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)

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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.