Why be a Dem?

These "Blue Dog" Dems really chap my ass. If you can't get yourself elected following your party's principles, why bother running as a Dem? That's right, it isn't about the principle, it's about the power:

The House's planned vote Wednesday to fully repeal Obamacare ultimately amounts to little more than political theater, given that House Republicans have made 30 previous attempts to repeal all or part of the law, all of which have gone nowhere in the Democrat-controlled Senate. But this week's vote does offer several politically vulnerable members a new chance to distinguish themselves on this hot-button issue.

Ahead of Wednesday's vote, at least two House Democrats have indicated plans to side with a majority of Republicans to reject portions of the law. Both face uncertain re-election odds.

...

If you're gonna vote like a Republican, you might as well be a Republican.

Great thanks to Tengrain for the link.

"I'm Mitt Romney, bitches, and I'm all you got left."

Today's 'must read' and a big tip o' the Brain to Madeleine Begun Kane.

[...] The current Willard, of course, is opposed to mandates because he is the nominee of a party full of crazy people. [...]

I'm Mitt Romney, bitches, and I'm all you got left.

Stop sweating me, okay? It's time for my nap. Tell Kristol to shut up or I'll look under the lawn chairs until I find enough loose change to buy that little magazine of his and sell it to the publisher of Biker Mamas for a 200-percent profit. Let Kristol go cover Bike Week in Laconia next summer if he wants to run his yap. And Murdoch? He doesn't like me? Tell you what: How about I get in there and revoke that tin citizenship medal that he's got and let him go back to selling titty magazines to sheep farmers in Queensland. He's over here because people like me allow him to be over here. Goddamn immigrant. I hope the senile old fool is tapping my phone, because I won't have to shout at him that,

I'm Mitt Romney, bitches, and I'm all you got left.

In case you haven't noticed, they're still all coming to me. I've been running them through the obstacle course up here all week. Jindal's parking cars, and Pawlenty's almost got the entire pool cleaned out, and Portman mixes a fine dark-and-stormy for the cocktail hour every day. Ann's got Portman cleaning out the stalls. Fine man with a shovel, that Portman, but, Jesus H. Christ Come To Arkansas, he's boring. Ayotte was around this afternoon, but she has to be back on the pole by 8:00 because I promised one of the kids — Tagg, or Tripp, or Tybalt, or Queequeg or whatever the hell his name is — a show for his friends tonight. They will do anything just to be the person I get to send to the funerals of the presidents of countries I could buy for what I've spent on alfalfa for that damn horse, because, well:

I'm Mitt Romney, bitches, and I'm all you got left.

Go. Did I mention 'liquid alert'?

What scares them the most ...

Is someone with a functioning brain.

Pic stolen from Religion Poisons Everything.

So ...

How do you get through to idiots like this? If you wonder why there is a Dead End Quarter*, this is it:

The reply is classic.

*The 25 - 30% of Americans who will vote GOP blindly and consistently without regard for their own interests.

Take From Me These Myths: A Prayer

The God Article

Today, like the rest of the world,
when I woke I wrapped myself in myths.
They are comfortable and warming in what can seem like such a cold world.
Yes, they are old and worn but they are familiar
and even the most fashion forward find comfort in this thread-worn garb. ...

They tell me that the rich shall inherit the Earth,
and that they will be beneficent rulers.
The myths that I wear tell me
that giving to the rich is better than giving to those in need,
so we as a nation heap blessings upon the rich
expecting 'trickle down' to make it rain on those of us below.
Yet, we remain drenched in our inability
to pay the rent,
pay for college,
save for the future...
at times, even believe we have much of a future.
...

They tell me that the least of these deserve what they get,
that “But for the grace of God, there go I,”
believing that somehow God's grace falls more abundantly on me.

They tell me that I must shut off who God created me to be
and live into the image the world expects of me
because who I am on the inside won't be accepted on the outside.
...

Loving God,
take from me this earthly garb,
for not only are they old and thread-worn...
but they reek.
They stink of the stench of power, money and greed.
They have the foul odor of prestige, self-importance and control.
They fill my nostrils with an offensive aroma
that smacks of a history of abuse, belittlement and pain.
They exude with the suffering they let me ignore.
They ooze with the memories of the blood that has been lost.
They smell to high heaven and point to my complicity
in the lies of this world.
...

Help us, O God.

Nice thought. Good fuckin' luck. No help unless you're a Repug or a televangelist and even then it'll only be money from suckers. But that's enough for them. The rest of us can just piss into the wind, aka "prayer", like always.

Oh Hell Yeah!

Should Jeep build the `Old Man Truck’?

A real old-time pick 'em up truck! The only "voice-activated driver controls" here are "get in, sit down, hang on, and STFU". Heh.

The rich are different from you and me

And don't they know it. They know what's best for them us too. From KWCH on the Rmoney fundraiser at some beach shack in the Hamptons:

A New York City donor a few cars back, who also would not give her name, said Romney needed to do a better job connecting. "I don't think the common person is getting it," she said from the passenger seat of a Range Rover stamped with East Hampton beach permits. "Nobody understands why Obama is hurting them.

"We've got the message," she added. "But my college kid, the baby sitters, the nails ladies -- everybody who's got the right to vote -- they don't understand what's going on. I just think if you're lower income -- one, you're not as educated, two, they don't understand how it works, they don't understand how the systems work, they don't understand the impact."

Note to the donette: What us great unwashed "don't get" is why we should allow the system to continue of making you richer at our expense just because you rigged it that way.

Related:

Two Arrested Trying To Crash Romney Fundraiser

Some "common people" looking for some food perhaps? Nice photo of the beach shack as well.

Update:

Krugman weighs in. Heh.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Obama, Romney in Dead Heat
Experts say it'll all come down again to Justice Roberts.

Helluva thought first thing in the morning...

Murdoch Divides Fox Into Two Separate Entities
One for entertainment and publishing, one to run Republican Party.

Israeli Researchers Develop Marijuana Without THC
For those who don't like getting high, but do like getting arrested.

Oy...

2000 – 2010: 47,000 UFO Sightings, 13 Cases of Credible, In-Person Voter Fraud
GOP has introduced nearly 1,000 bills to tighten voting laws in 46 states, but done nothing about UFOs.

Vocabulary Builders
voter fraud n. voting by somebody who is not supposed to vote, defined as somebody who will vote for Obama.

I thought this was supposed to be irony...

Heh ...

Pic stolen from the Mitt Romney Fan Club.

Quote of the Day

Watertiger:

I think we can all agree that the guillotine needs a comeback tour.

Word squared ...

Both pics stolen from the Liberal Kitchen Witch.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Emmylou Harris tells the story of a prostitute in France trying to give comfort to a soldier on a three day spree. A soldier who has seen and lived the terrible tragedy and horror of WWI

Thanks to Ross MacLennan.

In Memoriam

After 'A Face in the Crowd' and before 'The Andy Griffith Show' Andy Griffith recorded a monologue about college football in 1953 that has become one of the most beloved comedy recordings of all time. The illustrations accompanying the video were drawn by MAD Magazine artist George Woodbridge. I used to listen to this recording over and over as a kid. Still makes me laugh -- and pretty much sums up my views on American Football to this day. Captions added by yours truly. Rest in peace, Andy. And thanks for the laughs...

What he said.

Thanks to PosterBrat.

GOP Embraces New Conspiracy Theories

TPM

In the 1990s, if people told you about three men on television spinning ever more complicated conspiracy theories about the federal government, you’d assume they were talking about an “X-Files” spinoff. If you heard the same thing today, you’d be on solid ground assuming they were talking about high-ranking members of the Republican Party and the conservative movement.
...

Conspiracy theorizing is not a partisan activity — plenty of progressives opposed to President George W. Bush believed sinister agendas lurked behind the scenes in his administration. But most of the outlandish claims never came from the top levels of the Democratic Party.

A look over the new grassy knoll:

Here's just one example:

John Roberts, Manchurian Justice

What led Chief Justice John Roberts to cast his vote with the liberal wing of the Supreme Court, thus dashing the hopes — and expectations — of conservatives everywhere? Some options, as espoused by top Republicans:

Radio host Michael Savage said Roberts was on drugs. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) said Roberts was in the pocket of the New York Times. The National Review said Roberts was scared of Obama after the president scolded the court during the State of the Union. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

These suggestions aren’t restricted to the conservative fringe — the idea that outside forces somehow got to Roberts is being espoused by top Republicans, including the one at the top of the presidential ticket.

Understandable. I mean, whoever heard of a Good Repug* going sane? Must be a commie plot like fluoride in the water.

*An oxymoron to be sure, but only in the reality-based world.

The real 'gateway drug'

The researchers have confirmed what I've thought for years.

Raw Story. links at site.

A study in the August edition of The Journal of School Health finds that the generations old theory of a “gateway drug” effect is in fact accurate for some drug users, but shifts the blame for those addicts’ escalating substance abuse away from marijuana and onto the most pervasive and socially accepted drug in American life: alcohol.

Using a nationally representative sample from the University of Michigan’s annual Monitoring the Future survey, the study blasts holes in drug war orthodoxy wide enough to drive a truck through, definitively proving that marijuana use is not the primary indicator of whether a person will move on to more dangerous substances.
...

“I think [these results] have to do with level of access children have to alcohol, and that alcohol is viewed as less harmful than some of these other substances,” Barry added.

That social misconception, largely driven by the sheer popularity of alcohol and the profits it generates for private industry, is diametrically opposed to the most current science available on drug harms. A study published in 2010 in the medical journal Lancet ranked alcohol as the most harmful drug of all, above heroin, crack, meth, cocaine and tobacco. Even more striking: The Lancet study found that harms to others near the user were more than double those of the second most harmful drug, heroin.
...

“This is a time of budget tightening,” Barry concluded. “Many social services are being cut. If you take [our findings] and apply them to a school health setting, we believe that you are going to get the best bang for your buck by focusing on alcohol.”

You'll get 'banged' all right. Too much profit from sales all the way up the chain of law enforcement, the court system, and the prison industrial complex.

Alcohol is the worst drug on the planet. Period. And the most profitable.

Headline of the Day

Reagan-appointed judge: Republican ‘lunatics’ made me less conservative

Me too...

I worry ...

About Gordon on his trail rides. I have nightmares like this:

Heh ...

Ha-ha ...

Karma's a bitch:

In Louisiana, Republican Governor Bobby Jindal pushed for a voucher program that would allow state funds to be used to pay for religious schools. It’s unconstitutional, it’s a way to use taxpayer money to fund someone’s faith, and it was a bad idea to begin with.

But it passed.

Now, one of the state legislators, Rep. Valarie Hodges (R-Watson), just made a shocking discovery, though: Christianity isn’t the only religion!

...

All you need to know ...

About how Fox 'News' works:

Pic stolen from Mad As Hell Liberals.

Headline of the Day

Ann Romney: Obama’s only strategy is ‘Let’s kill this guy’

Mrs. G says she's a snobby bitch just like Willard. Heh.