Lamar Alexander Says Reconciliation Would “End The Senate”; Never Stopped Him From Using It

Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander said on “This Week” that using the reconciliation process to reform health care would “end the Senate.” (via Think Progress)

The reconciliation procedure is a little-used legislative procedure — 19 times, it’s been used. It’s for the purpose of taxing, spending, and reducing deficits. But the difference here is, that there’s never been anything of this size and magnitude and complexity run through the Senate in this way. There are a lot of technical problems with it, which we could discuss. It would turn the Senate, it would really be the end of the Senate …

Louis Farrakhan Says The “White Right” Wants Obama Out

Minister Louis Farrakhan, speaking at the Saviours Day convention of the Nation of Islam, says the “white right” wants to make sure Obama is a one-term president. He says the proof is opposition to health care.

Farrakhan has vigorously supported Obama. Even so, Obama distanced himself from Farrakhan before his election because of Farrakhan’s past statements that were considered anti-Semitic.

During the hourslong speech, Farrakhan boasted of being bigger than a prophet.…

Democrats Finally Realize They Can’t Depend On GOP To Pass Health Care

They tried bipartisanship, but Republicans didn’t want that, even though they claimed they did.  Now, the White House seems set to move forward with or without GOP support.

Presidential adviser Nancy-Ann DeParle says it makes sense to have a “simple up-or-down vote” on legislation, now that Democrats lack the 60 votes necessary to overcome Republican stalling tactics.

The Senate’s Democratic leaders are try to devise a strategy for passing the legislation with a simple 51-vote majority.

And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it’s important to vote for reform, even if it threatens congressional careers.

Lawmakers sometimes must enact policies …

Van Jones Hearts Glenn Beck

Van Jones, the former green jobs adviser to President Obama, was run out of office after being attacked by conservatives (in particular Glenn Beck, who called him a “communist-anarchist radical”). But Jones fought back with love, not hate, when speaking at the NAACP Image Awards.  Jones’s speech focused on jobs, and how new, green jobs can be matched to unemployed workers who can apply their skills to new technology. But he also gave a shout out to his biggest denouncer (via Think Progress):

Last thing I want to say is this: To my fellow countryman, Mr. Glenn Beck. …

LMGTS: An Earthquake, A Tsunami, But No Climate Change?

LMGTS=Let me get this straight: A massive earthquake strikes Chile (pictured).  A tsunami is predicted for Hawaii. Yet, climate change and global warming deniers say it’s all a hoax.  Geophysicist Bill McGuire of University College London, knows better.

“Climate change doesn’t just affect the atmosphere and the oceans but the earth’s crust as well. The whole earth is an interactive system….In the political community people are almost completely unaware of any geological aspects to climate change.”

But don’t worry about science, if you have another agenda.  And if you’re not in Chile or Hawaii, have a …

Christian Groups Blast White House For Meeting With Atheists

Some Christian groups are outraged that White House officials met with members of atheist organizations. (h/t RightWingWatch)

On Friday…White House officials met with 60 members of atheist advocacy group the Secular Coalition for America, to discuss problems that they believe are fueled by religion.

The coalition’s press release notes that this is the first time an administration has met with a non-theist community.

“In God We Trust,”  which states it “was founded to push back against… anti-religious activists,” is blasting the White House for meeting with “hate-filled groups.”

“It is one thing for Administration to meet with groups of …

GOP Congressman: Black Families More Devastated By Abortion Than By Slavery

GOP Congressman Trent Franks of Arizona, in the camera lens of blogger Mike Stark, said black families have suffered more because of abortion than because of slavery.

“And I think, what does it take to get us to wake up? Sometimes we’re a little bit emphatic and sometimes we get angry and say things that we shouldn’t say. And I apologize right here in front of everybody by saying things, especially if they’re not true, that are intemperate. But I don’t want to hide from the truth, I don’t want to hide from being able to speak the truth …

On Friday’s Radio Show…

• Health Care Hysteria: Alan exposes the latest paranoid claims of anti-reformers.

• Are all men “sex addicts” like Tiger Woods? Dr. T. Byram Karasu, Chairman of Albert Einstein College’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, explains why he considers so-called “sex addiction” to be “natural” male behavior.

• It’s the Friday Night Free-For-All!…

Gun Paranoids Believe ObamaCare Is Step Toward Refusing You A Gun

The Gun Owners of America group is so worried about President Obama taking their guns away they think the health care bill is intended to gather personal information that will be used to stop people from getting guns.

GOA put out a press release pitching their director, Larry Pratt, with the headline: Grabbing Your Guns Is Obamacare Plan?

“So what does Obama do? With the help of crooked accountants at the Congressional Budget Office, he lies. He fraudulently pretends the anti-gun ObamaCare legislation would actually reduce the deficit! And he does this by hiding costs and pretending he’s going to …

New York Governor David Paterson Dropping Out Of Race

He’s been called the “accidental governor,” having assumed office upon the resignation of Eliot Spitzer.  He’s now under fire for allegedly having contacted a woman who was the girlfriend of an aide, David W. Johnson (pictured, right, with the governor), and who accused Johnson of assault.  New York Governor David Paterson is being accused of inappropriately intervening in the case by calling the woman just before she was about to go to court to get an order of protection.

…just before she was due to return to court to seek a final protective order, the woman got a phone …

Limbaugh On The Uninsured: “What’s Wrong With Using A Dead Person’s Teeth?”

Upstate New York Congresswoman Louise Slaughter made an impassioned plea for reform at the health care summit.

“I have a constituent that you won’t believe and I know you won’t, but her sister died, this poor woman had no dentures. She wore her dead sister’s teeth which of course were uncomfortable and did not fit,” Slaughter said. “Do you believe that in America that’s where we would be?”

Conservative bloviator Rush Limbaugh says, “yes!”

You know I’m getting so many people, this Louise Slaughter comment on the dentures? I’m getting so many people, this is big, I mean, that gets …