Profiles in Expediency

Hat tip to Daily Kos for uncovering this convenient flip-flop by Staten Island Rethuglican Rep. Michael "Prospects Are" Grimm:

Today, I decided to withdraw my support from President Obama’s proposal for a military strike against Syria. I have heard from many of you in Staten Island and Brooklyn, and it is clear to me that their is strong opposition to the strike. As your voice in Washington, I will continue to listen and take a stand for you.

Will you stand with me in opposing President Obama’s plan with a donation of $25 or more right now?  (our emphasis)

Apparently, after taking the temperature of his district, Rep. Grimm did the only honorable thing... and decided to make a buck off his flip-flop. It's giants like him that are running the nut factory otherwise known as Congress.

It's also why we can't have nice things in this country.

(Photo:  Rep. Michael Grimm:  "Can you send me some moneez to oppose President Obama, whom I supported yesterday?  Pleeze?")

Vandals, Doing What Vandals Do

Today's read is from center-right political scientist and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (!) Norm Ornstein, who decries the "contemptible" behavior of Rethuglicans in trying to sabotage implementation of Obamacare:

... [T]o do everything possible to undercut and destroy its implementation—which in this case means finding ways to deny coverage to many who lack any health insurance; to keep millions who might be able to get better and cheaper coverage in the dark about their new options; to create disruption for the health providers who are trying to implement the law, including insurers, hospitals, and physicians; to threaten the even greater disruption via a government shutdown or breach of the debt limit in order to blackmail the president into abandoning the law; and to hope to benefit politically from all the resulting turmoil—is simply unacceptable, even contemptible. One might expect this kind of behavior from a few grenade-throwing firebrands. That the effort is spearheaded by the Republican leaders of the House and Senate—even if Speaker John Boehner is motivated by fear of his caucus, and McConnell and Cornyn by fear of Kentucky and Texas Republican activists—takes one's breath away.

As usual, please read the entire piece. 

If one steps back from all the rhetoric and noise and looks at what's going on here in the simplest terms possible, they would see a party trying its utmost to keep fellow Americans from getting basic health insurance and, therefore, basic health care.  And, as Ornstein notes, that same party also wants to benefit from causing this misery for others.

Shopping Fool's Warehouse

Among the most entitled, soulless Congressmen of the Rethuglican/ New Confederate/ Stupid Party (and Lord, there are so many) is NRA stooge  Rep. Steve "My Gun is My Manhood" Stockman (Guns!- TX).  But Stockman isn't a one trick pony, no suh!  Responding to a demonstration by House Democrats that cutting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program's (SNAP) budget by $21 billion over 10 years would cause people already subsisting on a tight food budget to suffer even more, Stockman sent his communications buttboy Dim Donny Ferguson out to the stupidmarket to buy some food and show them liebruls!  Here's what Dim Donny bought for his allowance (via Stockman's office - no link):

For $21.55 Ferguson purchased at Dollar Tree:
Two boxes of Honeycomb cereal
Three cans of red beans and rice
Jar of peanut butter
Bottle of grape jelly
Loaf of whole wheat bread
Two cans of refried beans
Box of spaghetti
Large can of pasta sauce
Two liters of root beer
Large box of popsicles
24 servings of Wyler’s fruit drink mix
Eight cups of applesauce
Bag of pinto beans
Bag of rice
Bag of cookies
For $6.03 at the Shoppers Food Warehouse next door Ferguson bought a gallon of milk and a box of maple and brown sugar oatmeal.

Mmmm. Yum!  We never realized the poors had it so good... or as Laura Clawson points out:

So he's got a lot of cereal for breakfast, and he can have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch, along with maybe some applesauce and fruit drink. For dinner, it looks like he's eating spaghetti for a couple nights and otherwise eating beans and rice. Also popsicles and cookies. Healthy diet, there! And such a varied menu at dinner. Perhaps Ferguson isn't aware that the definition of low food security is "reports of reduced quality, variety, or desirability of diet. Little or no indication of reduced food intake." Exactly the diet he's reporting, in other words: fruits and vegetables only in the form of grape jelly, pasta sauce, and applesauce, heavily dependent on root beer and cookies and sugary cereal for calories, and beans and rice night after night for dinner. Not to mention the increased health care costs we can expect to see as a result of people living on diets like this and developing diabetes, hypertension, and a series of other health problems. 

Right.  Not surprisingly, Stockman whiffed on the point of the Democrats' demonstration, i.e., that you can't have a healthy diet on the subsistence-level assistance, much less if it's pared back over the next 10 years.  Sure, you can eat (and it looks like Stockman does quite well by himself in that category), but you're loading up on sugars and other empty calories.  But "not starving" isn't supposed to be the yardstick we use in this country, is it?

Today's Deep Thought

ABC News

"I say let Allah sort it out."  --  Snowbilly grifter and word salad aficionado Sarah "I Can See Syria From My Basement" Palin, at the Faith and Freedom Freedumb Coalition Conference, giving her...uh... thoughts on what U.S. policy should be regarding the civil war in Syria, because OBAMA!  Also, MUSLINS!  Such a Islamophobic peabrain humanitarian!  We wonder what her pal, mentor and plumper for intervention in Syria, Sen. John "Grampypants" McCain, would say to that chunk of Palin brain stool.  We're certain he would value her opinion and expertise,  since he wanted her a heartbeat away from the presidency.

(Photo:  "Check.  Zing!  Now who's the smartypants?!")

Rethuglicans: The Next Generation

Who says the Rethuglicans are striking out with today's youth?  Here are two fine examples of Rethuglican Youth (who happen to have Congresscritters as fathers -- Happy Father's Day, Sen. Flake and Rep. Heck!) channeling core Rethuglican values.

Little Flake, take it away:

Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, a devout Mormon and family man, has apologized for homophobic, racist and anti-Semitic comments posted online by his teenage son.

The high schooler, Tanner, posted the offensive remarks in February and March. In one message he threatened the “f—-t” who stole his motorcycle from a church parking lot and frequently used the N word in a series of Facebook postings. [...]

“To the f—-t who stole my dirt bike from the church parking lot, I will find you, and I will beat the crap out of you,” the boy, whose Twitter handle is @tflakey, wrote on March 20.

“I’m down to own some f—-ts,” he wrote in February, in a tweet directed at another Twitter user. [...]

"Say something hilarious, and I guarantee that ... will say it louder and get all the credit. Jew," he tweeted in February.

Not to be outdone in his promotion of Rethuglican values for the next generation is master Joey Heck:

A review of tweets by Joey Heck, 16, dating to August of last year shows numerous examples in which Heck used words like “faggot” and “nigga.” For instance, on Sept. 11 Heck tweeted “Fanny pack = fag bag,” and on August 23 he retweeted a tweet that read, “There are gays everywhere. Maybe that’s gods way of thinning out the population because faggots can’t have babies.”

Heck’s twitter feed also included numerous racial slurs. During a Sept. 16 Jets football game, the younger Heck tweeted “[Mark] Sanchez can hop the border faster than he can throw the ball.”

During the Oct. 16 presidential debate, Heck took issue with the performance of moderator Martha Raddatz, ABC’s Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent. “This is why men need to be moderators,” he wrote.

He also wrote that Mitt Romney “raped” Obama and made him his “slave” during a debate.

In an exchange with a friend during the debate on October 3rd, Heck asked rhetorically, “I would like somebody to tell me one good thing Obama did in these past 4 years…. I got nothing.” Later in the conversation he said “yeah like spear chucking and rock skipping. The sports they do in his home country…”

With youth like Flake and Heck representing the next generation of voting Rethuglicans, we see those eternal core Rethuglican values of intolerance, hatred, and stupidity lasting for way too long.  Teach your children, eh?

At The Intersection Of Clueless And Malicious

From frequent blind squirrel Dana Milbank, on the "accuse first, ask questions later" nature of the Rethuglican inquisition hearings on the IRS:

The Republicans seemed not to care that the other witness at the hearing, IRS Inspector General J. Russell George, told the committee that he had no evidence that anybody from the White House or any presidential political appointee was involved.

[Georgia Rethug Rep. Tom] Graves pressed ahead with his belief that “the president or subordinates of the president were well aware of or involved in the targeting of political opponents.” Like his colleagues, he was not about to let the rude intrusion of contrary evidence disturb his conclusion.   (our emphasis)

Why bother with the hearings at all, when you've already reached your conclusions?  And those cynics said this was all just a political hatchet job!

Turning to a news story by Paul Kane on the Rethugs' internal warfare, and specifically a botched vote on their cynically-named "Helping Sick Americans Now" bill in April:

A few dozen Republicans opposed the modest Helping Sick Americans legislation because they said it came from nowhere. Instead, Cantor pulled the bill and held another vote to repeal Obamacare — their 37th attempt to repeal part or all of the landmark health-care law — to appease conservatives.

Aides to Cantor and McCarthy traded shots in the media, but the rank and file also bore plenty of blame. Cantor sent his monthly memo to lawmakers on April 5 summarizing that month’s agenda, including the health-care legislation.

“Who reads a memo?” said one member first elected in 2010, who is close to leaders. (our emphasis)

Poor tea bagger!  Reading is hard work!  So is legislatin'!  So is doing something about jobs, climate change and income inequality.  But who reads memos, and who hasn't already had their "mind" made up regardless of the facts?!  Not these clueless and malicious dimbulbs!

Runner-Up Asshat of the Week

Among those big-hearted Rethuglicans recently arguing in Congress for cutting the food stamp program for the poor was Tennessee Tea Bag Rep. Stephen "Grinch" Fincher (Rethug-Crackerville).  A believer in self-reliance, Grinch thumped quoted the Bible, declaring Jeebus was on the side of thems that helps themselves.  Well, lo and behold,  looks like Grinch lived what he preached, at least as far as his agribusiness family helping themselves to over $8.9 million in federal farm subsidies over the past decade.

So, cut money for the poors, gummint!  The Makers like Grinch need it!

(Photo:  "Hey, where's my runner-up asshat?  I earned it!  I'm entitled!")

Another Republican Rebranding Fail

Frequent blind squirrel Dana Milbank done found himself an acorn in today's once great Washington Post Kaplan Daily:

Republican leaders had scheduled a vote in the chamber for Wednesday on a plan to help people with preexisting health problems get insurance — part of a broader scheme by Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.) to make Republicans appear to care about the little guy. But the conservatives lunching in the Rayburn House Office Building weren’t biting. [Snip]

“We can talk about flex time, we can talk about bills on Obamacare that are going nowhere,” Huelskamp said. “We can talk about messaging. . . . But in August, we’re going to hit the debt ceiling and we can’t avoid that. We’re running out of money, and as Republicans, we have to get ready now and talk about the vision of what we have to do to get our country on a 10-year plan to balance the budget.”

That budget-cutting theme, he said, “is the kind of message that gets lost in little things.”

So helping workers and the sick are “little things”? Cantor can forget warm and fuzzy for now; he has enough trouble just making his colleagues sound humane.

Huelskamp is crackpot Randian social Darwinist Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas.  If any of these peckerwoods does show any compassion towards another human being, as Milbank says, it's "to make Republicans appear to care about the little guy" (our emphasis).

Gingrich, Romney, Ryan Intern Charged in Sexual Blackmail Case

Adam Savader, a former intern to Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in the 2012 campaign, has been charged with cyberstalking and extortion in a sexual blackmail case:

The New York Daily News reports that 21-year-old Adam Savader was arrested in Great Neck, N.Y. on Tuesday by the FBI. He was charged with cyberstalking and blackmailing women online, according to authorities.

News 12 Long Island adds that court documents show Savader allegedly used both the Internet and text messages. He claimed he had naked pictures of the women and vowed to send them to friends and family if more were not provided.

This dickhead has a future in the "rebranding" Rethuglican/ Stupid Party, don't you think!?  Maybe women's issues liaison?  Social media coordinator?                                                                            

What is it about the conservative mind-set and philosophy that seems to attract an inordinate share of creeps, perverts, predators, misogynists and, well, just plain felons?

(Photo:  Rep. Paul Ryan with the felonious intern -  type the felonious intern's name in on Google images and see what other Rethugs he's been rubbing elbows with =cough=ScottWalker=cough= TuckerCarlson=cough=MicheleBachmann=cough.)

Rethuglican Crime Blotter - Child Porn Edition

Walton County (FL) Rethuglican /New Confederate/ Stupid Party committeeman Lane Rees has been arrested on multiple counts of possessing and transmitting child pornography:

Deputies recovered “multiple images” of child pornography after serving a search warrant on his home in Santa Rosa Beach.

Rees was elected to the Walton County Commission in 2000, where he served until being defeated by 23-year-old Republican Scott Brannon four years later. He has served as Walton County’s Republican state committeeman since being elected by party members in 2008.

Oh, and let's not forget the capper on this tale of Rethug hypocrisy;  Rees

serves on the board of the United Methodist Church’s Foundation for Evangelism. 

We're willing to bet he opposed same-sex marriage, too, because PERVERTS!

Today's Dispatches From The Stupid Party - NSFW

We've got a two-fer from the great secessionist state of South Carolina today: same stupid, racist, homophobic Rethug pol, in fact. Let us introduce you to former South Carolina Rethuglican state executive director Todd Kincannon via these tweets:

Where else but in the Rethuglican/ New Confederate/ Stupid Party could a primitive life form such as Todd rise to State party executive director?! Lest anyone think these tweets were aberrations, we checked out his twitter feed, and hoo-boy that's some foul-mouthed, foul-minded piece of work right there! As a bonus, we would like to share this update about Todd's ...um ... nasty habits with our readers to, uh, flesh out our portrait of this fine Southern gentleman pervert:

"Rightwing blogger Brooks Bayne, attempting unsuccessfully to clean up the perv log in his party’s own eye (THE BIBLE), took the (engaged) Kincannon to task last October for sexting his cock to young ladies he did not know." (our emphasis)

Now, if you'll excuse, us -- we need to take a shower.

"Friends of Fraud"

On Friday, forty-three Senate Rethuglicans sent the White House a letter threatening to filibuster the appointment of the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in the wake of the three Rethuglican hacks' DC Circuit's ruling that President Obama's recess appointments violated the Constitution (and since they've been newly empowered by Sen. Harry "Bending" Reid's craven capitulation on filibuster reform -- thank you again, asswhistle!). Paul Krugman takes a look at what the Rethugs are up to:

"What Republicans are demanding, basically, is that the protection bureau lose its independence. They want its actions subjected to a veto by other, bank-centered financial regulators, ensuring that consumers will once again be neglected, and they also want to take away its guaranteed funding, opening it to interest-group pressure. These changes would make the agency more or less worthless — but that, of course, is the point.

"How can the G.O.P. be so determined to make America safe for financial fraud, with the 2008 crisis still so fresh in our memory?"

What we're seeing is par-for-the-course behavior by the extortionists and crooks running the New Confederate/ Rethuglican party. After all, the bankers are the makers (you know, of wealth, campaign contributions), while the low-and-middle income folks are the takers. It's just another variation of the "I've got mine, you're on your own" philosophy that fuels the cynical Randian social Darwinist ideology of the right. And the Rethugs in the halls of power don't really give a damn who gets cheated as long as they're serving one of their primary interest groups.

Krugman on Republican "Reverse Robin Hoodism"

Here's what Professor Krugman has to say in "Makers, Takers, Fakers":

"In the past, Republicans would justify tax cuts for the rich either by claiming that they would pay for themselves or by claiming that they could make up for lost revenue by cutting wasteful spending. But what we’re seeing now is open, explicit reverse Robin Hoodism: taking from ordinary families and giving to the rich. That is, even as Republicans look for a way to sound more sympathetic and less extreme, their actual policies are taking another sharp right turn."

Several Rethuglican governors, including some with national aspirations like Louisiana's Bobby "Kenneth" Jindal, are leading efforts in their states to replace the progressive state income tax with a regressive sales tax. Others, like Virginia's Gov. Robert "Blowdry Bob" McDonnell, are proposing eliminating the state gasoline tax and hiking the sales tax, thus rewarding gas-guzzling motorists and penalizing low- and middle-income people.

Rethuglicans are in the process of trying to air-brush their policies and philosophy to make them more palatable to the American public. Pursuing these tone-deaf, regressive policies lays bare their true colors for all to see.

If They Don't See The Light, We'll Go With The Floggings

Congressional New Confederate/ Rethuglicans are at their annual retreat, this year at the Kingsmill Resort in Virginia. Among the topics they've convened to chew over: "Coalitions - Discussion on Successful Communications With Minorities and Women." The venue for this at Kingsmill? The Burwell Plantation Room.

Can't make this stuff up.

Hey, It's Good For Business!

Florida Rethug Congressman Dennis Baxley is clearly a man with a sharp eye toward good business opportunities, especially when it comes to guns. To explain, here's Carl Hiassen in the Miami Herald:

"It’s only fitting that the NRA’s biggest tool in Florida is a funeral director.

He is Rep. Dennis Baxley, an Ocala Republican who does whatever the gun lobby wants.

Three days after the slaughter of first-graders in Newtown, Conn., Baxley made national headlines by suggesting that weapons should be carried by employees at public schools." (our emphasis)

Baxley has also drawn attention in the past for his views on so-called "stand your ground" legislation in Florida, as well as his intolerant religious views and racism, a propos a New Confederate Rethuglican.

(Photo: Pork rump impersonator and "NRA's biggest tool" Rep. Dennis Baxley (NCR-FL))

Nitwits in the News

Here's a quick rundown of what passes for brain activity on the far-right:

-- Let's look in to see who "History Professor" and conservative deep thinker Newt "Poot" Gingrich thinks were the "Very First Americans" (hint: on the color palette, they would be classified as "semi-gloss Romney voter").

-- Prominent Rethug pols who somehow passed high school science; and

-- The Constitutional experts inhabiting the Tea Party Nation (please secede, oh please please please) think they have a fool-proof plan to keep Obama from his second term (did we say "fool"?).

The Hackwhackers Voter Guide

If you haven't voted yet, we're offering this partial list as a guide. Is any of this appealing to you:

Mandatory transvaginal probes, Rep. Michelle Bachmann, birtherism, unequal pay for women, Rush Limbaugh, privatizing Social Security, de-funding Planned Parenthood, Donald Trump, right-wing religious extremists, "Defense of Marriage Act," Rep. Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock, "legitimate rape," a baby from a rape is "God's will," more tax cuts for the 1 percent, tax hikes for the middle class, Ann Coulter, increasing income inequality, Sen. Mitch McConnell, Gov. Scott Walker, deregulating Wall Street and the banks, de-funding PBS, taking 30 million Americans off of health insurance, Rep. Steve King, voucherizing Medicare, climate change denial, anti-science agenda ("Darwin who?"), Sean Hannity, Ayn Rand, never compromise, voter suppression, corporate money awash in the political system, Speaker Boehner, Rep. Eric Cantor, "self-deportation" for Hispanic immigrants, Rep. Allen West, Rethuglican obstructionism and economic sabotage, rewarding political hostage-taking, and finally "President Willard Romney and Vice President Paul Ryan."

If any of the above is appealing to you, please exit this blog immediately. Otherwise, think about what the Rethuglicans represent when you're in the voting booth on Tuesday. Think about the America you want for yourself and your family. Then vote.

BONUS: Want more food for thought? Here you go.

(Photo: Willard "Corporations Are People Too, My Friend" Romney wears his mom jeans to show that he "gets it" when it comes to women's issues.)

Here's Your Rethuglican Base (Viewer Discretion Advised)

Captured here, in about 8 minutes of video, are vignettes of the Rethuglican base hive mind. These are Rethuglican voters in Ohio freely regurgitating whatever misinformation is contained in their lizard brains (brought to them courtesy of the Fox "News"/ Rush Limbaugh/ Koch Brothers/ Willard Romney right-wing grift-the-yokels machine). You might want to chug some Maalox before watching:

Post-Debate Twit Tweet

In case you missed it, here's Willard Romney supporter (M)Ann Coulter's post-debate twittery:

Could someone please get this vicious creature back into her spider hole and seal the opening?

Special Olympics athlete John Franklin Stephens had a wonderful response to Coulter. Here's a small fragment:

"Ms. Coulter, you, and society, need to learn that being compared to people like me should be considered a badge of honor. No one overcomes more than we do and still loves life so much."

Plutocrats Using Extortion to Elect Romney

A pattern seems to have developed in the world of high-rolling far-right plutocrats: extorting their employees to vote for fellow plutocrat and outsourcing pioneer Willard "I Like Firing People" Romney. The threats of job loss if President Obama is reelected are coming from the likes of the Koch Brothers (owners of Wisconsin's Governor), David Siegel (owner of Westgate Resorts and would-be Louis XIV), and Arthur Allen (head of ASG Software Solutions).

It would not be surprising if more instances don't surface of CEOs threatening their employees with job loss. It's merely an extension of what the far right plutocrats and their minions have been up to -- we have already seen that Rethuglicans have spent the last 4 years sabotaging the President's efforts to turn the economy around (after spending the previous 8 years wrecking it). The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers, Club for Growth, and other Rethuglican-front organizations have been fully engaged in promoting policies that enrich the wealthiest Americans at the expense of those who work for them. These are soulless people who firmly believe Willard's "47 percent" crap about makers and takers. They care nothing for the people who work every day to make them wealthy; they only care how they can be manipulated to do the plutocrat's will. This is how they prove it.