Paul Krugman: Divided We Fail The last time Republicans controlled Congress while a Democrat lived in the White House was the period from the beginning of 1995 to the end of 2000. And people remember that era as a good time, a time of rapid job creation and responsible budgets. Can we hope for a similar experience now?
No, we can’t. This is going to be terrible.

Thugs on the Right By Joe Conason —
Sometimes tea party ideologues are described as libertarians, but the behavior of their leading candidates betrays an authoritarian streak just beneath all the sonorous rhetoric.

The Tea Party Test Case By David Sirota —
The only way to objectively define the tea party is to find a test case. And thanks to Wisconsin’s Senate race, we have exactly that.

The Scandal of 2010 By E.J. Dionne, Jr. —
If you travel any place where there is a contested race for the House or Senate, you are bombarded with attack ads, almost all against Democrats, paid for by groups that do not have to reveal where their money comes from.
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Fear of [Muslims] Flying
by J. Barrett Wolf

There isn't any doctrine to this simple equation... In the last decade there was one major terrorist attack on American soil, and it being used to advance the profiling, the racism and the hatred we see in New York, in Murfreesboro, TN and all across America.

One attack. By radical terrorists... But there are 1.6 BILLION Muslims in the world and the estimate of the number of terrorists by everyone but the uninformed hacks runs between five and ten thousand... Do that math... At the high end it's one terrorist in every ONE MILLION SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND Muslims. So how many in America.... four?

There's a higher ratio of gang-bangers in Newark, fer Christ's sake... Point being that this is a goddamn excuse for the rhetoric, and worse, actual violence: The cabbie shot in NY, arson in Murfreesboro, vandalism all across America... and all because the number of ACTUAL, REAL SERIOUS Islamic terrorists IN the USA might be as high as FIVE... A number, by the way, that could be reasonably assumed to be the number of Christians who are willing to bomb abortion clinics and/or murder doctors... but nobody is profiling churchgoers or vandalizing the church in the town Dr. Tiller was from - How come every Christian in HIS town wasn't questioned?

My friend Harry says Americans are not all bigots and racists. I agree, But many American ARE scared. Unfortunately, as any good psychologist can affirm, fear leads people to their lowest common denominator of behavior. Frightened people act with a mob mentality, behaving in ways none of them would individually. Frightened people are absolutely bigots and racists - Hell, there are situations in which good people would let their neighbors die to save their family - How easy it it to hate the image of some unspecified danger called a 'terrorist'.

Do you remember the Twilight Zone Episode "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street"? Nowadays, they show it in schools to teach kids about the dangers of prejudice and hysteria. That's what's playing on the right...all day... all night.

It serves the interests of the Becks and the Palins to use charged rhetoric to keep their base afraid. It's all about 'The Other'...A president who is ...Other.... a religion that is...Other... They are not leading a national discussion to solve the problems, THEIR agenda is ultra-nationalist ultra-partisan rallying - Which does exactly nothing for the national discussion, nor does it in any way improve the chances for reasoned discussion between factions. They are reinforcing the image of monsters attacking us in our homes... a lie that short-circuits the discussion - which is EXACTLY what they intend.

We live in a dangerous time and it has little or nothing to do with anybody but ourselves. If we cannot get back to a world where parties compromise, we are going to be in a world of trouble.
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Maureen Dowd: Making Ignorance Chic

Gail Collins: The Fury Failure
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Juan Williams' real crime: Hack punditry
Forget his remark about Muslims: His political commentary is somewhere between mediocre and awful
by Steve Kornacki

Juan Williams still doesn't get it, is rich anyway
by Alex Pareene
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More Tea Party Hilarity
by Matt Taibbi
You see, when a nice white lawyer with a GI Joe beard uses state aid to help him through tough times and get over the hump – so that he can go from having three little future Medicare-collecting Republican children to eight little future Medicare-collecting Republican children – that’s a good solid use of government aid, because what we’re doing is helping someone "transition" from dependency to economic independence.
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"No new taxes" for GOP -- except a national sales tax
by Joe Conason
Republicans swear they won't raise taxes -- but Rand Paul and Paul Ryan want to tax everything you buy.
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Looney, and That’s No Debate
By Eugene Robinson —
Sorry, but I just can’t do it anymore. When has there been an election with so many looney tunes running under the banner of one of our major parties?
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Fiore Cartoon: Meg Whitman's Personal Stimulus
She's already bringing jobs to California, one political consultant at a time.

Wall Street Hopes to Use Republicans to Re-Purchase Congress
by Robert Creamer
The same people whose recklessness caused so many everyday working class families to lose their jobs are now stoking the anger caused by their own actions and directing it toward Democrats who have brought them to account.
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Paul Krugman: Hey, Small Spender
By PAUL KRUGMAN
If government spending hasn’t created jobs, it’s not because it doesn’t work; it’s because it wasn’t tried.
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The Tea Party: It’s Worse Than You Think
By The Rev. Madison Shockley —
A debate has raged over the last 18 months as to whether the tea party movement is racist. I propose to put this debate to rest. The tea party is racist. Its followers have deployed a brilliant strategy to deflect charges of racism by using a form of the legislative provision known as severability.
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Matt Taibbi on the Tea Party
This is an article from the October 15, 2010 issue of Rolling Stone. It's taken three trips to Kentucky, but I'm finally getting my Tea Party epiphany...

Lou Dobbs Hired Illegal Immigrants: The Nation Lou Dobbs has become notorious for his hard-line stance on undocumented immigrants--and the people who hire them. Yet, as an explosive investigation released Thursday in The Nation uncovered, Dobbs has been relying on undocumented workers for years to maintain the upkeep of his homes.

In Descending Order of Plausibility, Five Explanations for Rick Sanchez’s “Jon Stewart Is a Bigot” Comment
By Juli Weiner

Look Who’s Killing Jobs Now By Ruth Marcus —
Republicans like to denounce President Obama and congressional Democrats for what they describe as “job-killing” policies. But in those red-hot rhetorical terms, congressional Republicans are guilty of mass murder when it comes to job creation.

Lies of the Tea Party By Joe Conason —
The disaffection and demoralization of Democrats have created a dangerous political vacuum that is being filled with misleading data, urban legends and outright lies.

Obama and the Progressive Paradox By E.J. Dionne, Jr. —
A couple of hours before President Obama offered a boffo revival of his 2008 campaign persona during a boisterous rally at the University of Wisconsin, Sen. Bernie Sanders was analyzing why the president was in a political pickle in the first place.
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Frank Rich: The Very Useful Idiocy of Christine O’Donnell
ALL it took was some 30,000 Republican primary voters in a tiny state to turn Christine O’Donnell into the brightest all-American media meteor since Balloon Boy.
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WHITE AMERICA HAS LOST ITS MIND
The white brain goes haywire in spectacular fashion. by STEVEN THRASHER

Four More Reasons Why Democrats Will Retain Control of House and Senate
by Robert Creamer
If Democrats drive hard to the finish, making this election a choice for voters, and turning out every Democratic vote, then the pundit's script will never make it into the actual annals of American history.
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Republican Economics as Social Darwinism
by Robert Reich
Today's issues aren't just economic. We're back to tough love. Republicans want to force people to live with the consequences of whatever happens to them. In the late 19th century that was called Social Darwinism.

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Postcards From the Pledge
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Tempest in a Very Small Teapot By E.J. Dionne, Jr. —
Is the tea party one of the most successful scams in American political history?
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This Just In: Islamophobia By Bill Boyarsky — The evil side of America is on display in the form of a media-fueled Islamophobia that recalls some of the worst bigotry in the nation’s past.

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Fox Calls for Repeal of 20th Century — 13 Achievements Conservatives Would Roll Back « SpeakEasy blogs.alternet.org
Since President Obama’s election, Fox personalities have expressed opposition to or called for the repeal of virtually every progressive achievement of the 20th century, including Social Security, Medicare, the Americans with Disabilities Act, portions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and th...
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‎7 Ways the Koch Bros. Benefit from Corporate Welfare
Mainstream America is finally getting to know the billionaire brothers backing the libertarian movement, thanks to a pair of dueling profiles in New York and The New Yorker. Now that we've heard about their charitable giving, David's 240-foot mega-yacht and role as patrons of the Tea Party movement,...
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Ending the War in Iraq
Remarks by the President in Address to the Nation on the End of Combat Operations in Iraq
Oval Office
August 31, 2010

Christopher Hitchens: Glenn Beck Rally Was 'Waterworld Of White Self-Pity'
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It’s Witch-Hunt Season
In a repeat from the 1990s, the Republicans appear bent on ugliness and paralysis.
by Paul Krugman
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Pierre Tristam:Neo-Supremacy Chic: Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin’s Tea-Scalding of MLK
They don’t call it white supremacy for nothing.
One of the ways this country’s reactionaries have made racism and neo-segregation chic is by co-opting the language of emancipation, equality and civil rights.
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Frank Rich: The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party
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Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin's unholy alliance
Abramoff ally Rabbi Daniel Lapin and bigot John Hagee help "restore honor" at the Lincoln Memorial
by Joan Walsh
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Even Beck can't mar King's legacy
By Eugene Robinson
The majestic grounds of the Lincoln Memorial belong to all Americans -- even to egomaniacal talk-show hosts who profit handsomely from stoking fear, resentment and anger. So let me state clearly that Glenn Beck has every right to hold his absurdly titled "Restoring Honor" rally on Saturday.
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CBO Warns Republicans That Repealing Health Law Would Increase Deficit By $455 Billion

The Congressional Budget Office is out with a new letter saying that while the health care law could reduce the projected budget deficit by $30 billion in 2020, repealing it would increase the deficit by an estimated $455 billion:

On balance, the two laws’ health care and revenue provisions are estimated to reduce the projected deficit in 2020 by $28 billion, and the education provisions of the Reconciliation Act are estimated to reduce the projected deficit in 2020 by $2 billion. [...]

Finally, you asked what the net deficit impact would be if certain provisions of PPACA and the Reconciliation Act that were estimated to generate net savings were eliminated—specifically, those which were originally estimated to generate a net reduction in mandatory outlays of $455 billion over the 2010–2019 period. The estimate of $455 billion mentioned in your letter represents the net effects of many provisions. Some of those provisions generated savings for Medicare, Medicaid, or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and some generated costs. If those provisions were repealed, CBO estimates that there would be an increase in deficits similar to its original estimate of $455 billion in net savings over that period.

If they were to repeal the law, Republicans would have replace it with something that makes up for the deficit increases (assuming, of course that they will still care about the deficits) and helps slow the growth rate in the Medicare program. The GOP’s old leadership backed plan and its reliance on medical malpractice reform as a money saver won’t be enough.

Separately, the CBO also estimated that preventing payment reductions to the physician fee schedule would cost some $330 billion over the 2011–2020 period.
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The Terrorists Win
Nine years after 9/11, hatred of Islam has infected many Americans. How else can we explain the opposition to an Islamic community center two blocks away from where the attacks took place?
by Eric Alterman
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Building a Nation of Know-Nothings - NYTimes.com If the lies about the president continue to gain traction, we're all going to pay a price.

War Room: How the "ground zero mosque" fear mongering began
A viciously anti-Muslim blogger, the New York Post and the right-wing media machine: How it all went down.
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Frank Rich: How Fox Betrayed Petraeus

Nicholas D. Kristof: Taking Bin Laden’s Side
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Robert Creamer: Republican Strategy for Victory: Stall Economic Recovery
For the last twenty months, Democrats have been pushing to get the economy out of the ditch. Not only have Republicans refused to lend a hand, they have been actively throwing rocks under the wheels.

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Extremist Makeover - Homeland Edition
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Change Accomplished
By Eugene Robinson —
This is a radical break from journalistic convention, I realize, but today I’d like to give credit where it’s due—specifically, to President Obama. Quiet as it’s kept, he’s on a genuine winning streak.
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Why are we so willing to repeat history's mistakes?
By David Sirota
Ideology and money interests trump lessons of the past in debates over war, economics and taxes.
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To All President Obama Haters

You didn’t get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.

You didn’t get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate energy policy.

You didn’t get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed.

You didn’t get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.

You didn’t get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.

You didn’t get mad when we spent over 600 billion(and counting) on said illegal war.

You didn’t get mad when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq.

You didn’t get mad when you found out we were torturing people.

You didn’t get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.

You didn’t get mad when we didn’t catch Bin Laden.

You didn’t get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed.

You didn’t get mad when we let a major US city drown.

You didn’t get mad when we gave a 900 billion tax break to the rich.

You didn’t get mad when, using reconciliation; a trillion dollars of our tax dollars were redirected to insurance companies for Medicare Advantage which cost over 20 percent more for basically the same services that Medicare provides.

You didn’t get mad when the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark, and our debt hit the thirteen trillion dollar mark.

(The above is a copy/paste of a nice rant about some of the many errors of the Bush admin. This rant has been making the rounds for awhile now and I don’t know where it originated. What follows is my addition.)

Yet you get mad at President Obama for what exactly?

Expanding health care coverage to over 30 million more Americans while making the worst health insurance industry abuses illegal and reducing the deficit? (source)

Credit card reform which protects consumers from credit card company abuses? (source)

Lowering taxes for 95% of working families?

Being on target to cut Bush’s huge deficit in half within four years?

The DOW going from 6500 to over 11000 during his Presidency?

Is it because he signed expanded gun rights into law while not making any moves towards gun control?

The recession reversing with job losses turning into job gains?

Working to reform Wall Street Reform so we don’t experience another economic meltdown like what happened under Bush’s “leadership” in September 2008?

Working to reduce loose nukes in order to decrease the chances of a nuclear attack on the US by terrorists?

—

Notice those last two are “works in progress.” These are things Obama is trying to do but the Republicans are doing everything they can stop him from being successful on these fronts (similar to how they pulled out every trick in the book to try to stop health care reform.) They don’t seem to care that stopping Obama from getting “political victories” (their biggest concern it seems) may lead to a terrorist nuking a major US city or another economic meltdown.

Think about that. “Country First”? Hardly. The Republican Party of today seems to exist only to further it’s own existence. They will stop at nothing to defeat Obama politically. They don’t care how many lies they have to tell or what the long term consequences are for average Americans.

It’s because of this that I think it’s of very much importance for the future of the United States that the “Republican Tea Party” be defeated this November. Do your part. Make sure you are registered to vote and get to the polls to vote against all Republican Tea Party candidates.
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Mosque-Erade
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Ground Zero for Tolerance By Robert Scheer — The irrational attack on Muslims everywhere by the GOP's leadership is not only deeply subversive with regard to the American ideal of religious tolerance but also poses a profound threat to our national security.

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OpEdNews - Diary: The Anti-Mosque Movement is Politically Correct Nonsense
Diary: How the tables have turned! Conservatives who want Muslims to be 'sensitive' to others' needs weren't too sensitive to the needs of others back in the PC era, now were they? How about we all just suck it up and deal?
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Happy 75th Birthday, Social Security
by Katrina vanden Heuvel
On the 75th anniversary of Social Security, those who would axe benefits are spreading myths designed to make you think there's a looming crisis. It's simply just not true.
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Obama defends "ground zero mosque"
By Glenn Greenwald
The president takes a politically unpopular position and deserves praise for doing so.
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The Racists Return

By Joe Conason — Expressions of racial hatred on the right are troubling, but not nearly as troubling as the behavior of conservatives who excuse, embolden or simply pretend to ignore the bigots surrounding them.

Daly: Poor Rudy's privacy cry is laughable
Former city mayor Rudy Giuliani is quite the hypocrite with cry for privacy after daughter's theft.
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Fareed Zakaria to return ADL award over ground-zero mosque
In response to Fareed Zakaria returning an award that was presented to him in 2005, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said it was “saddened, stunned and somewhat speechless” by his decision.
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Also confirmed: Marshall’s legacy
Elena Kagan’s confirmation to the Supreme Court is not only a victory for her, but also a confirmation of Justice Thurgood Marshall’s enduring legacy.
By Martha Minow

Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich Need a History Lesson
By Joe Conason
No recent controversy has so plainly revealed the hollow values of the American right than the effort to prevent the construction of a community center in Lower Manhattan because it will include a mosque. It is a senseless attack on one of America’s most sacred traditions.
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We're still haunted by Angry White Males
There's something about a Democratic White House and Congress that brings out this ugliness
by Steve Kornacki
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How the GOP Destroyed the US Economy
by Barry Ritholtz
I can sum it up thusly: Whereas the Democrats have no economic policy, the Republicans have a very bad one.
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Bob Cesca The GOP Plot to Screw the Economy and the Middle...
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Leaking to Avert Disaster
By Joe Conason
While the Pentagon Papers revealed the duplicity of American policymakers in the senseless Vietnam War, their release came too late to save many lives or change the course of that conflict. The WikiLeaks disclosures may have arrived in time to influence policy and prevent disaster.
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New Yorkers reject Palin's blithering bigotry
She and her pals use the "Ground Zero mosque" to stir anti-Muslim fear. But the world's greatest city says no
By Joe Conason
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'Reverse Racism' Is a Weapon of Mass Distraction
by Leslie Savan The real creeps are anyone in the media who excuses or erases the role played by Breitbart, Fox News, and the Tea Party blogosphere in smearing Sherrod as a racist.

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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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A Change Election—in the Wrong DirectionBy Joe Conason — The furious and frustrated electorate should be careful when they demand change in the upcoming midterm elections—because what they get may well be very different from what they actually want.

The NAACP and the Tea Party’s Flag-BurnersBy E.J. Dionne, Jr. —
Good for the NAACP. We need an honest conversation about the role of race and racism in the tea party. Thanks to a resolution passed this week at the venerable organization’s national convention, we’ll get it.

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Facing extinction: The "responsible Republican"
Warnings about right-wing extremism from Michael Gerson and ousted Bob Inglis are too little -- and much too late
by Joe Conason
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Paul Krugman makes David Brooks look like a fool because Brooks has no idea what he's talking about.
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The Rhyme And The Reason

by Chuck D.

The recent passing of a one-sided immigration bill into law in the state of Arizona has brought a buzz of American cultural attention to Public Enemy. This law is riveted in the bad taste and practice of racial profiling of Latino people in a region, and there still hasn’t been a clear answer as to how that land transferred from indigenous people into the United States of America.

On the Left, a False Choice Fuels the Growing Civil War Over Obama
by Peter Daou
Political consultant, former adviser to Hillary Clinton
This civil war is premised on a false choice: that an incremental legislative approach and a well-articulated grand ideological vision are mutually exclusive. They're not.

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Steele Crazy After All These Years
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The GOP Goes Off the Rails By Bill Boyarsky — Death wish isn’t too extreme a phrase to describe the Republicans’ recent conduct. What else could explain their behavior this summer?

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Fourth of July 1776, 1964, 2010
by Frank Rich
In the matter of race, we still take steps back and forward in bewildering alternation.
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Surprise, surprise: Tea Partiers are Republicans
by E.J. Dionne
Tea Party people, I have been arguing, are simply right-wing Republicans organized under a new banner.
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We Can’t Afford War By Amy Goodman —
The U.S. will eventually negotiate its withdrawal from Afghanistan. The only difference between now and then will be the number of dead, on all sides, and the amount of (borrowed) money that will be spent.

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Blame
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W.Va. Sen. Robert Byrd Dies at 92

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The Wound McChrystal Opened By E.J. Dionne, Jr. —
Gen. Stanley McChrystal put President Barack Obama in an impossible position. That is why McChrystal had to go.

General Discharge By Robert Scheer —
Rolling Stone’s definitive piece on the “Runaway General” establishes the man in charge of the Afghanistan misadventure as an egotistical flake whose half-baked Afghan war-fighting strategy should never have been endorsed.

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McChrystal's Balls - Honorable Discharge
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On BP, Obama makes the pundits look like fools
As commentators fussed over the stagecraft of his BP speech, Barack Obama delivered -- big-time
By Gene Lyons
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Treat Palestinians Like Jews
By Robert Scheer —
If nothing else, this assault on decency by the Israeli government was clearly intended to derail the peace talks that President Barack Obama has encouraged. But instead of calling Israel on its savagery, the U.S. is virtually alone in the world in its embarrassingly mild rebuke.
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Why Israel should have known better
An Israeli journalist wonders why his nation's leaders stupidly ordered the raid on the Mavi Marmara.
by Joe Conason

R.I.P. Dennis Hopper

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Back in Black - Glenn Beck's Nazi Tourette's
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