America Speaking Out has a lot of, shall we say, creative suggestions, but this is my favorite:

This cuontry having to make safe a border. All kind nut peple make way into this great naton for make a trouble. when imgriants come cross a borders, have to catch, humliate by make a caca on a chest and send back home still with a caca on his chest. who going to risk embarass by have to go home to family with caca on chest for all a world to see? and to come back and have a same happen again? this how peples in mine father cuontry do thing and you never hear about illegal mexican come cross a border to his cuontry in a europe.

Well, that certainly clears everything up. (George? Is that you?)

I'm so glad the Republican caucus feels free to spend our tax money on stuff like this. Especially since they've already ruled out adopting any idea they don't already agree with.

...like the ones in Arizona. Because a campaign of racist scapegoating just isn't the same without a memorable tag line.

I'm torn between

Immigranten RAUS!

and

The USA: Not our brothers' keeper

What do you, the apparently non-existent readers, think?

For any out there who still think Afghanistan is the "good war," via Glenn Greenwald:

On February 12 of this year, U.S. forces entered a village in the Paktia Province in Afghanistan and, after surrounding a home where a celebration of a new birth was taking place, shot dead two male civilians (government officials) who exited the house in order to inquire why they had been surrounded. The Pentagon then issued a statement claiming that (a) the dead were all "insurgents" or terrorists, (b) the bodies of three women had been found bound and gagged inside the home (including two pregnant women, one a mother of 10 children and the other a mother of six children, and a teenage girl), and (c) suggested that the women had already been killed by the time the U.S. had arrived, likely the victim of "honor killings" by the Taliban militants killed in the attack.

Although numerous witnesses on the scene as well as local investigators vehemently disputed the Pentagon's version, and insisted that all of the dead (including the women) were civilians and were killed by U.S. forces, the American media largely adopted the Pentagon's version, often without any questions. But enough evidence has now emerged disproving those claims such that the Pentagon was forced yesterday to admit that their original version was totally false and that it was U.S. troops who killed the women.

It's not the good war. There's no such thing.

Troops home, now.

Via Eschaton.

Jonathan Rauch: “The country’s biggest problems are too large for one party to handle, at least in any consistent way. The Democrats did pass health reform on a party-line basis, a remarkable accomplishment, but they did it by the skin of their teeth and with a Senate supermajority which has evaporated. That is not a trick they can keep performing. Under those conditions, the only way to achieve sustainable bipartisanship is to divide control of the government, forcing the parties to negotiate in order to get anything done. That pulls policy toward the center, which encourages reasonableness.”

Dear Jonathan Rauch: Your biggest problems are too large for one person's finances to handle, at least in any consistent way. You have met your expenses so far, a remarkable accomplishment, but you did it with a wingnut welfare position which could evaporate. That is not a trick you can keep performing. Under those conditions, the only way to achieve sustainable bipartisan living is to divide control of your bank account, forcing the parties involved to negotiate in order to get anything done. That pulls decision-making toward the center, which encourages reasonableness.

So send me a check right away. The larger the better. You're welcome.

We all know what Republicans think about President Obama. To them, he's an evil socialist Nazi tyrant bent on shredding the Constitution, eliminating freedom, and imposing a dictatorship.

So when it comes to putting sensible limitations on the power of the executive branch that Obama heads up, Republicans are all for it, right?

Well, maybe not.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill last October that would extend key provisions of the Patriot Act but add new restrictions on FBI demands for records from U.S. businesses and impose new reporting requirements. Republicans have objected to placing any new restrictions on the executive counter-terrorism powers and have blocked the Judiciary Committee’s version of the bill.

Why do Republicans hate freedom?

Via Health Care NOW!:

Dear President Obama,

I was overjoyed to hear you say in your State of the Union address last night:

“But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know.”

My colleagues, fellow health advocates and I have been trying to meet with you for over a year now because we have an approach which will meet all of your goals and more.

...

I am asking you to meet with me because the solution is simple. Remove all of the industries who profit off of the American health care catastrophe from the table. Replace them with those who are knowledgeable in designing health systems and who are without ties to the for-profit medical industries. And then allow them to design an improved Medicare for All national health system. We can implement it within a year of designing such a system.

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