Today's Wingnut Media Bite

Ben Shapiro (of the epic fail "Friends of Hamas" incident) runs this:

...which leads Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs to ponder: "I think young Ben is honestly intimidated. Cowed, even. His dissent is being chilled. You can tell by the giant 73-pixel all-caps screaming headline."

That's the game these deep-fried-guano-for-brains-whiney-butt pussies play all the time.  Shapiro is so intimidated; Obama has everybody so flummoxed and shivery that...what, exactly?  If they weren't so afraid - so intimidated - they'd do something more than run their horseshit headlines in the eleventy-seven point fonts they're using now?  Like what?  What're they calling on people to do?

And when might we expect the Press Poodles to fucking call 'em on this?

A Certain Lesson

Totally unfettered Free Market Capitalism at it's finest:

A California doctor who duped patients out of more than $1 million after claiming her herbal supplements could cure cancer has been jailed for 14 years.

Christine Daniel charged patients up to $100,000 for six months of treatment, which she claimed could also cure diabetes and multiple sclerosis.

'Daniel robbed victims of more than money – she also stole their hopes and dreams for a cure,' U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. said after the doctor was sentenced.

A little interference from an oppressive gubmint might've come in right handy for somebody like Paula Middlebrooks.  The good doctor charged her $60,000 for "treatment" with a concoction consisting mainly of Beef Flavoring Extract and a Sunscreen Preservative.  And then, not long after "Dr" Daniel triumphantly declared she'd been cured, Middlebrooks died - her breast cancer having spread through her body unchecked.

Christine Daniel doesn't get any more paydays for ruining any more lives - not for the 15 years of her prison sentence anyway.  But what stopped her was the criminal justice system.  It wasn't the market; it wasn't the invisible hand; and it sure as fuck wasn't Angie's List.

Today's Pix

Louie The Loon

'Cuz some of 'em really are just that dumb, I give you the incomparable Mr Louie Gohmert (R-Wackysburg TX).

(at about 3:30..."cast aspersions on my asparagus") hat tip = Crooks & Liars

Beat The Press

Fitch The Homeless

"Where is - like - the Douchebag Section?"

High Calorie Content Warning

...because this is just too damned sweet.

BP wants Prime Minister David Cameron to intervene over the escalating cost of compensating US companies for the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster in 2010.
BBC business editor Robert Peston has learned that BP feels its financial recovery is in jeopardy because the compensation system is being abused.

The financial burden of paying fictitious and inflated claims may even make BP a takeover target, it fears.

BP hopes Mr Cameron will raise the issue with the US government.

BP shits on EPA every chance they get, and then they stiff-arm every government agency trying to help with Deepwater Horizon, but now that they're being held to account for their fuckup, they go cryin' to Parliament to save their asses.

Meanwhile, back in the boardrooms of Big US Oil - those guys are (probably) using every nickel in the Government Affairs budget to get Local, State and Federal agencies to keep the pressure on BP, and it shouldn't surprise anybody if it turns out (eg) Exxon's lending a bit of a hand directly to squeeze a few extra bucks out of BP "for the good of our hard-working local independent job-creatin' small business owners".  Of course they do that kind of thing quietly and very carefully.

They're happy to get some Gubmint Assistance in order to fuck over a competitor and improve their market position, but they have to be careful not to disturb the rubes - above all else, they must never upset the delicate framing of "government is always bad except when it serves the interests of Business".

("and in cases like this, we're gonna let you pretend you're one of us").

And let's also not ignore the fairly obvious Tort Reform angle to all of this as well.

hat tip = Democratic Underground

The KrugMan Speaks

Outlook: a bit less than bleak.

Paul Krugman on the new CBO report on our Debt-Crisis-That-Isn't-Really-Real:

Why, it’s almost as if the real goal was to make sure that benefits get cut even if the fiscal outlook improves.

Meanwhile, our policy discourse has been dominated for years by what turns out to be a false alarm. To the millions of Americans who are out of work and may never get another job thanks to premature fiscal austerity, the VSPs would like to say, “oopsies!”

So let's review.  Here's a partial list of what the Serious Thinkers in the GOP have been telling us for what's getting to be a very long time:

• Tax revenues will go up if we cut taxes.
• Spending will go up if we cut back on spending.
• Getting a stimulus effect of $.60 per dollar in tax cuts is better than getting a stimulus effect of $1.10 per dollar of Federal spending.
• Cutting future Soc Sec benefits now is how we prevent cutting Soc Sec benefits in the future.

Hit the fuckers again, Dr K.  Lookin' good.

Honesty

It's Always Something

Everything costs something.