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Ezra Klein: What Romney doesn’t understand about personal responsibility

Davis Corn: Romney's Video-Debunking Claim Is…Debunked

Alec MacGillis: How Paul Ryan Convinced Washington of His Genius

John D. McKinnon: Romney's Tax Plan Fails to Gain a Foothold

Zewlina Maxwell: Now a campaign issue: Sonia Sotomayor

Michael Lewis: Obama's Way

President Obama's Weekly Address - September 22, 2012

Congress Must Act to Create Jobs and Grow the Economy

Possibly Jon Stewart's Best Segment Ever

I haven't had much time to blog lately because I've been burning the candle at both ends these past couple of weeks, but I did happen to catch The Daily Show last night and witnessed what I believe is one of Jon Stewart's best segments in the history of the show.

Chaos on Bullshit Mountain. Grab your popcorn and enjoy.

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Understatement of the Year

“We will never have the elite, smart people on our side.” 

~ Former Republican Senator and presidential candidate Rick Santorum.

Sometimes the jokes just write themselves, or in this case, expose themselves.

Must Reads

Kurt Eichenwald: The Deafness Before the Storm

Stephen C. Webster: Paul Ryan’s campaign immediately retracts candidate’s support for medical marijuana

Kasie Hunt: FACT CHECK: Romney misstates facts on attacks

Gail Collins: Mitt's Major Meltdown

Robert Dreyfuss: Romney's Fatal Libya Blunder

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin: Matt Taibbi on Mitt Romney's Crooked, Dirty Game

Dana Milbank: Mitt Romney has mess to clean up after falsely accusing Obama on Libya

Ruth Marcus: Romney owes an apology

President Obama's Weekly Address - September 15, 2012

Carrying on the Work of Our Fallen Heroes

This Sorry Excuse for a Man Does Not Even Deserve To Be CLOSE to the Nomination for President

Really?

Does anyone honestly believe this man is qualified to be President of the United States? 

As early as 10 pm last night Secretary of State Clinton released a statement condemning the attack, but after the stroke of midnight last night, exactly one minute after the day of 9/11 concluded, Team Romney and RNC Chairman Reince Priebus unleashed a torrent of criticism and accused President Obama of apologizing for America and sympathizing with the attackers. 

During his press conference today Mitt Romney claimed the president was apologizing for American values. And in this case “American Values” would seem to include the views of Florida Pastor Terry Jones who stoked violent protests outside of the U.S. Embassies in Libya and other countries by creating a rabidly anti-Muslim propaganda film. 

What was considered to be a “shiny object” by the Romney campaign as recently as three days ago took center stage today as Mitt used the deaths of three Americans and a long-serving Ambassador to project the idea that President Obama is a secret-Muslim, terrorist sympathizer.

This was the best that the Republican Party could do this election season. When does this incarnation of the GOP finally become extinct? What will it take?

Smirk away, you sorry excuse for a human being.



By the way, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus makes Michael Steele look like Stephen Fucking Hawking.

(Via Bob Cesca)

A Moment of Silence

September 11, 2012. 8:46am

Sometimes I Just Shake My Head and Sigh...

...when I think about elected officials as moronic as Sen. Chuck Grassley having a say in how our government works... or doesn't work as the case may be.

One thing in particular that I didn't miss this time around in the GOP Bullshit Memes Edition of 2012 was the blood boiling ridiculousness that is the teleprompter jab. Obama's soooo dumb.... HOW DUMB IS HE?! He's sooo dumb he can't give a speech without a teleprompter. If he can't read it, he doesn't know what to say. HAR! HAR! HAR!! (This insult brought to you by some GOP idiot reading a teleprompter.)

I know it shouldn't bother me because it's obvious crap, but maybe what bugs me the most is that it's been repeated so often, most of the GOP lemmings take it as fact. They believe this while watching their political leaders READ OFF A TELEPROMPTER! So this time around, I was glad they retired this silly notion. Or so I thought.



Seriously?! What. The. FUCK?! This waste of carbon is a sitting fucking senator in Congress who has watched every President since Lyndon Fucking Johnson use a teleprompter, but obviously the reason President Obama uses it is because he's dumb, right?

And the topper is his comparison to the Romneybot-3000 who apparently is so much smarter, he doesn't need a teleprompter. That Mitt's so quick on his feet that he came up with this little gem while defending his omission of our military troops during this speech at the RNC in what was the biggest night of his political life:

Responding to an inquiry from Fox News reporter Brett Baier, Romney claimed, “When you give a speech, you don’t go through a laundry list, you talk about the things that you think are important.”

Yeah, Mitt wants to talk about the important things. Why waste time giving a little shout out to the troops the GOP always loves to use as a backdrop when you can spend that valuable time letting Clint Eastwood upstage the Republican presidential nominee with an empty fucking chair?

Man, I don't know how President Obama is going to deal with such a razor sharp wit as Mitt Romney during the upcoming debates without a teleprompter.

(Cross-posted on ABLC)

Must Reads

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Tom Junod: The Lonely Power of Michelle and the Idea of Barack

Haim Saban: The Truth About Obama and Israel

Jason Easley: Bill Clinton Puts Little Boy Paul Ryan Back In His Place

E.J. Dionne: Bill Clinton’s tutorial on the need for government

Gloria J. Browne-Marshall: Racism Festers In RNC's And CNN's Silence

Willard Foxton: On Assange and on CNN, Glenn Greenwald is talking out of his hat and is an embarrassment to The Guardian

Milt Shook: Most Important Qualification For President: Empathy - Obama Has It, Romney Doesn't

McKay Coppins: Romney Endorses Ultraconservative Congressman

President Obama's Weekly Address - September 8, 2012

Coming Together to Remember September 11th

So You Were Disappointed in President Obama

I have to admit I was surprised President Barack Obama's speech was so well-received because frankly it was not the speech I was expecting & from my twitter thread I wasn't the only one surprised. But then PBO always surprises me. I can't really articulate what I was expecting, but the heavy dose of dry humor wasn't on my list. Make no mistake, I  love PBO's humor & the way he laughs at his own jokes. As my family & friends will attest, I do the same thing. I thought the speech was pitch-perfect as the President took us through the evolution of his political life. This moment as he stood before us as President demanded a different kind of speech. I was not disappointed; I was blown away. This speech was a slow burn that ended with a crescendo reminiscent of a call & response sermon--a style of his I dearly love. But, as usual, there were a few flying unicorns pooping fairy dust all over the speech.

So I'm going to address the deafening silence when he talked about drilling for domestic oil, developing natural gas and clean coal. I reject the idea of we can't do something so don't even try.  Increasing domestic oil production is a necessary step in weaning ourselves off of foreign oil. Period. We cannot leap from dependence on oil to alternative sources of energy. It's impossible. Maybe we would if we could all afford to run right out and buy hybrid or electric cars, but we can't. Many of you may not remember the OPEC oil embargoes, but it was a damn scary time. Our country's security was under constant overt or implied threat. Americans were held hostage to the turbulence in the Middle East.

This may sound trivial, but during that time we didn't just turn our thermostats down, we didn't decorate for Christmas. We cancelled vacations in the family car. The cost of petroleum-based products skyrocketed. During the holiday season, we enjoy driving around, looking at Christmas lights. During those years, I remember thinking, seeing one darkened house after another, that the darkness was portending our future. But we survived that energy crisis only to experience others--a never ending cycle we must break. 

I live in the state of NM, a state people associate with beautiful skies, green chili, & tourism. But we, too, are producers of oil & natural gas. Large oil & gas fields as well as giant refineries are located in the NW & SE parts of the state. NM is a huge state with endless miles of nothingness & some of it vast stretches of ugliness. Those oil & gas pumps that dot the landscape are a beautiful sight to a very poor state. The taxes generated by those pumps fund our schools. The severance taxes are critical because, while NM may be a huge state geographically, we have a small population, most of whom live at or below poverty level; therefore, we have a small tax base. Although we may depend on energy production as a source of revenue, NM is also developing  alternative energy sources. So that is one reason I support Pres. Obama's energy plan--like NM energy production, his plan is a bridge between old & new. 

Yes, I am fully aware of the dangers inherent in the use of natural gas. In my hometown a natural gas explosion obliterated 10 members & 3 generations of a family. In another tragedy a young  Navajo family traveling across the reservation was blown to pieces when a gas line exploded under their pickup. I don't need commercials of water faucets shooting out balls of fire to understand the dangers of natural gas. But as someone who has always had a home warmed by natural gas, I also know it is efficient, plentiful, clean, & very cheap. Our heating bill in the dead of cold Albuquerque winters runs about $60.00 a month  Herein lies the dilemma. Natural gas, while potentially dangerous, must be considered a viable alternative to oil & coal. 

 I also lived close to two coal-fired power plants built near a coal deposit on the Navajo Reservation when I taught in a northwestern NM town. For years I watched black smoke billowing out of skyscraper-like smokestacks, darkening our stunning NM sky. According to many it seemed we had a disproportionate number of young women afflicted with MS & cancer attributed to the toxic emissions from the plants.  At the time I lived there I was alarmed at the growing number of seemingly healthy women who suddenly became very ill. No, that's not evidence. It is anecdotal but sometimes that can be powerful. We also believed the air inversions that trapped the air above the basin, leaving us with sunless days for a week at a time, were caused by the smoke. Finally, after years of protests by environmental groups, the stacks were fitted with scrubbers, & now the black smoke is but a thin wisp of white. Now I'm not naive enough to think all environmental & health risks have been eliminated, but certainly progress has been made. 

Secondly, poverty is palatable on the reservation & coal is an important source of revenue for the Navajo Tribe. Just as in West Virginia, where coal mining has done incalculable damage to people's health & environment, the industry does provide a living to many in one of the poorest parts of the United States. So what is the solution?  How can we suddenly deprive the poor of a source of income while protecting their safety & the environment?  These are concerns we all have. 

Choosing Pres. Obama isn't a choice between the lesser of two evils. He is the best & only hope for the environment we've had in my lifetime. I want a watch dog over oil drilling & the extraction of natural gas & coal. I want a shepherd to continue bringing alternative energy production on line. First & foremost, I need is someone who gives a damn about the safety of my family & all families.  I want a leader with a conscience who will not only develop safety regulations but enforce current ones. We have these resources that we need, & we have a President who believes in & seeks out innovation to change & modernize our energy industry while providing safe jobs & a clean environment. 

 

Here's what I know from my own experience & what I want to share with those of you who so readily dismiss the President's plan & responded to that part of the speech with stony silence. Don't scoff at the idea of safe extraction of natural gas. Don't scorn the idea of clean coal. 

For the first 8 years of my life, I lived in a northern NM village where I attended a one building school that housed grades 1-12. We didn't have a school cafeteria because there were no such things, not even a concept of one. We ate our brown bag lunches seated on the bleachers in the gym. Our playground was hard-packed dirt with a couple of swings. No state of the art, safe playgrounds for us. Certainly no Internet, computers, DVD players, etc.  No, it wasn't walking to a school 5 miles away in 8 feet of snow, but it was damn close. I remember when my dad brought our first tv into the house--black & white of course. Hell, I even remember a rotary phone without the rotary. I just picked up the phone & told the local operator the number to call. 

But I also remember my dad getting me up at the crack of dawn to watch the flight of John Glenn into space & Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. I watched with a father who was born at home to a mother born in a sod covered dug out on a NM ranch. And to a father who came to NM in a covered wagon & was alive to see that same moon walk although he never believed it. 

I am in awe of what my grandparents & my parents saw in their lifetimes. I am in awe of what I saw & still see. So don't tell me we can't develop safe natural gas extraction. So don't tell me we aren't going to see clean coal. No sir!  We do incredible stuff here in America.  When I choose my President in November, I'm choosing Barack Obama & his energy plan, thank you very much. 

President Clinton's Speech at the DNC 2012

The Big Dog ate.

First Lady Michelle Obama: DNC 2012 Convention Speech

DNC Ted Kennedy Tribute...

... and eating Mitt Romney's lunch in the process.

Must Reads

Dana Milbank: Isaac brushes past an obsolete convention

Eugene Robinson: Republicans steal Medicare from the Democrats

Joan Walsh: Rick Santorum’s dirty hands

Ari Melber: Paul Ryan needs to rebrand himself

Harold Meyerson: In modern GOP, the old South returns

Charles P. Pierce: The Manufacturing of Willard Romney, Human, Is Here

John Nichols: Paul Ryan's Labor Day Promise to American Workers: Candy and a Sports Schedule

What's Wrong with Ron Christie?

I watched Real Time with Bill Maher last night. After taking a break from Maher for most of last year because I felt he was always 10 days to 2 weeks behind on facts and perhaps had gotten a little lazy on preparation for his show, I figured I had to watch immediately after the GOP Convention just for a couple of laughs. I wasn't disappointed.

He obliterated Dinesh D'Souza while interviewing him and called him out for every bullshit meme that douchebag put in his anti-Obama movie. Catch a repeat if you can. But the main thing that caught my attention was the panel discussion: Jason Alexander, Soledad O'Brien and one of my favorite people to hate, Ron Christie.

When Christie was front and center a few years ago, it would me my blood boil. And he seemed to be on every fucking taking head show there was. He's such a hard line Republican that there was no use debating/arguing with him on any point, regardless of facts. If Darth Cheney came out and said the sky was green, Christie would deny his lying eyes and argue green skies to the death.
I just came to the conclusion that this was the role he was being paid for and that he couldn't possibly believe the bullshit pouring out of his mouth. Just like it's an act for Sean Hannity, I felt the same about Ron Christie. And for me personally, that makes me despise that person even more; there's no conviction or honesty in what they say. It's just a little game, being a paid shill for the GOP.

But watching Christie tonight, after not seeing him for so long, perhaps because his 15 minutes were up or he had a moment of clarity on the air and was subsequently fired as a GOP surrogate (but I doubt that) I tried to give him a fresh start. And wouldn't you know it, that little fucker is still the towing the GOP line always was- but this time I felt differently.

I used to think he was a paid shill, but now I truly think he actually believes what he says. ...I know right?! I was shocked too! The $716 billion Medicare story came up and Christie denounced President Obama's awful $716 billion Medicare "cut" but defended Paul Ryan's $716 billion Medicare "savings," and no amount of explanation that the savings were the same was going to change Christie's mind. Nope. Obama's cut bad. Ryan's savings good.

Bill Maher: So let me ask this panel, do you think we’ve ever seen lies like this [from politicians like Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney]? Because it’s one thing to slant things, all politicians do that, but to just pull out of your ass…I mean Mitt Romney went through…Obama ‘s apologizing around the world — Fact checkers: no — Raising taxes on the middle class — Not true — Cutting defense — He’s only raised it. — Uh, you know, wrecked our credit rating — Welfare work requirement…he got rid of that — No, he didn’t do that — Robbing Medicare… Just a series of total lies. Have we seen this before? 

Soledad O’Brien: I don’t know if we’ve seen it before, but what I think you are seeing is people trying to get control of the message, that sort of the veracity doesn’t matter, right? If you can just say it and say it often, say it enough, and say it loud enough, and just keep repeating it and have everyone around you repeating it, then eventually it becomes true. I think that we’ve seen that a lot in this campaign. 

Bill Maher: Well now you’re describing what Hitler did. I’m not saying the Republicans are Hitler, but Hitler famously said the big lie works and the little lie doesn’t. 

Ron Christie: Well I think the big lie here is we need to fact check the fact checkers. The fact of the matter is the media has been running around – audience disapproval – the media has been running around saying Paul Ryan has been lying. The fact of the matter is this: President Obama and his plan Obamacare took $716 billion out under Medicare Advantage, he took it out of hospitals, and he took it out of the insurance program, and he programmed that into Obamacare. That’s true.

While this is technically true, what's misleading is that it's a cost savings over future spending curbing the increasing costs, not a cut in current spending. The part of Christie's sentence "took $716 billion out under Medicare Advantage" is purposely misleading. You know, it's that fiscal responsibility Republicans constantly beat their chests about but never really put into practice. But I'm done with this. Unlike Republicans, I'm not going to beat a dead horse while simultaneously beating my head against the wall.

When the issue of climate change came up, Christie wondered why it was such a cudgel on both sides, and wished we could just "agree to disagree." The science is not still out on this! And the English scientist email conspiracy theory has been thoroughly debunked as Christie was reminded by Maher when he tried to make that an issue. But at this point I wasn't so much angry as I was dumbfounded.

How does a seemingly intelligent person like Ron Christie deny global warming? How is it that one can be so ingrained in their ideology that solid, scientific facts are nothing but a conspiracy theory in their eyes? How did his brain develop to the point that if he and others like him in his party, which looks like a vast majority of them at this point, don't believe or understand something, then they outright just refuse it? Or that they are so willing to believe a lie from someone they respect, but when confronted with the truth, with facts staring them in the face even by nonpartisan entities, it just doesn't sink in?

No matter how many times they are confronted with pure fact, it's dismissed which makes trying to have a conversation or debate with Republicans, teabaggrs and Obama haters so frustrating. Paraphrasing Maher, how can you have a debate when you can't agree on the facts?

Ron Christie believes Paul Ryan because he wants to believe Paul Ryan. But all those reporters actually doing their jobs for a change and reporting the lies? Nu-uh. He said someone should "fact check the fact checkers." ...What? Well, then who's going to fact check the fact checkers checking the fact checkers when you still don't get the result you want?! It's all talking in circles. It's birtherism at the next level. Insist on a birth certificate, but when it's provided, insist it's a forgery. Ask for the long form and when it's provided, insist it's a forgery. They will never be satisfied.

It must be nice to live in your own little bubble, blissfully unaware that maybe, just maybe you might be wrong.

 (Cross-posted on ABLC)

President Obama's Weekly Address - September 1, 2012

Honoring Our Nation’s Service Members and Military Families

Remember When McCain's Campaign was Erratic

POSTED BY JHW22

I remember when the Obama campaign (and several newspapers) called the McCain Campaign erratic. Those were the good ol' days. Now we are watching Romney run a half-assed campaign. Or maybe it's amateur campaign. Or maybe it's a taking-too-much-for-granted campaign. I don't even know how to label what it is they are doing. My brain is wiggly like Jell-o trying to articulate the lack of energy, clarity, cohesiveness and any sense of forethought. It's as if the Romney campaign is ADHD and lazy at the same time. They make decisions on the fly while lounging like a couch potato. I just don't get what the fuck they are doing.

At the convention, they had Ann Romney say it's all about love then Christie came out and said SCREW love. That was like totally awkward.

Then last night I watched the convention bio piece about Romney and actually thought it accomplished a lot in telling the Romney story. It had touching and funny and interesting moments. 
THEN I learned that the Romney campaign decided to have the networks air Clint Eastwood rather than Romney's bio piece. A) Clint Eastwood isn't the one running for POTUS. B) EVERYONE knows that Romney has been running for 6 years and Americans STILL have no idea what he's about. C) The GOP mocks celebrities yet chose to prioritize a celebrity over their candidate. D) Clint came off like a man entering dementia. 

E) What they fuck are they thinking!?!?!

Paul Ryan the Liar

Man... and I thought Mitt Romney was bad.

By now you've heard all the fact checkers debunk the misleading claims and flat out lies in the Ryan speech last night at the GOP Convention's Meet the Shiny New VP Nominee segment, for the majority who haven't been paying attention. But you have to hand it to the Obama camp to put out a video like this so soon.

Bravo!



(Cross-posted at ABLC)