Fightin' Harry Reid Not Backing Down

Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stated he spoke with someone who claimed Mitt Romney hadn't paid taxes in 10 years.

Reid suggested that Romney’s decision to withhold tax information would bar him from ever earning Senate confirmation to a Cabinet post. Then, Reid recalled a phone call his office received about a month ago from “a person who had invested with Bain Capital,” according to The Huffington Post. 

Reid said the person told him: “Harry, he didn’t pay any taxes for 10 years.” 

“He didn’t pay taxes for 10 years! Now, do I know that that’s true? Well, I’m not certain,” Reid told HuffPo. “But obviously he can’t release those tax returns. How would it look?”

Good question, Harry. It would look pretty shitty, especially considering Romney's tax plan would give even more tax cuts to the have mores, and cut social and medical programs to pay for it. The burden of proof is on Romney. He can shut down all of those claiming he's got something to hide by releasing his returns. It's really that simple.

Reid's comments have caused an apoplectic fit among the right, with RNC Chairman calling Reid a "dirty liar" on the Sunday talk shows. I would take their protests seriously if they hadn't been so completely silent on the Birther issue looking the other way when anyone in their party asked for proof of President Obama's citizenship.

Well Reid and his office aren't backing down just because poor, little Reince Priebus and Lindsey Graham get their panties in a knot calling Reid a liar. In fact, it's only gotten harsher.

“They’re a bunch of cowards, and they’re avoiding the issue,” said David Krone, Reid’s chief of staff, in an interview with POLITICO on Sunday night. “Lindsey Graham, Reince Priebus — they’re a bunch of henchmen for Romney, and they’re all reading off the same talking points. They couldn’t hold a candle to Harry Reid.” 

Krone added: “What Harry Reid said is the fact of what he was told. To turn it around, all their childish rants this weekend about calling Reid a ‘liar’ and all that, it just shows you how scared they are that Harry Reid was telling the truth.”  

As far as I'm concerned, it's political gamesmanship. This time though, the GOP is crying foul because they're on the short end. So if the GOP has been unwilling to publicly put the Birther issue to rest once and for all, if they continue to embrace the Tea Party when Tea Party leaders insist that President Obama release his medical records to prove he's not a gay crack addict, if they're willing to call Harry Reid a liar but keep mum on Mitt Romney's blatant lie that the Obama administration is trying to suppress the military vote in Ohio, then game on, motherfuckers.


(Cross-posted at ABLC)

Mulattos Need Not Apply

What. The. Fuck.

Tuesday, Gordon Warren Epperly filed a lawsuit in Alaska challenging President Obama's inclusion on the 2012 presidential ballot. What's Epperly's beef? Apparently, he feels Negroes and mulattoes can't be president because they aren't really citizens.

I'm speechless.

Buffett Birthers?

Seriously?

The Hill reports big names in Congress are starting to say Buffett "needs to reveal his finances if his views on tax rates are going to serve as the basis for Obama administration policy."

NRSC chair John Cornyn (TX), who took the call to Twitter Thursday, explained to ABC News that knowing how Buffett makes his money could change the way people view the so-called "Buffett Rule" that President Obama is making a cornerstone of his call for increased taxes on the super-rich.

John Cornyn should pay attention because I believe this is exactly what Warren Buffett admitted to. He is taxed at a lower percentage on capital gains for really doing nothing but investing his money.

Here he is on Charlie Rose, WITH A COPY OF HIS TAX RETURNS!



Hey Buffett Birthers, just say "Oops" and get out! And now that we've seen that Mr. Buffett has made his tax returns public, I'd like to see the Koch brothers' returns, please.

Very Presidential

Orly Trump

He's betting big on the grandmother story.

Trump promises an audio tape from Obama's paternal grandmother that will prove he's been lying all along:

His grandmother in Kenya said, 'Oh, no, he was born in Kenya and I was there and I witnessed the birth.' She's on tape. I think that tape's going to be produced fairly soon. Somebody is coming out with a book in two weeks, it will be very interesting.

Is it that translation phone call that has been debunked since it came out over two years ago? And yet, Trump is to be taken seriously.

Fox & Friends Doubles It's Collective IQ on Mondays

[Fox] revealed Thursday plans to launch a "Monday Mornings with Trump" segment on its morning show, "Fox & Friends."

"Bold, brash and never bashful, The Donald now makes his voice loud and clear every Monday on Fox," a network promo says.

Where's The Donald's Birth Certificate?

For the last couple of weeks, Donald Trump has been jumping on the Birther bandwagon to try and gain publicity and momentum for a possible run at the GOP presidential nomination. I suppose he couldn't go the fiscal responsibility route since he has declared bankruptcy multiple times. We already know how he'd treat the one country that keeps buying our debt, so his foreign policy seems lacking. Where else for Trump to attack Obama but in the secret Kenyan Manchurian candidate arena?

So imagine my surprise (or lack of) when Trump himself is having trouble producing his own birth certificate!

Donald Trump made headlines earlier today when he provided what he said was a copy of his birth certificate -- but a quick check reveals it's actually not an official document.

...after several New York City-based readers contacted POLITICO's Maggie Haberman, her call to city officials revealed that an actual birth certificate, which is issued by the Department of Health, would have the agency's seal and also a signature of the city registrar - neither of which the Trump document has. Officials said the city Health Department is the "sole issuing authority" of official birth certificates in New York, and that the document would clearly say so, and "city officials said it's not an official document."

By his own standard, until Donald Trump can produce his actual birth certificate, he is not eligible to hold the office of President of the United States. And if he does come up with it, I'll claim it's a forgery. How can he prove me wrong if I refuse to believe it?

Hey Donald, you're fired!

All Aboard the Crazy Train

Newt Gingrich, the man that some would say has a better than an outside chance of being the Republican presidential nominee for 2012 has punched his ticket to Loonyland.

In an interview with the National Review, Newt agreed with right wing freak Dinesh D’Souza's ridiculous Forbes article and therefore assessed that...

...[Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]...That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior.”

“This is a person who is fundamentally out of touch with how the world works, who happened to have played a wonderful con, as a result of which he is now president,” Gingrich tells us.

“I think he worked very hard at being a person who is normal, reasonable, moderate, bipartisan, transparent, accommodating — none of which was true,” Gingrich continues. “In the Alinksy tradition, he was being the person he needed to be in order to achieve the position he needed to achieve . . . He was authentically dishonest.”

We all thought Newt was a little loopy to begin with, but the quotes in this article reveal him to be either A) an opportunistic narcissist who will say anything to remain in the spotlight, even when that something can doom his chances to get the rational, sane voters in his corner, or B) he really has gone off the deep end and has out-Orly Taitzed Orly Taitz. To cast a shadow of doubt and ask "I'm not sure about the President, but we haven't seen his birth certificate" would be bad enough, but to go full-out crazy conspiracy theory and use phrases like "Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior" and say that President Obama was a con man, that he is "authentically dishonest." What does that even mean?

Even Joe Scarborough doesn't know what Newt was thinking, if he was thinking at all.

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In my opinion, Newt Gingrich has lost all hope of even contending for 2012. Going full Birther may play to the fringe base, but independents won't fall for it. Despite the polls showing a loss of independent support for the Democratic Party these last months, if given the choice between Barack Obama and either Newt, Sarah Palin, or even a Mike Huckabee or Mitt Romney, I still think the choice is still clear.

Limbaugh is a Birther

Tomorrow is Obama's birthday, not that we've seen any proof of that... What? We haven't seen any proof of that! They tell us August 4th is the birthday; we haven't seen any proof of that! Sorry. It is what it is.

And Rush Limbaugh is a lying douchbag. It is what it is.

White House of Cards

POSTED BY JHW22

"Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers making bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism."

~ President Obama in his famous speech on race.

Democrats can't play the race card because the right-wing holds the entire deck.

Rachel Maddow and Jonathan Alter had a great discussion about how the White House should handle the right-wing smears and I like what Rachel said but I agree with Jonathan Alter. Rachel said that the Obama campaign stopped the madness with a website. She used birthers as an example. Yet, the birthers still exist. Bills are introduced and passed because of birthers and the chaos they create. Birthers are running for office. So, no, Rachel, a website didn't put that to rest. And neither have you or Keith Olbermann or anyone else who takes on the right on a consistent basis. No one has found the solution. So frankly, getting mad at Obama for not having found it yet is a little passive.

I have yet to hear a good way to fight the smears for good without actually increasing them. The President of the United States has a lot of battles to choose from. Picking battles is a necessity. Should HE be the one picking this one or should we? We hate the crap. We need to fight it. I just haven't figured out how!

Birther Palin Suppressing The Media

She's getting nuttier by the day, as if that were possible. Sarah Palin was interviewed by conservative radio show host Rusty Humphries (that's a porn star name if I ever heard one) and said she has no problem with freakizoid birthers doubting the citizenship of Presdient Obama.

The comments came [when asked] whether she planned to “make the birth certificate an issue” if she runs for president in 2012.

“I think the public rightfully is still making it an issue,” Palin said. “I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t know if I would have to bother to make it an issue, because I think that members of the electorate still want answers.”

So she's a birther at heart but given the chance is too cowardly to make it an issue herself. And as Bob Cesca points out, this from the same woman who moans about the "loony conspiracy theory" that Trig was not her son in the book that she didn't write. So, Palin not Trig's mom? Lunacy! But the President a Manchurian candidate born in Kenya? Feasible and worth a look.

And now comes word that the traveling freak show that is Palin's book tour has a set of media regulations should anyone decide they'd like to cover her magical book signing events.

Via Wonkette:

For Palin’s appearance at the Mall of America next week [WCCO of Minneapolis] received a list of seven media guidelines, including one stating there can be no foreign press — only English-speaking press and another that said media must address Palin as “Governor.”

The other rules include no interviews — but if the media want one, a request must be submitted to her publicist — plus no microphones, only background sound and pictures and only the first 10 minutes of her appearance can be taped.

No foreign press? Fool me once, or twice, can't get fooled again. Only addressed as "Governor?" Don't you have to actually be a governor to be called governor? No interviews? Well after the Katie Couric gotcha interviews, Sarah's a little leery of getting questions on whether or not she's read her own book. And no microphones, because she doesn't want to get caught saying anything stupid, and when a mic is on near Palin, you're bound to catch a doozy.

And you want to be my latex salesman...

Tom Delay Joins The Birthers and Chris Matthews Laughs In His Face

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American Brownshirts

posted by Armadillo Joe

America is finally degenerating into the violent, balkanized quasi-fascist cesspool -- lorded over by rapacious corporations and their well-heeled beneficiaries with the help of a militarized police force and a violence-prone segment of the general populace -- that sci-fi writers have been predicting for decades.

The information campaign waged during the August recess to inform the public regarding the Democratic position on the health-care debate? Shouted down by American Brownshirts. We used to call them Nazis because it made us feel better, but these days I'm not so sure we have been exaggerating. These people are mixed-up, screwed-up cognitively dissonant malcontents who are capable of just the kind of ruffian street violence a political party needs to intimidate the opposition into cowed silence. Democracy is about the non-violent resolution of social conflicts. Their side seethes with the threat of imminent violence from Dixiecratic racist goobers, which operatives like Atwater and Rove and others of their ilk have been exploiting since the 1950's.

Funnier still is the fact that these people are financed by health-care companies -- a private brownshirt brigade sent to shout down and shut down the civil discourse needed for a well-functioning democracy. In the wake of the awful shooting at the fitness club in Pittsburgh, one wonders how long til one of these townhells ends in a bloodbath? In five, four, three, two...

And speaking of privately-funded violence aimed at political ends, Eric Prince and Blackwater Xe are truly little more than a private army whose leadership is sympathetic to the political aims of one party and diametrically opposed to those of the other. The Nazi SS Divisions, despite the way many historians talk about them, were not part of Germany's national army, the Wehrmacht, they were a separate and distinct organization: the militarized wing of the National Socialist Party. They were Hitler's private army. Only the most fanatical Nazis were invited to join the Schutzstaffel and in many cases these men had never even been in the regular army, being drug-addicts or degenerates or just plain ol' bug-fuck nuts, they were frequently judged to be utterly unfit for duty in Germany's very disciplined and highly professional Wehrmacht.

Anyone see parallels to Blackwater Xe? How long til a corporation hires these goons to close down by any means necessary some large-scale political function (like a mass rally or a March on Washington) they deem a threat?

Who would really stop them if they did? Our mass media would cluck their tongues at how all those foul-mouthed, dirty fucking hippies made those goons hit or shoot them and then they'd talk about how sad it is that we all can't just get along by not provoking the racist vigilantes into acting out, the socio-political equivalent of shhhh - don't make daddy mad - you know how he gets! The police themselves? The post-Reagan's-War-on-Drugs militarized police force with their Taser guns on a hair-trigger and general political proclivities completely unsympathetic to things like the First or Fourth Amendments? We're more likely to see them loan their billy clubs to the goons from Blackwater Xe.

Just remember who's really in charge in this country. We may have the inter-webs as our conduit for organizing and the tremendous amount of energy and willpower we collectively expended during the Long Nightmare of the Bush Dystopia may have gotten our guy into the White House, but the last time we had someone who gave people this kind of hope and this level of optimism in power his motorcade left Dealy Plaza in Dallas with his brains all over the trunk lid and we ended up with Nixon's breeding ground for everything nefarious and sleazy to slime and slither its way through American politics for the next 40 years, including that greasy meat-puppet from California: Saint Ronnie of the Ray-Gun.

In short, folks, I'm just afraid that even if we win this health-care fight -- and right now I'm fairly certain we won't -- the potential for violence from that armed, resentful, persecution-complexed segment of the population, goaded as they are by the monied interests (with an assist from their brain-dead cronies and other assorted functionaries in the Congress and the media) into doing their bidding against all those noisome DFH's, makes me afraid for what could happen to our un-white president and those of us who put him there.

Read this link and then discuss.

The Missing Obama Kenyan Birth Certificate!

Jebus, what a fucking joke. Doug Mataconis at Below The Beltway gives it a proper lashing. To think that the Birthers refuse to accept President Obama's "Certificate of Live Birth" but will cream all over this laughable forgery.

Some highlights:

• "Issued" three years after Obama's birth (the same year as his parents' divorce).
• Certificate No. 47,044 - 47 is the age of the 44th President at the time of inauguration.
• The Republic of Kenya wasn't a Republic until December 1963 and still a British Colony in 1961.

Was this conceived by one of the Birthers to show proof that Obama is a Muslim, Kenyan born, Manchurian Candidate? I doubt it. You'd have to be somewhat intelligent for that. But whoever did create this phony document is having a really good laugh right about now.

The GOP Cockroach Scurry

I find it amazing that elected officials are so afraid of reporters with cameras, they literally run away as fast as they can. Mike Stark (of HuffPo and FDL) is the light switch that makes these GOP roaches run for cover. And all because they don't want to be on official record as supporting the Birther Movement, yet giving it credence by saying there may be something there.



And Rep. Thaddeus "I'm focused on health care issues" McCotter actually introduced a resolution to get President Obama to officially apologize to Cambridge Police officer Sgt. James Crowley. A fine use of time for the state of Michigan and their tax dollars.

Douchebag of the Week: Michael Karolchyk

Boy, was there a plethora to choose from for this week's DBOTW honors! But who to pick, oh the pressure.

I could choose Dick Cheney's evil spawn, Liz for picking at the birther movement scab with a quote that has nothing to do with the birth certificate conspiracy theory. "People are uncomfortable with a president who is reluctant to defend the nation overseas" said the succubus.

I could choose Lou Dobbs, who although stating he thinks President Obama is a US citizen, continued to stoke the crazy flames and posed that Obama could be "undocumented." Even after CNN president Jon Klein sent out a "shut the fuck up" e-mail calling the birther story dead, Dobbs continued to give it air time.

I could choose retired Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters for suggesting that captured soldier Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl be killed by the Taliban if he had indeed deserted to save us all "a lot of legal hassles and legal bills." Way to support the troops, Ralph.

But my choice for Douchebag of the Week honors goes to Michael Karolchyk. In case you missed it, Karolchyk was a guest on Neil Cavuto's sorry excuse for a show sporting a "No Chubbies" t-shirt and calling new Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin "obese," claiming she is 60 pounds overweight because she's "lazy" and really, shouldn't someone promoting health look the part? Maybe Karolchyk wanted the job?



Let's compare resumes, shall we?

Dr. Regina Benjamin: Founder and chief executive, Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic, Bayou La Batre, Ala., 1990-present; chairwoman, Federation of State Medical Boards, 2008-09; president, Medical Assn. of the State of Alabama, 2002-03; trustee, American Medical Assn., 1995-98; diplomate, American Board of Family Practice; fellow, American Academy of Family Physicians.¹

Named one of the “Nation’s 50 Future Leaders Age 40 and Under” by Time magazine.

Honored with the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights in 1998.

According to the New York Times article highlighting her nomination and achievements, Benjamin made house calls after her clinic was flooded as a result of Hurricane Georges in 1998. Hurricane Katrina destroyed her clinic, and she mortgaged her own home to rebuild it. The clinic was again destroyed — this time by fire — and Benjamin appealed to donors across the country to raise enough funds to rebuild.²

Michael Karolchyk: CEO of Denver's Anti-Gym (NSFW), a fitness club with an emphasis on getting clients in shape for sex: "With live DJs, cage dancers, and our elite co-ed Ravish Room, Anti-Gym boasts the hottest facilities and clientele in Denver."

The Anti-Gym was raided by the IRS in January, its assets seized and shut down, according to the CBS affiliate in Denver.³

But to get a real flavor of what Karolchyk is all about, his profile in the Denver web-magazine 5280 is a must read. What a fine, upstanding citizen. And what an outstanding job for Fox News to have this "expert" appear on a regular basis.

Michael "No Chubbies" Karolchyk: Douchebag of the Week.

***************************************
¹ LA Times: Profile Dr. Regina M. Benjamin
² American Association of University Women

³ Talking Points Memo

Oh, Sweet Justice!

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Orly Taitz Is Insane

Last night as I drove home from work, I had the extraordinary pleasure of listening to Alan Colmes interview Stefan Cook and Alan Keyes Birther movement lawyer, Orly Taitz. During the lead up to the interview, I anticipated hearing an intelligent discussion between Colmes and what I thought would be an attorney well versed in the ways of debate in order to make sense of the whole Birther movement.

Imagine my surprise when what I heard coming out of a break, was one of the most bizarre interviews I had ever heard with a "lawyer" who sounds like Arianna Huffington on crack.

Orly Taitz refuses to believe that President Obama was born in the United States, has called and continues to call him an "arrogant jerk," believes that the FactCheck.org debunking of the whole birth certificate drama is photoshopped by "a bunch of yahoos" and has absolutely no regard for civilized discourse during the entire interview.

I'm still trying to find the full audio, but you can listen to a 5 minute clip here. Prepare for a jaw dropping experience.

Birthers Get Thrown A Bone

A judge said he would listen to "the merits" of Alan Keyes' case challenging Obama's presidency. While a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office said the move was merely procedural, birth conspiracy proponents are encouraged.

And a soldier refuses to be deployed to Afghanistan because he believes Obama presidency is illegitimate.

U.S. Army Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook has argued that he shouldn't have to go to Afghanistan because the man sending him there isn't really president.

In the 20-page document -- filed July 8 with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia -- the California-based [Alan Keyes lawyer Orly] Taitz asks the court to consider granting his client's request based upon Cook's belief that Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and is therefore ineligible to serve as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Cook further states he "would be acting in violation of international law by engaging in military actions outside the United States under this President's command. ... simultaneously subjecting himself to possible prosecution as a war criminal by the faithful execution of these duties."

Ironic that the government is discharging willing and able gay soldiers and preventing them from fulfilling their duty and this "patriot" is using the birther conspiracy as an excuse not to send his cowardly ass to Afghanistan. Fine, dishonorably discharge the fucker.