[Guest post by DRJ]

The Obama Administration may have finally given in on Honduras:

“After trying in vain to keep Manuel Zelaya in power, imposing sanctions on Honduran politicians and goods, and falsely labeling the constitutional effort to preserve democracy as an illegal “coup,” the Obama administration finally is calling it quits.

Hillary Clinton is seeking to convince other nations to recognize the current Honduran administration which was elected in November.

The U.S. also is taking steps [to] end the economic sanctions against Honduras.”

Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion has the details at the link.

I doubt it will be easy for Honduras. Six months of economic sanctions have undoubtedly taken a toll and some neighboring countries still refuse to acknowledge the Honduran government, but hopefully Honduras’ future just got a little brighter.

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Does Lindsay Lohan see herself as a milk-aholic boyfriend-stealing cutie?

“Lindsay Lohan is suing the financial company E-Trade, insisting that a boyfriend-stealing, “milkaholic” baby in its latest commercial — who happens to be named Lindsay — was modeled after her. And she wants $100 million for her pain and suffering, The Post has learned.

The actress filed a lawsuit yesterday in Nassau County Supreme Court over the commercial that debuted during the Super Bowl this year.”

Lohan reportedly has demanded $50 million in exemplary damages and another $50 million in compensatory damages. The E-Trade ad is at the link.

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

And for those who want context:

“You’ve heard about the controversies within the bill, the process about the bill, one or the other. But I don’t know if you have heard that it is legislation for the future, not just about health care for America, but about a healthier America, where preventive care is not something that you have to pay a deductible for or out of pocket. Prevention, prevention, prevention—it’s about diet, not diabetes. It’s going to be very, very exciting.

“But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy. Furthermore, we believe that health care reform, again I said at the beginning of my remarks, that we sent the three pillars that the President’s economic stabilization and job creation initiatives were education and innovation—innovation begins in the classroom—clean energy and climate, addressing the climate issues in an innovative way to keep us number one and competitive in the world with the new technology, and the third, first among equals I may say, is health care, health insurance reform. Health insurance reform is about jobs. This legislation alone will create 4 million jobs, about 400,000 jobs very soon.

“We must have the courage, though, to get the job done. We have the ideas. We have the commitment. We have the dedication. We know the urgency. Now we have to have the courage to get the job done. So proud that President Obama is taking the message so forcefully to the American people! This is long overdue, a hundred years.”

So last week’s report about the Democrats’ newest strategy was true: Anyone against health care is a chicken.

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

The sex scandals continue regarding former Democratic Congressman Eric Massa:

“In a widely anticipated interview on Glenn Beck’s Fox News show Tuesday night, Massa acknowledged that he had “groped” and “tickled” a male staffer at the congressman’s 50th birthday party.

He also said he’d used rough language when he shouldn’t have and that he had jokingly told a male staffer at a wedding reception that he’d rather have sex with him than with one of the bridesmaids.

But, Massa told Beck, “I did nothing sexual.”

Is this a good time to mention that adults disagree on the definition of sex?

H/T Sara O.

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Chief Justice John Roberts commented today on President Obama’s attack on the Supreme Court in his State of the Union address:

“Responding to a University of Alabama law student’s question, Roberts said anyone was free to criticize the court, and some have an obligation to do so because of their positions.

“So I have no problems with that,” he said. “On the other hand, there is the issue of the setting, the circumstances and the decorum.

“The image of having the members of one branch of government standing up, literally surrounding the Supreme Court, cheering and hollering while the court – according the requirements of protocol – has to sit there expressionless, I think is very troubling.”

Roberts concluded he’s not sure justices should attend the speeches, saying: “I’m not sure why we’re there.”

As props for Obama to score points?

— DRJ

[Guest post by Jack Dunphy]

For those who believe life in prison is an adequate punishment for murder, regardless of the circumstances, how do you propose to punish a man who, while already serving a life sentence for murder, kills his cellmate? From the Los Angeles Times:

A Compton gang member already sentenced to life in prison for murder and awaiting trial in a second slaying is being investigated for allegedly strangling his Twin Towers jail cellmate.

Jamar Lavon Tucker, 28, was found Thursday morning inside a two-man cell next to the body of William Levell Hansbrough during a security check at the county jail in downtown Los Angeles, officials said.

Tucker allegedly told deputies that he had just killed his cellmate, said Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department. A coroner’s autopsy determined Hansbrough’s death was homicide by strangulation . . .

Tucker was being held at the jail because he is slated to go on trial May 10 for the 2005 murder of Kevin Watts. Prosecutors are pursuing the death penalty against Tucker if he is convicted in that case, officials said.

Tucker was convicted two years ago of a murder and attempted murder along with three other men, court records show. During the trial for the April 2005 home invasion robbery and carjacking in Redlands, Tucker pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder. Tucker received a life sentence.

When Redlands police arrested Tucker, they described him as a member of the L.A. gang the 107th Street Hoover Crips who goes by the name “Baby Hoover Ray.” Tucker, along with three other men, carjacked a car restoration expert and then forced him to drive them to his Redlands home.

Once there, the men fatally shot the carjacking victim’s 28-year-old cousin and wounded his 51-year-old mother. They then stole thousands of dollars in cash, according to police. As they drove back to L.A., Tucker shot the carjacking victim, according to authorities. The man faked he was dead and was dumped in Fullerton.

California still has the death penalty, at least in theory if not in actual practice, and if Tucker hasn’t demonstrated his worthiness for execution then surely no one has. If you oppose the death penalty, how would you propose he be punished for his second and third alleged murders, and how would you protect other prisoners and prison staff from a man for whom the law holds no punishment beyond that to which he has already been sentenced?

–Jack Dunphy

Eric Boehlert has found the cause for John Patrick Bedell’s 2006 rant against President Bush: the rhetoric from Tea Parties in 2009 and 2010.

Recall that Bedell, a registered Democrat, described the Bush Administration in 2006 as a “collection of gangsters” that initiated the war in Iraq “in order to divert attention from their misconduct and criminality.”

We crazy conservative bloggers think: hmmmm. 9/11 Truther, anti-Bush nut, and registered Democrat. Maybe this is one guy they won’t try to blame on us. Maybe for once they’ll call a lunatic a lunatic and leave it at that.

But Eric Boehlert knows who is to blame:

Sorry, right-wingers, but you fostered this toxic environment. You’re the ones who rally around Rush Limbaugh when he calls the president of the United States a Nazi. You’re the ones who cheer when Glenn Beck compares our commander in chief to a dangerous, Hitler-like tyrant who wants to “take your gun away one way or another.”

Indeed. Because in 2006, when Bush was president, there was no toxic anti-Bush environment.

Nobody called Bush or right-wingers Nazis. Except for these folks:

Mainstream commentary featured Nazi references too. Both Senator Robert Byrd and billionaire Democrat George Soros said Bush reminded them of Herman Goering.

During the 2004 presidential campaign, Al Gore used the term “brownshirts” (Nazi street thugs) to refer to Republican computer teams assigned to respond to criticism of Bush and the Iraq war.

Vanity Fair magazine nominated Richard Perle for the Goebbels role, running photos of both men under the headline “Separated at Birth?”

New York Times columnist Frank Rich managed to work in a reference to a famous Nazi filmmaker. He said a Showtime program on 9/11 was so favorable to Bush that it is “best viewed as a fitting memorial to Leni Riefenstahl.”

The Rev. Andrew Greeley, sociologist and novelist, depicted Bush as a Hitler figure who carried American over to “the dark side.”

During the Bush years, there were no gatherings of lefties calling for violence against Bush. Except for all of these. Here’s one example from many at the link, which is to Zombie:

You’ve nailed it, Eric Boehlert. Another brilliant column.

P.S. Hey, can we borrow your time machine? There’s a certain election from 2008 I’d like to undo. Thanks!