Saturday, August 4, 2012

"Checkmate Mitt!"

"If Romney releases his tax returns, his candidacy is toast!"

Heh.

Yhanks to oldfartrants.

Harry’s Game

Go read this by TBogg:

So… in an interview with the HuffPo, Harry Reid accuses Mitt Romney of possibly not paying any taxes for the past ten years based upon a conversation with a Bain investor. Conservatives lose their shit. Reid repeats his statement on the Senate floor. More shit is lost. Romney butches up and comes back with “put up or shut up” which is laughable under the circumstances coming as it is from someone who was forthcoming enough to share a snapshot of his personal finances from the last year and a half that he has officially been running for President but now crosses his legs and won’t give up the goods for the ten years that preceded them. Then Dana Bash reports that Reid’s source is a credible person. A tsunami of shit is waiting to be lost.

Are we having fun yet?

Yup.

So lets game this out a little further.

Oooooookay...:-)

And this is all so unfair because Democrats aren’t supposed to punch back.

How’s that sound so far?

Still having fun?

Yup.

Yup. Pass the popcorn!

Quote of the Day

From a piece at Truthout by a former Repug pol:

The primary purpose of the GOP these days is to provide tax breaks and other financial advantages (such as not regulating pollution and other socially costly externalities) to their wealthy donor base. All the rest of their platform, all the culture wars stuff, is simply rube bait.

Wingnut politics in a nutshell.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Precious Memories with Chet Atkins.

Thanks to KiatMac0621.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Heh ...

Think the Brits are still sore about the Mittster? From the Newcastle Brown Ale FB page with the caption: "Dressage. Perfect for doing a beer run.".

Just sayin' ...

In conjunction with Gord's post below:


Pic thanks to The Green Cross.

Too High To Fail

Bill Maher in the NYT Sunday Book Review.



The “war on drugs” is America’s longest war. It has cost taxpayers $1 trillion in the last 40 years, Fine notes, and it has turned our nation into “the most highly incarcerated society in history.” In 2011, a global commission on drug policy (whose members included Paul Volcker, George P. Shultz and former presidents of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico) declared that “the global war on drugs has failed.” Sixty-­seven percent of Americans agree. Antonin Scalia and Pat Robertson are now to the left of President Obama on pot.
...

“Too High to Fail” takes the form of a fly-on-the-wall account of Northern California’s burgeoning legal cannabis industry. Fine, an investigative journalist, takes us to Mendocino County, where he follows one plant from seed to medical marijuana patient in the first county in the nation to decriminalize and regulate cannabis farming.

Fine fits in well in Mendocino. Bearded and driving his vegetable-oil-fueled truck, he looks and plays the part. But be warned: if you are indifferent to drug culture, you may roll your eyes at some of the stoner talk. When Fine says, describing a Mendocino grow house, “I felt like I was inside a Peter Tosh album cover photo,” even I wanted to tell him he was harshing my mellow.

Mendocino County is depicted here as a kind of democratic utopia where local law enforcement and cannabis farmers are on the same side. In 2008, the county passed a land-use ordinance called Chapter 9.31, which authorized growers to cultivate up to 99 cannabis plants (this has since been reduced to 25). Rather than turning the county into a police state, legalization made it safer. Revenues in the municipality increased, and cannabis farmers were treated as law-abiding citizens.

As it should be. Please read the rest.

No Expectations

I am having such a ball watching the Repugs self-destruct that I have laid down my rifle for the day and picked up a bowl of popcorn! I don't care who strews the field with their corpses as long as I get to do The Dance Of Joy over them! Gaffney, Bachmann, Norquist, McCain, Coulter, Romney, Westboro Baptist Coven, anti-gay chicken sandwiches, and all the rest of the Tiny-Brained, Who-Fuckin'-Ever, have at it!

Note to the Repugs and wingtards: As you do battle with each other, take a tip from Marines: put your wallet in your right hip pocket. Saves your buddies time when you blow yourselves...to Kingdom Come, that is. Heh. My expectations are high: And then there will be none.

Nanci on the Jagger/Richards song that The Rolling Stones recorded for their Beggars Banquet album. From this weekends Cambridge Folk Festival. Maura and Pete Kennedy accompanying - unsure who the drummer is..

Thanks to 1000Magicians, UK.

Headline of the Day

Mitt Romney Replaces Sarah Palin as America’s Most Hated Politician

There are others I hate more than either of those. Neither one of them started a criminal war. Yet.

Quote of the Day

From Mrs. Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian:

I can hear Mitt Romney at job interview: “No, I'm not showing you my resume. You prove that I don't have enough experience or shut up and give me the job.”

Experts ...

The GOP's 'expert' on voter fraud. Heh:

A new paper claiming that voter ID laws actual protect rather than disenfranchise minority voters is getting play in conservative circles. What isn’t being mention so much is the background of the paper’s author.

...

Cooper may not have any expertise on voter fraud, but he does know a thing or two about falsifying documents. Cooper was indicted in 2009 on five public corruption charges, charged with exchanging political favors for gifts from Jack Abramoff. Cooper allegedly accepted bribes as a staffer to former Majority Leader Dick Armey, as chief of staff for Voice of America and when he worked for the Department of Labor. Cooper later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of falsifying a disclosure report and was sentenced to 36 months of probation.

...

But of course!

Word ...


Yeah, put up the tax returns, bitch.

Great thanks to Too Informed To Vote Republican for the pic.

Dear Mittster ...

...

Romney said, “Well, it’s time for Harry to put up or shut up. Harry’s gonna have to describe who it is he spoke with because of course that’s totally and completely wrong. It’s untrue, dishonest and inaccurate. It’s wrong. So I’m looking forward to have Harry reveal his sources and we’ll probably find out that it’s the White House.”

...

It's time for you to put up the tax returns or shut up about Harry Reid. Nobody believes you except the rubes who eat paste or get paid to recycle your bullshit.

Regards,

F

Thursday, August 2, 2012

How to say "fuck you, asshole" in Hawai'ian

“I witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor and had the privilege of serving in the United States Army during World War II and I find the comments made by the Congressman from Pennsylvania to be misguided and insulting. It is complete nonsense to suggest that a matter discussed, debated, and approved by the Congress and the President is akin to a surprise attack that killed nearly 2,500 people and launched our nation into the second World War or a terrorist attack that left nearly 3,000 dead and led to fighting and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq. Having fought for this nation in Europe, I find that I have a special kinship with those who served in Afghanistan and Iraq and I routinely visit with the most severely wounded veterans of those conflicts. Just yesterday I met with a brave young man who lost all four of his limbs in Afghanistan. I hope the Congressman from Pennsylvania has the courage to share his comparison with them,” said Senator Daniel K. Inouye.

Don't worry, Danny K., he doesn't.

Update:

El Rude-o on Sen. Inouye's comment:

[...] Then he challenged Kelly to tell wounded soldiers from Afghanistan that contraception coverage is the same as 9/11. That's the rhetorical equivalent of shoving a pineapple up Kelly's tight ass.

Headline of the Day

The Pussy Riot Trial Begins: Feminist Activists Take on Putin

I just wanted to say "pussy riot". Heh.

Romney's Wimp Factor

You owe yourself a favor. Read this.



The episode highlights what’s really wrong with Romney. He’s kind of lame, and he’s really ... annoying. He keeps saying these ... things, these incredibly off-key things. Then he apologizes immediately—with all the sincerity of a hostage. Or maybe he doesn’t: sometimes he whines about the subsequent attacks on him. But the one thing he never does? Man up, double down, take his lumps.

He was born rich and entitled. He never had to. There was always some underling to blame.

In a similar vein, it was breathtaking, and a meaningful window into his thinking, that he thought denouncing “Obamacare” to the NAACP constituted courage. That was the opposite of courage—an easy shot aimed at people who aren’t voting for him anyway. Going to the Southern Baptist Convention and telling them they’re all wet about Mormonism? Now that would be courage. Can anyone picture Romney doing that in a million years? The Mormon God will come down from Kolob before that happens.

Riding a flying pig. Heh.

[...] You watch something like his recent VFW speech, and you see that he so desperately wants people to see him and think: “He’s like Reagan.” Please. You would no more cast Romney as Reagan than you would Pee-wee Herman as James Bond.

Thanks a great steaming pile for the image of Pee-wee ordering a martini "shaken, not stirred" in that voice...

But if Romney is elected? Be nervous. A Republican president sure of his manhood had nothing to prove. Reagan was happy with a jolly little shoot-up in Grenada, and eventually he settled down to the serious work of arms control, consummating historic treaties with Mikhail Gorbachev. But a weenie Republican — look out. He has something to prove, needs to reassert that “natural” advantage. That spells trouble more often than not.

Yeah, we know. We just had one of those. Romney is cut from the same cloth.

[...] Voters want candidates who are harshly tested and emerge from those tests stronger. Romney is desperate above all else to dodge them — and when they have come, he’s failed.

His biggest selling point is that he's not Obama. That will be enough for some but it won't be enough. Thank you Jesus. Or Joseph Smith. Heh.

Ah, the boom ...

Mitt Romney’s policy director Lanhee Chen claims that a new study showing 95% of Americans would see a tax hike under Romney’s tax reform plan is “biased” and fails to take into account the explosion of economic growth that will occur under Romney’s administration.

...

It's as magical as the Mittster's underwear. As soon as he's elected, there will be a miraculous economic boom that will allow us to not give a shit about how much more we have to pay to give him another tax cut. I might have been born at night, but not last night.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Points Shaving Scandal!

Olympic badminton players ‘threw’ matches

Who knew there was a 'point spread' in badminton? Yeesh.

Sensitive, those Guidos

Raw Story

Italy’s highest court ruled that telling a man he has “no balls” as an insult is a crime punishable with a fine because it hurts male pride in a ruling on a curious row between two cousins.

Is "no balls" the same as calling a politician a "moderate Republican"? Or worse, a "Democrat"? If the pols get ahold of this, watch for similar legislation here.

But seriously, folks, the proper response to the cry of "no balls!" is "Oh yeah? Watch this...". Heh.

Headline of the Day

GOP lawmakers: New birth-control mandate like Pearl Harbor and 9/11

Good fucking grief. Hyperbole is alive and well amongst the partisan tiny-brained.

Gadding of a Gawky Gowk

MoDo

Remember when Janice Soprano shot her fiance to death after he punched her in the mouth? Then she calls Tony to come over and help her. He mops up the blood and has his thugs chop up the body.

“All in all, though,” Tony tells his sister sincerely, as he drops her at the bus station, “it was a pretty good visit.”

By Sopranos standards, all in all, Mitt Romney had a pretty good visit overseas. But by political standards, it was more like Munch’s “The Scream.”

Wherever he went, whatever situation he was in, he remained frozen in himself. It was reminiscent of the stinging review of an Oscar Wilde lecture by Ambrose Bierce, who wrote that Wilde was a “gawky gowk” who “wanders about posing as a statue of himself.”
...

Stuart Stevens is right when he says it’s easy to imagine Romney in the White House. I can visualize him right now, lapidary and frozen, in the Rose Garden. A statue of himself.

Note to pigeons: Don't wait for that or you'll be miserable. Go ahead and let fly wherever you catch him.

Your terrifying lack of imagination

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford who finally sees the big problem.

I have perhaps identified the single most lethal problem facing modern culture.
...

Here lyeth the tragedy: A shockingly large (some would say increasingly large) number of Americans — particularly fundamentalists and neoconservatives but plenty of hardcore liberals and vegans too — never get much of an education, and therefore never get past Level One. They are the Rick Santorums and Michele Bachmanns of the world, those who think cavemen and dinosaurs hung out together, Noah built a giant boat and God really is an angry old man in the sky who judges you for supporting gay people and enjoying porn.

They are the Tea Party and the Vatican, the bitter atheists and the NRA, Fox News and George W. Bush, the frat guys and mal-educated teens who think vampires are just hunky, sullen hotties and not dark metaphors for perverse sexuality or maybe faith and rebirth, who think Frankenstein is just a lumpish monster and not a complex literary symbol for the mysteries of science and the dangers of tampering with nature.

They are, perhaps most dangerously of all, the severely religious who think God really did knock up a virgin, Joseph Smith is more than just a polygamist huckster, and a very dead Jesus really did rise up out of a cave like a balloon and no way is the resurrection myth just a nice, universal metaphor for spiritual awakening, for “rising up” to your own higher, divine self — no shame, guilt or blind faith required. I know, right? That’s crazy talk. Just ask Kansas.
...

Of course, to many on the right, Joseph Campbell would now be considered a heretic, burned at the stake for daring to suggest all bibles, gods, religious stories across the planet are merely the same moral folk tales repeated throughout the ages, that no single religion has dominion over any other, that all such myths are meant to be taken as spiritual signposts and woe to the culture, the leader, the deranged warmonger who takes them as literal fact.

Actually, Mark-o me boy, it's woe to the rest of us who don't.

Congrats, Willard!

Dear Willard,

Congratulations on the successful conclusion of your "Moonwalk Tour", so named by Tweety because you had to walk backwards on everything you said.

You cleverly managed to piss off about 60,000,000 Brits, a billion and a half Muslims, all the Palestinians, about half the Israelis who aren't Likud, Hasidim, or Lubavitchers, and threw a little gratuitous disrespect for Ann and her dancing horse into the mix without even ruffling your hair. In Poland, your aide offered the press corps a little romantic opportunity as well. That's understandable. Good help is hard to find when neither end of your party likes you. Heh.

You missed a trick, though - you should have gone from the United Kingdom to Poland so you could have picked up a nice Polish ham as a gift for Bibi.

You only managed to piss off a little less than a third of humanity. Don't get your magic underwear in a bunch over this. You can correct it by making your next World Tour south of the equator. South America, India, Southeast Asia, and Africa await your tender touch. You can visit the jobs you created in China as well.

You'll have plenty of time for this after the election. Call it the "Ugly American Tour II".

Praying for your successful retreat into the gated communities of your choice, never to be heard from again, I remain

Your pal,

Gordon

P.S. I got 400 bucks back from the IRS this year without paying anything in. It only cost me $5000 to pull it off. If you need any tax tips, give me a call. Not collect.

Heh ... Part Zwei

So, the Frothy One had to weigh in on the Chick-fil-a brouhaha with a comment about the sauce. Oh yes they did.

Heh ...

Quote of the Day

Mike Flannigan:

Perhaps we would've been better off sending Don Rickles abroad- At least he's funnier.

Gah ...

Don't the conspiracy nuts ever stop?

WASHINGTON -- A Republican member of the Tennessee state legislature emailed constituents Tuesday morning with a rumor circulating in conservative circles that President Barack Obama is planning to stage a fake assassination attempt in an effort to stop the 2012 election from happening.

...

Philosophy ...

Tengrain sums up the crazy in two sentences:

Wingnuttia has such a slim grasp on reality that nothing shocks me much anymore. In the early ’90s VP Dan “Potatoe” Quayle, who publicly fought the fictional character Murphy Brown for having a fictional baby out of wedlock seemed laughable at the time, but now would be taken completely in stride.

At least Murphy Brown was human (and Quayle was stupid so I'll give him that he couldn't tell the difference between fact and fiction), but getting into it with Kermit and Miss Piggy? Hey, if you want to argue with puppets, that's fine, but if you do, you certainly shouldn't be taken seriously. Unfortunately, in America of the 21st Century, this man has a congregation.

"Terminator" is upon us ...

The Squids have a new toy:

NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER, Maryland — If you saw it in person, you’d probably think it was a UFO, too.

That’s what happened when the Navy trucked its batwing-shaped drone of the future from California to its new testing bed here in Maryland. Across the country, 911 switchboards lit up with reports that mysterious trucks were hauling a spaceship. In truth, it was a demonstration model for something the Navy desperately wants: to launch an armed, spying, stealthy drone from an aircraft carrier, one of the hardest maneuvers in aviation, conducted with the click of a mouse. But up close, you can see why people freaked out.

...

"Autonomous" being the operative word. Just a matter of time before a drone busts me for driving like Steve McQueen. Heh ...

Great thanks to Susie for the link.

I'd like this to be true ...

I wonder if McCain slipped Harry some info?

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid used the T-shirt gun of unsubstantiated claims in an interview with The Huffington Post, saying a former Bain investor told him that Mitt Romney didn't pay taxes for 10 years, hence the lack of disclosure:

...

The campaign says there was no year where he didn't pay no taxes but I wonder how many wingnut heads would explode if they find out he didn't pay much more than you and me.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

A Message from NBC About Its Olympics Coverage

There's been some accusations that NBC's Olympics coverage blows chunks. Their alleged response:

If you’ve been watching NBC in prime time the past few nights, you’ve probably noticed how, night in, night out, we’ve been wrecking the Olympics for you. All we can say is, our bad. At NBC we’re just not used to broadcasting things that people want to watch.

But all that’s about to change.
...

For only $29.95 you can watch the Olympics with no spoilers, no maudlin “personal narratives,” and no promos for NBC’s new fall shows like that egregious one with the doctor and the monkey we show like every five minutes. And for $39.95, no Ryan Seacrest.

Where's my credit card?

Heh ...

Careful where you stick it:

The resident of a small village near the eastern Chinese city of Wenling claims he was asleep in bed when a posse of robbers broke into his home and stole his penis.

...

"Hold my beer and watch this!"

New Zealand man hospitalized after lighting fireworks in butt

“What must of seemed to be a great idea at the time has backfired, resulting in the male receiving quite severe and very painful burns to his cheeks, back and private bits,” he added.
...

The man told NT News* he wanted to “put on a good show” for his friends after drinking a few beers.

“He screamed a little bit and there were a fair few f-words,” his friend commented.

*"Why I stuck a cracker up my clacker" Do not miss this! My sides, they hurt...

Good show, mate! Beats the shit outta dancing with a lampshade on your head!

Monday, July 30, 2012

Just another day in Paradise...

Things to do today. Later...

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Romney Visits Wailing Wall
Prays for success of GOP's voter disqualification strategy.

I wobder if he'll come back with those Hasidic hair dangles in front of his ears...

Fox News Reports 83% of Doctors Will Quit Over Obamacare
Based on brief call-in poll of Fox viewers claiming to be doctors.

Yeesh.

WellPoint, Other Insurers Now Outsourcing Nursing Jobs to India, Philippines
You'll have to scream a little louder when your i.v. slips out.

And hand jobs formerly covered by Medicare will be no more.

Knowing Endings of Stories Makes Them More Enjoyable, Not Less, Says Study
In fact, knowing result of study beforehand made it more fun to conduct.

That's known as the "F**News model" to pollsters.

Quote of the Day

Jed Lewison:

But that all being said, you have to give Romney a little bit of credit here, because his ability to insult everybody he comes in contact with actually has an unintended side effect: he could be the first president in American history to actually give Palestinians and Israelis something new in common.

Heh ...

So ...

That narcissistic, self-important, nosy busybody Mayor Bloomberg says the jack up black folks, brown folks, and Asian teenagers "Stop and Frisk" policy is in place to keep guns off the streets of NYC. If this is so, how come we've had a rash of shootings here in the past month? This is the latest one, last night.

A Brooklyn neighborhood is shaken today after six people—including a two-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy—were shot in a drive-by shooting yesterday at 7 p.m. While police are trying to determine what sparked the violence, WABC 7 reports that some community leaders think it was gang members trying to settle a score.

...

Close to a million New Yorkers are jacked up by the NYPD every year for doing nothing more than walking down the sidewalk. A baby and a 14 year old boy were killed last week. An 18 year old girl was killed the week before. "Stop and Frisk" isn't working and the only thing it is doing is creating a bigger rift between the community and the cops. It is racist and most of the stops, if they do end up in an arrest, are for possession of small amounts of marijuana. Not many gun busts. I can't wait until that little bastard is out of Gracie Mansion.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Me'n Fixer do the "Dance of Joy"!

They made us wear clothes for this one. Drat. Some conflict between freedom of artistic expression and what might fly into the punch bowl, I think.

Thanks to MrOum2010, India.

Quote of the Day

From a piece in The New Yorker on Willard's continuing "Gaffe-a-palooza Tour" in Israel:

Mr. Romney’s day concluded with an awkward moment at the West Bank, where he attempted to deposit ten million dollars.

I had to tell a friend on Facebook that this was satire. The line is blurred...

This ...

Is gonna be a generational problem:

...

Seventy-five percent of Americans nearing retirement age in 2010 had less than $30,000 in their retirement accounts. The specter of downward mobility in retirement is a looming reality for both middle- and higher-income workers. Almost half of middle-class workers, 49 percent, will be poor or near poor in retirement, living on a food budget of about $5 a day.

...

So the older folks will be destitute and the young can't afford to live. What does America become then?

Heh ...


Pic stolen from The Everlasting GOP Stoppers.