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 ...