I know it’s kinda hip to complain about Rep. Jim McDermott, even amongst local Democrats. But everytime I find myself sitting in a room with him, listening to him speak, I’m reminded why I’m not one of these whiners.
Can’t Bring Yourself to Type the Word “Ass”?
Eager to share our brilliant political commentary and blunt media criticism, but too genteel to link to horsesass.org? Well, good news, ladies: we also answer to HASeattle.com, because, you know, whatever. You're welcome!
Goldy spews:
The reason you are not one of those whiners is because you are insane!
Hey, did you here your other hero, Michael Moore, has a applied for a Tax Credit in floundering Michigan…for his movie about Corporate Greed where he bitches about those who take these credits??
TOO DAMN FUNNY!
Michael Moore, the hypocrite who looks like Boss Hog!
I’m @ the same panel Goldy is participating in, and he suckered me in to checking out his post… so far, the West Seattle blogger has had the most insightful rtemarks, but Goldy gets gold for funnyman.
…And the Publicola reps win for the most unfortunate eyebrows! (Goldy for Governor 2012–No more BS in government)!
G
…and Goldy’s right about Jim McD in person – very good with the red meat speeches.
@1 You got a problem with Michael Moore behaving like every Republican businessman on the planet behaves? What is this, class envy?*
* Moore is a hell of a lot richer than you can even dream about.
Torture Bombshell!
CIA man who claimed waterboarding works now admits he ‘made it up’
This comes from the prestigious magazine Foreign Policy. In 2007, John Kiriakou, a longtime CIA analyst, “electrified the hand-wringing national debate over torture” by asserting hardcore terrorists cracked under waterboarding in less than a minute.
The whole wingnut universe instantly jumped on it as justification for Bush’s torture policies:
“It works, is the bottom line,” conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh exclaimed on his radio show the day after Kiriakou’s ABC interview. “Thirty to 35 seconds, and it works.”
Kiriakou made it up.
In his new book, “The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA’s War on Terror,” Kiriakou says, “What I told Brian Ross [of ABC News] in late 2007 was wrong on a couple counts. I suggested that Abu Zubaydah had lasted only thirty or thirty-five seconds during his waterboarding before he begged his interrogators to stop; after that, I said he opened up and gave the agency actionable intelligence. I wasn’t there when the interrogation took place; instead, I relied on what I’d heard and read inside the agency at the time. … Zubaydah was waterboarded eighty-three times in a single month, raising questions about how much useful information he actually supplied.”
After this mea culpa, Kiriakou adds that he’s never had first-hand knowledge of CIA torture routines. It was, he says, all a CIA ruse: “And he claims that the disinformation he helped spread was a CIA dirty trick: ‘In retrospect, it was a valuable lesson in how the CIA uses the fine arts of deception even among its own.'” What’s more, the magazine says, “Kiriakou’s insistence … that Zubaydah ‘revealed information related to a planned terrorist attack’ has to be taken with a soupçon of salt.”
So the reputed efficacy of waterboarding was bullshit after all. And even though Kiriakou’s now-discredited claims were widely reported in the legacy media — by, among others, the Washington Post, the New York Times, National Public Radio, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, and CNN — not only has no one been fired for reporting an unverified story (cf. Dan Rather), but few (if any) of these media have run corrections.
Quoted under fair use; for the complete article see http://www.foreignpolicy.com/a.....g?page=0,0
Kiriakou’s revelations blow the conservative justifications for torture right out of the water. Limbaugh and the other rightwing flaks who sang the praises of waterboarding were, it turns out, duped by CIA disinformation. What a bunch of stupid shits.
Kiriakou is, of course, highly credible because he was, after all, the original source of the claims made for waterboarding.
No not at all. Fat ass hypocrites are entitled to the same rights as the rest of us.
Speaking of hypocrites and democrats you have to wonder which came first. You know kinda of like the chicken egg thing. It’s one of those age old questions.
He’s certainly one of the least crazy members of Congress, and I like him quite a bit too. But he is too conservative for a supposed ultraliberal.
But goldy, you have a woody for Darcy also….you are not very discerning in who you like.
Jim McD has always been who he is. Not a lot of pretense. He is, for all you wingnuts who forget, an MD. I met him as a high school student when he ran for governor. He is a patriotic, sensible American. I wish we had more like him in Congress.
We have too many Democrats like McD in Congress already. Always quick with a ‘progressive’ talking point like ‘I support single payer health care’ and then equally quick about how it’s a non-starter and can’t be done.
If McDermott can’t do any of the things he thinks should be done, and won’t even try–why on Earth should he be elected over and over? Because he’s a ‘nice guy’? This is a poor way to pick a government and explains a lot about why the Democrats are synonymous with spineless.
@ 14:
Unlike you, McDermott knows how to count votes. If we had a Congress full of McDermotts we’d have single payer already.
Gee there’s 51 Senators that support single payer and a majority of Dems in the House. Maybe you don’t know how to count ivan?
Further, his comments on the health debate were at the very beginning of the process. If even then they didn’t have the votes, why tell your opponents you don’t? Do you normally play cards with your hand face up? You do if your the Dems, like Darcy’s organization for another example, that thought it was a good idea to influence the progressive side of the health care debate by not using the term ‘single payer’. Ever hear a Republican talk about being anti-choice or pro tax breaks for the top 1% of unearned wealth?
Re 13
“He is a patriotic, sensible American. I wish we had more like him in Congress.” If by ‘patriotic’ you mean he hates everything this country stands for, and you then conclude this to be sensible… Then, yeah we need more anti American patriots in Congress. Too damn bad Leon Trotsky is dead! And it’s a shame Chavez isn’t a US citizen who could run for Congress too.
What a warped twisted view of basic English words like patriot and sensible.
Re 11
Wow. Least crazy? Surely you meant most certifiably nutty lunatic who ever milked an equally nutty legislative district for a sinecure job?
Once and for all-
Single payer doesn’t work. It doesn’t work in Canada. It doesn’t work in Europe. It’s expensive, though the costs are only borne by those whom society should be rewarding for hard work and financial acumen.
Play games with figures all you like, it costs more than private health care, is less efficient, and provides lower quality care.
If you folks are so fond of single payer, move somewhere it exists. Otherwise shut the hell up.
Goldy
I like him too .. the same way I like John Stewart or .. dare I see you. The three of you say good things, sometimes amusing things, sometimes you get stuff done, but ….is Jim a good Congressman? no.
@13 Proud Leftist
So you like Jim.
You want to feel good or get things done?
Patty Murray can not talk like JM, but she gets shit done.
Tell me what Micky did for Darcy por do you suppose he has any credit amongst Est side indies?
I like my dog too.
@11 Carl ..
Mickey is too “conservative?”
BS!
Lets start with LOCAL liberal issues …As a senior Dem he otta be a LEADER, not just a DC speaker. Jimmy is invisible here.
Tell me where McD stands on the next governor race?
Tell me how effective he is in the NOA issue or the Viaduct?
Even on the Eyman issues or EFF, where is McD
And yeh, I think bacon is locally important.Is Jimmy a Doc? Really? Howsit that he is invisible in re federal support for Seattle’s largest industry? Where was he in the tanker ruckus? Exports to Cuba????
@16 “Gee there’s 51 Senators that support single payer and a majority of Dems in the House. Maybe you don’t know how to count ivan?”
If this is a backhanded suggestion that Democrats use the “nuclear option” to pass health reform — I’m all for it. But breaking a GOP filibuster is acceptable, too.
@17 “What a warped twisted view of basic English words like patriot and sensible.”
You have no clue about the meaning of either.
@18 “Single payer doesn’t work. It doesn’t work in Canada. It doesn’t work in Europe.”
Then why have they kept it so long?
“It’s expensive,”
No, idiot, health are is expensive. Increasing overall system costs by 30% to pay for a private claims processing system is expensive. And what do we get for this extra expense? Third world health care.
“though the costs are only borne by those whom society should be rewarding for hard work”
Since when did our society ever reward hard work? See, e.g., slaves, minimum wage workers, sweat shop workers, split shift workers, rotating shift workers, part time workers, temporary workers, injured workers, unemployed workers, etc.
“and financial acumen”
Are you referring to the bankers who pick fruit off other people’s trees, or those who cleverly chose as their parents the people who own all the trees, or sly speculators like me who cadge a few bucks from other speculators by endlessly taking apples out of one bushel and putting them in another bushel (which, btw, doesn’t produce more apples)?
Just a little ditty to remind you circle-jerking Atheist Progressives how your “movement” is “REGRESSING!
Obam-Mao should be at a MINIMUM -7 in this Democrat-leaning poll post-SOU. But he ain’t!
The key is no movement in the unaffiliateds. His only bounce was from Democrats…who are obviously more impressed with empty rhetoric and novelty than the unaffiliateds.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Obam-Mao will not tap into moderates and unaffiliateds with his demeaning, combative, lecturing and mocking style. His arrogance and the arrogance of his handlers shelter the truth about what is happening in America. When Obam-Mao promised unemployment would not exceed 8% with the Porkulous package and it is over 10%..with lots of new debt to service..he has really put himself in a box.
Good to see Tea Partiers and Republicans standing up to hold this misguided economic strategy of borrow our way to prosperity accountable.
The angrier and more combative Obam-Mao and his stooges get,,,the more predictable the 2010 elections for Conservatives.
Y’all don’t get it…angry, combative and mocking only works when you are NOT in power. An overwhelming majority of folks mistrust government and do not like the way things are going in America. The ruling Party is vulnerable. Rather than be respected Leaders, Obam-Mao has shown his mean-spirited mocking of Tea Partiers and other unaffiliateds.
hard to take it back when you are in power.
Don’t expect you KLOWNS to get it.
So here we have a man who, faced with the greatest moral issue facing our nation in modern times, came out on the side of torture because he fell for a CIA con game.
In a reasonable world, this would destroy Rush, and no one would pay him heed any longer.
But wingnuts continue to cite this stupid, immoral, discredited drug addict as if he were the author of Holy Gospel; which makes you wonder where their heads are at, and makes me fear for the future of democracy.
@25 You wanna know what “regressing” is? Regressing is trying to replace the federal income tax with a 30% federal sales tax; trying to solve the deficit by asking for even more tax breaks for business and the already-rich; and arguing we should go backward on minimum wage and collective bargaining rights.
Here is a classic example of the stupidity of McDimwit, Holder and the rest of the KLOWNS who support trying terrorists in American Courts and giving them rights..
http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....rial-plan/
You KLOWNS dream up all kind of nonsense and then finally come to grips that it is cost prohibitive and undesirable AFTER wasting people’s time and money with your lame-ass brainfarts.
$200 MILLION price tag for a trial of TERRORISTS in NYC??
WHY??
TO show the world we are…………..STUPID??
The list of Campaign issues and examples of poor judgment is astronomical. The biggest problem for the Tea Party and Republicans is which of the thousands of examples to highlight?
Obam-Mao was elected with almost ZERO vetting by the MSM and no track record.
He has one now and so do the Democrats.
Totally in charge for months and what happened??
Nothing but skyrocketing deficit spending and debt and showing the world & terrorists Obam-Mao is weak and can be manipulated.
And you KLOWNS demand we support the President?? Not with this kind of stupidity trailing him like a piece of used toilet paper stuck to his shoe!!!!!!!!!
Racist Rabbit-
Rush has zero power.
Obam-Mao andd the Democrats controlled everything and what did they do for America?
NOTHING!
Incompetent bastards.
Constant hand-wringing over polls is a sucker’s game.
If this country ever gives power back to the Republicans, they will deserve the coupe de grace that the fascist Republicans will deliver
re 29: ‘Racist’????
It wasn’t Democrats who were marching around with a picture of the president with a bone through his nose.
The only reason that we centrists have a picture of Bush with a bone through his nose is that he is 1/32 Carib Indian, who, as we all know from reading Robinson Crusoe, were cannibals.
It’s a proven fact!
George Bush is a cannibal who keeps his money in Caribbean banks. He’s a fucking financial cannibal Carib — and you know it.
So, why are you so afraid to answer my question??
Where is the proof that George Bush wasn’t born in voodoo ceremany in the Caribbean??
That’s what I’d like to know!!
@29 He has power over you.
@16, @24 I can’t for the life of me understand why, particularly in light of events of the last few years, there are still some right-wing zealots of moderate means who keep crying boo-hoo-hoo for megacorporations and rich people. You applauded the Bush/DeLay/Frist gang when they gave the fat cats more of a free ride than ever and lent them a free hand to abandon any remaining pretense of “ethics”. By what perverse reasoning do you think you got anything in return, other than having the bill handed to you, your children, and your childrens’ children?
“Single-payer isn’t working”
So, tell us all….what is?
@ 16:
Stop making shit up.
@28 What’s $200 million compared to the $2 TRILLION you fools squandered on your recreational war in Iraq and tax cuts for billionaires that produced zero job growth over the last decade?
i have never met Mcdermott nor goldstein, but both seem equally vulgar and nasty. dems no doubt have some plesant people; you should expose them more
Heh… Sunny Jim can have that job as long he wants it..
He’s done a super job making wingnuts spew their ugly guts out.
More Dems should do that – people will be revolted by the behavior of wingnuts being wingnuts and keep them out of power.
Didn’t Jim break some federal laws against invastion of privacy. Don’t you libtards get all agitated about privacy…oh yea, only when it benefits you
jim should be in jail for wire tapping…..
sure, he just happened to have a political opponents cell phone magically tied into his….
it was just “chance”….lmfao
1 Cyn
Weren’t you one of the whiners who criticized WA state for not providing enough tax breaks to Boeing?
@18 liasob
You’re a hoot, you know that?
You know, that’s not what all my Canadian friends tell me, nor what polls of Canadians say that people think of their care. But reality does have that well=known liberal bias, and Republicans have a well-known lack of reality:
Do you mean in the UK, which does not have single-payer, or France, which does not have single payer, or Germany, which does not have single payer, or maybe Switzerland, which does not have singlepayer? Could you be a little more specific? Of course you can’t.
I can only guess that by “those whom society should be rewarding for hard work and financial acumen” you are referring to the white bros who ran Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns, Goldman Sachs, and AIG into the ground while revceiving and continuing to receive multi=million-dollar bonuses for their “financial acumen,” correct?
“Play games with figures all you like”
Translation: “you’re saying things I don’t agree with”
“It costs more than private health care”
I won’t even bother to link to the the volumes of data that everyone already knows; that US health care costs twice as much or more per capita than in those poor, failing universal care systems, and with worse outcomes. If you need the data, I’ll provide it right after you provide yours.
My boss, who’s fairly conservative himself, has relatives in Canada. He’s more than happy to report that they’re laughing their asses off at us.
@39 First you say you don’t know them, then you tell us about their personalities.
Have you ever–ever— heard Jim McDermott speak? I have, several times…and I’ve never heard him say anything vulgar or even remotely disrespectful, even of those who’ve said some pretty nasty things about him.
So, based on available evidence, it would appear that you’re not only ignorant, but proud of it. What an accomplishment!
43. Daddy Love spews:
Are you so stupid you don’t see the irony in Moore’s situation??
C’mon DL, you are at least that bright?
@43 Weren’t you one of the whiners who criticized WA state for not providing enough tax breaks to Boeing?
—-
No. That was Goldy calling out Microsoft – your employer – for skipping out on paying their fair share of taxes into state coffers. If you want to shine, Daddy, take a principled stand and call out your own employer for failing the state’s hungry and poor. Walking the talk just might earn you a little respect on HA, Daddy Love.
artfart; ok i lack info on mcdermott personally, but i gotta tell you, goldy leaves a jerk trail a mile long in his writing in this blog
“In 1997 Republicans were caught on tape link>> defying a mandate from the House Ethics panel to not conspire against any ruling regarding Newt Gingrich.”
So, for wingnuts, it’s not the fact that Boehner and Geingrich were involved in an illegal conspiracy, but that they got caught.
McDermott was way ahaead of his time in applying the principles of the Patriot Act.
centrist; you misstate our position…we are of course embarassed that Boehner/Gingrich info made it to the press. Had that been taped and leaked by some reporters it would be high drama, no more. BUT when a sitting member of Congress aids and abets…that just stinks.
showed me he’s just a party hack. cares nothing for the law, nor those lofty privacy princples the left bleats ad nauseum
Yes. Republicans are all for the other side being strict followers of the law.
It’s only illegal wiretaps you are against?
Don’t insult my intelligence. I’m a thoughtful person.
@51 “we are of course embarassed that Boehner/Gingrich info made it to the press.”
Hmmm, you didn’t say you’re embarrassed that they DID it. I guess, in your view, that was okay? as long as they didn’t get caught?
“showed me he’s just a party hack”
Oh, and Republicans never leaked anything to the press, to get a partisan advantage? Hypocrite.
“cares nothing for the law”
McDermott isn’t a lawyer and didn’t know he was breaking the law. It’s unclear, even to lawyers; even the lawyers on the two sides didn’t know whether his actions broke the law until that issue was litigated and decided by a court. So for you to insinuate that he intentionally broke the law is just plain horseshit. But then, everything you say is horseshit.
A couple days ago, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman* wrote in the NY Times:
(* Note, that’s one more Nobel Prize than any of our trolls and the Senate Republicans have.)
“The nature of America’s troubles is easy to state. We’re in the aftermath of a severe financial crisis, which has led to mass job destruction. The only thing that’s keeping us from sliding into a second Great Depression is deficit spending. …
“In the long run, however, even the U.S. government has to pay its way. And the long-run budget outlook was dire even before the recent surge in the deficit, mainly because of inexorably rising health care costs. Looking ahead, we’re going to have to find a way to run smaller, not larger, deficits.
“How can this apparent conflict between short-run needs and long-run responsibilities be resolved? Intellectually, it’s not hard at all. We should combine actions that create jobs now with other actions that will reduce deficits later. And economic officials in the Obama administration understand that logic: … [T]heir vision involves combining fiscal stimulus to help the economy now with health care reform to help the budget later.
“The sad truth, however, is that our political system doesn’t seem capable of doing what’s necessary. … [T]here is little sentiment in Congress for any major new job-creation efforts. Meanwhile, health care reform faces a troubled outlook. … So if health reform fails, you can forget about any serious effort to rein in rising Medicare costs. …
“So we’re paralyzed in the face of mass unemployment and out-of-control health care costs. Don’t blame Mr. Obama. There’s only so much one man can do, even if he sits in the White House. Blame our political culture instead, a culture that rewards hypocrisy and irresponsibility rather than serious efforts to solve America’s problems. And blame the filibuster, under which 41 senators can make the country ungovernable, if they choose — and they have so chosen.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01.....ugman.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: It’s pretty clear what Nobel Prize-winning economist Krugman is blaming: The tyranny of the minority being exercised by the Senate tyrants of the minority party. For me to say Republicans are unhelpful in the midst of crisis is, at the very least, an understatement. It may not be too much to call them traitors to America and the American people’s worst enemy.
ouch, rabbit, that hurts…Mcdermott didnt know he was breaking the law….gimme a break..i’m a total civilian and i know its illegal..maybe he should have resigned as a congressman…he’s supposed to know a few things….he’s a paid government employee. anyone else gets fired, he earns more leftist stripes.
Re 54,
Obama has a Nobel too, which shows exactly how worthless the thing is.
Imagine an unemployed man whose mortgage is 2 months behind telling his wife and family they need to spend more money to get out of trouble. You know that’s stupid and so do I, but somehow if government does it it makes sense? And that is what your Nobel laureate educated fool is saying. That’s the problem with ivory tower academia. 99 out of any 100 people on the street can tell that what they’re saying is complete nonsense. They and their coleagues with no concept of the real world, but a lot of pretty ideas, can’t.
Rabbit,
Two other quick notes.
McDermott knew what he was doing was wrong, whether he knew it to be illegal or just suspected it was.
While we’re on the subjuct of treason, how about selling our country to the Chinese, ala Obama?
@53…STFU you dense piece of BAR crap.
your going to tell me that decades-in-office high ranking US politician doesnt know that wire tapping is illegal?
HAHHAHAHAHHAH, NICE TRY!
Yes indeed, you are a proud and diligent follower of your namesake Goebbels Rabbit, you nazi piece of garbage.
How long before the progressives launch their own night of the long knives, with Goebbels/Himmler Rabbit cheering them on all the way.
@54 It’s rather pathetic that what now passes for “liberal economic policy” is merely trickle-down economics on a grander scale.
@58 Whazzamatter, pal? You afraid the big bad Democrats are going to walk you and your pals into the gas chambers before God takes you up in the Rapture? Where’s your faith, for crying out loud?
lost @ 18
Cunning rhetoric, ftw.
If by “costs more” you mean 1/2 per capita, and by “lower quality” you mean longer life expectancy, then we’re in total agreement.
Your belligerent outburst disappoints me. You may have a philosophical, principled, or political opposition to taking care of people. Fine. Make your case.
But make believe isn’t cool.
Mr Cynical @ 1
You, again, confused entrepreneurship with capitalism. (On purpose? Hard to tell.)
Entrepreneurship is when you work for your money. Capitalism is when your money works for you.
Please, try to keep up.