Quote Of The Day, Pulling A Boehner Edition

"Why not do the right thing for the American people, even though it’s not exactly what we want."

-John Boehner

Betcha Didn't Know C-Span Doesn't Control the Feed

The Speaker of the House does!

Merry Christmas, Mr. Obama ***Updated***

"Has this place become so dysfunctional that even when people agree to things we can't do it?"

-President Obama, concerning this.

I'm not sure if Fox News is covering this, but what it amounts to is the Congressional Republicans have decided to dig in their heels and not extend a payroll tax cut. I know, weird right? Just as unemployment drops again they seem to think the best thing for the country is to raise taxes on the middle class. Maybe they are upset because there hasn't also been an even bigger tax cut for the rich. Maybe they somehow think that the country will blame Obama for the failure, even though he's all over the news saying please extend this and John Boehner is all over the news saying, no, no, forget it.

It's not just me pointing out this looks bad for Republicans. The Wall Street Journal, for example.

The GOP leaders have somehow managed the remarkable feat of being blamed for opposing a one-year extension of a tax holiday that they are surely going to pass. This is no easy double play. Republicans have also achieved the small miracle of letting Mr. Obama position himself as an election-year tax cutter...

Anyone outside of the liberal mainstream media think the same way? Karl Rove. Of course to be fair, Rove did more than anyone to ensure that a Democrat won the 2008 election. Don't trust him!

***Update*** The House finally voted on the bill a few hours after I wrote this, apparently on the assurances by President Obama that he wouldn't veto it with the provision to approve the Keystone Oil Pipeline included. What this means to me (yes this is spin) is that Republicans are willing to raise taxes and even throw their own poll numbers into the toilet as long as they can serve Conoco. Conoco is a harsh mistress!

Chugging Up the First Hill

Since it's increasingly obvious that Ron Paul is going to be the Republican nominee -- God forbid it would be some guy who is polling well among moderates -- here is a handy guide to the conservative platform for the next eight years.

Further Evidence That Fox Doesn't Want Romney

They're going so far as to talk smack about invading Iran if Romney says he's for it.

To be fair to poppa bear, I don't know what his thinking has been on the subject in the past. Maybe this is perfectly consistant. Anybody wanna help me out here?

Whee!

The roller-coaster of Republican primary politics may have arced again: Newt Gingrich is dropping in the polls. I'd say just give all the money to Romney already but it looks like Ron Paul has been the candidate they've really wanted all along; then once they dump him there's still Santorum and Huntsman. And the only one they've actually forced out of the race has been the African-American, because the nomination goes to whoever is peaking the week they nominate.

Gingrich is probably a little relieved - I don't think he really wanted to be president. He just was looking for a little Tiffany's pocket change. Romney really wants to be president, unless polls show that he shouldn't want to be.

Just The Way the Light's ... oh, COME ON

(H/T Where Are My Keys)

Just the Way The Light's Hitting It Again

The liberal mainstream media will tell you that Nevada is the one on the left! Don't trust them!

Coincidentally I was going to drive to Vegas for the holidays but I can see now it's way too far.

I Need More Page Traffic

Ron Paul is a crazy unelectable freak.

With Friends Like This

Warner Todd Huston Throws The Tea Party Under The Bus!

Just cut ‘n’ pasted from Facebook!


Report/Mark as Spam

Warner Todd Huston

Want proof that Democrats are just liars? In his briefing to the press on how Obama will win in 2012 David Axelrod said that the GOP nomination is controlled by the extremists of the Tea Party. Obviously that is a lie as NEITHER of the two frontrunners are Tea Party nominees. How can the Tea Party be in control if their guys aren't even winning??

LikeUnlike · ·Unfollow PostFollow Post · Share · about an hour ago near Streamwood, IL ·

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    Bob Madden I would submit that since the poster boy for the progressive wing of the republican party leads in most polls that it is either a lie, or he is extremely clueless. Maybe a little of both?
    about an hour ago · LikeUnlike
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    Daniel Krause It may be less of a lie than a fervent hope.
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    Warner Todd Huston LOL, could be, Daniel!
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This Time In English

I don't do this very often, but I think I'll clarify a post I put up last Friday. My one reader in the world seems to have gotten the impression that I was defending John Corzine, the former Democrat Senator who "lost" a million billion dollars of investor money. At first I thought, you can read this and think I'm pro-Corzine? But I've said it before, sarcasm is a terrible way to communicate ideas, especially in an environment when people think their political opponents are literally insane.

So, again - actually I think Corzine is at best a wildly incompetent manager, but more likely a guy who just stole a million billion dollars of his investors money. And I was using his situation to make a point that there is little, if anything, in current Republican thinking to stop a guy like him. They're against regulations (they want far less of them) they're against enforcement of regulations (always pushing for less money to inspectors and watchdogs) and as far as I can tell, they simply want the free market to take care of charlatans like him. He took your life savings? Don't invest with HIM next time!

Political affiliation aside, what would Republicans do to prevent the next Corzine from ruining his investors' lives?

Those Who Do Not Know Newt Are Forced To Repeat Him

This exchange between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich (the latter a Republican candidate for president, the former - well, what would you like him to be?) reminds me of a point that's been rattling around in my mind for a while now. It is a point that I find myself in agreement with on Republicans.

Freddie Mac is a government agency which clearly overspent on services. $6 million for an historian? That's insane. Even the most elite historian makes 100-200k a year. So I'd call that criminal. By the same token though, it's even more criminal for an historian to CHARGE that much. Maybe it's not against the law, but certainly somebody who does a thing like that must be labeled a charlatan, and never trusted with power over large sums of your money. A guy who would soak the government for that kind of money must be a terrorist.

A mitigating factor in the Newtisphere is this, a pledge that Newt signed to uphold traditional marriage. Here's a key passage:

I will support all efforts to reform promptly any uneconomic or anti-marriage aspects of welfare and tax policy. I also pledge to uphold the institution of marriage through personal fidelity to my spouse and respect for the marital bonds of others.

That's a solemn vow! And you know how important THOSE are to Gingrich.

It's Just The Way The Light's Hitting It

What's wrong with that picture? Hint: Compare March to November.

Derangement Syndrome

Fan: “ People I would vote for in 2012 for President: Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, Michelle Bachman, Rick Santorum, a bag of beans, a sack of flour, an inanimate object, anyone or thing but what we have now.” DM: “I would vote for Blago right now.”


- Dennis Miller, Facebook

A Job Creator

People say that Republicans are always trying to trash Democrats, but that's simply not true. Not when they're the Job Creators! For example, here's Jon Corzine.

Mr. Corzine told the House Agriculture Committee that he was “stunned” when he learned late on Oct. 30 that about $1 billion of customer money could not be located, a discovery that thwarted a sale of the firm and led to its filing for bankruptcy. Regulators and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are now hunting for the money and examining potential wrongdoing at the firm.

Thursday’s testimony was his first public comments since the bankruptcy and came after the committee voted last week to subpoena him.

The former senator insisted that he always tried to “do the right thing.”

“I never intended to break any rules,” said Mr. Corzine, dressed in a dark suit but without his trademark sweater vest. “I know I had no intention to ever authorize the transfer of segregated moneys. I know what my intentions were.” Mr. Corzine has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Why don't we leave Corzine alone? He doesn't deserve this grilling! The man should be back in his office or on his way to the Bahamas, where he can create jobs! And we certainly should stop trying to regulate a guy who's just trying to run a small business.

He did not rule out possible wrongdoing at MF Global. In theory, an employee may have misused customer cash after misinterpreting the chief executive’s words, he said.

Still, over three hours of testimony, Mr. Corzine danced carefully around questions touching on the scandal of the missing funds, using phrases like “never intended” and “not to my knowledge.”

And he offered little insight into the whereabouts of the missing money. He surmised that one potential cause of the shortfall was the “extraordinary number of transactions during MF Global’s last few days,” calling it a “chaotic” period that was “extremely difficult” to “reconstruct.”

See? If we'd just let him go back to his office (or the Bahamas) then he'd be able to find that money. We should let the free market take care of this!

Political Wire Buries the Lead

Newt Gingrich, a man so beloved of Republicans that they once censured him, is in a little trouble now for promising a cabinet post to someone before he has been elected, an apparent violation of election law. Big deal! The real sizzler here is the detail - he's promising to appoint John Bolton Secretary of State.

John Bolton! A man so beloved of Republicans that they failed to confirm him as our Ambassador to the UN! This is the guy that Gingrich would send around the world to persuade countries to cooperate with us. After that, he may try to convince Nancy Pelosi to run the RNC. I wonder if he can get George W. Bush out of retirement to handle INS?

Honestly, I think Newt is trying to torpedo his candidacy. Between this promise and the child labor talk, he pretty obviously is laying the groundwork for a Rick Perry/Michele Bachmann/Herman Cain style popularity arc.

Life's Been Good To Him So Far

Representative Joe Walsh of Illinois tweeted this 16 hours ago:

My office was invaded by the Occupy Protesters today & all I saw were $1000 laptops & vomit on the carpet. Thank God for #febreze


A darling of the Tea Party, Rep. Walsh's comment is illuminating. He got where he is by articulating the Tea Party positions. Here, he revels in their contempt of the ill and the middle class.
 
I probably should show my work, as the math teachers say. Contempt for the ill is pretty obvious. A constituent in his office vomits and his only concern is that the carpet might be ruined. God knows he wouldn't want to offer that guy even a glass of water... that would be socialism! It's not your Government's job to worry about your welfare! That's YOUR job, loser! Go be sick somewhere else! In fact, go DIE OF YOUR ILLNESS somewhere else. (Going too far? Listen to the applause lines at the next Republican debate).
 
I'm glad to see those guys are giving up on the whole "compassionate conservatism" thing. Wasn't working.
 
Why middle-class? It's the implication of those $1000 laptops. The poor would be carrying $300 laptops. Note that if you spent less than a grand on your hardware, the Tea Party isn't interested in your problems. You can't even voice a concern unless you got Alienware, honey.
 
I will say this though, Walsh does respect brand names. He took the trouble to tag AND spell Febreze correctly. Wouldn't want to offend corporations! They're people, you know.

Barrier to Entry

Herman Cain has decided to suspend his presidential campaign. It's true! Here's a link for people who don't believe the New York Times.

It would be great if he had been forced to pull out because of obvious lack of knowlege on a variety of subjects, especially foreign policy. However, Cain cited the many scandals involving his love life (all of them both false AND untrue, he says) as his reason for quitting. This bugs me, as I've said before - a guy's personal life is messy and shouldn't be a disqualification for higher office, because it doesn't have to interfere with his ability to do his job. In fact, it pretty clearly didn't interfere with Cain's, because he was a very successful businessman in spite of these things.

But now I'm beginning to think I like this state of play in American politics, because big business is one of the only fields that is more corrupt. People can get pretty arrogant when they're CEOs. Being able to buy off any accusers, or negotiate a contract where you get a multi-million dollar bonus even if your company's profits go into the toilet, can make you think you're invincible. You become convinced that nothing you do is wrong, that maybe you're not above good and evil but at least you won't pay any penalties. We don't need people like that running the country.

Humility is a good quality. It checks radicalism.

So maybe the next election cycle we'll have less billionaires buying a spot on the lawmaker express. Who needs that kind of trouble? Less billionaires making laws, less resistance to letting the Bush Tax cuts expire, less public debt for future generations.

Clarification Please!

This is a little complicated, and hopefully someone in my stable of commenters can explain it to me:

Antitax campaigner Grover Norquist advised a room of House Republicans on Thursday that a failure to extend the  payroll-tax cut would not be tantamount to raising taxes.

Okay, I can see that point of view, as long as you don't believe that extending the Bush Tax cuts would be tantamount to raising taxes. But if you do, what makes one a good idea and the other a bad one?

If You're Listening, You're Probably The Ones He Hates

Seems harsh, but at least he's not like Obama, who HATES AMERICA! Rush loves America, except for the lazy, grasping Americans who inhabit it.

Do Your Homework, 12/01

Michele Bachmann, embassies, Iran -- on second thought, never mind. We're talking about Michele Bachmann here.

Look Under A Rock For Him

Speaking of Newt, here's a handy table of positions he's taken in the last few years which suggest that he's actually okay with all the of the parts of "Obamacare" that he calls socialism.

	Newt Gingrich	Affordable Care Act
Individual Mandate	“You ought to either have health insurance, or you ought to post a bond.” [Healthcare Cease Fire, 2005]	Section 1501: U.S. citizens and legal residents who don’t obtain coverage by 2014, pay a tax penalty.
Group Purchasing	“Large risk pools…should be established so low income people can buy insurance as inexpensively as large corporations.” [Winning The Future, 2005]	Section 1321: States establish health insurance exchanges to allow individuals, families, and small businesses to harness the purchasing power of large employers.
Subsidies	“Some aspect of the working poor has to involve transfer of finances. To ask people in the lowest paying jobs to bear the full burden of their health insurance is just irrational.” [Healthcare Cease Fire, 2005]	Section 1401: Families with incomes between 133-400% of the federal poverty line will receive premium credits to purchase insurance through the Exchanges.
Comparative Effectiveness Research	“A health care system that is driven by robust comparative clinical evidence will save lives and money.” [NYT, 2008]	Section 6302: Establishes a non-profit Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to identify research priorities andconduct research that compares the clinical effectiveness of medical treatments.
Improving Quality	“Don Berwick at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement has worked for years to spread the word that the same systematic approach to quality control that has worked so well in manufacturing could create a dramatically safer, less expensive and more effective system of health and health care.” [Washington Post, 2000]	TITLE X: Improves health care quality through numerous provisions, including the innovation of payment reform models and rewarding providers who deliver quality care.
Prevention	“The 21st Century System of Health and Healthcare willpartner with you first to prevent illness and then to care for you as a patient if you become ill.” [Saving Lives & Saving Money, 2006]	TITLE IV: Prevention services will be available without additional cost-sharing and the law establishes a Prevention and Public Health Fund.
Health Information Technology (HIT)	“Going to a paperless all-electronic system is going to save lives, it’s going to save money, it’s going to lead to better outcomes, it’s going to give us new opportunities.” [Paper Kills, 2007]	The stimulus act invested in HIT and the ACA requires the government to develop standards “that facilitate electronic enrollment of individuals in Federal and State health and human services programs.”
Fraud	“First, we must dramatically reduce healthcare fraud within our current healthcare system.” [Stop Paying The Crooks, 2009]	The federal government has “more than tripled the amount of money it has recovered” in the past six years form fraud and the ACA includes numerous anti-fraud provisions from increasing the federal sentencing guidelines for health care fraud to appropriating an additional $350 million over 10 years to ramp up anti-fraud efforts.

Roger Ailes Must Prefer Newt

Check it out... FoxNews commits a breach of etiquette and talks about Mitt Romney once he's left the room.

If he insists on staying in the race, they'll just start running a crawl under him with a "D" after his name.

Do Your Homework!

The current crop of Republican candidates seem to share the same common flaw: they don't seem interested in learning the basics of the job. Whether it's foreign policy, American history, or their own history, they just don't seem willing to hit the books before they start talking.  However, up until now, most of them seemed at least to understand voting itself. 


Rick Perry, the man who won't even learn his own talking points, spoke today at New Hampshire Institute of Politics.

At the end of his stump speech at a town hall meeting, Perry said, “Those of you that will be 21 by November the 12th, I ask for your support and your vote. Those of you who won’t be, work hard.”

As the Boston Globe points out, "the legal voting age is 18, not 21. The date of the 2012 general election is Nov. 6."

Perry is currently polling 4th out of 8 candidates. Herman Cain is next in line. HERMAN CAIN.

People In America Lean Center-Right; Corporations Are People

Polls are one thing, but here's America voting with its dollars. And money talks.

Democratic leaders raising money to be spent on the most competitive House races in next year’s elections are doing something remarkable: outraising their Republican counterparts, despite a historic drubbing a year ago that left Democrats in the minority.

House Democrats have raised $52.1 million to the Republicans’ $48.7 million. The difference is small, but it’s significant given that no minority party has been able to get such an edge in fundraising since the 1994 election cycle.

What makes the Democratic surge in fundraising so unusual is that political money tends to flow to those in power and those with momentum. In the fall of 2007, for example, a year after Republicans were kicked out of their 12-year reign in the majority, the NRCC had a negative cash balance and had raised just $40.7 million — a roughly 30 percent drop from two years earlier. Not even a year into their new power, the DCCC had pulled in nearly $57 million and had a cash balance over $27 million by the end of October 2007.

Republicans are courting the Corporation vote, and they're going to get it. The thing that they seem to keep forgetting is that it's only one vote, one person. And there are more real people than corporations. I mean, like a lot more. Seriously, look in your phone book some time. Even in the yellow pages, the corporations are outnumbered.

Loving America By Dismantling Her Proud Traditions

What's for dinner tomorrow? Turkey? TERRORIST!

In a little-known strike against freedom, yet again, we are being forced into consuming meat slaughtered by means of a torturous method: Islamic slaughter.

Halal slaughter involves cutting the trachea, the esophagus, and the jugular vein, and letting the blood drain out while saying "Bismillah allahu akbar" -- in the name of Allah the greatest. Many people refuse to eat it on religious grounds. Many Christians, Hindus or Sikhs and Jews find it offensive to eat meat slaughtered according to Islamic ritual (although observant Jews are less likely to be exposed to such meat, because they eat kosher).

...Non-Muslims in America and Europe don't deserve to have halal turkey forced upon them in this way, without their knowledge or consent. So this Thanksgiving, fight for your freedom. Find a non-halal, non-Butterball turkey to celebrate Thanksgiving this Thursday. And write to Butterball and request, politely but firmly, that they stop selling only halal turkeys, and make non-halal turkeys available to Americans who still value our freedoms.

OMG, they're everywhere! Grow your own turkeys! And vegetables! Don't drink from public fountains! I have a friend whose friend ate some halal jerky and they totally started worshipping Allah.

I went to a number of Thanksgiving dinners where they said grace right in the room with me, and yet I'm still Atheist. Still, if she wants to open up a market for, let's say, ethnically pure turkeys with some kind of premium put on them, I suppose it won't be bad for business.

Congress Loves America, America Loves Congress

Oh, Is THAT Happening Too?

You may recall that a "super-committee" of congress was charged with finding a way to balance the budget, probably as a way to not tie up ALL of Congress so they could go on with the important business of not accomplishing other things. Well, the SC has announced that they are done with their job of not accomplishing their task.

Who is to blame?

The surest sign of who the American people will blame is this: look at the front page of the Fox News website right now. Click to read full size.

What is most noticeable is the complete absence of stories about the super-committee. Maybe they covered it yesterday, but the rest of the lamestream media seems to think that it's somehow more important than our friends in the rust belt, or Jimmy Fallon's mean joke on Michele Bachmann. Which she no doubt wouldn't have gotten anyway.

And meanwhile, also from FoxNews this afternoon:

I don't think they're gonna be able to pin this one on him.

Another Republican Job Plan

Though he's not the first Republican to suggest this, Newt Gingrich got a little attention this week over his idea to America's unemployed - fire adults and replace them with their kids.

"Core policies of protecting unionization and bureaucratization against children in the poorest neighborhoods, crippling them by putting them in schools that fail has done more to create income inequality in the United States than any other single policy. It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in, first of all, child laws, which are truly stupid.

"You say to somebody, you shouldn't go to work before you're what, 14, 16 years of age, fine. You're totally poor. You're in a school that is failing with a teacher that is failing. I've tried for years to have a very simple model. Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work, they would have cash, they would have pride in the schools, they'd begin the process of rising."

THAT'S the way to solve a bunch of problems at once! Inner city kids aren't learning? Make them take a night job to support their parents! Plus, the idea of the government running the child labor racket instead of say, American Apparel, should take all the stigma out of that situation.

And the best part of it is, it's relatively inexpensive to pay your workforce in gruel.

More Jobs Bills From The Party Of Jobs Creators

Who stands with Walker?

...Then Walker called a special jobs-focused session of the Legislature, which he dubbed "Back to Work Wisconsin," to pass even more "job-creating" laws. At the top of the jobs agenda? Gutting the state's sex ed standards and replacing them with abstinence-only education.

A bill launched during Walker's jobs session and nearing passage in the Legislature would repeal significant portions of the state law that requires schools to provide comprehensive, scientifically accurate, and age-appropriate sex ed.

Okay, maybe the whole jobs thing was covered in there somewhere, though as the article points out, unemployment is rising in Wisconsin since Walker took office.

Anyway, the important thing is the federal level. What are they up to in Congress to put people back to work?

The House on Wednesday evening approved a controversial bill that would require all states to honor the concealed weapons permits of other states, on the strength of Republican support for the idea that different state standards should not interfere with American's Second Amendment rights.

The bill, H.R. 822, passed in a 272-154 vote in which more than 40 Democrats supported it along with all but about a half dozen Republicans.

The debate and vote in many ways pitted the Second Amendment to the Constitution, the right to bear arms, against the 10th Amendment, which aims to ensure that states retain rights not expressly given to the federal government. Republicans are frequent champions of state rights, but today argued that the Second Amendment must prevail over varying state rules related to gun permits.

That actually does potentially raise employment. It's kind of ironic - it's a republican bill that trashes state's rights, and it will boost government employment of union members, in this case police. Still, nice to know they're out there fighting for what they believe in.

Rattle Rattle Rattle

More rat-in-a-box news:

In a soon-to-be published memoir, GOP candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann accuses former President George W. Bush of “socialism” for his 2007 decision to bail out financial institutions teetering on collapse, according to reports.

“The Bush administration, which had always professed faith in the free-market system, was now reversing its course,” Bachmann writes in “Core of Conviction,” a memoir to be released Nov. 21, according to Fox News, which obtained a copy.

Though Bachmann doesn't name Herman Cain or Sarah Palin, they are also socialists because at the time they publicly supported the bailout. Socialists. Like the French.

The good news for the Republicans is that not long after November 21st, Michele Bachman will drop out of the race, citing a wish to spend more time with her family.

Quote of the Day

"Who gave you the right to occupy America?"

-Karl Rove

They Better At Least Cut Some Holes In That Thing

A guy I used to know was very fond of citing a research study on rats to illustrate human behavior. In the study, some rats were put in a box.When the box was at rest, the rats coexisted peacefully, respecting each other's space and only competing when food was introduced. But when scientists shook the box, the rats would turn on each other, biting and attacking each other. Unable to get the guy shaking the box, they struck out at each other.

The Republican party is a box nowadays, sitting on one of those paint mixer machines at Loewe's.

It has gotten so bad, they're starting to go after Grover Norquist.

In the past, I have spent some time explaining that Norquist represents the gravitational center of an effort at Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the conservative movement and politics in America more generally – especially Republican politics.

Slowly but surely, more conservatives and Republicans are coming to that recognition. It's a slow train only because so few with a soapbox are willing and able to explain it. Norquist has spent a lifetime building coalitions, raising money and growing power and influence.

I understand Newt Gingrich is enjoying a renaissance as a serious candidate for President. If he's smart he'll get out before the real biting begins.

Sarah Didn't Move Quick Enough

She should have un-quit yesterday while the void was still open; now it looks like the tea-party sentiment is moving towards career politician, lobbyist, campaign-finance fraudster and serial adulterer Newt Gingrch. Gingrich/Cain 2011! Or Cain/Gingrich! Whichever optics work better!

I think most Republicans would agree that this is a terrible choice, and they'd hate to see them running the country, and they'd never want either of these guys as president in a million years. And at least they'd be better than that Obummer guy.

Analogy Of The Day

In my continuing quest to understand what conservatives really think, I spent a little time today perusing biggovernment.com. Yes, it's true that I was actually there for a little schadenfreude over Rick Perry's debate performance last night and further exhortations for Sarah Palin to change her mind AGAIN and run for President after all.  But I found an interesting analogy instead.

This fellah, Lawrence Meyers, finds similarities between the #occupy movement and a protest he participated in in college.

Back in 1985, when I was attending Cornell University, the movement du jour was encouraging universities to divest from companies that did business in then-apartheid South Africa. At the time, my addled mind convinced me this was a great idea — despite the logical arguments from my Texan Conservative floormates that this would have zero impact on changing the government there.

So what I'm getting here is that Meyers equates big business to apartheid, a terrible evil that we are powerless to stop. Or he has favorable views of big business, much like he does of apartheid? Point is, public opinion will never end the ruthless control of big business, much in the same way that public opinion didn't stop apartheid. As you know, it flourishes today.

To be fair, another reading of the piece is that public demonstration is futile and people who participate are just fooling themselves. I'm pretty sure that what he wrote about the Tea Party rallies.

Big Journalism Throws In The Towel

How's morale over there at that big tent?

Herman Cain’s difficulties in handling a flurry of sexual harassment accusations–albeit launched by an overzealous, unfair mainstream media–have shaken confidence in his candidacy. Gov. Mitt Romney’s increasingly bold policy pronouncements may be too little, too late to convince the conservative base.

Gov. Rick Perry seems to have faded, and Newt Gingrich’s recent rise may not be big enough to establish him as the latest alternative to Romney. The other candidates are still trying to break into double digits, but aside from Ron Paul–whose isolationist foreign policy makes him unelectable–none has succeeded.

That has some analysts wondering if a new candidate might yet enter the race–and if so, who that would be.

The piece hints that it would be super-popular undefeated champion Sarah Palin. Okay by me! Go Sarah go!

This Is How The Tea Party Likes Their Heroes

Shouting down people with reasonable questions, and shutting down debate by threatening to throw their opponents out.



Joe Walsh, ladies and gentlemen - life's been good to him so far! See also Herman Cain's press conference acumen.

Assuming the Best

Among Republican Presidential candidates, Herman Cain and Mitt Romney currently seem to be in a tie for front runner. I'm interested in the notion Cain was farther ahead last week, after the first stories about his alleged sexual harassment emerged but before a few others reared their heads (nudge nudge) to make them seem credible. It seems safe to assume that most Republicans assumed it was a manufactured story and that Cain was just the victim of a smear campaign.

So here's what we can assume about Republican voters. They don't approve of a guy who spends his organization's money to solve a problem, like Mitt Romney did with health care in Massachusetts. They DO approve of a guy who spends his organization's money to HIDE a problem, like Cain did with these settlements.

This seems to me very similar to another aspect of the Republican mindset, the idea that you can "cure" someone of being gay. You can't of course. In fact, if you really pressed Republicans about this, they would not insist that homosexuality itself is a choice - after all, it would mean that all of them, at one point, chose heterosexuality. What IS a choice is whether you act gay. Ken Mehlman, for example, acted straight and was put in CHARGE of stuff. Nobody had a problem with Mark Foley until he was undeniably gay. Nobody has a problem with Rick Perry or Eric Cantor, because they're both deniably gay. Perry is probably taking it a little too far in the other direction.

Another Warning to Jewish Republicans

Earlier this week, GOP gubernatorial candidate and Kentucky Senate President David Williams fired at Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) for taking part in a ceremonial Hindu ground blessing — accusing Beshear of “idolatry” for attending the Hindu ceremony. On Wednesday, Williams clarified his remarks, but his clarification is even more offensive than his original statement. Although Williams says that it is everyone’s “right to be a Hindu person if they want to,” he hopes “their eyes are opened and they receive Jesus Christ as their personal savior.”

That's right Lieberman - vote with whoever you please, but remember that they're going to tie you up and baptize you first chance they get.

As it happens, I hope that Williams realizes that all organized religion is a means toward fundraising, and that he renounces them. But I'm not making laws on his behalf.

An Image That I Wish Wasn't So Resonant



If Romney wins the nomination, it'll be Obama under that Romney mask.

Finally, Repbulicans Introduce a Jobs Bill

The Republican sponsor of a resolution reaffirming that "In God We Trust" is the national motto of the U.S. said his legislation is needed because President Obama and other public officials often forget that designation.

"Unfortunately, there are a number of public officials who forget what the national motto is, whether intentionally or unintentionally," Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) said in late Tuesday afternoon debate in the House. "There are those who become confused as to whether or not it can still be placed on our buildings, whether it can be placed in our school classrooms.

"Almost a year ago, the president in making a speech across the world said that our national motto was 'E pluribus unum,' " Forbes added. "When the Visitor Center was opened ... they did not have the national motto in there. In fact, they inscribed in the stones that our national motto was 'E pluribus unum.' "

Sorry, My mistake. I assumed by now they were going to introduce a jobs bill.

Leave Herman Alone!

Pizza magnate Herman Cain has had a rough week. Republicans are attacking him, he is trying to smooth over the discovery of a 20-year-old sexual harrassment incident by Politco, there is a scandal involving the serious misuse of political donations, and he revealed yesterday that he thinks China doesn't have nuclear weapons and he must stop them from getting some.

9-9-9 people! None of that other stuff matters! As president he will work with the congress that is attacking him (whoever is running it by then) to fix the tax code. If there is anything going on internationally, we can just, you know, sit it out for a few years. What this country needs is a guy like Cain, who knows how to create jobs, and put him in a position where he believes that he mustn't do anything to effect the creation of jobs.

Look, if Cain is out of the race, then it's a choice between a centrist who leans to the right and Romney. We can't let this happen. Let it be a choice between a black man with experience in governance and black man without any.

NoNoNoNoNoNo

Wonkette was right, I shouldn't have clicked on this NSFW link. No, I'm not at work, but because Guy Fawkes masks creep me out under the best of circumstances.

Yes, it's one of the mild ones.

Watch That Pause

Rick Perry, inverviewed by Neil Cavuto:



ThinkProgress characterizes it as Perry refusing to answer. I say it's the pause of a guy who isn't sure what he just said and needs to process it because he doesn't want to consider the possibility that he IS one of those Occupy Wall Street Guys.

Anyway this is a sign that the Tea Party has decided Rick Perry is no longer their BFF and in fact, their best chance to win the presidency is whatever black man they have available, no matter how ill-informed or nutty. It's a good strategy: the American people seem to like black people nowadays, and it worked so well with Michael Steele.

Don't Listen To This Guy!

He's probably a muslim extremist.

Unemployment - Embrace It!

Look, what are you 99 percenters upset about? If you don't have jobs its your own fault! If more of you are unemployed then in 2007, it's because more of you are lazy bastards who don't want a job.

Still that doesn't mean the Republicans aren't in there doing what they can to get you more jobs. For one thing, they're refusing to allow a vote on Obama's Jobs Bill. For another, Tea Party Nation is demanding that small businesses stop hiring people. WHERE ARE THE JOBS, MR PRESIDENT?

I, an American small business owner, part of the class that produces the vast majority of real, wealth producing jobs in this country, hereby resolve that I will not hire a single person until this war against business and my country is stopped.

Also until Sharia law is banned, I resolve to blow up all public buildings! And until my wife apologizes for accusing me of kissing other women, I will sleep with other women!

It seems a little over the line but you know what? Sometimes you have to take extreme measures to keep people from wrecking the economy.

(Side note: check out the quote at the begininning of the manifesto - from the movie of Atlas Shrugged. Does no one say it in the novel? Like the guy who wrote the Call For a Strike, I've never read it either.)

A Startling Glimpse Into The Afterlife

It's curious that they thought Quadaffi would hold onto his looks like that but hey, details.

The Future of the GOP

Who's going to win the Republican primary? I don't know exactly, but this is what it's going to be like

The majority of people who vote for that candidate will hate them and wish one of the others had won. Even if they despise the winner, they will vote for them, because they'd rather have someone they despise and disagree with in every way than Barack Obama.

Oh and Herman Cain will drop out of the race for reasons that no one will quite be able to explain.

Obama Should Be Very, Very Frightened

Well, the primaries are coming up and more and more it's looking like your choice is as follows:

A cult member who champions abortion and authored an even more socialist version of Obamacare.

A man who wants to eliminate your tax deductions and raise your personal tax bill to 18%, (and corporations to 9%) plus is in favor of spending your taxes on bailing out banks.

A guy from Texas who strongly reminds you of... uh... I just can't remember. He was president some time in the recent past. Never forget!

A guy with fake eyebrows.

Oh, and Newt Gingrich. He's looking good!

There IS A Republican Jobs Bill!

President Obama's comprehensive jobs bill was killed yesterday in the Senate. WHERE ARE THE JOBS, OBUMMER? Or as Mitch McConnell more subtly said, "Democrats' sole proposal is to keep doing what hasn't worked, along with a massive tax hike that we know won't create jobs. Why on earth would you support an approach that we already know won't work?" Indeed, it's just common sense that if we lower taxes down from where they were in say, the nineties, then unemployment will finally fall.


But the Republicans haven't actually put fourth a jobs bill with the vital lowering taxes component. Even in Congress, where they run the place. You might think they don't actually HAVE a jobs plan. You're wrong! A very sensible plan that is guaranteed to increase employment has been proposed, by state representative with the zen-balanced name of Ritch Workman.

So Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, filed a bill this week to bring back "dwarf tossing," the barbaric and dangerous barroom spectacle that was imported from Australia and thrived briefly in Florida before it was outlawed in 1989. "I'm on a quest to seek and destroy unnecessary burdens on the freedom and liberties of people," Workman said. "This is an example of Big Brother government. "All that it does is prevent some dwarfs from getting jobs they would be happy to get," Workman said. "In this economy, or any economy, why would we want to prevent people from getting gainful employment?"

I'm all for this - if the dwarves are willing to do this kind of work, I say let 'em. Of course, the non-dwarf community is unlikely to benefit from this, and on a national scale, we might have to expand it to include, say, software-specialist tossing or real-estate agent tossing. But on the whole, a worthy plan Republicans! I'm sorry I doubted you.