Sometimes I get so frustrated and/or disheartened and/or annoyed by some of the news stories of the day that I can’t bring myself to write about them. Here are a few recent reports that made my blood pressure hit the roof. I am avoiding delving into them at length out of concern for my physical and mental health.
- CIA torture report not likely to result in reforms or prosecutions: “The Justice Department has cast the matter as a closed case… Federal prosecutors will not reopen their investigation of whether criminal laws were broken by CIA guards and interrogators for mistreating detainees… The White House dodged questions on whether President Obama agreed with its core findings.”
Because anal rape, waterboarding, extreme psychological abuse, and brutal beatings just aren’t convincing enough, right?
Pres. Obama: “Look forward, not back.” Note to the president: All crimes happened in the past. But okay, I’ll bite, let’s do that: I look forward– to the day BushCo gets prosecuted and thrown in prison (as if that’ll every happen).
I’m suffering from enhanced exasperation.
- And here’s somebody you should make a point to read, my pal Will Bunch, who has a rejoinder or three. It’s a Must-Read:
- Walt Disney Co., Koch Industries, and other companies channeled hundreds of millions of dollars in profits through units based in Luxembourg in secret deals designed to avoid paying U.S. taxes, according to a new report: Mickey Koch? Huey, David, and Charles? The Three Big Pigs? I retort, you deride. Bonus outrage: They’ve got company, and his name rhymes with Schmeb Schmush.
- President– erm, former Vice President– Dick Cheney said that his little dog GW was not kept in the dark on all that vile, illegal torture: Yes, George “Where ARE Those Pesky WMD?” Bush knew. You knew and I knew that he knew. So what else is knew…
- The House narrowly passed a rule to set up debate on the so-called “cromnibus” government spending bill: “By a razor-thin margin of 214-212, the House can now advance to debating the underlying $1.1 trillion appropriations bill to avoid a government shutdown at midnight. Not a single Democrat voted for the rule.”
WOW. They just snuck it in there. Cromnibus rule passes 214-212 and GOP shut down the vote the second it got ahead.
— Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDNews) December 11, 2014
You read that right. The GOP just armtwisted members to vote for the Cromnibus Rule and it worked.
No politician has mastered Winning Ugly as well as Speaker Boehner.
— Jonathan Bernstein (@jbview) December 11, 2014
As Rachel explained on her show last night about how one specific provision– yet another dangerous Wall Street giveaway– could make the economy implode again (via The Maddow Blog):
BREAKING: President Obama supports the passage of the 9-month, $1.1 trillion spending bill… via @politico See what I mean? So who’s up for a couple of Margs or a trough of wine?
Wow .. and it passes 219-206 … I don’t know who / which is worse .. Sleazeball Boehner and his House of Trash, Spineless Dems, or, in this case, a Begging PBO and Harry Reid.
I’ve used that cartoon a million times. One of my faves!!
Ha .. mine too … sadly works all too often ..
The problem is that Boehner snuck in a bail-out for the big banks so this budget is just not acceptable. If it doesn’t pass the Dems get the blame and if it does, the banks get a HUGE Christmas gift.