Today in a closed-door meeting, Senate Democrats voted 42-13 to allow Joe Lieberman (I-CT) to keep his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, despite his attacks on Barack Obama during the campaign season. Shortly afterward, Senate Democrats held a press conference during which they stood by Lieberman and surrounded him with their support. Some highlights of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) remarks:

– “We’re looking forward, we’re not looking back.”

- “I understand anger. … I would defy anyone to be angrier than I was. But is this a time when we walk out of here and say, ‘Boy, did we get even?’”

– “I am satisfied with what we did today. I feel good about what we did today. I don’t apologize to anyone for what we did today.”

– “The question is, do I trust Senator Lieberman? The answer is yes, I trust Senator Lieberman.”

Lieberman apparently threatened to take up with the Republicans if the Democrats punished him. When you consider that he all but did just that during the election anyway I don’t see how that was much of a threat, but apparently enough Democrats felt it was enough of a problem that they voted to let him stay. Word has it that Obama himself was in favor of not punishing Lieberman and I’m not sure I understand why, but hopefully he’s planning on holding it over his head when push comes to shove otherwise it’ll make no sense.

I still think it’s a mistake to let Lieberman get away with it and it’s a bad sign for how the next four years is going to go if the Democrats can’t grow a pair after all the gains they’ve made.

How much do you want to bet that the Republicans are thankful they never made good on their threats to “nuke” the filibuster back when they were in power?

Thankfully, Keith Olbermann managed to do it for me better than I could:

Found over at DOF’s blog.

Best of all? No calories.

Found over at What Would Jack Do?.

I thought the playful jab at O’Reilly at the end was pretty funny and probably truer in intent than Billo realizes. At any rate I’m heartened to see that at least one person reporting the news on FOX is not afraid to be an actual journalist.

Found over on Think Progress.

Welcome to Obamanation by SFC MAC

Looks like the ACORN cheating paid off. This newly anointed moron will make Jimmy Carter and Bubba Clinton’s disastrous domestic policies, foreign policy debacles, and malicious pursuit to eviscerate the military, pale in comparison.

No self-respecting democratic Republic will give legitimacy to a socialist president, but then no self-respecting democratic Republic would permit someone like Obama to be a Senator, let alone presidential candidate.

The bulk of the ‘first time voters’ were bribed skid row drunks, college-aged kids who cast their ballot for an MTV icon, and blacks who voted for Obama because of his ethnicity. Then there are the requisite liberals–black, white, and hispanic–who will vote for a democrat, regardless. It was no landslide–the popular vote was close-51.3 percent to 47.5 percent–but it demonstrates that at least 51.3 percent of these voters have no problem with defecating on their own country.

[...] I live in Lorain, about 30 miles west of Cleveland. The entire region of NE Ohio has been a democratic cesspool for decades, and the union hacks just don’t understand why the Steel Mill and the Ford Plant are virtual ghost towns. It’s fucking depressing to see how dilapidated Lorain has become. They really think that Mr. Hopey Changytude will rob the ‘evil, oppressive, rich, white’ corporations, and come through the neighborhood with a sack full of money like a ghetto Santa Claus. Trouble is, these leeches are used to sucking off of the public teat. Why work at all when the Democrats force taxpayers to foot the bill?

I’m a retired U.S. Soldier. I AM Joe the Plumber. I’m sick to death of moonbats flinging the race card because they’ve run out of excuses for lazy, unmotivated, professional welfare recipients who blame everything on their skin color. Speaking of which, their boy Obama sat in a church for 20 years listening to the very wealthy Rev Jeremiah (god-damn America) Wright spew all kinds of hateful racist crap against ‘whitey’ and Jews. Wright will probably pick up where he left off.

[...] Our war against Islamofacism will likely suffer, if not grind to a halt. American troops who fought so valiantly in the region of the world that breeds the terrorists who attacked this country, will now be forbidden to do what it takes to accomplish the mission and prosecuted for doing so.

The Eurotrash, North Korea, China, Venezuela, and Islamic comrades (Iran, in particular) are rejoicing in this latest tragicomic episode in American politics. We are now saddled with a corrupt, socialist, terrorist cavorting, narcissistic charlatan, who suits their agenda. Obamabots placed all of their faith and adoration into an empty suit with serious defects.

Obama will kowtow to all of the world’s malefactors, fulfilling his promise to ‘negotiate without pre-conditions’. To all the asshatswho foolishly believe that being a pliant doormat will somehow make the United States a more “moral, respected, endearing, popular, positive role model”, brace yourselves. It will only serve to encourage hostile nations, Islamic ones in particular, to take advantage of a deteriorated American political and economic system, rife with Democratic milksops. All in the name of ‘world image’.

[...]We will demand that Obama and his ACORN gang be brought to justice for voter fraud, racketeering, and abuse of law enforcement through intimidation of critics. The laws they broke during this campaign were blatant, numerous, and sanctioned by Obama and his staff. The Department of Justice needs to get off its complacent ass and go after internal threats for a change.

We will be unrelenting in our call for the investigation of radical miscreants like William Ayers, and prosecution of any and all militant Islamic individuals, groups, and sects, including CAIR, Nation of Islam, and the AAAN (Arab American Action Network). They shouldn’t be allowed in this country to begin with, and the State Department needs to be held accountable for their presence.

We will continue to hammer the MSM leftwing mouthpeices–MSNBC, ABC, MBC, ABC, and CNN–for their rancid anti-American bias. We’ll also make sure the Democrat effetes in Congress and Senate, who got placed there by equally unconscionable constituents, continue to get the hell they so richly deserve.

We won’t forget which traitors in the Democratic party and the MSM prostituted themselves through word and deed, to the Islamofascists and the world’s Bolsheviks, because their hatred for the military, this country, and Republicans, overrides any sense of loyalty.

You don’t need to question their patriotism when they show a complete lack of it on their own.

A special note to you Hollywood leftwingnuts like Whoopie Goldberg, Alec Baldwin, Akon, Babs Streisand, et al, who threatened to, but did not, leave the country for the last 2 elections if George Bush became President: You now have an excuse to stick around and run your mouths for at least 4 years before we kick your Obamessiah out of office.

We will be just as ‘civil’ and ‘respectful’ to an Obamanation administration as the frothing leftwing moonbats “tolerant, even-minded liberals” were during 8 years of the Bush administration.

Welcome to 4 years of a Socialist America.

Just don’t expect the rest of us to follow suit.

Note that I excerpted that from a much longer rant. If you thought that was impressive, you should see some of the replies. This next one is so full of crazy that I couldn’t figure out how to except it so I’m posting it in all its brain dead glory:

AMERIDATE: 0001 PSUA…POST SOCIALIST UTOPIAN AGE

When I went to bed last night I was an American; I woke this morning a man with no country, no leader, no direction, and no purpose. I did not leave my country, my country abandoned me.

Jesus asked his Father to “forgive them for they know NOT what they do.” I am not Jesus and will NOT forgive the murder of a country that I once fought for and was willing to die for, that country no longer exists, a breed of americans (note lower case) have beaten it down and traded it for trinkets worth less than the beads that bought Manhattan Island so long ago.

Do you liberals REALLY believe you are going to get all these things the Boober promised you? Do you think this Muslim-Marxist mutant mole cares about you and wants to shower you with benefits and free money?

WHO ARE YOU?

Where did the Americans go? I don’t know the people who put this phlegm-wad in office. Who the hell are you and what did you do with my country? I do not know you, BUT I WILL. I know where to look for you.

What makes you think you deserve this country? You didn’t bleed for her, you didn’t invest in her spiritually, you mocked her and chastised her even as she sheltered you and kept you safe and warm. Because you did not have the courage and backbone to stand up and fight to save her you have no claim to her future, such as it is, such as it shall become I fear.

I find it ironic that the government which used to pay me combat and flight pay, gave me a weapon and told me to shoot communists has now become that which I used to destroy. This is a journey no man, no warrior should ever have to take, yet here we are, day one of a brazen new world couched in racism and empty rhetoric and worshipped by men and women who are not worth the powder and shot it would take to blow them all to glory. What a long strange trip it has been too.

WHY?

There are many reasons no one reason is a complete telling of this tale. We could analyze the election, the candidates, the tactics and so on and in the end solve nothing…WHY is a luxury we cannot afford yet must pony up to pay for when the bill comes due.

The main reason WHY in a word: APATHY.

We allowed this scum to build up in the filters until it choked the engine to silent sputters then we ignored it until it died. Why is unimportant now, all we are left with is the WHAT DO WE DO NOW?

A brother in ink newsletter writer told me last year..

But, Bean, IT IS ALL OUR OWN DAMN FAULT!

Yes JakSavin, it is our fault. We didn’t care enough to safeguard her, we didn’t believe she was vulnerable and didn’t…scratch that..WOULDN’T see the danger. Well,...do you see it now? You will very soon if not tonight, next week or next month.

How does it feel to watch our own complacency eat our nations guts from the inside out? Was your apathy worth the trade you made?

Tonight I mourn for my brothers on the Wall in Washington, tonight they died again. There are millions of dead men walking around tonight that don’t even know they’re dead yet, are you one of them? I share the blame, I could have fought harder, I could have sounded the alarm, I could have thrown rocks at the son of a bitch if nothing else but I too was asleep. I believed in and cast my faith to the American people, a people who have proven unworthy of keeping the grand republic we inherited through the blood sweat and trials of our fathers and their fathers fathers fathers fathers…as far back as there was a nation called America. YOU gave it away, I gave it away.

Now…what are you and I going to do about it? They taught me in Jungle Evasion and Survival training school that the best time to plan an escape is early in your captivity so you still have the strength and will to carry it out, time plays FOR the captors and works against the prisoners. Are you going to roll over and play possum? Wait till the sun shines Nelly..by and by?

GENERIX

The most vulnerable of the legs which this beast stand on is the media. Oh, yeah, I’ve been hammering these useless pieces of dog crap since 2003 but I’m not done with these weasels yet.

Unless you are blind or have been living in a cave for five years you have seen the press and talking heads thoroughly tattooed to O’Boober’s hip, in lock step and pushing him every yard of the way. This PERSON would not even be recognized let alone elected without the strong voice of the media behind him.

So here’s something we can do, it will take a concentrated effort and may require some small sacrifice but at this time, it’s the only weapon we have.

First you must commit to buying and using ONLY generic products. Write a letter to each network and news show tell them I WILL NOT BUY ANY PRODUCT ADVERTISED ON OR SPONSORING YOUR SHOW, NONE..ZERO. Then write the sponsors and tell them the same thing, make sure they understand the connection between the advertising dollars, their grossly slanted journalism, and YOUR power as a consumer to NOT buy their products thereby cutting off the advertising dollars and the operating funds that pay their salaries.

This applies to automobiles too…if you were going to buy a new Ford, buy instead a year old Ford from a private owner or used car lot PUT NO MONEY IN THE POCKETS OF COMPANIES THAT SPONSOR THIS FIFTH COLUMN REPORTING. The effect will not be immediate but hang in for the long haul and punish the sponsors and dollars that put this un-American slug in office and it WILL have an effect. IT IS VITAL THAT YOU MAINTAIN CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE NETWORKS AND THE SPONSORS SO COUNT ON SPENDING SOME MONEY IN POSTAGE…E MAILS DON’T WORK DON’T WASTE THE ELECTRONS EVEN SENDING E MAILS.

This must start as an organized grassroots movement with the purpose of disabling the liberals “bully pulpit” and putting the newsies on defensive for a change.

We’ll work on the rest once we get this piece started and we have to start somewhere and soon. Are you a warrior or a possum? an American or a “citizen of the greater world?” Your call, I know what I’m going to do GENERIX.

Beansimple said it, what are you going to do now, fight or flee?

and above all
think for yourself and pray for our nation

Whew! That’s just one post out of many. This is the base that John McCain pandered to so heavily during his campaign. But wait, there’s more!

End of White America? by MNDude

Despite the loss, it looks like 60% of white america voted for McCain Palin.

90% of blacks always vote democrat 60% to 80% of hispanic voters will vote democrat (and about 10 million more of them are will soon enter the voting system) And there will always be at least a 30% idiot bleeding heart liberal whites.

We have some large hurdles in the future.

Reply from screaminsunshine

America is now an irretrievable socialist democracy. Sorry. It was great while it lasted.

Still not enough? Let’s throw a little of the Old Time Religion into it:

Lord Have Mercy on Us, For We Have Sinned by P-Marlowe

My sorrow for this country cannot be expressed in words. There are 50 million dead babies who have been disposed of in landfills here in the United States. During the period of 1939 to 1945 hundreds of countries throughougt the world engaged in a war of unprecedented proportions in which Global powers collectively tried as hard as they could to kill as many people as possible and it took six years of dedicated killling, machine gunning, executions, bombings, and nuclear explosions, and they only managed to kill about 10 million people a year throughougt the entire planet.

Since 1973, when Roe v. Wade created a “constitutional right” to kill YOUR OWN CHILDREN, there have been over 50,000,000 murders of unborn children in the United States alone. That is more children that there were people in America at the time of the 1880 Census. That is essentially the same number of people who were killed on all sides in World War II. Effectively we have aborted an entire generation of Americans and our ecomony has only been saved by the influx of young workers from other countries that have flocked in to fill the void caused by the alarmingly decreasing birth rate among native born Americans.

America, Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, is now home to 50,000,000 mothers who have murdered their own children. You have to stop and think about that for a second. Literally we have millions upon millions of voters in this nation who have systematically murdered their own children, 99% for nothing more than economic gain. A new TV, a new car, a bigger house, less responsiblity, inconvienience, whatever. I cannot fathom how it is that God can continue to bless this Country in the face of this national sin.

Although we prohibit most felons from voting in elections, those 50,000,000 murderers have the right to vote and those 50,000,000 aborted babies are without a voice in this matter. Undoubtedly most of those women voted for continuing the holocaust, because to recognize it as a holocaust is to recognize their own complicity in the slaughter.

I think we have reached a turning point in this nation and there is no turning back. We have freely chosen the most pro-abortion candidate in America to be the man who will have the opportunity to shape the culture of this nation for the next generation by appointing federal judges who will uphold the right to murder the unborn on the altar of “privacy”.

What saddens me most is that many people I know who profess to be “Christians” and who go to church more often than I do, and probably are more active in their churches than me, and who teach Sunday School to young children, cast their lots for Obama. When I talk to these people I tell them flat out, that I cannot believe that a practicing Christian could vote for a man with Obama’s record on abortion, yet they make excuses for themselves. “Obama is a good man. Obama has a good heart. Obama will help the downtrodden…. whatever.“ Well if God is consitent, then we will soon all be downtrodden when God, in his own righteous judgment, brings his foot down on this nation and crushes it like a grape.

I can only pray that America repents of its national sin. I’m not sure that will stave off the judgment to come, but it might. God said he would spare Sodom if Abraham could find just one righteous man in the city. I’m sure there were a lot of seemingly “good people” in Sodom, but there was nobody righteous, not one.

God’s standards for what is a “good man” are not the same as ours. To us a “good man” is someone who is as good as us. But until we recognize that we are wretched sinners in the sight of God and until we, as a nation, recognize the enormity of the sin which we have committed against God since 1973, we are going to suffer judgment. It doesn’t take a Biblical prophet to figure that out. All it takes is a little Bible reading to know that while God is longsuffering, his judgments are righteous and swift.

Today we must call out the Nation to repentance. America is not the same country it was just a generation ago. We have turned our face from God and we have chosen to trust in the arm of flesh.

May God have mercy on us all.

OK I’ll stop here as I’m sure some of your heads are close to exploding. Next time we’ll drop in for a visit with the Rapture Ready folks. Now there’s where you’ll find the Grade A choice crazies!

Luckily, for all of us, I voted.

These people are fucking nuts. The end-of-the-world rhetoric is just over the top. Alas it looks like they’ve gotten their wishes with regards to the anti-gay marriage amendments. California’s is still too close to call, but it’s looking like it’ll pass. It may be several days before we find out if it passed or not.

Don’t think this crushing blow to their prayers will keep them down. If anything look for the Far Right to become even more shrill and dogmatic in the months to come. Already they’re hyping fears of so-called Christian persecution that’ll come as a result of this election:

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, believes Senator Obama was elected, in large part, because the church in America has failed to address sin in its own ranks and also in society.

Perkins says Christians should pray for and return to a biblical model of holiness and righteousness. And believers in America, he adds, should prepare for persecution.

“We are going to see, I think, unprecedented attacks against our faith through measures like the hate crimes [legislation] to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act,“ he says. “We’re going to see attacks on innocent human life through the Freedom of Choice Act, trying to erase all the gains that have been made in the pro-life movement. And I think even our freedoms are going to come under attack.“

The fact that the Democrats have big majorities in both houses and the Presidency is going to whip these nutcases into a frenzy never before seen. On the plus side it’ll mean no shortage of blogging subjects here at SEB.

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference.

It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled – Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.

It’s the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.

I just received a very gracious call from Senator McCain. He fought long and hard in this campaign, and he’s fought even longer and harder for the country he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine, and we are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader. I congratulate him and Governor Palin for all they have achieved, and I look forward to working with them to renew this nation’s promise in the months ahead.

I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on that train home to Delaware, the Vice President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.

I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last sixteen years, the rock of our family and the love of my life, our nation’s next First Lady, Michelle Obama. Sasha and Malia, I love you both so much, and you have earned the new puppy that’s coming with us to the White House. And while she’s no longer with us, I know my grandmother is watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight, and know that my debt to them is beyond measure.

To my campaign manager David Plouffe, my chief strategist David Axelrod, and the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics – you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you’ve sacrificed to get it done.

But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to – it belongs to you.

I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn’t start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington – it began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston.

It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give five dollars and ten dollars and twenty dollars to this cause. It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation’s apathy; who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep; from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on the doors of perfect strangers; from the millions of Americans who volunteered, and organized, and proved that more than two centuries later, a government of the people, by the people and for the people has not perished from this Earth. This is your victory.

I know you didn’t do this just to win an election and I know you didn’t do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime – two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century. Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us. There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after their children fall asleep and wonder how they’ll make the mortgage, or pay their doctor’s bills, or save enough for college. There is new energy to harness and new jobs to be created; new schools to build and threats to meet and alliances to repair.

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America – I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you – we as a people will get there.

There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as President, and we know that government can’t solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And above all, I will ask you join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it’s been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years – block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

What began twenty-one months ago in the depths of winter must not end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek – it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers – in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.

Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House – a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, “We are not enemies, but friends…though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.” And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn – I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too.

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world – our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. To those who would tear this world down – we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security – we support you. And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright – tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.

For that is the true genius of America – that America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that’s on my mind tonight is about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She’s a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing – Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons – because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America – the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can’t, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women’s voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs and a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that “We Shall Overcome.” Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change. Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves – if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time – to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth – that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:

Yes We Can. Thank you, God bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.