Cartoon of the Day

(click to enlarge)
The clueless teahadists are out in force this week at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference fantasy fest in D.C. Sadly for them, and good for America, these misdirected boobs are losing steam and plummeting in popularity with the public, which has had 15 months to observe their nuttiness (debt ceiling limit, payroll tax fight, etc.) following the 2010 mid-term elections.

(thanks to Milwaukee Bureau Chief Eric for sharing the cartoon)

Quote of the Day

"They needed to be humbled, unmercifully, until the hubris was wrung out of every damn one of them. Now, a woman working a low-income service industry job under the supervision of a Catholic boss will have her access to essential health-care truncated by a discredited encyclical to which no Catholic has paid any heed since the administration of Lyndon Johnson. These bastards needed to be broken, publicly, and into a thousand pieces that were scattered to the winds. Instead, they are 'voices of conscience' again. It is to weep." -- Charles P. Pierce in Esquire.com today, referring to the right wing Catholic establishment, which is now seeking to deny all American women, regardless of their faith, access to birth control, according to the U.S. Conference of Bishops' general counsel. Now who's trying to impose their beliefs on others?

UPDATE: And where do Americans, and Catholics in particular, stand on the access to birth control issue? Check out the polling. Even pro-choice Rethugs (wait, what? - there are pro-choice Rethugs?) are warning that this would be a disastrous fight for the Rethugs to engage in. Oh well, anything for a Culture War!

Holy Hypocrisy!

The conservative Catholic hierarchy -- aided and abetted by the Rethug outrage machine -- is raging against the Obama Administration's initiative to insure that employees of Catholic universities and hospitals have access to birth control as part of their health care packages. Now we see that some Catholic universities -- including DePaul, Georgetown and Fordham -- already include birth control in their health benefit packages. This is in addition to the 28 States that also have such provisions for Catholic institutions in their States. Keep in mind that employees of Catholic institutions are of different faiths, too, not just Catholic.

One would have hoped that the various Bishops and Cardinals, morally outraged against something that 98% of Catholic women practice, would have been as proactive in halting their despicable role in shuffling pedophile priests around from parish to parish for decades. Odd how when it comes to men in the Church, different rules apply.

The Michelle Obama/ Jimmy Fallon Challenge

Mid-Week Song

Canadian singer Kathleen Edwards isn't known well in the U.S., but that may change with the release of her well-received album "Voyageur," which was co-produced by her new companion, Bon Iver's Justin Vernon. Here's a cut from that album, "Empty Threat."

Santor-momentum?

Cyborg opportunist Willard "Mittens" Romney's march to his coronation hit a three-state speed bump yesterday as American Talibangelist candidate Rick "Frothy Mix" Santorum swept the votes in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri. Votes for Mittens were less than those he received in 2008, tending to confirm a lack of enthusiasm for the flip-flopping phony among the wingnut core of the party, and the belief that the more you see of Millionaire Mittens, the less you like him. Frothy Mix has now won 4 state contests, one more than Mittens.

We love the turbulence in the Rethuglican / New Confederate Party, with winners and losers trading places from week to week. Nothing would please us more than seeing the Rethugs go to their August convention with a 3-way split of delegates, and with a frustrated Ron "Race War" Paul deciding to go third party on their butts. Time for popcorn!

Rep. Fleming: Can You Say "Satire?"

Some people are born morons, some people are self-made. We're not sure which category Rep. John Fleming (Rethug-LA) falls into, but he certainly is someone who lacks the ability to think critically. The Congressman (a doctor no less!) fell for an old story in the Onion, which most sentient people know is a satire web site, announcing Planned Parenthood's new "Abortionplex." Abortionplex. Really. He fell for that.

Perhaps in the future Rep. Fleming and like-"minded" right-wingers will stay away from sharp objects, such the Onion's humor.

(h/t Silver Spring Bureau Chief Brian)

Buh Bye

Wingnut anti-choice activist Karen "Lost The" Handel has resigned from the Susan G. Komen Foundation as its Senior VP for Public Policy. Lost The Handel was the driving force behind Komen's disastrous attempt to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood, which performs many thousands of breast cancer screenings (not to mention pap smears) each year, mainly for poor and working class women. Komen has since reversed the ill-conceived move after a huge firestorm erupted and threatened the Foundation's viability with donors, who saw the move as a political attack on women's reproductive health. It's struggling to repair its image, and clearly had to separate itself from the far-right politics represented by Lost The Handel.

Fingering It All Out

It's Day 2 of the BoogerGate controversy: during Sunday's Super Bowl, did porcine poopsack Rush "The Picker" Limpballs go knuckle deep in his snout/nose, or merely scratch it? Who nose? It's snot easy to say. Take your pick. Balloon Juice probes this question with a forensic analysis of the photo.

(photo: Has The Picker already moved on to another orifice?)

Rethug Base To Mittens: Not So Fast

Today's votes in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri will likely signal that current frontrunner and well-lubricated weather vane Willard "Poor Don't Concern Me" Romney will have problems with American Talibangelist favorite Rick "Frothy Mix" Santorum. Frothy Mix has a lead in some polls in both Minnesota and Missouri, where his extreme views resonate with the gay-hatin', God-fearin' rubes who believe that America should be a theocracy.

The more the Rethuglican primary process goes on, the more it reveals the ugliness of the far-right which makes up the base. With the candidates' increasing appeals to racism, nativism, and selfishness, cloaked in platitudes about "returning America to greatness," independents and other swing voters can see what they would be getting into if any of the Rethug candidates were to win the White House.

Cartoon of the Day - Rightwingoverse Edition

(Click to enlarge)

(Tom Tomorrow, via Daily Kos)

When You Sleep With Dogs....

...you sometimes end up with fleas. Former Bushit Assministration paid liar Ari "Pinocchio" Fleischer has admitted advising the Susan Komen Foundation on its ill-fated move to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood. Pinocchio Fleischer was a key figure in lying us into the Iraq War, and otherwise covering up for Bushit misdeeds while serving as Press Secretary. It gets worse. Pinocchio was also on the team that screened candidates to fill the VP for Public Policy at Komen, which ended up in selecting wingnut anti-choicer Karen Handel.

So he helped put the arsonist in place, and then advised lighting the fire. Who would pay this clown for advice anyway? Apparently, the clueless Komenites would.

(photo: Pinocchio Fleischer indicates how much you can trust his advice)

Picture of the Week

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Take a close look at the round object in the top right hand corner: that's right, it's King of Hate Radio Pills Limpballs picking his nose at the Super Bowl!! Why New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft would allow that sack-of-crap into his box is incomprehensible. The look on rocker Steve Tyler's face suggests that Pills just treated them all to a dose of his flatulence. Add the owner of the Patriots to the Cowboys' Jerry Jones and Redskins' Little Danny Snyder to the list of clueless sports moguls.

"Citizens United" and Conservative Election Rigging

E.J. Dionne has this to say in today's Kaplan Daily on the corrosive impact of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision and on those who rendered it:

"[A]scribing an outrageous decision to naiveté is actually the most sympathetic way of looking at what the court did in Citizens United. A more troubling interpretation is that a conservative majority knew exactly what it was doing: that it set out to remake our political system by fiat in order to strengthen the hand of corporations and the wealthy. Seen this way, Citizens United was an attempt by five justices to push future electoral outcomes in a direction that would entrench their approach to governance.

"In fact, this decision should be seen as part of a larger initiative by moneyed conservatives to rig the electoral system against their opponents. How else to explain conservative legislation in state after state to obstruct access to the ballot by lower-income voters — particularly members of minority groups — though voter identification laws, shortened voting periods and restrictions on voter registration campaigns?

"Conservatives are strengthening the hand of the rich at one end of the system and weakening the voting power of the poor at the other."

Fortunately, at this admittedly early stage, (progressive) people power is winning over (conservative) money power (yay Saul Alinsky!). Still, there are an awful lot of low- and no-information voters, aren't there?! Not to mention voters who won't even get into the voting booth thanks to Rethuglican-instituted restrictions.

Numbers, Again

For those inclined not to believe in the invincibility of plutocrat tin man Willard "Not Concerned About the Very Poor" Romney (contrary to the "mainstream media" and Washington chattering class, who are swooning), let's keep in mind this number from yesterday's Nevada Rethug caucuses: 53%. That's the percentage of Rethugs who caucused yesterday who voted AGAINST their "inevitable" nominee. 53%. That's not such good news, Willard.

(Update: the final vote count gave Romnoid a whopping 50.1%, meaning merely 49.9% voted for someone else.