When Michelle Bachmann was "looking to the side" in her rebuttal to last week's SOTU, she was actually looking into a Tea Party camera. I watched this version, but her comments still made no sense.

Bits and Pieces for the Week of January 23 - 29

Good for Egypt! Glad to see humans passionately fight for their rights. Apparently the Egyptian military have joined the protesters against the government and police.
Big change for the internet imminent later this year. It will be a painful change, but ultimately worth it.
Amazing: Getting close to cure for Type 1 Diabetes
Arizonans hate Mexicans but love buying guns for them.
Why are California Republican Legislators afraid of voters?
Juan Cole describes the Obama Administration's foreign policy failures.
See what category your state is rated as worst in the country.
Did you know that, in response to the Teabagger Party, there's a Coffee Party? I didn't, either.
"For the second year in a row, the U.S. military has lost more troops to suicide than it has to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Cinema's greatest slaps

George Carlin ~ THE AMERICAN DREAM

George Carlin was ahead of his time... (paraphrase) he predicts that the OWNERS of this country will be coming for your social security... and they'll get it!

Bits and Pieces for the Week of January 16 - 22

This could end up being Obama's first veto.
Moron Search
Ignoring Sarah Palin won't make her go away.
Please stop wasting stuff
Apparently this movie about a killer car tire is the real deal. Looking forward to LMAO.
Justice Sotomayor asks a question only a Progressive would dare raise.
Note: 7 of 6 on LOA this week.
HAPPY MLK DAY!!

80% of Democrats want to see Palin in White House

California of course has its share of elected nutjobs. Check out this state assemblyman's video where he pretty much randomly "rips out and shreds" state spending from the Governor's proposed budget:

Bits and Pieces for the Week of January 9 - 15

Texting while walking: Fail! (Mike)

In response to the accusations of her damning rhetoric, it seems as if Palin decided unintentionally (or was it really intentional) to use the term "blood libel", to her own idiocy. Blood libel is the false accusation, perhaps originating in the 12th century, that Jews murder children to use their blood for religious rituals and holidays. Palin appears to be appropriating the term to indicate that she is a victim, as a result of some groups and individuals claiming that her political rhetoric contributed to the actions of the deranged, lone gunman. Knowing this bumpkin, she got the info from the emails Glenn Beck sent her... and thought it appropriate because Gabrielle Giffords was Jewish. (7 of 6)

"Nine of the Earth's 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001, and all 12 of the warmest years have occurred since 1997." (Mike)

In Arizona, it's not just transplant patients that are going without medical care... "In the past year, Pima County, Ariz., where Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others were shot Saturday, has seen more than 45 percent of its mental health services recipients forced off the public rolls, a service advocate told The Huffington Post." (7 of 6)

"Violent Rhetoric" defined (Mike)
Arizona's Death Panel (governor + legislature) kills another medical patient. (Mike)

The Wrath of Fools: An Open Letter to the Far Right - William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed (7 of 6)

I'm sure everyone has heard that AZ congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords has been shot. She is a moderate Democrat, caucuses with Blue Dog Democrats, and represents a highly charged political area of Arizona. But from it comes a ray of light, a man fighting back against the hate, vitriol, and nasty rhetoric... Sheriff Clarence Dupnik. "...Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry." At least someone has the guts to call out what is happening in this Nation. (7 of 6)

There those aliens go, picking on L.A. again:

Palin's Breath

I'm one of those "millions".

Snippet from The Wrath of Fools: An Open Letter to the Far Right:

"....I'm talking to you, Sarah Palin, you unutterably disgusting fraud. You pulled it off your ridiculous website, but it's out there: you put cross-hairs - literally, cross-hairs - on Rep. Giffords, you blithered about "reloading" instead of "retreating," and you made this country more stupid and violent with every breath you took. Well, congratulations, you failure, you quitter, you inciter of mobs. You put the cross-hairs on her, and someone finally pulled the trigger. Run from it all you like, Lady MacBeth, but this blood will never be washed from your hands.

"I'm talking to you, Sharron Angle, you walking punch-line, who talked about "Second Amendment remedies" being necessary if you didn't get your way on health care reform during your failed Senate campaign.

"I'm talking to you, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity, and Bill O'Reilly, and Michael Savage, and Ann Coulter, and Laura Ingraham, and to every other right-wing tripe-spewing blowhard blogger and Fox News broadcaster. I hope you are proud of yourselves, because this is the day you get to reap what you have been relentlessly sowing since you were forced to encompass the unmitigated outrage of a Black man winning the office of President of the United States.

"That's right, I said it. Anyone who thinks good old-fashioned American bigotry and racism are not the core motivation for a vast majority of these so-called "revolutionaries" should get their heads examined. You've heard of the "elephant in the middle of the room?" Well, this is the burning cross in the middle of the room, and no amount of spin will douse those flames.

"I'm talking to you, Koch Brothers. Your money to create and spread this disease was well-spent; you now have one less Democrat in the House to worry about, at least for the foreseeable future. Congratulations, you un-American sacks of filth.

"And I'm talking to each and every one of you who listened to these traitors and believed the nonsense they spewed at you for no other reason than to pick your pockets for campaign/organization contributions. I'm talking to you who wore your silly fatigues and carried your badly-spelled fact-deprived signs to protests with pistols on your hips and rifles on your shoulders. You who threw bricks through the windows of politicians you disagreed with. You who shot out the windows of Rep. Giffords' office not even a year ago.

"You worked very hard to create exactly this atmosphere in America, and now it has come to be. We have entered the age of the Wrath of Fools, and we now must again exist in an America where the word "assassination" has become all too relevant.

"You helped this happen. You...."

"Climate of Hate"

When you heard the terrible news from Arizona, were you completely surprised? Or were you, at some level, expecting something like this atrocity to happen? Put me in the latter category. I’ve had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach ever since the final stages of the 2008 campaign. I remembered the upsurge in political hatred after Bill Clinton’s election in 1992 — an upsurge that culminated in the Oklahoma City bombing. And you could see, just by watching the crowds at McCain-Palin rallies, that it was ready to happen again. The Department of Homeland Security reached the same conclusion: in April 2009 an internal report warned that right-wing extremism was on the rise, with a growing potential for violence. Conservatives denounced that report. But there has, in fact, been a rising tide of threats and vandalism aimed at elected officials, including both Judge John Roll, who was killed Saturday, and Representative Gabrielle Giffords. One of these days, someone was bound to take it to the next level. And now someone has. It’s true that the shooter in Arizona appears to have been mentally troubled. But that doesn’t mean that his act can or should be treated as an isolated event, having nothing to do with the national climate. Last spring Politico.com reported on a surge in threats against members of Congress, which were already up by 300 percent. A number of the people making those threats had a history of mental illness — but something about the current state of America has been causing far more disturbed people than before to act out their illness by threatening, or actually engaging in, political violence. And there’s not much question what has changed. As Clarence Dupnik, the sheriff responsible for dealing with the Arizona shootings, put it, it’s “the vitriolic rhetoric that we hear day in and day out from people in the radio business and some people in the TV business.” The vast majority of those who listen to that toxic rhetoric stop short of actual violence, but some, inevitably, cross that line. It’s important to be clear here about the nature of our sickness. It’s not a general lack of “civility,” the favorite term of pundits who want to wish away fundamental policy disagreements. Politeness may be a virtue, but there’s a big difference between bad manners and calls, explicit or implicit, for violence; insults aren’t the same as incitement. The point is that there’s room in a democracy for people who ridicule and denounce those who disagree with them; there isn’t any place for eliminationist rhetoric, for suggestions that those on the other side of a debate must be removed from that debate by whatever means necessary. And it’s the saturation of our political discourse — and especially our airwaves — with eliminationist rhetoric that lies behind the rising tide of violence. Where’s that toxic rhetoric coming from? Let’s not make a false pretense of balance: it’s coming, overwhelmingly, from the right. It’s hard to imagine a Democratic member of Congress urging constituents to be “armed and dangerous” without being ostracized; but Representative Michele Bachmann, who did just that, is a rising star in the G.O.P. And there’s a huge contrast in the media. Listen to Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann, and you’ll hear a lot of caustic remarks and mockery aimed at Republicans. But you won’t hear jokes about shooting government officials or beheading a journalist at The Washington Post. Listen to Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly, and you will. Of course, the likes of Mr. Beck and Mr. O’Reilly are responding to popular demand. Citizens of other democracies may marvel at the American psyche, at the way efforts by mildly liberal presidents to expand health coverage are met with cries of tyranny and talk of armed resistance. Still, that’s what happens whenever a Democrat occupies the White House, and there’s a market for anyone willing to stoke that anger. But even if hate is what many want to hear, that doesn’t excuse those who pander to that desire. They should be shunned by all decent people. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been happening: the purveyors of hate have been treated with respect, even deference, by the G.O.P. establishment. As David Frum, the former Bush speechwriter, has put it, “Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us and now we’re discovering we work for Fox.” So will the Arizona massacre make our discourse less toxic? It’s really up to G.O.P. leaders. Will they accept the reality of what’s happening to America, and take a stand against eliminationist rhetoric? Or will they try to dismiss the massacre as the mere act of a deranged individual, and go on as before? If Arizona promotes some real soul-searching, it could prove a turning point. If it doesn’t, Saturday’s atrocity will be just the beginning. - Paul Krugman

Bits and Pieces for the Week of January 2 - 8

Make your own planet (Mike)
Obama has just made another bad decision. He will continue to shed Progressives' support. More here. (Mike)
Trying to regulate banks' fees is like whack-a-mole. (Mike)
When I bought my Prius in 2002, there were maybe a few thousand sold that year. Now Toyota plans on making Prius its #1 seller. (Mike)
Considering its budget's bloated size, these cuts by the Pentagon are at least a tiny start. (Mike)
Improve your job interview results by wearing glasses. (Mike)

Texas is in serious financial trouble... "It's a pro-business, lean-spending, no-union state... if you want to make comparisons between US states and ailing European countries, think of Texas as being like America's Ireland. Ireland was once praised as a model for economic growth: conservatives loved it for its pro-business, anti-tax, low-spending strategy, and hailed it as the way forward for all of Europe." LMFAO! (7 of 6)

What's changed in the past 10 years

Click image to view larger chart. Source.