First Door on the Left

Biden: Cheney is misinformed or misleading. “He’s entitled to his own opinion. He’s not entitled to rewrite history without it being challenged. He’s not entitled to his own facts.”

From the White House weblog:

Hours after signing pay-as-you-go legislation into law, President Barack Obama praised this step towards restoring fiscal responsibility and called for both parties to set aside politics and do the hard work of addressing the deficit. To this end, since the proposed Fiscal Commission was recently blocked in the Senate – by a handful of Republicans who had previously backed the idea — the President will create this commission by executive order. The President believes it is time for Washington to once again take responsibility for every dollar it spends.

Click below to listen to the audio only:

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The transcript of the president’s weekly address, as prepared for delivery, is available after the break.

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Click & enjoy.

As always, our thanks go to the talented and observant cartoonists who, each week, help us smile through the pain.

Saturday additions:

Howard Dean gave the Democrats a spine way back in 2003/04 when he taught them how to stand up to the extremists who were then in charge of the federal government. Unfortunately, they have allowed it to evaporate since then. He appeared as a guest on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show last night to encourage them to get it back…

Watch. Listen. Learn.

Here is Rachel’s complete segment on why the filibuster in the Senate needs to be eliminated…

I stepped out into our back yard a few moments ago. I took a ruler and a flashlight with me. Why a ruler and a flashlight? Because some strange looking white stuff fell out of the sky for most of the day today. We live in Dallas, Texas. We usually don’t see strange looking white stuff falling out of the sky. We sure did today. I stuck my ruler into the strange looking white stuff and shone my flashlight on the ruler. Because it’s dark out there at this hour. The strange looking (and very cold, by the way) white stuff covered up just over six inches of my ruler. It snowed over six inches in our back yard in Dallas, Texas today! I’m telling you, folks, this is nothing short of cataclysmic. Something must be done about this. Now. Right now. Al Gore must be called to account.

Oh, and it has also snowed twice in Washington, D.C. and environs this week. According to the geniuses at Fox News and most right wing bloggers these events thoroughly disprove the science of climate change (they prefer to call it global warming, but same thing). How is it possible that the globe upon which we dwell is warming if it snows in February? (Where are all these geniuses going to be when the thermometer in our back yard in Dallas, Texas hits a hundred and ten in the middle of July?)

Stephen Colbert expounds:

And why are they having to truck snow into Canada for the Winter Olympics? Wow. Somebody sure messed up on that one, huh?

UPDATE: Official measurement at Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport – 12.3 inches. We set a record.
 

This video is from MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, broadcast Feb. 9, 2010. If you watch only one video today, it should be this video.

They are not embarrassed. Charging them with hypocrisy, appealing to their better, more practical, more what’s-best-for-the-country patriotic angels is like trying to teach your dog to drive. It wastes a lot of time, it won’t work, and ultimately the dog comes out of the exercise less embarrassed for failing than you do for trying.

President Obama made a surprise appearance during the White House daily press briefing this afternoon. He talked to the pressers for a few minutes and then took questions…

Transcript follows the break.

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Scott Brown has nothing on Bristol Palin’s babydaddy.

Or… How to stay warm during those long, cold Alaskan nights.
 

Congressman Murtha Dies

John Murtha

Representative John P. Murtha, the longtime Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania, has died at age 77.

His aides released a statement saying that he died shortly after 1 p.m. today at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Mr. Murtha had been placed in intensive care last week after complications from gallbladder surgery, his staff said then.

Mr. Murtha, who had an extremely close relationship with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on defense…

A former Marine, Mr. Murtha, his office noted, was the first Vietnam War combat Veteran elected to Congress. Throughout his years, Mr. Murtha paid particular attention to defense spending and to the Pentagon and the military.

When he called for bringing the troops home from Iraq in 2005, after having voted for the war, his proposal stunned many in Congress and added a powerful voice to the growing forces demanding immediate drawdowns and or deadlines.

Just this past Saturday, Mr. Murtha became Pennsylvania’s longest serving Member of Congress. He represented the 12th Congressional District, an area outside Pittsburgh that included the Johnstown region — where he had grown up, and that had been serious steel and coal country in the southwestern part of the state.

For his service in Vietnam, Mr. Murtha received a Bronze star and two Purple Hearts.

Our condolences to his friends and family.
 

Saints 31, Colts 17.

Best ad:

(How it came together.)

P.S. Two hours before the game, President Obama sat down for a pre-game interview with Katie Couric…

I liked the shirt.