Glen Beck calls Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" anti-American

According to tea-bag lover and complete wing nut Glenn Beck, Bruce Springsteen’s song “Born in the USA" is anti-American propaganda that people must wake up from.

The lyrics of the song weave a story about a working class guy with a factory job who ends up in Vietnam, loses one of his friends to the war who left behind a baby in Saigon. When he comes home he works hard for 10 years and is stuck in a rut with nowhere to run.

Springsteen explained in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine that he kept out of partisan politics for a long time because he wanted to remain "credible" and "independent. It was the Iraq war that brought Springsteen back into the political foray, as it did for many other Americans.

"I knew after we invaded Iraq that I was going to be involved in the election," he said. "It made me angry. We started to talk about it onstage. I take my three minutes a night for what I call my public-service announcement. We talked about it almost every night on our summer tour.

"I felt we had been misled. I felt they had been fundamentally dishonest and had frightened and manipulated the American people into war. And as the saying goes, 'The first casualty of war is truth.' I felt that the Bush doctrine of pre-emption was dangerous foreign policy. I don't think it has made America safer." [...] "Sitting on the sidelines would be a betrayal of the ideas I'd written about for a long time."

Beck may not remember this but the late president Ronald Reagan and his campaign advisors asked Springsteen to use his “Born in the USA” song for campaign events in 1984. I guess Reagan was un-American also for wanting to use the song. Springsteen refused.

Listen to Glen Beck call Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." anti-American:

http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201003110027

Listen to Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhRBH8VZ7uo&feature=related

Progressive stalwart Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) offers buy in to Medicare as public option

U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), a progressive stalwart, will not rest until Americans have access to a public health care option.

On Tuesday the congressman introduced the Medicare You Can Buy into Act, H.R. 4789. The bill would permit legal American residents under 65 to enroll in Medicare by paying a fee.

"America needs a public option," Grayson declared on the House floor, that's why I've introduced this bill," noting the lack of competition in the private insurance industry. He said that the plan is not dependent on subsidies given that everyone would pay their own costs.

The Florida Congressman spoke of an adversarial relationship he had with his insurance company when his bills skyrocketed during the premature birth of his twins. He said many Americans face similar problems, and that every penny they spent on his children’s care was a penny less for their profits.

In his floor speech he branded insurance companies as operators of the real death panels due to their widely-known practices of denying care to people with pre-existing conditions and canceling coverage for sick patients.

Watch video of Grayson's speech on the House floor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_XGJHOYuxw

Former Bush press secretary calls Karl Rove a liar and a fabricator of history

In addition to the many renowned journalists who have accused former Bush strategist Karl Rove of misrepresenting and rewriting history in his new memoir “Courage and Consequence”, one of his close former colleagues in the Bush White House can be added to the list.

On Tuesday former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan harshly rebuked Rove for absolving himself of personal involvement in the Valerie Plame scandal, alleging that Rove privately confessed his role in the leak to him and apologized for it three times.

"I think what you're seeing is that Karl is continuing to live in his own world here," McClellan said in an appearance on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann Tuesday.

McClellan, whose own 2008 memoir “What Happened” revealed a slew of unflattering secrets about the administration, told Olbermann that he did receive personal assurances from Rove that he wasn't involved before McClellan relayed it to the press in his capacity as press secretary.

In his book, Rove vigorously defends former President Bush’s campaign to sell the war in Iraq, insisting he never intended to deceive the American public.

McClellan noted that the Bush administration's case for invading Iraq was based largely on the notion that Saddam Hussein was an immediate danger to the United States, that he was pursuing nuclear weapons, and was allied with Al-Qaeda, none of which were true.

Check MSNBC's Countdown website for the McClellan video: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/

Palin snowmobile team sponsored by "Dictator" Hugo Chavez's state-owned Venezuelan oil company

As a vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin called Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez a dictator and called for energy independence so America could be less reliant on someone like him. She said that Chavez wanted to use energy as a weapon against us.

Palin's anti-Venezuela views apparently don’t extend to her husband, whose snowmobile racing team was sponsored by a division of Citgo, the retail arm of Venezuela's state-owned oil and gas company.

Todd Palin's Iron Dog snowmobile team competed this year under a sponsorship from Mystik Lubricants, a subsidiary of Citgo.

A spokesman for Citgo confirmed that Mystik Lubricants is a Citgo brand, and not a separate company. A Palin adviser would not answer any sponsorship questions. The Palin team dropped out of this year's race early after suffering injuries and mechanical problems.

After the race ended, Sarah Palin went on to appear in a video spot for the Iditarod sled-dog race standing in front of a snowmobile bearing the Mystik logo.

Chavez has also been a critic of Palin's, dismissing her in 2008 as "a beauty queen that they've pulled out to be a figurehead."

Questions about Todd Palin's Iron Dog sponsor were first raised last week on Alaska blogs.

Watch Sarah in video spot with Chavez’s Venezuelan-state oil company sponsored snowmobile:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgSdCXg3Qlc&feature=player_embedded#

More than 80% of Republicans vote against law intended to prevent child abuse in schools

The U.S. House of Representatives last week passed the Keeping All Students Safe Act over the objections of a vast majority of Republicans, which sets minimum national standards for practices such as the use seclusion rooms or forced restraint of unruly students.

The proposed federal law intended to prevent child abuse in schools has been praised by children's protection advocates, and slammed by House Republicans as an unnecessary expansion of federal government power.

 The bill’s stated purposes include the following:

Prevent and reduce the use of physical restraint and seclusion in schools;

Ensure the safety of all students and school personnel in schools and promote a positive school culture and climate; 

Protect students from physical or mental abuse; aversive behavioral interventions that compromise health and safety; and any physical restraint or seclusion imposed solely for purposes of discipline or convenience;

Ensure that physical restraint and seclusion are imposed in school only when a student’s behavior poses an imminent danger of physical injury to the student, school personnel, or others….

The bill would ban the use of mechanical restraints such as tying children to furniture, and would allow seclusion and physical restraint to be used only when there is imminent danger of injury and only when imposed by trained staff.

The democratic bill was put forth in reaction to a government report last year that found hundreds of cases of alleged abuse and death related to the practices. It was opposed by more than 80% of Republicans, who said the bill amounted to an intrusion on states' rights and the ability of local school districts to determine their own policies.

145 Republicans voted against the bill last week, which will have to get the Senate's and the president's approval to become law.

Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa said that the bill would lead to a federal takeover of the education system.

A report from the Government Accountability Office, released last year, found hundreds of cases of alleged abuse and death related to the use of these methods on school children during the past two decades. The GAO report noted that children with disabilities are especially vulnerable to abuse.

Former Gov. Romney struggles to explain on Fox News why his health plan is different than Obama's

In his appearance on Fox News Sunday Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney insisted that the health care reform plan he implemented in Massachusetts is in no way similar to the one President Obama is advocating for. The governor’s reasoning is because Romney's plan was state-based and the president’s proposal is a federal plan.

His way of thinking was a bit of a stretch. Romney defended the universal health care system he put into place as governor as the ultimate conservative plan, the ultimate pro-life effort, and one that is working well. But the Massachusetts Republican was troubled that Obama would think of employing a similar reform on the federal level.

Romney, a likely 2012 presidential candidate, refused to admit that his plan was akin to Obama's, in spite of host Chris Wallace pointing out that both plans shared many key measures; like an individual and employer mandate, subsidies for those who would have trouble buying insurance, and minimum standards for coverage.

A couple of differences that Romney did point to were that his plan had no mechanisms to keep insurance premiums in check, and that the president's plan proposes some minor cuts to Medicare and some ancillary taxes designed to provide sufficient funds to keep per capita spending down; something that the Massachusetts plan failed to do. This might be why Massachusetts currently has some of the highest health insurance premiums in the nation.

Romney interview on Fox part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cahvl8V317g

Romney interview on Fox part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqB1NTOEOuo

Treasury Sec. Geithner portrayed as both savior and too cosy with Wall Street

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner says that key aspects of the economic policies enacted have been successful, according to new profiles of the Treasury Secretary in The New Yorker and The Atlantic which might come as a surprise to many Americans.

Geithner, who's been widely disparaged for his handling of the Wall Street bailout, is depicted as a skillful technocrat unafraid of making unpopular decisions. President Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is quoted as saying that Geithner's role in rescuing the financial sector and avoiding an outright nationalization of banks had saved the United States taxpayer a trillion dollars.

The New Yorker piece focuses on Geithner's reputation on the 2009 bank stress tests which restored much needed confidence into the financial markets. The piece’s author proffers that the Obama administration's only two options to resolve last year’s financial crisis were whether to nationalize struggling U.S. banks or to rely on private capital markets to boost the financial sector.

Geithner called for the private capital markets course, and used the stress test results to encourage investors to pour private capital into the banks. The New Yorker reported that the Obama administration reserved nationalizing banks as a weapon of last resort.

According to the piece, the capital markets were able to determine which banks were struggling and which needed more capital as a result of the stress tests; and Geithner seems to already be patting himself on the back.

The Atlantic profile also credits Geithner with saving the economy, but is more critical of Geithner's tenure. Its author portrays Geithner's legacy as one that will be linked not just to public outrage but to how Wall Street fits into Washington's core values.

Republican party's newly defined words for the current political lexicon

Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly posted a list of words that have new republican meaning in the current political lexicon.

The Republican Party’s newly defined words are as follows:

Jamming it through - To vote on a bill.

Obstructionism – Refers to Democratic minorities opposing Republican proposals.

Tyranny - Is found when an elected Democratic majority passes legislation that Republicans don't like.

Reconciliation - Describes a Senate process that Republicans are allowed to use to overcome Democratic obstructionism, such as the Republicans use of it to pass the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for the wealthy which added $ 1.7 Trillion to the deficit.

Terrorism - Refers to acts of political violence committed by people who aren't white guys.

Bipartisanship - Is found when Democrats agree to pass Republican legislation.

Big government - Describes a dangerous phenomenon to be avoided, except in cases relating to reproductive rights or gays.

Treason - Refers to Democrats criticizing a Republican administration during a war.

Patriotism - Refers to Republicans criticizing a Democratic administration during a war.

Fiscal responsibility - A national priority related to keeping our deficit in check, which only applies when Republicans are in the minority.

Parliamentarian - A supposedly independent official on the Hill who Senate Republicans are allowed to fire when the GOP disapproves of his or her rulings.

U.S. firms doing business with Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions, received $ 100 Billion in federal contracts over the last 10 years

The New York Times reported today that many U.S. companies and their foreign subsidiaries that have been doing business with Iran, in violation of U.S. sanctions, had been given more than $ 100 Billion in federal contracts over the last 10 years..

Even with the threat of punishment for companies that seek US federal contracts that do business with Iran, the Times said successive administrations have struggled to exert authority over foreign companies and overseas units of US firms. Of the 74 companies identified as doing business with both the US government and Iran, 49 have no announced plans to terminate their connections with Iran.

More than two-thirds of the federal money went to companies doing business in Iran’s oil industry, a huge revenue source Iran and a stronghold of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that oversees the country’s nuclear and missile programs.

The United States has joined Britain, France and Germany to push for new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, including restrictions on Iranian banks abroad and Iran’s central bank.

The Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 gives the US president a range of actions to use against companies, but Congress is now considering tougher steps mandating that companies investing in Iran’s oil sector be denied federal contracts.

The paper said the Obama administration points to decisions by a number of companies to pull out of Iran or hold off on new investment as a sign Washington has been successful at pressing governments and executives to curtail investment in Iran.