The Hollywood Liberal

Dr. Laura Ending Radio Show
Days after apologizing for saying the N word 11 times to a black caller upset about racial mistreatment, Dr. Laura Schlessinger announced that she’s ending her syndicated radio show when her current contract expires at the end of the year. “The reason is I want to regain my First Amendment rights,” she said on CNN’s Larry King Live. “I want to be able to say what’s on my mind and in my heart and what I think is helpful and useful without somebody getting angry, some special interest group deciding this is the time to silence a voice of dissent and attack affiliates, attack sponsors.”

All our self-proclaimed patriots choose Churchill
Somebody should just give John Bolton a map, some firecrackers, and a deserted distant island.

photo via Mike_fleming at flickr.com

It’s funny how many American conservatives have a Winston Churchill fetish. It makes sense I suppose. From colonialism to opposing women voting Churchill was usually wrong, but he got one big thing correct, once. Which puts him one up on most American conservatives. God forbid conservatives have any praise for the man who pretty much saved Britain’s ass, Stalin? American and Democrat, Franklin Roosevelt. FDR, or as conservatives know him, the 3rd worst American of all time, right behind Barack Obama (I know, I’m surprised he qualified too) and in a case of life imitating a Simpsons episode, history’s greatest monster, Jimmy Carter.

But nobody has a bigger Churchill woody than John Bolton and to be a modern Churchill there can be only one John Bolton solution, sh*t must blow up and it must blow up in one place, immediately!

August 17, 2010:

Bolton calls for Israel to strike Iran in the next eight days.

Sounds familiar…

May 25, 2010:

The way to confront North Korea, is to bomb Iran!

March 2, 2009:

Don’t talk to Iran, bomb them into regime change.

May 6, 2008:

Mr Bolton said that striking Iran would represent a major step towards victory in Iraq.

September 30, 2007:

Bolton calls for bombing of Iran

March 6, 2006:

John Bolton, has told British MPs that military action could bring Iran’s nuclear programme to a halt

To be fair, Bolton, like Churchill, is not just a one trick exploding pony:

February 26, 2009:

John Bolton at CPAC: The Benefits of Nuking Chicago

?

Getting a Read on Prop. 8’s Proponents
The celebration about U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling overturning California’s Proposition 8 hardly got under way before a trio of federal appellate judges put the kibosh on it all on Monday by putting gay marriage on the shelf for the time being. And as this analysis suggests, the pro-Prop. 8 side could have some new strategies in play as they take on the issue this time around.  —KA Time: And it appears to have been a fact well understood by the proponents of Prop 8, who find themselves with their backs against a wall but not without resources. The proponents’ lead attorney, former Reagan-era Justice Department lawyer Charles Cooper, has tipped his hand about where he’ll strike with his appeal, now due Sept. 17. And it’s a remarkable — and, with the court’s permission, longer than normally permitted — brief, which in 75 pages lays out a vigorous defense of Prop 8 that stands in stark contrast to the generally anemic defense his side presented at trial. […] That robust record of factual findings buoyed the spirits of supporters who saw in Walker’s ruling a powerful attempt to present the issues in a way that could tie the appellate courts’ hands. But Cooper’s brief reveals a strategy that looks like nothing if not a plan to proceed as if the trial didn’t happen. All but ignoring Walker’s conclusions to the contrary, Cooper argues that the right to marriage does not include the right to same-sex marriage, which he said would be a new right — and one not subject to the same strong protections enjoyed by fundamental rights like marriage. He argues, too, that gays and lesbians as a class are different than racial minorities, or even the genders, because sexual orientation is harder to define, and gays lack the political powerlessness that racial minorities when they were given constitutional protections. Read more

The celebration about U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling overturning California’s Proposition 8 hardly got under way before a trio of federal appellate judges put the kibosh on it all on Monday by putting gay marriage on the shelf for the time being. And as this analysis suggests, the pro-Prop. 8 side could have some new strategies in play as they take on the issue this time around.? —KA

Time:

And it appears to have been a fact well understood by the proponents of Prop 8, who find themselves with their backs against a wall but not without resources. The proponents’ lead attorney, former Reagan-era Justice Department lawyer Charles Cooper, has tipped his hand about where he’ll strike with his appeal, now due Sept. 17. And it’s a remarkable — and, with the court’s permission, longer than normally permitted — brief, which in 75 pages lays out a vigorous defense of Prop 8 that stands in stark contrast to the generally anemic defense his side presented at trial.

[…] That robust record of factual findings buoyed the spirits of supporters who saw in Walker’s ruling a powerful attempt to present the issues in a way that could tie the appellate courts’ hands. But Cooper’s brief reveals a strategy that looks like nothing if not a plan to proceed as if the trial didn’t happen. All but ignoring Walker’s conclusions to the contrary, Cooper argues that the right to marriage does not include the right to same-sex marriage, which he said would be a new right — and one not subject to the same strong protections enjoyed by fundamental rights like marriage. He argues, too, that gays and lesbians as a class are different than racial minorities, or even the genders, because sexual orientation is harder to define, and gays lack the political powerlessness that racial minorities when they were given constitutional protections.

Read more

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Given Money for Rehiring, Schools Wait And See
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Sarah Palin Endorses Sharron Angle In Nevada Race: ‘She’s Got GUTS’
Ex-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is endorsing Republican Sharron Angle in her fight to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada, the Daily Caller reports….

Jonathan Richards: Misdirection
It’s the basic tool of the illusionist’s art: misdirection. Get the rubes looking where you call their attention, and they won’t see the way the…

Steven Weber: Side Dishes
Shall we have salmon with our mercury? Shall we have chicken with our antibiotics? Shall we have water with our arsenic? I’m starving.

Beck falsely claims that Obama wants “to force doctors” to perform abortions

Glenn Beck falsely claimed that President Obama wants to rescind a Bush-era regulation so that “doctors can’t refuse to” perform abortions. In fact, even without the regulation — which was approved in December 2008 — federal law prohibits public officials from requiring recipients of public funds to perform abortions.

Beck falsely claims Obama’s plan to rescind Bush policy would “force doctors” to perform abortions

Beck: If Obama recinds the Bush policy, “doctors can’t refuse to do procedures that they believe is murder [sic].” On the August 17 edition of his Fox News show, Beck misrepresented the Obama administration’s reported intention to “rescind a Bush-era regulation” to falsely assert that the administration “would like to force doctors who believe abortion is the equivalent — the equivalence of murder” to perform abortions. He further added that according to Obama, “it’s totally cool to go forward with a mosque run by a potentially radical nutjob, and it’s not — doctors can’t refuse to do procedures that they believe is murder [sic].”

Beck ridicules Obama administration contention that the regulation “could limit family-planning counseling and even … blood transfusions.” During the same segment, after quoting an anonymous Health and Human Services official telling The Washington Post that the Bush regulation was “worded so vaguely that some have argued it could limit family-planning counseling” — which Beck said was a reference to abortion — “and even potentially blood transfusions and end-of-life-care,” Beck offered to “translate bullcrap to English,” adding: “End-of-life care? Nite-nite, Grammy. Pulling the old plug.”

Federal law prohibits requiring recipients of public funds to performs abortions or sterilizations

Obama administration called for repeal of December 2008 Bush administration. On February 27, 2009, CNN.com cannot repeal, prohibits public officials from requiring recipients of public funds to perform abortions or sterilizations in violation of their religious or moral beliefs. Similarly, federal law prohibits entities receiving public funds from discriminating against personnel who refuse to perform those procedures for those reasons. From Title 42, § 300a-7 of the U.S. Code:

(b) Prohibition of public officials and public authorities from imposition of certain requirements contrary to religious beliefs or moral convictions

The receipt of any grant, contract, loan, or loan guarantee under the Public Health Service Act [42 U.S.C. 201 et seq.], the Community Mental Health Centers Act [42 U.S.C. 2689 et seq.], or the Developmental Disabilities Services and Facilities Construction Act [42 U.S.C. 6000 et seq.] by any individual or entity does not authorize any court or any public official or other public authority to require —

(1) such individual to perform or assist in the performance of any sterilization procedure or abortion if his performance or assistance in the performance of such procedure or abortion would be contrary to his religious beliefs or moral convictions; or

(2) such entity to —

(A) make its facilities available for the performance of any sterilization procedure or abortion if the performance of such procedure or abortion in such facilities is prohibited by the entity on the basis of religious beliefs or moral convictions, or

(B) provide any personnel for the performance or assistance in the performance of any sterilization procedure or abortion if the performance or assistance in the performance of such procedures or abortion by such personnel would be contrary to the religious beliefs or moral convictions of such personnel.

(c) Discrimination prohibition

(1) No entity which receives a grant, contract, loan, or loan guarantee under the Public Health Service Act [42 U.S.C. 201 et seq.], the Community Mental Health Centers Act [42 U.S.C. 2689 et seq.], or the Developmental Disabilities Services and Facilities Construction Act [42 U.S.C. 6000 et seq.] after June 18, 1973, may —

(A) discriminate in the employment, promotion, or termination of employment of any physician or other health care personnel, or

(B) discriminate in the extension of staff or other privileges to any physician or other health care personnel,

because he performed or assisted in the performance of a lawful sterilization procedure or abortion, because he refused to perform or assist in the performance of such a procedure or abortion on the grounds that his performance or assistance in the performance of the procedure or abortion would be contrary to his religious beliefs or moral convictions, or because of his religious beliefs or moral convictions respecting sterilization procedures or abortions.

Opponents and supporters reportedly agreed the Bush regulation could allow doctors to refuse other services

Scientific American: “[P]roponents and critics of the new rule agree” it could “allow workers to also block access to other medical treatments.” A February 27, 2009, Scientific American blog post on the Bush regulation reported:

Federal law bars discriminating against healthcare workers who refuse to provide abortions or abortion referrals to patients, but the Bush reg change requires federally funded facilities to certify that they’re complying with it — and both proponents and critics of the new rule agree that the way it’s worded could be broadly interpreted to allow workers to also block access to other medical treatments, such as contraception and artificial insemination.

NPR: [O]pponents say the regulation” could allow workers to refuse “blood transfusions and end-of-life care.” Similarly, a February 27, 2009, NPR.org article reported:

[O]pponents say the regulation was written so broadly that it could allow workers to decline to participate in many other types of sensitive medical procedures — from blood transfusions to end-of-life care.

And in parts of the country with few medical providers, those refusals could put patients at risk, those critics contend.

“That rule was so broad that even the cashier at Walgreens could refuse to provide medication for somebody if the cashier decided they have a religious objection,” said Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO).

Social Conservative Bryan Fischer: Paterson Wants To Impose Sharia Law On New York
Bryan Fischer, the “Director of Issues Analysis” for the American Family Association who said there should be “no more mosques, period,” now believes that Gov. David Paterson is attempting to impose sharia law on New York.


American Family Association – New York – Islam – United States – Bryan Fischer

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Flashback: When Rove Met Junior

McCollum, Meek Back on Top Ahead of Primary
A new Quinnipiac poll shows the “insiders” in Florida have overtaken the “outsiders” in two key primary races next week.

In the Republican primary for governor, Bill McCollum (R) leads Rick Scott (R) among likely voters, 44% to 35%, reversing an eleven point lead he held late last month.

In the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, Rep. Kendrick Meek (D) leads Jeff Greene (D) among likely voters, 35% to 28%, reversing a ten point lead Greene has last month.

Said pollster Peter Brown: “The empire strikes back, actually both empires, that is, the folks who run the Democratic and Republican parties in Florida have waded into the nomination fights and they are making a difference.”

"Mad Men" Gets Abortion Right
We’re closer to 1965 than we care to admit, where women with resources still have access to abortions, but women without face a gauntlet of obstacles.

We're closer to 1965 than we care to admit, where women with resources still have access to abortions, but women without face a gauntlet of obstacles.

The Internet Belongs to Us — Tell the FCC to Stop the Dangerous Google/Verizon Deal
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski seems to see his role as a broker among corporate interests, not as their regulator. This has to change.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski seems to see his role as a broker among corporate interests, not as their regulator. This has to change.

Jeffrey Goldberg Probes Israel’s Iran Strike Option: Is Netanyahu a “Bomber Boy”?
In an important article titled “The Point of No Return” to be published in The Atlantic tomorrow, national correspondent Jeffrey Goldberg recounts something many people didn’t realize at the time and still have a hard time believing. President George W….


Iran – United States – Jeffrey Goldberg – Middle East – Barack Obama

More than Half-Way but Not Full Friends: Israel and Jordan
This morning I received an email from former Israel Labor Party Deputy Leader and former Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh. It started “To my Muslim friends – Ramadan Karim”. Sneh maintains a friends mailing list for his thoughts and articles,…



Middle East – Jordan – Israel – Warfare and Conflict – Iraq

Republican Death Wish
I’ve been trying to understand the Republican Party long-term electoral strategy. Basically they are hitching their wagon to pissed off, old, white people. Now that may work in November of 2010, but how could that be a long-term winner? Start…


Republican – United States – Politics – Parties – White people