Free Republic

(This panel, these virtual outright threats to Obama occurred tonight on MSNBC's The Last Word, hosted by Lawrence O'Donnell, with panelists Rabbi Michael Lerner (Editor-Tikkun), Jane Hamsher, Ralph Nader, and Alan Grayson). Video - Denouncing the Tax Deal (MSNBC page under 'top video stories').

Ideological opposites Jane Hamsher and Grover Norquist have found common ground in a common enemy: Rahm Emanuel, the influential White House chief of staff. In one of the strangest odd-couplings since James Carville and Mary Matalin married, Ms. Hamsher, a prominent liberal blogger, and Mr. Norquist, a longtime conservative activist, jointly wrote to the Justice Department on Wednesday demanding an investigation of Mr. Emanuel’s past dealings with Freddie Mac, the failed housing finance giant, and calling for his immediate resignation. The action is less surprising for Mr. Norquist, a familiar provocateur in a Republican Party that would like nothing better...

Today, Grover Norquist and I are calling for an investigation into Rahm Emanuel’s activities at Freddie Mac, and the White House’s blocking of an Inspector General who would look into it. The letter follows: December 23, 2009 Attorney General of the United States of America U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530-0001 Dear Attorney General Holder: We write to demand an immediate investigation into the activities of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. We believe there is an abundant public record which establishes that the actions of the White House have blocked any investigation into...

This is a huge story, go sign the petition! Jane Hamsher, Grover Norquist Call for Rahm Emanuel’s Resignation

Politics: If the Democrats' stitched-together Frankenstein monster of health care reform gets the 60 votes to get through the Senate, it will have been done through an assortment of bribes and brass knuckles. (snip) Sen. Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, has also been critical of the buy-in and public option, but he has an additional issue about whatever comes out of the Senate not involving public funding of abortion in any way. Michael Goldfarb on the Weekly Standard blog quotes a Senate aide as saying the White House is now threatening to put Nebraska's Offutt Air Force Base on the...

Please line up neatly to the left. We’re giving free money away here . . . Day Deux of David Shuster’s lefties-only blog segment featured a sidesplitter from Jane Hamsher. The Firedoglaker mocked Republican Eric Cantor for suggesting that taxpayers will foot the bill for the mortgage bailout the president is about to roll out. Silly Eric! Turns out, taxpayers won’t be on the hook at all. The money will come from . . . TARP II. Mortgage manna from heaven! Shuster set things up with this clip of Republican whip Cantor. View video.

AUSTIN, TEXAS--To longtime CBS broadcaster Dan Rather, American journalism in recent years "has in some ways lost its guts." During his hour-long keynote address at South by Southwest Interactive, Rather opined at length on the state his profession, in which too many journalists have become lapdogs to power, rather than watchdogs, he said. "I do not exclude myself from this criticism...By and large, so many journalists--there are notable exceptions--have adopted the go-along-to-get-along (attitude)," he said. So, because of this "access game," journalism has degenerated into a "very perilous state," he said in response to a question from his on-stage interviewer,...

You're a Connecticut resident, a good citizen but not a political junkie. You scan the Hartford Courant - the state's largest paper - this morning and see the following headline: 'Lamont Spokesman: Blog Photo Offensive' Quick: which campaign did something wrong, and which is rightly outraged? Based on the headline, you could certainly be forgiven for assuming that Lamont was the injured party. As it turns out, the facts are just the opposite. As detailed here, Jane Hamsher, a blogger very closely tied to the campaign of Ned Lamont yesterday wrote a column at Huffington Post containing a doctored photo...