Weekend Musical Selection

Sit back, relax, maybe close your eyes, and enjoy.

Willard's Tax Dodge

President and Mrs. Obama released their 2011 tax returns today, showing they paid over $160,000 in taxes and gave away more than $170,000 in charitable donations. The release can't help but highlight the presumed Rethuglican nominee and one-percenter Willard "Millionaire Mittens" Romney's refusal to release his tax returns for the past 10 years. Although everyone knows weird Willard pays around 14 percent in taxes on investment income that's in the millions of dollars, he refused to disclose tax returns from earlier years. Ironically, he had no problem giving the McCain campaign tax returns from 10 years when he was being vetted for VP on the 2008 Rethug ticket, but he won't let the American people in on his secrets.

Vice President Biden had some fun at a rally yesterday in New Hampshire, when he asked the audience "who's got a Swiss bank account?", referring to one of Willard's off-shore income sheltering havens. This is the right week for reminding the middle class, as they submit their tax returns, just who is out of touch with them.

UPDATE: One-percent Willard has filed for an extension of up to six months for his tax returns. If the Dems let go of this obvious attempt to hide something, they're crazy.

(illustration by DonkeyHotey, via Esquire.com)

Quote of the Day

"[New Jersey Governor Chris Christie] poses as a man willing to make hard choices for the future, but what he actually did was sacrifice the future for the sake of personal political advantage. He catered to national Republican prejudices that are completely at odds with New Jersey’s needs; he cared more about avoiding embarrassment over a misguided campaign pledge than about serving an urgent public need." -- today's blast by New York Times columnist and Nobel prize winner Paul Krugman at loudmouth bully Gov. Chris "Kris Krispycreme" Christie for diverting needed funds from a rail tunnel connecting New Jersey and New York City, and then lying about it according to a GAO report, so that the funds could be used to keep gasoline taxes from being raised.

Read the column; it tells you all you need to know about the Rethuglican / One Percenter Party's latest savior.

Failure To Launch

After the big buildup that North Korea had for its rocket launch, it looks like the rocket failed moments into its flight. Some rocket scientists are pooping themselves today in North Korea, if they're still alive.

The new Glorious and Enlightened Leader and Father to His People, Kim Jung-un, had orchestrated the launch to honor the 100th birthday of his grandfather, the original Glorious and Enlightened Leader and Father to His People, Kim Il-sung. Since the ruling family is infallible in its judgement, a search for the traitors/incompetents/foreign agents will no doubt proceed quickly.

(photo: They got the crane out of the way before the launch, right?)

"Soulless Make-Believe Twee Bullshit" in Two Parts

Part Un (John Cole at Balloon Juice):

"Everything that comes out of this man’s [the "Catholic" League's hateful shitsack Bill Donohue] mouth is pure bile:

'This morning, the Catholic League, headed by the virulently homophobic Bill Donohue (right), said via Twitter, “Lesbian Dem Hilary Rosen tells Ann Romney she never worked a day in her life. Unlike Rosen, who had to adopt kids, Ann raised 5 of her own.'

"Get that one-two-three punch? Gotta give Donohue credit: He belittled lesbians, Democrats, and adoption all in less than 140 characters.

"He’s like Rush Limbaugh without the wit and charm and good looks. Why is he still accepted in polite company? Just a few weeks ago, he was coordinating attacks on the victims of molestation. Now this?"

Part Deux (Wonkette):

"The simplest way to capture the zeitgeist on any particularly thick day of soulless make-believe twee bullshit is to visit the blog of Jennifer Rubin, conservative commentator for the Washington Post and breathtakingly unsubtle hack for the Mitt Romney presidential campaign. Her interview with Ann Romney today is a masterwork of synthetically engineered sympathy.

'Despite the public tweets from President Obama’s advisers and Rosen, no one has called her to apologize — not the campaign, not the White House and not Rosen. She resists playing the victim. “I am okay,” she said. “I have a thick skin.” She even jokes that raising five boys was “a lot tougher” than anything Rosen is going to dish out.'

"Ann Romney joined Twitter last night for the sole purpose of playing the victim as fast as possible. She then spoke to Jennifer Rubin on her way to the airport, to play the victim. The Mitt Romney campaign strategy today and indefinitely going forward is for Ann Romney to play the victim, as much as possible, in all media platforms."

And, as with the pig who is the only happy participant in a mud wrestling contest, the ones most happy about this "twee bullshit" are the twee "mainstream media" running this faux story non-stop.

Cartoon of the Day

(click to enlarge)
With "Stand Your Ground" laws in effect in a number of states, it's not difficult to imagine more and more shootings of unarmed people out of fear, anger or ignorance. The laws are a product of aggressive NRA legislative action, usually via the discredited right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council.

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Happy Anniversary, Mittens

Today marks the sixth anniversary of the signing of Romneycare into law in Massachusetts. To commemorate that anniversary -- and to remind people of Willard "Weathervane" Romney's slippery nature -- the Obama campaign released this video. It's well done and worth watching.

Willard's Women Woes

It's apparent from polls that the Rethuglican Party has a real problem with a large majority of women. With ultra-right wing Rethugs pushing everything from "personhood" legislation aimed at undermining Roe v. Wade and severely restricting contraceptives, to transvaginal exams aimed at humiliating and intimidating women seeking a legal abortion, the Rethugs have shown that they don't get it.

Their eventual nominee and 3-dollar bill Willard "Weird Willard" Romney keeps stepping in the anti-women poop that his party keeps dropping. He's even hesitant to support the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that gives women the tools to fight against pay discrimination. Weird Willard is so tin-eared that he actually said this:

"My wife has the occasion, as you know, to campaign on her own and also with me. And she reports to me regularly that the issue women care about most is the economy and getting good jobs for their kids and for themselves."

"She reports to me regularly...?" What does he see her as, a staff member of his? Does he need a female translator or emissary to understand issues of concern to women? Apparently so.

(photo: Weird Willard reacts to the latest "report" from his wife)

Mid-Week Foo Fight Song

The Foo Fighters' most recent hit, "These Days," is our mid-week song. "Foo Fighters" was the term WWII pilots used for UFOs. (Shout out to our Wisconsin roots: Madison, WI native son Butch Vig co-produced the recording, as he has in the past for such groups as Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and Green Day).

Quote of the Day II

Our former "misunderestimated" Preznit Dumbya, running away from his "legacy," such as it is:

"I wish they weren’t called the Bush tax cuts. If they were called some other body's tax cuts, they're probably less likely to be raised."

Yes, Dumbya, you really sucked. Really.

BREAKING: Santorum Drops Out of Race

No, this one is not an April Fools Day posting. Buh bye, Frothy Mix!

Time for Newtmentum again? C'mon, let's keep this baby going!

Quote of the Day

From the excellent Charles P. Pierce at Esquire.com:

"Ever since Wall Street trashed the world economy and stole what was left, the inchoate public rage always has had as its source a vaguely defined conviction that somebody, somewhere has cheated the rest of us out of our country. The political fight has been over who to blame for it. First, the Tea Party decided to blame Government, with a strong and familiar old counter-melody about lazy poor people. That's a spent force right now. [Rep. Paul Ryan] is yammering so desperately about 'class warfare.' The people who've paid for his political career are afraid that they just might lose one.

So, go ahead, Willard. Pick him. Let him go out, day after day, and sell his bulked-up version of all the policies that threw the country into a ditch in the first place. Make him the economic face of your ticket. Let the country look into his zombie eyes and see all the grannies starving therein."

Good Poll Numbers for Obama

A new Washington Post / ABC News poll shows President Obama with double-digit leads over presumed Rethuglican nominee and humanoid replica Willard "Marvelous Mittens" Romney on several key issues: who would protect the interests of the middle class, who is stronger on womens' issues, who would handle international relations better, and who is right on health care. The President also beats Marvelous Mittens by 19 points among women voters, which, if the number holds firm, could doom him in November. The poll shows much closer numbers on questions of jobs and the economy, as expected.

Then there's the likeability factor, the "who would you rather have a beer with?" question. On that, the President wallops Marvelous Mittens by a 2 to 1 margin. The more Mittens tries to be someone that he's not, the more the public sees his lack of a core, and sees his phoniness.

Ronnie Reagan, Socialist

President Obama travels to Florida today to rally support for the so-called "Buffett Rule," a proposal that millionaires should pay a minimum of 30% of their income in taxes. It's part of a campaign theme of fairness and shared sacrifice. The Rethuglicans, of course, are pushing back with their tired "class warfare" charge, despite polling that shows Americans favor higher taxes on the wealthy by a large majority.

To appreciate just how extreme the Rethuglican / New Confederate Party has become, here's a video of none other than President St. Ronnie of Hollywood addressing the issue of taxing the wealthy.

Just As We Suspected

"... [P]olitical conservatism may be a process consequence of low-effort thought; when effortful, deliberate thought is disengaged, endorsement of conservative ideology increases." -- from the abstract for "Low-Effort Thought Promotes Political Conservatism," a paper published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin by Scott Eidelman, Christian Crandall, Jeffrey Goodman, and John Blanchar, University of Arkansas. (h/t HuffPo)

Of course, there was this, also.