to public schools across America is the latest grave miscalculation from the Right, who’s strategy to oppose everything that Obama and the Democrats stand for is so transparent, so reactionary, it is drawing fire from it’s own side.

Conservatives from the main to the fringe (although mostly fringe) have been calling Obama’s speech to the schools as a platform to push his socialist agenda. The media tells us off families and even whole school districts that were pulling away from Obama’s speech. This, of course, turned out to be nothing more than the media’s love of controversy, as the decidedly apolitical speech that encouraged kids to stay in school and take personal responsibility caused all rational criticism to evaporate. When a transcript of the speech was released yesterday, even the Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer, one of the speech’s most loud opponents backed off his early remarks and even allowed his children to see the speech. What remained was a bunch of fringe loons who looked as if they went too far.

Did the fringe Conservatives back themselves into a corner? Did they get the party worked …

A moment of silence for one of the greatest, most-effective and prolific politicians in our nation’s history, Senator Edward Kennedy:

…

His passing is a tremendous loss not only to our country, to others as well. From his fight against the Vietnam war, to leading the cause to sanction South Africa for apartheid, from voting against the Iraq War and fighting to end it to his large part in securing a peace treaty in Northern Ireland that ended decades of battle between the I.R.A. and the United Kingdom. He was even knighted (honorarily) for his role in the affair.

He has been a champion of the common man, despite his wealthy status, from his fight to bring justice to the underprivileged to social programs that helped to elevate the social status of many Americans. His life-long fight to bring health care to all Americans has left a legacy of hope and generosity that has inspired many Americans, like myself, to not give up the dream of creating a better world.

(Here is a brief listing of his accomplishments.)…

Just a quick update on the fanatical Glenn Beck’s recent loss of sponsors first mentioned in this article.

The total number of sponsors who have pulled out of Beck’s program has ballooned to 36, including a FOX News-wide ban from UPS. Among the losses are CVS Caremark, Clorox, Sprint and even the Right-leaning Wal-Mart Stores Inc., a clear sign that Beck is facing a crisis.

Despite his popularity, I mean Sarah Palin is telling people to watch Glenn Beck (isn’t that so typically reactionary of the dwindling celebrity politician?), the fact is ratings may not help Beck if he doesn’t bring in the cash. He will certainly be advertising poison for atleast the forseeable future.

Here are 10 reasons why.

Can he survive? Probably. Roger Aisles, head partisan dingbat over at Faux News, has stacked his lineup with whacko fringe lunatics anyway. I’m sure he loves Beck and will ride him out, that is, as long as Rupert Murdoch doesn’t get involved, which in all likely hood will not happen.

This may be a watershed moment for Fox News however. The point …

A new survey conducted by Survey USA (whose data tends to be used by conservative news sources like NewsMax) concludes that support for a public option remains high even among Republicans. 58% of all those surveyed support having a public option.

58% of Republicans and 56% of those who identify themselves as Conservative felt a public health insurance plan was extremely important to be in the final bill. 70% of Liberals support the public option while Only 60% of Democrats and 54% of Independents strongly support the measure, suggesting that the greatest doubts of the public option are coming from the Center-Left.

Most remarkably is that the support numbers, much like the ones above, read pretty similarly across the board. Age, region and ideology change the numbers very little.

Overall, with 58% of the country in favor of the public option, is there any reason it should not pass? I mean, the Republicans have thrown everything they had at destroying the bills reputation, and while they have damaged Obama’s perceived ability to handle health care (which …

To my Progressive and Liberal allies:
This is MUST SEE TV and I don’t mean a rerun of Friends. Watching Jon “the man” Stewart cream both Fox (Faux) News and the lady that originated the “death panel” argument, Betsy McCaughey .

To my Conservative counterparts:
I dare any whacko right-wing gun-totting, over-weight, fast-food eating, Fox News watching, WalMart shopping, god’s creation hating, under educated, wasteful, redneck, war-mongering, poverty-stricken-capitalist who wanders on to this site looking to leave a big flawed radical right-wing talking point…
to watch John Stewart’s latest assessment of your beloved, low-standards, gossip source a.k.a. the Fox (so-called) News Channel. I dare ya, I double-dare ya!

I bet you don’t have the cojanes to watch it!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEOS.
The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10cFox News: The New Liberalswww.thedailyshow.com…

John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, decided he has the perfect solution for health care reform: A series of tax breaks, less regulation of the insurance industry and a series of other idiotic ideas including Health Savings Accounts (you know those 401k styled bank accounts that pay for health services). He said as much in a Wall Street Journal OpEd piece that takes aim at the Public Option and Obama’s health care reform efforts in general.

Mackey, whose clientele and demographic, tends to skew to the Left, decided to come out of the closet and declare himself a conservative Republican who dislikes socialism (his article starts out with a quote from ultra-conservative Margret Thatcher) and even has the nerve to say that health-care IS a privilege! Amazing.

I for one will never shop at Whole Foods again. To think that my money goes into this CEOs happy-go-lucky pocket and all the while is behind and in front of the scenes pushing conservative policies on ignorant Americans.

I decided to leave a rather long comment on his CEO blog as well.

__ UPDATE: While many Comments were allowed that were critical. Mine was rejected, and I …

Notorious Right-Wing fanatic Glenn Beck has gone so far off the edge recently in his criticisms of Obama that he very well may be fired from the Radical Right Fox News. Could we be witnessing a backlash to the Conservative’s attempts to derail health-care?

You may have heard Beck’s name a lot in the news lately. He has been the loudest, most obnoxious cheerleader against Obama’s health care attempts. His unabashed criticism of those who wish to change what he calls, “the best health care system in the world” has garnered him footnotes in major media news stories while his support for the disruption of town-hall meetings has earned him open criticism from all across the gambit even in the town-hall meetings themselves. Congressman Rick Larson (D-WA), responded to criticism of health care at his town-hall meeting by saying “I’ve got the facts on my side, you’ve [criticisers] got Glen Beck on your side!”

Where Beck stepped over the line however, was when he went so far as to call Obama a racist who doesn’t like White people, among many other disturbing criticisms, on an episode of Fox and Friends. Co-host Brian Kilmeade actually …

From the whacko domestic terrorists to the pundits that spurred them on, recent events that have painted a picture of just how radical the Right Wing has become.

When I said a few months back that the Right Wing had lost its mind, I had no idea that they had lost all sense of reality as well. There has been a recent string of domestic terror attacks in this country directed towards African-Americans, Jews and the Pro-Choice movement. One example, is the shooting in Binghamton, New York a few months back. Another example, is the murder of abortion doctor George Tiller by an anti-abortion activist and most recently, the shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum that left an elderly security guard dead.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and …

In only took six seconds to prove to pro-waterboarding talk show host Mancow that waterboarding is torture and to prove that Sean Hannity is not just stupid, he’s a coward as well.

Erich “Mancow” Muller used to be among the ranks of Conservative and phony Libertarian talk show personalities that considered waterboarding, often called the “water cure", torture. He once so arrogantly proclaimed that having a little water poured on your head was not really that big of a deal. So when he volunteered to experience a very softened version of the integration technique as part of his radio show, he never thought that 6 seconds of the experience would convert his view on the subject 180 degrees, but it did!

After only 6 seconds of the exercise, his hands unbound, surrounded by friends and not subjected against his will, Mancow gave up. His initial response proclaimed that while he was not happy to say it, waterboarding is “absolutely torture.”

Visit msnbc.com for …

Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman recently wrote an article attacking California’s so-called Tax Revolt of 1978, California’s Proposition 13. He claims that if California is the trend setter, than the U.S. is in deep trouble. I agree, and have agreed for most of my politically aware life, especially since I am a product of California’s senseless butchering of the education system.

Nobody likes paying taxes. It’s about as fun as paying rent (or mortgage), bills and getting a colonoscopy. That being said, these are all the painful things we need to do to stay a float in life and there is little any of us can do about them.

California Republicans thought otherwise. They used an issue that was sure to win: telling California they could have lower taxes and everything would be all right. That’s like promising people they can lose weight and eat all that they want. Sadly people fall for that one too!

Ignoring reality, listening to the advice of hucksters like Ronald Reagan, Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann, California passed Proposition 13 in 1978. It cut taxes primarily for apartment building owners among other large …

We commonly refer to members of the Far-Right, here at Soapblox.com, as Right-Wing whack jobs or nut jobs or just plain idiots. It was true in its day, however no euphemism can describe how utterly loony-tunes the Republican fringe has become.

We all know that Rush Limbaugh is hoping for the U.S. to fail just to prove that Rush is right and Obama is wrong. I thought that was, perhaps, the stupidest political move that I had heard up to that point. Especially since the United States has historically bounced back from many a recession and even a few really bad depressions. I had no idea that things would only downward spiral into the realm of downright insanity.

When recently elected GOP Party Chairman Michael Steel began talking about Hip-Hop-ifying the Republican Party, that should have been my first clue that things would only get worse for a party so badly beaten, they don’t control a single plank of government and by a long-shot.

Then the Far-Right Fox News network’s key loudmouth lie machines began to cater …

A sign of how bad this recession is becoming, look no further than Motor City, USA. Detroit housing values are cheaper than some of the cars they are famous for producing and the economy is in such a state of disorder that they are printing their own currency called the Detroit Cheers.

Other cities too from North Carolina to Massachusetts are issuing their own currencies as well. It’s pitched as a way of keeping currency value local so value is not transferred to other regions. It was an excepted practice during the Great Depression.

It seems like an interesting idea, however to be honest it is the last thing I would have thought could happen in our supposedly advanced economic system. Just a few years ago, people talked about M2 Capital and that we were slowly becoming a ‘credit society’. The control of the currency system was clearly held by the Federal Reserve and any attempts to create duel currency would be under serious evaluation from the top bankers and media establishment.

Now, is seems with the news being as grim as it is, CBS ran this story in its ‘Silver Linings’ section, speaking …

I have spoken here at soapblox.com about a potential third party. I am not 100% behind this idea though I do believe it to be a possibility, especially when I hear prominent Republican figures like Newt the newt Gingrich talking of one.

Third parties, traditionally in American democracy, are avenues of complaint. The Populist “bull-moose” Party got a whole lot done as it lobbied the Democrat Administration of Wilson in the early 20th Century, as did the Know-Nothings did with the Republicans in the 1880s. The Peace and Freedom candidates leaned on the Dems in the 1960s and other third parties like the Free Silver Party have contributed significantly to the planks of the two major parties. The problem is that our current political system cannot support more than two parties. When the Whig Party collapsed in the 1850s, the Republican Party was born, devoted solely to the abolishment of slavery. The Whig Party too was born of the collapse of the Federalist Party.

So could the Republican Party collapse and a newer more Conservative Party be born? Or perhaps it’s the Pro-Business Elite that will break away and form the Business Party?

It is …

It seems a bit too uncomfortable to speak in post-Bush talk these days. Just a few months ago, we witnessed the death of the Bush Age of Republican politics. Ever since, I’ve had this funny feeling in the back of my mind that closely resembles hope. Yes, hope! It is the hope that the age of Far-Right Republicanism is over. This hope is fueled by evidence here and there that confirm the Age of Reagan is at a close.

You really know that the nail is in the coffin when Time Magazine runs an article titled “The End of Excess: Is this Crisis Good for America”. The head of the article contains two contrasting photos, a photo of Ronald Reagan in a cowboy hat and a profile shot of Barrack Obama with a serious look on his face.

Obviously what is implied by such contrast is what we have talked about here at Soapblox.com for years: the end of 30 years of Republican domination in the United States Government. Some Soapblox readers may remember the story titled “The End of Reagan” written way back in 2007 (man how time flies). After months of …

Obama wrote an article, published in Time Magazine, on his purposed legislation to expand the role of public service organizations, such as Ameri-Corps, and increase the sector by a quarter of a million jobs.

First off, it is refreshing to have a President that can write an article worthy of getting published in Time. The only thing Bush seemed to write was his own signature. Aside from that, it is an effective argument to get our nation working again fixing the broken American infrastructure.

When my Grandfather talks of the Great Depression, he talks fondly of his times in the C.C.C. or Civilian Conservation Corps, one of the New Deal programs started by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Grandpa left his family farm in South Dakota to work in the state forest, doing useful jobs for more than useful pay. It helped put food on the table for his family and gave him food, shelter and a sense of purpose while he did it.

A hand up, not a hand out! This strategy worked well in the Depression and it can act again to rebuild our dilapidated …

About 4 months ago I ran a story on the emerging tent cities, or Hoovervilles, that are popping up all over the country. The Corporate-owned media took very little notice, perhaps, trying not to make a fuss on the eve of the Christmas shopping season.

NPR today released a story on these new tent cities, on one large one in particular located in Sacramento just off the American River. They did a heart-wrenching column and a photo essay that really drives home the point of where the U.S. Economy stands.

There is little good news these days on the economic front. Unemployment is at the highest levels since the early ‘80s and the downward spiral is only just beginning. Many of those who have jobs are taking pay-cuts. Dubbed “the walking wounded” they are spending less and clinging to their homes while they watch their neighbors abandon the American Dream. Wall Street is closing below 7,000 which is 50% lower than the record highs of 14,000 posted just a year and half ago. Corporate America is begging for billions from the Federal Government, blowing it on bonuses …

Franken won the Senatorial election in 2008, yet Republican strategists have signaled an endless lawsuit to further their losing Repub strategy at any cost. This of course makes sense for the weak and embattled Republican party.

At the height of Bush incompetence, Al Franken was the voice of reason. This nerdy guy may have looked like a wimp compared to the fake ass cattle rustling, urban cowboys of Republican myth-talk radio and yet, he had the balls to stand up to this very machine and tear it down every chance he could. His book “Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot…", nailed the tub of lard literally right in the title and assaulted O’Reilly as just another “all talk” Right Wing chicken hawk.

Franken didn’t stop there. After piloting Air America to a shaky, yet successful launch, he left the network for greater goals, namely, the U.S. Senate, representing the great state of Minnesota.

Some called it a longshot, and, perhaps it almost was. Minnesotans were fed up with celebrity leaders, tired of the Jessie Venturas. How could a former Saturday Night Live writer and star gain any …

Editor’s note:
______________
For my political junkies, I apologize, as this article is more of a cultural rant. Which leads me to an important point about the future of SoapBlox.com:

The new Soapblox.com, coming this Spring, will finally realize the news magazine concept conceived originally in the blueprints first drawn before the disastrous Bush reelection. There will be a place for politics, culture and art. Please bare with our progress and enjoy the article below.
——————————–

Well, well, the charges have finally been dropped on our beloved fish out of water, Mr. Michael Phelps.

I suspect that Michael Phelps himself would prefer not to be elevated to the Saint-hood status that has been bestowed upon him. I mean. The guy knows he’s a great swimmer, though I doubt that he ever fancied himself a roll model.

Somehow in this country, however, wining gold medals makes you a hero, which makes you a role model to children everywhere. I understand that this guy should not go downtown and buy crack from some gang bangin’ wanabe and start puffin away till his teeth fall out, I’m simply saying that since this guy has won …

The recent withdrawal of New Hampshire Republican Sen. Judd Gregg from Secretary of Commerce is a clear indication that the Grand Party of Old times is back to its old tricks.

Even after Obama made grand overtures to the Republican establishment, they seem to think that stonewalling the popular President will win them brownie points. Not even the Republicans that combated FDR’s New Deal had the nerve to attempt such a naïve endeavor.

They are clearly lining up to create a wall on which hasn’t been seen since ol’ Stonewall Jackson stood up to the Yankees in the Civil War (which the South lost btw). They simply think that being who they are and ignoring the sane voices of reason from the Center can save them from political wilderness. Yet, they have never seen the amount of political force that the country has handed to the Democrats. They just don’t get that they are on an iceberg slowly drifting off to sea, yelling ever louder, while the world slowly begins to tune them out.

These guys simply do not get it! I firmly believe that this “Stonewall Jackson Strategy” is as antiquated …

The Republicans have gambled their political future on the success of the stimulus package, both in the long term and the immediate future. They thought that unification and the tired, boring tactics of calling the package an earmark ridden, “pork-u-pine” bill could derail the new President’s first major legislative effort. Fortunately for the good of the nation, they have utterly failed to stop the bill and therefore set the tone of the new Obama Administration as one of success.

The GOP rallied around bloated, big-mouth, Rush “the racist” Limbaugh, who urged Republicans to root for Obama’s failure. Easy for a fat, rich guy to say! Doesn’t this just prove that Rush is not looking out for the best interests of America and instead desires political power? The Republicans too, still bitter from their stinging defeat in 2008, decided to stand their ground, resisting Obama’s efforts to reach across party lines and put all their efforts in to defeating the bill and for about a minute, it looked as if they might have won. They claimed that the New Deal failed, complete and utter nonsense, even blamed the Depression on FDR! …

As the high of the election and inauguration is beginning to fade, it still hasn’t sunk in. BUSH IS GONE and we at long last have a smart and pragmatic President who represents the people. It’s created a residual buzz that just keeps on giving.

For the past 8 years we’ve had a President, but not a leader. 8 years of failed diplomacy (for God’s sake, he started a war!) failed economic policy, failed legislative policy (thankfully) and politics as usual, on amphetamine, that led to the most divisive period in this country since the Vietnam War era.

Now, at long last, we have someone we can look up to, a good family man, with good morals and a strong background. Obama embodies the American Dream. He’s a self-starter who came from a single mom and a mixed racial background. He excelled at and achieved his ambitions to become the most powerful person on the planet, starkly contrasting the rich, spoiled frat boy that inhabited the White House for the last 8 immensely tedious years….

One of the most enduring legacies of the Great Depression is the image of homeless families, huddled together in small shanty-town communities. Dubbed Hoovervilles, named for the seemingly apathetic President Hoover, these towns were a blight on the image of Capitalism, showing the collapse of a system that less than a decade earlier boasted of unparalleled material success. As World War II and the commercialized consumerization of the Boomer generation prevailed, the image of the Hooverville was relegated to something of the past, something that could never happen again, a past failure that has now been corrected. It could not happen in this day and age, right? Wrong!

The receding of the suburbs is turning major cities inside out. The unfortunate and the desperate are flocking to new gatherings. The 1930s townships made of scrap wood and metal have been replaced with 21st Century plastics and plywood. New communities of hundreds huddle around 6 porta-poties and very little running water. The recent rise of these tent cities, signifies the end of our outdated American Dream. They’re continually springing up all over the country in church …