Wow, that's an Orwellian phrase if I ever saw one.

Rather than basic human rights, health care and a small monthly check for the aged to keep from starving to death are called "entitlements." Yeah, those privileges are too lavish for us working drones.

And reform is such a nice comfy word to use in place of, say, lay waste to, despoil, or eradicate.

I guess it is time for us to know our place in the new world order. If that place happens to be one of the tent cities on the outskirts of our urban areas, well, we have to suck it up until those who know better than we do allow a little of that wealth to trickle down to us. Just remember, if you manage to hold on to your cell phone (which you will need while you are looking for a job), don't let Michelle Malkin see you with it.

demanding a special prosecutor:

https://secure.aclu.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=Nat_Petition_ICRC_Report

and link at sig.

David Gregory, that font of wisdom and integrity, knows what the problem is these days: it's us. We are ignoramuses who don't know what's good for us.

On the bailout, he said today: ". . . You've got to explain the complexities of this financial system to people, because so many people simply don't understand it. Without understanding, you get populist anger and populist anger leads to bad politics and ultimately bad policies."

Enjoy the video here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-green/nbcs-david-gregory-says-y_b_179948.html

And then go tell CNBC to fix it, at sig.

As he said on Real Time last night, he thought Obama's answer was outrageous and demeaned the huge number of people that asked the question, which was the #1 question of all, btw, and which his advisors nonetheless left off of the list of questions to answer. But Obama just tossed off his mocking response to get it in there.

As Bill pointed out, when Obama said that the question made him wonder about the internet audience asking the questions--that audience is everyone, so Obama's clever little rhetorical ploy didn't work, that is, trying to make it look like a small but vocal gang of potheads put the question out there. Ha ha ha.

But then Mos Def--of all people!--defended Obama, saying that a man in his position can't say he wants to decriminalize weed. Bill didn't buy it.

I would so like to see Glenn discuss this issue on Real Time.

I loved this:

I have a few responses to those points. They are 1) Bullshit; 2) bullshit; 3) bullshit, plus of course; 4) bullshit. Lastly, there is 5) Boo-Fucking-Hoo. You dog.

but that answer just confounded me. I saw Mos Def last season on the show with Cornel West, and Mos Def's comments about his--and African American--responses to the government hysteria about terrorists, when, as he said, he lived his life under constant pressure and had more to fear from the local cop than from terrorists, was beautifully conveyed. Which is why I expected something a bit more complex from him on this issue, especially considering the related prison issues that Glenn brings up here.

I agree about Rushdie. Holy crap, what was up with that?

I long for a mediocre press!

Eight hundred and forty-six pages of fun and not one mention of me. I am not on anyone's list of big assholes and I am not on anyone's list of respectable posters here. No one has ventured to comment on my psychological makeup. No one has even told me to fuck off. You have hurt my feelings and I may go and dramatically flounce out of here. (Of course, the number one rule of flouncing is: Come back a few days later as if nothing ever happened.)

After all this time, I am still flying under everyone's radar.

I guess that's what happens when you are a damn bug.

Ever since I saw Boorman's Hope and Glory, nothing has been funnier than a gas mask. *kraaaa hisssssss kraaaaa hissssss*

But the pièce de résistance of the clip was Beck's assertion that he hates the 9-11 families. Thanks for showing us all how to be the way we were on 9-12, Glenn. Now, let us all join Ann Coulter in calling the 9-11 widows a bunch of skanks and media whores. And maybe then we can help Bill O'Reilly in his fight against the ultra-liberal NBC cabal, which is targeting him and silencing and marginalizing him at this very moment. Oh, and don't forget that we all have to kill Bill Maher. Don't you know that he is out to get the Christians and that he is using his dominant voice to further persecute the cowering minority of Christians in this country? He has absolutely no sense of fairness or balance.

Great show. After hearing William Black's critique of Geithner and his anti-regulatory ideology, Paulson, fraud, and the cover-up that the administration and bankers are engaged in, I am in that much more despair that their insane plan for the economy will ever work.

I thought Glenn's comments about how the establishment wants to perpetuate the status quo and keep a lid on public rage made a particularly good follow-up to Black's outline of banking issues, especially as Black speculated that the administration doesn't want the public to know the true depth of the banking problem, which is why they are not putting new people in charge of the banks, because the first job of the new (i.e., honest) people would be to assess the extent of the problem.

This economy has taken another victim. My grad assistantship at school has been eliminated, as have many other such positions here, so not only will I be forced to quit school because of the too high out-of-state tuition, but I will soon be without even my crummy stipend or any means of support. To quote Mr. Taibbi, I am shitting my pants.