Obamacare Victory: GOP Spin Doctors Have Their Work Cut Out For Them

By MARC MCDONALD

I must admit, I've quite stunned by the Supreme Court's upholding of "Obamacare." I've never really been a fan of Obamacare, as I would prefer a European style single-payer system.

But still, I hugely enjoyed the High Court's decision today. It will be immensely entertaining to see GOP Nazi pigs like Limbaugh and Levin desperately try to spin this news to their deluded Kool-Aid-drinking base.

The Great GOP Propaganda Noise Machine usually prevails when it targets a specific issue. (i.e. "Reagan Won the Cold War" "Obamacare is Socialism" "Obama's Birth Certificate is bogus" etc. etc.) I get the feeling that the GOP Propaganda Noise Machine will eventually find an angle to exploit and will work hard to try to diminish Obama's victory. (And, as they usually do, the GOP Noise Machine will get the mainstream media to take the bait).

Speaking of the mainstream media, CNN really had a spectacular failure today in initially screwing up the story. I originally got a CNN alert that claimed the Supreme Court had struck down the mandate. I was quite stunned when I turned on my PC a few minutes later and saw the news that the mandate had in fact been upheld.

After months of hearing smug GOP partisans claiming that "Obamacare" would be overturned, it's an enormously enjoyable feeling knowing that today, all these people are sitting around shell-shocked and depressed. I normally don't take pleasure in other people's pain. But today I will make an exception.

Hey, Pig-Man Rush----How are you going to spin this one?

LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will U.S. Media Ever Admit Al Gore Was Right About Global Warming?

By MARC MCDONALD

If any public leader in U.S. history has ever been vindicated on the biggest issue of the era, it'd have to be Al Gore. He has been repeatedly vindicated on global warming. But millions of Americans remain unaware of this. And the corporate U.S. MSM seems reluctant to give him credit.

It's not the first time Gore has been vindicated. After all, he was an early champion of the Internet, long before anyone else in Congress was even aware of its possibilities.

But instead of giving Gore some credit, the MSM took the GOP's bait and ran with the false story that Gore had supposedly arrogantly claimed to have "invented the Internet." What should have been a big positive for Gore in the 2000 race quickly turned into a negative.

In his 2004 book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, Al Franken wrote about how the so-called "liberal" media gave Gore a raw deal in the 2000 presidential campaign. The MSM's coverage was much more positive about Bush than Gore (this, according to a comprehensive study by the respected Pew Charitable Trusts).

As Franken wrote, during the 2000 campaign, "the media just hated Al Gore."

"Somewhere along the line, the pack decided that Al Gore was a sanctimonious, graspy exaggerator running against a likeable if dim-witted goof-off."

Gore must feel like Rodney Dangerfield. Amazingly, to this day, Gore gets no respect. The U.S. mainstream media has yet to give Gore proper credit for being right all along about global warming, another issue he embraced early on.

Consider this: back in 1997 Gore helped broker the Kyoto Protocol, which was aimed at fighting global warming. (Of course, the Bush administration later withdrew from the treaty).

Since 2000, nine of the 10 warmest years in the modern meteorological record have occurred, according to NASA. (Note that the modern record-keeping era dates back to the 1880s).

Consider this: what if during those years, the world had experienced normal or cooler-than-average temperatures? What do you think the GOP and Rush would have done with that?

They would have had a field day.

We would have constantly heard about "Al Gore the Fraud" each and every day. I have no doubt that the Great GOP Propaganda Noise Machine would have hammered this message home constantly. And sooner or later, the corporate media would have taken the bait (just as they did with the bogus "I invented the Internet story").

But no: as it turns out, instead, 2000-2010 was the warmest decade in the modern era. And what do we hear from the GOP (or, for that matter, from the corporate MSM?) Nothing.

It just goes to show you how completely the Rich & Powerful and the Corporations control the flow of information in this country.

Heads, these corporate pigs win. And tails, they also win.

Meanwhile, the planet goes to hell.

Progressive Music Classics. "The Day John Kennedy Died" by Lou Reed

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By MARC MCDONALD

Welcome to another edition of Progressive Music Classics.

Today's selection is Lou Reed's heartbreaking "The Day John Kennedy Died," which appeared on Reed's 1982 masterpiece album, The Blue Mask.

A lot of cultural and social critics have written that America lost its innocence on November 22, 1963. That may be the case. In this song, Reed seems to be saying that we lost our idealism as well, as a nation and as a people.

Like many of us, Reed yearns for the ability to somehow turn back the clock and reverse the horror of JFK's death: a watershed moment from which America never really recovered. (And frankly, it's pretty much been all downhill for the U.S. since then).

I realize that it's easy to romanticize Camelot and to build Kennedy up as this mythic Progressive Hero. But if you think that's naive, consider that Kennedy was very likely killed by the Military Industrial Complex. He made some very powerful enemies, so clearly, he must have been doing something right.

Of course, these days, America's Rich & Powerful no longer have to resort to assassinating our leaders. They simply make sure that whoever wins the White House is bought and paid for long before the oath of office is ever administered.