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!

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.

Credit Where Credit Is Due?

Not likely.

Republicans were o so quick to blame President Obama when prices were soaring and drivers were paying $4 per gallon on average to fill their tanks. Sen. John Barasso (R-Wy.) held the President "fully responsible" for the price of gas. Florida wingnut Allen West bitched about having to pay $70 to fill his Hummer. Yes, a fucking HUMMER. And don't we all remember then GOP primary candidate Newt "The Sky Is Falling" Gingrich predicting gas prices at $10 per gallon? Ah, the halcyon days.

But then just a few days ago, when it was noticed that gas prices have been steadily going down for a few months, the same intrepid politicians who were blaming the President and his policies for high gas prices, were a little less enthusiastic to give him credit for the price drop.

Barasso: “People are still feeling pain at the pump and pain at the plug, and it’s a result of the administration policies...”

West: “If you’re the chief executive officer of the United States of America, you should take responsibility for anything that’s occurring in this country, and you should not want to seek to get praise,” even though I don't remember President Obama looking for praise on falling gas prices. It was just a question from a reporter, Allen. And no, said reporter is not a communist.

Now, logic would dictate that if it was President Obama's policies that were causing the price of gas to increase, then those very same policies which are in place and haven't changed, are what's causing the price of gas to decrease. But hey, since when does the current Republican Party have anything to do with logic?

Granted, the rest of us in the real world understand that no administration or its policies really make an impact on the price of gasoline, a global commodity. The continuing debate and decisions on the XL Keystone Pipeline have nothing to do with what we pay at the pump, considering the fact that the oil isn't actually ours and it's put out on the global market just like the oil that's pumped out of Texas or Alaska, or Kuwait or Saudi Arabia.

So what are we to decipher when Donald "I have investigators in Hawaii" Trump (still waiting for the results of the investigation, by the way) makes the following statement?

...I think Saudi Arabia is doing Obama a big fat favor. I think he asked for the favor and prices are coming down, but also the economy's going bad so maybe it won't help that much. but as soon as -- assuming if Obama got elected, you're going to see something with oil like you've never seen before, it will go through the roof. The favor will be repaid many times over.

Wait, what? Is Donald Trump swimming against the Republican tide and actually giving President Obama credit for lower gas prices? Well, no, he's actually insinuating that the President is in cahoots with a Mooslim leader (you know, the same one that was kissing up to George W. Bush) but you get my point.

The Republicans and their wingnut supporters will do or say anything, ANTHING, to disparage, demean and discredit the President in order to push their twisted agenda.

Attention, Donald Trump...

...if you have questions about President Obama's place of birth, then by definition, you are a Birther. Trying to qualify it is nonsense.

"A lot of people are questioning his birth certificate," Trump said on CNBC on Tuesday. "They're questioning the authenticity of his birth certificate." 

"I've been known as being a very smart guy for a long time. I don't consider myself birther or not birther but there are some major questions here and the press doesn't want to cover it," he said.

Douchenozzle.


ADDING...

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White House Correspondents' Dinner - April 28, 2012

President Obama



Jimmy Kimmel



I don't mean to sound like an Obamabot, but you have to admit that President Obama is a natural at this. He's likable, not stiff and knows how to dish it out as well as being a master of self deprecation while also being able to take Kimmel's best punches.

Jimmy Kimmel was funny and a bit more biting than performers from previous years. I thought he did well, although in my opinion not as well as Seth Meyers last year and the command performance of Stephen Colbert in 2006. It seemed he rushed through some of his material. Whether it was due to nervousness or the fact that he seemed to have a large volume of material and was trying to get through it all is yet to be determined. Just because you write a thousand jokes doesn't mean you have to use all of them.

But overall, it was a good time. With so much caustic, partisanship these last couple of years, it's nice to sit back and not take things so seriously. Anyone who was offended (I'm looking at you Keith Olbermann and awaiting a Donald Trump tantrum) needs to lighten up.

The Biggest Loser

Yeah, I know "The Biggest Loser" is a reality show weight lost contest and that Donald Trump's faux reality show is called "The Apprentice" or "Celebrity Apprentice," but it really should be changed, because truly, the only loser bigger than Trump could be Mitt Romney for actually accepting his endorsement today in Sin City.

LAS VEGAS - Donald Trump endorsed Mitt Romney here Thursday afternoon in a joint appearance that lasted less than seven minutes and included no questions.

The two men stood behind a lectern emblazoned with a gold “Trump” plaque (a large Romney sign hung off to the side, largely out of the TV shots), and the endorsement came amid several impromptu news conferences that Mr. Trump organized for himself.

It seems as though The Donald can't go less than three weeks without looking for headlines like his like depended on it; like the blood in his veins would dry up if he gave up his media whorishness.

It all started yesterday when Trump made a statement on his favorite medium, Twitter:

I will be making a major announcement today at 12:30 pm PST at Trump International Hotel & Tower, Las Vegas, Nevada. The announcement will pertain to the Presidential race. All media welcome.

All media welcome?! Say it ain't so!

At no point in my though process did the idea of Trump announcing an independent run come to mind. My initial thought was that he was going to endorse Romney but was too chickenshit take the lead and do it earlier because his ego wouldn't be able to handle betting on the wrong horse. He waited until after the Florida primary, saw that Newt Gingrich was dead in the water and then thought he'd make a grand announcement and take credit for being a king maker once the odds-on favorite eventually won the nomination.

Then there was rumor that Trump was to endorse Newt Gingrich, and it got me to thinking that perhaps his ego was so bruised after Newt was the only candidate to accept an invitation to the ill-fated Trump debate, that he'd back the one person who was loyal to him. But is loyalty in Trump's repertoire? That rumor quickly faded and so I was left with the chickenshit theory, which happened to be the correct one.

How ironic that the man who made "You're fired" his catchphrase endorsed the man who said he likes "being able to fire people"? The one saving grace in the whole fiasco was that on Groundhog Day, Trump decided to make the Romney endorsement himself instead of letting the groundhog that lives on his head do it.

Trump Takes Credit For Santorum and Bachmann

Say what now? Donald Trump hasn't been in the headlines for a week or so? Well, he'd better do something about that! We wouldn't want to forget about him, would we? So how about taking credit for Rick Santorum's frothy surge in the Iowa caucus last night?



Does Trump mean the debate that he backed out of because no one would be subjected to his idiocy? That debate? The one that didn't take place? I suppose that goes for Newt Gingrich as well, who was the first to accept Trump's invitation but came in fourth with 13% of the vote.

But not to leave well enough alone, he then explained why Michele Bachmann sank in the polls.



Ah, of course the reason Bachmann dropped in the polls wasn't her outlandish, gaffe prone rhetoric. Or that she would chest thump with Iran. It's because she denied The Donald and refused to kiss his debate ring. It has to be the only reason.

How many times in her life must Ivanka have uttered the phrase, "Daaaaaad... You're embarrassing me!!!"

Nothing Says "Presidential" Like a Twitter Fight

[Donald] Trump took to YouTube on Wednesday to criticize [Rosie] O'Donnell's new show on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). Trump called O'Donnell's show a "complete and total disaster." He also attacked MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell and said that his show was "failing." Trump then tweeted the video, with the message "#trumpvlog Same last name, same bad ratings- @lawrence and @rosie....."

O'Donnell tweeted back and attacked Trump's self-proclaimed wealth. "How many billionaires sell ties and have crappy non reality shows - none - go back to selling snake oil - #bankruptmuch?" O'Donnell tweeted.

How many presidents or presidential contenders do you suppose would tweet something like this?



And to think this schmuck was actually leading the Republican field in the polls at one point. Oh, and here's why Trump lashed out at Lawrence O'Donnell:

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Trump Pulls Out of Debate

Badgerhead Donald Trump has decided that he's not going to moderate the Newsmax debate. His excuse? He doesn't want to "give up his right to run as an independent candidate" which we all know is bullshit otherwise he wouldn't have agreed to it in the first place.

Face it, Republicans: this thing was a joke from the beginning and why have a debate when no one is showing up? The only Trump whores were front runners Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum (who really has nothing to lose) and The Donald didn't want to be in a position of not being able to fire anyone. You can't use your tag line if there's no one in the room.

Trump to Obama: Call Me

You can file this one in the "Who The Fuck Do You Think You Are?!" folder.

Give Romney Credit/Dismiss Huntsman

Mitt Romney has decided to skip the Donald Trump debate on December 27th. Regardless of his reasons, you have to give Romney credit for not falling into the trap of kissing the Trump ring. According to reports, the only candidates committed to attend the Trump debate are Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich... although there is plenty of time for Mitt to flip-flop on his decision.

In other news however, what seemed like the only other "reasonable" Republican nominee decided to give a little reach-aroud of the right wing nutjobs by casting doubt on the science of global warming. No, really.

"The scientific community owes us more in terms of a better description or explanation about what might lie beneath all of this," [Jon Huntsman said], "but there's not enough information right now to be able to formulate policies in terms of addressing [global warming] overall -- primarily because it's a global issue. We can enact policies here, but I wouldn't want to unilaterally disarm as a country. I wouldn't want to hinder job creators during a time when our economy is flat."

Not enough information? So much for the "reasonable" one.

Republican Party: YOU'RE FIRED!

There is no possible chance that Saturday Night Live can continue to satirize Republican politics anymore. They may as well just show footage of actual Republican politics. Why do I posit this?

[Donald] Trump confirmed to MSNBC’s Tamron Hall a New York Times report that he'd helm a GOP debate on Dec. 27.

“I was asked to do it by a number of people, including some of my friends that are Republicans, strong Republicans,” Trump told MSNBC. He has signed on to be a moderator at the debate, which will be held in Iowa and is hosted by Newsmax, a conservative website and magazine. It will be broadcast on Ion Television, a cable network.

Parody is dead. Satire is dead. The Republican Party of yore no longer exists. These debating monkeys need not extol the name of Ronald Reagan or Abraham Lincoln anymore. Reagan couldn't get elected in this generation of what passes for the Republican Party. He'd most likely get booed off the debate stage for his stances on immigration (amnesty) and taxation.

The idea of The Donald moderating something that is supposed to be at least semi-serious like a GOP presidential debate is beyond all hope of rational thinking. But I must admit, I don't know if I can miss this one. I hope my cable provider carries Ion Television, whatever the fuck that is.

Donald Trump? Seriously?

Rick Perry Has Blown a Gasket

Remember a couple of months ago when the next Coming for the Republican Party was Texas Governor Rick Perry? Remember when he was leading in the polls when compared to other GOP primary nominees before he ever entered the race? There was only one little hurdle - and the basic flaw in the future President Perry plan: he had to open his mouth.

The more I listened to Rick Perry in the two debates that I could stomach (and watching highlights from the rest) the more he reminded me of George W. Bush, but without the eloquence. And the more he spoke, the more he sank in the polls. And now in a desperate attempt to rebound from a dismal 6% approval in the latest CBS/New York Times poll of GOP presidential hopefuls, he has decided to pull the Birther card.

After having dinner with The Birther King Donald Trump, Rick Perry decided that it was either A) advantageous for him to jump on the Birther bandwagon to garner some fringe freak support, or B) he really believes the tinfoil hat notion that President Obama is illegitimate because he's not an American born citizen but instead, a Kenyan born, secret Muslim Manchurian candidate.

Now, Perry may be dumb as a rock with 'Niggerhead' scrawled on it, but he ain't stupid, and he proved it while admitting to journalist John Harwood that all this birther talk is really just a distraction:

“I’m really not worried about the president’s birth certificate. It’s fun to poke at him a little bit, say, 'Hey, let’s see your grades and your birth certificate.'”

So he's pretty much laying it out that he knows the Birther thing is all bullshit, yet he stops short of admitting it's a load of crap for political expediency. But that's not all Perry's doing to remove the cement shoes from his feet after jumping into the GOP primary pool. Seeing the meteoric rise of fellow charlatan Herman Cain* the more he repeats his 999 Plan, Perry has decided to announce a tax reform plan of his own. A flat tax. But just one look at Perry's plan and anyone can tell it makes absolutely no sense.

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Perhaps if Perry repeated his plan as the "Flat, Flat, Flat Plan" it would catch on like Cain's.  And it would be easy for him to remember. The tax is flat. Like the earth if flat. And his head is flat.

Martin Bashir puts things in perspective:

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Sorry, Rick. The Birther ship sailed six months ago with the Donald Trump flameout. You should have been paying attention instead of eating popcorn while sitting in the front row of your latest Texas execution.
________________________
*This bears repeating: "The meteoric rise" of Herman. Fucking. Cain. Republican voters hate Mitt Romney so much, they'd prefer to live in Bizarro World with Herman Cain than actually have a legitimate shot at having a nominee who might give President Obama a little trouble.

Twitter Fight!

It would seem Donald Trump, out of nowhere, decided to take a shot at Lawrence O'Donnell via Twitter today. O'Donnell responded and the two went at it for a bit. Trump then backed away from going on The Last Word when asked to appear. Very funny read.



Also, if you read Trump's Twitter timeline, it reads like the rantings of a raving tinfoil hat lunatic. ...Amazing.

SURPRISE! Trump Not Running

And really, did you expect anything different?

CNN: "After considerable deliberation and reflection, I have decided not to pursue the office of the Presidency," Trump said in the statement.

The famously confident reality television star, who has spent the last few months openly considering a run for president said, "I maintain the strong conviction that if I were to run, I would be able to win the primary and ultimately, the general election."

And that's the way it's done. Declare victory even though you're not going to bother running. What a petty, petty man.

Hysterical!

This has been circulating the tubes today:

Kudos to whoever created it. If anyone knows where it originated, please let me know so I can give proper credit. I received it through email.

Fallon as Trump - The Bashing Continues

Classic!

"The fact is the President clearly coordinated this secret CIA mission, assassination and ensuing press conference specifically to cut off the end of my show, The Celebrity Apprentice. So basically, I killed Osama Bin Laden."

Seriously, Dude, Just Stop Digging

Trump: "Seth Meyers has no talent... He fell totally flat. In fact, I thought Seth's delivery was so bad that he hurt himself."

Via Political Wire

Hey Trump, Grow A Set

After weeks of interview after interview, questioning the citizenship of the President of the United States, calling it possibly "one of the greatest scams in history," and even flat out lying about having investigators in Hawaii following up on the birther conspiracy theory, Donald Trump showed how absolutely paper thin-skinned he is by his comments following being eaten alive at the White House Correspondents' Dinner last night.

Being booed upon his entrance to the venue outside the friendly confines of the Fox News/Right Wing bubble, Trump sat stern-faced and got schooled by the President and Seth Meyers. A guest of the Washington Post, Trump thought President Obama wouldn't mention him, but when you're an ignorant loud mouth and suggest the president's birthplace was somewhere other than America, and question his intelligence for the last two months, I suppose you'd be stupid enough to think that you're untouchable even when sitting in the same room with the President.

Back at home under the protective wings of Rupert Murdoch, Trump licked his wounds.

“You get to a certain level and you rise to a certain level, let’s say in this case in the polls and boy, does the world come after you,” Trump, a potential 2012 candidate, said on "Fox and Friends*" Sunday.

...“I really knew what I was getting into last night. I had no idea it would be to that extent where, you know just joke after joke after joke,” the mogul said. “It was almost like, is there anyone else they can talk about?”

...He also found the event “inappropriate in certain respects” and spent the evening thinking about how “the American people are really suffering and we’re all having a good time.”

First of all, no, you didn't know what you were getting into or else you wouldn't have predicted you wouldn't be mentioned. And secondly, are you that worried about "the American people suffering"? You didn't have to go, did you? I'm sure you don't enjoy your life because of the suffering of your fellow human beings in the country you love so much.

But seriously, what did you think of Seth Meyers, Donald?

“His (Meyers) delivery was not good. He’s a stutterer and he really was having a hard time,” Trump said of the “Saturday Night Live” star.

...Uh, huh. I suppose that's why Meyers got a rare standing ovation in this forum from the crowd. Because his delivery sucked. Or maybe you just didn't like the jokes at your expense. Just sayin'.

How soon do you think Trump was on the phone to NBC looking for a way to have Seth Meyers fired? And Donald, if you can't take a good ribbing from a "friendly" foe, what's going to happen once you start playing hardball with the big boys in the primaries? You know you'll actually need to know more than talking points during the debates, don't you? Oh wait... The Republican primaries. My mistake.

_________________________
* Fox and Friends is broadcast on Sundays as well?! Man, that's a whole lotta stupid on one channel.

White House Correspondents' Dinner 2011

My guess is that when Donald Trump sat down at this year's WHCD, he wasn't expecting to get roasted again. Seth Meyers did an outstanding job and destroyed, DESTROYED Donald Trump. President Obama was a lot of fun too. Always self-depricating when he needs to be, but he couldn't miss the opportunity to pound The Donald as well. Watch and enjoy.





Trump showed how much of a douche he actually is, sitting there seething, unable to laugh at himself for even a minute, and immediately bolting from the room as soon as the event was over. I suppose the truth really does hurt.