Willard Romney's Reluctant Team

Watch Stephen Colbert's final (?) farewell to Newt "Moon Pie" Gingrich (catch Moon Pie's gut-knifing of job creator Millionaire Mitt at about 1:15), and why "team Rethug" is having such a hard time accepting its captain ("block that metaphor!").

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Mittens' Mendacity, Part 16

Rethuglican presidential nominee-to-be, the weird Willard "Pinocchio" Romney has a well deserved reputation for lying his ass off playing fast and loose with the truth. Most recently, his opponents for the Rethug nomination were happy to point out his lies and blatant dishonesty about his record. It's difficult to keep up with the falsehoods, but luckily the MaddowBlog's Steve Benen performs a public service by his weekly compilation of weird Willard's tall tales. Read it and remember that Pinocchio would say anything to get elected. Anything.

Weekend Cartoon

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(Mike Luckovich, via gocomics.com)

Weekend West Coast Song

San Francisco band Train with a catchy song and some catchy scenes of San Francisco. Enjoy your weekend.

Quote of the Day

"The truth is, Obama infuriates the Republicans simply by waking up as president each morning. Under the rubric of 'taking our country back,' they have challenged his status as an American, they have impugned his faith and they have even questioned his loyalty and patriotism. From the very beginning, they have pursued a conscious strategy of refusing to compromise in any way whatsoever, to the point that they have purged any in their own camp who dare to even suggest such a course." -- Jay Bookman, in his column in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. As noted by political scientists Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann last weekend, the Rethuglicans are the problem.
(h/t to Daily Kos)

Portrait of a Violent Wingnut

From TPM:

"Longtime white supremacist and border vigilante JT Ready saw himself as part of a war that few others would fight. He amassed weapons. He donned a uniform. He formed his own brigade of volunteers to walk alongside him as he hunted what he described as “narco terrorists” flowing across the Arizona-Mexico border.

"On Wednesday, reports out of Arizona said Ready died, not at the hands of drug runners, but with his own gun during a mad rampage inside a suburban home just east of Phoenix. Along the way, the reports said, he took the lives of four other people, including a toddler.

"The Arizona Republic reported the victims were Ready’s girlfriend, her daughter, the daughter’s boyfriend and the daughter’s 18-month-old baby. [snip]

"[In the past] Ready was a member of the National Socialist Movement, the largest neo-Nazi organization in the nation. He joined in at NSM rallies in Arizona and California and was often spotted alongside swastika flags. [snip]

"Long before he ran for sheriff or came out as a white supremacist, Ready had a budding interest in politics. He was part of the young Republicans club at his local college and later became a precinct leader with the state Republican Party."

It seems at times that there are as many of these horrible cretins out there as there are rocks to hide under.

(Photo: JT Ready -- Rethug precinct leader, neo-Nazi and, finally, family destroyer.)

Class Warfare: Productivity vs. Wages

To paraphrase Warren Buffett, we've been having a class war for decades, and the rich are winning. As unions declined or were effectively barred from unionizing "white collar" sectors, management has been able to squeeze more and more productivity (i.e., goods and services generating profits) out of workers while paying them wages that didn't reflect the value of that productivity. TPM has taken Economic Policy Institute data and given us this eye-popping comparison:


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Profile in Cowardice

Coreless shape-changer Willard "Etch-A-Sketch" Romney wants to be all things to all people, now that he's the presumptive nominee of the Rethuglican / New Confederate Party (which still deeply mistrusts his "severe" conservatism). The latest example of weird Willard's spinelessness was the recent sacking of his openly gay foreign policy advisor, Richard "Contra-Dick-tion" Grenell. Contra-Dick-tion is no progressive on foreign policy: as wingnut flamer John "The 'Stache" Bolton's deputy at the U.N., he's about as much of a neocon war pusher as you can get.

But, as we know, in today's Rethuglican Party, it's not what you know, where you stand, or what you believe; it's who you are, and the far right of the party couldn't abide an openly gay advisor to Willard. Of course, weird Willard could have mustered some minimal courage, had his "Sister Souljah" moment, and told the wingnut fanatics to sit on it. He didn't, and won't, just like he passed up criticizing Pills Limpballs over the Sandra Fluke smear. So ask yourselves: if he's afraid to stand up to the kooks in his own party, how will he deal with the world's bad guys?

Rethug Hypocrisy Cartoon of the Day

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In addition to the Rethuglican complainers, enough criticism of the President from the Village media, which absolutely swooned over Dumbya's flight suit and arrival on board an attack plane (which he did not pilot). Their double standard is pathetic, as was their failure at "journalism" for most of the Iraq debacle.

Poot's Looonnnngggg Farewell

When he dropped out of the race for the Rethuglican nomination yesterday, moon colony leader and Tiffany shopper Newt "Poot" Gingrich decided to share every random thought in his head for an excruciating 26 minutes. While staffers yawned and reporters put away their notepads and tried to slip out of the room, Poot bloviated on a range of subjects from Kaiser Wilhelm II, to asteroid mining, to Chinese bondholders, to 1607 Jamestown, to....well, you get the picture. As the Fux Channel's Shepard "God, Get Me Out Of Here" Smith commented to his TV audience after the marathon:

"Wow — well, I’m exhausted. And just a guess here, I’m not one who normally just sort of guesses at things...But I’m guessing both of you are exhausted as well. The two of you who stayed with us."

BAM! We'll miss you, Poot. See you on the moon.

(photo: His ambitions have cratered.)

Colbert Demolishes Lyin' Ryan

Once again, Stephen Colbert skewers the right-wing's "philosopher" Rep. Paul "Lyin'" Ryan ("Reagan hair reenactor" -- bwahaha) in this takedown. Lyin' Ryan, a follower of social darwinist creep Ayn Rand, has run afoul of the Catholic Church's teachings on social welfare with his vicious cuts in domestic programs, and Colbert nails him.

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Mid-Week Song

Today marks singer Lesley Gore's 65th birthday. Best known for "It's My Party," Gore had a dozen top pop hits in the '60s. By the way, here's one that would be perfect to feature on AMC's "Mad Men," given the male attitudes at the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce ad agency. Enjoy.

Dumbya's Premature Iraqulation

As it so happens, nine years ago today aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, former Preznit Dumbya strutted on the flight deck in his flight suit costume with some extra padding in his codpiece, before changing clothes and making a victory speech underneath a "Mission Accomplished" banner.

Sadly for Dumbya, and tragically for thousands of our nation's armed forces members and Iraqi civilians, the Iraq War continued for many more years. As we said yesterday, remember this when you hear Rethugs and their apologists in the mainstream media criticizing President Obama for "politicizing" the killing of bin Laden last year. Dumbya was arrogant enough to claim victory when there was none; the President took credit for actually accomplishing something...something that Dumbya walked away from.

Risen From The Ashes

The skyline of New York City was tragically altered on 9/11, as terrorists brought down the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Now, almost 11 years later, a new World Trade Center (center, above) is nearing completion at ground zero, and it will inspirationally alter the skyline once again. When completed it will be the tallest tower in the U.S. and the third largest in the world.

(photo: Andy Dallos, taken from across Manhattan)

Walk The Plank Quote of the Day

“We conclude, therefore, that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company.” -- the conclusion of a report from an 11-member panel of the UK Parliament on Murdoch's News Corporation phone hacking scandal.

The U.S. branch of his Corporation -- which includes the Fux Channel, the Wall Street Urinal, and the New Yuck Post -- is almost certainly engaged in unethical practices here, at a bare minimum, and more likely guilty of the kind of illegal activities that have tripped them up in the UK. The UK investigation cries out for a similar one in the U.S.