Gruber can run but he can't hide

Raw Story

During a recent interview, anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist struggled to explain his ties to a pharmaceutical trade group and then “took off” when he was asked about his history lobbying for home loan-backer Fannie Mae, an organization that he now criticizes.
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The reporters pressed Norquist on whether there was an “extorting effect” on his organization, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), after they took $140,000 from industry trade group PhRMA and then opposed drug reimportation.

"Extortion", shit. He's just another Repug whore.

“I mean, he was a lobbyist for Fannie Mae, he was a lobbyist for Internet gambling … he was connected to Jack Abramoff,” Wolf told MSNBC. “When people sign the pledge, they didn’t really know that it goes to that point.”

The way all this shit is coming out about the unsavory and hopefully illegal maneuvers the top Repugs are doing/have done, I gotta call my broker and diversify my portfolio into Tar & Feathers and Pitchforks & Scythes.

Yo, Fat Tony - Time To Go

Think Progress

Justice Scalia Cites Pro-Slavery Laws Excluding ‘Freed Blacks’ To Justify His Anti-Immigrant Opinion

This kind of thing is, sadly, common in Scalia’s opinions. He’s defended torture and finds little wrong with executing the innocent. When a majority of his colleagues reached the radical conclusion that people have a right to choose their own sex partners, Scalia railed against them for embracing the “homosexual agenda.” During oral arguments over the Affordable Care Act, Scalia seemed unable to distinguish legal arguments from partisan talking points.

Nevertheless, looking to slaveholding states for guidance is beyond the pale, even for Scalia.

We need this clown on the highest court in the land like we need another itchy asshole.

Update:

SB 1070 and the Scalia Clown Show

[...] I had no idea that states could preempt federal law as long as the federal government is exercising its powers in ways that Antonin Scalia doesn’t like.

In conclusion, Antonin Scalia believes in the rule of law and you don’t. Shame on you!

I don't believe in the same kind of law that he does, that's for damn sure.

Also:

Interesting take on Fat Tony's whiny-ass rant yesterday. Probably not much to it but ¿quien sabe?

Headline of the Day

David Brooks Should Not Be Allowed to Listen to Bruce Springsteen

Heh...

Start 'em young ...

And keep 'em dumb. Really?

It sounds like a hoax, but it’s apparently true: The Loch Ness Monster is on the science class syllabus for kids at Eternity Christian Academy in Westlake, Louisiana.

As reported by the Herald Scotland (which must track all Loch Ness-related news), a school that will receive tax-payer dollars, will teach kids that the mythological sea creature is real in order to debunk the theory of evolution. So pay attention: That will be on the test.

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Even Jesus weeps ...

Quote of the Day

Mr. Philadelphia:

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Ah how we laughed and laughed at Japan, confident we'd "learned the lessons of Japan."

Heh ...

Pic stolen from the Teabonics FB page.

About time ...

Somebody in that part of the world decided to clean up their own messes:

Turkey branded its former ally Syria "a clear and imminent threat," on Tuesday as its Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vented his fury over the downing of a Turkish fighter jet.

In his most outspoken criticism of the Damascus regime, Erdogan vowed to retaliate against the "heinous act" and promised a change of military attitude to any Syrian officer approaching the common border.

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Sorry, but I'm sick and tired of dumping our money into shithole after shithole over there. It's always "death to America" until they have a problem, and then they look to us (Kuwait, Libya). How about hitting up the Saudis too, and the Bahrainis, and all the others with money and Western-style militaries? Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with helping people who need it, but I'm tired of this country being thought of as the oil sheikhs' mercenaries or Israel's babysitter. Fuck them all.

This is why I'm so supportive of efforts to discover alternative energy sources. The day we do, we'll be able to tell all these desert rats to leave off. This way, they can all kill each other and no one will give a shit. Until then, we will continue to get drawn into that soap opera ad infinitum.

Addendum for all the people who say we should protect Israel (as if they can't protect themselves, they have nukes, for crying out loud): You're that worried about the Israelis? Pack 'em all up and relocate 'em to Florida. They exert enough influence on our foreign policy, they might as well pay taxes too.

20 years too late ...

How long have I been saying (when I bore you with European economics) that in order for the Euro concept to work, there has to be a unified monetary policy across all of the member states? Seems that's sunk in, finally.

European leaders have drafted a radical plan to turn the 17 countries of the eurozone into a full-fledged political federation within a decade in an attempt to placate the financial markets by demonstrating a political will to save the single currency in the medium-term.

The incendiary proposals for a banking, fiscal, and economic unions resulting in a “political union” are to be debated at an EU summit on Thursday and Friday. Following two bad-tempered meetings of European leaders in Mexico and Rome over the past week, the Brussels summit looks likely to see major clashes over the future of Europe as well as the immediate crisis surrounding sovereign debt, bad banks, and the euro’s survival.

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The Germans will never go for it, but at least some of them realize they made a gigantic mistake by not insisting on it when the Eurozone was formed.

Birds of a feather ...

If you're a religious leader trying to bring your flock's "values" back to the Dark Ages, who else are you gonna hire to run your PR effort?

The Vatican will be getting some (much needed) PR help after hiring a Fox News correspondent as a senior communications adviser for the Church's top administrative office, the Associated Press reported on Saturday.

The Fox News staffer, Greg Burke, is also a member of the conservative Catholic Opus Dei group. He will leave his job at Fox, where he is a Rome-based reporter. Before working for Fox, Burke was a Rome-based journalist for Time.

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But of course.

Good luck with that ...

Like I've mentioned many times, I have more nuns in my family than Carter has pills. They do Jesus' work, all of them missionaries or teachers, helping the poor in impoverished places. So, naturally, I got a problem with this asshole:

A conservative radio host says that the Catholic nuns who have embarked on a nine-state bus tour to protest the injustice of Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-WI) proposed budget deserve to be beaten with a handgun because they "threw the first punch."

"There’s a bus full of nuns headed towards Washington to lobby against the Ryan plan," radio host Jan Mickelson told Rep. Tom Latham (R-IA) last week. "Do you guys, do you have any power to pull the nuns on the bus over and pistol whip them?"

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And, I'm willing to bet any of those sisters would take his pistol away from him and shove it up his ass.

Hey ...

It works for NASCAR and European Football, right?

With the Republicans still successfully choking the economy, many towns are looking to naming rights and ad placement on municipal property to pay the bills.

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I can see it now; "The Ringling Bros. Clown Town Hall". Heh ...

If you're doing something underhanded ...

It might be best not to tell a moron what you're up to:

Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R) said that the voter ID law passed by the legislature would help deliver the state for Mitt Romney in November.

“Pro-Second Amendment? The Castle Doctrine, it’s done. First pro-life legislation - abortion facility regulations - in 22 years, done. Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done,” Turzai said at this weekend’s Republican State Committee meeting, according to PoliticsPA.com. [my em]

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Of course they rigged the game. They can't win if they don't cheat.

States Rights: Win One, Lose One

Win:

Think Progress, links at site.

Today, the Supreme Court issued a decision invalidating most of Arizona’s controversial immigration law. Georgetown Law professor David Cole, a vocal civil liberties advocate, called the decision “almost a total victory for the Obama administration,” which challenged the constitutionality of the law.

But the decision signaled that the court also views Obama’s recent immigration directive, halting deportations for many young undocumented immigrants, as legal. Essentially, the court underscored that the federal government has broad discretion under the law to decide who to deport.
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Kris Kobach, an immigration advisor for Mitt Romney, said that Obama’s order was illegal. It does not appear likely that the Supreme Court agrees.

This explains why Justice Scalia’s dissenting opinion, upholding the entire law, included a lengthy section blasting Obama’s immigration order. He also read from that section at length from the bench.

Yo, Fat Tony: howl at the moon all you want, asshole.

Lose:

Think Progress, links at site.

The Supreme Court just announced a 5-4 decision striking down Montana’s ban on corporate money in elections. The decision was handed down without hearing oral argument on the case, meaning that the five conservative justices were not even open to hearing arguments that their election-buying decision in Citizens United might have been wrongly decided.

Once the right-wing Moseses bring the tablets down from the mountaintop, that's it and fuck you.

In dissent:

But in a dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer argued that Montana’s history of corruption is a sign of what’s to come thanks to the Supreme Court’s determination that bans on corporate election spending violate free speech.

It's going to get worse before it gets better. A lot worse.

It's time for all 50 states to tell SCOTUS to shove it.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Asian Immigrants to U.S. Surpass Hispanics for First Time
Well-educated Asians willing to do jobs Americans can't comprehend.

John Kerry Will Stand in for Romney in Obama's Prep Debate
Romney will rehearse by debating Cedric the Entertainer.

Willard will lose that one too.

Interview-Shy Romney Appeared on “Fox & Friends” 21 TimesThis Year
He finds their journalism tough, but fair.

"Out of touch" doesn't begin to cover it...

No shit ...

Just one:

I really wish that just one Republican who parrots the "job creators" meme would explain just what it's going to take for these "job creators" to actually "create jobs" ...

Personally, if someone threw billions of dollars at me, I'd be hiring like a fool. I guess it's just not enough for them. I'd suggest that if you gave every American making less than $250K a $20K "bailout", it would do more for the economy than giving the "job creators" anything.

Quote of the Day

Thers:

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HOLY SHIT STARVING FAMILIES GET $130 A MONTH.

For fifty bucks you could mulch 'em.

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Definitions ...

Teabonics /tē-bon-iks/
(noun)

The creative spelling or grammar featured on the various signs used by protesters in the Tea Party movement. [a blend of the words "ebonics" and "Tea Party"]

Photographic examples here. The stupid; it burns.

Outrageous!

Stolen from the Being Liberal FB page.

An apt description ...

Of the conservative base:

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Romney is smart enough to know that the typical GOP base voter from swamps of darkest Jebusland is no longer functionally human in some very important ways: they have been trained not to notice or care if their leaders cripple the economy, trash the planet or shit directly in their faces every single day as long as they promise to make uppity, smart-ass Libruls suffer and to dispatch the Scary Black Man back to the depths of their most terrifying racial-inferiority nightmares.

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We have a name for them here in NY. We call them "suckers".

Quote of the Day

A commenter on Maddow Blog:

I suspect that Beck's "finger of God" was attached to his proctologist.

I'd suggest Beck's proctologist and neurosurgeon are one and the same.