Bu$hCo DHHS: Politicizing kids’ health

Unbelievable.On January 14, less than two weeks ago, Louisiana’s Democratic governor Kathleen Blanco left office as Republican Bobby Jindal was sworn in.And guess what! An expansion of Louisiana’s children’s health insurance program the Feds resisted when Governor Blanco proposed it, is now suddenly A-OK!State health Secretary Alan Levine said he’s optimistic that the state will win federal approval to expand its health insurance program for children after a Friday meeting in Washington, D.C.U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials had balked at a similar proposal by former Gov. Kathleen Blanco.Now those same officials appear receptive and gave the state some constructive ideas for making the plan approvable, Levine said in a telephone interview Friday. Under the proposed expansion,...

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"...it is where we begin."

Sen. Barack Obama's speech Sunday, January 20 at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church; 33 minutes and well worth watching. I invite you to reflect on his theme of unity as "the great need of the hour", and how this relates to the many problems and challenges that face our country and our world.Meanwhile, closer to home: a small Louisiana town prays for peace as a white supremacist group prepares to rally "against" Dr. King and the teenagers known as the Jena...

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Conservative Clone Factory

Weird. Is there some kind of conservative borg-hive where they just stamp these guys out on an assembly line? But note that the HomoPhobot XL comes with a solid tie and flag lapel pin, while the Econotron 9000 has a striped tie (lapel pin sold separately, to increase profit margin).Well, no matter how you slice 'n' dice the parade of stars that is the Republican presidential candidate lineup, Richard Viguerie's "three-legged stool" model for conservative electoral viability is looking very rickety these days. No matter how hard you try, one or two of the legs keeps falling out and it just doesn't seem safe to sit on anymore. Might be time to...

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Bill O'Reilly: Defender of the Constitution

Who knew?First, how about a quick retrospective of some of BillO's finest moments in First Amendment advocacy:Now, Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films have a new clip showing the now infamous (having been immortalized on Countdown Puppet Theatre) O'Reilly shoving incident. Nothing like watching a boor like O'Reilly accusing someone else of being "low class". The Greenwald clip then segues into a troubling reminder of what Fox is likely to have in store should Obama become the Democratic nominee: the madrassa smear, the bogus flag lapel pin hysteria, even accusations of being a Communist.It's amazing that anybody actually watches Fox News (except out of morbid fascination, like the same reason people stop to look at car wrecks), but too many of our fellow citizens still buy the crap the Murdoch...

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Chickens come home to roost at Faux Noize

After years of peddling their propaganda, Fox News reaps what they have sown. When you're pushing a blatantly political agenda, you can call it "news" all you want, but eventually you're gonna wind up pissing off the viewers who don't support your candidate of choice (Rudy!) and/or make those who support the candidate you're trying to bury (Ron Paul) really mad, as in near-riot mad. As in stalking Sean Hannity mad.Is this more evidence of the widening rifts within the Republican Party? If Fox News provided a sort of "groupthink glue" that helped the thing hold together, then what does this porte...

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Tell Cafferty what you think about Congress' fear of impeachment

Cross-posted at Daily Kos:This hour's viewer question for the Cafferty File is:6 p.m.: Why won't Congress impeach President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney?Write in and tell him what you think! Late update: Jack's gone home for the day, but you can still read the article and post a comment about this subject on his blog. Add your voice to the flood of comments already there, to let Jack know this is a story that matters to people. Who knows, maybe he will even convince The Beard to talk more about it. The question was prompted by this weekend's editorial in the Washington Post, in which George McGovern calls for the impeachment of both Bush and Cheney.Is it possible that the impeachment movement is finally gaining the notice of the corporate-owned media? Recall that Congressman Robert...

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