The Hollywood Liberal

Tinfoil makes the real crimes dissipate into the ether
Why spend time on real problems, when we can ignore actual injustices and fixate on what some dipsh*t tosses out there for profit?

The scope and scale of the New York Times report on just how American intelligence helped so many Nazi war criminals start new lives in the States was stunning. Or it would have been if we all hadn’t, as a society, known about it for years as we shrugged our shoulders in the name of our former Nazis being better at stuff like rocket science than the really bad former Nazi rocket scientists that became Commies for the Soviets.

I’d say it was the beginning of a long slide of moral relativism in the name of proclaiming ourselves the most awesome nation on earth…evah!…if it wasn’t for the fact that it followed slaughtering Native Americans wholesale and slavery. Oh, there I go ‘Murica hatin’ with all that fact sh*t. Back to the conspiracies we fixate on to avoid our real problems…

So let’s just get to the really important question, the one that Glenn Beck will ask. How the heck did pubescent George Soros manage to get all these Nazis into America in the post-war years from his teenage lair in Hungary?

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Early Morning Swim

• An end game for Afghanistan?
• I’m pretty sure this means: “we’re moving to the center.“
• Just how lame with the lame duck session be?
• Shorter Krugman: take a stand, Obama!
• Was the Decider responsible for anything?
• Rick Perlstein on the Teabaggers.

• An end game for Afghanistan?
• I’m pretty sure this means: “we’re moving to the center.“
• Just how lame with the lame duck session be?
• Shorter Krugman: take a stand, Obama!
• Was the Decider responsible for anything?
• Rick Perlstein on the Teabaggers.

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Emanuel Makes It Official: He’s Running in Chicago
Rahm Emanuel has made it official. Six weeks after bailing out as White House chief of staff and returning to Chicago, he has formally announced that he is running to be the next mayor of the Windy City.  —JCL The Associated Press: Rahm Emanuel officially announced Saturday what everyone has known since he quit his job as White House chief of staff, hugged President Barack Obama and returned to Chicago: He’s in. To the surprise of no one, Emanuel, who has long talked about his desire to be mayor, told a packed auditorium at a school on Chicago’s North Side that he is running to succeed retiring Mayor Richard Daley. The election is Feb. 22. Emanuel represented the city’s North Side in Congress before he went to the White House. He has been actively campaigning in the city since his return about two months ago. Read more

Rahm Emanuel has made it official. Six weeks after bailing out as White House chief of staff and returning to Chicago, he has formally announced that he is running to be the next mayor of the Windy City.? —JCL

The Associated Press:

Rahm Emanuel officially announced Saturday what everyone has known since he quit his job as White House chief of staff, hugged President Barack Obama and returned to Chicago: He’s in.

To the surprise of no one, Emanuel, who has long talked about his desire to be mayor, told a packed auditorium at a school on Chicago’s North Side that he is running to succeed retiring Mayor Richard Daley. The election is Feb. 22.

Emanuel represented the city’s North Side in Congress before he went to the White House. He has been actively campaigning in the city since his return about two months ago.

Read more

Related Entries

• November 15, 2010 G-20 Plagued By Timidity
• November 14, 2010 A Lame and Spineless Duck?

Porn, Politics and Soccer
Who says you can’t mix politics and pleasure? The former chairman of Barcelona’s football (soccer) team has created a new Catalonian separatist party. His strategy is to use the Barcelona team’s fame and the support of the area’s most popular porn star to win an upcoming regional election. The ex-chairman, Joan Laporta, is not the only football figure to vie for political power. Mauricio Macri, former head of the Buenos Aires soccer legends Boca Juniors, is head of government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Despite Macri’s right-wing agenda, many poorer Boca fans voted for him based on his club affiliation. —JCL The Guardian: A former chairman of Barcelona football club has launched himself on a political career as a populist Catalan separatist, whose backers include the region’s most famous porn star. Former club chairman Joan Laporta hopes the popularity garnered by two Champions League wins and four Spanish league titles can be turned into votes when Catalans choose a new regional government on 28 November. His aim is to break Catalonia away from the rest of Spain and create a newly independent state. “It is time to win our independence and administer our own resources,” the 48-year-old lawyer said as campaigning for the elections started last week. Read more

Who says you can’t mix politics and pleasure? The former chairman of Barcelona’s football (soccer) team has created a new Catalonian separatist party. His strategy is to use the Barcelona team’s fame and the support of the area’s most popular porn star to win an upcoming regional election.

The ex-chairman, Joan Laporta, is not the only football figure to vie for political power. Mauricio Macri, former head of the Buenos Aires soccer legends Boca Juniors, is head of government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Despite Macri’s right-wing agenda, many poorer Boca fans voted for him based on his club affiliation. —JCL

The Guardian:

A former chairman of Barcelona football club has launched himself on a political career as a populist Catalan separatist, whose backers include the region’s most famous porn star.

Former club chairman Joan Laporta hopes the popularity garnered by two Champions League wins and four Spanish league titles can be turned into votes when Catalans choose a new regional government on 28 November.

His aim is to break Catalonia away from the rest of Spain and create a newly independent state. “It is time to win our independence and administer our own resources,” the 48-year-old lawyer said as campaigning for the elections started last week.

Read more

Related Entries

• November 15, 2010 G-20 Plagued By Timidity
• November 14, 2010 A Lame and Spineless Duck?

Danny Davis Announces Bid For Chicago Mayor
CHICAGO — The race to replace Chicago’s longtime mayor took better shape Sunday as two more candidates joined a crowded field that also includes former…

Mike Lux: A Party for the Middle Class
The Democrats’ mushy sometimes-with-the-bankers, sometimes-with-the-middle-class thing isn’t working, and the real swing voters are populist working class folks.

Robert Reich: The Failure of the G-20 Summit
China and the U.S. are the only big players in the currency game. And with neither of them stepping up to bat, the game is in dangerous territory. Sweet talk and photos ops aren’t nearly enough.

Craig Newmark: Sunlight Foundation: real transparency from Congress
Hey, maybe we get more fixed in Washington. I’m a very minor part of the Sunlight Foundation, which encourages lawmakers to get real about…

HuffPost Radio: Both Sides Now w/ Huffington & Matalin: On Bush’s book, the Lame Duck Session, Pelosi & Olbermann
This week there’s more clash than consensus, perhaps reflecting the new “both sides” co-governance in Washington.

Conservative Movement Leaders Discuss 2011 Agenda Behind Closed Doors
Another indicator of the changing of the guard in Washington came today as dozens of representatives and leaders from conservative groups convened for a private meeting in the suburbs of Virginia. Representatives of a wide variety of Tea Party groups, mainstream conservative think tanks and right-wing media outlets came together to talk about the future of the conservative movement, TPMmuckraker has learned.

Daily Show On Anti-Puppy Mill Legislation: This Is Socialism!
Daily Show Correspondent Olivia Munn last night had a satirical special investigative report on Missouri’s Proposition B — which narrowly passed on election day, and aims to ensure humane dog breeding conditions. And what did she find? That the law…

Ye Olde Scribe Presents: Another Quote from the Quote Goat!
“No tax cut for the rich? Hell, no tax cuts for anyone until it’s paid off. Now there’s REAL financial responsibility. Put that in your crack pipes and smoke it, teabag Republican bitches.” -A-Non-E-Moose Thanks to Namraknec for another fine logo- YOS

Quote of the Day
“It’s definitely one big cable buy. When Governor Romney was talking about running for president, he had sent out a DVD where he was sledding in Utah with the family, talking about whether he would run or not, and everybody was baking cookies and hanging out. The difference is she has a production company willing to foot the bill for it.”

— GOP strategist Terry Sullivan, quoted by the Daily Beast, on Sarah Palin’s new reality television show.

What if Congress Doesn’t Raise the Debt Limit?
With Republican control of the House and a larger number of “tea party” members in the Senate, many are wondering and worrying about what it means if Congress fails to raise the debt limit next year. Josh Barro doesn’t think it would mean very much at all, noting that “the Administration could muddle through for months (or possibly even years) by using accounting gimmicks and clever cash management strategies to stay within the current debt limit.”

“Partly, it would do this by mimicking the strategies of state governments that find themselves entering a new fiscal year without a balanced budget and without authorization to borrow for deficit spending. While it would be unusual for the federal government to face a stack of bills due with no authorization to borrow to pay them, states face this situation on a fairly regular basis and handle it in ways that might give us heartburn but do not cause the world to come crashing down.”

Glenn Beck Shows Neo-cons it’s 1939
American Jewish Stalinists of the 1930s broke with Russian Communism in lurches, as their locomotive of history kept derailing. Some were jolted off the train by Stalin’s unofficially but patently anti-Semitic “purge trials” of the mid-1930s. Others, who downplayed Russian…

“Who Are You Calling a Currency Manipulator?”
SEOUL– I’ve come here for the G-20 summit, where the aim is to find a modus vivendi between the major exporting and consuming economies, but all the talk is about currency wars. In particular, Fed Chairman Bernanke’s injection of hundreds…

Neo-Nazis March In Support Of SB-1070 In Arizona
Yesterday, members of the Neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement gathered in front of the Sandra Day O’Connor Federal Court Building in Phoenix, AZ to protest a federal judge’s decision to block several provisions of the state’s controversial immigration law, SB-1070. Pollice had to interfere with tear gas and pepper spray when a group of counter-protesters clashed […]

Yesterday, members of the Neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement gathered in front of the Sandra Day O’Connor Federal Court Building in Phoenix, AZ to protest a federal judge’s decision to block several provisions of the state’s controversial immigration law, SB-1070. Pollice had to interfere with tear gas and pepper spray when a group of counter-protesters clashed with the neo-Nazi march. Watch ABC15′s coverage:

Yesterday’s march is yet another example of the increasing participation of white supremacist groups in the SB-1070 immigration debate. This past summer, the East Valley Tribune reported that that “[w]hite supremacist activity is on the rise in Arizona.” Bill Straus of the Anti-Defamation League said of SB-1070, “It does seem like the distance between what most of us would consider the extreme fringes of political thought and the mainstream of political thought, it seems like that distance has shrunk.”

It’s not surprising that SB-1070 has attracted extremism. The lawyers who are credited with authoring it are employed by an organization that has reportedly accepted $1.2 million in donations from the Pioneer Fund, “a foundation established to promote the genes of white colonials.” The law’s sponsor, state Rep. Russell Pearce (R-AZ), has faced criticism in the past for cozying up to local neo-Nazis. He even endorsed one of “Arizona’s leading neo-Nazis,” J.T. Ready, when the he ran for City Council in the spring of 2006.

Meanwhile, a recent poll revealed that many Arizonans think the immigration debate has “exposed a deeper sense of racism in our community.”

Graham Won?t Vote For The New START Treaty Because Of ?Stumbling Blocks? That Don?t Exist
President Obama has made ratification of the New START nuclear arms treaty with Russia a top priority for the upcoming lame duck session of Congress, saying the treaty is “essential to the country’s national security.” An extension of the original treaty negotiatied by President Ronald Reagan, the START treaty responsibly reduces U.S. and Russian nuclear […]

President Obama has made ratification of the New START nuclear arms treaty with Russia a top priority for the upcoming lame duck session of Congress, saying the treaty is “essential to the country’s national security.” An extension of the original treaty negotiatied by President Ronald Reagan, the START treaty responsibly reduces U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals by one-fourth. It has secured the “unanimous support of America’s military leadership,” thirty former Republican and Democratic national security officials, and almost all of the 67 votes needed for ratification in the Senate.

Despite the overwhelming support, a “tiny fringe” of right-wing “experts” are ginning up myths about the treaty. One such mouthpiece is Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Claiming to be “open-minded” on the treaty, Graham told host Christine Amanpour on ABC’s This Week today that he could not support the treaty “in its current condition” because of “two obstacles” — nuclear modernization and missile defense:

AMANPOUR: Do you believe it will be voted on and ratified in the lame duck session?

GRAHAM: I don’t know, I’m very open-minded about the treaty as Secretary Albright indicated….You’ve got two impediments. Modernization, not only do we need a START treaty but we need to modernize our nuclear force, the weapons left, to make sure they continue to be a deterrent and make sure we can deploy missile defense systems apart from START. So you got two stumbling blocks, the modernization program and how missile defense works apart from the treaty.

AMANPOUR: Would you vote for it?

GRAHAM: In its current condition, no, but [Sen.] Jon Kyl is working with the administration to get better modernization to make sure missile defense is not connected with START. If you could get those two things together, I’d vote for the treaty. I’d rather have a treaty than not have a treaty but modernization, missile defense have to be better dealt with before we get there.

Watch it:

The only problem with Graham’s “stumbling blocks” is that they don’t actually exist. While “security experts” like Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), and former Bush administration Ambassador John Bolton insist that Obama is “risking our security” by supposedly not focusing on modernization of America’s nuclear arsenal, the actual rocket scientists of an independent defense advisory panel determined that not only are the weapons completely reliable, but that our current “nuclear warheads could be extended for decades, with no anticipated loss in effectiveness.” To make sure this remains the case, the Obama administration devoted $7 billion to maintain the nuclear-weapons stockpile — $600 million more than Congress approved last year and 10 percent more than what the Bush administration spent.

As for START’s impact on missile defense, Director of the Missile Defense Agency Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly made it clear that the new treaty “has no constraints on current and future components of the Ballistic Missile Defense System,” and that it actually “reduces” several limitations on cost-effective testing. Thus, given Graham’s criteria for support, treaty proponents should expect his vote.

But regardless of the actual facts, Graham and his Republican comrades seem intent on lobbing unfounded myths to obstruct the treaty’s passage. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has made a career on obstruction, certainly is comfortable bucking any cooperation to oppose Obama. But “given the new spotlight on the GOP,” the Wonkroom’s Max Bergmann notes that blocking START “could be a politically dubious stance” since “the treaty is seen as something that is just basic commonsense.” And with two-thirds of Americans supporting ratification of the new START treaty, the by killing the treaty, Senate Republicans will provide clear evidence that they champions the delusional interests of a few over the will and security of the American people.

BP has reimbursed $518 million to U.S. for oil-spill cleanup in Gulf of Mexico
BP has reimbursed the federal government $518 million for cleanup costs for the April oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, congressional auditors said, but those costs have already hit $581 million and are still growing.

McCain wants study of ‘don’t ask’ repeal on troop morale
Sen. John McCain on Sunday said the Pentagon should study how ending the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy would impact troop morale and battle effectiveness, instead of reporting to President Obama and lawmakers on how the Defense Department could lift the gay ban.

An intricate plot unleashed in Mumbai, the West confronts a new threat
David Coleman Headley seemed like a gregarious, high-rolling American businessman when he set up shop in Mumbai in September 2006.

Oregon Rep. Greg Walden: A handy man working to implement goals of GOP leaders
In BoehnerLand, the constellation of loyalists and associates surrounding the soon-to-be House speaker, Rep. Greg Walden has become the get-it-done guy.

Allowing Any Tax Cuts to Expire Would Be Foolish

Rahm Enters Chicago Mayor’s Race as Favorite
Lynn Sweet, Politics Daily
Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel “officially” launched his Chicago mayoral bid on Saturday — a formality since he has been campaigning for five weeks — casting himself as an anti-tax, crime fighting, pro-education candidate.He pledged no tax hikes despite the city's budget crisis, making communities safe from pervasive gang violence, reducing the award of no-bid contracts, and bringing about improvements in city schools.

Debt Commission’s Step Toward Fiscal Sanity
David Broder, Wash Post

Obama Aides Engage in “Soul-Searching”
Anne Kornblut, Washington Post
After nearly two weeks of introspection, President Obama's top advisers have concluded that the “shellacking” Democrats took on Election Day was caused in large part by their own failure to live up to expectations set during the 2008 campaign, not merely the typical political cycles and poor messaging they pointed to at first.While the president has been on a trip to Asia for the past 10 days, all but a few of his top aides stayed behind to figure out what went so wrong and what to do about it. Wearing casual clothes and with the White House to themselves, they…