God Love Wonkette

This week's installment of Weekend Stock Photo Report

What'll They Think Of Next?

They may be wacko, but wacko is what makes 'em creative.

So Sir John of Orange has decided to sue Obama for - uhm - not sure for what exactly, but it doesn't matter cuz Obummer's not one of us so he must be up to no good somehow, and if we just keep pissing into the wind, we're bound to get sumpthin' important wet eventually.

Anyway, great idea, right?  This is USAmerica, Inc after all, and if you want somebody to stop doing something you don't want him to do; or you want him to start doing something he's not doing that you think he oughta be doing - sue the fucker.

Quick tho't: isn't it one of the basic tenets of "conservative thinking" that we should do everything possible to prohibit frivolous lawsuits?  Or is Tort Reform really just another instance of Repubs trying to recapture the glory days when The Law and The Courts and The Government were all reserved for the landed gentry?

BTW - "conservative thinking" - now there's an oxymoron for ya.

But let's consider what Ol' Doc Maddow pointed out for us on Thursday - that there's no process in place that makes it possible for The House of Representatives to sue The Prez over a dispute about some political or even legal point.

In order to make that happen, Boehner has to pass new legislation (something he has shown himself to be woefully inept at accomplishing); it then has to pass The Senate, and then Obama has to sign it into law.

Why are we paying these guys for this shit?

Warfare Queens And The Culture Of Defendency

Jon Stewart, makin' it look easy:


Jon Stewart 062614 by lookatmyshirt

It's All For Show

I'm with Tommy Jeff on this one.  Mr Jefferson disliked the notion of the Prez delivering a speech to Congress so much that he decided to send it in a letter instead. 112 years later, politicians started to realize the PR value of it all, and of course over the last 100 years, it's been allowed to degenerate into the usual and customary exercise in advertising and media manipulation.

From DecodeDC:

The Jig Is Up, Repubs

When Jon Stewart goes this far away from his usual centrist perch, something might be changing in a way that feels kinda significant.

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook

(hat tip = FB friend VWE)

Today's PSA

Of all the slick shit(*) the Repubs have shoveled at us about the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act, I think the one that's the most dishonest is how they talk about Obamacare as if it were a brand in itself.  It isn't.  If Obama hadn't folded like a fucking lawnchair on the Public Option, then maybe you could make that case - but he did so you can't so shut up already.

If you don't qualify for Medicare; and if you're not poor enough to be covered by your state's version of Medicaid; and if you don't wanna pay a fine; and if you want healthcare insurance, then you buy healthcare insurance from a healthcare insurance company.  That's the law - deal with it.



(*)
The abortion surcharge
Medicare as we know it will end
Death Panels (you don't really need a link on that one, do ya?)
Raiding Medicare for $716 Billion
Obamacare will cost twice the original estimate
Employers are dropping their coverage because of Obamacare
and on and on and on

Immigration

We hear all manner of blather about what "the immigration issue" does or will mean to this party and/or that candidate, but what about the people who're most likely to be impacted?

What about the 40 million immigrants (aka human-type people, regardless of their "status") who work and pay taxes and help move the whole thing forward?  Which means BTW, wow, look at that - they only wanna do their thing and be left alone, just like everybody else, so maybe "conservatives" could stop indulging in their High School Fuck Around Name-Calling and start acknowledging them as neighbors, even if they can't quite bring themselves to see them as equals (cuz, you know - what's the point of pretending we're in the Richie Rich Club if we can't shit on somebody and keep 'em out for no good reason).

Anyhoo - from Andrea Seabrooke's DecodeDC:



And as a fair example of how fucked up our political system is, look no further than Lindsay Graham (aka Huckleberry Closetcase).  Graham wants desperately to support Immigration Reform - partly because he's really not quite the same kinda complete asshole that his TeaBagger constituents seem to be, but also not just because he wants to be fair about it.  He knows the GOP has to start moving away from the basic Mitch McConnell approach of Block-Everything-Hate-Everybody-Stop-All-Progress-At-Any-Cost-Make-Gubmint-So-Rotten-The-Rubes-Will-Beg-For-Mercy.  The only reason they didn't get their asses totally handed to them in a soggy paper bag last November is that so many of the districts have been Gerrymandered that only a few of the seats in The House ever flip anymore - which of course allows us to maintain our illusion of Democracy for a while longer (but that's a different rant).

If Graham wants to "lead" on something like immigration, he first has to reassert his street cred by bashing Obama and screaming "Scandal" at every serviceable video camera.  It's a pretty simple trade-off.  You make a big stink about Benghazi and ObamaCare and the IRS etc (ie: you take every opportunity to stroke the Tea Peckers), and then it doesn't seem quite so bad when you vote in favor of letting the Brown Hordes overwhelm us and violate the Sacred American Maidenhead - or whatever the fuck the rubes are swallowing right at the moment.

So yeah - it's pretty fucked up.  And at the risk of sounding a little too Centrist, this is the game Obama plays too.  It's just that Obama and The Dems play it way more low-key and up-front, IMHO.  It seems far less likely (even for the "far left") for the Dems just to make shit up.  Facts are facts.  Good policy can't come from bullshit like Bible verses or Lord Monkton's "opinions" or the latest Alex Jones podcast about Weather Weapons or how SCOTUS was intimidated by Chicago-style thuggery into upholding ObamaCare or or or.

Get a fuckin' grip, rubes.

The Krugman's Graphs

A recession happens when Demand is low.  Krugman's been shouting in the wilderness for a long time that while the Deficit and the Debt are important - and will get to be moreso in time - we have to focus on continuing to boost Demand if we expect ever to get a chance to tackle any other problems.  

And BTW: the deficit is down significantly.  

And BTW also too: if you fix the Demand problem, then the Deficit problem kinda fixes itself; and once the Deficit problem is fixed, then the Debt problem practically evaporates before your very eyes.

That Guy In The Funny Hat

So there's lots of buzz about why The-Pope-Formerly-Known-As-Ratburger would just up and quit the sweetest gig in all of Christendom.

I'll give ya'll my take on it, right after you enjoy a picture of all the fucks I give about Popes and other power freaks who like to manipulate people by threatening them with the reprisals of their imaginary friends:

Before he became Pope Benedict 16, Cardinal Ratzinger was the Catholic Church's  Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (aka The Inquisition - and yes, that Inquisition).  He also took it onto himself to have all of those inconvenient reports of priestly child molesting referred to his office so they could be thoroughly investigated (ie: crushed, sprinkled in lime and then buried).  So lemme see - the guy who knows where all those bodies are buried and which closets contain which creepy skeletons; the guy who knows everything about every member of the church hierarchy; the guy who handled the scandals so well it only cost the church $2 Billion in settlement payments (so far, that we know of) - that's the guy who gets elected Pope because of his supremely holy goodness and his outstanding moral excellence.  Horse shit.

And now, he's having a tough time keeping up with the busy schedule of Church Royalty so he steps humbly aside, wanting to leave it to someone with more energy and better capability of withstanding the rigors blah blah blah.

If you buy any of that, I've got a stud mule you'll be interested in too.

Fugelsang has a more complete wrap-up:

When All Else Fails

...try some grandstanding.

I'm not a big Hillary fan.  I thought she was on her way to some really big things in the early 90s (and that still may be the case) - back when she was talking about "the politics of meaning", but then she lost her thread and started sounding like everybody else.  I think she's OK and I think it's really hard to make a case against her job performance at State (which is the main reason the Repubs are trying to make a case against her job performance at State btw).

Anyway, there's a rarified atmosphere in DC and they call it rarified for two reasons that I can see.  First, there's only so much attention (aka Political Air) to go around, and so everybody spends a lot of time and energy trying to muscle their way into the spotlight.  But mainly, it's pretty obvious the actual physical atmosphere must be really thin because the behavior of an awful lot of these people is more easily understood if it's a fairly simple matter of their brain cells not getting enough oxygen.

Rand Paul, for example:



In what world does President Rand Paul even consider appointing Clinton SecState?

But really - in what world does America lose it's fucking mind completely and elect Rand Paul president?

Just Wonderin'

The Fiscal Cliff is supposed to be this terrible horrible thing that threatens everything from the lives of our grandparents and/or our grandchildren, and our neighbors and all of our house pets, and basically the very fiber of our all-American being.  It's the worst thing that could ever happen ever.

And the reason it's so awful is that is cuts way back on both revenues and on spending, which somehow coincides almost perfectly with the opposing viewpoints of Dems vs Repubs. I guess that in itself isn't particularly hard to see, but what exactly is it that "going over The Fiscal Cliff" actually means?  What overarching policy does it represent?

Can you say "austerity"?  I knew you could.

So we have one party screaming (as usual) about the need to rein in the gubmint, and impose some real limits on spending - a little austerity, if you will - at the same time it's warning us that we better make a deal that favors their ideology cuz we really don't wanna fuck up the economy with all that austerity stuff.

When do we get some real leaders who aren't constantly taking hostages and trying to terrorize us into doing things that ultimately fuck us over?

That Tax Cut Thing

Don't like the message?  Make it disappear and then slam the messenger.

Addicting Info:

On September 14th, the Congressional Research Service published their long anticipated study on the correlation between the tax rates and economic growth from 1945 to today. If you go to their website today, however, the report is mysteriously missing.

Before it vanished, the New York Times downloaded a copy, which they now offer on their website. When you read the report, the reason for the pull might be as simple as what the report discovered.

Unconfirmed

..but of course, we can run with it because of the rule: "Significant If True".

So eat it, Repubs.  You wanna make shit up about Obama, then you can bloody well expect to get it back.

The Mustache Of Understanding

Tom Friedman used to be a pretty decent writer who had decent ideas and a decent regard for what goes in the world.  The only decent thing about him these days is that he's still a decent writer - or more accurately: he can put words together in a way that makes a point and makes it fairly easy to understand the point.

Here he is trying desperately to keep us from realizing how culpable he is for having contributed mightily to the steaming pile of crap that is Centrism, while not working nearly hard enough to keep the Repubs from losing their minds completely.

HARD-LINE conservatives have gone to new extremes lately in opposing abortion. Last week, Richard Mourdock, the Tea Party-backed Republican Senate candidate in Indiana, declared during a debate that he was against abortion even in the event of rape because after much thought he “came to realize that life is that gift from God. And even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.” That came on the heels of the Tea Party-backed Republican Representative Joe Walsh of Illinois saying after a recent debate that he opposed abortion even in cases where the life of the mother is in danger, because “with modern technology and science, you can’t find one instance” in which a woman would not survive without an abortion. “Health of the mother has become a tool for abortions anytime, for any reason,” Walsh said.

He goes on with some pretty cookie-cutter verbiage (that most middle schoolers could come up with), pointing out that wearing the "pro-life" badge is inconsistent with a position that isn't also in favor of gun control (eg), etc.

So it's nice to see Friedman with his head somewhere other than up his own ass for a change, but I have to wonder why he waited until now to start writing about the extreme positions being staked out by an increasing number of Repubs.

Maybe he finally senses a certain change in how most Americans think about such things. Or maybe he senses a certain change in how more and more of his readers are getting hip to the fact that he's a billionaire know-nothing who tripped and fell into a river of cash, and who now needs us to forget he's actually a douche bag shill for Corporate Media.

I dunno - but he's doing nothing so much as he's playing the very old game of "discovering" an issue and standing in front of it, hoping we'll be fooled into thinking he's leading us in some way.

Fuck him - don't get stupid and hit him; and don't throw shit at his head, but if you see this dick in a bar somewhere, do us all a solid and spit in his drink.

Out On A Limb

I have to admit I've been a little intrigued by what Lil Donny Trump's October Surprise could possibly turn out to be.  But then, along comes Gloria Allred and it's very possible that I can make a solid connection, and a prediction with a fair probability of being right.

First, the leading speculation seems to be that Trump has "uncovered" some "evidence" indicating that Barack and Michelle Obama were like all set to file divorce papers back in 2001 or whatever.  So this is not a big deal in any meaningful way except as a political tool.  Did the Obamas get a divorce?  No.  Did they move beyond some kind of preliminary filing?  Apparently not cuz they're like y'know, still married.  Does any of that shit matter?  Yes - but only if you think I should be in jail because I've tho't about kicking Donald Trump in the nuts; or that Tagg Romney should be in a cell at Gitmo for saying he wanted to take a swing at Obama.

Enter Ms Allred, who is helping out Maureen Stemberg Sullivan in her divorce efforts against Tom Stemberg (founder of Staples).  It seems ol' Willard gave sworn testimony in the divorce proceeding, and that his statements were sealed, and that The Boston Globe has petitioned the court to unseal them for all to see and enjoy.

Could there be anything in the testimony that's bad for Willard?  Well, what if his statements were to the effect that Staples wasn't as profitable as WIllard was telling his investors?  What if he kinda fudged it all - just a little - so his buddy Tom could kinda fuck his soon-to-be ex-wife out of a nice big chunk of settlement money?  And it doesn't have to be anything all that horrible.  If the story is that Romney did anything but stand up and champion Mrs Stemberg's cause, you can bet Benjamins to Baby Wipes he'll come off looking like a paternalistic wife-beater to lots of women voters.

So in rides The Donald to make a pre-emptive strike that works to show Obama in the same light.  On the one side, you've got Romney + Divorce, and on the other side, you've got Obama + Divorce.  Simple equation.  Both sides do it.  Both sides are exactly the same.  Nothing to see here, nothing to think about.  It's all even - go back to sleep.

Ya heard it here.

Advantage: White Guy

Louis CK on Being White.



From a piece about the myth of voter fraud by Andrew Cohen in The Atlantic:

Last week, as one federal judge after another struck down these new measures, as one court after another called out Republican lawmakers for the lack of evidence supporting the push to stop "voter fraud," it dawned on me that this national debate suffers, as so many do these days, from a lack of a common starting point. There is so much fear. There is so much ignorance. There is so much exaggeration. Here are six of the most frequent comments I get when I write about voting rights followed by my attempts at a few answers that perhaps can get us talking about this in a more productive way.

The Myths:

• We need these new voter ID laws to stop voter fraud
• We need these new voter ID laws to stop illegal immigrants from voting
• The new voter laws do not create substantial burdens on registered voters
• The new Republican voter laws are the results of reasonable compromises between and among state legislators
• There are many restrictions upon the right to vote -- what's so vital about another such restriction?
• Burdening the rights of voters to cast their ballots is not the same as disenfranchising voters

In the end, Voter ID is just not fair - and fairness is one of things American Exceptionalism is really about.

And, oh yeah - I almost forgot.  When voting is outlawed, only outlaws will vote.

Paulie Boy, We Hardly Know Ye

From The Atlantic:

...Ryan is both a product of and poster boy for the political city. And it is symptom of the corruption and divisiveness of contemporary Washington that a man who has not passed a single piece of substantive legislation, ever, can be hailed as a substantive and deep thinker and the voice of budgetary sanity while racking up an actual record consisting overwhelmingly of renaming post offices, honoring Ronald Reagan and Wisconsin, providing for the issuance of commemorative coins, and increasing the deficit through massive tax cuts.

And guess, what - it won't matter that Ryan is a phony; that his record is a phony.  He's the empty suit that the RNC puppet masters are looking for - a guy with just enough function in his being to sign his name to laws that get written by lobbyists, negotiated by industry shills planted on congressional staffs, and sold to us by advertising paid for by the anonymous campaign donors who will benefit most from the law itself, while "elections" are little more than the kind of corporate meeting where management says they're inviting our valuable input but are really just opportunities for us to agree with decisions that have already been made.

Welcome back to the 18th century.

It's A Wonderment

Ever stop to think why Repubs are always trying to cut the funding necessary for the CDC to study Gun Violence as a Public Health issue?

...because the NRA is lying - all the fucking time.

Connections

Before the crash in 2008-2009, I remember coming across certain stories of how the US economy was doing - how different states were faring in "America's Lost Decade" - and it seemed like I often saw Utah highlighted on the charts and graphs and maps and stuff - and I couldn't help but wonder what's up widdat?  What's so great about what they're doing in Utah; or how they're doin' it?

Then, today, I stumble across this piece of "loonie leftie" news at Democracy Now, and I can finally stop wondering.

My revelation came at about the 30:00 mark when they were talking more about massive federal spending ($1.3 - 1.5 Billion) on none other than Willard's Wonderland, aka: 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

(hat tip = Crooks and Liars)



What is it about investing our tax dollars in the economic infrastructure that we just can't figure out?  And what is it about the lyin' sacks of shit "on the right" that we refuse to recognize?

A Real Comparison(?)

Sometimes I have a kind of Love/Hate relationship with myself.  Especially when I do shit like this.  It feels like I'm goin' along with the crap I absolutely loathe about our current state of "debate".

That said, how am I supposed to resist an opportunity like this?

Let's see if we can spot some tiny hint as to the difference in the work ethic of our major party candidates this time around.