Sunday, March 31, 2013

Judicial temperment

This guy should be benched from the bench, permanently.

Jesus.

Comment from the tangerine section

Has a sad:

“Congressman Young’s remarks were offensive and beneath the dignity of the office he holds," Boehner said in a statement. "I don’t care why he said it – there’s no excuse and it warrants an immediate apology.”

Boehner then teared up at the thought of a 58-year old billionaire signing a pre-nup to marry his 26-year old trophy wife.

Disturbing

And in gun country too:

Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife Cynthia were found shot to death inside their Forney home Saturday, nearly two months to the day after his top assistant was gunned down on his way to work earlier this year.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Have to admit

I'm starting to like Jim Carrey.

Jim Carrey has some harsh words for Fox News. Carrey released a statement on Friday blasting the conservative news network as "a media colostomy bag that has begun to burst at the seams."

Just don't make me watch Ace Ventura.

Hey, everybody needs a day off once in a while

And it's free HBO weekend here and I need to catch up on "Girls".

Friday, March 29, 2013

I'm just gonna believe what talk radio tells me

The Robed Troll:

It turns out Scalia’s comment was wronger than I thought — and wrong in a way that Scalia, in particular, should have known.

It relied, remember, on the idea that sociologists are, in some significant way, split on this question. That’s not what the American Association of Sociologists thinks. Here’s its official statement on the matter:
The claim that same-sex parents produce less positive child outcomes than opposite-sex parents—either because such families lack both a male and female parent or because both parents are not the biological parents of their children—contradicts abundant social science research. Decades of methodologically sound social science research, especially multiple nationally representative studies and the expert evidence introduced in the district courts below, confirm that positive child wellbeing is the product of stability in the relationship between the two parents, stability in the relationship between the parents and child, and greater parental socioeconomic resources. Whether a child is raised by same-sex or opposite-sex parents has no bearing on a child’s wellbeing.

The clear and consistent consensus in the social science profession is that across a wide range of indicators, children fare just as well when they are raised by same-sex parents when compared to children raised by opposite-sex parents.
Pretty definitive. And here’s the punchline: That paragraph isn’t buried in a press release on its blog or in an editorial from its trade magazine. It’s from the amicus curiae brief that the ASA filed in the very case Scalia was commenting on.

Although I do have to ponder to Ezra Klein the author..."wronger"?   Really?

Yeah, that will really make people of color flock to the Republican cause

I mean, so open and tolerant and wishing they'd put "Amos & Andy" back on the air.

Addressing the United States' jobs situation in a radio interview with KRBD-FM, Young admitted that technology has impacted the market...

 “My father had a ranch; we used to have 50-60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes,” Young said. “It takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It’s all done by machine.”

Mississippi on the Prairie

Actually they may be worse.


Kansas Bill Seeks To Quarantine HIV-Positive People

"...but not for me"

Louie Gohmert one of several Republican Congress persons in the running for dumbest asshole alive has been pretty busy the last couple years.

He has called for the impeaching of...

1.  President Obama for advocating an assault weapons ban.
2.  Supreme Court Justice Elaine Kagan over health care reform.
3.  Every Democrat born or dead should be impeached over Benghazi.

So Louie is a bit of a none-trick pony.

I'm sure he is respectful of the law for himself though.
Shortly after 11 p.m. on March 13, officers wrote Rep. Louie Gohmert a citation for parking his black Ford SUV in a spot reserved for National Park Service vehicles, according to a Park Police report obtained by POLITICO.

But Gohmert wasn’t having it: He told the Park Police that his congressional parking placard allows him to park in that spot, and he’s on the committee that oversees the agency.

Gohmert took the ticket off his windshield and placed it on a police car along with his business card with a written message: “Oversight of Park Service is my job! Natural Resources Thus the Congressional Plate in window.”
He was “rude and irate,” one officer reported. Another wrote that Gohmert was “ranting.”
I'm sure it's all a plot of those dastardly liberals.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Too damn dumb to be in this position

Ugh:

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday reacted incredulously to the notion that members of the Senate or the U.S. president may have been motivated to pass the Defense of Marriage Act by animus or moral objection to gay and lesbian couples. It was a window into his apparent belief that the U.S. is simply not a place burdened by such things as bigotry or racism.

The dangers of appointing justices who have NEVER actually lived among the rest of us.

Obviously the problem is illegal immi....WARGLE BARGLE!!!!

Oh dear, there goes a meme:

Who are the drug smugglers running illicit contraband across the US-Mexico border? According to a new study of by the Center for Investigative Reporting, they're mostly Americans. 

CIR combed arrest records surrounding over 80,000 drug seizures from 2005 to 2011 and found that a full 80 percent of the arrests in which there was data available involved at least one American citizen.

Truly bringing out the intellectual firepower now

Over the years National Review has regularly rolled out really powerful arguments such as "We must defend the Southern Way of Life"; "White Men Only"; "I Dream of a Shirtless Mitt Romney"; "I'm too busy to understand what I say?"; "Why are the pages of my GOP Platform Sticking Together?" and, of course, "Beyond Thunderdome".

But none may ever match the glory of Kathryn Lopez's plan to eliminate the need for gay marriage:

...arguments for redefining marriage frequently hinge on questions of government benefits to same-sex couples. But more sensible solutions are possible. As this case shows, society can remove this burden without rushing to abolish marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

The Heritage Foundation has argued for eliminating the estate tax, popularly called the “death tax,” for more than fifteen years. In an influential 1996 report, Heritage argued that such reform was in line with the American dream and sense of justice. Tax law should not discourage savings and investment, nor punish hard work and thrift. Nor should it encourage Americans to consume now in order to avoid passing on wealth to loved ones because they would be taxed.
Yeah, that's what this question is all about...not love or equal rights for all...but lower taxes for rich people.

Thanks, Ms. Lopez, you truly understand...well, nothing.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The power of not being able to add

Who could (not) have predicted Michele Bachmann would end up having major ethical problems.

My favorite involves the pending case in my State:

Bills are piling up in an Iowa court case, Heki v. Bachmann, filed by another former Bachmann staffer, Barb Heki. That suit alleges that onetime state campaign chairman and state Senator Sorenson stole from her—and then used with the candidate’s knowledge—an email list of Christian homeschool families in Iowa. Heki’s accusation has been backed by a sworn affidavit by former campaign staffer Eric Woolson, who had also been named in the suit, though charges against him were dropped after he submitted his affidavit.


Sorenson told Politico that the alleged theft “absolutely did not happen,” while Jeff Goodman, a lawyer representing the Bachmann campaign, has said his clients "vigorously deny the substantive allegations and claims against them."
Separately, the Urbandale Police Department in Iowa has conducted its own investigation into the theft of that list, and the Iowa Senate Ethics Committee had been probing the actions of Sorenson for allegedly taking “under-the-table payments” from her campaign, according to Waldron, the former Bachmann staffer who filed the initial complaint. In a written response to the committee, Sorenson has “vehemently denied any wrongdoing as alleged.” (That investigation has been put on hold until the criminal investigation is complete.) Ironically, when Sorenson defected to Ron Paul’s campaign days before the Iowa caucus, Bachmann herself publically charged that the influential state senator had told her that he’d been “offered a large amount of money” to shift his allegiance.

Don't call it slavery

Call it "Austerity Services":

(AP) — In rain and shrieking wind, the ferry strains at its ropes, the gangplank creaking and scraping against the pier. A sailor on night watch duty huddles over a portable heater at the entrance to the cavernous hull.

For seven months, often under harsh winter conditions, Giorgos Polilogidis has waited for one thing: a paycheck.

A seasoned veteran of the seas, Polilogidis is among hundreds of sailors, mechanics, stewards and others who work on Greek ferries and, according to seamen's unions, have been going unpaid for months at a time.

Robed Troll

One does wonder what form of bullshit will spew forth from the Antonin Scalia this morning?

After all he's been uttering homophobic statements for years.   And today, in a case involving the Constitutionality of the DOMA he's looking at his second straight day of having to deal with the issue.

Yesterday, Scalia's ignorance of science in favor of talk radio was on display on the issue of same-sex couples adopting.


Yet the liveliest moments came when Scalia asked Ted Olson, President George W. Bush's solicitor general and the lawyer for the two same-sex couples challenging Prop 8, "When did it become unconstitutional to exclude homosexual couples from marriage? 1791 [when the Bill of Rights was ratified]? 1868, when the 14th Amendment was adopted?"

Olson pushed back against Scalia's originalist view, asking him in return, "When did it become unconstitutional to prohibit interracial marriages?"
Scalia, of course, asks this question because he's looking for a reason to not finding in favor of same-sex marriage.   But Olson's response irritated Scalia -- because it sucks to have the fallacy of your twisted logic exposed so easily.

I predict today, there's going to be an explosion of offensive statements from the Robed Troll.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]


Tuesday, March 26, 2013

No small irony

North Dakota, America's trend setter for, well, no one, passed the nation's most restrictive law on abortion this week, essentially taking its protection as close to the moment of conception as they could.

Even many Republicans are outraged.

Listen, I've been to North Dakota, I even lived there for a brief period of time.

I think it is debatable there IS life there in any respect.

Try driving between Fargo and Minot and you will agree.

Self-awareness watch

Rush Limbaugh called a group of people "fat, substance abusers".

 

Irony still valiantly determined to remain dead

It couldn't have taken this anyway.

George W. Bush Presidential Library Set To Open May 1 

Pretty bold of Bush to think he'll stay within the lines in all three of those "The Pet Goat: Coloring Books.

30 years on...

Today the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments in which they will determine whether California Proposition 8 banning same sex marriage is Constitutional.

For the Court to be deciding this question, versus the question they were asking in 1986 in the case of Bowers v. Hardwick and the decision they rendered is telling in how society has changed.

Bowers was a case in which the Court upheld the State of Georgia's sodomy law. Justice White (the Roger Taney of this issue, as opposed to Scalia who is just the modern James McReynolds of everything) wrote of the right of gay men to have consensual sex:
...if respondent's submission is limited to the voluntary sexual conduct between consenting adults, it would be difficult, except by fiat, to limit the claimed right to homosexual conduct while leaving exposed to prosecution adultery, incest, and other sexual crimes even though they are committed in the home. We are unwilling to start down that road.
Rick Santorum could not have expressed it any better (i.e. worse).  The Court took fifteen years to reverse this travesty.

And now, nearly thirty years later, the question has progressed to this point. No thanks to the Supreme Court.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Monday, March 25, 2013

Journaminimalism!

Fred Hiatt man on a mission:
The Washington Post killed my assigned piece for its Outlook section this weekend which mainly covered media failures re: Iraq and the current refusal to come to grips with that (the subject of my latest book)--yet they ran this misleading, cherry-picking, piece by Paul Farhi claiming the media "didn't fail." I love the line about the Post in March 2003 carrying some skeptical pieces just days before the war started: "Perhaps it was too late by then. But this doesn’t sound like failure."
Maybe Hiatt can appear on a blogger ethics panel with these NBC folks?
For the past several days, The Today Show has been hyping an "exclusive interview" with Jerry Sandusky set to air Monday morning. In this interview, The Today Show says, the convicted child rapist will "speak out for the first time since he went to prison." Sounds like NBC landed a(n ethically questionable) scoop right? Not so much, except for the ethically questionable part. Instead of interviewing Sandusky themselves, NBC is instead airing an excerpt of conservative filmmaker John Ziegler's documentary, The Framing of Joe Paterno.

Ziegler, perhaps best known for his David Foster Wallace-documented career as a radio talk show host and his conspiratorial documentaries Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted and Blocking the Path to 9/11, has long been critical of how the press covered the Sandusky case. In July 2012, he published a 4,800 word screed attacking the media's coverage of former Penn State Coach Joe Paterno in which he acknowledges Sandusky "engaged in illegal behavior" but also asserts his opinion that witness Mike McQueary saw "botched 'grooming'" in Penn State's shower and not a sexual assault.
"Botched grooming?"

Ugh.

The times they are a changin'

Last year two football players, a long-time special team player from the Ravens Brendon Ayanbadejo and Vikings Punter Chris Kluwe came out for same-sex marriage. The President publicly supported it at about the same time. Then the public came out in support. And now more football players. Even Karl Rove reads the tea-leaves, something that Teapartiers cannot do. Pretty soon it is going to be just Sara Palin and Chick-Fil-A.

It's been 10 years...let's celebrate with some crazy ass shit!

Mike Rogers, Congressman from Michigan is throwing out bullshit about Syria in the hopes of gettin' this country another Operation Clusterfuck.


"You can't do that, that's our act!"

The NRA has so far been successfully battling the expansion of background checks on all weapons sales in spite of the fact that 85 percent of the American public support them.

Of course this may have coincided with the disappearance of Wayne LaPierre who made a comeback yesterday.

And what was LaPierre agitated about this time?

The head of the National Rifle Association (NRA) slammed New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) on Sunday, accusing him of trying to “buy America” by spending $12 million on a massive advertising campaign advocating for stricter gun laws.
“He's going to find out this is a country of the people, by the people, and for the people,” said NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Okay, first of all, the fact that ANY gun control interest is spending money against the NRA is itself news.

Second, “He's going to find out this is a country of the people, by the people, and for the people"?
Uh, about that first sentence of this post?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Sunday, March 24, 2013

The Joke

Digby digs up a nugget (I've seen it referred to previously) when Tucker Carlson had this to say about David Vitter's diaper-fetish:

CARLSON: I wish David Vitter were a Democrat. I wish he were a liberal Democrat. I wish he were Russ Feingold, because then I would defend him every bit as zealously as I am defending not what David Vitter did, but his right to be unbothered by the rest of us for something that`s none of our business.

There are no hobgoblins in that little mind.

Meanwhile

Small victories in an age of larger stupid defeats.

Gun stores in areas that Comcast Cable serves are looking for new ways to advertise after the cable provider said it would not accept firearm and ammunition commercials.

Sums it up

Bill Maher via Daily Kos:


Now, a recent study found that politicians in both parties consistently thought that their constituents were much more conservative than they actually were.  And that's because there's a relatively small group of very shrill people devoted to — and succeeding at — convincing us that this is a much more conservative and religious nation than it is.  (audience applause)

Americans, for example, don't hate socialism.  They just can't define it.  Even though it's kind of right in the name "Social Security".  Kinda right in the name.  Which even Tea Partiers do not want to cut.

Same thing with Obamacare.  As an idea, it's unpopular.  But ask voters about the elements in it, they're all very popular.  It's like saying, "I hate pizza!  I love tomato sauce and melted cheese on dough, but pizza?  I hate that shit."

Meanwhile, time to give Tucker Carlson EVEN more attention.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Integritude!

Oh Tucker Carlson, must you fail so spectacularly at everything?


A top Dominican law enforcement official said Friday that a local lawyer has reported being paid by someone claiming to work for the conservative Web site the Daily Caller to find prostitutes who would lie and say they had sex for money with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.). The lawyer told Dominican investigators that a foreign man, who identified himself as “Carlos,” had offered him $5,000 to find and pay women in the Caribbean nation willing to make the claims about Menendez, according to Jose Antonio Polanco, district attorney for the La Romana region, where the investigation is being conducted. The Daily Caller issued a statement Friday saying that the information allegedly provided by the Dominican lawyer, Melanio Figueroa, was false.
Which, of course, contrasts with their original story which they claimed was "totally true".

How many times have Republicans leaked classified info now?

I blame Benghazi!

Rep. Peter King's (R-N.Y.) public thanks to Jordan this month for helping capture Osama bin Laden's son-in-law has upset a delicate U.S. government agreement to keep Jordan's role in the operation secret, U.S. officials told The Huffington Post.

Friday, March 22, 2013

Yep

From Yoko Ono.

Good

Did you know that outside of the Presidency, Congress, and the Supreme Court the ONLY mandated government entity in the Constitution is the Postal Service (I may be wrong, how should I know all the Constitution, I'm just a lawyer?)?

Well, that's what makes the Republicans (the same clowns who think you should be assigned a .38 with your birth certificate [short form only] efforts to kill the Postal Service even more galling.

Part of this effort was the mandate the Postal Service report its pension and medical benefit obligations in a way no business would, turning the service into an apparent huge money loser -- to the point the USPS wishes to cancel Saturday mail delivery.

Thereby making you get yet another lesser government benefit by gaming the system.

Well about that.

The U.S. Postal Service must deliver the mail six days a week, said Congress' watchdog arm in a Thursday legal opinion.

The legal opinion from the nonpartisan agency throws new questions on the Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe's plans to stop delivering first-class mail, but keep delivering packages and express mail on Saturdays. 

The U.S. Government Accountability Office stopped short of saying the U.S. Postal Service's August plan to end most Saturday mail service violates current law.
The U.S. Postal Service says it's not ending six-day delivery, only changing it, since it'll still deliver packages on Saturdays. 

However, GAO's report could make it easier to file a lawsuit to stop the U.S. Postal Service, if it decides to continue with service cuts as previously announced.

Rooting for underdogs?

The best part of the NCAA Basketball tournament (20 years without filling out a bracket, boo yah!) is rooting for the underdog -- but Harvard?

No thanks.

How'd that work out for you?

No one proclaimed the "age of Austerity" louder than the Tories of Britain and their Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.

Three and a half years ago when the Tory coalition put Osborne in charge he proclaimed loudly:

He gave warning that failure to bring down the £175billion deficit quickly would threaten Britain’s future prosperity. 

“You cannot have a sustained recovery until you show the world that Britain can pay its way. And let me tell you, the world is watching Britain at the moment,” he said.

Three and a half years later, the UK is in a triple-dip recession.

What's more all this austerity to bring down the budget has resulted in this:

 In last year’s budget, Osborne predicted that government debt would peak at 76% of GDP in fiscal year 2014/15; but this week, despite (or because of) another year of Draconian tax increases and spending cuts, he has projected the government’s debt burden to keep rising for a further two years, to 86% in 2016/17. Contrast this with the U.S. budgetary experience, where the debt ratio has already stabilized near Osborne’s original 76% target, despite (or because of)  the Republicans’ refusal to raise taxes and the Democrats’ refusal to cut spending on anything like the British scale.
Shhhh....don't tell anybody in the beltway the debt has stabilized, they'll look at you like a crazy and unserious person.

And in the wake of all this incredible non-success it became apparent this week that George Osborne is abandoning his policies, he just doesn't want to say it yet.

Instead of trying to reduce borrowing any further or aiming for a balanced budget, as it originally promised, the British government has now accepted that deficits will keep rising in absolute terms and will still be worth 6% of GDP by the next election in 2015. That would leave Britain with by far the highest deficit ratio among the major economies after five years of unprecedented austerity. Meanwhile the U.S., with comparatively little fiscal effort, is projected to reduce its deficit to just 2.4% by 2015.

Enjoy getting booed George.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Whoopsy? Well, Fuck you!

David Ignatius another in a series of war enablers who comes forth to "apologize" for his cheerleading of Operation Clusterfuck naturally has to undermine it by this concluding paragraph:

A final lesson is the benefit of persistence. Bush made a disastrous mistake invading Iraq in 2003. But having busted up the country, he tried his best to clean up the mess. By checking the spiraling sectarian killing, the surge of U.S. troops led by Bush and Gen. David Petraeus saved thousands of Iraqi lives. It’s one thing Americans did right in this painful story.

You can, if you can stomach it, note that in the preceding paragraphs of his article Ignatius talks about all the strategic errors, but until that last paragraph NEVER discusses ALL OF THE DEATH Bush's Iraq disaster caused.  And even in that last paragraph it's not about deaths, it's about "lives saved".   Fucking Hell!

Those "thousands of lives" saved ONLY needed saving because we had already caused events which led to the deaths of tens if not hundreds of thousands.

It's a bit like having a guy shoot the mother, father, and two children in the family, but decide they won't shoot the last surviving child so thanks for being really really horrible, but not really really really horrible.

Oh and the premise of the last paragraph is, like Ignatius THROUGHOUT the build up and then the occupation, WRONG!  As his Washington Post colleague  Rajiv Chandrasekaran wrote just a few days ago -- maybe Ignatius should read it?

I imagine 50 years ago

We could easily mildly edit conservative Georgian Saxby Chambliss' position opposing gay marriage as it would have appeared then.

"I'm not [black]. So I'm not going to marry one"

Or the classics in a language he'd find comforting:

 
Ich bin kein Jude. Also werde ich nicht man eine heiraten

Obviously put there years ago by prepubescent Kenyan communist/terrorist/fascists/black pather lovin' Barry Obama as part of his plan to fake Moon Landing and birth certificate on way to White House!!!!!!

Wargle Bargle aaaaarrrrrghhhhhh:

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' eponymous Bezos Expeditions has successfully recovered F-1 rocket engines – used during the Apollo missions – from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.

I think there are a few categories

In the DSM-IV that Michelle Shocked probably fits into.

Not as many as Cheney or Rumsfeld, but quite a few.

George W. Bush

Is a shitty painter.




Just like Hitler.*



*From the Bureau of Tired Jokes.

Good ol' Rupert

Roger Ailes likes to talk a lot of trash about people, especially Democrats.   Ailes also has no compunction about going after anyone who deigns criticize him -- a trait his employees share.

But Ailes will not say one peep about the fact his boss may or may not run a criminal enterprise, he just employs a lot of people who become criminals.
Geoff Webster, the deputy editor of the Sun, has been charged over alleged criminal offences relating to payments of £8,000 to two public officials.
 Webster was charged on Wednesday with two counts of conspiring to commit misconduct in public office during 2010 and 2011.

"The first offence relates to allegations that Mr Webster, between July 2010 and August 2011, authorised payments totalling £6,500 for information supplied by a public official to one of his journalists," the Crown Prosecution Service said.

It seems a common habit of Murdoch's British properties, and his Australian ones.

I'm sure his American properties are therefore squeaky clean.

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Real hombre de genio

They sure hire the best and the brightest at FoxNews:

Fox's Bolling: Iraq War Was "The Smartest Thing George Bush Did, He Restored Confidence In America"

"Those aren't real people, they don't live within the Beltway"

See media ignore, ignore media ignore.

As many have pointed out, the House progressive budget — which calls for substantial new spending to create jobs and defers deficit reduction until later — has been almost entirely marginalized from the Washington conversation. Instead, the outer ideological poles of the debate have been defined by the budget from Senate Dems, which contains as much in spending cuts as it does in new revenues — and a tiny fraction of stimulus spending as an afterthought — and the Paul Ryan budget, which purports to rapidly slash the deficit only through huge spending cuts and contains nothing in new revenues or spending.

In this context, it’s interesting that a new Gallup poll finds that public support for new federal spending to create jobs is simply overwhelming. Large majorities — and even majorities of Republicans — back the jobs creation policies Obama proposed in 2011 and renewed in this year’s State of the Union Speech:

* 72 percent support a “federal government program that would spend government money to put people to work on urgent infrastructure repairs.” This is also backed by 71 percent of independents and 53 percent of Republicans.

* 72 percent support a “federal jobs creation law that would spend government money for a program designed to create more than 1 million new jobs.” This is backed by 69 percent of independents and 52 percent of Republicans.

Public support for these ideas is high even though the questions explicitly use the phrase “spend government money.”

Lesson never learned

But of course:

An unsubstantiated charge by a Syrian government-controlled media outlet that rebels deployed chemical weapons in their battle against the government of President Bashar Assad prompted American lawmakers on Tuesday to sound the alarm about weapons of mass destruction and urgently call for a U.S. military response.

As ever

What Charles Pierce says about the various Bush era war criminals and the enabling press -- almost all of whom are still treated like "the serious people":

Shut up, all of you. Go away. You are complicit in one way or another in a giant crime containing many great crimes. Atone in secret. Wash the blood off your hands in private. Because there were people who got it right. Anthony Zinni. David Shiseki. Hans Blix. Mohamed ElBaradei. The McClatchy Washington bureau guys. Dozens of liberal academics who got called fifth-columnists and worse. Professional military men whose careers suffered as a result. Hundreds of thousands of people in the streets around the world. The governments of Canada and France. Those people, I will listen to this week. Go to hell, the rest of you, and go there in silence and in shame.

The Lord works in entirely predictable ways

I have my doubts about his ability to succeed there too:

If NFL won't give Tebow a chance, Orlando Predators will

Maybe he could be AFL's next Kurt Warner


Yes, Arena Football calls for you Timmy.

Get ready to open for Ted Nugent

Talk about giving the proverbial "bird" to your base.

Singer-songwriter Michelle Shocked has shocked fans after launching an anti-gay rant onstage in San Francisco on Sunday night. The singer – who became a favourite of leftwing music fans with early albums such as The Texas Campfire Tapes and Short Sharp Shocked, but who is now a born-again Christian – began telling the crowd her views of Proposition 8, California's legal definition of marriage being a union between a woman and a man.

"When they stop Prop 8 and force priests at gunpoint to marry gays, it will be the downfall of civilisation, and Jesus will come back," Shocked told the crowd at Yoshi's in San Francisco, before many of them reportedly walked out. "You are going to leave here and tell people, 'Michelle Shocked said God hates faggots.'"

Ugh.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Neverer Forgetenning, Pardew

Instaputz has a litany of wrongness that has been Glenn Reynolds (Prof. Earnest T. Bass, ESQ) on the Iraq War.

It's a long list, and it only goes through 2006.

Neverer Forgetenning

Anniversaratin' remembering the bigger wanks of the decade since Commander Bunnypants unleashed his phony baloney clusterfuck:

Breitbartian!

A short time ago, even after the Washington Post undercut his Menendez and Prostitutes story, Tucker Carlson's Beltway Breitbart stuck by its story saying "we've got other women".

Yeah, about that.

Now, it appears as though the right wing blog will have even more trouble defending their already discredited story, though it's obvious at this point they'll try. Dominican police who investigated the case said three women, including the two in the video used by the Daily Caller, were paid to lie about having sex with the senator.


The Washington Post March

To more irrelevancy.  It's going to set up a paywall for people who visit more than 20 articles a month.

This will include Richard Cohen...or not as only about 15 people actually wonder what America's Concern Troll is writing now.






Trust us, things are much better now aren't they?

Cyprus is the fifth Eurozone country (out of 17) that has needed a bailout -- and the fifth that is having austerity drilled down the throat of the poor and middle class.

Huzzah!

As announced on Saturday, depositors in Cypriot banks with balances of more than €100,000, or $129,500, would have to pay a one-time tax of 9.9 percent on their holdings. Those with balances below that threshold would pay 6.75 percent.

Sorry wealthy people screwed up your economy, give us a big chuck of everyone else's money.

Sounds as fair as usual. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Monday, March 18, 2013

Truly wonderful people

The NRA -- real enlightened.
In statehouses across the country, though, the N.R.A. and other gun-rights groups have beaten back legislation mandating the surrender of firearms in domestic violence situations. They argue that gun ownership, as a fundamental constitutional right, should not be stripped away for anything less serious than a felony conviction — and certainly not, as an N.R.A. lobbyist in Washington State put it to legislators, for the “mere issuance of court orders.”
Because goodness knows, the most mentally stable person in the world is the guy who gets a restraining order -- surely that fellow needs a gun to exercise their rage.

"How can I pistol whip a lippy-broad without a pistol? 

Then I'm just pimp-slapping, and that is immoral."

Sincerely,

NRA Troglodyte.

Quality in journalism

CNN tackling the difficult trauma and devastating effects that rape has upon the raper. Ugh.

I'm no expert on international finance

And what is going on in Cyprus (though as Atrios says it smells) but I bet Francis Urquhart is involved.

Some good news for Boehner though

Because goodness knows he's abused the hell of out his:


Doctors Can Now Keep Livers Alive Longer

Hard to believe

The people who don't believe in evolution or Obama's Hawaiian birth could be so gullible about other shit, huh?
Yet an examination of the PACs’ expenditures shows they spent a small percentage of the money they raised on work directly aimed at getting candidates elected -- paid ads, say, or contributions to other political committees. Mainly, they paid consultants. And the biggest chunk of that consultant money went to Russo, Marsh and Associates, and people connected to the firm. Of the $9.3 million spent by Our Country Deserves Better, more than $3.8 million went to Russo, Marsh and Associates, employees or others connected to the firm. Of the $3.9 million spent by the Campaign to Defeat Barack Obama, $2.4 million went to the firm and its associates. The pro-military Move America Forward Freedom PAC spent almost $143,000. Of that, $92,000 went to the firm and people connected to it.
That name is so ironic it could only have been created by the types of folks who would name a bill loosening environmental pollutant standards the "Clear Skies Initiative".

Dead-ender

Since we are coming up on the ignominious tenth anniversary of an economy-wrecking, enemy producing, falsely-based war crime it is only fair to note that "Dead-Enders" come in all shapes and hues.
"Rob is a great friend and a longtime ally," Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, told ABC's This Week. "I believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. It's what I grew up with. It's what I believe. It's what my church teaches me. And I can't imagine that position would ever change," added Boehner, who is a Roman Catholic.
Keep rolling that rock Tangerine Sisyphus.
Republican Governor Scott Walker (WI) — a likely GOP candidate for president in 2016 — admitted on Sunday that young conservatives support marriage equality for gays and lesbians, suggesting that the Republican party cannot sustain its opposition to same-sex marriage into the future.
There's nothing more pathetic than an old bigot holding on to his biases while they know society is leaving them behind.

Until you realize he's still allowed enough power to screw everything else up too.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Sunday, March 17, 2013

ONLY IN AMERICA!

It's like two firebreaks of crazy fighting over the last ounce of bullshit.

Nothing says "authority"

Like a teaparty "cos-player" decrying someone as being wrong.

Rhetorical Questions

The Huffington Post asks:


 


The answer, of course, is: Sadness

Continuing to be hilariously self-deluded

Saturday's CPAC headbuttline.
Reality TV Star Palin Likens Washington to Bad Reality Television

Saturday, March 16, 2013

As long as I can have my tangerine dream, I don't care

John Boehner still against same-sex marriage, progress, reality, sun-screen.

CPAC -- As predictable as always

Who could be surprised that a TeaParty session on reaching out to minority voters would turn into a white-power race riot?

And get a load of this chestnut from the speaker at the seminar:

In addition, a young man who wasn’t a Tea Party Patriot, made some racially insensitive comments, he said: “Blacks should be happy that the slave master gave them shelter, clothing, and food.” At the conclusion of the breakout session, I further explained to him the Frederick Douglass Republican Message which he embraced, bought a book, and we left as friends. 


OF. COURSE. YOU. DID.

Friday, March 15, 2013

Nobody could (not) have anticipated

Well whaddya' know?

Donald Trump gave his highly anticipated speech at CPAC Friday morning, and all anyone is talking about now is how confusing and terrible it was.

Trump said he was upset that President Barack Obama did not return his calls about a free ballroom he offered to build. He said that he offered between $50 million and $100 million to the White House to build it but he never heard back.

He also made a strange statement about how he wants the U.S. to go back to Iraq to take some oil.
"That's the problem with our country," Trump said.

He also said he was only for the Iraq War because he was under the impression that it was fought for oil. Now, he wants to go back to get oil.

"I say we should take it and pay ourselves back," Trump said.

Oh, and the room was nearly empty.



The Kind of Media Steve King Loves

Small Iowa town of Montezuma (I know, I cannot how Iowa has a town with that name either) has among the country's most racist newspapers.

Congrats Montezuma, you have had your revenge...in print.

Nice try, care to make another explanation

Yes, former GOP Chair of the House Ethics Committee...

Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.), the former chairman of the House ethics committee, has responded to questions Mother Jones first raised about the all-expenses paid trip to a Kenyan estate that he, two other GOP lawmakers, and members of their families took in August 2012, claiming that he was visiting the site where the Oscar-winning film Out of Africa was shot in order to learn about supposed connections between poaching and Al Qaeda.

Damn you Bin Laden and your part in the Ivory Trade!

In future news, this guy probably went to Thai Strip Bars for the "Neil Bush Special" to learn about connections between underaged prostitution and Al Qaeda; and took his family to Bora Bora to discover how Bin Laden got out of there and into Pakistan.

Argentina's gonna get all arrogant

I mean they've got the Pope and Messi.

So respectively one guy who claims he's got a direct line to God and the guy who probably answers his calls.

Money shot

I've heard of some elaborate ruses, but this is pretty genius in a debauched way.
Jon Millward deosn't watch porn like the average man: instead, he sees it as a heaving data set to analyze and graph. No, really. That's why he's visualized porn star demographics to work out what the typical, ahem, actress look like.

This is a hell of a plan to get a business-related tax deduction for your on-line subscription to Brazzers buddy.

He truly sounds like someone from a Miller High Life 'Real Men of Genius' commercial.


Rapture Watch

Keep cheering it on.

Taco Bell added 15,000 jobs to its chain last year because of the Doritos Locos Taco.  The recent introduction of the Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Taco makes them expect to add 2,000 more.




That's all fine and good

Now that it affects YOU suddenly your opinion changes:

Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman on Thursday announced he has reversed his longtime opposition to same-sex marriage after reconsidering the issue because his 21-year-old son, Will, is gay. 

Portman said his son, a junior at Yale University, told him and his wife, Jane, that he's gay and "it was not a choice, it was who he is and that he had been that way since he could remember."

Somebody introduce Mr. Portman to a poor person or a Muslim.

UPDATE:

I should add this does make Portman a hell of a lot better human being than Brit Hume or Alan Keyes.

Hey, let's do that again, worked out great!

Got a banner and photo op and everything!

(Reuters) - The U.S. war in Iraq has cost $1.7 trillion with an additional $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans, expenses that could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades counting interest, a study released on Thursday said.

The war has killed at least 134,000 Iraqi civilians and may have contributed to the deaths of as many as four times that number, according to the Costs of War Project by the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University.

CPAC brings out "traditional values"

Mr. Rubio:

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) threw some social conservative red meat to CPAC-goers on Thursday in a rant against Democrats who criticize him and members of his party for opposing same-sex marriage and abortion rights.

"Just because I believe that states should have the right to define marriage in a traditional way does not make me a bigot"

Yes, traditional marriage now means gays cannot marry -- if only there was an analogy we could draw upon?  Hmm....oh, look here, as recently as 2009.

A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long. "I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday.

Yes, Marco Rubio you're just as non-bigoted as this guy.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Oh how surprising

Nothing says lazy like the identical news report that has been emanating through the news media about every new Pope, well ever.

"He is described as very humble"

Yep.

Every. Damn. Time.

Like the Vatican is going to release news reports stating, "The New Pope, what an arrogant jerk".

LAP IT UP WOLF BLITZER!

Here comes something only Austerity could fuck up...

So naturally the bargaining terms in Washington are about "How much Austerity?" there should be.

The latest weekly reading of initial jobless claims is out. Claims unexpectedly fell to 332k from 342k a week ago. Bloomberg's Mike McKee reports that this is the lowest level for claims since 2007.

Economists expected claims to rise slightly to 350k.

Have to Admit

There have been 266 prior popes (give or take an anti-Pope) so in approximately 2,000 years you'd think there'd been a previous Pope named Francis.  I mean there have been 8 Urbans, 5 Sixtus's (Sixti?), and 4 Sergius's (Sergiui?).

But apparently that name has been reserved for saints, crooners, scrambling QBs, guys who need to lighten up, and sterile pack animals.

But of course

Via BuzzFeed a Fox Affiliate in Connecticut decided that on Woman's day their b-roll footage would be EXCLUSIVELY of women's breasts.

Shhhh, don't let the media know

It might upset Booby Woodward:

But after peaking in 2009 at $1.4 trillion, the deficit began coming down. The Congressional Budget Office expects the deficit for fiscal 2013 (which began in October and is almost half over) to be $845 billion. That may still sound like a big number, but given the state of the economy it really isn’t.

In other news, conservatives love the death penalty

I don't know if this is the most important reason why...

Black defendants facing trial in Houston – the death penalty capital of America – are more than three times as likely to face a possible death sentence than whites, new academic research has revealed.

The study, by a criminologist at the University of Maryland, exposes the extent of racial discrimination inherent in the administering of capital punishment in Harris County, the ground zero of the death penalty in the US. The county, which incorporates Houston, Texas's largest city, has carried out 116 executions in the modern era – more than any entire state in the union apart from Texas itself.
 ...perhaps they consider that a bonus.

This is hardly the first finding of race discrimination in regard to punishment ever conducted.  Two years ago studies of the disproportionate use of the death penalty against African Americans ultimately led to its ban in Illinois.

Further, the depressing thin about this latest study is that other studies of the death penalty in other states show African-Americans have had death penalty cases at rates significantly higher than whites for years and it is not showing much improvement.

Other than those states, like Illinois, that have banned it.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]


Wednesday, March 13, 2013

"Hi, I am a complete ignoramus and I'm not a afraid to show it -- VOTE REPUBLICAN!"

Ugh...for some reason I can take these morons when they live in my current State of residence, but it really bothers me when they are in the State of my birth and childhood.

Speaking before the State House was one Mike Frey, a "concerned Minnesotan and father and a husband," who appears to be under the tragically ignorant impression that A) only married people have sex, B) unprotected vaginal sex cannot transmit HIV because the vagina has a "barrier" that protects it from such diseases, and C) the mere act of unprotected anal sex (which only gay men have) causes AIDS.
In summary:

Vaginas, Vaginas
They're a magical box
They repel rapey sperm
But still lesser than cocks

Meanwhile your ol' colon
God made it for your poop
It is good with fibre
But is not with male soup





Awful

For those people who followed the Cosby Show characters and named their kids Nelson & Winnie a couple decades ago -- well half right.

This has been suspected for some time, and it is good there is some action taken.  Also Oscar Pastorius is probably a bit relieved.

Meanwhile, for those of you who named your pets those names (and I personally know there are some [yeah, white guy naming your two black labs those names, WHAT A TASTEFUL HOMAGE ASSHOLE!]...get help.

Second, I just hope you didn't have them stuffed.

Just hum the national anthem

While you read this.


The Breadless Bacon Double Cheeseburger Does Away with Buns, Replaces Them with More Cheese

And then when you get to "and the land of the free" razor-blade your wrists.

Undoubtedly he says the same things to

His children when he doesn't pay child support just change "politics" to "your mother":

During a nearly two-hour talk Sunday, long-time Tea Party favorite former Illinois congressman Joe Walsh made, surprise!, an incendiary remark that Americans have grown "stupid," "lazy" and "easily manipulated" when it comes to politics.

Get ready for a rightous pounding!

Oh dear:

A prominent “pray away the gay” group might have done well directing a few Hail Marys to the taxman.

On Monday, the IRS notified the public that it has revoked The National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality’s (NARTH) tax-exempt status for failure to file proper forms for three consecutive years, according to psychology professor Warren Throckmorton, who focuses on sexual identity, religion and public policy.

Our policy has failed, full fail ahead!

Well this has been predicted for some time -- and it has now come true.

Behold A-U-S-T-E-R-I-T-Y works its magic!


The UK was on the verge of an unprecedented triple-dip recession after a dire January for the nation’s struggling manufacturers.
Official figures revealed an alarming 1.5 per cent slide for the sector, the biggest slump in output since last June, when an extra day off for the Jubilee celebrations dented the economy.

The news sent the pound tumbling to fresh two-and-a-half-year lows against the dollar as traders bet on the Bank of England pumping billions more into the flatlining recovery.

It also deals a political blow to the Chancellor, George Osborne, a week ahead of a Budget in which he will almost certainly be forced to admit that the deficit is rising due to anaemic growth and the eurozone crisis.
Meanwhile in this country, this is little reported -- let alone discussed in comparison to our fiscal spending.   And, of course, the beltway praises Paul Ryan's granny-starving-plan and treats the Obama Administration's more than bad enough grand-bargain as a mere sop.

The message is clear, who cares if stimulus is the best plan, the plan that works -- YOU. MUST. SUFFER.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Oh boy...

Chronic Google-Shamer K-Lo is in Rome for the Papal Conclave because, well why the fuck not, right?


I think she may be both a bit ignorant and underqualified for the job of "checking the Pope for balls".

I mean she completely failed with Mitt Romney.

Looking at the 2013 RCC Conclave after the Combine -- Todd McShay's opinion may differ, because he's a jackass

This was first run before Benny the Rat became pope, but it still works (with some additions).  I just hope the next pope doesn't go all John Paul I and make me have to go with totally new material.

Even when betting on God's ordained..."Upon this House of Ill Repute I will build my Church y'all!" The current betting odds on who will be the next Pope. I've enlisted ESPN Draft Expert Mel Kiper to assist us with some candidates.

The favorites:


Cardinal Francis Arinze, 11 to 4.

Mel Kiper's Scouting Report:

A conservative and dogmatic theologian, Arinze had an outstanding time on the 40 and was able to describe 17 ways in which Martin Luther was damned in that limited amount of time. Is considered to look great in White, and is known as a committed team player. His upside is considered substantial in the third world, with some concerns that established nations may not appreciate his dogmatism and unique skills.



Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, 11 to 4.

Mel Kiper's Scouting Report:

Very successful in the major program of Milan, Cardinal Tettamanzi is known for his solid team leadership and availability to call audibles on matters of faith. Furthermore, his alma mater has a long pedigree of producing successful pontiffs, though on occasion they have been known to produce Popes more likely to be more "me" than team oriented. One item that is on his side is that while his upside potential may be limited, you know what you are getting and that is a strong person to hold the line against Protestant or Islamic blitzes.












Cardinal Peter Turkson, 2 to 1.


  Mel Kiper's Scouting Report:

Turkson is currently the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and hails from Ghana, the leading Catholic, nay, World nation starting with the Gh (Ghoulashistan not existing). In addition to his time with The Monkees, is noted in particular for proclaiming that Africa's strong hatred for the "sexy stuff" has spared them pedophilia scandals -- although it might be just the fact that the victims can't be heard with stuff in their mouths.   He's also known for his stirring pre-game speeches about needing to protect "this House" to his fellow cardinals. 











Cardinal Marc Ouellet, 5 to 2


  Mel Kiper's Scouting Report:
Ouellet is the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, and a Canadian -- so he will have to adapt to the narrower field and one less priest when it comes to covering up a sex scandal. He is known for his very conservative leanings, but he ruffled feathers in 2010 with his stance against victims of rapes justifying abortion by being victims in the first place -- as with so many Cardinals the man really knows an awful lot about sex...especially the awful sex part.












Gianfranco Ravasi, 7 to 1

  Mel Kiper's Scouting Report
Ravasi is currently the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture and had the top time in the 30 yard Altar Boy shuttle. He was elevated to cardinal in 2010 and has since become known as a highly intellectual member and workout warrior of the Church and a biblical scholar, so he can really relate to pretty much no one -- always a strength in a Pontiff. He lead Benedict XVI in his last religious exercises -- Popelates. 





And a real darkhorse candidate:









Cardinal Rodrigo Fang, 1,000 to 1

Mel Kiper's Scouting Report:

A key member of the theological program for the purity of the faith throughout Aragon, Cardinal Fang is known for his dogmatic purity and ability to convert heretics using two, no make that three methods. While some consider him a longshot, a lifetime of dedicated service, and calm, collected, piety makes him a Cardinal to keep one's eye upon.

Oh by all means lets do that here!

Austerity keeps working its magic on Greece:

Greece's economy shrank at an annual 5.7 percent in the last quarter of 2012, combining for a 20 percent slump in real terms since 2008.

And that is actually marginally better than predicted.

So awesome.

Spending time creating more wars to kill a bunch of families

Well knock me over with a douchey feather:<br />

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman is joining the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, the organization announced Monday Lieberman — Al Gore’s vice presidential running mate in 2000 and a Democratic presidential candidate in 2004 — will co-chair AEI’s American Internationalism Project, an effort to rebuild a bipartisan consensus about big foreign policy questions.
"Okay, so we all have to agree that [fill in blank] is the new Hitler and his people must be [bombed/invaded/occupied] in the name of peace and freedom."

Poor babies

Oh the difficult life of the very rich, not being rich enough.

They might be getting paid more than the rest of us, but that doesn't mean they're complaining less.

More than two-thirds of financial professionals said they were unsatisfied with their pay package last year, according to a recent survey from recruiting firm Selby Jennings. But despite the fact that the average Wall Street salary was $363,000 last year, bankers are still more likely to feel underpaid than their counterparts in other industries.

The also have an exceedingly high percentage of assholes.

"Pay attention to ME!"

North Korea apparently feels the world was insufficiently shaken by its threat to launch a nuclear war before the UN voted to strengthen sanctions against them last week.  Because not enough attention was paid, another threat was needed.
North Korea on Monday canceled the armistice agreement that nearly 60 years ago brought a cease-fire to the Korean War...

The move, reported by the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper, was anticipated – Pyongyang had said last week that it intended to do so in the wake of new United Nations’ sanctions over its nuclear weapons program. But the ramifications of the development – the papers cited a military spokesman as saying the armistice had been “scrapped completely” – are far from clear.
So another day another threat, oh they went and disconnected their "hotline" to South Korea.

I guess they didn't like the new sanctions that even China joined in upon.

Who knows what Diva behavior may follow tomorrow...more if we're lucky, because they have done a few things in the past that are very destructive.

Who do they think they are, us?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]


Monday, March 11, 2013

That latest hilarious error from "Herp & Derp Illustrated"

Oh Breitbart, why do you always fuck up so hilariously?


"Oh, get that would you Diedre?"

Though there are undoubtedly more stillbirths yet to come, Michelle Duggar's uteri is close to retirement.

Fortunately they have a new breeder who still has that "new clown car" smell:

 Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar's eldest son, Josh, 25, announced Monday morning on the "Today" show that he's expecting his third child with wife Anna, 24.
They are naming each child with a "M" so around no. 15, I expect we'll see Li'l "Money Shot" come down the shoot.


This billboard sponsored by the NRA

Nobody could have anticipated, file no. infinity:

HELENA, Mont. — A northwestern Montana man shot and killed the host of the Sportsman Channel show "A Rifleman's Journal" in an apparent jealous rage while the TV personality was visiting the shooter's wife, police said Friday.

Wayne Bengston, 41, then beat his wife, took his 2-year-old son to a relative's house and drove to his home about 25 miles away in West Glacier, where he killed himself, Whitefish Police Chief Bill Dial said.

Only Fitting

That in Antarctica, scientists from the United States and Russia are currently involved in a new "cold war".

The family business

The Bush family, like the Plantagenets with a bottomless supply of Richard the Thirds.

The country managed to survive broccoli-hating George H.W. Bush without too much damage and then there was his son. The less said the better.

The family always thought that Jeb should be the President, and Jeb is promptly eschewing every principle he pretended to have in trying to do so. First, he managed to be both malevolent and hilarious in dropping his previous positions on immigration to make them tolerable to the right-wing rabble in Iowa and New Hampshire.

And now, there's this:
"Yes. You know, a lot of things in history change over time. I think people will respect the resolve that my brother showed, both in defending the country and the war in Iraq. But history will judge that in a more objective way than today. The war has wound down now and it's still way too early to judge what success it had in providing some degree of stability in the region."
I'd say his brother couldn't have said it better, but he has already said that many times, just badly. And, of course, history is vindicating that Iraq decision all the time.
Ten years and $60 billion in American taxpayer funds later, Iraq is still so unstable and broken that even its leaders question whether U.S. efforts to rebuild the war-torn nation were worth the cost.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]