Video: Gabby Giffords Returns to Vote on Debt Ceiling!

The Rachel Maddow Show showed us the only bright moment for Progressives during the Debt Ceiling vote.  As the vote was about to begin Gabby Gifford walked into the Chamber and the House erupted in cheers.  Giffords did vote yes on the deal Democrats were forced to vote for in order to prevent what most economists agree would have been catastrophic for both the United States and the World.  Giffords told reporters, she knew it was important the debt ceiling was raised and she was determined to vote for it.

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How Conservatives Act in Public Vs. How They Act in Private is Coming to an End and How Michelle Bachman is a Perfect Example

Everyone should read this excellent article published on pandagon.net. It captures the reasons behind the Conservative hypocrisy, we Liberals have witnessed time and time again.  For example, when we witness Republicans like Michelle Bachman, rail against any Federal spending, yet Ms. Bachman owes everything she's ever made to the Federal government, including her 5,000+ sq. foot home situated on a golf course and much of the medicare reimbursements she's made through her and her husbands "cure the gay" clinic.
I haven't even included the salary she receives through the federal government for her job as a U.S. Congresswoman, which also entitles her to an excellent medical plan as well as a hefty lifetime pension after serving only 4 years. And of course, the epitomy of  hypocrisy has to be her time spent as a prosecutor working for the bain of all true conservatives, the IRS.  Yes, it's true, Michelle 'all government is evil" Bachman once prosecuted American citizens for failure to pay those evil taxes she now bases her whole image on fighting.  Of course I'll bet Bachman only prosecuted your average Joe or Jane and not all those fat cat billionaires she now fights tooth and nail to protect from contributing a dime for the welfare of the country she now represents and claims to love.
pandagon.net

Video David Krugman. Do The Teabaggers Want to Take the US Back to The Stone Ages?

Paul Krugman hit the nail on the head in this clip provided by PBS's Charlie Rose. Even conservative commentator David Brooks seems to have a hard to time defending the insanity taken over by his own party.

ROSE: There are two questions. One, if you look at the dysfunctionality of government in this case, who's responsible for them?

BROOKS: I don't pretend it's symmetrical... I wouldn't say it's symmetrical here. I do think the president and the Democrats have been much more flexible than the Republicans have been. I say that with a little pain maybe, but that's just simply the case. The president, to his credit has made his allies extremely uncomfortable, and if you were around in Washington yesterday when the entire Senate Democratic caucus erupted in fury, you saw that first hand. And so I think the Republicans are... it's a good short term negotiating strategy, but they are not seizing a deal which should be out there for them.

I'm sort of mystified why if the president is offering a $3 trillion in the reduction of government, why they're not seizing upon that and potentially settling either for nothing or maybe $500 million. I mean, it's just mystifying to me why they don't take this deal.

ROSE: Well, then take a guess. What's the answer?

BROOKS: Well, there are a lot of things. One, they will tell you they go home and nobody wants any more taxes. We ran on that, we pledged it. Second, and I think this part is bipartisan, the hatred is so strong, there is great personal resistance to doing a deal with the devil. And they regard Obama, or Boehner and Cantor as the devil. There's just sort of this emotional resistance to getting in a room, shaking their hand and having your picture taken.

And so even beneath the substance of it there's a great deal of emotional resistance, and when... even when the president makes an offer, which is a pretty good offer for Republicans, they're always looking for the weaknesses in it.

(crosstalk)

KRUGMAN: This is a longer term story. It's not just what's happened during these negotiations. The underlying reason we have dysfunctional politics right now is the radicalization of the Republican Party. I mean, Bruce Bartlett, a Republican, or maybe now an excommunicated Republican just said basically Obama is a moderate conservative. He's basically governing to the right of Richard Nixon. But what's happened is that the Republican Party has gone so far off into an extreme right wing position that we have gridlock because basically one party cannot say yes.

They cannot say yes to anything that might be coming from the other party. In a basic sense they don't accept the legitimacy of government by the other party.

BROOKS: To be fair to them, they would say that we've had government at a certain level of GDP for decade after decades, and roughly the same, and over the last couple of years its leapt up significantly, so if we want to bring it back to that level, to the 2008 level (crosstalk) that's the argument they would make.

KRUGMAN: David, all of that is the recession. All of that is that the ratio of government to GDP is higher because GDP is down and safety net programs; unemployment insurance and Medicaid and a few other programs that respond to hard times are up. If you take that out, there has been no increase in the size of government. That's an entire myth.

BROOKS: There is a long term trend of health care spending. I mean this is, and Paul and I have come back to this a couple of times in this conversation...

KRUGMAN: Right.

BROOKS: Health care spending is the problem.

KRUGMAN: Yeah.

BROOKS: And so there are two wildly different views of how you address that issue. And Republicans look out and see health care spending increasing, swallowing up everything else and they say we need something like the Ryan plan in order to fundamentally reform the structure of the program. And that's not a radically irresponsible position. It's a position you can disagree with, but it doesn't make them loons, I would say.

KRUGMAN: Well... we can go on. We should also point out that we have an enormous amount of obstructionism at all levels. Right? There's a tremendous number of unfilled positions. To a large extent Obama is trying to govern now with a hollow administration because he can't get officials approved. We had my former MIT colleague, Nobel Laureate Peter Diamond rejected for the Federal Reserve Board.

This is a crazy... uhh... this is what is making America ungovernable. It is the extremism of one party. You actually have an extremely accommodating, I would say alarmingly accommodating Democratic president, but a Republican Party that just won't deal.I am seriously beginning to believe these loony "no nothing" teabagger Republicans are determined to take down this country so they can go live in their underground bunkers, and subsist on the food "The Fox News Show"(in particular Glenn Beck) they have been warned to hoard while they collect overpriced gold coins celebrity spokesmen have urged them to buy as protection from the downfall of the U.S. dollar. Good bye civilization. God help us all.

For more see: http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/paul-krugman-calls-out-david-brooks-playin

Video: Another Former TX Governor? How'd That Work Out for Ya Last time???

Teabaggers will now have a perfect chance to prove how "grassroots" and "independent they are of the Republican party who's last President, George W. Bush, they claim to despise due to his wild spending policies.  For those with short memories, that included the Medicare D package,the No Child Left Behind program and 2 wars  All of these were unfunded (meaning put on credit for the next guy to figure out how to pay for) and which finally forced him to enact the first stimulus package and the bail out of all those Too Big To Fail Wall Street Banks.  Their big chance to prove their authenticity comes in the form of another Cowboy hat wearing Texas Governor named Rick Perry. Like George W., according to Gov. Perry, God speaks directly to him.  God must be a bit indecisive-he can't seem to decide whether he wants Michelle Bachman, Sarah Palin and now maybe Rick Perry (come on God decide already). And the similarities certainly don't end there. Both, have a habit of surrounding themselves with controversial Christian ministers, such as Bush's spiritual advisor Ted "Rentboy.com, meth using,Haggard, from the very powerful Christian association "Focus on the Family".  Rick Perry prefers the "American Family Association", who are sponsoring his big "Call to Prayer Event" in Houston Texas next month. Heading this group is Bryan Fischer, who publicly states, among his other beliefs, Adolph Hitler manned his armies with homosexuals because we all know homosexuals fight like crazed animals.  Rachel Maddow recently did a segment on Governor Perry and the ministers he has chosen to speak at his "Call to Prayer" event:

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Video:Teabaggers Distrupt Peacful Move On..Org Meeting With Threats

 A local paper in Roseburg, Oragan printed this story about a local group of MoveOn.org members who had peacefully assembled at a local park.  This is particularly disturbing in what it says about the real effects of "The Fox News Show" and it's group of propagandists.  The Teabaggers continually yelled out "Van Jones" and "Communists, Fascists and Marxists" In my opinion, these thugs are indistinguishable to the Nazi Brown Shirts (please forgive the Nazi analogy but when the shoe fits perfectly sometimes making the analogy is important),  They shouted "leave", "we don't want no Communists here" and berated and threatened the mostly older liberals until they did just that.  They left peacefully.  The group of Teabagger thugs were so proud of scaring old ladies and old men out of the park they even bragged about it, as you will see in the video. Even if they were Communists or Marxists (which they are not) or whatever, isn't this still America or is Fox's propagandist rhetoric turning it into something else.  Something scary and something very, very wrong.

A small political gathering of about 18 liberal thinkers at River Forks Park Sunday afternoon erupted in conflict when about 35 members of the conservative tea party intruded upon the meeting, waving flags and holding signs accusing the rival group of being communists, Marxists and socialists.

The liberal group — organized by MoveOn.org — decided to leave the park and move its potluck to a nearby home. Members of the conservative group followed, parking at the entrance of a private lane leading to the home to continue their protest.
Roseburg Democrats Dean and Sara Byers said Monday they told tea party members who followed that they were not welcome to drive down the lane to their home.
The Byerses said they got out of their car to stop vehicles from entering the driveway and one tea party member almost ran them over.
Sara Byers said she was so shaken she called 911. She said a Douglas County deputy called about an hour and a half later and said he had been unable to respond because of other incidents. Byers said she was still considering filing a criminal complaint against members of the tea party for harassment.
A leader of the tea party group, Rich Raynor of Roseburg, disputed the liberal group's version of events.
“They are liars,” said Raynor, director of Douglas County Americans for Prosperity. “That is what communists do

 Watch and you decide:

What's Obama Doing to Your Taxes? - Political Hotsheet - CBS News

What's Obama Doing to Your Taxes? - Political Hotsheet - CBS News

Stop The Madness! We're Being Pushed Around by Lunatics

Someone please stop this madness.  The most powerful nation in the world is being held hostage by a group of crazy ideologues who include women hating morons like Steve King (R-Iowa), deadbeat dads like Joe Walsh (R), Michelle Bachman who truly believes she was kidnapped by lesbians in a San Franscico, Allen West (R-FL) who sent out an email to fellow Congressman calling DNC Chairwoman and fellow Floridian, ...vile and despicable.... not a lady..., because she had the audacity to call out West for voting to cut Medicare and Social Security and who has claimed in the past to have a higher security clearance than the President of the United States (I could write a whole book on this guys lunacy).  And than we have fellow teabagger Louie Gohmert (R-TX) who claimed women were giving birth to babies in the U.S. for the purpose of raising them as terrorists.  These are just of few of the lunatics the national media and establishment Republicans have legitimized by not calling them out every time for all their anti American antics.  This is not bickering between those on the left and those on the right.  This is about allowing a few moronic lunatic teabaggers to force this country into the have and have not country they've always wanted.

Video: Crazy Teabagger Republican Steven King Compares DODT to Debt Ceiling

Crazy Tea Bagger Republican Congressman Steven King of Iowa appeared on Hardball today with Chris Matthews and stunningly compared raising the debt ceiling with opinions given made by military leaders on "Don't ask Don't Tell" during Congressional hearings. Congressman King, downplayed the disaster which sane political leaders have predicted certainly would occur according to experts from everyone in economics to the Better Business Bureau.  King laughingly compared his own "expertise" to the fact that he has talked to those who agree with his crazy ideology to the fact that he's raised a family. Obviously, he gets most of his "expertise" from brainiacs like Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin. Watch:

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DYLAN RATIGAN STFU!

Please Help Support my Blog

I started greenpistachioicecream out of frustration and a feeling of powerlessness.  I like millions of other Americans feel helpless as we continue to watch Washington do nothing about the very real problems average citizens face every day.  Some, like myself often wonder when the other shoe will drop and I will be left with a country I no longer recognize the country I grew up loving.  I once had faith our country would continue to be the greatest, most free, in the world.  I knew we were never perfect but I believed America would continue on a path in the pursuit of perfection even if we could never completely achieve it. Now, we seem to be controlled by a small gang of people who claim to love America but do nothing but try to destroy everything that has made us great.  I am attempting to do my part by writing this blog, and even if only 500 people ever read it, that's more than I would be doing just watching my country being destroyed and doing nothing.  If you agree with the message I try to spread to other frustrated, discouraged Americans, please help me continue to have the resources to continue.  Any amount would help. And even if you are unable to contribute thank you for taking the time to read my posts.  Thank you very much for your time and support.
 

News of the Worlds Rebekah Brooks Tracks Phone of Mother of Another Murdered Girl

New allegations are being targeted against Rebekah Brooks, former Chief Executive of Ruperts Murdochs's now defunct News of the World tabloid.  According to sources from London's rival tabloid, The Guardian,  Brooks" befriended the mother of a murderd 8 year old girl, Sarah Paine.  Paine's mother, also named Sarah, claimed Rebekah even provided her with a cell phone in order to stay updated on the police investigation and perhaps so Rebeka in the process could console her in order to obtain personal information to use in her tabloid, (News of the World).  During the recent hearing before parliament, Sarah Paine (the mother) testified in defense of Brooks for her work on behalf of her daughter's murder.  Now it seems the cell phone given Ms.Pain was being tracked by "News of the World" allegedly under the direction of former Chief Executive Editor Rebekah Brooks.  Just when the Murdoch empire expected a break from these type of allegations, at least during the Summer break, now this. .Good luck with that vacation/holiday Murdoch.  

DYLAN RATIGAN STFU!!!

Midnight Snack Video: Schoolhouse Rock "How a Bill Becomes a Law"

I dedicate this video to all Teabaggers who never payed attention in Government class anyway:
Enjoy:

WITH VIDEO: Pawlently is Boring,Wrong AND CALLS THE PRESIDENT A CHICKEN!

In this interview with CNN's Candy Crowley Tim zzzzzz Pawlently accuses President Obama of starting off his presidency with a 500 billion dollar deficit and turning it into a 1.5 trillion dollar deficit.  Crowley to her credit does bring up the two wars and the prescription drug plan Obama inherited. but fails to mention those two wars, the prescription drug plan and a 700 billion dollar tax break were never paid for; they were included in a SUPPLIMENTAL  BUDGET which President Obama made the desision to include in our national budget.  Why is it the MSM never mentions this important fact.  Obama has reduced the deficit every year since he was forced to include a 800 billion dollar stimulus plan to our budget in order to save this country from the complete financial breakdown caused by President Bush's complete failure (in everything he did).  If this country has such a "spending problem" it hasn't been done by our current President..I would like to know one area where our President has been spending all this money I keep hearing these Republicans talking about and I want to see it backed up by the numbers.  This country DOES NOT HAVE A SPENDING PROBLEM UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA.  IT DOES HAVE A REVENUE PROBLEM and REPUBLICANS ARE DETERMINED TO IT MAKE WORSE.
Watch this disgusting interview Pawlenty gave to Crowley in which he calls the President a "chicken".  The same President who unlike the President Pawlenty supported brought the most dangerous terrorist to justice and didn't hesitate to shoot those Somali pirates.  I guess Pawlenty is so desperate to sound tough he's resorted to the same low down tactics we've come to expect from those like Michelle Bachman, Newt Gingrich or the rest of the loons running on the GOP ticket.

"As important as the debt ceiling is, the other issues of whether we're going to fix the spending problems of the country also deserve attention, and if not now, when?" Pawlenty told CNN's Candy Crowley. "He's ducking, he's bobbing, he's weaving, he's not leading leading, and that's not the kind of president we need. And that's why he needs to be removed from office."
"We should say that apparently with Speaker Boehner, he has talked about some of these reforms," Crowley noted.
"In hiding," Pawlenty interrupted. "If you're the leader of the of the free world, would you please come to the microphone and quit hiding in the basement about your proposals and come on up and address the American people? Is he chicken?"
"Is he?" Crowley pressed.
"I love Paul Ryan, but we should not have to have a congressman from Wisconsin leading the debate on the nation's financial challenges in one of the most historically moments in the country's history. The president should be standing out courageously and leading on these issues specifically, and you can't find him," Pawlenty said. "If we wanted to do it in private, we can go down to the VFW basement. I can go have a beer with my neighbor over that. He's the president. Come on out of the basement and come out to the lawn of the White House to the microphone and tell us your plan on entitlement reform and he won't do it because he doesn't have the courage to do it."
For further comment on  Pawlenty's remarks to Candy Crowley
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/pawlenty-suggests-chicken-obama-hiding-basem

Video: Keith Olbermann's Worst Person In The World Starring Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly

For those of you who miss Countdown with Keith Olbermann, I give you yesterday's "Worst Person In The World" starring Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly and brought to you by Al Gore's new channel Current T.V.  If you haven't been able to catch it yet, just google Current TV and get all the times and listings.  Now here's Keith and his "Worst Person In The World" via Current TV: