Fox News Ties Missle Defense Logo To Obama, Russia, And Islam

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Fox News posted a headline on the homepage of FoxNews.Com that left me with more questions then answers. The headline was about the new red, white, and blue logo for the Missile Defence Angency, but the text directly below the image read:

Missle Defense Angency's Web site features a new red, white and blue logo - described as 'scarily' similar to Obama's campaign logo, as well as the symbol of Islam.

Obviously this is manufactured news and just as intentional as all of the incorrect information that Fox News places on the chyron along the lower 3rd of the screen. That's where scandal ridden Republican's "mistakenly" get reported as Democrats as in the case of Sen. Mark Foley when news broke about him having a fondness for teenage boys. This didn't happen just once, but at least on three different ocassions during different segments regarding the discrased Republican Senator.

Fox has correctly reported North Carolina Governor Mark Sanford as a Republican, except during a Breaking News Alert when the disgrased Republican admitted spending Father's Day with his long term mistress in Argentina rather then with his wife and children.

I know that the "D" is right below the "R" on the keyboard, but come on! - There's also the famous "?" that Fox News uses when they want to make a statement by phrasing it as a question such as. Is Obama's policies leading America towards Socialism? People don't watch the news to be asked questions, they watch the news to have questions answered.

Jon Stewart recenty called out Fox News on this sort of trickery during an appearance on The O'Reilly Factor. The example that he gave to Billo was that this sort of sillyness was like saying:

"I'm not saying that your mom is a whore, I'm just saying that she sleeps with alot of men for money."

If you look at the text again below that image, it says that the logo is "described" as 'scarily' similar to Obama's campaign logo, as well as the symbol of islam. What it doesn't say is who is describing it that way. That information may have been in the story if you clicked on the link, but we'll never know now since it was taken down so quickly. Even if it did appear in the full story, that it important information even for teasr text below an image. If they're going to emphasize that the logo described as 'scarily' similar to something evil, you should say who is describing it that way.

I'm not saying that Fox News is staged, I'm just saying that it comes across as unbelievable as the Jerry Springer Show. It all seems to be intentionally made to look like a legitamate television news program like Reno 911 is supposed to look like an episode of COPS. That's all I'm saying.

Chico Brisbane

The GOP Highjacks the Tea Party movement.

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The Tea Party Patriots are a national grassroots organization that has no offices, no president, virtually no money, and operates largely on volunteer efforts. Understandably with an advertising budget that ould fit in a coffe can, it must have seemed like pennies from heaven when Fox News took the lead in promoting their uber televised Tax Day Tea Parties last April 15.

But unbeknownst to many, there was another group claiming ownership of this conservative movement. It's called the Tea Party Express, and it has dominated Fox News coverage over the past year with its multistate bus tours and political rallies.





The political action committee behind the Tea Party Express (TPE) — which already has been slammed as inauthentic and corporate-controlled by rival factions in the Tea Party movement — directed almost two thirds of its spending during a recent reporting period back to the Republican consulting firm that created the PAC in the first place.

Our Country Deserves Better (OCDB) spent around $1.33 million from July through November, according to FEC filings examined by TPMmuckraker. Of that sum, a total of $857,122 went to Sacramento-based GOP political consulting firm Russo, Marsh, and Associates, or people associated with it.


WATCH VIDEO:




The political action committee behind the Tea Party Express (TPE) — which already has been slammed as inauthentic and corporate-controlled by rival factions in the Tea Party movement — directed almost two thirds of its spending during a recent reporting period back to the Republican consulting firm that created the PAC in the first place. Our Country Deserves Better (OCDB) spent around $1.33 million from July through November, according to FEC filings examined by TPMmuckraker. Of that sum, a total of $857,122 went to Sacramento-based GOP political consulting firm Russo, Marsh, and Associates, or people associated with it.

OCDB, which built the Tea Party Express, is essentially a Russo, Marsh creation, as we’ve detailed. The PAC’s site was registered in July 2008 by Sal Russo, the firm’s founder. That site also lists Russo as the PAC’s “chief strategist.” Tea Party Express fundraising emails, sent by OCDB and obtained by TPMmuckraker, come from another Russo, Marsh employee, Joe Wierzbicki.

With The Tea Party Express and the Republican Party controlling the movement, there remains to be little hope for anyone looking for a real grassroots movement. Between Fox News, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity, they've managed to attract some unsavory, gun toting charachters to the health care town hall meetings last summer. - Of course while The Tea Party Patriots were looking the wrong way, The Tea Party Express popped up out of knowhere and basically high-jacked the whole kit and caboodle right out from under them.

Overnight the Tea Party Movement went from a grassroots group of people protesting the the size of government to something that is bound to leave just as big of a stain on American history as the the civil rights movement did in the 50s' and 60s' - Suddenly there was a hatefull mob of people with little concern over taxes, but hell bent on reversing the election of the first black President of the United States. It wouldn't have mattered if Obama were born in Kenya or Compton. These folks "don't want no niggers in the White House." That's a quote from my racist, teabagging, next door neighbor who has a Barack Obama statue that holds up his mailbox at the end of the driveway. He's dressed in a Jocky's suit although I'm not sure what the purpose of the horse jocky's uniform is. Are there African American horse jockies? - You can see from some of the signs being held by tea baggers, they and my neighbor Tom are like peas and carrots.

Marijuana Use Among Seniors Citizens Nearly Triples Since 2002

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Usually an activity among young people, use of high quality marijuana is now growing among the AARP set, as the massive generation of baby boomers who came of age in the 1960s and '70s grows older.

The number of people aged 50 and older reporting marijuana use in the prior year went up from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent from 2002 to 2008, according to surveys from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The rise was most dramatic among 55- to 59-year-olds, whose reported marijuana use more than tripled from 1.6 percent in 2002 to 5.1 percent.

Observers expect further increases as 78 million boomers born between 1945 and 1964 age. For many boomers, the drug never held the stigma it did for previous generations, and they tried it decades ago.

Some have used it ever since, while others are revisiting the habit in retirement, either for recreation or as a way to cope with the aches and pains of aging.

Siegel walks with a cane and has arthritis in her back and legs. She finds marijuana has helped her sleep better than pills ever did. And she can't figure out why everyone her age isn't sharing a joint, too.

"They're missing a lot of fun and a lot of relief," she said.

Politically, advocates for legalizing marijuana say the number of older users could represent an important shift in their decades-long push to change the laws.

"For the longest time, our political opponents were older Americans who were not familiar with marijuana and had lived through the 'Reefer Madness' mentality and they considered marijuana a very dangerous drug," said Keith Stroup, the founder and lawyer of NORML, a marijuana advocacy group.

"Now, whether they resume the habit of smoking or whether they simply understand that it's no big deal and that it shouldn't be a crime, in large numbers they're on our side of the issue."

Each night, 66-year-old Stroup says he sits down to the evening news, pours himself a glass of wine and rolls a joint. He's used the drug since he was a freshman at Georgetown, but many older adults are revisiting marijuana after years away.

"The kids are grown, they're out of school, you've got time on your hands and frankly it's a time when you can really enjoy marijuana," Stroup said. "Food tastes better, music sounds better, sex is more enjoyable."

The drug is credited with relieving many problems of aging: aches and pains, glaucoma, macular degeneration, and so on. Patients in 14 states enjoy medical marijuana laws, but those elsewhere buy or grow the drug illegally to ease their conditions.

Among them is Perry Parks, 67, of Rockingham, N.C., a retired Army pilot who suffered crippling pain from degenerative disc disease and arthritis. He had tried all sorts of drugs, from Vioxx to epidural steroids, but found little success. About two years ago he turned to marijuana, which he first had tried in college, and was amazed how well it worked for the pain.

"I realized I could get by without the narcotics," Parks said, referring to prescription painkillers. "I am essentially pain free."

But there's also the risk that health problems already faced by older people can be exacerbated by regular marijuana use.

Older users could be at risk for falls if they become dizzy, smoking it increases the risk of heart disease and it can cause cognitive impairment, said Dr. William Dale, chief of geriatrics and palliative medicine at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

He said he'd caution against using it even if a patient cites benefits.

"There are other better ways to achieve the same effects," he said.

Pete Delany, director of applied studies at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, said boomers' drug use defied stereotypes, but is important to address.

"When you think about people who are 50 and older you don't generally think of them as using illicit drugs _ the occasional Hunter Thompson or the kind of hippie dippie guy that gets a lot of press maybe," he said. "As a nation, it's important to us to say, 'It's not just young people using drugs it's older people using drugs.'"

In conversations, older marijuana users often say they smoke in less social settings than when they were younger, frequently preferring to enjoy the drug privately. They say the quality (and price) of the drug has increased substantially since their youth and they aren't as paranoid about using it.

Dennis Day, a 61-year-old attorney in Columbus, Ohio, said when he used to get high, he wore dark glasses to disguise his red eyes, feared talking to people on the street and worried about encountering police. With age, he says, any drawbacks to the drug have disappeared.

"My eyes no longer turn red, I no longer get the munchies," Day said. "The primary drawbacks to me now are legal."

Siegel bucks the trend as someone who was well into her 50s before she tried pot for the first time. She can muster only one frustration with the drug.

"I never learned how to roll a joint," she said. "It's just a big nuisance. It's much easier to fill a pipe."

Is The Tea Party Movement Intentionally Dangerous or Just Misguided?

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I stumbled upon an obscure link in Digg that lead me to this post that really captured my attention. There was a comment by John Gardner whose twitter page is at http://twitter.com/j_gardner

His comments were in regards to the video below, but the first paragraph was about OSHA and it had a real anti-government tone that I believe to be indicitave of the Tea Party people. To be clear, I don't know if Mr.Gardner travels in the Tea Party circles, but I was taken aback by his perception of OSHA. I can only assume that Mr. Gardner either owns a large industrial manufacturing business or if he dosen't, he's just never worked in one. Below is the paragraph that caught my attention.

GARDNER:
"I despise Chris Matthews – he claims that OSHA is there to keep workplaces safe. What Mack should have said is that OSHA isn’t about safety, it’s about control. If a workplace wasn’t safe, NO ONE WOULD WORK THERE. You don’t need a governing body to force businesses to be safe, they’ll do that on their own because they want to attract workers."

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I replied to his comment however, it didn't post right away. I can only assume they moderate thier comments which is always annoying. I don't work for OSHA, but I have more then a decade of experience in County Code Inforcement particularly in regards to industrial manufacturing. Below is my reply to Mr. Gardners comment.

J_GARDNER WROTE:

"OSHA isn’t about safety, it’s about control. If a workplace wasn’t safe, NO ONE WOULD WORK THERE. You don’t need a governing body to force businesses to be safe, they’ll do that on their own because they want to attract workers."

MY REPLY:

Oh really? So we should just develop an honor system and hope that company owners and executives will provide a safe work environment for thier employess without any oversight whatsoever? - Really?

Secondly, that fact of the matter is that many people would absolutely work in an unsafe or non-compliant workplace as long as the paychecks keep rolling in, particularly when the job market is lean. It's times just like these where business owners will make up lost revenue by putting off scheduled maintance of machinery, fire supression systems, safety training, turning a blind eye to ISO standards.

You said we don't need a governing body to "force" business to be safe. That is not the purpose of OSHA and more importantly, they shouldn't have to force compliance, but rather enforce compliance. OSHA sets the standard and it's up to the business owner to operate within the standard. The only time a business is forced to comply is when they've been caught operating in violation of health and safety standards.

I'm on my 10th year in County Code Enforcment and you'd be amazed at the level of danger "some" business owners will allow thier employess to operate in. I'm not talking about running out of earplugs or not providing eye protection, or even uncertified forklift operators for that matter. I'm talking about five ton stamping presses with safety guards and fail-safe switches not working or removed entirely.

I don't claim to know what the Tea Party movement is all about, but on the surface, it seems extremely anti-government. I'm all for not being told by the government how many guns I can own, or that my kids have to be taught about sex, morality and other issues at school that really belong at home between children, adolescents and thier parents. But there can never come a day when Government is removed from every aspect of society.

Just what you said in your post is a fine example of what I'm talking about. From my perspective, the Tea Party has a romantic urning for a return to simpiler times back when the constitution was drafted. It's always about or founding fathers and the principils they lived by. While that's a tender notion, it's just not practical. Or founding fathers knew nothing about an industrialized nation or a global economy for that matter. There's a reason why the hands on a clock only travel in one direction. Time moves forward and there is simply no going back.

We are an ever changing society and I suspect that if you could bring back our founding fathers from 1776 to 2010, they would be curled up in the fetal position on the ground from the noise, cars, jet aircraft, not to mention that America now consist of 300,000,000 people of every color, creed, and religion.

Not to be rude or insensitive, but it seems to me that the tea partiers are not afraid of the future, but rather of an overwhelming sense that they are being left behind. Our county has stood strong for over 250 years through bloody revolution, civil war, drought, and at the edge of full scale nuclear war. We have now added bloody terrorism to our national resume. If George Bush couldn't kill it, there's now way some skinny black dude from Chicago is going to kill it either. If our founding fathers have given us anything that has endured the test of time, it's our systems of checks and balances.

In peace time or at war, we are and will always be the greatest country on the planet. We are the land of the free and the home of the brave, not the home of I'm afraid. That seems to be the endless narrative coming from the tea party movement. At least from my perspective it is.

They say "Oh we can't try terrorist in New York, it will make us a target, Obama is making the country unsafe, we have to protect ever square inch of our bordes. For a group of people who invoke religion and tout their christianity every chance they get, I have never seen a group of people so frightened of death.

There are more than 300,000,000 people in the country. Why do you think these terrorist pussies get in air planes and fly them into buildings, or blow up American embassys on the other side of the globe. Do you think they would have the balls to put on a uniform, pick up a rifel and march in formation down mainstreet USA like our soldiers do down the God Damn streets of Bhagdad? - No they don't! 

You won't see a wave terrorist invading our country and landing on the shores of our opposit coastlines. They know better! - They'd never make it off the fucking sand along in California coast or even to the boardwalk at Coney Island on the east coast. And it won't be or military alone that they have to worry about. In this country, we have the right to bear arms and guess what Bubba? - I'm armed to the fucking teeth and I'm not the only one and they know it. With our military spread out all over the world and in two wars in the middle east, they still don't come to us in the numbers that we go to them...No Country has and I suspect that no country ever will.

Sadly, we seem to be caught up in our racial, religious, and economic differances that it would take something like a full blown military invasion to cure us of what has been ailing us for decades in this country. I'm telling you if that day ever came where it was us against them right here in our own front yard with our freedom and liberty really hanging in the balance, all of that bullshit would disappear in a second.

It won't matter if you're Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, Gay, Straight, Blind, Crippled, or Fucking Crazy! - All that will matter is "are you an American" and if so come on then! - Lock & Load. That's why it drives me nuts when I hear people saying that Obama wants to abolish the 2nd ammendment and confiscate everyones guns. Sooner or later, we're going to have to stop all of this anti-government nonsense. We need to forge ahead as a county, as a society no matter how frightening or uncertian it may seem to some. There is no going back! - Not now, not ever!

That's my two cents.

Chico Brisbane

How Much Longer Before Glenn Beck Has Sponsor His Own Show?

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How Much Longer Before Glenn Beck Will Have To Sponsor His Own Show? - Some People Say.......

Below is a list of sponsors that have pulled their ads from The Glenn Beck Show. Many people are wondering if Beck has had to resort to partally sponsoring his own show out of pocket. While Beck portrays the Tea Party and 9/12 Project membersip to represent mainstream America, if not a majority, you'd think that shear numbers such as that could lobby advertisers on his behalf and encourage them not to pull their sponsership.

Obviously they cannot and it just may be that it's not a matter of numbers, it's a matter of rallying these people to do something other then participating in a flash mob with their hateful picket signs in tow.

The sponsors listed in red are among those that I personally did verifiable business with. There is a big difference between calling up a sponser and saying "Oh please don't drop your ads from The Glenn Beck Show" and calling them up and saying here is my policy number, my credit card number, my bank account number, my store discount number, etc and presenting them with a verifiable loss of revenue for their association with a total fucking loonatic.

In spite of it costing me a few bucks here and there, I made it clear that my actions were simply a boycott and wether the loss of revenue being temporary or perminent was up to them. They got the message.

Airmiles.co.uk (added 10/20/09)
Allergan (added 8/17/09)
Allstate Insurance (added 2/16/10) (statement)
Ally Bank/GMAC Financial Services (added 8/17/09)
Alpro Soya (added 01/11/10) (statement)
AmMed Direct (added 10/6/09)
Ancestry.com (added 8/24/09)
Anheuser-Busch (added 2/16/10) (statement)
Applebee’s (added 8/27/09)
Ashley Furniture (added 8/28/09)
AT&T (added 8/24/09)
Bank of America (added 8/25/09)
Bell & Howell (added 8/27/09)
Best Buy (added 8/17/09)
Best Western (added 2/5/10) (statement)
Binder & Binder (added 9/2/09)
Blaine Labs (anti-fungal & scar treatments) (added 8/24/09)
Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals (added 2/16/10) (statement)
Brez (anti-snoring strips) by Airware Inc. (added 8/21/09)
British Airways (added 12/14/09)
Broadview Security (added 8/17/09)
Brother International Corp. (added 2/16/10) (statement)
Campbell’s Soup Co. (added 8/24/09)
Capital One (added 9/2/09)
Celsius (added 2/16/10) (statement)
Citrix Online (added 10/6/09)
Clorox (added 8/23/09)
Closing.com (Closing Corp.) (added 8/28/09) (read statement here)
Concord Music Group (Hear Music) (added 10/6/09)
CVS (added 8/17/09)
Dannon Co. (added 9/2/09)
Diageo (Guinness, Cuervo, Baileys’, etc) (added 10/5/09)
DirecTV (added 8/27/09)
Discover (added 9/2/09)
DITECH (added 8/24/09)
EggLands Best (added 9/21/09)
Elations Co. (added 8/24/09)
Equifax (added 10/6/09)
Eulactol USA (maker of Flexitol) (added 10/6/09)
Farmers Insurance Group
FreeCreditReport.com/Experian (added 8/24/09)
GEICO
General Mills (added 8/27/09)
George Foreman Cooking (added 2/20/10) (statement)
GetARoom.com (added 10/6/09)
GlaxoSmithKline (added 1/12/10) (statement)
Healthy Choice (owned by CongAgra)
History Channel (added 11/11/09)
Hoffman La Roche (maker of Boniva) (added 10/6/09)
Honda (added 1/31/10) (statement)
HSBC (added 9/2/09)
Humana (added 9/14/09)
ICAN Benefit Group Insurance (added 9/2/09)
Idaho Potato Commission (added 2/16/10) (statement)
Infiniti (added 9/2/09)
Intersections Inc. (added 2/16/10)
ING DIRECT (added 01/07/09) (statement)
Jack Daniels (added 12/28/09)
Jelmar (CLR cleaner manufacturer) (added 9/2/09)
Johnson & Johnson (added 8/24/09)
Jordan McKenna Debt Counseling Network (added 9/2/09)
KRAFT Foods (added 8/20/09) (read statement here)
KRAFT Foods (UK) (added 11/13/09)
Lawyers.com (owned by LexisNexis)
Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School (added 2/16/10) (statement)
Lowe’s (added 8/24/09)
Luxottica Retail (parent company of Pearle & LensCrafters) (added 9/14/09)
Mars (maker of Snickers, M&Ms, Pedigree, etc..) (added 10/20/09) (read statement here)
Marriott International (added 2/16/10) (statement)
Men’s Wearhouse
Mercedes-Benz (added 9/2/09)
Metropolitan Talent Management (added 10/6/09)***
Natwest (UK) (added 12/11/09)
Nestle (added 11/23/09)
NutriSystem (added 8/24/09)
ooVoo (added 10/6/09)
Overture Films (added 10/6/09)
Premier Foods (UK) (added 11/18/09)
Premier Inn (UK) (added 12/20/09)
Procter & Gamble
Progressive Insurance
PUIG Beauty (added 12/14/09)
Radio Shack
Re-Bath (added 8/17/09)
Reckitt Benckiser (UK) (added 12/04/09)
Regions Financial Corporation (added 8/27/09)
Republic of Macedonia (added 2/16/10) (statement)
Roche *
S.C. Johnson
SAM (Store and Move) (added 8/27/09)
Sanofi-Aventis
Sargento Cheese
Scarguard (added 10/6/09)
Schiff Nutrition (maker of Tiger’s Milk & Fi-Bar) (added 10/6/09)
Seoul Metropolitan Government (added 10/6/09)
Simplex Healthcare (Diabetes Care Club) (added 9/2/09)
Sprint (added 8/23/09)
StarKist (tuna) (added 2/8/10) (statement)
State Farm Insurance
Subaru (added 10/6/09)
Sylvan Learning (added 2/20/10) (statement)
Tesco (added 12/19/09)
Toyota-Lexus USA (added 10/6/09) / Toyota (GB) (added 2/3/10) (statement)
Travelers Insurance (added 8/27/09)
Travelocity
UPS (added 8/23/09)
United Healthcare (added 2/16/10) (statement)
United States Postal Service (added 9/14/09)
US Fidelis (added 2/16/10) (statement)
Verizon Wireless (added 8/21/09)
Virgin Atlantic (added 01/08/10)
Vonage (added 8/24/09)
Volkswagen (added 2/16/10)
Waitrose (added 10/4/09) **
Walmart (added 8/17/09)
Weight Watchers (added 2/20/10) (statement)
Western Union (added 2/16/10)
Woodland Power Products (added 10/6/09)
Wyeth Consumer Healthcare (added 9/14/09)

Here is a list of his 20 remaining sponsers with phone numbers should you like to give some of them a call. You can rest assured that even a loss of all sponsers will not result in the cancellation of Beck's show. It simply proves that the real majority of mainstream Americans do not subscribe to Beck's crazy talk nor do they respond to his wing-nut dog whistle. It's that simple.


American Advisors Group
@aagreverse
info@aagreverse.com
1-800-850-1356

American Petroleum Institute
@janevanryan@EnergyTomorrow
Contact Form
202-682-8000

Carbonite
david.friend@carbonite.com
1-877-665-4466

Chattem Inc.
Contact Form
423-821-4571

Consumer Debt Advocate
1-800-258-0973

Dish Network
@dishnetwork
Ira.Bahr@echostar.comPhil.Klein@echostar.comTammy.Timmons@echostar.com

FreeScore
@creditsquirrel
rob@mediafirstpr.com

Goldline
@goldline
info@goldline.com
1-877-376-2646

IRSTaxAgreements.com
1-888-550-1540

Lifelock
mike@lifelock.commarketing@lifelock.com
480-682-5100

Merit Financial

Rosland Capital

Sokolove Law
@andersekman@SokoloveSuccess
info@sokolovelaw.com

State of Utah
@TravelUtah
travel@utah.gov
1-800-200-1160

Sun Setter Retractable Awnings
jonathan@sunsetter.com
1-800-876-2340

Tax Masters
@GoTaxMasters
info@txmstr.com

Zero Technologies (Zero Water)
customerservice@zerowater.comzeroteam@jbcumberland.com
1-800-503-2939

Stimulus Creates 150,000 Jobs In California

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Obama's Stimulus and Recovery Act created 150,000 jobs for unemployed Californians in addition to thousands of jobs saved that would have otherwise resulted in layoff and eliminated positions. Today on ABC’s This Week, host Terry Moran noted the Republican Party’s staunch opposition to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that Congress passed last year and added that “it was summed up by Mitt Romney at the CPAC convention this week.” “[President Obama] scared employers,” Romney said. “So jobs were scarce.

His nearly trillion dollar stimulus created not one net new job in the private sector.” In response to Romney's disconnect with reality, Republican California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called out the GOP for thier wanton hypocrisy:

SCHWARZENEGGER: I find it interesting that you have a lot of Republicans running around pushing back on the stimulus money and saying this doesn’t create any new jobs. Then they go out and they do the photo ops and they’re posing with the big checks and they say, “Isn’t this great?”

Schwarzenegger then railed against his GOP colleagues for playing politics with the stimulus bill and attacked them for claiming it didn’t create jobs:

SCHWARZENEGGER: Anyone that says it hasn’t created a job, they should talk to the 150,000 people that have been getting jobs in California.
MORAN: In the private sector?

SCHWARZENEGGER: In the private sector and from the public sector. … So I’m happy that we got this money. I’m happy that we have put 150,000 people to work and there will be more people that are put to work because of it.
Watch it:



Throughout the past year, many GOP members of Congress who voted against the stimulus have been touting the money that it has delivered to their states or districts. From one side of thier mouth, they paint the stimulus as a failure and from the other side of their mouth they offer a few ambigous words while delivering large cardboard checks to municipalities at home as if they somehow took part in the process that made the much needed funds a reality.

A new research report released last week found that over half of the Republican caucus — 110 lawmakers from the House and Senate — are guilty of this stimulus hypocrisy.

DEA Raids Marijuana Lab

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DEA Raids Marijuana Lab





Last week's DEA raid of Genovations, a Colorado Springs medical marijuana laboratory, was the second time in recent weeks that the agency had swooped in on a lab that had applied for a license in an attempt to prove its forthrightness and responsibility; the same scenario played out in January at Full Spectrum Laboratories.


But these searches and seizures were mere prelude to the Friday arrest of Chris Bartkowicz, who had created a marijuana grow in the basement of his Highlands Ranch home. His invitation to the DEA? A story on 9News that appears to have embarrassed authorities so much that they decided to punish Bartkowicz for his willingness to bring his story up from the underground.

Medical marijuana advocates have denounced these arrests, arguing that they violate the spirit of an October memorandum from Deputy U.S. Attorney General David Ogden stating that the Justice Department should defer to states that have legalized medical marijuana -- a policy decried by Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, among others.

Just over a week ago, a man named Chris Bartkowicz in Highlands Ranch, Colorado made a questionable (at best) PR move. He agreed to be interviewed by a local television station about his medical marijuana grow operation. Granted, he believed he was in compliance with state law and had no reason to fear prosecution. But, come on, dude. It’s one thing to make six figures growing marijuana in your home for patients; it’s quite another to advertise it on television. It’s like putting a "Home Invasions Encouraged" sign on your door.

What Bartkowicz wasn’t expecting – if he was really thinking things through at all – was that the DEA would show up the next day at his house, take all of his plants, and forward his case to the U.S. Attorney, who subsequently filed charges carrying a 5- to 40-year prison sentence. This, despite the fact that the Obama administration has instructed U.S. Attorneys not to prosecute individuals who comply with state medical marijuana laws.

Was Bartkowicz in compliance with state law? Maybe yes, maybe no. By the DEA’s admission, he was a caregiver for at least 12 patients, which would allow him to have 72 marijuana plants. The complaint – available on this page as a pdf – alleges that he had 224 plants, more than 100 of which were "clones" or "starter" plants; the others were "in various stages with root systems." So what we are talking about here is a matter of degree. If someone can legally grow marijuana for patients, but exceeds the allowable number – perhaps for fear that some plants would not mature or perhaps because they felt more patients would need help before the plants matured – is it an intelligent use of taxpayer dollars to raid, prosecute and imprison this person for 40 years?

The truth is, as discussed in my last column, the DEA is not concerned with using taxpayer dollars intelligently. They are merely focused on using taxpayer dollars. Cases like this demonstrate that they are no better than ambulance-chasing lawyers. They see an "accident" on television and they run like two-dollar hookers to keep themselves busy and make a couple bucks. Why waste your time investigating people manufacturing meth when you can look up a medical marijuana grower on the Internet (which the DEA acknowledges in their complaint was a major part of their "investigation") and raid his house?


And now the media is even helping the DEA advertise for clients. Inciting fears of possible house fires from marijuana growing, the DEA has launched a new campaign to fight this "menace." In addition to dutifully reporting on this "danger," the media helped steer business to the DEA by publishing this advice from George Morkovin, of the Denver Fire Department:


Morkovin said additional regulations are needed to protect residents from these marijuana fires, but until that happens, he recommends notifying authorities if someone believes a grow is taking place next door.


How convenient. With this information, the DEA won’t even need to waste time looking up an address. They can just use Google Maps and they’re on their way. They no longer deserve to be called the Drug Enforcement Administration. They are simply the Drug Employment Administration, keeping themselves busy by raiding people who are not raising the ire of state authorities, but are merely trying to cultivate marijuana so that there is an adequate supply for the tens of thousands of registered patients in the state.


Fortunately, we have rock star advocates like Brian Vincente of Sensible Colorado calling out the DEA and the U.S. Attorney on their true motivations. (This is just one quote from Vicente in an interview in which he simply shreds law enforcement):


"I think the U.S. Attorney and the DEA view marijuana laws as a continuing employment act. It gives them something to do, and they’re afraid that if they were to recognize the will of the voters, they’d be out of work. So I question the motivation for prosecuting these kinds of individuals. I think it’s driven by their own need for job security."

Rachel Maddow goes to CPAC

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MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow at CPAC this week — heck, just saying that much tells you this is going to be a good one. But here’s a teaser — Rachel and Liz Cheney, in the flesh, in the same frame.
Next up: Jonathan Turley appeared on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann to discuss the U.S. Department of Justice OPR report. The Office of Professional Responsibility found that Bush Administration attorneys John Yoo and Jay Bybee were not guilty of misconduct, only bad judgment in their legal work supporting the use of torture on detainees as part of euphemistically labeled "enhanced interrogation techniques."

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Down Syndrome Actress Andrea Fay Friedman Rebukes Palin

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Part of the importance of Palin's facebook writer lashing out in the names of Palin and one of her daughters this past week being countered by the real actress behind a voice on a cartoon show, is that once again, Palin's treatment of Trig, before and after he was born, needs to be far more closely scrutinized than has been the case.

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Democrats Will Pass Health Care Within 60 Days

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said Democrats will finish their health reform efforts within the next two months, The Hill reports.

Reid also confirmed that Democrats "would likely opt for a procedural tactic in the Senate allowing the upper chamber to make final changes to its healthcare bill with only a simple majority of senators, instead of the 60 it takes to normally end a filibuster."

Said Reid: "I've had many conversations this week with the president, his chief of staff, and Speaker Pelosi. And we're really trying to move forward on this."