Phoenix Woman

You'd never know it from reading the RNC talking points in most major media, but guess what: Houston, Texas -- a historically-conservative city in a historically-conservative state -- is on the verge of getting its first openly-gay mayor. And pro-gay measures passed in Kalamazoo and Washington state as well.

These are the people that Jim DeMint and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen think are so dreamy, so studly, so protective of the Honduran constitution and the people's rights. But the pictures tell a different story.

The right-wing pro-coup forces are trying to paint legitimate President Manuel Zelaya as -- wait for it -- an anti-Semite. Except that the anti-Semitic statements being used to paint him as such didn't come from his mouth, but from somebody else's mouth: Namely, that of David Romero of Radio Globo. (Giordano and his readers also take the AP's Frances Robles to task for putting words in Zelaya's mouth, claiming without evidence that Zelaya -- who as Giordano notes has been a staunch defender of Jewish persons, and in fact filled several key government posts with Jewish Hondurans -- was blaming Israeli forces for the use of the sonic weapons being trained on the Brazilian Embassy.)

As recently as this April, Max Baucus backed a strong public option. Earlier this week, he voted to kill it. This is one reason why mere words of "support" don't mean an awful lot when it comes to the public option.

One of the favorite themes of the golpistas and their paid American apologists like Lanny Davis is that when they kidnapped President Manuel Zelaya and forcibly exiled him for the crime of raising the minimum wage, they did it to protect democracy and the constitution. So why then have they "temporarily" suspended the constitution and shut down the last independent media in the country?

Dan Riehl is pulling a Peggy Noonan It-Is-Irresponsible-Not-To-Speculate smear job on a dead guy who can't fight back: "Was Census Worker Bill Sparkman A Child Predator?" Gee, how would Dan Riehl like it if we asked without any evidence if Dan Riehl had raped and murdered any little boys?

While the US corporate media prefers to focus on the occasional single murder, the corporate-backed thugs currently holding Honduras hostage are hoping to shut down all contact with the outside world, apparently so they can prepare to commit all sorts of mayhem without our knowing about it.

The Conventional Wisdom holds that the Democratic loss of Congress in 1994 was caused by pushing too far leftward: Raising taxes, trying to reform health care, yadda yadda yadda. This take on 1994 is being pushed very hard right now, particularly by those looking to kill meaningful health care reform and replace it with Co-Ops and Triggers. This ignores a few key details, such as the role of NAFTA and other betrayals in demoralizing the Democratic base. And guess what? Rahm Emanuel -- one of the people pushing the "we were too left in 1994" theme -- was the guy who gave us NAFTA.

Last December, 200 workers peacefully took over the Chicago Republic Window plant and staged a sit-in that got widespread media coverage and support from politicians and police. The sit-in was held in order that the workers would receive accrued vacation and sick pay and other benefits rightfully theirs under their contract. By keeping the Republic management out, the union workers preserved evidence of gross wrongdoing on the part of the management. That evidence has now led to the arrest of Republic CEO Richard Gillman.

NPR, CBS, and the rest of the Traditional Media are busy pretending that OMG OMG THAT DAMN BLACK GUY OBAMA JUST GAVE POLAND TO RUSSIA!!! Except that he in fact has made Poland safer, and a plurality of Poles apparently know this.