I’m definitely one of the people who watched the Q-and-A at the House Republican retreat with the President and yearned for that Obama to be the one who governs from the White House. We caught a glimpse of him again during the State of the Union, and we saw him out in full force when he was striking down talking-point-driven Republicans who asked questions that were devoid of substance and designed only to provoke a response – he handled them with class, poise, and dignity, and laid the smackdown when he had to. I was more than impressed.

Shortly thereafter, Republicans were in a tizzy, trying to come up with more talking points to back up the ones that the President had just shot down on national television like so much skeet at an NRA convention, trying to hilariously claim themselves victorious for even asking the questions in the first place. When cornered, they admitted they shouldn’t have let the Q-and-A be broadcast, because the President said he would be candid, direct, and pointed, and he was: shining the light on the cockroaches of the Republican party and their political degeneracy and watching them scurry away from the light was one of the best things I’ve ever seen….and a long time coming.

RUSSERT: Tom Cole — former head of the NRCC, congressman from Oklahoma — said, “He scored many points. He did really well.” Barack Obama, for an hour and a half, was able to refute every single Republican talking point used against him on the major issues of the day. In essence, it was almost like a debate where he was front and center for the majority of it. … One Republican said to me, off the record, behind closed doors: “It was a mistake that we allowed the cameras to roll like that. We should not have done that.”

Additionally from ThinkProgress:

Accepting the invitation to speak at the House GOP retreat may turn out to be the smartest decision the White House has made in months,” writes the Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder. “Debating a law professor is kind of foolish — the Republican House Caucus has managed to turn Obama’s weakness — his penchant for nuance — into a strength. Plenty of Republicans asked good and probing questions, but Mike Pence, among others, found their arguments simply demolished by the president.”

Owned.

[ Republicans Dismayed by Obama’s Strong Performance, Say it was a ‘Mistake’ to Let Cameras Roll. ]
Source: ThinkProgress

I’ve mentioned before that Glenn Beck is a dangerous man (I’ve been talking about him since he got his CNN post, the one that he thankfully no longer has), and not for the reasons that you might think – not because he’s factually incorrect and manages to spew forth the kind of fecal works of fiction that are dangerous to anyone who might happen to be paying attention (seriously, the IQ of people must go down when listening to his ranting, hyperbolistic, hysterial monologues, like the crazy guy in the street who starts shouting and everyone just looks at quietly hoping he’ll just go away) but because he’s funded and heeled by a political organization that’s posing as a media outlet and news organization.

Most recent on the ridiculous list? Glenn Beck’s pompous, self-important “documentary:”

When Glenn Beck aired an hour-long documentary titled “Revolutionary Holocaust: Live Free or Die” last Friday, it marked a major turning point in the annals of television.

The film, narrated by Beck himself, purported to reveal “really disturbing and shocking stuff,” specifically the “dirty little secret” that progressive political beliefs led inexorably to “some of the most horrifying outcomes in history.” With help from interview subjects like Jonah Goldberg, author of the book Liberal Fascism, Beck linked the progressive political movement to such nightmares as China’s Cultural Revolution and Hitler’s gas chambers. Beck alternated images of the emaciated, tortured bodies of the victims he blamed on progressivism with archival footage of Goebbels, Stalin and Mao.

Behold, America, the future of conservative media.

There was a time when such stunningly irresponsible and historically dubious assertions were the province of isolated individuals holding homemade signs at rallies — but no longer. “The Revolutionary Holocaust” was watched by nearly four million Americans. And it was broadcast by one of the world’s largest media conglomerates, News Corporation, which made no effort to disassociate itself from the program’s content.

You hear that? Normally that last bit is where the media company says something like “the opinions expressed here are solely those of XXXXX person and not representative of YYYYY company or its partners,” etc, etc. News Corp decided “you know what? that’s not necessary – they’re pretty much our opinions too.”

This is where the FCC needs to step in. There are regulations for this type of media abuse, and they need to be levvied against News Corp. For a group of people who like to whinge and whine so much about Nazi-ism and rewrite history so their own ills and sins are washed away and anyone they disagree with is somehow painted as “the bad guy,” they have no idea how quickly they walk down the same path as those they’re claiming to protect the American people against.

“Even if you think I’m wildly irresponsible,” Beck said a few weeks ago, “you have to know that News Corp. is not stupid. It’s a company worth billions of dollars. Do you really think this corporation would risk everything on an irresponsible crazy guy?”

Oh yes. Yes they would. Without hesitation, and that’s why they pay you so much, Beck.

[ Glenn Beck Assails Obama and Progressives with Holocaust Imagery ]
Source: AlterNet

Why is it that when the Republicans want to take someone on, they can never manage to do it cleanly and in front of the American people over the issues they care about, and instead resort to things like breaking in to someone’s office or dressing up like a pimp to try and deceive someone gullible enough to believe they’re honest? I mean really.

No, seriously – the guy who dressed up like a pimp and went around from ACORN office to ACORN office in an attempt to get someone gullible or silly enough to take them seriously enough to offer them tax advice that naturally would be illegal because of their illegal profession, and then subsequently somehow managed to light a firestorm over it (for some reason this is like a late night infomercial salesman managing to find someone stupid enough to fall for their prank and then everyone gets up in arms about the person who fell for it and not the prank) got himself busted trying to play secret agent and breaking into Loiusiana Senator Mary Landrieu’s office.

James O’Keefe, the snot-nosed thug in question (who likely wouldn’t last an hour in jail if it weren’t for his well heeled and well-connected friends/parents who likely bailed him out immediately) and a couple of his buddies trying to pose as telephone repairmen – without proper ID or clearance of course – apparently tried to break into the office and tap Senator Landrieu’s phone. For what? Who knows, but, as the media is missing, that’s not the important question. The important question here is why the conservative right is acting like this, and why they’re fostering this kind of scorched earth “ends justify the means” politicking by breaking the law – instead of simply coming to the table?

You can do inflammatory documentaries without circus acts and scare tactics and pseudo-secret agent antics. The trick is to use this little thing called evidence and investigation: two things O’Keefe has clearly never heard of.

[ ACORN Smear Journalist Arrested for Alleged Attempt to Bug Sen. Mary Landrieu’s Office ]
Source: AlterNet

[ Fake ACORN Pimp Arrested in Attempt to Bug Senate Office ]
Source: NewsWeek

The most hilarious thing about the “alternatives” that the Republicans have tried to put on the table to health care reform is that they’re all exactly what they complain the President always does: talk but provide no direction. The Republicans claim their option will “eliminate frivilous lawsuits against hospitals and doctors,” which essentially amounts to torte reform – the kind that has been proven time and time again to benefit insurance companies by making patients less able to file claims for ineffective or inappropriate or harmful care and treatment.

The majority of Americans has never supported torte reform, and they won’t even if they change the language – it essentially puts more power in the hands of insurance companies and less in the hands of patients and doctors who are actually responsible, and it just goes to further the fear that Americans have – and are dying from – of going to the doctor for medical treatment, even when something is clearly wrong.

I’m getting too deeply into a discussion of torte reform, but this is true all around whenever the Republicans try to dabble in health care. Their last attempt was so horrific they tried to play it off like it was just a first and rough draft and no one should have seen it, even though they were the ones who released it.

But this one is just as bad. The goal here, as usual, is “self empowerment,” which is really code for “you’re on your own, no one cares about your health care, we just want to not spend money on you so we can cut costs arbitrarily to spend money on things like bombs and missles.”

Hidden in the cobwebby depths of the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions lies the conservative answer to health care. It’s a plan that would cost about $940 billion less than the House Democrats’ bill, and cut deficit spending by tens of billions over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office – all while keeping large employers and insurance moguls happy as clams on subsidized Prozac.

The downside? It would leave more than 52 million nonelderly Americans uninsured. That’s an improvement of roughly zero percent.

The legislation, ambitiously dubbed “The Empowering Patients First Act,” was introduced by Rep. Tom Price, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, in July. It has lately been resurrected as the paragon of reform done right by right-wing columnists, as well as conservative bastions such as the Heritage Foundation and the Christian Coalition.

The Empowering Patients bill would grant tax credits to people purchasing insurance – not much use to unemployed and low-income Americans. It would allow health insurance companies to sell policies across state lines, knocking off state oversight of insurers.

The legislation would not require that employers offer coverage, nor would it impose regulations preventing insurance companies from cherry picking healthy clients.

It would require that no federal funds be used to pay for abortions unless “the pregnancy endangers a women’s life or was the result of forcible rape.”

And, to help fund the minimal expense of the bill, it would instate “medical liability reforms” that would force down the cost of compensation for malpractice lawsuits and make it harder for patients to sue for injuries incurred during treatment.

Feeling empowered yet?

Awesome – so a bill that…does nothing but slash costs and benefits and leaves millions of Americans to fend for themselves, whether they’re sick, needy, elderly, or none of those things.

That’s the conservative way: I’ve got mine, you can go to hell.

[ The Republican Health "Alternative": Empowering Ourselves to Death ]
Source: TruthOut