Herman Cain is a Dumbass

Can we all just agree that Herman Cain is clueless? No, really. The guy is a dumbass.

It's bad enough to berate people to reread the Constitution and then righteously quote from the Declaration of Independence, but how about just stepping on the idiocy throttle and running over some Paul Ryan budget doublespeak?!

Nobody’s talking about the fact that the centerpiece of Ryan’s plan is a voucher. Now, a lot of people don’t like to use that term because it has a negative connotation. That is what we need.

People don't like the word "voucher" when it comes to Medicare. That's because the Eddie Munster budget would pretty much kill Medicare and replace it with, as Paul Ryan would like to describe, a "premium support" program, AKA voucher from the government to help with the cost of health insurance that you'd have to shop for yourself from the various insurance companies* and pay for the difference. But in some kind of warped mentality, Herman Cain disregards the Ryan talking points in trying to rename a voucher program "premium support" (which will only increase at the rate of inflation and not the rate of premium increases) and says HELL YEAH! we need a voucher program and "nobody is talking about" it.

...WTF?!

No one is talking about it?! Has he not been watching the news or reading the paper? We know he hasn't  been taking the time to read the Constitution. Who the hell is in charge of the Cain campaign? Whoever it is should be fired immediately.

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*This past Friday on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Ryan said that it's Medicare that would help seniors choose their plan which Joe Scarborough was all too eager to eat up, but that remains to be seen.

Fox "News" - Makers and Takers

Bravo, Thom Hartmann.



(Via Bob Cesca)

Must Reads

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The Rude Pundit: Tim Pawlenty: Another Motherfucker for America

Michael Lind: Niall Ferguson and the Brain-Dead American Right

Steve Benen: Taxpayer Financed Health Care for Me, Not For Thee and The Nature of a Debt-Ceiling Compromise

Dana Milbank: Republican Presidential Candidate Pawlenty Bends His Truth-Telling

John Cole: So Much Awesome In One Place

TBogg: Sarah Palin Is The Culmination Of All Human Endeavors and Wars And Probably Evolution

President Obama's Weekly Address - May 28, 2011

Brought to you by Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden on the American Auto Comeback

Quote of the Day

Republicans have a very different idea about the nature of the process. They see an alternative trade-off — the GOP will accept spending cuts, and in exchange, they won’t deliberately destroy the economy.

Dems are willing to accept concessions to strike a deal. Republicans are willing to not shoot their hostage in the head in exchange for Dems giving the GOP what it wants.

The former is an example of a party negotiating in good faith. The latter is an example of reckless thugs pretending to be a political party.

~ Steve Benen

Needless to say, he's exactly right about this. And this mindset has permeated the GOP psyche to the point that Republican Majority House Whip Eric Cantor insists on withholding financial assistance to tornado ravaged Joplin, Missouri unless there are spending cuts somewhere else.

What would the right have screeched if a Democratic member of Congress insisted on withholding funds to New Orleans in the shadow of Hurricane Katrina because it jibes with his ideology with no compassion for those involved? You know, a George W. Bush type fly-over.

Ryan's Plan Fails in the Senate

Forty Republican Senators were absolutely idiotic enough to jump off the cliff and vote for the Paul Ryan Budget plan, AKA Kill Medicare Plan.

...Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, brought the legislation to the floor so that Senate Republicans would either have to vote for it, exposing them to attacks from Democrats and their allies, or against it, exploiting growing Republican divisions on the issue.

Five of 47 Senate Republicans voted against it — four because they said it went too far, one on the ground that the budget measure that contained it did not go far enough fast enough to address the budget deficit.

The Democrats playing offense! It's a strange thing to behold.

But It's Not About Racism (The "Chugging 40s" Edition)

I had a feeling someone would say this the second I saw the President with a pint of beer in his hand. It took no more than a day. Good going, Eric Bolling, you miserable piece of shit.



For those of you who disagree that this is a racist thing to say, you're just fooling yourselves.

If Bolling wanted to wrongly smear Obama for going on his scheduled trip to Europe while a tornado hit Joplin, Missouri, he could have tweeted "Obama chugs a beer while..." or "Obama drinks while tornado kills." As if the President could put on his cape and take off to Joplin, grab the tornado by the tail and whip it into space. But he didn't. He went directly for the dog whistle with the "40s" reference.

Throughout the late 80s and 90s, 40 oz malt liquor was rolled out with “aggressive marketing campaigns aimed at minority drinkers,” which often portrayed black actors and rappers in stereotypical or exploitative fashions. There is a fairly large body of academic literature exploring the relationship between malt liquor and African Americans, and 40 oz stereotypes were even mocked in the 2009 parody of “blacksploitation” films, “Black Dynamite.”

And as soon as he was called on it, Bolling backtracks and tweets "stop.. I drank 40's growing up in Chicago... I am NOT racist". Really? Eric Bolling drank 40's growing up in Chicago? I'd like to see evidence. Any photos of that? And I'd also like to see equal outrage in Bolling's past when President Bush was playing a guitar or singing happy birthday to John McCain during the Katrina disaster. It's got to be documented, right?

Eric, you brought it up. At least be a man and own up to it, you coward. Embrace your racism. That's what your fans are waiting for.

Eric Cantor Is a Punk

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), however, said that before Congress approved federal funds for disaster relief, it had to offset the spending with cuts to other programs. The Washington Times reports:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Monday that if Congress passes an emergency spending bill to help Missouri’s tornado victims, the extra money will have to be cut from somewhere else.

“If there is support for a supplemental, it would be accompanied by support for having pay-fors to that supplemental,” Mr. Cantor, Virginia Republican, told reporters at the Capitol. The term “pay-fors” is used by lawmakers to signal cuts or tax increases used to pay for new spending.Republican House Majority Whip Eric Cantor doesn't believe we should help Joplin and its tornado victims unless we cut somewhere else.

What a fucking lowlife. Everything is a hostage negotiation with these goddamned Republicans. I hope everyone in Missouri is listening to this moron and remembers it come election time. One wonders if he'd be saying the same thing if his Virginia district got hit with a natural disaster.

Forehead to Desk Moment

Well now we know why Herman Cain is so popular. I thought maybe he offered free pizza for your vote, but no. It's just that he's just as ignorant as Sarah Palin when it comes to the Constitution and misquoting it.

We don’t need to rewrite the Constitution of the United States of America, we need to reread the Constitution and enforce the Constitution. … And I know that there are some people that are not going to do that, so for the benefit of those who are not going to read it because they don’t want us to go by the Constitution, there’s a little section in there that talks about “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

BZZZT! Oh, I'm sorry Mr. Cain. That would be Declaration of Independence you are quoting. But we have a lovely parting gift for you - the complete DVD set of Schoolhouse Rock. Please watch these to prepare for your next Republican Primary debate. I'm sure it'll give you a leg up on your competition.

Music Break! Bob Dylan

Happy 70th Birthday, Bob Dylan.

Tornado In Joplin, MO

ABC: To donate $10, text the word "TORNADO" to 20222 or call 888-56-CHILD.
The American Red Cross is providing food, shelter and emotional support in Missouri, Minnesota and other parts of the Midwest.
To make a donation to the American Red Cross' Disaster Relief, visit its online donation page.
You can also call 1-800-RED-CROSS or text "REDCROSS" to 90999 to make a $10 donation. Contributions may also be sent to your local Red Cross chapter or to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, D.C. 20013.
To donate to the United Way, call 417-624-0153.
The Salvation Army's emergency disaster services teams are helping to feed residents and first responders in Joplin; Reading, Kan.; and parts of Minnesota affected by the storms.
To donate to the The Salvation Army's efforts, visit www.salvationarmyusa.org and click on the donation page.
You can call 1-800-SAL-ARMY and donors can text "JOPLIN" to 80888 to make a $10 donation. And you can mail a donation to Joplin Tornado Relief, The Salvation Army, 3637 Broadway, Kansas City, Mo. 64111

T-Paw's Running

Here's his awesome announcement video. Wake me when it's over.

Zzzzzzz... huh, what? Oh, right. Tim Pawlenty is throwing his hat into the ring.

And it looks like he's running on the "Insult Obama" platform with doozies like, "President Obama doesn't have the courage to face our problems" (0:50 mark) and "We're gonna have to do more than give fancy speeches. We've had three years of that and it's not working." (1:40 mark). 

I suppose T-Paw has fallen asleep to the sound of his own voice and missed the saving of about a million plus jobs with the auto loan that saved the American auto industry, which by the way, now has GM in the black. Or the turn around in job creation after President Obama took office. It's so easy to criticize when you're an armchair quarterback who said nothing during the ten years it took to get into this mess, but expect to he pulled out of it in two and a half years.

And hey, no need to thank President Obama for the $4 billion Minnesota received in stimulus funds, right T-Paw? That didn't help your state economy at all, did it? Oh wait, it did. But you go ahead and join the list of non-contenders this year. We'll be watching.

Still Here

Well, it's May 22nd, and we're Rapture free. No surprise, right? At least not to cognitive thinkers.

We joke about maxing out credit cards and quitting our jobs, taking vacations and spending all our money so that we'd be ready to go on Judgment Day. But the only real judgment is against the gullibility of those who would actually believe and blindly follow an 89-year old Evangelical radio broadcaster about a date specific Second Coming after blowing it multiple times!

For months, followers of the 89-year-old Camping, who previously wrongly predicted the rapture would occur in September 1994, have been warning that the rapture would occur on May 21, 2011.

My wife had a chat with the cashier at the grocery store this morning who was sympathetic to the man who'd spent his life savings to advertise Camping's May 21st prediction. Call me callous or cynical, but I can't find much sympathy within me for anyone who fell for this scam.

I'm not a religious person, but it would seem to me if you are a believer in the End of Days, that the whole point of being ready when Judgment Day arrives is that you've been preparing for a lifetime with good deeds, helping those less fortunate and living a honest, decent life so it won't matter when that day is.

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' ~Matthew 25:40

When the day comes, you've already "done the work" for lack of a better term. I don't think buying expensive cars, taking a final vacation and depleting your nest egg in the process is what "The King" had in mind. And it's hard for me to feel sympathy for someone who won't even think about alternatives.

The New York Post says the 60-year-old man has also self-published a book, entitled “The Doomsday Code,” based on the teachings of radio host Harold Camping who has (erroneously) predicted the apocalypse six times. When asked by the Post what he’d feel like if Camping happened to be wrong again, the retired engineer had this to say: “I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to think about it, everybody asks me that.”

To believe in crackpots predicting dates is just too naive for me to feels sorry the rubes who fell for it... and will fall for it again when the next prediction comes around.