World News Korner

President Obama shaking hands outside of Cleveland Clinic

Courtesy of Media Matters:

Fox News reported that the Cleveland Clinic was instituting "massive layoffs" due to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, but when asked about the reports, a Clinic spokesperson told Media Matters, "We're not."

On November 25, The Daily Caller published an article titled, "Top U.S. hospital laying off staff due to Obamacare." On Fox Business' Markets Now, host Connell McShane reported on the "massive layoffs." America's Newsroom host Bill Hemmer claimed that the Cleveland Clinic was going to "shed workers." Later, during the America's News HQ, Fox reporter Chris Stirewalt claimed that the layoffs "rocked the community there in northeastern Ohio."

But there's one problem: the Cleveland Clinic is not laying off any employees. Eileen Sheil, Cleveland Clinic's Executive Director of Corporate Communications, said in an e-mail to Media Matters, "There have been several mis-reports and they keep mentioning that we're laying off 3,000 employees. We're not." Sheil explained that Cleveland Clinic is offering voluntary retirement to 3,000 eligible employees and that the Clinic is also "working on many initiatives to lower costs, drive efficiencies, reduce duplication of services across our system and provide quality care to our patients." Sheil continued, "Many of these initiatives do not impact our employees."

Sheil told Media Matters that Fox had been notified of its error and that the Cleveland Clinic requested Fox's future reporting on the issue more accurately present the Clinic's plans. According to a Media Matters search, Fox had not corrected its mistake by the time of publication.

This is what Eileen Sheil, Cleveland Clinic's Executive Director of Corporate Communications ACTUALLY thinks about the ACA:

We believe reform is necessary because the current state is unsustainable. The ACA is a step toward that change and we believe more changes will come/evolve as there are still many uncertainties. Hospitals must be responsible and do what we can to prepare and support the law.

Yeah, but reporting THAT, and correcting their misreporting, would not exactly fit Fox New's business model of constantly smearing Democrats and reporting bullshit now would it?

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Courtesy of Raw Story:

In case there was any doubt left, Pope Francis made it clear that he shares little in common with U.S. conservatives.

The pontiff released his Evangelii Gadium, or Joy of the Gospel, attacking capitalism as a form of tyranny and calling on church and political leaders to address the needs of the poor.

“As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems,” the pope said in the 224-page document that essentially serves as his official platform.

Pope Francis said that inequality was the root of social ills, and prayed for world leaders with more empathy and sense of social justice.

“I beg the Lord to grant us more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people, the lives of the poor!” Pope Francis wrote. “It is vital that government leaders and financial leaders take heed and broaden their horizons, working to ensure that all citizens have dignified work, education and healthcare.”

He also launched a broadside against former President Ronald Reagan’s signature economic theory, which continues to serve as conservative Republican dogma.

“Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world,” Pope Francis wrote. “This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.”

The pope lamented that people had “calmly accepted (the) dominion” of money over themselves and society, which he said was expressed in the recent financial crisis and the continuing promotion of consumer-based economies.

“We have created new idols,” the pope wrote. “The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. The worldwide crisis affecting finance and the economy lays bare their imbalances and, above all, their lack of real concern for human beings; man is reduced to one of his needs alone: consumption.”

Way to holy fuck with the conservatives there Francis.

Damn I am finding it harder and harder to dislike this guy every day.

My question is how can Palin let this go? I mean the Pope just took a huge dump on her book, her idol Ronald Reagan, and her entire Right Wing philosophy.

Yet the last time Palin even suggested that the Pope might be too liberal she was forced to issue one of the very few apologies that we have ever heard from her.

Hang on I think I need some more popcorn.

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Courtesy of Forward Progressives:

1) If Republicans are so fiscally responsible, why was President Eisenhower (in the 1950′s) the last Republican president to balance the budget?

2) If President Reagan was such a fiscally conservative hero, why did he quadruple our national debt during his eight years in the White House?

3) If tax breaks are the main driving force behind job creation, how would we create jobs once tax rates were reduced to practically zero?

4) If socialized health care is so awful, why does every country that leads the world in life expectancy have socialized health care?

5) If you support the freedom of religion (as per our Constitution), and my church recognizes gay marriage, isn’t your support for the banning of same-sex marriage an attack on my religion’s First Amendment rights?

6) What’s more realistic? 1) That an entire region of the United States that supported slavery in the late-1800′s and support segregation in the 1950′s and 60′s suddenly stopped being racist, or 2) The racist southern Democrats in the south became Republicans during the 50′s and 60′s when the Republican party shifted toward an idea called the “Southern Strategy,” where the GOP appealed to the racism in southern whites who didn’t like African Americans voting for Democrats.

7) If taxes are at some of their lowest levels in history, and the wealthiest in this country are richer than ever, why hasn’t the growth in the wealth of the middle class matched that of the top 2%?

8) If our Founding Fathers wanted this nation to be based on Christianity, why don’t the words “Christian” or “Christianity” appear even once in our Constitution?

9) If a Republican president reduced massive job losses in the midst of the worst recession in nearly a century by more than 50% in his first 4 months in office; presided over 44 consecutive months of private-sector job growth creating nearly 8 million jobs; killed Osama bin Ladin; saw stock markets reach all-time highs; saved the American auto industry; increased domestic oil production to highs not seen since the late-90′s and championed the largest year-to-year deficit reductions since World War II, would your party not be calling him a hero and a legend?

And finally my favorite:


10) If Jesus spent his life helping the poor and the needy, how does it make sense that a party which claims to be for “Christian values” continues to cut funding for programs that help the poor and the needy?

These are EXACTLY the questions that we should ask, and we should ask them until they provide a reasonable answer or until it suddenly dawns on them that their entire life is a lie.

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Obama speaking at DreamWorks Animation in CA says we need to give undocumented workers in America a free pass. Obama aka Soetoro also said he can tell by looking at your face if you're an undocumented worker or not.


Obama: As I was getting a tour of DreamWorks, I didn't ask, but just looking at faces, I could tell there were some folks who are here not because they were born here, but because they want to be here and they bring extraordinary talents to the United States. And that's part of what makes America special. And that's part of what, by the way, makes California special, because it's always been this magnet of dreamers and strivers. And people coming from every direction saying to themselves, you know, if I work hard there I can have my piece of the American Dream.

Imagine what the media reaction would be if Pres. Bush said something similar... Imagine if he'd forged documents!?



A group of 100 Mexican nationals illegally crossed into the United States and attacked U.S. Border Patrol Agents with rocks and bottles, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP).

The violent group was allowed to run back into Mexico and were permitted to disperse by Mexican authorities without being arrested or otherwise suffering any consequences for their brutal attacks on U.S. law enforcement.

The attack occurred in southern California on November 24, 2013. According to the official CBP press release:
[...] Continued @ Breitbart News.

100 Illegal Aliens Attack U.S. Border Patrol by Brandon Darby

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Courtesy of the New York Times:

The CBS News correspondent Lara Logan and her producer, Max McClellan, made serious errors in an Oct. 27 report on the attack on the American compound in Benghazi, Libya, and will take leaves of absence, the network announced on Tuesday. Four Americans died in the Sept. 11, 2012, attack, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

The moves come after weeks of criticism directed at a “60 Minutes” report which was based on an interview with a hired security agent, Dylan Davies, whose comments to CBS News were later discredited.

CBS did not specify the length of the leave of absence for its two staff members, nor whether they would continue to be paid. In general, television correspondents do not lose salary unless they are suspended.

Beyond Ms. Logan, who has been a rising star at CBS News, the review could have implications for the leadership of Jeffrey Fager, the chairman of CBS News, who is also the executive producer of “60 Minutes.” Mr. Fager sent an email to the staff on Tuesday, saying: “As executive producer, I am responsible for what gets on the air. I pride myself in catching almost everything, but this deception got through and it shouldn’t have.”

He added: “We are making adjustments at ’60 Minutes’ to reduce the chances of it happening again.”

I can see the Fox News coverage of this already, "Benghazi claims yet another victim."

Man you would think at this point even the Right Wing would avoid Benghazi at all cost.

You know if they had any journalistic integrity whatsoever.

Which of course they don't.

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This may seem a more appropriate post for tomorrow, but I offer it today because I have a certain video to post tomorrow which has become an IM tradition on Thanksgiving.

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Courtesy of Raw Story:

The power of prayer has failed to save The Christmas Candle, the new release from Rick Santorum’s faith based film studio, EchoLight.

The Christmas Candle, set in the fictional English village of Gladbury and billed as “a timeless holiday film for the entire family”, attracted widespread critical scorn as well as dismal box-office results, having grossed just over $1.6m after two weeks on release.

The bad reviews were perhaps predictable, with the New York Daily News saying: “This odd Dickens-meets-Sunday-school movie is as artless as the setup is muddled”, while the New York Post judged: “This throwback, made-for-TV-style film takes the easy way out in a cheesy climax, but its resolute quaintness may appeal to the kind of viewers who regard electricity as disturbingly newfangled.” The Arizona Republic called it “resolutely stiff and hollow”.

Former presidential candidate Santorum, who took to the media shortly before the film’s release to lambast Hollywood as “the devil’s playground” will presumably find it easy to shrug off critical brickbats; less easy to swallow will be the ignominious box office results. Its opening weekend, on a small “platform” release on just 5 screens, took a respectable $68,000; but in its second week, when it expanded to over 390, it took less than $1m. The crucial screen average was an extremely moderate $2,500, putting it below the likes of The Best Man Holiday, Narco Cultura, and bodybuilding doco Generation Iron – and far beneath Catching Fire and Philomena.

When will these idiots realize that we like Christmas just the way it is, and will not allow them to turn it into some hyper religious, overly preachy holiday, that celebrates events that most intelligent people have a healthy skepticism ever took place?

We like Santa Claus, and mistletoe, and eggnog, and presents. We don't like guilt, intolerance, and having to listen to boring sermons.

So stop trying to screw it all up for everybody!

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