The Hollywood Liberal

Brit Scores ‘Best Job in the World’

On Saturday, 34-year-old Ben Southall became the luckiest son of a gun in the world. As of July 1, Southall will become the guardian of tropical Hamilton Island in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Duties include swimming, relaxing and blogging as part of a $1.7 million tourism publicity campaign for the area. Sorry ladies, he’s already taken.

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Civilians Pay the Price of War From Above

Of course there will be an inquiry. And in the meantime, we shall be told that all the dead Afghan civilians were being used as “human shields” by the Taliban and we shall say that we “deeply regret” innocent lives that were lost.

READ THE WHOLE ITEM

Related Entries

• April 20, 2009 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Incredible Shrinking Audience
• March 30, 2009 Sudan’s President Shows Up at Arab Summit
• March 13, 2009 U.N. Warns of Sri Lankan War Crimes
• March 4, 2009 The ICC’s First Tooth
• February 20, 2009 Rich Nations Truant on Climate Pledges

Youth Radio — Youth Media International: Hypocrisy Lessons from Bristol Palin
Originally published on Youthradio.org, the premier source for youth generated news throughout the globe. By: King Anyi Howell When newly appointed spokesperson for the Candie’s…

Rachel Farris: Mother’s Day Reminds Me of The Pill
On Mother’s Day, I participated in my usual Sunday morning ritual: reading the headlines on my Blackberry, checking my @replies on Twitter and scrolling through…

Mike Stark: For McAuliffe, a Shot Across the Bow
It looks to me as if the slumbering beast that is the Republican slime machine is about to grind into gear. They think McAuliffe will walk away with the Dem’s nomination for governor in Virginia.

Paul Abrams: Dick Cheney: A Life Pattern of Sabotaging the Security of the United States
As in the torture discussions, Dick Cheney has always tried mightily to portray himself as a staunch defender of the United States. For the most…

Drudge posts dubious picture of Obama “laugh” at joke about Limbaugh’s kidneys

Internet gossip Matt Drudge posted a Reuters picture of President Obama at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on May 9 in a context that suggested that Obama had laughed after comedian Wanda Sykes said of Rush Limbaugh: “I hope his kidneys fail.” The picture of Obama pointing, presumably at Sykes, and smiling was placed directly above a link saying: “President Laughs at Wanda Sykes Joke about Rush Limbaugh: ‘I Hope His Kidneys Fail’…” However, the video that Drudge linked to, which was a C-SPAN clip of Sykes’ line about Limbaugh posted on BreitbartTV.com, does not show Obama ever pointing at Sykes. In fact, after reviewing C-SPAN’s video of the speech, Media Matters for America found only one instance of Obama pointing at Sykes: after she made a joke about Obama possibly giving the pope “a Bluetooth” as a gift.

The picture was posted on the Drudge Report from 9:09 p.m. ET on May 10 until soon after 10:36 a.m. ET on May 11, according to DrudgeReportArchives.com:

Below is a screenshot of Obama’s reaction after Sykes joked about Obama giving the Pope “a Bluetooth,” from C-SPAN’s broadcast of the event:

Bob Graham: I Don’t Recall Being Briefed On Waterboarding
Bob Graham, the Democratic former Florida senator, has said he has no memory of being told in a briefing about waterboarding or other harsh interrogation techniques, as a recently released CIA document indicates. Graham told Greg Sargent this afternoon: “I…

Citigroup Spends Bailout Money Lobbying Student Lenders To Sabotage Obama Plan
If Citigroup — recipient of $45 billion in bailout funds and constant visits with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, and longtime employer of former Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin — is supposed to be the government’s friend, it’s quite the underminer. Today…

Stop-Loss in Iraq Shows Results

White House Lobbies Hard for 2016 Olympics
The White House “is playing an unprecedented role in the bid to bring the 2016 Summer Olympics to Chicago, with top adviser Valerie Jarrett spearheading an effort that draws on the international symbolism of his presidency,” reports Politico.

“Any president would have an interest in helping an American city win an Olympic bid. But none has been as closely associated with an Olympic proposal as Obama, and the emerging effort by the White House is unusually pointed in its attempt to wrap the campaign around the president and his appealing image abroad — a strategy veteran Olympics watchers say is paying dividends and could result in an enormous hometown farewell party if Obama wins a second term.”

Crist’s Run Sets Off Scramble
With Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s (R) expected announcement today that he’ll run for the U.S. Senate, Florida will be led “by a bunch of lame ducks” for the next 18 months, observes the Miami Herald.

“Virtually every statewide leader in Tallahassee, beginning with Crist, is expected to be seeking higher office. Crist’s anticipated announcement… will trigger one of the most chaotic and wide open election seasons ever in Florida.”

The Washington Post notes the decision also has national implications “and says a great deal about the current political landscape, from Republicans rebuilding efforts to the treacherous political position for governors heading into 2010.”

The New York Times notes Crist could win the seat in Washington, “even as he contributed to widespread Republican losses at the state level.”

Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?
Finally someone is listening to Lester Brown and his warnings of a collapse in our food supplies, as a new article reveals in Scientific American.

Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?
Finally someone is listening to Lester Brown and his warnings of a collapse in our food supplies, as a new article reveals in Scientific American.

Combating Wage Theft
It is great to see Kim Bobo’s book on wage theft drawing attention on TPMCafe and elsewhere. It is outrageous that millions of workers have their earnings stolen from them by their employers. Hopefully, this book will help to…

Ezra Nawi, Jailed
I have written about Ezra before and have not hidden my admiration. He is a tireless human rights activist, who has established unique connections, and affections, with the villagers in the South Hebron hills. I have often sat in the…

Is there life after the crisis?
A lunch time talk by Niall Ferguson suggests a grim picture. Even if the world economy is not headed towards a 1930s-style catastrophe, it will remain mired in a “depression” like that experience in the 1870s, argues Ferguson, with long-term…

Steele: ?I?m the gift that keeps on giving.?
David Corn of Mother Jones caught up with RNC Chairman Michael Steele at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday. He jokingly thanked Steele for providing so much fodder for political journalists, to which the chairman replied: He leaned back, pulling himself to his full height, and, laughing, proclaimed, “I’m the gift that […]

David Corn of Mother Jones caught up with RNC Chairman Michael Steele at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday. He jokingly thanked Steele for providing so much fodder for political journalists, to which the chairman replied:

He leaned back, pulling himself to his full height, and, laughing, proclaimed, “I’m the gift that keeps on giving.” Almost as if he were proud of that. Certainly, he was was just engaging in that self-deprecating humor that pols are taught to deploy. But it struck me as odd that he would beam so much as he said that. I wondered about the guy.

“I’ve always been of the view,” I said, “that party chairs ought not to be seen or heard but should stick to managing the party mostly behind the scenes.” Hint, hint.

“That’s what I keep telling them,” he said. Them? I wasn’t sure who “them” was. But it seemed as if he meant Republican insiders. And that was odd.

Limbaugh agrees with Sessions: Obama?s ?objective is unemployment.?
Earlier today, ThinkProgress highlighted NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions’ (R-TX) claim that President Obama is intentionally trying to “‘diminish employment and diminish stock prices‘ as part of a ‘divide and conquer’ strategy to consolidate power.” Sessions’ paranoid theory got a powerful endorsement today from the de facto leader of the conservative movement, Rush Limbaugh. Noting new […]

Earlier today, ThinkProgress highlighted NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions’ (R-TX) claim that President Obama is intentionally trying to “‘diminish employment and diminish stock prices‘ as part of a ‘divide and conquer’ strategy to consolidate power.” Sessions’ paranoid theory got a powerful endorsement today from the de facto leader of the conservative movement, Rush Limbaugh. Noting new budget deficit projections out of the White House, Limbaugh declared that “the objective is unemployment.” “Think forced reparations here if you want to understand what actually is going on,” added the right-wing talker. Listen here:

Transcript:

LIMBAUGH: As the economy performs worse than expected, the deficit for the 2010 budget year beginning in October will worsen by $87 billion to $1.3 trillion. The deterioration reflects lower tax revenues and higher costs for bank failures, unemployment benefits and food stamps. But in the Oval Office of the White House none of this is a problem. This is the objective. The objective is unemployment. The objective is more food stamp benefits. The objective is more unemployment benefits. The objective is an expanding welfare state. And the objective is to take the nation’s wealth and return to it to the nation’s quote, “rightful owners.” Think reparations. Think forced reparations here if you want to understand what actually is going on.

Nephew Mentioned Rep. Murtha in Dealings as Contractor
Robert C. Murtha Jr. has made a sizable living for years working with companies that rely on Pentagon contracts over which his uncle, Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), holds considerable sway.

Gen. David McKiernan Ousted as Top U.S. Commander in Afghanistan
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced yesterday that he had requested the resignation of the top American general in Afghanistan, Gen. David D. McKiernan, making a rare decision to remove a wartime commander at a time when the Obama administration has voiced increasing alarm about the…

Facing More Layoffs, States Say Stimulus Falls Short
Eleven weeks after Congress settled on a stimulus package that provided $135 billion to limit layoffs in state governments, many states are finding that the funds are not enough and are moving to lay off thousands of public employees.

Obama Endorses Health Industry’s Goal to Rein In Costs
In his quest to transform American health care, President Obama appeared yesterday to put his faith in pledges from some of the interest groups that helped scuttle reform 15 years ago, but the industry’s promises fell well short of the White House’s expansive claims.

President Obama Delivers Remarks on Health Care Costs
SPEAKER: PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA [*] OBAMA: All right. Well, I just concluded an extraordinarily productive meeting with organizations and associations that are going to be essential to the work of health care reform in this country, groups that represent everyone from union members to insuranc…