Loose Change Is Hard To Belive In

Joe Lieberman Out!
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Joe Lieberman will not run for reelection in 2012, Connecticut Democratic sources tell HuffPost, ending his four-term Senate career. Two prominent House Democrats, Chris Murphy and Joe Courtney, are eyeing a bid, with Susan Bysiewicz, a thrice-elected former secretary of state, also jumping into the race.

Lieberman, who lost a 2006 primary to netroots insurgent Ned Lamont, will announce his retirement on Wednesday. “Senator Lieberman made a decision about his future over the holidays which he plans to announce on Wednesday,” a Lieberman spokesman said. In 2006, Lieberman ran under a party he created called Connecticut for Lieberman. Anti-Lieberman activists, however, have since taken it over.

As Lieberman deliberated, the new chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), told HuffPost that the party would consider supporting Lieberman if he returned to the fold.

“This is first a Connecticut decision. It’s a Joe Lieberman decision and we’ll work our way through all of that,” Murray said. “He and I have chatted a number of times.”

More here…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/18/joe-lieberman-may-resign_n_810538.html

Kent Conrad To Retire.
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In a big development for the 2012 Senate races, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) is set to announce that he is retiring, the Washington Post reports — opening up a red-state seat that could be very tough for the Dems to hold.

A moderate Democrat, Conrad was first elected to the Senate in 1986. He initially retired in 1992, but was then elected to the state’s other Senate seat in a late 1992 special election — making him the only person to have ever held both of his state’s Senate seats during the same day, when he was sworn in from one to the other. He was re-elected easily in 1994, 2000 and 2006.

It would be handy to get another liberal up. But I suspect that North Dakota would be just that little bit harder.

More here…
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/01/kent-conrad-to-retire.php?ref=fpb

Jan 18:
http://news.yahoo.com/comics/pat-oliphant

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One of us: Cheney and Neocons praise Obama:

“…………former Bush NSA and CIA Director Michael Hayden — one of the most ideological Bush officials, whose confirmation as CIA chief was opposed by then-Sen. Obama on the ground he had overseen the illegal NSA spying program — gushed with praise for Obama: “there’s been a powerful continuity between the 43rd and the 44th president.” James Jay Carafano, a homeland-security expert at the Heritage Foundation, told The New York Times’ Peter Baker last January: “I don’t think it’s even fair to call it Bush Lite. It’s Bush. It’s really, really hard to find a difference that’s meaningful and not atmospheric.”
Those are the nation’s most extreme conservatives praising Obama’s Terrorism policies. And now Dick Cheney himself — who once led the “soft on Terror” attacks — is sounding the same theme. In an interview last night with NBC News, Cheney praised Obama for continuing his and Bush’s core approach to Terrorism:…………”

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/

NBC/WSJ Poll: Short Republican honeymoon.
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That headline is right out of pollster Bill McInturff’s analysis:

The GOP’s short honeymoon

Republicans have now been in control of the House for less than two weeks, but the survey suggests an abbreviated honeymoon for the GOP.

Just 25 percent say that the Republicans in Congress will bring “the right kind of change” to the country. That’s compared with 42 percent who said that after Democrats took over the House in 2007, and 37 percent who said that after Republicans gained control in 1995.

In addition, a majority (55 percent) believe congressional Republicans will be too inflexible in dealing with President Obama, while an equal number (55 percent) say Obama will strike the right balance.

On House Republicans’ goal to repeal Obama’s health care law — an effort that cleared the chamber on Wednesday — 45 percent support eliminating the law and 46 percent oppose the GOP effort.

And attitudes about the Republican Party have declined, with 34 percent viewing the GOP positively and 40 percent negatively — down from its 38-37 percent favorable/unfavorable rating last month.

By comparison, the Democratic Party’s fav/unfav in the current poll is 39-35 percent, up from its 37-41 percents score from last month.

“I think this has been a pretty short Republican honeymoon,” McInturff says.

More here…
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2011/1/19/937457/-NBC-WSJ-Poll:-Short-Republican-honeymoon

They’re lining up for Joe Lie Berman’s seat.
Joe Courtney (D-Conn)

http://thehill.com/resources/lawmaker-ratings/81649-rep-joe-courtney-d-conn

Rep. Chris Murphy (D-Conn., 5th)

http://thehill.com/resources/lawmaker-ratings/83795-rep-chris-murphy-d-conn

Susan Bysiewicz.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Bysiewicz

Rep. Chris Murphy To Announce Connecticut Senate Candidacy On Thursday

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/19/rep-chris-murphy-to-announce-bid_n_811390.html

It looks like we have a couple of liberals at least.

balance of power changes in the senate.

-1 Repugs and blue dogs. +1 Democrats.

While on assignment in Canada in the early sixties, Boris and Natassia raised a clandestine love-child who they named Vierotchka, although Boris preferred to use the sobriquet, “Spookchik” when addressing his daughter. The kid did all the normal cloak and dagger stuff, was a natural code-breaker, spoke languages that flummoxed career linguists and adored Spy v Spy. While attending Deepcover Junior High, Vierotchka was tasked by Kontrol with her life’s mission………….. unweaving the moral fabric of Canadian society.

Her code name was Nora………. Nora Tittov.

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/breastfeed-ban-sparks-mothers-mall-protest-20110120-19xsy.html

Yes it is, Hussey. Be good to see the IG’s probe parameters. As Sir Humphey said, don’t have one unless you know the outcome. And there’s only two results. Either ASIO were present at Habib’s torture in Egypt or they wern’t. I think The Rodent , his fleas and his fan club have good reason to be concerned.
Also, a positive finding would render top tory Tones vulnerable to a leadership challenge by Fauntleroy De Wenty. Tones has been a rusted-on Rodent Man from the get go.

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Some Terrorism Scares Are More Useful Than Other Terrorism Scares
by Marcy Wheeler

“Because the press almost never covers these domestic terrorism incidents. And, just as importantly, our government doesn’t often (the biggest exception was the Hutaree bust) hold big press conferences to report on such events, partly is because most press conferences are about arrests, not unsolved crimes. Moreover, in spite of Neiwert’s and Bunch’s work, there is not one bogeyman, like al Qaeda, which the press can blame.
And without an easy and convenient bogeyman, terrorism scares don’t serve the same purpose for the press, or the government.”

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/20-13

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Obama officials caught deceiving about WikiLeaks

“……….prosecution of WikiLeaks would hardly be inconsequential; it would likely be the first time in history that a non-government employee is convicted of “espionage” for publishing government secrets and, as such, would constitute one of the greatest threats to press freedom in the United States in a long time.”
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/

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Juxtaposed and seemingly unrelated homepage banner headlines tell a story about contempory UK priorities.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jan/20/laura-ashley-shares-soaring-profit

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/20/uk-wild-bird-numbers

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http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/94771

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/94992

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/95033

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/95060

See ya later, schmuckens!
http://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/print/liebermans_retirement_party_20110119/

Jan 19:
http://news.yahoo.com/comics/matt-bors

Jan 20:
http://news.yahoo.com/comics/jeff-danziger

Jan 20:
http://news.yahoo.com/comics/pat-oliphant

Jan 19:
http://news.yahoo.com/comics/ben-sargent

The Pommy PM will have to find another of the dirty delaware diggers myrmidons to do his dirty work as Coulson punches the bundy on his way out for the last time.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/21/andy-coulson-phone-hacking-statement

Something good ya reckon, Chris? Me too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV1WHC4NLA0

DIVIDED WE SQUEAK, UNITED WE ROAR.

“It is likely that historians in Tunisia and elsewhere in the region will note that a limpid-looking Australian called Julian Assange did more for their new freedom than all the heft of the US State Department.”

http://www.smh.com.au/world/arab-states-rocked-by-the-mouse-that-roared-20110121-19zyo.html

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Sy Hersh confirms what we knew way before Gen. J. “Call me Gerry” Boykin saw satan hovering in the sky above Somalia. The U.S. Military-Industrial-Complex, first articulated as such by retiring US Pres. Dwight D. “Call me Ike” Eisenhower in Jan 1961 and beautifully captured near the end of the film “Good Night and Good Luck”, is dominated by fundy fruitloopists HQed in the Vatican (the fascists of opus dei) to the drive-in glass cathedrals and prayer towers(xtian minarets?)of the money sucking animals who finesse the rubes of Sep Nation via tele-evangelism.

“Put yer hands on the TV and pray with me brothers and sisters before sending your once in a lifetime donation to……..”

Over a long and distinguished career, Hersh, 73, has broken dozens of big stories about the US military, foreign policy and covert operations. In 1969 he exposed the army massacre of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai and the subsequent cover-up, for which he won the Pulitzer prize. His account of American military abuses of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib for The New Yorker in 2004 spurred reform and prosecutions.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/hersh-mocked-for-saying-us-military-led-by-fundamentalist-crusaders-20110121-19zys.html

maybe with bags full of roubles the number one fox is off to, knock knock this must be london calling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHLDXuAFxCc

The hen house needs a firm fox to sort out the chickens and who better than the sly, shifty old coyote himself.

Rupert Murdoch is due in London next week, just as his company’s attempts to close down the phone hacking crisis are in tatters.

Murdoch tried to keep phone hacking cases out of the courts and out of the public eye through confidential settlements with the likes of football boss Gordon Taylor and PR guru Max Clifford. When that failed, the publisher of the News of the World insisted that phone hacking was the action of a single “rogue reporter” – jailed former royal editor Clive Goodman – and its executives chose to lash out.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/21/rupert-murdoch-news-corp-crisis

Soldiers Forced to See Chaplain After Failing Spiritual Fitness Test

Ever since complaints about the GAT, which can only be described as an unconstitutional “religious test,” began to surface a few weeks ago, the Army has been bending over backward insisting that that spirituality doesn’t mean religion; that nothing in the CSF’s “Spiritual Fitness” training is mandatory; and that no soldier is being forced to do anything whatsoever if they flunk the test. But these claims from the Army are far from what the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) is hearing from soldiers who have failed the Spiritual Fitness section of the test.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Soldiers-Forced-to-See-Cha-by-Chris-Rodda-110121-108.html

Not crusaders, just spiritually aware.