Kaplan Daily Hearts GOP Whiz Kid -- Again

The Kaplan Daily has undergone a long journey from the days of Ben Bradlee and Woodward and Bernstein. Now its op/ed pages are littered with former Bush speechwriters (Gerson and Thiessen), former Quayle speechwriters (Wee Willie), sufferers of Obama Derangement Syndrome (Kraphammer and Diehl), would-be Tories (Quill Will), genteel Rethugs (Parker) and DINOs (Cohen and Marcus). It has a real hard-on for school vouchers and charter schools -- a little conflict of interest considering its main source of funding is... Kaplan Test Prep/ University. It hates public employee unions, especially teachers' unions (see Kaplan, above). It wants to accommodate every crank "news" story being flogged by the Drudges of the world (eg., the Sherrod affair, the New Black Panther Party "voter intimidation" non-scandal). Look for it to endorse washed-up Rethug former Gov. Robert Ehrlich in Maryland again this year.

Well, it's latest crackpot heartthrob is math-challenged whiz kid Rep. Paul Ryan (Rethug-WI) and his plan to "save Medicare" which the Kaplan Daily graciously gave valuable space to today. You see, the Kaplan Daily recently published Paul Krugman's puncturing of the whiz kid's balloon and his new math that doesn't add up (no link). This must've made Kaplan editors and their boy Ryan sad, so he was given today's make-up. Fortunately, Dean Baker at the Center for Economic Policy and Research has provided a multi-point correction for the young Ryan and anyone who still might care about truth and accuracy at the Kaplan Daily.

Music for a Sodden Soul

CCR asks the musical question the D.C. area would like answered, after 3-4 inches of rain in the last 36 hours...(btw, nice pix).

Quote of the Day

"Obama allowed the hacks on the right to pivot immediately to pinning the entire deficit and debt on Obama - and, amplified by the FNC, they have somehow managed to turn the debate back into the exhausted big-government vs little-guy choice - rather than debating exactly what, if anything, we can do to rescue ourselves from the Bush-Cheney hangover. . . .Here's an alternative approach - aggressively blaming even future bleakness on the GOP, matching their refusal to take any responsibility for the worst period of governance in modern times with a no-holds-barred assault on their brand. It will soon be time for Obama to go on the offensive against these nihilists and amnesiacs and to remind people of the difference between the arsonist and the fire-fighter." -- The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan. Sometimes Sully can make you forget that he was / is an admirer of St. Ronnie of Hollywood, father of the brood.

Reverse Robin Hood

Rethug deficit hawks alert! The Kaplan Daily has a good piece today on what the effect of the Rethuglican plan to keep the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy would do to the deficit: add $36 billion to it next year alone. The article is based on a Congressional analysis released yesterday. As the analysis points out, under the Rethug reverse-Robin Hood plan, the wealthiest 2% of taxpayers would get to keep a $36 billion tax break. Put another way, families making $1 million a year would get an average $100,000 tax break.

We already know how Rethuglicans are rationalizing this. Jon Stewart has the best summary, as usual (via HuffPo).

"Brock Landers" For Congress

Ben "I Was Raised Right" Quayle, son of former VP Dan "Potatoe" Quayle, is running for Congress in Arizona. Obviously a man of great intelligence, character and discernment, he posits -- unprompted -- that Obama is "the worst President in history" in his campaign video. As it turns out, I Was Raised Right may have some 'splainin' to do now that it's been revealed that he's a.k.a. "Brock Landers" (you know, the name of the male porn star in "Boogie Nights"), who blogged at the DirtyScottsdale.com site. Digby has the video, and links for more background.

That this arrogant little weenie, who has done nothing other than being born with the name Quayle, has the nerve to pass judgment on anyone, much less President Obama, speaks to the fact that, contrary to his assertion, he wasn't "raised right."

(Image: Ben "I Was Raised Right" Quayle, a.k.a. "Brock Landers," a.k.a. a horse's ass)

They're Serving Mama Grizzly for Dinner in Georgia

Chalk up another one to the magic of Mama Grizzly herself, Winky You Betcha. Fellow Mama Grizzly Karen "The Messiah" Handel, who was endorsed by Winky and Mittens/Muff/Willard Romney, lost her Rethug gubernatorial bid to former congressman Nathan "Shady" Deal. (Half the fun is making up the nicknames, right?) Shady Deal, who was endorsed by Poot Gingrich and Mike "Huckleberry" Huckabee, accused The Messiah of being "too liberal" (OMG!). Following her loss, Handel endorsed Shady Deal, although some of the comments she made about him will live on into the general election. A sampling: Calling Shady Deal "a corrupt relic of Washington," she said he should stop "squealing" about negative ads and put on his "big boy pants."

Shady Deal now faces former governor Roy Barnes in November. Let's hope Mama Grizzly will endorse Deal and her magic touch will continue.

Quote of the Day

"By proposing to revoke the citizenship of the estimated 4 million U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants -- and, presumably, the children's children and so on down the line -- Republicans are calling for more than the creation of a permanent noncitizen caste. They are endeavoring to solve what is probably their most crippling long-term political dilemma: the racial diversification of the electorate. Not to put too fine a point on it, they are trying to preserve their political prospects as a white folks' party in an increasingly multicolored land." -- Harold Meyerson, writing in today's Kaplan Daily. The Rethugs know that time is not on their side regarding Latino voters, so they've decided to try to move the goal posts in their dangerous chatter about the 14th Amendment.

Take This Job and Slide Off (With a Couple of Beers)

We imagine everyone, after an especially bad day at work, has fantasized quitting their job in dramatic fashion. A Jet Blue flight attendant, Steven Slater, raised the bar Monday when, after being abused by a nasty passenger, took the cabin mic, cursed the passenger, grabbed a couple of beers from the galley, activated the emergency slide, and slid down to the tarmac without so much as a final "buh bye." There's now an overnight cottage industry of tee shirt makers ("Free Steven Slater," etc.) and late night comics that are turning Mr. Slater into a hero of sorts. He has a fan page on Facebook that has 80,000 plus members and growing fast.

The funniest tribute to his dramatic exit came from Stephen Colbert, who awarded Slater the coveted "Alpha Dog of the Week" award. Fasten your seat belts.

BONUS: The term "Hit the slide" is destined to become the new "blow this popsicle stand," and is already defined in UrbanDictionary.com as "To quit one's job in a truly stunning fashion."

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Alpha Dog of the Week - Steven Slater
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election Fox News

Quote of the Day

"The Republicans have a two step strategy. Step one is to try to block legislation that would improve [economic] conditions. Step two is to point out how bad conditions are." Rep. Barney Frank

How To Energize Your Base

Seems White House Press Secretary and professional hippie-basher Robert Gibbs was recently quoted in The Hill mocking "the professional left," saying it would never be satisfied until we had Canadian health care and the Pentagon had been eliminated. Gibbs, who with his boss Rahmbo, delights in bashing the base of the Democratic Party, was taken to task for his comments by Reps. Keith Ellison and Raul Grijalva, who's head of the Progressive Caucus in the House. Apparently Gibbs thinks progressives should shut their mouths and go along with everything the White House does, whether it's folding on the public option, watering down financial reform, or maintaining a position to the right of Bill O'Liely on gay marriage.

Gibbs has since "walked back" his comments, but once again the contempt with which certain of the President's key operatives view progressives is illuminating. I wonder who they think is going to stuff envelopes, canvass, contribute and vote for Democrats while this smug gasbag is free to take shots?

Former Sen. Stevens Dead in Air Crash

Former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens died late yesterday in a plane crash in southern Alaska. He was 86. A favorite target of Hackwhackers, Stevens was most recently known for the "bridge to nowhere" and was considered one of the masters of pork barrel politics, delivering many millions of dollars to the State of Alaska over his long (40 years) career. Former NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe, who was also on the plane, is reported to have survived the crash.

Poot: Do As I Say, Not As I Do

We all know that former Rethuglican House Speaker Newt "Poot" Gingrich is an arrogant, elitist, cynical windbag who has a terrible record as a husband (3 times and counting), while yakking about traditional family values whenever he can. Recall that Poot discussed divorce proceedings with his first wife while she was recovering from uterine cancer surgery, and that he had an affair with and proposed to his third wife while still married to his second. A stand up guy, in other words.

But now, his second wife, Marianne, has given a lengthy interview to Esquire magazine, and Poot may have a problem on his pudgy hands. According to the article:

He asked her to just tolerate the affair, an offer she refused.

He'd just returned from Erie, Pennsylvania, where he'd given a speech full of high sentiments about compassion and family values.

The next night, they sat talking out on their back patio in Georgia. She said, "How do you give that speech and do what you're doing?"

"It doesn't matter what I do," he answered. "People need to hear what I have to say. There's no one else who can say what I can say. It doesn't matter what I live."

So "it doesn't matter what I live," huh Poot? Poot thinks he can be a stone-cold hypocrite as long as he can pull the wool over the sheeples' eyes. May this story be spread far and wide.

Is It Hot Enough For You?

A massive island of ice has broken off from Greenland, according to scientists at the University of Delaware. The island is reported to be 4 times the size of Manhattan, or some 100 square miles. Amazingly, the ice block contains enough fresh water to provide tap water for the U.S. for 120 days. So what are the conclusions being drawn?

"Environmentalists say ice melt is being caused by global warming with Arctic temperatures in the 1990s reaching their warmest level of any decade in at least 2,000 years, according to a study published in 2009.

Current trends could see the Arctic Ocean become ice free in summer months within decades, researchers predict."

We suspect global warming deniers like the porcine pontificator Pills Limballs and Oklahoma Rethug wingnut James "Head-In-Ass" Inhofe will see this simply as a sign that the Arctic is turning out more ice for us, much like a refrigerator's ice maker. Yeah, that's the ticket!

Ladies Man

Stories about Kentucky Rethug candidate for Senate Rand "The Sprinklerhead" Paul get more bizarre as time goes on. Now, in a profile in GQ Magazine, a woman told the interviewer that while she and The Sprinklerhead were students at Baylor University, she was abducted by the erstwhile "libertarian / conservative" who tried to force her to take bong hits. Apparently The Sprinklerhead and an accomplice had been smoking weed when they had this brilliant idea. Must have been real fun on a date. . .or maybe that was his problem. We'll see what this does in Kentucky among the "family values" Rethuglicans.

We're giving The Sprinklerhead the benefit of the doubt, since he undoubtedly was "going Galt" at the time, and therefore not in his right mind.

(photo: Smoking weed sometimes results in inappropriate dress)

Sunday Morning With Frank Rich

It almost wouldn't be Sunday without a laser-directed salvo from the NY Times' Frank Rich. This morning, he discusses the political landscape for Democrats, their banking on the "bash Bush" strategy, and their lack of a strong plan and message for addressing continuing economic troubles. Weak knees, lack of conviction, and other forms of political malpractice will get you every time.