The Hollywood Liberal

U.S. Needs its Own ‘Arab Spring’ to Counter Power of Pro-Israel Lobby
The revolt that swept through Tunisia and Egypt should be a wake-up call for both the U.S. government and the remaining dictators.

Did You Fall for It? America’s Outrage Over TSA Naked Body Scanners Was Right-Wing PR to Prevent Workers from Unionizing
The right fears nothing more than unionized workers, and found a cunning way to scapegoat workers to derail a campaign to organize the TSA.

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Palin?s Incoherence: U.S. Has No Interest In Libya, But U.S. Must ‘Help Freedom Fighters’ In Libya

In an interview last night with Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin criticized the President for engaging in a military conflict in Libya, then almost immediately contradicted herself, telling Van Susteren it is America’s “responsibility to help freedom fighters”:

PALIN: He’s been extremely inconsistent in the reasons given for our involvement in Libya. … Why aren’t we intervening in Syria, why not Yemen, Egypt, Bahrain? We cannot afford to be engaged in any of these military interventions unless America’s interests are being challenged. And we need to hear from our President, what is our interest there in Libya?

VAN SUSTEREN: Do we have an interest in Libya, what’s your answer?

PALIN: Well, you know, to whom much is given, much is required. America is such a blessed and prosperous nation, we are that beacon of hope for those who seek freedom. So yes, I believe it’s our responsibility to help freedom fighters.

Watch it:

Palin seems to tacitly acknowledge that she agrees with the President’s rationale for intervening. It’s unclear, though, if Palin is willing to back up her insistence that the U.S. has a “responsibility” to help freedom fighters, or whether it’s just empty talk.

Of course, this isn’t the first time Palin has used the conflict in Libya as an excuse to publicly admonish the President. He had barely finished his Oval Office Address on the intervention when Palin was on TV, describing the speech as “profoundly disappointing.” In both instances, Palin complained that the President has failed to explain America’s interest in Libya, when he has in fact explicitly done so on several occasions. As ThinkProgress reported, Palin also dramatically exaggerated the cost of the Libyan conflict in that interview.

Palin has consistently demonstrated that her only interest is attacking the president, regardless of whether she actually disagrees with his positions. Ironically, on Van Susteren’s website, the segment is described as “Palin: Make Up Your Mind, Mr. President.” A more accurate title would be “Palin, Make up Your Mind.”

A look at Trump’s ‘birther’ statements
(AP Photo/Jim Cole)

Sure, she can dance. But can Beyonce move Obama’s youth vote to the polls?
On the 2008 campaign trail, Barack Obama was a rock star. Three years later, he’s more of a superfan.

White House Correspondents’ dinner guests: Why’d they get invited?
The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday will include the usual suspects — the president, top officials, politicians, and the people who cover them. Plus, the growing cluster of celebrities who shine outside the political bubble. And. . . a few newsmakers you may have heard a lot from lately. An explainer of some of the night’s more colorful personalities.

Nevada governor to appoint Rep. Dean Heller to Ensign’s Senate seat
Nevada Rep. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) , far right, will be the Senate’s newest member, after Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) announced Wednesday that he had picked Heller to replace resigning Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.). (Charles Dharapak — AP)

House panel probes background of S&P decision on U.S. credit
A House investigative committee is inquiring about discussions held by Treasury Department officials with Standard & Poor’s before the credit rating agency lowered its outlook on the United States last week.

The Real Budget Battle to Watch
Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times

Kermit Gosnell Is the Canary in the Mineshaft
Tim Dalrymple, Patheos
My little girl is afraid of thunder, and storms come often to Georgia in the spring months. When thunder crackles and booms over the house at night, I walk into her room and invariably find her awake and hiding underneath her blanket. She asks me to lie down, so I stretch out beside her and she pulls my arm across her like a safety belt. I tell that we"”sheltered, hidden, warmly enfolded"”are like the little boy growing even now in her mother's womb. She smiles, tucks her head into my chest, and drifts back to sleep.Last week, the last time I…

The President Turns Left
Dick Morris, The Hill
Two months ago, Washington was abuzz with speculation that Obama was going to follow Bill Clinton's reelection strategy and move to the center, forsaking the liberal agenda that cost him control of the House in 2010. Now it is evident that he has decided to come down hard left and wage his reelection fight from his liberal bunker, firing shots at Republican cuts in Medicare, pushing tax increases on the rich, and attributing the gas-price increase to speculators.Very possibly the decision to tack to the left was not entirely voluntary. With the Republicans constantly confronting him with…

Durbin’s Campaign-Finance Bill Doesn’t Pass Muster
George Will, WaPo
Top BlogsTop BlogsTop BlogsTop BlogsTop BlogsMemo to Democratic senators eager to vote themselves campaign subsidies in the name of combating corruption: You really should not cloak your self-serving crusade in a claim that could be called intellectual corruption. A Senate subcommittee chaired by Dick Durbin, the Illinois Democrat, recently held a hearing “" only Democrats attended “" on his legislation to provide government funding for Senate campaigns. Durbin's Web site advertised the bill as “a comprehensive response to Citizens United,”� a…

Titanic’s Unknown Child Identified
DNA analysis on small fragments of a one-year-old Titanic victim’s remains has led to the discovery of the child’s identity, 99 years after the famous sinking in the North Atlantic. Sidney Leslie Goodwin, 19 months old, drowned on April 21, 1912, and was buried at a cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with a headstone dedicated to the “unknown child.” Goodwin was traveling on the Titanic with his parents, Frederick and Augusta, and five siblings. Sidney is the only one whose body was found.

And Jefferson Davis would have loved Ayn Rand!
Southern Republicans, a Galtian driven to secede.

pic via shawnzrossi at flickr.com

Chalk up another irony when Republicans wave the Stars and Stripes and wish it contained a couple bars:

In North Carolina GOP voters are almost evenly divided on the outcome of the war with 35% glad for the North’s victory, 33% ruing the South’s loss, and 32% taking neither side. Democrats (55/15) and independents (57/14) have similar numbers to Georgia but due to the greater ambivalence of Republicans about the northern victory, overall less than half of Tar Heel voters (48%) are glad the Union won to 21% who wish the Confederacy had.

I do share something in common with most Republicans, I’m glad Lincoln isn’t alive to see this, though for different reasons.

Meanwhile…

The survey found that only 24 percent of Republican voters in North Carolina believe Obama was born in the U.S.

Wonder what the percentages would be regarding the Thirteenth Amendment? Not that there could possibly be a correlation.

It’s totally not about race, right?

?

Holder Says WikiLeaks’ Gitmo Documents Won’t Affect Prosecutions
Attorney General Eric Holder said Guantanamo documents recently released by WikiLeaks will not impact military tribunals for terror suspects. The documents reveal flaws in the U.S. detention program at the facility. The Obama administration had initially moved to close Guantanamo and hold terror trials in civilian courts but now finds itself defending Bush administration methodology that has been carried over. The more than 700 WikiLeaks documents tell of at least 160 “high risk” prisoners who may have been released erroneously, as well as a number who were wrongfully imprisoned.  —KDG Reuters: Holder said his decision to shift the September 11 defendants back to military tribunals will not have any impact on prosecuting future terrorism cases in U.S. courts. Besides the defendants accused in the September 11 attacks, a number of other Guantanamo prisoners are expected to be tried in military tribunals. The documents made available by WikiLeaks were largely silent about the use of the harsh interrogation tactics at Guantanamo that have drawn widespread condemnation and have created problems in prosecuting some cases. Holder said the administration could not release its assessments of the Guantanamo prisoners because they were partly based on a wide range of sources, some classified, and to take that out would give incomplete information. But lawyers for the Guantanamo prisoners will likely use the WikiLeaks documents to defend their clients.

Attorney General Eric Holder said Guantanamo documents recently released by WikiLeaks will not impact military tribunals for terror suspects. The documents reveal flaws in the U.S. detention program at the facility.

The Obama administration had initially moved to close Guantanamo and hold terror trials in civilian courts but now finds itself defending Bush administration methodology that has been carried over. The more than 700 WikiLeaks documents tell of at least 160 “high risk” prisoners who may have been released erroneously, as well as a number who were wrongfully imprisoned.? —KDG

Reuters:

Holder said his decision to shift the September 11 defendants back to military tribunals will not have any impact on prosecuting future terrorism cases in U.S. courts.

Besides the defendants accused in the September 11 attacks, a number of other Guantanamo prisoners are expected to be tried in military tribunals.

The documents made available by WikiLeaks were largely silent about the use of the harsh interrogation tactics at Guantanamo that have drawn widespread condemnation and have created problems in prosecuting some cases.

Holder said the administration could not release its assessments of the Guantanamo prisoners because they were partly based on a wide range of sources, some classified, and to take that out would give incomplete information.

But lawyers for the Guantanamo prisoners will likely use the WikiLeaks documents to defend their clients.

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