The Hollywood Liberal

Late Late Night FDL: Ball and Chain
Big Mama Thorton with Buddy Guy — Ball and Chain or Janis Joplin with Big Brother and The Holding Company — Ball and Chain, 1967, Monterey.

Big Mama Thorton with Buddy Guy — Ball and Chain, 1970,

or

Janis Joplin with Big Brother and The Holding Company — Ball and Chain, 1967, Monterey.

What’s on your mind?

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Good thing this wasn’t Maricopa County
A terrorists incompetence is only saved and helped by general ignorance. Exhibit A, the Times Square would-be Bomber.

New information about the Times Square bomber is being revealed including, as usual, his rank incompetence; even after all that “special training” in Pakistan.  The incompetence of most terrorists is the most under reported aspect of their existence. But if that was reported on we might not be so easily frightened into ceding the Bill of Rights away. It also can be combined with rank bigotry to win a primary, right John McCain?

Meanwhile, if the guy who thought he could blow up propane tanks had tried something in Phoenix, the Nissan Pathfinder of Death Moderate Inconvenience would still be double-parked. Why? Because Joe Arpaio and crew would still be busy hassling the immigrant who reported suspicious activity:

…the man who first noticed the smoking Nissan Pathfinder and sought help is also Muslim, a Senegalese immigrant

That man is Aliou Niasse. The classic American story right?

Of course it is, but this being America, there is already a dispute about who was first between Mr. Niasse and two other street vendors. Somewhere Mark Burnett is ready to cast all three and Sully Sullenberger in next year’s ‘Apprentice‘ where Donald Trump will tell them how much more heroic he is.

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Early Morning Swim: Rachel Maddow Slams Joe Lieberman — “This is America”
More on this, here.

More on this, here.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) is planning to introduce a bill that would allow the government to take away citizenship from Americans who join foreign terrorist organizations.

The proposal would amend current law that bars American citizens from fighting for foreign armies at the price of losing their citizenship.

“I think it’s time for us to look at whether we want to amend that law to apply it to American citizens who choose to become affiliated with foreign terrorist organizations, whether they should not also be deprived automatically of their citizenship and therefore be deprived of rights that come with that citizenship when they are apprehended and charged with a terrorist act,” Lieberman, who helms the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said on Fox News.

Note the word, “foreign.” So under Lieberputz’s law, Tim McVeigh keeps his citizenship — but Jose Padilla doesn’t. Great.

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Proceed With Caution

By Mike Luckovich

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“Drill more”: Fox News figures respond to environmental catastrophe by calling for more drilling

In the wake of the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, several Fox News hosts and contributors have responded by calling for a continuation — and in some instances, an expansion — of offshore drilling.

Fox hosts and contributors respond to drilling catastrophe by calling for drilling

Perino suggests continuing “very safe” offshore drilling. On the May 3 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends, Fox News contributor Dana Perino said that we have “very safe offshore oil drilling,” adding, “look how much is down there, if it was safe and we were able to harness it.”

Palin posts Facebook note titled “Domestic Drilling: Why We Can Still Believe.” In a note posted to her Facebook page on April 30th, Fox News contributor Sarah Palin wrote: “I repeat the slogan ‘drill here, drill now’ not out of naiveté or disregard for the tragic consequences of oil spills — my family and my state and I know firsthand those consequences. How could I still believe in drilling America’s domestic supply of energy after having seen the devastation of the Exxon-Valdez spill? I continue to believe in it because increased domestic oil production will make us a more secure, prosperous, and peaceful nation.”

Fox News has long history of aggressively advocating for offshore drilling

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Cuccinelli Probe Of Climate Scientist Blasted As ‘Witch Hunt’
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Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) is the latest top GOP figure to punt. Today on ABC’s Top Line, the Minnesota governor refused to say whether he’d sign a similar bill in his state:

KLEIN: In its current form, if the legislature in Minnesota presented that to you, is that something you’d be comfortable with signing?

PAWLENTY: Well we need to be a nation that values legal immigration. It needs to be legal and reasonable and orderly. Our current system is none of that. It is chaotic. It is disorderly and much of it is illegal and so our country has to do a much better job at enforcing –

When host Rick Klein asked again if he supports the bill, Pawlenty just repeated his desire for “stronger enforcement.” Watch it:

Some Republicans have stepped up and criticized the overreaching law and many media conservatives appear more free to lash out, with MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, for example, calling it “un-American.”

But Pawlenty — a potential candidate for president in 2012 — appears to be sticking to his dodge-and-ignore strategy. In a separate interview with the Daily Caller, he defended the law, but at the same time, wouldn’t say whether it is constitutional. “I think what you’re seeing here is a frustration by Arizona, an understandable frustration, that their concerns haven’t been addressed by the federal government,” he said, adding, “As to the constitutionality of it, that will be decided by the courts shortly.”

ThinkFast: May 4, 2010
Federal agents and police detectives arrested Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Pakistan, shortly before midnight Monday in connection with the failed Times Square car bombing. Shahzad is believed to have recently bought the truck that was found laden with explosives. He was taken off a plane that had already boarded at Kennedy Airport […]

Federal agents and police detectives arrested Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Pakistan, shortly before midnight Monday in connection with the failed Times Square car bombing. Shahzad is believed to have recently bought the truck that was found laden with explosives. He was taken off a plane that had already boarded at Kennedy Airport in New York.

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Ahead of the vote, White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer writes a blog post laying out “the Top Ten Most Wanted Lobbyist Loopholes.”

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Leading scientist Nick Shay, an oceanographer at the University of Miami, has told the Associated Press that “he cannot think of any scenario” where the recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill doesn’t reach the Florida Keys. Shay “says the oil could affect Florida’s beaches, coral reefs, fisheries and ecosystem within a week.”

In an “unprecedented accounting of a secretive arsenal born in the Cold War,” the Pentagon revealed yesterday that the U.S. has 5,113 active nuclear warheads and many more in its “junk pile.” The disclosure comes as the Obama administration leads efforts to reduce the country’s nuclear stockpiles while leading disarmament efforts worldwide.

The Justice Department is concluding its three-year investigation of Alphonso Jackson without charges. Jackson, secretary of housing and urban development under President Bush, resigned as HUD secretary amid multiple controversies, “including allegations that he steered business to friends.” “My belief in the justice system remains whole and complete,” Jackson said in a statement.

On a visit to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Rep. Michael McMahon (D-NY) said Obama’s 2011 target date for withdrawal seems “optimistic.” He added there has been “real progress” made by U.S. and NATO forces in routing former Afghan Taliban strongholds in Kandahar and Kabal, but “a lot of work remains to be done.”

And finally: With Florida Gov. Charlie Crist now an Independent, the state GOP is selling his painting on eBay. According to Party officials, “the painting was paid for by party donors, and now they want the money back.” Bidding is now up to $5,100.

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