Republicans - Always Thinking Ahead

This kind of brings a whole new definition to the term "pork spending".

...former White House political czar Karl Rove and key congressional Republicans -- led by Maine Senator Susan Collins -- aggressively attacked the notion that there was a connection between pandemic preparation and economic recovery.

OH NOES!!!

Now, as the World Health Organization says a deadly swine flu outbreak that apparently began in Mexico but has spread to the United States has the potential to develop into a pandemic, Obey's attempt to secure the money seems eerily prescient.

Kind of ironic that this is a pig-flu, isn't it.

More from John Nichols at The Nation.

Here's a clip of Collins stating her opposition.



The Republicans, en masse apparently, have little regard for science and basic preparedness. This is yet another example of reactionary posturing gone completely wrong.

Let's Ask Alaska How They Like Socialism

Welcome to the People's Republic of Alaska, where every resident this year will get a $3,200 payout, thanks in no small measure to the efforts of Sarah Palin, the state's Republican governor. That's $22,400 for a family of seven, like Palin's. Since 1982, the Alaska Permanent Fund, which invests oil revenues from state lands, has paid out a dividend on invested oil loot to everyone who has been in the state for a year. But Palin upped the ante by joining with Democrats and some recalcitrant Republican state legislators to share in oil company windfall profits, further fattening state tax revenue and permitting an additional payout in tax funds to residents.

No wonder she is popular with voters in a state whose residents pay no income or sales taxes but are blessed with state coffers rolling in cash at a time when all other states are suffering. Indeed, when the oil companies pay more taxes to the state of Alaska, they get to write that off against their federal tax obligation, leaving the rest of us to make up the shortfall.

More from Robert Scheer at The Nation.

By it's very definition, the windfall-profit tax that puts money into the pockets of Alaskan's every year is "socialism".

The good people of Alaska seem to be doing alright.

Obama has a "federal windfall profits tax" plan that would do just about the same for the remainder of the US.

An interesting read, for sure.

Who's Really "Acting", Toby?

According to country-music "super-star" Toby Keith, Obama is "acting white":



Considering that a large portion of Keith's fanbase is more than likely made up of racist, lower-middle-class, high-school diploma carrying men and women from the South, this isn't a suprise.

What is interesting to note is the radical change in appearance that Keith took in the years before and after September 11th 2001.




Now, does that look like the "boot-up-your-ass-hard-chargin-honky-tonk-troop-supportin-rabble-rouser" that he pretends to be today?

Not at all.

Toby ( if that is his real name ) swapped his permed, innocent, country-love song persona in order to take advantage of the "post-9/11" meme of "hardcore American boy". That "Toby" exists only because his agent told him "Hey, we should cash in on all this 'patriotic' nonsense and make you into a real star. What do you say?"

Well, it's apparent what his response was.





More from Max Blumenthal at The Nation

War Inc. - New Video Clip

John Cusack is one of my favorite actors of all time ( next to Robert Downey Jr. ) and he's still in top form in the new film War Inc.

click to watch "redband" clip


The film provides timely social commentary on how wars are becoming fantastic profit centers for large corporations like Halliburton and Blackwater Securities.

If you haven't made it out to your local theatre to check it out, i highly recommend it.

.....and speaking of Blackwater, here's a piece that The Nation's Jeremy Scahill did on the rise of the world's most powerful mercenary army.