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Tony Kushner: Right-Wing Opposition to Recognizing Climate Change Comes "Entirely From Greed"
Posted by Staff, TheNation.com on November 30, 2009 at 1:25 PM.
In 1991, Angels in America was one of the first major American dramas to take on the impact of human lives on the environment, as the character Hannah Pitt fretted about the hole in the ozone layer. Eighteen years later, the U.S. is on the verge of major negotiations over another, still more intractable instance of environmental degradation caused by humans, in Copenhagen this December. The Nation asked playwright and Editorial Board member Tony Kushner to reflect on the environmental legacy of Angels in America, and to discuss the artistic challenges of coping with an issue like climate change.
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
Scahill and Olbermann on Blackwater: Murderous Crusaders for Christ
Posted by Joshua Holland, AlterNet on November 27, 2009 at 6:00 PM.
In the window to your right, see frequent AlterNet contributor discuss Blackwater on Keith Olbermann's show. And if you missed it this Tuesday, be sure to check out Jeremy's piece on the shady mercenary firm's secret war in Pakistan.
Glenn Beck Dividing U.S. into 7 Parts ... Will Offer Americans Right-Wing Education
Posted by Staff, Media Matters for America on November 23, 2009 at 1:57 PM.
Who says conservatives don't value book learnin'?
Check out the video to your right, courtesy of Media Matters.
What Sarah Palin's "Jewish people will be flocking to Israel" prediction really means
Posted by Bruce Wilson, AlterNet on November 21, 2009 at 7:24 AM.
There's some acceptance that statements such as Sarah Palin's prediction that Jews will soon be "flocking to Israel" may indicate Palin holds apocalyptic beliefs. What's not understood is that she's closely associated with a religious tendency whose leaders promote anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, including one most commonly used by the Third Reich, in the 1930's and 1940's, to whip up anti-Semitic hatreds: the claim that a worldwide cabal of Jewish bankers manipulates the world economy and preys on working classes.
Stumping for her new autobiography, Sarah Palin has made a round of interviews with high profile media figures such as Oprah Winfrey and Barbara Walters. In the Walters interview Palin justified her support for expansion of Jewish settler enclaves on Israel's West Bank with a strange prediction. Walters asked, "Now let's talk about some issues - the Middle East. The Obama Administration does not want Israel to build any more settlements on what they consider Palestinian territory. What is your view on this ?" Palin responded, "I disagree with the Obama Administration on that. I believe that, um, the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon because the population of Israel is going to grow. More and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead."
Why might Palin's prediction come to pass ?
In the 1920's and 1930's, rising anti-Semitism was propelled, in part, by conspiracy theories alleging that Jewish bankers such as the Rothschild banking family controlled both the German and world economies through the manipulation of global money markets. Leaders in Sarah Palin's religious tendency have for years been promoting extremely similar conspiracy theories. Some of these allege that the Rothschild banking family heads an international conspiracy that dominates much of the world economy and controls the U.S.economy through the Federal Reserve.
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Hmmm ... Why Do So Many Wingnuts Have Such an Obsessive Fear of Being Raped?
Posted by Staff, Media Matters for America on November 20, 2009 at 10:45 AM.
Conservative commentators such as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Michael Savage frequently employ rape metaphors when discussing progressives or progressive policies. For example, Beck said that New Yorkers are "being raped by [their] government," while Limbaugh, during a discussion of health care, told his listeners: "Get ready to get gang-raped again."
Video to your right; much more after the jump ...
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
Sarah Palin Running for President ... of Facebook?
Posted by AlterNet Staff, AlterNet on November 19, 2009 at 2:42 PM.
Ana Marie Cox and Naomi Klein point out that Sarah Palin seems to be campaigning for President. But President of what? Klein thinks she's running for President of nothing. Cox thinks she shooting for President of Facebook. What do you think?
GOP Senator Lindsey Graham Breaks Ranks, Admits "The Green Economy Is Coming"
Posted by Staff, AlterNet on November 5, 2009 at 11:15 AM.
Finally, a little help from Republicans on the climate bill. GOP Senator Lindsey Graham said yesterday, "We will be working closely with the White House over the course of the next weeks with a few to try to pull together what ultimately could be presented to Sen. Reid and the leadership as a piece of legislation that we hope could get the 60 votes necessary to pass or more, and we would hope it would be more."
It seems not everyone want to be a member of the Party of No Show. Watch the rest.
This video is courtesy of Think Progress.
Iowa Wingnut Steve King Lauds Lobbyists as American Heros for Bussing in Health Reform Protesters
Posted by Lee Fang, Think Progress on November 4, 2009 at 2:46 PM.
On Thursday, the lobbyist-run groups Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks — which were instrumental in orchestrating dozens of anti-Obama tea parties and town hall disruptions — are planning an anti-health reform rally at the steps of the Capitol. Republican leadership, like Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), have endorsed the rally. But two of the most rabidly right-wing members of Congress, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) are amongst the most aggressive promoters of the rally, with the help of talk radio and Fox News.
FreedomWorks has launched a website called “DontKillGrandma.com” listing recommended tactics for activists to engage in while protesting health reform. For the Thursday rally, FreedomWorks says activists should engage in a “simultaneous chant of ‘Kill the Bill.’” FreedomWorks is funded by corporate money and is led by Dick Armey, the former Republican Majority Leader and until recently lobbyist from DLA Piper.
Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is busing people to the rally. AFP is led by astroturf lobbyist Tim Phillips and is bankrolled by gas and oil baron David Koch, the world’s 9th richest person and the financier of dozens of conservative think-tanks, publications, and politicians. Like they did for the April tea parties, AFP has commissioned at least 10 buses from Maryland, New Jersey, and North Carolina to bring protesters — free of charge — to DC for the rally.
During a speech last night, King thanked the lobbyists for bringing in buses from “state after state after state.”
[Ed: Watch it in the window to your right.]
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
GOP Loon Goes Off the Rails: Health Reform Greater Threat than Terrorism
Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress on November 2, 2009 at 11:12 AM.
Few Republican congressional members have served as a greater fount for hyperbolic and uninformed ranting about health care reform as has Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC). As ThinkProgress previously documented, Foxx has claimed Democratic reforms would mean seniors are “put to death by their government,” that health reform is a “distraction,” and that “there are no Americans who don’t have health care.” She was at it again today on the House floor, arguing that health reform is a greater threat to our country than “any terrorist right now in any country”:
Everywhere I go in my district, people tell me they are frightened. … I share that fear, and I believe they should be fearful. And I believe the greatest fear that we all should have to our freedom comes from this room — this very room — and what may happen later this week in terms of a tax increase bill masquerading as a health care bill. I believe we have more to fear from the potential of that bill passing than we do from any terrorist right now in any country.
Bill Moyers: We Can't Afford to Escalate the War in Afghanistan
Posted by AlterNet Staff, AlterNet on November 1, 2009 at 7:24 PM.
Let's not let our governing class make this long and dirty war "our war."
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