Must Reads

Robert Reich: Cliff Hanger: Why Republicans Don’t Care What the Nation Thinks

Nathaniel Downes: John Galt Is A Terrorist – Fun Facts About The ‘Hero’ Of Atlas Shrugged

David Macaray: Longshoremen’s Strike Averted as Public, Media Hypocritical on Labor Rights

Steve Benen: An abrupt end to another GOP conspiracy theory

Charles Pierce: The Return of Scott Brown

Samuel Metz: Quality of U.S. medicine: The 'best' health care depends on your perspective

Paul Krugman: A Double Shot of Misunderstanding

Jim Wright: Bang Bang Crazy, Part Four

President Obama's Weekly Address - December 29, 2012

Congress Must Protect the Middle Class from Income Tax



...and a bonus! Yesterday's press conference saying basically the same thing.


President Obama Makes a Statement on Averting Tax Hikes for Middle Class Families



I'm almost convinced that the Republicans will balk and Harry Reid will have to bring a bill to the floor for an up or down vote (provided some insane Senator doesn't filibuster) and it will be sent to the House for a vote. Will John Boehner find his balls and bring it to a vote or will he side with the extremist crazy minority of his party and refuse to vote on it? We'll find out soon enough.

Merry Christmas!

... and Happy Holidays. By the way, to all you "war on Christmas" Fox Newsheads...

Must Reads

E.J. Dionne: Now is the time for meaningful gun control

Jeremy Holden and Zachary Pleat: Misinformer Of The Year: Rush Limbaugh

Scott Keyes: Listen To A GOP Congressman Flip On Raising Taxes In 67 Seconds Because Of The Norquist Pledge

Charles Pierce: John Boehner's Career Sank Last Night

Charles Pierce: Today's NRA Press Conference

Nick Collins: Carpark skeleton will be confirmed as Richard III

President Obama's Weekly Address - December 22, 2012

The President and First Lady Extend a Holiday Greeting and Thank our Troops for their Service

Sen. Daniel Inouye 1924-2012

AP: Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI), World War II veteran and Medal of Honor recipient, died from respiratory complications at 5:01 p.m. ET at Walter Reed Medical Center on Monday, his office announced. He was 88. 

His last words were, "Aloha."

Must Reads

Imani Gandy: Orange County Judge Denies That Rape is Even Possible; Blames Rape Victim for Not Fighting Her Rapist

Jim Wright: Welcome To the Party, Bob Dole

Ezra Klein: Twelve facts about guns and mass shootings in the United States

J.M. Ashby: Fiscal Responsibility

N.C. Aizenman: GOP state leaders fumble by ceding control of health exchanges to federal officials, critics say

Michael McAuliff: Republicans Say There's No Budget, And Use That To Stall Senate

Steve Benen: 'They have only moved backwards'

Dave Brockington: There’s a Reason We No Longer Live in the Fucking Medieval Age.

Tim Wise: Of Heroes and Hype: Mass Murder and the Absurdity of the ‘More Guns’ Crowd

Charles Pierce: The Bell Tolls For All Of Us

Nicholas Kristof: Do We Have the Courage to Stop This?

President Obama's Weekly Address - December 15, 2012

Nation Grieves for Those Killed in Tragic Shooting in Newtown, CT

What President Obama Should Say About The Latest School Shooting

There was yet another mass shooting today in Newtown, Connecticut. At a school. An elementary school. Maybe as many as 26 dead including 18 children. And what we are bound to hear is that today is not the day to talk about gun control. Today is not the day to be so callous as to politicize this tragedy.

But this isn't about politicization for political gain. This is about bringing to the forefront something that is brushed aside all too often under the misguided pretense that the time for mourning is now and the time for solutions is later. But later never comes. And then we go on our merry way completely or conveniently disregarding the tragedy as the act of a crazy person. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. Yeah... people WITH GUNS kill people. People with automatic weapons kill people a lot faster.

This is the type of moment that Obama should seize to talk about the lax gun laws in this country, but he won't. No politician will say what needs to be said. Something like this:

Let's take a moment to think about the victims of this horrific tragedy, and those whose lives have been permanently affected by this senseless violent act.  

Now, what are we going to do about this? I know I've been vilified by the NRA and the right wing. Their fear-mongering ways have led many to believe that I'm going to take away your guns. If you look at the actual record, it couldn't be further from the truth. But now enough is enough. There is absolutely no reason for anyone to have the ability to attain semi automatic weapons or large capacity pistol clips. Show me a hunter that says he uses automatic weapons to hunt and I'll show you a liar.  

This is not about taking away your Second Amendment rights. This is about making sure that people who would do someone else harm doesn't have easy access to purchase a weapon. And if they do fall through the cracks, hopefully the lack of available automatic weapons will curtail the amount of damage done the next time something like this happens.  

If now is not the time to address the growing concern of the easy access to guns, when is the right time? Someone can walk into a gun shop and walk out with a gun, even if he or she doesn't know how to use it. It's harder to obtain a driver's license in this country. You have to take a written exam and then you have to take a driver's test with an instructor to make sure you're ready to operate a vehicle. None of this applies to owning a gun. How does that make any sense? 

I am calling upon Congress to immediately take up assault weapons ban legislation similar to what was already in place during the Clinton years which was stupidly allowed to sunset under the previous administration. I am also asking for sensible federal gun legislation that will put in place a list of rules and guidelines, applications and mandatory background checks for anyone wanting to legally purchase a firearm. And I don't want to hear any excuses. None. 

If you cannot find it in your heart to do what you know is right, you will be held to account by everyone who has been touched by gun violence, not just today, not just in Portland, Oregon a few days ago, not just in Aurora, Colorado, but everyone who has had a loved one die needlessly - something that possibly could have been prevented. You'll have to look them in the eye and explain why you think their loss is less valuable than campaign contributions from the NRA and their gun lobbyists. 

If you don't have the guts to do what is right, if you cannot step up and pass legislation that will surely save lives in your district or state, that can possibly save the lives of some of your constituents in the future, I will make it my life's mission to see that you are not re-elected to such a vital and important position as a place in Congress. Lets get to work.

Wouldn't it be great if he said something like that?

John McCain, Go F*ck Yourself

It's too bad he's not following his friend, Holy Joe out the door.

UN Ambassador Susan Rice has withdrawn her name from consideration as a nominee to replace Hillary Clinton as the next Secretary of State, after a constant barrage of criticism leveed at her from Republicans following her intelligence community sanctioned statements on the Sunday talk shows a few weeks back, with Senate curmudgeon John McCain leading the charge.

“If nominated, I am now convinced that the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly - to you and to our most pressing national and international priorities,” she wrote in a letter to Obama that was released to the public on Thursday afternoon.

 ...Rice said in November that she “relied solely and squarely on the information provided to me by the intelligence community” in delivering her assessment. Intelligence officials said that they approved her talking points, having decided ties to organized terrorism, and specifically al Qaeda, were still unclear at that point just five days removed from the attack.

The knives were out from the very beginning, and McCain certainly knows this as I'm sure he got the same intelligence reports that Rice used to make her comments. But it wasn't very long ago when John McCain defended another Rice, Condoleezza, in her nomination for the same position after "mushroom clouding" us into a war. But that Rice was a Republican, wasn't she...



Fuck you, John McCain. You can't retire fast enough.

Goodbye and Good Riddance, Joe Lieberman

Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman made his farewell speech yesterday to a mostly empty Senate chamber. And for good reason: nobody gives a shit about him.

Whenever I hear the name Joe Lieberman my reaction is "fuck that guy."

Lieberman droned about the need for bipartisanship in the Senate. He recalled the days when things got done by working with friends on the other side of the aisle. But Lieberman lost Democratic support not because he sided with Republicans on occasion, but because not only was he was an opportunistic scumbag who would stab you in the back, but more importantly because he was so goddamn consistently wrong.

He almost blew the 2000 Election (before the Supreme Court actually blew it) when he gnashed his yellow teeth on the Sunday talk shows and couldn't stick to what he knew to be the truth, what he was told by his own advisers. I remember that day well, as I was watching with bleary eyes and suddenly my hair caught fire. Here's the dramatized scene from HBO's fantastic movie, Recount.



The Democratic Party didn't leave Joe Lieberman. Joe Lieberman left the Democratic Party.

He left it when he supported the Iraq War even after we found out the truth. Joe Lieberman left the Democratic Party when he lost his 2006 Democratic primary against Ned Lamont and decided to run as an "independent." After he won the election in a three way race, he then he held his vote hostage to keep leadership positions on certain committees.

Joe Lieberman left the Democratic Party when he endorsed John McCain for president and speechified his mind-numbing patented drone that only Lieberman can drone at the Republican National Convention in 2008.

And don't fool yourself about why he's quitting. If he thought he had a chance to win he would have run in a second. He lost his support because he's become completely untrustworthy. He supported lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 55 until then Rep. Anthony Weiner and other liberals touted it as a great idea and included a Medicare buy-in in the Affordable Care Act. Then Lieberman completely backed off the idea. Was it because of fiscal reasons as he states, or was it payback for feeling rejected by the party he walked away from? So much for that bipartisanship he was mumbling about on the floor yesterday.

Whenever I hear idiots on the right whine on and on that President Obama had majorities* in both the House and the Senate, including that the Democrats had 60 votes in the Senate, where Republicans have engaged in record filibusters to stymie every bill that comes their way, all I can think of is three words: Joe. Fucking. Lieberman. He was consistently a thorn in the side of the Democratic party and leadership when his vote really counted. Sort of like McCain was after 2000. The only difference between McCain and Lieberman is that you know McCain is just prison fucking you in the ass out of spite, while Lieberman smiles that yellow toothy smile as he reaches for the Vaseline. Both are nasty, old, bitter warmongers who legislate out of spite while the latter tries to do it in sheep's clothing.

So goodbye and good riddance, Holy Joe. I'd say, "Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out" but actually, I don't give a fuck.

__________________
* And don't get me started about waiting for Al Franken for six fucking months and then Ted Kennedy dying less than two months later. The fact is that Democrats NEVER HAD 60 fucking votes.

Must Reads

Paul Krugman: The Big Budget Mumble

The Rude Pundit: Bob Costas, Guns and American the Wimpy

Dana Liebelson: Jim DeMint Is Resigning: Here Are His 7 Craziest Moments

Charles Pierce: Gun Owners Need a New Leader

Steve Benen: Jindal Re-embraces 'Dumbed-down Conservatism'

Bill Maher: The Fiscal Cliff Part II: Electric Boogaloo

President Obama's Weekly Address - December 8, 2012

Congress Must Extend the Middle Class Tax Cuts

Dave Brubeck 1920-2012

Legendary Jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck died today, one day short of his 92nd birthday.

Brubeck is best known for Take Five.

 

Light Blogging - A New Direction? Who Knows?...

For anyone still swinging by my blog and wondering why it's atrophied so quickly, I apologize. It's been a very busy fall work-wise and finding the time and energy to post has become a lot harder these last couple of months.

My intention is to keep carrying on, but judging by the way things are going, it may not be as often as I'd like. I'll still keep posting President Obama's Weekly Address and Saturday Must Reads on a weekly basis, but my posting during the week has hit a brick wall, and for the first time since I started blogging almost exactly 6 years ago, I wasn't able to post anything during the week. I began a post that I'll hopefully finish today or tomorrow, but it kind of makes me a little sad that I wasn't able to publish it before week's end.

I feel like I've made some good friends through this blog, whether I've met you personally or chatted on the phone, or just connected via email or snail mail. Some of my little cyber-family actually got together and sent gifts for my daughter when she was born two and a half years ago. Every time I think of that I still feel truly touched and awed. So in a way, not posting this week feels like I let some people down, including myself. I'm sorry.

In an effort to revamp and maybe recharge my batteries a little, I may rethink the format of my blog. Perhaps one or two posts a week with a little more meat on the bone. I was trying to get some guests whose opinions I respect to write and lighten the load in the process. It worked for a bit, but life is hard, time is short and that's fallen by the wayside a bit.

Okay, so what's next? I don't know - I'm still thinking about it even as I write this - but whatever it is, I'll know it when it feels right. Still, this being the holiday season and - for those that don't know - with a second child on the way, time will probably get scarcer and scarcer. So look for me in the coming year. A fresh new start may be what is needed to get the ball rolling again. After all, I have to rant somewhere.

Thank you for coming along on my blogging journey these past six years. It's been a wild ride at times. Things will be slow here for a bit but you can still feel my wrath on Twitter @BwayCarl and on the occasional post over at AngryBlackLadyChronicles.com. Anything that's posted there will always be cross-posted here.

Onwards and upwards.

Must Reads

Bill Maher: God Hates Flags

Ezra Klein: Obama to GOP: I’m done negotiating with myself

Robert Reich: Organizing McDonalds and Walmart, and Why Austerity Economics Hurts Low-Wage Workers the Most

Charles Pierce: Foreign Policy's Bad List of Big Thinkers

The Rude Pundit: Photos That Make the Rude Pundit Want to Smoke Charas While Downing a Six-Pack of Crown

Asawin Suebsaeng: The Latest Right-Wing Conspiracy Theory: Obama's Third Term

Jim Wright: On The Beating Of Dead Horses

President Obama's Weekly Address - December 1, 2012

Urging Congress to Extend the Middle Class Tax Cuts

Must Reads

Bob Cesca: Marco Rubio is Definitely Not a Scientist. Man.

Michael Barbaro: After Obama, Christie Wants a G.O.P. Hug

The Rude Pundit: Other Questions for Marco Rubio After His GQ Interview (Based on His Favorite Rap Songs)

Melissa Jeltsen: Cory Booker To Live On Food Stamps After Making Twitter Challenge

Greg Sargent: Poetic justice: Romney likely to finish at 47 percent

Angelo Carusone: Why Macy’s Must Stop Selling Donald Trump’s Brand

Joe Klein: The Benghazi Circus

Bill Maher: The Common Cult

Paul Krugman: Grand Old Planet

Jim Wright: It's The Racism, Stupid

Oh, Sweet, Sweet Victory

Mitt Romney's Facebook page is losing followers by the thousands. I guess they don't want to be associated with a loser.

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing the American People a Happy Thanksgiving

John McCain's Sour Grapes Doctrine

The Politics of Hate and Revenge

I've been obsessing about John McCain lately - but only because he's such a vile, little man. You don't have to look very hard to see through McCain's thin skin into his black heart to recognize that holding a grudge is Johnny Maverick's forte.

I mean, seriously, what else is this guy good at? Foreign policy? Hardly. Just because you were a war hero doesn't make you an expert at all things foreign policy. Unless that sole policy position is war escalation no matter the circumstance. Rachel Maddow had a great piece on this earlier in the week, showing McCain's response to foreign affairs over the years. 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

But McCain's biggest flaw, of a myriad of flaws is that he is a sore loser. He ran for President in 2000 and after winning the New Hampshire primary, was attacked with a George W. Bush whisper campaign about fathering an illegitimate black child. That child happened to be McCain's adopted daughter from Bangladesh. After Bush won the nomination and eventually became President, John McCain adopted a policy of revenge. What I call his Sour Grapes Doctrine.

In hindsight, what looked like McCain opposing Bush policies and voting against them for what Democrats at the time assumed were the right reasons, it was all a matter of getting back at the dweeb who beat him in the 2000 primary, especially after those vicious smear tactics.

Steve Kornacki: "...McCain’s various self-reinventions as a politician are best understood as acts of sore loser-dom. A decade ago, for instance, he took up a sudden interest in closing the gun show loophole, enacting a patients’ bill of rights, and stopping tax cuts for the wealthy. Not at all coincidentally, this came just after he’d lost a bruising campaign against George W. Bush. Bush and his team had been rough – very, very rough – on McCain, and McCain had deemed them unworthy victors. His sudden cooperation with Democrats in 2001 was his version of payback, giving the new Bush White House fits."

Of course, that all ended with 9/11 and by 2004, McCain was ignoring the swiftboating of another war hero, John Kerry, while supporting the re-election of Dubya, complete with head-on-shoulder man hugs. And apparently being presented a birthday cake while a major US city drowned is all you need to let bygones be bygones. Sorry about that bastard black baby thing... Here's a cake!

Fast forward four quick years and this time John McCain wins the Republican nomination but botches the general election while singing "Bomb Iran, "picking The Hockey Mom From Wasilla as his unfortunate running mate, suspending his campaign to sit in on a financial Wall Street crisis meeting where he promptly adds nothing by keeping his mouth shut, and referring to his opponent as "that one" in a debate.

But since he's had so much practice at grudge politics, McCain tacks to the right and decides to become a thorn in President Obama's side as he did with Bush, to the point of not just accusing US Ambassador Susan Rice of being incompetent and "not very bright" by repeating intelligence reports given to her by the CIA which happened to be vague and still pending information (intelligence reports that McCain himself probably had a copy of),  but threatening to filibuster not only her possible nomination as the next Secretary of State, but ANY nomination President Obama would propose to succeed Hillary Clinton, because he wants answers on what happened in Benghazi. And he'll even miss classified briefings about what happened in Benghazi to hold a press conference to demand answers on what happened in Benghazi!

John McCain is a vindictive, curmudgeonly, sour little prick who can't get over the fact that he blew his chance. And now he's using his elected office to continue an obstructionist strategy, despite seeming more and more unhinged. If only he'd use his powers for good instead of pettiness.

ADDING... Here's Steve Kornacki's rant on The Cycle. It's worth watching if you can stomach S.E. Cupp... which is not an easy task.

Must Reads

Henry Rollins: The American People Kicked Your Ass, Republicans

Eliot Spitzer: Why the GOP Quashed a Superb Report on Income Tax Rates for the Rich

The Rude Pundit: They've Lost Their Fucking Minds Again (Limbaugh Edition)

Bob Cesca: Evidence that John Schnatter is Big Whiny Pouty Sore Loser

Tim Murphy: Top Georgia GOP Lawmakers Host Briefing on Secret Obama Mind-Control Plot

Igor Volsky: Romney Says Obama Only Won Because He Gave ‘Big Gifts’ To Blacks And Latinos

Mike Polk: A Letter To Texas From The Remaining 49 States

President Obama's Weekly Address - November 17, 2012

Working Together to Extend the Middle Class Tax Cuts

Reid to McCain: Cut the Crap

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had some words for John McCain about his ongoing sour grapes. And he put them in a letter addressed to the Maverick, and CC'ed Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte because they are now being insufferable assholes on this Benghazi thing.

"I refuse to allow the Senate to be used as a venue for baseless partisan attacks... 

...You already have the opportunity to engage more fully in the fulsome and ongoing investigation in the events in Benghazi... [but] failed to attend a classified briefing held by the Senate Homeland Security Committee on this very issue."

In other words, you're making a fool of yourself. Knock it off, you idiot.

View the full letter here.

McCain Needs to Go Away

How much hate can one man hold against another? How bitter must a person be to look for any misguided excuse to fingerpoint and shake his fist in outrage despite making himself look like a complete loon in the process?

Arizona Senator and former 2008 losing Republican presidential candidate John McCain is still in stage two of the five stages of loss and grief: Anger. And since he doesn't have the balls to challenge the president directly, he'll hypocritically go after UN Ambassador Susan Rice for expressing CIA intelligence at the time almost verbatim in regards to the Benghazi embassy attack.

But no matter. McCain can keep tilting at windmills along with his personal Sancho Panza, Sen. Lindsey Graham, about the Benghazi attack and claim a coverup or incompetence in this instance, but defend then National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice in her "mushroom cloud" assessment because that's what the intelligence assessment said at the time. Why is that explanation good enough for Condoleezza Rice when it then had a direct result of taking the country into war on false pretenses, but not good enough for Susan Rice who had no direct involvement with the State Department and whose statements were consistent with CIA intelligence at the time? Oh right, it's okay if you're a Republican.

John McCain needs to go away. His mind is muddled with anger and revenge, never getting over 2008's loss. If he were so interested in the actual information about what happened in the Libyan embassy attack and the intelligence leading up to Benghazi on September 11th, he should have attended the classified briefing for members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, of which he is a member, instead of holding a photo op press conference demanding information that was being disseminated in said meeting simultaneously, and calling for another investigation, also known as another witch hunt.

 Reporters would do well to skip McCain's pressers from now on, else they'll risk missing actual news.

Must Reads

Charles Pierce: The Real Problem with the Demented Republican Party

Chris Cillizza: Who had the worst week in Washington? CIA Director David H. Petraeus.

Mark Ambinder: How the Secret Service Said Goodbye to Mitt Romney

Matt Sedensky: Florida Vote Beyond Recount Range; West Won't Concede

Ta-Nehisi Coates: Hippies Wander Into the Lions' Den, Maul Lions

President Obama's Weekly Address - November 10, 2012

Extending Middle Class Tax Cuts to Grow the Economy

FOUR MORE YEARS! - Update

Observations and Musings Post Election Day

- Despite looking at factual evidence, the emotional heart will always doubt what your logical mind already knows.

- How many times does President Obama and his team need to prove doubters wrong before they realize that "I Got This" actually means something?

- If three million votes was a "mandate" for George W. Bush in 2004, you'd better fucking believe it's good enough to be a mandate for President Obama. "I've got political capital, and I intend to spend it" never sounded so good.

- The bubble that Fox News and the Republican Party's live in is so massive, they dismissed every single poll that didn't show their desired outcome, to the point of creating the ironically named UnskewedPoll.com, and seemed truly shellshocked that President Obama won reelection.

- Is Nate Silver a witch? No. But he's one badass numbers genius motherfucker!

- Joe Scarborough and every idiot talking head on TV who doesn't live in reality, doesn't deserve your precious time. Unless you're a masochist, stop watching them.

- I've had it up to here (pointing to my ball sac) with Republican talking heads now saying that President Obama has to prove anything to Republican politicians. Bipartisanship and compromise is a two way street. And it the GOP wants to stay relevant, they'd better jettison the crazies in their party and start acting like adults instead of holding their breath until they get what they want.

- Not only is he a media whore and an opportunist, but Donald Trump has become a boil on the ass of America. I don't understand how he thinks he looks like anything but a laughingstock now. Even Brian Williams called him out today with this: "Trump has "driven well past the last exit to relevance and veered into something closer to irresponsible." How that sloth continues to live on his head and share in the embarrassment is amazing to me. I guess love knows no bounds.

More to come...

 UPDATE – 8pm: 

- Today is the first day of work towards regaining the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives in 2014. Just as in 2008, we can’t think this is over after the election. It’s not the end, it’s the beginning.

 - Unless Citizens United is overturned, we will have a much harder time matching the Dark Side dollar for dollar, especially in the mid-term elections, so we have to double our efforts on the ground. And it starts now.

 - Despite only four hours sleep between 16 hour days, I have a spring in my step today. The air is a little fresher, the sky is a little bluer, and the tears of dumbass Republican voters are a little sweeter.

 - No matter what anyone says, yesterday’s results PROVE we are not a center right nation. Maine and Maryland voted for marriage equality. Washington and Colorado voted for recreational marijuana use. The times, they are a-changin’.

- After Chris Murphy won his Senate race in Connecticut, part of me wanted WWE magnate Linda McMahon to sneak up behind Murphy during his victory speech and cold cock him in the back of the head with a metal folding chair.

- Rape apologists Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin got their asses handed to them by their opponents. They were totally asking for it. BOOM!

ELECTION DAY!

I voted.

... Didn't get a sticker. Now I will watch with my logical brain being more confident than my emotional heart.

President Obama's Weekly Address - November 3, 2012

Recovering and Rebuilding after the Storm

Must Reads

David Roher: Nate Silver’s Braying Idiot Detractors Show That Being Ignorant About Politics Is Like Being Ignorant About Sports

Bob Cesca: Geraldo Destroys Bolling on Benghazi

Charles Pierce: Sandy and the Job Numbers: The Week When the Actual Turning Points Stepped Out of the Campaign Shadows

David Badash: Photo Op: Romney Campaign Bought Supplies To Give To Red Cross Which Only Accepts Money

The Rude Pundit: A Filthy End to the Filthy Campaign of a Filthy Liar

Mayor Mike Bloomberg Endorses Obama

Being a native New Yorker, I am not a big Mike Bloomberg fan. In fact, sometimes I consider him to have a Napoleonic Complex. From "urging" rule changes to run for a third term to combatting obesity by restricting soft drink sizes to 16 ounces he has shown a bit of an authoritarian stance. And just today, he screwed up royally in the 3 passengers per vehicle imposition for entry onto Manhattan island on people trying to get to work with a disabled public transportation system after Hurricane Sandy.*

But today, the New York City Mayor endorsed President Barack Obama for a second term.

I believe Mitt Romney is a good and decent man, and he would bring valuable business experience to the Oval Office. He understands that America was built on the promise of equal opportunity, not equal results. In the past he has also taken sensible positions on immigration, illegal guns, abortion rights and health care. But he has reversed course on all of them, and is even running against the health-care model he signed into law in Massachusetts.

And although I vehemently disagree with his perception that the President has "embraced a divisive populist agenda focused more on redistributing income than creating it" and and "engaged in partisan attacks" instead of trying to reach across the aisle because after all, it takes two to tango and it's been well known that there has been no reciprocation from the entire Republican Party, this endorsement is worth a read.

_______________
* Bloomberg had the right sentiment but blew it big time. All crossings into Manhattan were carpool restricted except for the George Washington Bridge. Everyone knew that. What they didn't tell you was that after you got over the GWB, there were still checkpoints preventing vehicles from entering Manhattan. After a local radio traffic reporter went ballistic on air, the Mayor's office got rid of said checkpoint, but not until it caused immense backups and made incoming highways into parking lots in the midst of a gasoline shortage.

Can I Politicize Hurricane Sandy Yet?

Here's the quote of the day:

“The president has been all over this and he deserves great credit. I’ve been on the phone with him, like I said, yesterday, personally, three times. He gave me his number at the White House, told me to call him if I needed anything, and he absolutely means it. It’s been very good working with the president, and he and his administration have been coordinating with us great. It’s been wonderful.“

That quote brought to you Republican NewJersey Governor Chris Christie, whose state (my state) has been crushed by Hurricane Sandy. Major sections of the Jersey shore have been destroyed. I'm shocked at the devastation I see on the news reports on television.

Luckily, I was spared any damage or power outage. The storm made landfall about 90 minutes south of me, near Atlantic City (another destroyed city). I took a short walk around my neighborhood and couldn't go more than a couple of blocks without coming across downed trees, severed power lines and blocked streets.







But back to my point.

Kudos to Christie figuring out what's important and how crucial issues like federal disaster relief can be. I don't know if he was one of the Republican governors Mitt Romney called to offer advice*, you know because I suppose only Republican governors have been affected by the storm, but I wonder if Christie will have a come to Jesus moment at the voting booth next week. ... I doubt it.

Speaking of federal disaster relief, let's not forget, and really how can you at this point, that FEMA is in the crosshairs for Mitt Romney to gut if he's elected president. During a primary debate, Romney not only thought that disaster aid should be in the hands of the states, but went a step further and said that the private sector should be first in line for these types of situations.

Who knows what he's saying now, but last year, Mitt Romney said it was "immoral" for the government to borrow and spend money to pay for disaster relief. 

Importantly, he wasn't just talking about the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which some conservatives say is a horrible waste of money. He was talking about "disaster relief."... 

..."Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that's the right direction," Romney told debate moderator John King. "And if you can go even further, and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better. Instead of thinking, in the federal budget, what we should cut, we should ask the opposite question, what should we keep?” 

When John King interrupted to clarify, "Including disaster relief?" Romney continued, "We cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids. It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that we’ll all be dead and gone before it’s paid off. It makes no sense at all."

Sure! No federal relief for devastated states due to natural disasters. Let them fend for themselves since their coffers are always overflowing. And hell, while we're at it, it's the private, for-profit sector that should take care of the clean up and restoration of towns and cities that got washed away in the hurricane. Nothing like giving preference to the highest bidder when it comes to restoring essentials to survive. 

I really don't know what else to say about this except that we are witnessing, in live time, the differences between the two candidates in their response to the disaster we've seen here these last 36 hours. While President Obama admittedly has a bit of an advantage in actually being the president, he's suspended his campaign, continues to make sure help gets to ALL that need it, and is keeping in contact with state leaders regardless of political affiliation. Mitt Romney has "suspended his campaign" and decided to have "storm relief events" that look exactly the same as his campaign events.

Yesterday, the Republican team said it had canceled today's campaign event in Ohio. Mitt Romney was set to headline a "victory rally" at a specific venue in Dayton, alongside specific celebrity guests, but out of sensitivity, the event was scrapped. 

Instead, Romney will appear at the exact same venue at the exact same time with the exact same celebrity guests, but it will be billed as a "storm relief event." What about yesterday's promise about cancellations? A Republican official said Romney/Ryan hadn't broken its word because, technically, this is "not a campaign event per se." 

Hmm. The badge for today's "storm relief event" says "victory rally"; the sign on the door described the event as a "campaign rally"; they're playing the campaign warm-up songs for the audience; and before the "storm relief event" could begin, campaign officials showed the official campaign video on Romney's awesomeness.

But hey, it's not a campaign event if it we don't call it a campaign event, huh?

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*Chris Christie was one of the governors that was called by Mitt Romney.

Disaster Relief -- from Mitt

POSTED BY JHW22

“Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better. Instead of thinking in the federal budget, what we should cut — we should ask ourselves the opposite question. What should we keep? We should take all of what we’re doing at the federal level and say, what are the things we’re doing that we don’t have to do? And those things we’ve got to stop doing, because we’re borrowing $1.6 trillion more this year than we’re taking in. We cannot --

KING: Including disaster relief, though?

ROMNEY: We cannot — we cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids. It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that we’ll all be dead and gone before it’s paid off. It makes no sense at all.

Romney thinks disaster relief should fall solely on states and the "private sector". Considering many states are broke and have already cut crucial services such as wildfire resources in a record-drought, first responders, health care, and infrastructure and considering the "private sector" folks will have been hit by the same natural disaster or because private sector means insurance companies who HATE paying out after disasters, I'd say he doesn't get it. In fact, just the other day insurance companies acknowledged global warming and want something done about it because they're so sick of paying out after disasters like Sandy.

It's "simply immoral" to vote for the man who doesn't get it and will make sure disaster victims don't get anything either.

Batten Down The Hatches!

Must Reads

John Scalzi: Fan Letter to Certain Conservative Politicians

Greg Palast: Mitt Romney's Bailout Bonanza

Elcectablog: Reality intrudes on Mitt Romney’s dream world. So does Nate Silver.

Douglas Brinkley: Obama and the Road Ahead: The Rolling Stone Interview

JM Ashby: Microwaves. Air-Conditioning. The Good Life!

Paul Krugman: Pointing Toward Prosperity?

The Rude Pundit: Note to Richard Mourdock: Your God's an Asshole

Nathan Bomey & Brent Snavely: Romney repeats false claim of Jeep outsourcing to China; Chrysler refutes story

Brent Snavely: Romney camp silent on his Jeep-to-China gaffe

Steve Benen: Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XL

Ron Fournier: The Story (on Racial Attitudes) That Obama and Romney Don't Want You to Read

Jim Wright: Guns and Butter. Also, Nazis!

Current GOP Incapable of Being Satirized?

A casualty of Poe's Law. I admit I'm a bit embarrassed... but can you blame me?

I was surfing through the Twittersphere... (Twitterverse?) this morning and came across an article that took my breath away. In an attempt to win the endorsement of an Evansville newspaper, Republican candidate Richard "Rape Pregnancy is a Gift from God" Mourdock, went on at considerable length about his stance on pregnancies that occur as a result of rape, how rape victims should have prayed harder, how scientific studies show that a woman is less likely to get raped if she prays before a big date, and how people who aren't "right with God" have a stronger chance of finding themselves in those undesirable situations, among other things.

I was outraged. I immediately retweeted with my own added comment: "Unvelievable! Will Mitt still support this nut after this?!" I added it to my Facebook page: "Eagerly awaiting a statement from Mitt Romney about this. Anything other than a complete repudiation and withdrawal of support from Richard Mourdock after these fantastical comments is a complete fail for Romney and should disqualify him from any chance of elected office, especially the Presidency." I was livid!

...Ahem... I was then informed a bit later that the piece (from the Daily Currant) was satirical. I suppose the comments were really fantastical after all. Not knowing that The Daily Currant is a satirical website, I became a victim of Poe's Law. I then sent out tweets and status updates informing everyone of my mistake. But with the current mindset of the Republican Party, can you blame me for believing it?

It was not a far cry for me to believe that Mourdock would say such things after his "God intended" rape pregnancy comment. Perhaps the "rape halo" section of the piece should have given away the satire, but is that a far cry from Georgia Rep. Paul Broun's comments that "evolution, embryology, the Big Bang theory" are "lies straight from the pit of hell"? By the way, Broun, who believes the Earth is 9,000 years old because the Bible says so, is on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. THE SCIENCE COMMITTEE!!!

You can understand my mistake when Missouri Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin makes a statement about "legitimate rape" and women's bodies having "ways to shut that thing down." That "thing" being pregnancy from a rape, you know because... science and sorcery!

You can understand my mistake when Rep. Steve King (R-Douchelandia) says he's personally never heard of a child becoming pregnant due to a rape or incest, which is completely believable when you consider he co-sponsored a bill, along with Akin and GOP Veep candidate Paul Ryan in 2011, originally calling for an exemption in the federal ban on abortion funding only in the case of “forcible rape.” Yes, forcible rape, as opposed to consentual rape because no means no, but does it really?

When over 30% of Republicans still believe that President Obama is Muslim (a higher percentage than in 2008), when 63% of Republicans still believe that Iraq had WMD to this day, long after the invasion of 2003 and long after the facts have shown otherwise, when a majority of Republicans have fallen for the Birther conspiracy and still believe that President Obama was born in another country despite all evidence to the contrary, trying to satirize a GOP member who has already said something ridiculous is an almost insurmountable task. Just ask Roger Simon.

My point is this: with all the lunacy that's been uttered on an almost daily basis by the Fox "News" network and conservative radio hosts led by Rush Limbaugh, and swallowed hook, line and sinker by this new species of "Republican," it's really getting harder and harder to differentiate the truth from satire. And when a political party is incapable of being satirized it makes for a very sad state of affairs for the future of said party when an outrageous joke can be mistaken for the truth.

(Cross-posted on ABLC)

President Obama's Weekly Address - October 27, 2012

Protecting the American People with New Wall Street Reforms

What the Hell Is Wrong With These Nutball Republicans?!

I don't even know what to say about this. All I can do is shake my head in amazement and try to suppress a sickening sadness for the state of partisan political affairs in our country.

Missouri Lt. Governor Peter Kinder (R) on Thursday warned that “Albanian” election monitors who will observe polling places on November 6 are part of President Barack Obama’s plan to let the United Nations take over the United States. 

“UN observers, monitors, have no business in our elections and should be kept out of Missouri,” he told radio host Dana Loesch. “I’m calling on legislative leaders in the majority party in both the House and Senate — Republican leadership — to join me in saying we will not have these UN election monitors in our state." 

Kinder said he was inspired by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who threatened to arrested the international election monitors if they come within 100 feet of a polling place. 

Following a request from eight civil rights groups, the Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), a United Nations partner, agreed to send 44 election monitors to the United States. The international organization began monitoring U.S. elections in 2002, when then-President George W. Bush invited them to the country.

Where was the outrage then? Was George Bush trying to "sign away our sovereignty" when he invited the election monitors TEN YEARS AGO? Oh wait, "sovereignty"? Nevermind.

 What the fuck are these assholes even talking about?!

VOTE!

(Photo courtesy of CBS News)

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Donald Trump: Media Whore

Why can't these sad sack, irrational Birthers get over it?

Donald Trump, who went full Birther and hence became an official laughingstock for more than just the beaver that lives on his head, can't stand the idea of being out of the spotlight for very long. He can't live with the fact that he had to sit there and take a shellacking from President Obama at the 2011 White  House Correspondents' Dinner. But there he sat with egg on his face and after more than a year, he can take it no longer.

So The Donald has glommed on to yet another Obama conspiracy theory, this one involving the President's school records. He wants the world (and all the racist scumbags out there) to know that there's no possible way the President could have gotten where he has without affirmative action. That he didn't deserve to go to Occidental. Or Columbia. Or Harvard. That he wasn't intelligent enough to become President of the Harvard Law Review. And how does he intend to prove it? By trying to force President Obama's hand with money.

Trump has been trumpeting a "big announcement" this week, you know because it all has to be out in the open - it has nothing to do with seeing his name in the papers or being interviewed on the local news, or trying to inject himself into the presidential race from which he was rejected by the Republican electorate.

Donald Trump has offered $5 million to any charity of President Obama's choice IF he "agrees to give all of his college records and applications and if he provides all of his passport records and applications..." 

That's such an awesome deal, isn't it? If the President says yes, Donald Trump can then call all the documents forgeries, gin up another Manchurian Candidate conspiracy theory while writing off $5 million from his taxes. Everybody wins! Or Trump can just turn around and say the documents weren't to his satisfaction and not bother ponying up the dough. I mean, it's not like that man has shown to have any principles, morals, or integrity, right?

But he'll still win his little two weeks of news coverage because at the very least, Fox News will wonder why Obama doesn't take such an easy offer. He must be hiding something!

I seriously can't want for this election cycle to be over so we can get a break after the morons crawl back under their rocks for another 18 months.

Must Reads

Posted by JHW22 (Filling in for Broadway Carl)





The Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Staff: Tribune Endorsement: Too Many Mitts

Josh Rogin: Issa's Benghazi Document Dump Exposes Several Libyans Working with the U.S.

Ta-Nehisi Coats: It's Funny Because We're White

Garance Franke-Ruta: Binders Full of Women: A Meme That Means Something

Ken Dilanian and Shashank Bengali: No evidence found of Al Qaeda role in Libya attack

Jillian Rayfield: Longtime George Romney aide attacks Mitt

President Obama's Weekly Address - October 20, 2012

Congress Should Join the President to Help Responsible Homeowners

Binders of Women - Corporations Get In On The Act

The strange turn of phrase uttered by Mitt Romney at last night's 2nd presidential debate was so odd, it instantly became a Twitter meme and spread throughout the intertubes like wildfire.

"“I went to a number of women’s groups and said, ‘Can you help us find folks,’ and they brought us whole binders full of women.”"

But even I was mildly shocked at the email solicitation I received today:



"We've got tons of binders full of sales. Women will love them!"

[Insert spit take here.]

Mixed Signals, Alright

POSTED BY JHW22

I was just listening to John Inskeep interviewing a Romney foreign affairs spokesperson (no clip available yet) on NPR and I am LIVID.

The man, sorry I missed who it was but may have been Dan Senor, said that the Obama administration has sent mixed messages on Iran. His examples was that Obama has said a military action is on the table but that Panetta laid out many details, at some security conference, as to why a military action would be problematic.

What made me LIVID about this was he had JUST said that Romney thinks military action would be a last resort. Um, why would it be a last resort if it weren't problematic? Mixed signals? Hell yes. From the Romney campaign, asshole!

Must Reads

Matt Taibbi: The Vice Presidential Debate: Joe Biden Was Right to Laugh

Cliff Schecter: The two Romneys

Elon James White: White Privilege, Joe Biden Style

Robert Dreyfuss: Biden and Ryan: The Foreign Policy Gap

John Nichols: Richard Milhous Ryan: No Specifics, Just a 'Secret Plan'

Charles P. Pierce: VP Debate 2012: The Real Paul Ryan Is Bad for America

The Rude Pundit: The Parable of Paul Ryan and the Tanks and Joe Biden Throws Paul Ryan Off His Lawn

NY Times Editorial: The ‘Moderate Mitt’ Myth

So... A Panel

POSTED BY JHW22

In the debate Paul Ryan said he didn't want unelected judges deciding what women can do with their bodies.

We don't think that unelected judges should make this decision; that people, through their elected representatives, in reaching a consensus in society through the democratic process should make this determination.

Instead, he wants our neighbors to elect people to do make our decisions. That's a panel. Um, there's some pretty big hypocrisy there, folks.

And if you think about it, there's a further hypocrisy. If you really are anti-choice, why would you leave the choice up to states? Would you really be OK with abortions taking place anywhere? Because if you leave it to the people and the representatives they elect, then you're gonna have abortions somewhere.

They just need to admit they will prevent it everywhere and stop playing games -- with women's lives.

President Obama's Weekly Address - October 13, 2012

One Million American Jobs Saved and a Stronger American Auto Industry

Jack Welch Can't Stand the Heat

Jack Welch, who knows a thing or two about cooking the books, couldn't stand that his demented, unsubstantiated allegation that the Bureau of Labor Statistics doctored the numbers to help the Obama administration in the upcoming election via the Twitters, was being criticized from all sides* and decided to quit (along with his wife) his position as contributor to Reuters and Fortune Magazine.

Welch said he will no longer contribute to Fortune following critical coverage of the former CEO of General Electric, saying he would get better "traction" elsewhere. On Friday, Welch suggested that the Obama administration, calling them "these Chicago guys," had manipulated the monthly jobs report in order to make the economy look better than it actually is just weeks before the election. Welch has been battered by criticism since making the suggestion on Twitter.

Welch apparently ended up at odds with various journalistic institutions that placed a higher premium on providing readers with objectively rational information about the economy, as opposed to flattering an old executive who sows derangement on the Internet. According to Gandel, Welch did not take kindly to a CNN Money piece that criticized Welch's original tweet, and was further angered by a Fortune piece, "detailing Welch's record as a job destroyer."

That, poor, poor multi-millionaire. My heart bleeds.

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* Except the Fox side, of course. That would be lunacy.


(Cross-posted on ABLC)