Do you realize how the Right REALLY feels about you?

The truth of the matter is that it should thoroughly frighten you. These people are terrifying!
Digby at Hullabaloo:

Glenn Greenwald does a nice job today dealing with yet another example of journalistic double standards, dealing with the predictable excretory spew of Ann Coulter at this year's CPAC vs Howie Kurtz's recent spell on the fainting couch over few anonymous comments that were removed from the Huffington Post. But he highights this comment from Andrew Sullivan which just floored me

When you see her in such a context, you realize that she truly represents the heart and soul of contemporary conservative activism, especially among the young. The standing ovation for Romney was nothing like the eruption of enthusiasm that greeted her. . . .

Her endorsement of Romney today - "probably the best candidate" - is a big deal, it seems to me. McCain is a non-starter. He is as loathed as Clinton in these parts. Giuliani is, in her words, "very, very liberal." One of his sins? He opposed the impeachment of Bill Clinton. That's the new standard. She is the new Republicanism. The sooner people recognize this, the better.

Continue at Hullabaloo

Read Glenn at Salon

Democrats Should Force the Republicans to Physically Filibuster

Cenk Uygur At Huffington

If the Republicans want to filibuster the Iraq debate, then they should be forced to get up and keep talking about how well the Iraq War is going and what a great idea escalation is.

They can tell us for hours and hours how much they believe in the escalation and how the Iraqis will throw roses at our feet.

...Maybe Dick Cheney could make a special guest appearance to help his Republican buddies in Congress talk about how much progress we're making there.

...Make them get up there and physically block a vote about what we should do in Iraq. Have them in front of the cameras telling the American people why we wouldn't shouldn't vote on the most important issue in the country.

They want a filibuster? Give them one. Let them make jackasses of themselves.

More

Bill Gates (yeah, yeah, I know..) says the internet will revolutionize TV

Actually it already has. The number of folks skipping the tube for YouTube or D/L-ing to the 'ole iPod is becoming a strong movement. We are becoming a nation of people who refuse to wait on the network to see what we want.
Tivo, DVD recorders, Tuner cards in PCs, all of these are striking at the heart of the old style networks.

Instead of 100 channels of crap, we will Google an infinity of material from all over the world.

I believe that the rise of routine communications among average citizens on both sides of the pond had more than a little to do with the 'fall' of the USSR. As long as you didn't know Ivan's voice, or that his little girl was starting school or any of the millions of concerns of parents, children, husbands and wives going about their daily routines, it was easy to hate Ivan. When you began to know him, and he learned that we (at that time presided over by sane, intelligent leaders) didn't really want to invade, pillage and burn. (Now, of course, all bets are off!)

I would hope that that same 'sharing of intelligence' with all manner of people all over the world , may help those in this country finally learn that what everyone wants is to go about his own affairs, undisturbed by bullies half a world away. We all want just to get along.

Don't you just love this line? "A Fool's Erranhttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifd"

John Holusha at The New York Times

A panel of retired generals told a United States Senate committee today that sending 21,500 additional troops to Iraq will do little to solve the underlying political problems in the country.

“Too little and too late,” is the way Gen. Joseph P. Hoar, a former chief of the Central Command, described the effort to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The additional troops are intended to help pacify Baghdad and a restive province, but General Hoar said American leaders had failed to understand the political forces at work in the country. “The solution is political, not military,” he said.

“A fool’s errand,” was the judgment of Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, who commanded troops in the first Gulf War. He said other countries had concluded that the effort in Iraq was not succeeding, noting that “our allies are leaving us and will be gone by summer.”

More

Here is what can be done about the right wing wackos.

Mike Stark at Daily KOS

When I started CallingAllWingnuts, one of the hundreds of bloggers that came by to introduce themselves was Spocko of Spockosbrain (now defunct, for reasons soon to become revealed). Spocko was doing some work related to my own in his own market in California's Bay Area. His target? KSFO, home of Melanie Morgan, Lee Rogers, Brian Sussman and other poisonous 2nd rate talk show wingers.

Since this is Spocko's gig, I'm gonna pretty much use his words to explain what's gone down. Before the flip, to give you something to chew on as you click to the full story, I can tell you this much: you're gonna love what you read. Spocko has actually cost Disney money - he chased away advertisers and forced them to pay a law firm to intimidate his ISP. The story isn't all good though - Spocko's broke and can't afford to wage the legal battle, so he's shut down. That said, maybe we can use this space to buck up his spirits a little bit and see if there are any lawyers that want to file a Rule 11 motion against Disney's unscrupulous lawyers...

Read the rest Then consider what to do about this

To paraphrase John Lenon, "We'd All Love To See A Plan"

Tom at TomDispatch

Every now and then, you have to take a lesson or two from history. In the case of George Bush's Iraq, here's one: No matter what the President announces in his "new way forward" speech on Iraq next week -- including belated calls for "sacrifice" from the man whose answer to 9/11 was to urge Americans to surge into Disney World -- it won't work. Nothing our President suggests in relation to Iraq, in fact, will have a ghost of a chance of success. Worse than that, whatever it turns out to be, it is essentially guaranteed to make matters worse.

Repetition, after all, is most of what knowledge adds up to, and the Bush administration has been repetitively consistent in its Iraqi -- and larger Middle Eastern -- policies. Whatever it touches (or perhaps the better word would be "smashes") turns to dross. Iraq is now dross -- and Saddam Hussein was such a remarkably hard act to follow badly that this is no small accomplishment.

Read more

The right tries to paint the election rout as a call for commity. Look at the polls, Suckahs!

From the Carpetbagger:

...in what’s rumored to be a 50-50 nation, Democratic policy goals have broad support. They’re the kind of results that could, if Dems wanted, have a considerable effect on the process moving forward.

As (Matt) Stoller noted, “Nine out of eleven of these has more than 2:1 public support. Six out of eleven have 3:1 public support, and four out of eleven has 4:1 public support. This is a popular agenda. In other words, the arguments about bipartisanship put out by Bush, business lobbyists, insiders, and the pundits are just an excuse to ignore the public.”

I think that’s largely true. Results like these suggest the public actually wants Dems to do what they said they would do. This isn’t about how quickly Dems can compromise on their agenda; it’s about delivering a series of progressive policies that enjoy considerable public support.

More