The Romney Record -- Past is Prologue

Pay-for-Pedophilia

From the AP:
"The Archdiocese of Milwaukee confirmed Wednesday that it had a policy to pay suspected pedophile priests to leave the ministry.

"The acknowledgement was prompted by a document made public by abuse victims' advocates from the archdiocese's bankruptcy that references a 2003 proposal to pay $20,000 to 'unassignable priests' who accepted a return to the laity. The policy was crafted under then-Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who is now a cardinal and head of the archdiocese in New York."

That would be the same Timothy Dolan who is leading the charge against the Affordable Care Act as an "act of religious freedom." Back in Milwaukee when he was questioned about a payoff to a notorious pedophile priest, Dolan said the notion he knew anything about it was "false, preposterous and unjust." So to summarize, in Cardinal "G.O.P." Dolan's "spiritual" cosmos it's o.k. to buy off a pedophile priest and not report him to authorities, but it's sacrilege for people to use contraception and for the Obama Administration to require private insurance providers to cover contraceptives in policies to which Church institutions subscribe. Oh, and Dolan's a liar to boot.

Wow. When did this guy's moral compass go awry?

(Photo: Cardinal "G.O.P." Dolan "...was blind but now I...uh...I'm still blind.")

Rump Love Cartoon of the Day

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The "bloviating ignoramus" is far more likely to cost votes for Willard "I Need 50.1%" Romney than he brings in, and Rump shows no signs of curbing his narcissism and need for the spotlight. Willard will regret his choice of "friends."

The Fuxers Go All In For Romney

The Rethuglican trio on Fux and Friends thought it would be a good idea to run their own anti-Obama political ad on their program yesterday morning. Even for Fux/GOPTV, it was odd to see such blatant, Rove-like propaganda aired on what claims to be a morning chat show. Right-wing hosts Gretchen "Wretched" Carlson, Steve "The Douche" Doocy, and Brian "Kill Me" Kilmeade added their own two cents worth in support of the Rethuglican message.

Apparently embarrassed by the obvious Rethug cheerleading of their morning trio, Fux executives later issued a statement that the propaganda piece wasn't "authorized" at the proper level in the Fux organization. Maybe Roger "Jabba the Nut" Ailes was out of the office searching for "socialists."

"Socialism!"

Jon Stewart hits Fox "News" (fat) head Roger "Jabba the Nut" Ailes and the Rethuglicans' selective application of their favorite recent "Boo!" word. Watch it all, please.

Scott's Sinister Suppression

One of the major under-reported stories of 2012 is the systematic Rethuglican effort to suppress the votes of Democratic constituencies. Using non-existent "voter fraud" as a smokescreen, Rethug-controlled legislatures in a number of states have enacted laws that would have the effect of suppressing young, minority and elderly voters through often elaborate and onerous requirements. For example, getting a "government photo ID" for some people without drivers licenses could mean taking time off from work, using public transportation to get to the local board of elections, and producing a birth certificate (which many elderly no longer have).

Think Progress has an article on the most aggressive voter suppression activity, namely Florida's voter rolls purge, and the national media blackout. Orchestrated by Rethuglican Gov. and Medicare fraudster Rick "Voldemort" Scott, the purge of the rolls is intended to disenfranchise thousands of voters who are likely to vote Democratic, and is reminiscent of a similar, infamous purge by then-Florida Sec. of State Katherine "Maybelline" Harris before the Bush/Gore election in 2000. Not surprisingly, the national media's not covering this story, which is part of the larger effort to deny citizens their right to vote simply on the basis of their party affiliation.

(photo: Gov. Voldemort, in an unretouched photo)

Mid-Week Burn It Down Song

Linkin Park has been one of the most successful bands of the new millenium. Their sound is hard to categorize, but it fuses alternative rock, electronica, rap, and other genres. Burn It Down is their latest single.

Photo of the Day

Just a week after his birthday, folk legend Bob Dylan received the Medal of Freedom -- the Nation's highest civilian honor -- today from President Obama. The times they are a changin' indeed.

(photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

Spineless Mitt and Birther Trump -- Plutocrats in Love

"... I'm appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people.” -- Willard "Spineless Mitt" Romney, yesterday, when asked if he was bothered by birther and "bloviating ignoramus" (--G. Will) Donald "Rump" Trump's support. Hey, it takes one good person to recognize another good person, right!?

(Photo: Ann Romney: "Uh, Willard, there's a guy taking a picture of this over there." (Associated Press))

Pants on Fire Quote of the Day

"Candidates claim the right to make any boast or accusation as long as there’s a kernel of veracity in there somewhere. Even by this lax standard, Romney too often fails. Not to put too fine a point on it, he lies. Quite a bit." -- Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Eugene Robinson in his column today. With the Beltway media failing to call him out on his lies, Mendacious Mittens feels free to continue. We recommend checking out Steve Benen's regular posting on Rachel Maddow's blog, where he chronicles Mendacious Mittens' lies nearly every Friday.

A Bridge Across Generations

We were remiss in not noting the 75th birthday on Sunday of an American icon, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Construction on the 1.7 mile bridge began in early 1933, during the depths of the Great Depression. Costing more than $35 million, the project was completed on May 27, 1937, $1.3 million under budget. The last surviving worker on the bridge, Jack Balestreri, died last month. The bridge is an engineering marvel, and an aesthetic treasure. May it long span the Golden Gate.

(photo: Thomas Hawk)

Memorial Day, 2012

This is Memorial Day in America, when we honor the men and women who served and sacrificed in war. We also stop to think about the military families who shared the sacrifice of their service member. We most humbly thank you and we honor you all.

Rocks for Brains Quote of the Day

“For heaven’s sake, you have Grover Norquist wandering the earth in his white robes saying that if you raise taxes one penny, he’ll defeat you,” he added. “He can’t murder you. He can’t burn your house. The only thing he can do to you, as an elected official, is defeat you for reelection. And if that means more to you than your country when we need patriots to come out in a situation when we’re in extremity, you shouldn’t even be in Congress...If you want to be a purist, go somewhere on a mountaintop and praise the East or something. But if you want to be in politics, you learn to compromise. And you learn to compromise on the issue without compromising yourself. Show me a guy who won’t compromise and I’ll show you a guy with rock for brains.” (my emphasis) Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-WY) today on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS," referring to his teatard Rethuglican Party's no compromise, no prisoners approach to government (see also "Sunday Reading," below).

Bloviating Quote of the Day

"What voter is going to vote for [Romney] because he’s seen with Donald Trump? The cost of appearing with this bloviating ignoramus is obvious, it seems to me. Donald Trump is redundant evidence that if your net worth is high enough, your IQ can be very low, and you can still intrude into American politics." -- bloviating pundit George "Quill" Will stumbling into the truth on ABC's This Week program.

Sunday Reading

Writing in today's Kaplan Daily, E.J. Dionne and blind squirrel Dana Milbank have complementary opinion pieces about how radical "modern" conservatism has become. A few samples:

E.J. Dionne: "The more he [Obama] emphasized a better balance between the individual and the community, the less interested conservatives became in anything that smacked of such equilibrium.

"That’s why today’s conservatives can’t do business with liberals or even moderates who are still working within the American tradition defined by balance. It’s why they can’t agree even to budget deals that tilt heavily, but not entirely, toward spending cuts; only sharp reductions in taxes and government will do. It’s why they cannot accept (as Romney and the Heritage Foundation once did) energetic efforts by the government to expand access to health insurance. It’s why, even after a catastrophic financial crisis, they continue to resist new rules aimed not at overturning capitalism but at making it more stable."

Dana Milbank: "When news broke that a vial of Ronald Reagan’s blood was being auctioned online, the price quickly jumped to $30,000 as Web sites and blogs explored a tantalizing possibility: Did this mean the late president could be cloned? [snip]

"But before they go filling that mold by mapping the Reagan genome, Republicans may wish to consider some genetic flaws that party scientists should repair in the cloning process. To make the Reagan clone more compatible with today’s Republican Party, a bit of genetic engineering may be in order..."

Both pieces are worth reading in their entirety. While it's early and the campaigns have just gotten underway, it appears from polling to date that a large percentage of voters are looking to reward these Rethuglican crackpots in November for their mindless radicalism. Sic transit gloria.

Weekend Cartoon - Millionaire Mitt Edition

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(Garry Trudeau, via gocomics.com)

Wanker of the Week - Pseudo-Democrat Edition

Move over, Mayor Booker! We have a new pseudo-Democrat in the slimy tradition of Sens. Ben "Dover" Nelson and Joe "I Don't Know If I'll Vote for Obama" Manchin, and ex-Sen. Blanche Lincoln, etc., ad nauseam, who place their opportunist ambition over loyalty to the leader of their party and their party's principles. Our Wanker of the Week's name is Heidi Heitkamp, recipient of the first ad buy by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (!!). Let the inscription on her Wanker Award read:

Heidi Heitkamp, a former North Dakota attorney general seeking to replace the retiring Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), told the AP that Obama has "failed in the one test America had for him, which was to unite the country.""I think he needed to be more hands-on... I don't think he's done enough to think broadly and come up with solutions that would engage both sides in a reasonable dialogue," she added. (via Charles P. Pierce)

Apparently, Ms. Heitkamp has been in a coma since January 2009, or she is ignorant, or she is simply playing to the ignorance and bias of her Fox "News"-fed audience (ding-ding!). This is why we don't give to blanket organizations like the DSCC or its House counterpart, the DCCC. They give funds to anyone who calls themself a Democrat, regardless of their fidelity to the party and its leader. We prefer direct contributions to worthy progressives like Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Sherrod Brown. Just sayin'.

(Post Election Update: See our heroine in action on the talk shows, providing her Rethuglican-lite wisdom 4 days (!) after being sworn into office.

Catholic Church: A "Troubled Family"

Following E.J. Dionne's article the other day about the push-back right-wing [crypto-Rethuglican] Catholic bishops are feeling for their increasingly partisan attacks on the Obama Administration, the Kaplan Daily's religion writer Lisa Miller writes:

"A small group of very conservative bishops has hijacked the church, or at least the public voice of the church. The bishops are playing the role of the authoritarian father. In case after case, their message to the faithful is 'Do it because I say so.'

"Last week, in an orchestrated political maneuver, 43 Catholic entities — including the Archdiocese of Washington — filed a dozen lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, saying that any mandate requiring religious organizations to provide contraceptive coverage to employees was a violation of religious liberty.

"So, even though 82 percent of American Catholics believe that birth control is morally acceptable, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called the lawsuits 'a compelling display of the unity of the church in defense of religious liberty.' (The USCCB is not a party to the suits.)

"A much larger group of more moderate bishops has stayed mostly silent, fearful that to take a stand against the brethren would be to lay bare intramural fissures. They play the role of the silent and frustrated mother.

"The lawsuits are, in fact, very far from a 'compelling display of unity.' There are 194 dioceses in the country; only about a dozen joined the suits. There are more than 200 Catholic colleges and universities in the United States, and only a handful joined the suits. Notably missing from this so-called display of unity are the dioceses of Chicago and Los Angeles, both of which have prominent leadership and robust, vibrant Catholic communities. Also missing from the list of plaintiffs are some of the country’s most prominent Catholic educational institutions, notably Boston College and Georgetown University." (my emphasis)

Not only are the right-wingers dividing the Church hierarchy, they're dividing the faithful, 82 percent of which don't support their view of the immorality of birth control. We would also suggest, if polled, they would not support the right-wingers "hijacking" the public voice of the Church in order to align it with the Rethuglican Party.

Hope in Arizona?

Former Surgeon General Richard Carmona is the Dems' excellent choice for filling the seat of retiring Rethug Sen. Jon Kyl. According to this report in Talking Points Memo, even Arizona Rethuglicans are impressed with the resume that Dr. Carmona brings to the race for Senate:

former surgeon general under President George W. Bush;

son of Puerto Rican parents, grew up poor in Harlem, where he battled hunger and homelessness;

dropped out of high school and joined the Army;

got his GED and joined the Special Forces;

won two Bronze Stars, two Purple Hearts and a combat medical badge among a number other decorations;

returned home and earned an M.D. degree;

recruited to Arizona to start a regional trauma care system;

worked as a surgeon, professor and a decorated member of the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.

A number of Rethug operatives in Arizona are using descriptions like "political Greek god, and "amazing" to describe Carmona and his heroic life story. In interviews, Dr. Carmona projects honesty, intelligence and commitment, and articulates his views in a frank and open way that's refreshing in our spin-cycle political world. We hope he makes it to the Senate.

Willard Romney, Numbers Man

If you like this ad and want to see more on the air, please consider donating to Priorities USA Action PAC.

Your Weekly Chronicle of Mitt's Mendacity

Courtesy of Steve Benen, here's your weekly compilation of the whoppers, lies, half-truths and flip flops emanating from Willard "Whatever I Said" Romney's privileged foie gras hole. With a "liar" (-- N. Gingrich) like Willard spouting untruths as fast as his lips can move, it's hard to pick a winner this week, but if we had to we'd pick #9 on Benen's list:

"President Obama has decided to attack success."

The evidence? Of course it doesn't exist. Unless by "success" Willard means "vulture capitalists (-- Rick Perry) who fire employees, strip companies of wealth and line their pockets and those of their investors." Oh, that "success."

Weekend Song

Hibbing, Minnesota's Bob Zimmerman celebrated his 71st birthday yesterday (!). (You know, Bob Dylan.) If you're not familiar with his work, or your only exposure to him is from his post-electric period, do yourself a favor and check out some of his early folk albums (like "Bob Dylan," "The Freewheelin Bob Dylan," "Another Side of Bob Dylan," "The Times They Are a-Changin'"). Enjoy them and enjoy your weekend.

Give 'Em Hell Quote of the Day

"He left out some facts. His speech was more like a cow pie of distortion. I don't know whose record he twisted the most: mine or his." -- President Obama on the campaign trail in Iowa (where they know their cow pies), referencing bully barber Willard "Whatever I Said" Romney's habit of lying about both the President's record and his own. Bonus points for "cow pie of distortion" jab.

Wall Street Whiners

Nobel Prize winning columnist Paul Krugman has an excellent column in the New York Times blasting the "spoiled brats" in the Wall Street financial community. Despite receiving taxpayer bailouts and seeing the stock market bounce back from its crash in 2008, the banking buccaneers have had their widdle fweewings hurt by some mild criticism by the President, and some regulations that will likely save themselves from themselves in the future. Some key points from Krugman:

"Vast wealth isn’t enough; they want deference, too, and they’re doing their best to buy it. It has been amazing to read about erstwhile Democrats on Wall Street going all in for Mitt Romney, not because they believe that he has good policy ideas, but because they’re taking President Obama’s very mild criticism of financial excesses as a personal insult. {snip}

And it has been especially sad to see some Democratic politicians with ties to Wall Street, like Newark’s mayor, Cory Booker, dutifully rise to the defense of their friends’ surprisingly fragile egos. As I said at the beginning, in a way Wall Street’s self-centered, self-absorbed behavior has been kind of funny. But while this behavior may be funny, it is also deeply immoral."

It's very much worth reading his whole column. That the Wall Street "Masters of the Universe" would be so averse to any criticism -- much less calls for accountability and prosecution -- indicates that their arrogance and sense of entitlement continues to this day.

The Legend of St. Ronnie

We saw this mindboggling quote from former Secretary of State and Reagan national security advisor Colin Powell on Sean "Heil" Hannity's program:

"I went in to tell [Reagan] about this problem that we had. And just the two of us in the Oval Office, he's sitting in front of the fireplace, I'm off in the couch. And so, I'm telling him and he seems to pay no attention to me, so I talk louder. Still not paying attention to me. And then finally, he stops and he says, 'Colin, Colin!' 'Yes?' The squirrels just came and got the nuts I put out for them this morning. And so, 'Yes, Mr. President.' And so, I left. Went back to my office and I thought about it. And I said, 'I know what he was saying to me,' he was saying to me, 'Colin, I really, really like you, I love you, I will sit here as long as you want me to, but it's your problem. I hire you to solve problems. You let me know when I have a problem.'"

Alternate conclusions would be that 1) St. Ronnie wouldn't have paid attention if Powell came in to tell him the Oval Office was on fire, and 2) St. Ronnie was showing clear signs of dementia / Alzheimer's disease and his advisors were ignoring it. Either way, it's a window into the fake-front Presidency that was St. Ronnie of Hollywood's.

(photo: St. Ronnie {right} with co-star Bonzo, his Ambassador to the Animal Planet)

Picture of the Week

This is a photo by Pete Souza (now hanging in the White House) of young Jacob Philadelphia touching President Obama's head. Here's the back-and -forth, as reported by the New York Times:

“I want to know if my hair is just like yours,” he told Mr. Obama, so quietly that the president asked him to speak again.

Jacob did, and Mr. Obama replied, “Why don’t you touch it and see for yourself?” He lowered his head, level with Jacob, who hesitated.

“Touch it, dude!” Mr. Obama said.

As Jacob patted the presidential crown, Mr. Souza snapped.

“So, what do you think?” Mr. Obama asked.

“Yes, it does feel the same,” Jacob said.

For more reasons than I care to express, this makes me proud that I'm a Democrat, and even prouder to support this President.

(Photo: Pete Souza, The White House)

A Pakistani Injustice

Ever since the attacks on 9-11, we've relied on allies to assist us in combating al Qaeda, not just our European and Asian allies supplying troops and material, but countries in the region. We've noted over time that Pakistan has allied itself with us when convenient (requesting more food and financial aid), but is culturally and viscerally allied with extremists, including al Qaeda affiliates Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Haqqani network, often through the offices of its intelligence service, the ISI.

Now, in a gratuitous slap at the U.S., a Pakistani tribal court has sentenced Dr. Shakil Afridi to 33 years in prison for providing indirect assistance that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden last May. Although he was convicted of "treason", he never spied against his country, as an American official noted:

“He was asked only to help locate Al Qaeda terrorists, who threaten Pakistan and the U.S. He helped save Pakistani and American lives.”

The U.S. will do what it can to either get Dr. Afridi released, or his sentence drastically reduced, but the damage to a good man has been done, and the signal has been sent that nuclear-armed Pakistan is increasingly hostile to our interests in the region.

Progressive Catholics Pushing Back

Yesterday, we noted (with the NY Times' MoDo) a disturbing trend by right-wing Catholic bishops to aggressively enter the political (and judicial) sphere over contraceptive provisions of the Affordable Care Act -- provisions which the Obama Administration have already compromised on, and are willing to negotiate further. But really, this isn't so much about "religious freedom," as those in the conservative Church hierarchy contend, as much as it is about creating a political alliance among right-wing dead enders against the President and Dems on this and other social issues. As discredited as the Church has become over its decades-long pedophile priest protection program, this may be yet another disaster in the making for them, given the Catholic public's overwhelming acceptance of birth control.

E.J. Dionne writes about the push back on the recent lawsuits by some progressive Catholic bishops (you know, the ones that want to care for the poor and sick for a change). Dionne writes:

"...in recent months, a series of events — among them the Vatican’s rebuke of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, encouraged by right-wing U.S. bishops — have angered more progressive Catholics and led to talk among the disgruntled faithful of the need for a 'Catholic spring' to challenge the hierarchy’s shift to the right."

While we're not hopeful that this will be a turning point, given the extreme conservatism of Pope Joseph Ratzinger Benedict XVI, it's still encouraging to see some courageous Catholic leaders swimming against the right-wing tide in their Church.

"President Mittens" Cartoon of the Day

(click to enlarge)

Chart of the Day

Another chart to remember when you hear Rethuglicans lying about Federal spending going through the roof under President Obama. Goes to show they don't know up from sideways.

"Father Doesn't Know Best"

On the heels of the suit filed by 40 Catholic institutions to stop the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"), Maureen Dowd tells us what we already know: in overwhelming numbers, Americans, including American Catholics, think birth control is "morally acceptable." And she has some choice words to say about the old Rethuglican men at the top of the Church's hierarchy bearing false witness about an Obama "war on religion", and whose agenda is blatantly anti-woman.

"... I wasn’t surprised to see the Gallup poll Tuesday showing that 82 percent of U.S. Catholics say birth control is morally acceptable. (Eighty-nine percent of all Americans and 90 percent of non-Catholics agreed.) [snip]

"The poll appeared on the same day as headlines about Catholic Church leaders fighting President Obama’s attempt to get insurance coverage for contraception for women who work or go to college at Catholic institutions. The church insists it’s an argument about religious freedom, not birth control. But, really, it’s about birth control, and women’s lower caste in the church. It’s about conservative bishops targeting Democratic candidates who support contraception and abortion rights as a matter of public policy. And it’s about a church that is obsessed with sex in ways it shouldn’t be, and not obsessed with sex in ways it should be. [my emphasis]

"The bishops and the Vatican care passionately about putting women in chastity belts. Yet they let unchaste priests run wild for decades, unconcerned about the generations of children who were violated and raped and passed around like communion wine."

Amen, sister!

Our Broken Media, Cont'd.

A few weeks ago, political scientists Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann published a study that looked at the phenomenon of governmental gridlock and polarization. Their conclusion was that the Rethuglicans were almost entirely to blame because of their growing extremism and obstruction.

Do you recall any significant coverage of their study? On the networks? National newspapers? On Fux? (OK, that last one would be when pigs fly). Media Matters explains that a major reason is that the mainstream media has been complicit in muddying Rethuglican mischief by bending over backwards to find infractions by the Dems...you know, "balance." They avoid at all costs to appear "partisan," even when one group is committing political arson. In their world, the arsonist and the fireman are both to blame.

Mid-Week Words Song

The death of two influential musicians from cancer in the past week -- disco diva Donna Summer and the Bee Gees' Robin Gibb -- was marked on radio stations and news broadcasts. While the Bee Gees are best known for their '70s disco hits, here's a more poignant song of theirs from 1968. RIP.

At His Best

The past week has been a hectic one for President Obama, first with the G-8 meeting at Camp David, followed by the NATO summit in Chicago. Interspersed were the daily governmental and political chores that follow the President (thanks again, Snooker Booker!).

Perhaps the President's best moment came when he delivered the commencement address to Joplin high school students one year after the devastating tornado claimed 161 lives. Praising their community's spirit and sacrifice, it was one of those crystal moments, away from the pressures of governing, where this President is at his best:

"You can serve as a reminder that we're not meant to walk this road alone; that we're not expected to face down adversity by ourselves. We need each other. We're important to each other. We're stronger together than we are on our own."

(photo: D. Mills, NY Times)

Romney and Bain - A Rethug Compilation

When you hear Etch-A-Sketch Willard's campaign and Rethugs whine about how Dems talking about Willard's job destruction record at Bain is an attack on the free enterprise system, remember this:

Cartoons of the Day -- Entitled Willard Romney Edition

Because if one picture is worth a thousand words, two must be worth two thousand!
(click to enlarge)




("Dog therapist" -- hee-hee)

(Top: Clay Bennett; bottom: Drew Sheneman; both via gocomics.com)

Porcine Pedophile Alert

Trying to enlist wingnut women to his misogynist cause, hate radio poo-flinger Rush Limpballs has a new gimmick: get them to go on Facebook and call themselves "RushBabes." Setting aside the question of what woman on earth would want to be this porcine clown's "babe," the Pig Man added a new twist when he fielded a call from a 14 year old Idaho girl:

"CALLER: Hi, Rush. Yeah, my name is Katie, and I'm 14, and I'm not sure if I qualify to be a Rush baby or a Rush babe. What do you think?

LIMBAUGH: You're 14? (Ed. - Can you hear the heavy breathing?)

CALLER: I'm 14.

LIMBAUGH: You're four-- you're both. You are Rush baby and a Rush babe both. We'll count you both.

(We'll take a break here so that you can wash your ears with disinfectant).

Should local police be notified when he's in town? You be the judge.

And The Answer Is?

"Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts for four years, Congressman Ryan. And during that time, Massachusetts ranked 47th of the 50 states in job creation. The only reason the unemployment rate went down [was] because so many people left the work force -- more than any other state in the country except Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. Is that a record to be proud of?" -- question posed to Rethuglican/Social Darwinist Paul "Lyin'" Ryan by Fux News' Chris "I'll Be Looking for Work Soon" Wallace on his program yesterday. Fux boss Roger Ailes must be steamed.

Lyin' Ryan didn't have a good response, and tried to shift the conversation. No wonder the Rethugs would rather talk about Mittens the Destroyer's private equity business "success" (thanks again, "Snooker" Booker!).

Cory Booker, Opportunist

When Newark, NJ Mayor Cory "Snooker" Booker appeared on Press the Meat yesterday, one could anticipate a news-making moment for the spotlight-seeking Mayor. True to form, Snooker played the role of Very Serious Person when he condemned recent Obama campaign ads targeting Willard "Job Destroyer" Romney's empty claim as a job creator. He played the false equivalence card by mentioning the right wing's proposed ad on Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the President. Snooker's comments were immediately praised by Rethuglicans. Feeling the heat from Dems, Snooker later walked back his statements.

Weird Willard has made his "expertise" as a job-creating businessman the centerpiece of his campaign. Questioning that nonsense is absolutely fair game for the Obama campaign. Snooker knows that, of course, but he has his eyes on statewide office, and he wants to ensure that campaign contributions from wealthy investors flow to him. As Rethuglican Gov. Chris "Kris Krispycreme" Christie's occasional partner in political crime, Snooker's not a reliable surrogate for the Obama campaign, as his appearance yesterday demonstrated. Face it: Snooker is looking out for Snooker's career, period.

(photo: Snooker Booker hearts Kris Krispycreme; 'nuff said.)

UPDATE: Looks like there's a Bain Capital-Cory Booker financial connection. We're shocked, shocked!

Cartoon of the Day

The Rethugs are locked into the same supply-side, trickle down economic philosophy for 30 years: minimize taxes for the wealthy, gut regulations on the environment and work conditions, and cut domestic spending (but not Defense spending -- there, you keep the defense industry campaign contributors contractors fat and happy).

As Dumbya once famously said, "fool me once, shame on --shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again." Or something like that.

Facebook Announces Merger

Congrats to Facebook mogul Mark Zuckerberg and his lovely bride Dr. Priscilla Chan, his long time girlfriend. Just one day after Facebook went public with its record-setting stock offering (making Zuckerberg a billionaire 19 times over), and shortly after Chan graduated from med school, the two wed yesterday in a small private ceremony at his home in Palo Alto, CA. They announced the marriage on Facebook, of course.

Rahm Throws A Bean Ball

The billionaire wingnut that provided financing for the ill-fated Super PAC ad using Rev. Jeremiah Wright against the President is in full retreat mode. Joe "Sticky" Ricketts, founder of TD Ameritrade and owner of the Chicago Cubs, clearly didn't want his fingerprints on the racist ad, and is claiming he never approved it. More ominously for Sticky, he's angered former Obama Chief of Staff and Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel at a critical time when a bond measure for Wrigley Field renovations is up for consideration. Sticky Ricketts needs the Mayor's support to get millions in tax exempt bonds approved. Mayor Emanuel is reportedly "livid" over Sticky's association with the ad, and his "blatant hypocrisy" in supposedly standing for limited government while asking for a huge government tax exemption. According to an aide of the Mayor,

"The Ricketts[es] have tried to contact the mayor but he’s said that he does not want to talk with them today, tomorrow or anytime soon."

Payback's a beotch.

The Error of Their Ways

Talking Points Memo notes that Weeper of the House John "Orange Boner" Boehner's new website, "speaker.gov," has a tab called "GOP Solutions" that, when you click on it, produces an error message. Bwahahahaha!!

Nothing could be more appropriate, except perhaps if the link took you to this:

Chart of the Week

Given the information above, how can Rethuglicans still be viable?
Thanks to dear friend and reader P.E.C. for pointing us to this chart.

I Don't Know What I Said Quote of the Day

"I'm not familiar precisely with exactly what I said, but I stand by what I said, whatever it was." -- Etchy sketchy android Willard "The Barber" Romney yesterday, when asked whether he stands by his statement on Sean "Heil" Hannity's show in February that Rev. Jeremiah Wright is fair game in attacking the President, who had said earlier that day that he repudiated such attacks.

As children, we're taught that lies are hard to maintain over time, because of all the additional lies needed to defend the original one. Case in point.

Weekend Song

From the new album "Bloom," here's Baltimore's own Beach House. Enjoy your weekend.

Quote of the Day - R.I.P. "Americans Elect"

Paul Krugman on the flop that is/was "Americans Elect":

"...Americans Elect, a lavishly funded 'centrist' group that was supposed to provide an alternative to traditional political parties, has been a ridiculous flop. Basically, about seven people were actually excited about the venture — all of them political pundits. Actual voters couldn’t care less. [snip]

"So why Americans Elect? Because there exists in America a small class of professional centrists, whose stock in trade is denouncing the extremists in both parties and calling for a middle ground. And this class cannot, as a professional matter, admit that there already is a centrist party in America, the Democrats — that the extremism they decry is all coming from one side of the political fence. Because if they admitted that, they’d just be moderate Democrats, with no holier-than-thou pedestal to stand on." (my emphasis)

Somewhere, Tom Friedman is having a sad.

Cartoon of the Day

(click to enlarge)

As Rethuglicans intend it, deregulation of business isn't about efficiency, or productivity. It's certainly not about public safety, the environment or preventing fraud and abuse. It's about profits, and the continued contributions by corporations and the wealthy to their campaign coffers.

Wronging A Wright

The New York Times is reporting that a wingnut Super PAC, backed by a billionaire, are planning to mount an attack on President Obama using the timeworn issue of former Obama pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The gist of the potential ads are to impugn the President's patriotism, firmness, etc. (repeat after us: "Bin Laden is Dead, GM is Alive").The billionaire right-wing sugar daddy, Joe Ricketts, is the founder of TD Ameritrade and the owner of the Chicago Cubs. Ironically, Ricketts is part of the one percent that has realized 93% of the economic gains in the recovery -- can you say "ungrateful greedhead"?

Profile in courage and amateur barber Willard "Scissorhands" Romney has issued a weak call for the PAC not to run the attack ad. The Dems see this as a potential gift, one that would drive moderates and independents away and energize their base. It's also old news, a story that the Rethugs milked in the 2008 Presidential campaign to no real effect, but that nonsense appeals to the far right, conspiracy-minded loons that make up the Rethug party base.

BONUS: Be sure to read Charles P. Pierce's take on all this ("We have done a remarkable thing in this country. We have privatized both political slander and political corruption.")

Washington Cardinal Tries to Muzzle Secretary Sebelius

Washington Roman Catholic Cardinal Donald Wuerl is attempting to silence Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, herself a practicing Catholic, criticizing the Jesuit-run Georgetown University for inviting Sebelius to speak at an awards ceremony at the school's Public Policy Institute. Wuerl, along with other conservative (a.k.a., Rethuglican) cardinals, has framed the issue of Sebelius being a public figure "whose actions...present the most direct challenge to religious liberty in recent history" (in other words, her involvement in the health reform law mandate requiring contraception coverage). Of course, framing this as an issue of "religious liberty" is bearing false witness, but it fits the right-wing meme that the U.S. Conference of Bishops is pushing along with the fundamentalist right: that the Obama Administration is hostile to religion. Trying to keep Sebelius from speaking at a Catholic university, though, is hostile to the American values of free speech and an open discussion of issues without fear of censorship or reprisal, wouldn't you say Cardinal Wuerl?

(Photo: Cardinal Wuerl -- he won't be allowing any discussion or dissent!)

Quote of the Day

"It is pretty galling for Speaker Boehner to be laying down demands for another debt ceiling agreement when he won't even abide by the last one." -- Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), yesterday on Weeper of the House John "Orange Boner" Boehner's threat to use raising the debt ceiling early next year as an "action forcing event." Yes, "action forcing," like the last debt-limit hostage-taking, when the U.S. credit rating was down-graded thanks to Orange Boner and his teatard Rethug caucus. Nice work there!

Tweet Of The Day

D.W.Schultz if u & dems do Nothing 2help ppl suffering in Wisconsin under the tyranny of Scott Walker my immense respect 4 u will plummet!

— Cher (@cher) May 16, 2012

Here's a timely tweet from Cher to Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. Message to DNC: The Wisconsin recall election is a watershed for progressives and labor; don't sit on the sidelines with your resources.

Mid-Week Feeling Fine Song

We're going to the back of the raaaack for this classic by the Beatles. It's the first ever recording making use of feedback as a technique, one of many firsts by the Beatles over their historic career. Feel fine today.

Dumbya's Ringing Endorsement

ABC News caught former President and perpetual doofus George "Dumbya" Bush after a speaking engagement in Washington, and asked about Willard "Scissorhands" Romney. Here's the account:

“'I’m for Mitt Romney,' Bush told ABC News this morning as the doors of an elevator closed on him, after he gave a speech on human rights a block from his old home — the White House."

You could say Willard got the shaft on that one.

(photo: "I'm for Mitt Romneeeeeeee.....")

Public Optimistic About Economy

A new poll by USA Today/Gallup shows that 58% of the public believes the economy will be better in 2013, a promising development for President Obama. With consumer confidence on the rebound, and a belief that the recession is finally behind us, it will help Obama sell his message that we're heading in the right direction. His probable Rethuglican opponent, vulture capitalist Willard "Scissorhands" Romney, has been counting on a bad economy to get the advantage in the Presidential race. With Obama ads now running in key swing states showing what Willard's company, Bain Capital, did to jobs and peoples' lives, perhaps the one-two punch of an improving economy and Willard's job-wrecking history will start to sink in with the electorate.

Department of Promises, Promises

With Wisconsin's Rethuglican Governor and manager of Koch Industries' union busting efforts Scott "Divide and Conquer" Walker facing a recall election next month, he's eager to convince Wisconsinites that his miserable economic record of the past 2 years will magically improve the day after the recall election:

“There is a tremendous enthusiasm built up for additional jobs,” he said. “I think you’re going to see a tremendous takeoff.”

Riiiight! Wisconsinites did see job creation under Divide and Conquer: it happened in neighboring states, where their jobs went.

The only way the job situation will improve in Wisconsin is when Divide and Conquer loses his.

NOTE: One way you can help make this happen is to give to Walker's Democratic opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, 'cause it sure looks like he ain't going to get much help from the goddamn dumbass Democratic National Committee.

White Ribbon Walk Through Moscow

(Photo: Washington Post)

Russians protesting Tsar Putin's takeover and fraud in the Russian elections stage a peaceful walk through Moscow Sunday. The white-ribbon bedecked crowd, estimated at over 10,000, included many noted Russian literary figures.

Cartoon of the Day -- "Alien Doctrine"

Austerity: the "alien doctrine" (hee-hee)! (See also the head of the European alien enablers, Frau Merkel below.)

(click to enlarge)


(Tom Tomorrow, via Daily Kos)

BONUS: Please check out David O. Atkins at Hullabaloo for more. He has a chart that demonstrates the impact losing well over half a million government jobs has had on the unemployment rate, most layoffs occurring in Rethuglican-led states (hello, Govs. Walker, Kasich, etc.), where the right-wingers want to destroy public employee unions.

Ach der lieber, Frau Merkel!

German Chancellor and austerity uber-frau Angela Merkel's Christian Democrat party got what amounted to a cold beer down its back this past weekend from voters in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The opposition Social Democrat and Green parties got a majority of the seats in the state legislature, while Merkel's Marauders plummeted from 34.6 percent in the last election to 26.3 this time, the worst showing in that state since post- World War II. The election follows a trend in Western Europe of voters expressing anger at the conservative, history-ignoring, austerity-first policies trumpeted by Frau Merkel and her banker/ industrialist backers. French President and Merkel crony Nicolas "La Petite Merde" Sarkozy has gone down in flames, and British toff Prime Minister David "Might I Lick Your Bits, Mr. Murdoch?" Cameron in leading his Tories down the tubes in a similar manner. Huzzah!

It's really pretty simple. Ignoring basic Keynesian Economics 101 (i.e., when you're in a hole, stop digging) has turned modest recoveries into economic downturns in Britain and France. It's also generated a deficit-obsessed political class in this country that has made economic recovery slower and more fragile than it had to be (though the Bush-hole we were in will make any recovery a very long grind nonetheless). In the U.S., as in these conservative-led European countries, the right-wingers have used the economic bad times as a screen to advance their agenda of cuts to social programs, infrastructure and public-sector jobs (hello, Wisconsin Gov. Scott "Divide and Conquer" Walker and the teatard legions!). Eventually, though, the voters catch on and give the plutocrat pols a cold beer down their backs!

(Photo: "Ach, das ist kalt!")

Willard, Job Destroyer

During the Rethuglican clown show this past winter, some Rethuglicans (namely Poot Gingrich and Oops Perry) dared to get into plutocrat human replica Willard "Scissorhands" Romney's career as a vulture capitalist at Bain Capital. Since plutocrats bankroll the Rethuglican/New Confederate Party, that was a bridge too far, and Poot and Oops were told to cool it.

With the general election campaign underway, Willard's record at Bain Capital -- especially as it related to his oft-claimed role as a "job creator" -- is fair game, and the subject of a hard-hitting video by the Obama campaign, and it's a good one. Enjoy.

Dancin' Dave's Ethics Problem

The host of NBC's "Meet the Press," Dancin' Dave Gregory, is one of the Washington Village's golden boys, carefully maintaining his place on the cocktail party circuit where he's fed the spin that he passes off as "journalism." Tomorrow, he's scheduled to give the keynote address to a Rethuglican-affiliated organization, the National Federation of Rethuglican Independent Business. That organization has contributed heavily and exclusively to Rethuglican House and Senate candidates, and is hardly non-partisan. So, while you might ask if Dancin' Dave is violating journalistic ethics by participating in a partisan event, you should first ask whether Dancin' Dave is even a journalist.

He is something of a dancer, though.

Happy Mother's Day!

In honor of our late mother, and mothers everywhere, we'll try to do better and be better! We love you.

The Most Coveted Endorsement of All

The lovable, irrepressible Betty White, 90, endorses President Obama, saying she "very, very much favors" him in the election. Well, that settles it for me.

(By the way, check out Betty at Google images to see what a good-looking woman she has been throughout her life - including a "scandalous" shot from her pin-up days - 23 skiddoo!)

Walker's "Divide and Conquer" Strategy for Wisconsin

This is the trailer for a documentary, "As Goes Janesville," that looks at the struggle of working-class Wisconsinites and how Wisconsin's Koch-sniffing Governor Scott Walker had a plan from the very beginning to bust unions under the guise of "budget-cutting." They need to recall this SOB's ass on June 5.

The hollow-eyed harridan who chats him up starting at about 7:50 in the video is Diane Hendricks, multi-millionaire far-right wingnut doyenne, owner of the ABC Supply Co., a major wholesaler of roofing, siding and other exterior building products. She's a piece of work herself.

Weekend Cartoon - Scissorgate, Cont.

The story Mitt "Willard Scissorhands" Romney wishes would go away (love the lapel pin). (Click to enlarge)



(John Deering, via gocomics.com)

Your Weekly Chronicle of Mitt's Mendacity

Courtesy of Steve Benen, here's your weekly compilation of the whoppers, lies, half-truths and flip flops emanating from Willard Scissorhands' privileged foie gras hole. Our favorite from this week? What else:

"I'll take a lot of credit for the fact that this [auto] industry's come back."

Enjoy!

Rethug House "Budget" Passed

Yesterday, House Rethuglicans passed Rep. Paul "Lyin'" Ryan's (Charlatan-WI) Randian budget, which is dead-on-arrival in the Senate, of course. But as the estimable Charles P. Pierce notes, it does tell us something about the "modern" New Confederate/ Rethuglican Party and its boy genius:

"Which brings us to the 'budget' passed on Thursday by the House. In addition to its being the nocturnal emission at the end of all those nights the teenage Paul Ryan spent playing circus tent under the covers with Atlas Shrugged [ed.- hee-hee], it is constructed specifically to avoid having to make the $55 billion in cuts to the defense department mandated by the debt ceiling deal, a committment, I would argue, that the Republicans never intended to honor, as is obvious from Boehner's statement last March. Rather than agree to those reductions, the Ryan 'budget' does the following:

"1) Cuts $83 billion in benefits to federal retirees.

"2) Saves $49 billion in 'capping' medical malpractice suits, the Dalkon Shield Protection Plan Of 2012.

"3) Cuts $48 billion from Medicaid.

"4) Cuts $36 billion from the food stamp program.

"5) Drops approximately 300,000 children from school-lunch programs, and eliminates health-care coverage for just about as many.

"This is not about Paul Ryan's dread of mounting deficits. This is about Paul Ryan's believing that the government has no role in providing the services listed above..."

We and many others have also felt that, in addition to the direct pain involved in these cuts and others targeted to the poor/elderly/sick/vulnerable, Rethuglicans would also reap broader benefits (in their beady eyes): If any of the cuts should happen, these traditionally Democratic constituencies might lose faith in their government and party to protect them, and even if the cuts don't happen, the debate itself feeds a growing cynicism that government can't perform one of its basic missions (i.e., protect the unprotected). That, to these Ayn Rand disciples that run the Rethuglican Party, would be the most important outcome of all.

(Photo: "Ayyy, we gotcha by the short hairs, poors!" (Manuel Blace Ceneta/Associated Press))

Cartoon of the Day -- Willard Saves the Auto Industry, Cont.

Mendacious Mitt "Willard Scissorhands" Romney, auto industry savior! (Click to enlarge)



(Mike Luckovich, via gocomics.com)

Weekend Song

Doughy Pantload and the Pulitzer Prize

After a few years writing on this blog, we found it tedious to keep up with the fast pace of moronic droppings from the various wingnut and Rethuglican shills (Michelle Malkin, Wee Willie Kristol, Heil Hannity, etc.) But we just couldn't resist Alex Pareene's takedown of someone we've been forced to pay attention to lately: wingnut auteur and all-around laughingstock Jonah "Doughy Pantload" Goldberg. What did Doughy Pantload do this time? Well, this beneficiary of wingnut welfare, who the Kaplan Daily recently graced with valuable column space so he could continue his ad hominem jihad against all things "liberal," is apparently so insecure that... well, let's let Pareene tell the story:

"Jonah Goldberg is a syndicated columnist, author of books and National Review Online editor because his mother nearly took down Bill Clinton. He is, it’s fair to say, aware of that fact, or at least aware that everyone else thinks it, and his insecurity has made him a uniquely pathetic figure in contemporary conservative thought: He aspires to be taken seriously as a public intellectual, but he is the world’s laziest thinker. It is a grand and wonderful joke that Jonah Goldberg, of all people, would write an entire book about how liberals rely on clichés instead of original thought and intellectual argument.

"On the back of my review copy of 'The Tyranny of Clichés,' Goldberg’s latest, it still claims that the author 'has twice been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.' That, of course, was revealed yesterday to be utter bullshit. He is a two-time entrant for Pulitzer consideration — to enter requires solely an application and a $50 fee — and while Goldberg claims not to have added that line to his bio, it appears everywhere he writes, and it’s hard to believe he hadn’t noticed it until this week. That said, I can’t imagine a person dumb enough to actually believe that Jonah Goldberg had been seriously considered for a Pulitzer..."

Readers should be aware that I, too, have been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize... just as soon as I get my application and $50 fee in.

(Photo: "Pulitzer Prize nominee" Jonah "Doughy Pantload" Goldberg - yeah, he takes the prize all right.)

Obama Laughs at Willard Trying to Take Credit for Auto Industry Recovery

Shake that Etch-A-Sketch, Willard! Shake it! The President is amused:

As The Twig Is Bent

One day, back in prep school, entitled jerk Mitt "Willard Scissorhands" Romney decided he didn't like a classmate's haircut (he also may not have liked that the classmate was gay). So, Willard decided to swoop down on the poor kid, just like he was a company that needed to get trimmed back:

“'He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!' an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend in the Stevens Hall dorm, according to Friedemann’s recollection. Mitt, the teenaged son of Michigan Gov. George Romney, kept complaining about Lauber’s look, Friedemann recalled.

"A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors. [...]

“'It was a hack job,'” recalled Maxwell, a childhood friend of Romney who was in the dorm room when the incident occurred. “'It was vicious.'” (my emphasis)

Of course, at first, Romney claimed not to remember the incident. Then he made one of those non-apology apologies ("If I happened to offend...") -- while laughing. This comes a day after President Obama's support for same-sex marriage, and Romney saying he's holding fast to his "marriage is between a man and a woman" position.

They say as the twig is bent, so grows the tree, and little trust fund bullies grow up to be big entitled bullies (a.k.a., vulture capitalists and Rethuglican presidential candidates).

BONUS: Wait, there's more:

"One former classmate and old friend of Romney’s – who refused to be identified by name – said there are 'a lot of guys' who went to Cranbrook who have “really negative memories” of Romney’s behavior in the dorms, behavior this classmate describes as 'evil' and 'like Lord of the Flies.'

"The classmate believes Romney is lying when he claims to not remember it. 'It makes these fellows [who have owned up to it] very remorseful. For [Romney] not to remember it? It doesn’t ring true. How could the fellow with the scissors forget it?' the former classmate said."

(Image: "Hmmm... I think you could use a haircut, my good man!")

It's Why We Call Them Rethugs - War on Sandra Fluke Edition

Here's a Twitter exchange between Oxycontin Rush Limbaugh-slayer and Georgetown student Sandra Fluke and some random, illiterate, sweet-talkin' Rethug moron from South Carolina (h/t/ TBogg):
(click to enlarge)

Obama Comes Out... For Gay Marriage

The "evolving" is finally over. He tells ABC News "same sex marriage should be legal."

A Tale of Two Republicans

Respected conservative Republican Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN) gets defeated in his primary by a tea party/plutocrat candidate, and now comes this scrap of shite from Ponch (!) McPhee, a treasonous dirtbag in Virginia:

"[W]e shall not have any coarse [sic] but armed revolution should we fail with the power of the vote in November," McPhee writes. "This Republic cannot survive for 4 more years underneath this political socialist ideologue."

What makes this more than the usual inbred right-wing Cooter tippy-tapping in his underwear is the fact that said McPhee is editor of the Greene County Republican Committee newsletter, in which this appeared. (Would that be the Secret Service knocking on your door, "Ponch?") Really, though, considering the hateful, insane bile that has been pumped out of hundreds of radio stations and Fox "News" every day for decades, it's no wonder that the McPhees of the world prosper, while the Dick Lugars get unceremoniously canned.

(Image: Ponch ("Paunch?") McPhee, Greene County, VA, Rethuglican shiteletter editor - Hackwhackers' approximation)

Willard Saves The Auto Industry, Part Deux

The Obama campaign has the goods on Mendacious Mitt:

Mid-Week Musical Interlude

Jonathan Plowright plays Debussy (h/t P.E.C.) and Ella sings/scats Irving Berlin. Can't get much better than that!