If an athlete is caught cheating in the Olympics or another sports competition, that person is disqualified, and it is seen as a disgrace. In the case of the recent election in Afghanistan, however, cheating has been rewarded and even praised by no less than the president of the United States, says Link TV’s Jamal Dajani in this week’s “Mosaic Intelligence Report.”
Continuing on his Doing Too Many Things at Once ’09 Tour, President Barack Obama made a stopover at Cambridge, Mass., on Friday to push for “the passage of comprehensive legislation that will finally make renewable energy the profitable kind of energy in America.” Echoing himself on the subject of health care reform, Obama warned that the negative buzz from naysayers will get louder as the pro-reform team inches closer to its goal.
Well, that public option idea keeps creeping back to the table as Congress debates the health care conundrum, but will it stick around? Does the federal government have the right to limit executive bonuses when taxpayers hold a majority interest in the company? And is President Obama wasting his time by tangling with Fox News? So many questions this week!
Ballots are being distributed to voting centers throughout Afghanistan for the runoff between incumbent President Hamid Karzai and his top challenger from Round 1, Abdullah Abdullah, slated to take place on Nov. 7.
One country’s taking the piss is another’s bigotry. A blackface sketch on an Australian variety show has exposed what the Global Post calls “an ugly side of the Australian character.”
By far the best thing to come out of Britain’s expenses scandal is this video series of ducks lampooning the shenanigans of elected officials. It’s part of a campaign to bring an open primary to the U.K., but forget the politics and enjoy the poultry.
The Bold Progressives (aka PCCC) have taken the health care fight to the home states of conservacrats Ben Nelson and Max Baucus and Republican swinger Olympia Snowe. Now the group is going after the man himself with a new public-option pressure ad.
Relations were already strained between Israel and Turkey, owing in large part to the Israeli-Palestinian clash in Gaza last winter, and then came this week’s diplomatic drama caused by a Turkish TV show that depicted Israeli soldiers shooting children in Gaza.
Ann Coulter’s guest appearance Thursday night on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show took a startling turn when she veered from lamenting how Rush Limbaugh’s NFL dream supposedly got sacked by the far left to holding forth on the subject of domestic abuse, declaring: “Husbands rarely beat up their wives ... single women get beaten up more.”
Wall Street got a boost, as if it needed one, from the Dow’s rise past 10,000 this week—but let’s not confuse that with economic stability. Consider the unemployment rate and the ballooning federal budget deficit, as Arianna Huffington, Bob Scheer, Tony Blankley and Matt Miller do on this week’s “Left, Right and Center.” Just don’t ask Arianna about “Balloon Boy.”
If ever there were magic words guaranteed to provoke instant fury in America’s far-right ranks (besides “Nobel Peace Prize”), they might sound a little like “Al Franken.” The comedian-turned-senator’s recent proposal—related to the rights of rape victims who are employees of government contractors—met with some baffling resistance from Republicans in Congress.
Stephen Colbert is on a serious tear in this “Colbert Report” clip from Tuesday night’s show, tackling religious symbology, reptilian champion of atheism Christopher Hitchens, canary-eating Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and the infamous Three-Fifths Compromise all in one go—and that’s before he busts into the Apostles’ Creed.
Score one for irony: A new movement is in the works, complete with its own Web site, to protect the institution of marriage in the Golden State from the unholy scourge of ... divorce. The drive is on for the 2010 California Marriage Protection Act, and this group—which actually intends to poke fun at the Proposition 8 proponents—is circulating its own PSAs to educate the masses about its mission.
Jon Stewart sat down with Department of Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano on Monday night’s “Daily Show” to enjoy at least a fleeting feeling of security and to discuss the government’s infamous safety color codes—which, she quipped, “are the subject of late-night humor, as you may have noticed”—as well as swine flu and terrorism.
Fox News personalities are so sensitive. After White House Communications Director Anita Dunn said that “we don’t need to pretend that this is the way that legitimate news organizations behave,” Glenn Beck grabbed his toys and declared war.
Perhaps Geir Lundestad, head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, knew that there would be questions about President Barack Obama’s Peace Prize win, but regardless, he’s ready for the biggest one—why Obama?—in this interview conducted and posted by his Nobel colleagues on Friday.
President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize caused a ruckus round the globe, drawing a wide range of reactions. The big question: Did he deserve it? On this week’s show, “Left, Right & Center” co-hosts Robert Scheer, Tony Blankley, Matt Miller and Arianna Huffington mull this one over, along with the value of the dollar and the ongoing saga that is health care reform.
A new short film by the group Alliance for Justice examines the role that lawyers played in authorizing and legitimizing torture under the Bush administration. It calls on the attorney general to investigate not just CIA operatives but the authors of torture memos in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.
The “Countdown” host, having just emerged from a personal encounter with the system, pulls out all the stops for a special hour-long comment on the need for health care reform.
Conservatives seek to preserve old-timey traditions and values when it comes to many social issues, but National Review columnist John Derbyshire apparently wants to set women back at least 100 years with his curious statement, teased out by progressive radio host Thom Hartmann, that women’s suffrage isn’t good for the country.
In the left corner, we have filmmaker Michael Moore, taking his anti-capitalism roadshow to ... Fox News. On the right, we have anchorman Sean Hannity, eager to repeatedly point out how much money Moore makes. But does Hannity believe in conspiracy theories? This does get lively.
Whatever happened to President Obama’s campaign pledge to revoke the pesky “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that keeps gay and lesbian military members in the closet as they serve their country? Well, it seems the president has a little “too much on his plate” to confront that particular issue at the moment, as Jon Stewart has duly noted.
The Dalai Lama ran with the theme of the day while accepting the Lantos Human Rights Prize in Washington on Tuesday, taking the opportunity to point out that “generally speaking, we are lacking” when it comes to “taking care of others’ well-being.” While he was at it, he also schooled his audience about America’s widening class divide.
When President Obama Chicago lost out to Rio for the 2016 Olympic Games, none were more pleased than the members of a conservative organization called—wait for it—Americans for Prosperity. Well, they didn’t specify whose prosperity they were rooting for, as Stephen Colbert points out in this clip.
Bill Maher couldn’t contain his glee on Friday night’s episode of “Real Time” while rattling off some alternative titles for Sarah Palin’s upcoming memoir, “Going Rogue: An American Life,” had it been ghostwritten by several famous writers—even some long-dead ones.
Still Doing God’s Work on Wall Street
