Truth About Jobs

Perfesser Krugman on September's jobs report and the wingnut reaction to it:

If anyone had doubts about the madness that has spread through a large part of the American political spectrum, the reaction to Friday’s better-than expected report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics should have settled the issue. For the immediate response of many on the right — and we’re not just talking fringe figures — was to cry conspiracy.

Leading the charge of what were quickly dubbed the “B.L.S. truthers” was none other than Jack Welch, the former chairman of General Electric, who posted an assertion on Twitter that the books had been cooked to help President Obama’s re-election campaign. His claim was quickly picked up by right-wing pundits and media personalities.

It was nonsense, of course. [...]

And that’s the truth that the right can’t handle. The furor over Friday’s report revealed a political movement that is rooting for American failure, so obsessed with taking down Mr. Obama that good news for the nation’s long-suffering workers drives its members into a blind rage. It also revealed a movement that lives in an intellectual bubble, dealing with uncomfortable reality — whether that reality involves polls or economic data — not just by denying the facts, but by spinning wild conspiracy theories.

It is, quite simply, frightening to think that a movement this deranged wields so much political power.

Finally, someone said it out loud besides Left Blogtopia.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

War in Afghanistan Proves Disastrous
Say Brits Soviets Yanks.

Poll: 7 in 10 Republicans Don't Believe Pollsters
Same seven who don't believe in evolution.

Ikea Has Women Air-Brushed Out of Catalog for Saudi Arabia
And some Republican counties in Missouri.

Owner of Jets Says He'd Rather Romney Wins Than Jets
So far, Jets obliging.

This Land Is Mine

This is pretty good! Via Andrew Sullivan. Helpful guide to the various participants here.

A short animated history of "of the land called Israel/Palestine/Canaan/the Levant":

Something a little different,

Emmylou Harris receives the ACM Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award. Rodney Crowell and Buddy Miller lead tributes.

Thanks to ACMCOUNTRY.

The Gish Gallop

I didn't know Willard's debate technique had a name. I thought it was just a mishmash of talking points, lies, and flip-flops artfully applied. Kos. Links at site.

As fact checkers busily highlight the myriad number of lies and distortions offered by Mitt-Etch-A-Sketch-Romney during last night's debate, and the spinners spin their polls with impunity, I find it interesting that the debate tactic itself has not yet been discussed nor properly analyzed. In fact, the lies and distortions offered by Romney in last night's debate are the very ESSENCE of his tactic -- and is therefore quite pertinent to the discussion. Romney used a debate tactic known as the Gish Gallop.

The Urban Dictionary defines the Gish Gallop thusly:

Named for the debate tactic created by creationist shill Duane Gish, a Gish Gallop involves spewing so much bullshit in such a short span on that your opponent can’t address let alone counter all of it. To make matters worse a Gish Gallop will often have one or more 'talking points' that has a tiny core of truth to it, making the person rebutting it spend even more time debunking it in order to explain that, yes, it's not totally false but the Galloper is distorting/misusing/misstating the actual situation. A true Gish Gallop generally has two traits.

1) The factual and logical content of the Gish Gallop is pure bullshit and anybody knowledgeable and informed on the subject would recognize it as such almost instantly. That is, the Gish Gallop is designed to appeal to and deceive precisely those sorts of people who are most in need of honest factual education.

2) The points are all ones that the Galloper either knows, or damn well should know, are totally bullshit. With the slimier users of the Gish Gallop, like Gish himself, its a near certainty that the points are chosen not just because the Galloper knows that they're bullshit, but because the Galloper is deliberately trying to shovel as much bullshit into as small a space as possible in order to overwhelm his opponent with sheer volume and bamboozle any audience members with a facade of scholarly acumen and factual knowledge.

On a happier note, please allow me to share this joke floating around the internet today:

Snow White, Superman and Pinocchio are walking along.
They see a sign: "Contest for World's Most Beautiful Woman." Snow White goes in, later comes out smiling, wearing a crown.

They walk along and see another sign: "Contest for World's Strongest Man." Superman goes in, later comes out smiling, wearing the belt.

They walk along and see a sign: "Contest for World's Greatest Liar." Pinocchio goes in, later comes out with his head down crying.

"Who the hell is Mitt Romney?" Pinocchio sobs.

(Rimshot)

The "Christian Crank" Poll

I saw this at my local 7-11 but I don't buy coffee out except at breakfast, but millions more people do than take conventional polls.

From Slate.

The most unscientific poll this election season might also be one of the most accurate.

Not very scientific maybe, but after last night's debate I needed a pick-me-up.

How Repugs Roll

Raw Story

Mexican cafe gets death threats after refusing Romney visit

The Mormon owners of a Mexican cafe in Denver says that they have gotten death threats, hate calls and fake orders after refusing to allow Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to make campaign stop at their restaurant.

“One person who called said, ‘Watch your back. We know where live and we’re going after you,’” Oscar Aguirre, the son of the owners of Rosa Linda Mexican Cafe, told KMGH New Media Producer Wayne Harrison. “We just didn’t want our business used as a campaign stop.”

Assholes, as if there was any doubt.

The Debate

Via Seniors for a Democratic Society.

The Rude Pundit

1. If Republican Mitt Romney had an actual plan that he could describe without lying about it, last night would have been a game-changer. Since he doesn't, well, he put on a good show.

Shorter: Willard "won" the night by delivering his Repug talking points, lies, and flip-flops beautifully. Obama was a lump. He was good on facts but short on killer instinct. I wonder what his Stealth Ninja Jedi strategy really was. Probly to let Willard roll and see how much of his bullshit comes back and bites him on the ass. Maybe it'll work longer term, but in the frenetic 24-hour news cycle centered on last night he clearly lost by not being exciting enough, purely on optics.

So say the gasbags and pundits who opine on that shit. I thought he did fine, but then I go for substance over style. That's not the TV way. If it was, Kim Kardashian wouldn't be a celebrity. I guess if you're a big enough ass, you win.

Update:

Romney Goes On Offense, Pays For It In First Wave Of Fact Checks

That would be good news if facts mattered over perception.

Update il due:

Thanks to YubaNet.

Heh...

Humor As Prescience

Via The Christian Left. Watch it!

MADtv Predicted the Rise of the Tea Party in 2006 in this Eerily Accurate Skit!

Quote of the Day

Mrs. G was watching House Hunters International and got this jewel, roughly translated from Dutch:

"Just be yourself. That's weird enough for us."

Heh.

Headline of the Day

And a post you might enjoy. His music speaks for me better than I can a lot of the time.

Bring on Your Wrecking Ball: The Politics of Bruce Springsteen

Right-wing racial panic

Joan Walsh, a smart and HOT liberal babe I adore on the desperate attempt by the wingnuts to flog an old video of an Obama speech as something ... Other. A totally fizzled bombshell.

I’m promoting a book that says we need to give most white people the benefit of the doubt: Most of us aren’t in revolt against multiracial America, or the president who heralded its arrival before many were ready.

But sadly, some white people are just that crazy, and Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson are their Pied Pipers, leading them off a cliff.

I'll help! Lemme scramble down there and sharpen those rocks for them!

Mainly, their complaint came down to: How dare a black president (or at the time, presidential candidate) talk to a black audience about black poverty and suffering! And the legacy of slavery, and the endurance of racism! Has he no shame?

Yeah, the damn Kenyan Muslim commie!

It pains me to pay attention to Carlson and Hannity. They’re hucksters and I mostly ignore them. And Matt Drudge too, who hyped the video much of Tuesday evening. They’re all trolls. But they’re singing from a GOP hymnal that we’ll hear more from before Nov. 6. It’s getting uglier, but it’s also getting dumber. They’re losing, and they know it.

Fuckin' A they do, and not just the election. They know why too, but they'll never admit that they're just plain wrong about everything. The ideology that white people rule is too ingrained. Or inbred.

The demographics of the country are changing, of that there is no doubt. Very brave, and ofttimes desperate but hopeful, folks have uprooted themselves and come to the United States for centuries. This is the best place in the world for people to have a good shot at starting over and getting ahead and making a better life for themselves and a better future for their children.

The trouble as the ideologues see it is that they're not as white as they used to be and there are getting to be enough of them that they're starting to gain a little political power and upset the traditional - and arrogantly egotistical and mistaken - God-given Eurocentricity of the society.

This ain't Tiananmen Square and that tank is going to roll right over them.

Love in the time of bitumen

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford expounding on the Alberta tar sands, politics, and what's going on in techtopia, all to a yoga backdrop. The kid's been busy.

I have fabulous news: Few things will bitch-slap your long-term, life-is-wonderful, all-is-as-it-should-be spirit better than reading all about the immeasurable horrors, complicated politics and dazzling ethical apologetics that make up the infamous, almost unbelievable big-oil mega-spectacle known as the Alberta tar sands. I know! Exciting!

Stay with me for a second. Surely you know of the tar sands? Those massive, land-raping, multi billion-dollar oil developments now decimating vast swaths of Canada? The brutal gouge-and-extraction processes by which sticky, black-death bitumen is blasted and pounded and ripped from the Earth like Satan tearing into a steaming burrito of pain, massive underground strata of black rock which are then hauled by trucks five stories high to massive, jaw-dropping facilities that belch enough poisons into the sky to black out the sun?
...

Such as: an item about just what a Mitt Romney-shaped Supreme Court might look like (three words: worse than Bush). Or that little Grist.org piece about how violently Romney’s energy policy differs from Obama’s, particularly in how Romney fellates the oil companies, hates the environmental movement and will give your kids cancer from all the rollbacks, gutted protections and worship of projects exactly like the tar sands.

Would a Mitt Romney presidency ruin American? Of course not. Would he make it much nastier, bleaker, far less conducive to the healthy progress of the species? You know the answer.

Yes, you do.

What Obama Should Say, 2012 (Rude Version)

El Rude-o on what Obama oughta say in the debate tonight and of course has better sense but I like it.

"I want to say this to you, Jim and to all Americans: Mitt Romney is the biggest pussy in the world. He is a pussy of such incredible proportions that it'd take a dildo the size of the Hancock Tower to fuck him. Look at what this craven, greedy motherfucker says about health care: he's proud of it, but other it's mighty fine if other states just let people die or go to emergency rooms because otherwise we may as well all be fucking our own asses with Karl Marx's femur. What about that is in any way presidential? You can't even say, 'Hey, I've got this great idea to get people health insurance.' Fuck, that's gotta sting. I don't know shit about Mormons, but the number of lies you've had to tell to get this far in your crazy-ass party has gotta be gettin' your soul all prepped for some fiery doom, man. Or maybe you just give more cash to get out of it.

"Governor, you won the primaries for two reasons: Because you have more money than the rest of your opponents combined and because you are the bottom bitch of the GOP. And you are damn happy being the bottom bitch. I can hear you saying, 'What's that? Sheldon Adelson wants to jizz on my face and call it kosher? Sure, Shel, and I'll call your ass "The Wailing Wall" and press my face against it and pray. What's that? A crazed evangelical is angry that I gave a job to a gay guy? Then I'll fire that gay dude and call Bryan Fischer "Sir" while he paddles my balls with his bible.' Goddamn, you mustn't be hungry after all the right-wing chowder you've gobbled.

Much more!

Republicans: Getting the Most Bat-Shit Bang For Their Buck

Another quick read from The Political Garbage Chute.

The polls aren’t biased, clearly. It’s not like everyone in the media got together last year and decided this would be the year they started tabulating all the swing states for Obama. The truth is that Romney-Ryan is selling a load of bullshit, and a lot of Americans just simply aren’t buying it. The Republican argument is pretty simple. Let’s go back to handing all the money to the rich people and then it’ll magically float down from heaven upon the serfs. But here’s the thing: it didn’t fucking work. What they’re hoping is that country as battered wife syndrome; that we know how bad for us the GOP is, but we can’t quit them.

We are quitting them; the polls show it…and they’re scared.

'Bout fuckin' time they get scared. Your turn, wingnuts. How does it feel? Like I give a shit. Run, you bastards, run.

Headline of the Day

Michele Bachmann's Chicago Synagogue Visit Drives Attendees To Leave, Donate To Her Opponent

Bwaoyoyoyoy! What'd she do, blow the shofar? Old joke. Sorry 'bout that, chief.

Quote of the Day

From a post on the upcoming Presidential debate at The Political Garbage Chute:

It’s about to get really fun, but then again any time Mitt Romney opens his mouth, comedy ensues.

Only when whatever he says - and he'll stand behind it, waaaay behind it - has no chance whatsoever of coming to pass, which is always.

Colossal Earth-Shaking East-West Blogger Meet-up!

l-r: me and him

Fixer and I have been friends with deuddersun for years through our blogs and now on Facebook. His real name is Chris (no last names, man). He was Out West Here to rescue his lovely daughter Melissa from a notorious cult - UCBerkeley - and when we figured out he was bookin' it back to Philly on I-80 and would pass a mile from my house, even us two dumb ol' Jarheads realized it was an opportunity we better not pass up.

As luck would have it, they booked a room for the night about three blocks from my house, so we basically never got off the block. They were driving a Penske truck and towing a trailer (think climbing the Sierra Nevada at 38MPH. Yawn.) so we went and picked them up and Chris took us to dinner at our local Young Gentlemen's Drinking & Fighting Establishment. It was a nice quiet evening there except for football on about 20 TVs, so the brass knuckles stayed in our pockets.

Side note: Usually our pups ride in the back seat of our Tacoma, and figuring that Chris and Melissa wouldn't want to curl up like they do, I reconfigured the dilithium crystals to accommodate human beings. It was a special occasion so I even Febrezed!

Chris is one fast-talkin' city slicker and charmed our waitress into taking these pictures. Offering to up her tip from the usual 50¢ didn't hurt. She was a jewel of a young lady.

l-r: Chris, Melissa, Mrs. G, moi

After dinner (Philly cheesesteaks in honor of Chris's hometown) we went over to my house and visited for a while and, both of us being motorcyclists, toured the World's Most Exclusive Motorcycle Museum (my garage).

I drove our honored guests back to their digs and we visited there for a while and I was administered a special glaucoma treatment.

The hour was getting late and they had a lot of miles to cover the next day so the time came to part. Chris walked me outside and we smoked 'n joked for a bit and we parted ways. I went over to where I had parked the truck and ... no truck. I figured out pretty quick, considering the glaucoma treatment, that Chris had walked me out the door on the other end of the joint from the one we went in by. Tried to fool Pierre! Gotta watch out for these big city guys! Heh.

We had a great time. These kind of opportunities don't come along very often and I think we're both glad we took advantage of it. I felt like I was seeing an old friend I hadn't met before. I look forward to the next time.

Oh, the irony...

My other posts were just killing time 'til these guys showed up at work. Ironic Times.

Worldwide Bacon Shortage Reported
Also, glut of unsold lettuce, tomatoes.

Apple CEO Tim Cook Apologizes For New iPhone Mapping App
After driving his Tesla into Lake Tahoe.

I hope they make him pay for draining the lake (enough water to cover California a foot deep) and cleaning the new car smell out of the water. Heh.

SAT Reading Scores Hit 4-Decade Low
Frtnly thy cn rd txt.

After the grid goes down, texting shorthand will help save on pencil lead.

Many more.

Headline of the Day

Obama the cage fighter and Romney the delicate puncher

¿Quien sabe? One-two punch or tear his throat out? Depends on who brung what and who gets in the best shot. My money's on the one who looks the best in Speedos.

Memo to Ann Romney: You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

Crooks and Liars knocks it outta the park:

Asked what her primary worry would be should her husband succeed in defeating President Obama on Nov. 6, Mrs. Romney replied, "You know, I think my biggest concern, obviously, would just be for his mental well-being."

While it's true that your husband, if elected, would be unlikely to suffer the barrage of underhanded slams at his race, or at his place of birth, life will not be a cakewalk for you, because governing this country isn't all about the economy, nor will you two reign as king and queen.

It's about 3 AM phone calls, and a Congress that can't seem to get anything done. It's about a Tea Party group funded by billionaires who will constantly put Mitt under pressure to produce his digits for appropriate bill-signings, show up at state dinners, and do little else.
...

It's about bankers and a crappy mortgage/housing recovery which your policies won't help at all. Wait till the bankers tell you it's not acceptable to simply let the housing market "bottom out."

Just you wait until your husband tries to reach across the aisle to get something done. He'll find a few Democrats ready to listen, but that's not who he has to worry about. The tea party groups will call for his head on a platter. That means he'll never be able to reach across the aisle without risking insane people in the Senate blocking bills, and if he moves too far right, he'll have those of us on the left pushing back and you know what, Ann? We'll win those battles.
...

So honey, if you're worried about his mental health now, just you wait. Better yet, just go ahead and take a seat over there and watch President Obama win the election. I'm certain Michelle Obama has no such concerns for Barack's mental health since he seems to take it all in stride quite well. Maybe it was those kids throwing stones at him in Indonesia, or maybe he's got a heart.

I'll stick with the guy who's proven himself. Don't you worry your pretty little head about Mitt. I'm sure you both will have a lovely retirement together, starting November 7, 2012.

Fuckin' A ... men.

Netanyahu blinked

This Can't Be Happening

Israel is not Calling the Shots in this US Election

Ol' Bibi tried, but...

Netanyahu blinked.

That’s the takeaway from the goofy address (complete with Spy vs. Spy-style cartoon bomb held up to the audience) by the right-wing, Cheltenham, PA-raised, MIT-educated Israeli prime minister to the United Nations General Assembly Thursday.

Prior to that address, Netanyahu had been virtually campaigning for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, hinting repeatedly on US television interviews of a pre-election attack by Israel on Iran’s nuclear fuel-making facilities, criticizing incumbent US President Barack Obama, and demanding that Obama and the US draw a “red line” on how far Iran could go in refining nuclear fuel before it would be considered essential for the US to join Israel in destroying Iran’s military infrastructure.

It was the most blatant attempt by a foreign leader to interfere in a US election in memory, but it was a bust.

I have no idea what Hillary whispered in his ear but I bet it made everything shrivel up. Heh. Maybe something like, "You wanta start a war with Iran to get Willard elected? Go right the fuck ahead. We'll send FEMA in a year or so to help the Arabs clean up Israel so it's livable". That "clunk" heard 'round the world was Bibi's nutsack hitting his tonsils.

Analysts are now suggesting that Netanyahu has backed off or been called off, even complimenting President Obama and giving him a valentine -- an endorsement before election day of sorts--saying in his UN address, “I very much appreciate the president’s position, as does everyone in my country.”

A valentine, huh? I suppose a blow job was outta the question...

Go read. here's a teaser:

With Obama’s re-election looking increasingly likely, and with even a Democratic recapture of the House of Representatives looking at least possible, there is a chance that AIPAC will finally be defanged. [...] Similarly, if Obama and the Democrats discover that despite refusing to cave in to Israeli demands or AIPAC threats, they can still be elected, while those favored by AIPAC and Israeli leaders like Netanyahu go down to defeat, AIPAC will no longer be able to intimidate US political figures in the future.

With friends like AIPAC and the neocons, who needs enemies?

On an Obama victory

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Debate Could Test Two Romney Weaknesses

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—With the first Presidential debate just two days away, G.O.P. nominee Mitt Romney has been working intensively on two skills that have eluded him throughout the campaign: talking and thinking.

According to one aide, much of Mr. Romney’s debate preparation has involved rehearsing a slew of prepackaged “zingers,” with mixed results: “We gave him what we thought was a foolproof line about the budget deficit and he somehow turned it into a crack about gay Mexicans.”

Reportedly, Mr. Romney’s practice debates have gone worse than expected, with the former Massachusetts governor getting trounced by a variety of opponents, including the Apple personal assistant Siri.

CLEARLY LABELED SATIRE

Quote of the Day

Last ¶ of a piece at Wonkette:

Scott Brown is sorry Elizabeth Warren forced his staffers to be so racist by being Indian, you guys. For their next trick, they will all make Chinese eyes at Chinese people and then have “Ghetto Night” where they wear do-rags and drink malt liquor.

Heh. Yep, that's how dipshits roll.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Emmylou Harris & Linda Ronstadt : He Was Mine / Sweet Spot + Interview

Thanks to 1000Magicians, UK.

"Stupid and proud of it"

Old Fart's on the mend after a heart attack. The fire in his belly is burning a little slower but the flames are just as high and good for him!

Notable quote: "We have to outvote the stupid people that are a bigger threat to this country than terrorism".

Amen, brother!

He has a few words to say about his health and what it's like to be dead too. We wish him all the best.

Thanks to oldfartrants.

Get some, Jim!

I don't always agree with Jim Webb (D-VA) but I like and respect him. If there's one man in this country who is qualified to say any damn thing he wants on Veterans' issues, it's Jim Webb.

I got my Vietnam GI Bill benefits - help to get a loan to buy my first house and a check each school month while I learned my trade. I might be dead today if the VA hadn't helped me sober up. I was damn glad to get the help and I'm for damned sure not a "taker" or a "victim".

The newer Veterans, many created by an illegal and unnecessary war, deserve no less than whatever they need.

Via Andrew Sullivan.

"Muthaf**kin' Romney on the muthaf**kin' ballot!"

Also known as "Wake The Fuck Up". Obviously a Zionist plot according to the end credits. Heh.

Via Slate but it's all over the place.

Note to Sam Jackson: Ya shoulda waited 'til Grampa and Granma did the deed. They probly don't get to do that very often any more. Heh.

President Obama: The Democrats' Ronald Reagan

If I could give a reading assignment, this would be it. Andrew Sullivan says what I think. I wish he had a better analogy than our Alzheimer's President, but he used to be a Repug and it kinda fits.

The hope many Obama supporters felt four years ago was not a phony hope. We didn’t expect miracles, but a long, brutal grind against the forces and interests that brought the U.S. to its 2009 economic and moral nadir. I’ve watched this president face those forces and interests with cunning and pragmatism, but also platinum-strength persistence. Obama never promised a mistake-free presidency, or a left-liberal presidency, or an easy path ahead. He always insisted that he could not do for Americans what Americans needed to do for themselves. In his dark and sober Inaugural Address he warned that “the challenges we face are real, they are serious, and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time.”

But in a first term, he ended the Iraq War on schedule, headed off a second Great Depression, presided over much more robust private-sector job growth in his recovery than George W. Bush did in his, saved the American automobile industry, ended torture, and saw his own party embrace full marriage equality and integrate gays into the military. If those liberals who voted for him in 2008 think this is somehow a failure or a betrayal, in the context of the massive crisis he inherited, then they could not have been serious about real change in the first place. But some of us were—and still are. We understood that real change meets real resistance. In fact, you only know it’s real when the resistance is so strong. And the proper response to that resistance is not to fire the president who made this Reagan-like first-term progress in a far worse economic and fiscal climate, but to redouble on the Obama promise, to insist that America’s profound problems can only be addressed by a compromising president making bipartisan deals. And which ticket is likelier to compromise with the other party: Obama–Biden or Romney–Ryan? The question answers itself.

Just as Reagan became an icon only in his second term, Obama needs four more years to entrench and build upon the large, unfinished strides in his first term. That’s why, if you backed Obama in 2008, as a liberal wanting change, as an independent wanting pragmatic solution-seeking, or as a conservative hoping to drag the GOP back from Palin-style insanity, it makes no sense to bail on him now. Because this is when the payoff of the long game really kicks in, when stronger economic growth will put a wind at the president’s back, when a bipartisan deal on debt could lift business confidence and accelerate recovery, when universal health-care reform becomes irreversible and health-care spending is slowed, when the last soldier leaves Afghanistan, when millions of illegal immigrants can come out of the shadows and help build the next economy, and when the spiraling emotions of religious warfare can be calmed, managed, and handled, rather than intensified, polarized, and spread more widely.

This was always Obama’s promise. He has not betrayed it. And we—yes, we—-deserve a chance to fulfill it.

I have nothing to add.

"Oh, Sweet Jesus!"

Even Morning Schmoe knows it's over.

Voter fraud?

But of course!

The Republican Party of Florida has cut ties with a company it paid $1.2 million to register voters after the elections supervisor in Palm Beach County asked the state’s attorney’s office to review 106 “questionable” applications.

Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher said she turned the applications over to law enforcement officials because of similar-looking signatures, missing information and wrong addresses on the forms. The questionable applications were part of a batch of 304 voter registration forms turned in by the firm using the Republican Party of Florida’s identification number, according to the Palm Beach Post.

...

Like we've been saying since this blog was founded, if the Republicans are raising hell about an issue, you can bet they're doing the things they're accusing everyone else of doing. If there is anything the GOP is good at, it's projection.

Hatred Hits Home….Literally

Go see and read this. I don't have a yard sign but if I did and caught anyone doing this, they'd be under it.

Headline of the Day

UC Davis Students Reach $1 Million Settlement with University Over Pepper-Spraying Incident

Let's see - $1mil ÷ 21 students = -clicketyclicketyching - $47,647.61 each.

For that kinda jing ya can spray me with anything ya want even if it violates every civil & Constitutional right I've got for a few minutes! Doesn't make it right, though.

"Ya picked a fine time ta leave me, Loose Wheel..."

This is just so good!

Raw Story

Vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) has apparently “gone rogue” and is now openly mocking his running mate, former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) in front of reporters and staff. Ryan has gone so far as to nickname Romney “The Stench,” and top brass at the Romney campaign have taken to referring to Ryan as “Gilligan.”

It was former political director of the Republican Party of Iowa Craig Robinson who said to the New York Times on Sunday, “I hate to say this, but if Ryan wants to run for national office again, he’ll probably have to wash the stench of Romney off of him.”

Bwahahahaha! I suggest pouring a #10 can of tomato juice on him, like gettin' skunk off a dog. It won't help but it'll be fun ta watch.

Have pity on Willard while his masters are robbing the joint blind

El Rude-o on the uselessness of discussing Willard's campaign any more.

There is an unmitigated gloom that now hangs over not just the Romney campaign, but media coverage of the entire race. You can see that despair in the face of everyone on television, in the words of every writer who still has to act as if this is anything but a waste of time until we learn by how much Barack Obama beats Mitt Romney. And the existential despair here is that they - hell, we - are all damned to keep discussing it because there's still over a month left. [...]
...

On the right, the punditry and reporting ranges from resigned recognition of imminent failure, with a vague hope of stanching the bleed out in congressional races, to desperately hammering away at the same points against Obama because repeating lies has worked so well before. It's pathetic, like watching a wounded seal try to get back to the safety of the shore before the killer whale finishes it off.

On the left, even though champagne corks are shaking in their bottles, that range is from disbelief that it's been this easy to cocky "told-you-so" crowing (guilty as charged). Yeah, there's always that show-off orca that likes to toss around the seal prior to devouring it.

Difference being that seals have value.

But all of this is a waste of time. The most desperate on the right will pen simple-minded articles, ranting about how Obama is so godforsakenly awful that Romney will win just because. That's bullshit, and their frantic ululations and blood sacrifices to their awful gods - Reagan, Ayn Rand, and others - demonstrate for all to see that they have nothing but dead virgins to show for their mad rituals at the edge of this exploding volcano.

Really, at this point, barring the discovery of some piece of video where Barack Obama says that he wants to fuck young white girls in front of the Lincoln Memorial, the only thing the President has to worry about with Romney is a surge in the pity vote.

Rude's wrong for once. The main thing we have to worry about is that the Repugs will steal the election. They're damn sure trying by every means they can think up and they've been thinking up new ones since Obama beat Grampa Walnuts by more votes than they were able to steal by the old means that "elected" Bush.

Hot sweaty married Jesus sex!

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford going on about how since it seems Jesus was married, all of Christianity will now change to reflect His actual life. When pigs fly.

Have you heard? Have you seen? For lo, the news hath spread far and wide, hath surely confounded many a true believer and scowling priest alike, even as it induced another long and beleaguered sigh from the subjugated female species of the world.

For lo, the fragment doth quote Jesus himself as referring to his “wife,” to Mary Magdalene herself as being one of his disciples, and to “dwelling with” none other than (oh no!) a woman.
...

What? Heresy! Blasphemy! Utter desecration to the hoary, patriarchal view of Jesus as being a tortured, celibate loner who would never touch a woman’s naughty bits; to Mary (and subsequently all women throughout history, forever) as being a lowly, repentant whore, and to sexuality and females alike as being lesser and dangerous, fearsome twin forces of chaos and destruction to be avoided at all costs.

As King herself told Smithsonian Magazine (I’m citing the Guardian here), the fragment casts serious doubt on the whole Catholic claim of a celibate priesthood based on Jesus’ celibacy. And that’s just for starters.

Is that too dramatic? Too difficult to believe? Hardly. It’s exactly those kinds of bleak, soulless teachings the church has leveraged for millennia to maintain control and keep women – and their terrifying, hysterical sexuality – in check. You know, for starters.

What’s more, a normalized, married, more “human” Jesus just isn’t a very good sell to the huddled, fundamentalist masses who’ve been hammered for centuries by the tragic lie that their gods are distant, judgmental megalomaniacs far separate from lowly, sinful humanity, and the best you can ever hope for is to maybe work hard enough, endure sex awkwardly enough, and pay enough money to the church so you don’t go straight to hell....

Put another way: What we don’t know about Jesus’ life, and about Magdalene as she relates to goddess lore and pagan history, what we don’t know of the true (bloody, brutal, heavily political) origins of the Christian faith and how the church founders manipulated and re-wrote everything to suit their needs, still far outweighs what we do.

The Holy Mutha Church has based its POWER over people on fear right from the start, kinda like the Repugs are doing. Neither is going to change until everybody hears God's voice booming from the heavens telling them to knock off the cheap shit and lies in His name. Probably not even then. There's too much money and power in it.

Quote of the Day

Mr. Charles P. Pierce:

... More to the point — and this is something that Ann Romney would not say, but I will: Every one of the people who are now so horrified at the campaign Mitt Romney is running spent three decades making the campaign Mitt Romney's running absolutely inevitable.

...

A dick sandwich; sidewalk underneath, sole of shoe on top, mit a big schmear of stupid.

How they think ...

All you need to know about how the reptilian brain of the average GOP voter works nowadays:

...

I did find one customer who had noticed the calorie labels: Dick Nigon of Sterling, Va. He and his wife, Lea, had stopped by McDonald’s after seeing an exhibit at the Renwick Gallery. Dick had ordered for the couple, noticed the calorie labels and liked them.

“I like that you have the information before you order,” he told me, when I asked about the labels. “It’s better than some kind of government health mandate in Obamacare.”

I told him that the calorie labels were, in fact, a government health mandate in Obamacare.

“Well that changes things a bit,” he responded. “I thought this was more of a voluntary sort of thing. Now I’m not quite sure how I feel about it.”

...

Nut, meet Shell. Keep yer gummint hands off my Medicare!

No politics or outrage today

My brain is still catching up from my trip home somewhere between realizing I could die from snakebite when I'm doing a doggie bag job at the lovely Camp Roberts rest area on 101 and The Great I-5 Skivvy Jam where someone lost a pickup load of very colorful not-gender-specific underwear (in the slow lane, thankfully) or the 7 little brown guys in the 10-year-old 4-cylinder Ford F-Bucket with Arizona plates that couldn't get out of its own way and who didn't know where they were but no doubt happy they weren't in Arizona or in the gentle transition from the 7 lanes of eastbound rush hour traffic in Sackatomatoes (our state capital) to the goat path that leads to my house and this is what I've been reduced to for amusement. Caution: NSFW!

Better luck tomorrow. Hopefully...


Update:

Almost forgot. One of the highlights of our drives home from the coast is Casa de Fuckin' Everything on Hwy. 152 between Hollister and the haunted Pacheco Pass. If it can be made outta anything that grows, they've got it. Also animals, an RV Park, scads of old farm equipment, even a "Casa de Diesel" truck stop. Mrs. G got a bottle of their signature pomegranate wine and some strawberry pineapple slices. Worth a stop if you're in the area.

Quote of the Day

Tengrain:

More people have won awards playing Alaskastan’s part-time governor and full-time grifter MOOSELINI than Palin has won elections.

Heh ...

Pic stolen from the Teanderthal Party.

Headin' home

Back at the pop stand tomorrow. See yas.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

House Approves Bill “Allowing” Wealthy to Contribute to Treasury
Or they can just continue contributing to Romney.

Romney at Private Fundraiser: “My Job Not to Worry About” People Who Don't Pay Taxes
“Present company excluded,” he adds.

Scientists Find Way to Erase Bad Memories
They've been hired by Romney campaign.

Chinese Hospitals Debut Automatic Hands-Free “Sperm Extractors” for Sperm Donors
One American firm has plans to market them over here as “love machines.”

The "Happy Endingbot"? Geez, them Chinks take the fun outta everything!

Heh ...

Pic lifted from Paul Ryan's Tall Tales.

Sick? No health insurance?

The Mittster says that's okay, just go to the Emergency Room. Really.

...

In the 60 Minutes piece, interviewer Scott Pelley pointedly asked Romney: "Does the government have a responsibility to provide health care to the $50 million Americans who don't have it today?"

"Well, we do provide care for people who don't have insurance," Romney said. "If someone has a heart attack, they don't sit in their apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the hospital and give them care. And different states have different ways of providing for that care."

...

I wonder how they'd do it in Rick Perry's Texas? And is it me, or is that one of the main reasons for health care reform in the first place? Because it was too expensive to provide care for the uninsured through the ER? Bloody twat ...

Does Mitt want your vote?

Thanks to Too Informed To Vote Republican for the pic.

Fuck you, Mitt ...

Pic thanks to Marcela Vanecek.

Being poor ...

For those who forget, or who've never been there:

Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs.

Being poor is getting angry at your kids for asking for all the crap they see on TV.

Being poor is having to keep buying $800 cars because they’re what you can afford, and then having the cars break down on you, because there’s not an $800 car in America that’s worth a damn.

Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away.

Being poor is knowing your kid goes to friends’ houses but never has friends over to yours.

Being poor is going to the restroom before you get in the school lunch line so your friends will be ahead of you and won’t hear you say “I get free lunch” when you get to the cashier.

Being poor is living next to the freeway.

Being poor is coming back to the car with your children in the back seat, clutching that box of Raisin Bran you just bought and trying to think of a way to make the kids understand that the box has to last.

...

Do you think the Mittster has a clue?

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Thanks to 1000Magicians, UK.

Taking a dump ...

So, Mitt thinks no one will notice on the last Friday of summer?

In the near future, I think we might be able look back to say that this was the week the Mitt Romney campaign entered its death throes. I suppose some miracle cure is still possible, but given that his vice presidential pick is getting pelted by boos from seniors and he himself was caught on tape calling half the nation shiftless moochers, sending things so off the rails that Mitt now wants to talk about his tax returns, of all things, you know the Romney camp is in quite a panic. That's a hell of a Friday news dump.

...

Can't wait to see how much is substance and how much is bullshit.

If you plan to starve granny ...

You can't expect her to be happy about it, can you?

Masturbatory Randian poster boy Paul Ryan gets booed at the AARP:

...

The oldsters may bitch and moan, but they know what they get from Social Security and Medicare. As soon as they think you're gonna fuck with it, you're screwed, even if the current generation isn't affected. The 50-year olds don't wanna hear that they're gonna be the guinea pigs for this misbegotten experiment. Bush the Dumber learned that the hard way and so will the Mittster and the Granny-Starver.

Ya lazy bastids ...

You know the GOP is desperate when they start showing their true feelings:

Willard's 47 percent remarks weren't an accident, nor were they a pander. This is what they truly believe. Pennsylvania Representative Daryl Metcalfe uses the same analogy about the Voter ID law he sponsored in Pennsylvania that shuts out 750,000 elderly and poor people from getting a proper ID to vote.

...

What'sa matta, gramma? Can't climb that mountain to get a government ID? You're just lazy and irresponsible.

Fuckers.

Little dicks ...

I think Rush's brain resembles 2 Alka-seltzer fizzing in a glass of water.

Rush Limbaugh on Thursday lashed out at feminists — who he called “feminazis” — over the news that male genitalia are shrinking.

The conservative radio host pointed to an Italian study which found that the average male penis was 10 percent smaller than 50 years ago. Researchers cited weight gain around the waist, smoking, stress and environmental pollutants as factors.

But Limbaugh wasn’t buying that explanation.

...

As a friend said to me, this only affects Rush's listeners. Heh ...

Yeah ...

Heh ...

Pic stolen from Republican Family Values.

Headin' out

Oh. Now I see what Fixer means by the new interface. Sucking wet monkey ass would be better. Oh well. we'll get used to it. Yechh. We're going out to the coast for a few days. Not quite Amsterdam and points north but it'll do. See yas.

It's never over ...

From Jude at First Draft:

...

As part of my job, I talked to a young man today who had recently been fired. He is 26 years old. We sent him to Iraq when he was 19 years old. Yes, "we." You and I. Everyone who lives in the United States of America sent him there. And he got broken. Ruined. He has post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury that you and I are responsible for. He did not incur those injuries defending our freedoms, or securing weapons of mass destruction, or "fighting them there so we won't have to fight them here," or any of the other reasons we were told that we had to send young men and women to Iraq.

No.

We sent him to go get ruined for the biggest bunch of bullshit I've ever seen in my entire life.

And ruined is exactly what he is. He got fired from a job for some chickenshit reason. That was the longest employment he'd had since returning to the States in 2006. He'd worked there 17 months. He can't remember things on a day-to-day basis. He has problems dealing with what most of us would think are simple situations. He gets very nervous when he hears sudden, loud noises. And his wife has to help him with what you and I would think are simple tasks.

We did this to him. We ruined him. We destroyed his life and the lives of those who care for him and deal with his disabilities on a daily basis.

...

Cheerleaders and chickenshits don't have to deal with this because A) they spent the war they supported in France or B) spent the war they supported getting deferments or C) they inherited enough money from their parents, who made it off the old war, not to be in a position to see their children have to fight in the current one, which they supported. And then, to top it off, these same chickenshits vote down the means to help the people who sacrificed so much.

...

After the vote, at midday on Wednesday, Patty Murray, chairman of the Senate veterans affairs committee, accused Senate Republicans of "shocking and shameful" obstructive politics.

She said: "At a time when one in four young veterans are unemployed, Republicans should have been able, for just this once, to put aside the politics of obstruction and to help these men and women provide for their families.

"It's unbelievable that even after more than a decade of war many Republicans still will not acknowledge that the treatment of our veterans is a cost of war. Today they voted down a fully paid-for bill that included bipartisan ideas to put veterans in jobs that will allow them to serve their communities. Jobs that would have helped provide veterans with the self-esteem that is so critical to their successful transition home."

...

Fuck. Them. All.

Update:

You can thank these assholes.

Yeah, 'supporting the troops'.

Pic lifted from 1,000,000 Strong to Help Improve Tea Party Patriots' Spelling and Grammar.

Dear Blogger,

Your new Blogger 'interface' sucks wet monkey ass. Thanks for making it mandatory now, you miserable little shits.

Regards,

F

Yawn ...

Another foiled 'terrorist plot'. Thank god for the FBI because if it weren't for them, most of these plots wouldn't have gotten as far as they did. [/sarcasm]

...

But by the time the FBI’s fake car bomb was parked outside the Cactus Bar & Grill in Chicago on Friday night, only Adel Daoud, 18, was there to push the button on what he thought was a detonator. Only Daoud was under arrest.

So what happened to the second person, an unidentified male who Dauod referred to as his “sahaba,” an Arabic term meaning companion?

Federal court records reveal a leader at a local mosque played a vital role in convincing the second man to abandon his plans for jihad just weeks before the would-be attack.

Undercover FBI agents, meanwhile, continued to lean heavily on Daoud. The agents supplied him with almost everything he needed to plan the attack and told him they were relaying messages from a foreign sheik who wanted to know if he was truly prepared to carry it out.

...

Now, I'm all for the FBI and law enforcement doing what they can to keep Americans safe without trampling all over our rights (we've given up enough of them over the last decade as it is), but when does this bullshit become entrapment? Seriously, these guys they bust are too dumb to find their ass with both hands tied behind their back and, but for the help of the FBI, would probably, at best, would have blown their fingers off tying a thousand M-80s together with a long fuse. The Imam did more to "foil a terrorist plot" than the FBI did and it cost nothing. I wonder how many millions went into the feebs' op?

The Great Big Hope ...

Ain't nothing but a bag o' shit. While everybody on the right was singing Secaucus Fats' praises, he was busy running Jersey into the dirt. How's those 'reforms' workin' out for ya, big boy?

It’s not just New Jersey Democrats pouncing on the latest batch of bad financial news for Gov. Chris Christie.

The Democratic Governor’s Association — headed by Christie foil Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley — issued a statement today on Standard & Poor's decision to lower its credit outlook for New Jersey from stable to negative. The negative action by Standard & Poor's follows two critical reports by two other Wall Street ratings firms who said the state’s economic recovery will continue to lag the nation’s. ...

Meet the Fokkens

I am beginning to see why Fixer likes Amsterdam so much!

Thanks to TheBigPictureRT.

Accepted!

Heh ...

Pic stolen from The Green Cross.

More Cowbell Elegance!

Via TPM.

“As you know, we are all gathered here this evening because I have agreed to accept the presidency,” Colbert said. “But unfortunately almost half, two score and seven percent will vote for my opponent, that socialist Hottentot. But what could one do? These people are just greedy parasites, sucking on the withered teat of Lady Liberty. Oh, how their hunger knows no bounds.”

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

10 amazing truths you already suspected

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford going off (mainly) on Romney and religion and the mocking thereof. Links at site.

More importantly, winter brings out the timorous clans of global warming deniers, all those scrappy literalists who don’t understand the concept of extreme weather, and instead take the words “global warming” to mean that if the entire country isn’t soon in a permanent state of sweaty, Florida-like misery, then science is bogus, God is awesome and it’s time to buy a new gun before Obama takes away all the bullets.

Are they not cute? They’re just not very bright, are they? It’s OK. They’re voting for Mitt Romney.
...

Translation: We may never get to know if America votes Mitt into the dustbin of history because he’s an insufferable empty suit who doesn’t give a damn about anything you care about, or because he believes in that cutesy pseudo-religion with the shiny golden plates, the polygamy and the disturbing arranged marriages to not very bright celebrity starlets. Or am I thinking of someone else?

(4) Right! Tom Cruise. Thanks must be offered to Vanity Fair for further clarifying, once again and without any lingering doubt, just how insane, how creepy is the cult of Scientology, and Tom Cruise, and its tiny ferret of a leader David Miscavige, a strange little guy you never hear about until he’s featured in a cringing article like this, and you shudder a little in gratitude that you will never have to be in the same room as either of them.

You’d think it would be a tenet, one of the requirements for big-league membership: If your god can’t take a joke, if your faith/cult/deity is too weak, too litigious, too violently reactive that you must kill, or sue, or revolt every time someone says something negative or an idiot in another continent criticizes you in any way, it might be time to overhaul the organization. Or your god. Or your bitter and oppressive patriarchy.

(10) Meanwhile! Jesus was married. Like you didn’t already know.

I knew, thank you late nite TV. To Mary Magdalene. The patriarchy that put that old book together sort of conveniently left her gospel out. They're the same ones who called her a whore that has pretty much stuck ever since. Nasty bunch. Jesus'll get 'em for that.

Word ...

We are all the 47% in some form or another. A great essay by Jill:

...

I don't have consumer debt at the moment. I pay the mortgage on time. I've been married to the same man for twenty-six years. I have no police record. I've never been arrested. I don't litter, I donate to charity, I try to pay my main writer, and I'm nice to elderly people and small children. I pay a higher percentage of my income in taxes than Willard Rmoney does.

But in Willard Rmoney's world, I am a loser, a parasite, a "taker", not a "maker". Why? Because I'm going to vote for Barack Obama in November. It's not that I think he's done a spectacular job. Like many others, including some who write on this very blog, I'm bitterly disappointed by him. But he's about the best we've got, and the thought of a Republican-dominated government with an entitled, condescending jackass like Willard Rmoney is just too appalling and frightening to even contemplate.

...

When you've lost Bobo ... (redux)

It's not just me who says it. Drifty documents the epiphanies:

From the Twitter Machine:

Dave Weigel:

When you've lost David Brooks, you've lost middle America.

Kurt Andersen:

Lots of rightys--@jpodhoretz, @AnnCoulter--have been radio-silent for 24 hours. But read David Brooks' spot-on column. 

John Harwood: ‏David Brooks on Mitt's 47%-dependent claim: "country-club fantasy; what self satisfied millionaires say to each other"

The Maddow Blog:

"If he's lost David Brooks...."

Steve Inskeep ‏(NPR)

"Who are these freeloaders? Is it the Iraq war veteran who goes to the VA? Is it the student getting a loan?"

...

My name is Joe and I'm a Republican ...

Our pal Montag points us to a support group for 'Eisenhower Republicans':

...

This should squeeze the last drops of intelligence out of the Republican/Teabagger Party.

To milk ...

My cruise, and the metaphors arising from it, just. one. more. day. Rats, ship, sinking:

Oh dear. Poor Mitt is having a very bad day:

...

Update:

God, Mitt, even Bill Kristol?

...

"It remains important for the country that Romney wins in November (unless he chooses to step down and we get the Ryan-Rubio ticket we deserve!)," Kristol wrote on Tuesday. "But that shouldn't blind us to the fact that Romney's comments, like those of Obama four years ago, are arrogant and stupid.

Noting that many of the 47 percent of Americans who don't pay income tax are core Republican groups like seniors and active military, Kristol added that "Romney seems to have contempt not just for the Democrats who oppose him, but for tens of millions who intend to vote for him."

...

When Bobo and Bill Kristol throw you under the bus, well ... you really suck.

"Follow the money, motherfuckers"

And what would Willard's latest wafflestompers,-meet-pecker revelation be without El Rude-o's take?

Note to Mitt Romney: Everyone Is Dependent on the Government, You Dumb Fuck:

Good on Mitt Romney for not backing down from the purity of his dickishness.

I think he stole that "Note to ..." shit from me. With my blessing.

Holy shit, what's left, huh? What remains to be said about Mitt Romney? In just two weeks, we've learned that he has no clue about how to lead on foreign policy (something that was reconfirmed by another part of the video) and that he simply doesn't give a shit about nearly half the nation. How much more degraded can this most dickish man be, an undoing of amazing proportions simply because no one apparently ever told him that he was just too much of a tool to be president?

The people who told him he could be President told him he was The Chosen One. I actually think he believes that no matter what he says, it is written in stone and will happen. It will not, and that will be his reward for believing what his cult leaders told him since he was a boy.

Then Rude starts in on Willard's fellow vulture capitalist Mark Leder.

One other thing: Leder is also somewhat famous for being another one of those private equity bros who flaunt their wealth. He's not Mormon, so he doesn't have to waste his money on prancing horses or multiple cloned sons. Leder has sex parties in the Hamptons: "[G]uests cavorted nude in a pool and performed sex acts, while scantily clad Russian women danced on platforms. Dancers at the party also twirled flaming torches to booming beats." It's awesome that Romney doesn't care whose jizz-stained hands he shakes, as long as those hands are providing hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign cash. Seriously, at this point, Romney may as well admit that he'd blow an elephant for the entertainment of wealthy donors in order to become president.

Orgies in the Hamptons, eh? Hmmmmm. Who do we know in Lawn Guyland who could get in and get some video of Willard fellating the pachyderm?

Note: don't shake anybody's hand. At least don't shake mine after. Heh.

Update:



In case Keith left out a couple: Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Holy Book Bigots

Thanks to YubaNet.

Word.

The way Willard must feel. Heh.

YubaNet

AUBURN, Calif. September 17, 2012 - A basejumper has been stuck in a tree approximately 100 feet off the ground under the Foresthill Bridge in Auburn since at least 8:50 pm on Monday evening.
...

Rescue personnel has requested a PG&E boom truck to assist in getting the jumper safely to the ground.

Over 15 Cal Fire and Placer County firefighters plus a dozen law enforcement personnel were on scene until 2:05 am when the jumper was finally lowered to the ground in the boom truck's bucket. The jumper was taken to Auburn Faith with minor injuries to his body. No word on the extent of the injuries to his pride or ego.

Placer County Sheriff's deputies will likely be waiting for the yet unnamed "stunt artist" when he will be discharged later today. The bill for the nighttime rescue promises to be a hefty one.

Landing in a tree first, then in jail?

Jumping is illegal and the jumper can likely look forward to at least a misdemeanor violation of State Parks code.

Oh, tres embarrassique! Willard won't go to jail of course, but I hope the bill is hefty. As in, no White House for you, o entitled one.

Klein on the 47% of us lazy-ass deadbeats

Ezra Klein is a wonk of which there are no whicher and I like him. From Kos, with links.

Watching and reading reactions to the Romney recording released today by David Corn over at Mother Jones has been entertaining.

No shit! Heh.

Part of the reason so many Americans don’t pay federal income taxes is that Republicans have passed a series of very large tax cuts that wiped out the income-tax liability for many Americans. That’s why, when you look at graphs of the percent of Americans who don’t pay income taxes, you see huge jumps after Ronald Reagan’s 1986 tax reform and George W. Bush’s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. So whenever you hear that half of Americans don’t pay federal income taxes, remember: Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush helped build that.
...

So notice what happened here: Republicans have become outraged over the predictable effect of tax cuts they passed and are using that outrage as the justification for an agenda that further cuts taxes on the rich and pays for it by cutting social services for the non-rich.

That’s why Romney’s theory here is more than merely impolitic. It’s actually core to his economic agenda.

Please read the rest.

Carter's Revenge

Former Pres. Jimmy Carter Congratulates Grandson on Unearthing Romney Video

Two things spring to mind:

1. Revenge is a dish best served cold, and

2. You won't know where, and you won't know when, but you'll know why.

Heh.

New York ...

Okay, last one and I'm done with the vacation pics. Back to reality ...

Halifax ...

My post from 2 days in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

When you've lost Bobo ...

You really suck.

Tough to summarize this one. Just go read the entire thing. But here's a little from conservative opinion leader David Brooks in the NYT on Mitt Romney's extraordinary gaffe tonight in the secret video just released.

...

Your choices ...

From MoveOn.org:

The Mexican Mormon War

This just came out today. The Mexican Romneys are heavily involved. I'm on their side. The trailer:

The cartels of Juarez, Mexico, are at war with a group of polygamous Mormons, some of whom are related to Mitt Romney. We went there to document the conflict.

Part 1/7:

The Mexican drug cartels are at war... with Mormons. Join VICE on Part 1 of our journey filled with guns, drugs, murder, and booze.

Thanks to vice.

Nanortalik ...

After a day in the Sund, we pulled into Nanortalik, Greenland.

Prins Christian Sund ...

One of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. Prins Christian Sund in Greenland.

Reykjavik ...

I got a post up from our 2 days in Iceland too.

Flam ...

Got a post up from our visit to Flam, Norway.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Poll: Obama Has Slight Lead Among Likely Voters
Has huge lead among suppressed voters.

Many Ohio Republicans Think Romney Responsible for Killing Bin Laden
At least that's what that nice man on Fox implied.

Halliburton Issues Warning to Public About Misplaced Radioactive Cylinder
If you find it, go to nearest biohazard disposal site, give it to first person you see in HazMat suit.

I wonder if Cheney's hiding it where it makes him walk funny...

Pennsylvania Court Decision Upholding Voter ID Law Is Based on 1869 Decision Citing “Rogues,” “Strumpets,” “Wandering Arabs,” “Vicious Vagrants,” and “Pestilent Hordes”
Thank goodness we can prevent them from voting.

They forgot to include "And Other Democrats".

Assange gets an Aboriginal passport

I've stayed outta the whole Wikileaks/Assange/Manning deal up to now because I don't give much of a shit about it. Those guys made their choices and the power structure is dumpin' on 'em. Yer gonna have that. Assange knew that would happen going in and dumb kid soldier Manning knows it now. He also knows the true meaning of that memorable line from the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) - "Penetration, however slight, is sufficient to complete the offense". Heh. His heart may belong to God but his ass belongs to them. Their behavior has taught us all the meaning of "chickenshit" as well.

That'e exactly all I have to say about that, but ... that said,

This is so good on so many levels! From the Sydney Morning Herald.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been offered an Aboriginal Nations passport in an inner-city Sydney ceremony after he was "abandoned" by Australian authorities.
...

The group that organised Saturday's ceremony, the Indigenous Social Justice Association, wants recognition of Aboriginal sovereignty.
...

The passport will now be sent to Mr Assange in London.

Well and good. Now let's see Mr. Assange get out of London on it. Heh. /snark.

So we have a people who make a point about their claim to sovereignty by doing something sovereign like a nation would do. Took some smart Ab ta come up with that!

Native Americans claim sovereignty and open up casinos.

Native Australians claim sovereignty and help free a political prisoner half the world away. Whatever happens next on that, good on yer, mates! Damn good start.

I bet we hear more about this.

Headline of the Day

Santorum: ‘We Will Never Have… Smart People On Our Side’

Got that one right, Frothy!

Unpacking ...

Gah ... I'll be back tomorrow. Gonna try to do some posts about where I been tonight, in between laundry and football (soccer).

Gord wasn't kidding when he said I froze my dick off. Heh ...