The Real Real America

Paul Krugman

So, for a while there during the campaign it seemed very iffy. But in the end, discipline and being on the right side of the issues prevailed. Yes, Elizabeth Warren won!

Oh, and that guy Obama too.

Tomorrow — or I guess today — comes the cleanup; when thousands, perhaps millions, of right-wing heads explode, it makes quite a mess.

Gimme a squeegee...

For a long time, right-wingers — and some pundits — have peddled the notion that the “real America”, all that really counted, was the land of non-urban white people, to which both parties must abase themselves. Meanwhile, the actual electorate was getting racially and ethnically diverse, and increasingly tolerant too. The 2008 Obama coalition wasn’t a fluke; it was the country we are becoming.

And sure enough that more diverse and, if you ask me, better nation just won big.

Word.

Kick Rocks, Turdblossom

Good read by Plaid Adder.

Mr. Rove, I have been keeping your political eulogy on ice for years now, waiting for the moment when I coudl finally and definitively say: you are done. And glory hallelujiah, the moment has arrived.
...

"He used his own data." That tells the sad, enraging, corrupt and gut-wrenching story of 2004 in a nutshell. It's painful looking back on that.

But you know what? I LOVE knowing that in 2012, he sat there on FOX News and tried to pull the same stunt...and nobody listened to him. Not even the delusional bastards at FOX News. Instead, they basically laughed at him...or thought, as one of their newscasters said as they cut back to McCormick Place, "AWKWARD!"

I guess Rove never made it back into the reality-based community after 2004. He was evidently unable to accept the idea that citing his secret Ohio data would not be enough to swing this one. And do you know why, Karl? Because after eight years of Bush and four years of Obama there were just not enough people left in America who were dumb enough to sign up for four years of Romney. No, not even in Ohio. No, not even after voter suppression and whatever other shenanigans your pals organized out there. ...

Because, after four years of a president who has something to offer besides humiliation, greed, and contempt, Karl, the American people no longer love the way you lie.

Because the number of bigoted white men willing to believe any bullshit as long as it makes them feel like they're king of the world is no longer a large enough percentage of the population to swing an election. Or even to swing Ohio.

I'd still like to have five minutes alone with that roly-poly piece o' shit sonofabitch before the billionaires have him killed. I hope he's found in a shallow grave with his arm sticking straight up with a fanned-out deck of cards in his hand. Now there's a cheery thought.

Steel Cage Death Match On Bullshit Mountain*!

Tom Friedman. Yes, that Tom Friedman.

The G.O.P. has lost two presidential elections in a row because it forced its candidate to run so far to the loony right to get through the primaries, dominated by its ultraconservative base, that he could not get close enough back to the center to carry the national election. It is not enough for Republicans to tell their Democratic colleagues in private — as some do — “I wish I could help you, but our base is crazy.” They need to have their own reformation. The center-right has got to have it out with the far-right, or it is going to be a minority party for a long time.

A long time would be fine. I was gonna say "leave the Speedos at home, boys" but that would be even worse...

*Reference here.

Headline of the Day

Koch Brothers Invoice Romney 500 Million For ‘Services Not Rendered’

Bwahahahaha!

Note to Willard: Don't worry about Adelson. Just put a little on his commissary account at Marion every month. :-)

A Thrashing

Michael Tomasky

This was a thrashing. I don’t yet know the full electoral college total, but it’s looking like at least a 100-vote margin. That’s a thrashing. Over at 11:13? And the truth is, it wasn’t even that dramatic. It was over around 9:00. The next two hours were just waiting around for it to be official.
...

Was it the ground game? Was it the 47 percent? Was it Sandy? Was it Chris Christie? It was a little bit of all those things. But mostly it was two big things, and this election was about big things.

The first big thing is that a very clear majority of Americans saw the truth about the past four years. Exit polls showed that voters still blamed the economic problems on George Bush’s administration. They thought Obama tried hard and did a pretty good job (no, he hasn’t done a great job yet), and they notice the change and improvement recently. I didn’t write all these things down, but in state after state exit poll as they went through them on CNN, more people thought—finally!—that the economy was headed in the right direction.

The people know who created the problem, and they know who’s fixing it. That’s number one.

And number two? The second big thing here is that the Republican Party is just too far to the right. Not just to win a national election. It’s too far to the right even to compete really seriously in one. The thing some Republicans are saying now is absolutely true: They should have been able to win this year. No incumbent president has ever been reelected with this kind of unemployment rate, and there’s no good reason it should have happened now. They could have won.

But it’s a fringe party that has become too extreme to win the White House. I’d imagine they’re going to blame Romney. I don’t like Mitt Romney. I’m indescribably relieved that after tonight, I never have to hear that man’s wretched voice again (my em). He ran the lyingest campaign in modern history—just outright and blatant lies. [...]
...

[...] But tonight, America told the guy who’s been trying that they appreciate it. And they told the crazy party: you’re crazy.

The crazy people are always the last to know they're crazy, and then they'll deny it and still say everybody is crazy but them and double down on it. We'll be living with batcrap crazy for a long time yet.

Obama's Anger Translator - Victory

Liquid alert!

Thanks to comedycentral.

A Few Brief Notes to Republicans on the Day After Their Defeat by Barack Obama

What would a post-victory day be without a weigh-in from The Rude One? Incomplete, that's what. He does not disappoint.

In four of the last five presidential elections, you lost the popular vote (we won't get into the fact that you really lost four of the last five elections completely). Is that telling you something? No, it's not. Because you're Republicans. And you don't care what reality is. You prefer to attempt to bend reality like a contortionist porn actor trying and failing to lick his own taint from behind.

Holy crap. I thought it impossible, but Rude just outdid himself in the unlikely and possibly physically impossible sexual positions department. I will savor the visual until the bleach tanker arrives...

You lost. It wasn't close. It wasn't a squeaker. It wasn't a nailbiter. All of your internal magical mathematicians were wrong. It was over the second the polls closed on the West Coast because it was over before the election even started. It was over because you nominated a fraud, a Tin Man who spent the entire campaign looking for a heart not because he really wanted one but because his advisors told him that he needed one. It was over because whatever else he tried to be, Mitt Romney was as close to a caricature of a rich dick as you could get without looking like he was merely plagiarizing The Simpsons or Dickens. It was over because, despite every effort to smear and lie about the President, Americans saw that Barack Obama was not your crude Bolshevik monster, but a cool, rational man who kept trying to get things done despite monumental opposition, despite monumental debt, despite a monumental storm. You won't see these things, though, because you're Republicans, and self-reflection is to you what a hot needle is to a cyst on your ass.

He ends his post on a darker and realistic note. Go see for yourself.

"Karl Rove’s head just exploded"

Bwahahahaha! Ah, sweet schadenfreude...

Watch this!

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

Via Raw Story.

The Great Obamagasm of 2012

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford creamin' his jeans. Heh.

This just in: The pro-choice, pro-women, pro-environment, pro gay-marriage, pro-education, pro-health care-reform black guy who seems to genuinely care about the state of the world and helping as many people as possible even though he’s imperfect and can’t get it right every time, he beat out the hollow, wildly dishonest, anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-environment, anti-everything rich guy no one really liked and everyone knew would slam us back a couple generations and a Mormon half.

And lo, it is a good day indeed.

Much more. Enjoy.

4 More Years

America won tonight.

The fun will begin tomorrow when the Repugs go to war with themselves over who is to blame. It will be fun to watch so lay in extra popcorn. There will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and rending of garments, not to mention whining, moaning, snivelling, bitching, kvetching, complaining, and much fingerpainting, oops, sorry, fingerPOINTING (although there may be some of the other as well). Note to the GOP: look inward, my brothers. I know exactly why they lost and I'm interested to see if they can figure it out by their next chance in 2024. 

We the People, and the New American Civil War

A 'recommended read' by Robert Reich.

In other words, white working-class men have been on the losing end of a huge demographic and economic shift. That’s made them a tinder-box of frustration and anger – eagerly ignited by Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and other pedlars of petulance, including an increasing number of Republicans who have gained political power by fanning the flames.

That hate-mongering and attendant scapegoating – of immigrants, blacks, gays, women seeking abortions, our government itself – has legitimized some vitriol and scapegoating on the left as well. I detest what the Koch Brothers, Karl Rove, Grover Norquist, Rupert Murdoch, and Paul Ryan are doing, and I hate their politics. But in this heated environment I sometimes have to remind myself I don’t hate them personally.

Bobby's very smart, but he's too nice. I hate everybody he mentioned and it's personal.

The Republicans' last hurrah

USA Today

The Republican Party's last hurrah is fast approaching. The GOP's coming demise may not be obvious from the outcome of this election, but I think it's all but certain.

I'm not talking about the Republican Party that was created in the 1850s by opponents of slavery. That GOP drew its last breath a long time ago. It was trampled to death by the herds of anti-civil rights Democrats,social conservatives and money-grubbers that started swelling the Republican Party's ranks in the 1960s.

Since then, the core of the Grand Old Party has consisted mainly of the rearguard of those who oppose the social and cultural changes the civil rights movement ushered in, and a small band of greedy plutocrats who seek to profit from such intolerance. In recent years, this eclectic group of Republicans has been joined by the Tea Partiers, a collection of small-government, anti-tax, no-compromising political activists. The common strand that laces through all these groups is race: Their membership is nearly all white.

It is this lack of diversity that is plunging the party toward extinction. [...]

Faster! Faster!

Sure, Republicans have had a lot of success racking up election victories with little help from black and Hispanic voters, but that's not going to continue very far into the future.

Like a dying sun, the GOP's impending doom is masked by a final burst of energy that might keep it competitive through a couple more election cycles. But as the nation's demographics change, the Republican Party is destined for the political scrap heap in the not-too-distant future.

Best news I've had all day.

We need more than one party - three would be good - but the current Repugs ain't one of them.

Voting: A Love Story

El Rude-o

He had had some doubt that his polling place would even be available since there are still areas here in Sandyland that are without power. But it was up and running on a generator, with no heat. And everyone, from the black guy who told the Rude Pundit where his district's table was to the Hispanic woman who found his name in the Big Book o' Registered Voters to the elderly Indian dude who monitored the booth to make sure the vote went through, was kind and friendly; they were even patient with others who did not show up in the Big Book. It went as smoothly as it could have possibly gone, an idealized version of what participation in democracy should be, not the ludicrous, racist, oppressive, and childish version of things in states that went for Barack Obama that are run by Republicans. The Rude Pundit lives and votes in a working class neighborhood that is overwhelmingly non-white, and there are no problems at all because no officials from the state or county are causing them.

More.

In the End, Vote for Obama Because Fuck Romney

Today's 'must read' from The Rude Pundit. In toto Below The Fold.

Finally, at the end of four brutal years of the 2012 presidential campaign, the Rude Pundit is exhausted. He's exhausted and disgusted, and there's so many factors as to why, some of them Sandy-related bullshit, some of them political bullshit, that he'll just bring it down to one: that we as a nation put ourselves through a four year-long campaign because, truly, once Jeb Bush and Chris Christie decided they weren't going to run for president, the election was over. Why did they take the 2016 off ramp? Because they knew the inevitable outcome and they didn't want to dim whatever gleams they have reflecting off them. They knew, as the Rude Pundit knew (demonstrably), that Barack Obama was going to win reelection. If they thought he could lose, they would have run. So the smart narcissists got out of the game, leaving only the dumb narcissists.

And the dumbest, richest narcissist of them all bought the nomination for himself because that's the only fucking way such an illegitimate, empty vessel of a religious fanatic, this charlatan, this con man could have gotten this far in our nonsensical system of choosing a leader.
...

Romney needs to have election results shoved up his ass and down his throat because he has approached the presidency as something that is his by some kind of rich white man's birth right.
...

No, Barack Obama ain't poor and he ain't perfect. And this blog has pissed off more than a few readers by pointing that out, especially on civil liberties, and even more especially on drone attacks. He could have been even more aggressive with those who opposed him. He could have developed a way to communicate what the health care reform law does, what the stimulus has done, and more. We could list a shitload of his accomplishments, and that would be enough.

But it's also enough to say this: Fuck Mitt Romney. Fuck him and everything he represents. Vote to make him pay in a way he never has had to in his entire awful life.

(Note to fellow liberals: If you don't wanna vote for Obama or want to vote for Jill Stein, well, it's your vote, motherfuckers. Do with it what you will. Some people spend all their money on meth. It might fuck up their lives permanently, but they sure feel good while they're doing it.)

Headline of the Day

Liquid alert!

Texas marching band features Big Bird decking Romney as Obama does backflips

In TEXASS?!

With video!

Question of the Day

Why Was Uncertified 'Experimental' Software Installed on ES&S Tabulation Systems in 39 OH Counties Just Days Before Presidential Election?

We know why.

The Republicans’ Closing Argument

Borowitz

In its entirety, the argument read as follows: “We’re strongly opposed to FEMA and health care, but basically O.K. with rape.”
...

Mr. Priebus also had this message for the American voter: “Your vote is important. We’ve spent billions trying to buy it.”

Not included was his statement, "We tried to be nice and buy it, but if that doesn't work we'll steal it."

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

CANDIDATES MAKE LAST PUSH IN FINAL DAYS OF CAMPAIGN
Obama urges his supporters to get out and vote; Romney urges his supporters to get out and stop them.

In Pitch for Bipartisanship, Romney Pledges Regular Meetings with Democrats
Once a year, in the servants' quarters.

At Christmastime, to get their bonus lump of coal.

Fact-Checkers Chastise Both Sides in Final Days
Romney claim Chrysler, GM sending jobs to China deemed false; Obama claim oldest daughter now 5' 9" deemed off by 1/4".

That's called "equivalence".

More Than Two-Thirds of Republican Voters Believe in Demonic Possession
Explains why they vote against their own best interest.

That esplains a lot...

"You can't hide your lyin' eyes"

This one goes out to W. Mittens Rmoney.

Thanks to mrtamberineman123, UK.

SNL

In case you missed it. This is funnier'n shit!