But, of course, there will be cameras

Something even more repulsive than deep-fried butter.

After a more than two-month hiatus, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is planning to crash the presidential party once again with a heartland-themed re-launch of her "One Nation" bus tour this week in Iowa

"Made a huuuuuuuuge mistake"

Funny my money was that he'd pass his son up for Lucille Bluth:

Rupert Murdoch chooses Rollie Fingers as his successor instead of his son.

Just in time for the Straw Poll

Iowa you CANNOT out disgust us in food, try as you may Texas!

"To honor the butter cow's 100th birthday," the Iowa State Fair is selling deep fried butter on a stick this year. It is a butter stick on a stick, dipped in batter, deep fried, and drizzled with more butter.

Please enjoy the risque image accompanying this story which involves an activity that probably tastes better than deep fried butter.

The people who report on economic matters

Surely have "no skin" in who gets taxed and how much:

According to TV Guide's upcoming salary issue, Matt Lauer's new contract with NBC earns him $17 million a year--a well-deserved figure, given the exotic bird hazards that Lauer has to face on the "Today" show set. Brian Williams, host of NBC's "Nightly News," earns $13 million annually--$1 million more than ABC's "World News" host Diane Sawyer.

Bill O'Reilly (and Olbermann to be fair) makes $10 million a year -- or the same amount his employer paid out to Andrea Mackris.

Refuse to believe this is not an Onion headline.

An offshoot of the South Florida Tea Party called "Tea Party In Space" is looking to break apart the government's socialist takeover of the final frontier.

You stay classy Boner

Well, well:

Politico reports that House Speaker John Boehner was smacking around golf balls decorated with a “not-so-flattering pic” of Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi‘s mug at a fundraiser Tuesday.

It should be said Boehner's office denies he did this.

But in any case, it's not too big a deal to me, I spend much of the late 70s and early 80s hitting golf balls that looked like Boehner.

The Trouble with Waukesha

So the Democrats come up one Senate seat short of turning the Wisconsin Senate (two knocked off in predominantly GOP districts still a rare feat in American politics, yeah another liberal "moral victory" -- HUZZAH ha ha ha!).

But once again, the reason for coming up short seems to be Waukesha County's Republican County Clerk's magical ability to hold several thousand votes until late in the hour.

If this was a Democrat, of course, she'd have been forced to resign long ago by 24/7 outrages on FoxNews and Brooks Brothers Rioters and quiet phone calls from Obama.

But since IOKIYAR is a law of metaphysics, no problem.

I'm waiting for my first official UK proclaimation

Of "Who Could have Anticipated Rioting in London?"

"I may be crazy, but it's my sociopathy that keeps me going"

The disturbances of London were somewhat quelled last night as police flooded into London -- and many other places in England burned perhaps as a result. If you have not yet read it, please read Kevin Gosztola's post providing an explanation of what is happening. It is the rare thing that is not allowed otherwise in the media.

Sounds like an ideal time for the usual suspects at a typical location to say something incredibly stupid. I just wish they'd make up their minds.

This morning in the National Review, Stanley Kurtz suggests that President Obama privately supports the violent protesters.

Yes, because if there's one thing that's been proven over the last two and a half years, it's Obama never failing to kick ass and take names for the dispossessed. He's a fierce advocate y'know.

Alternatively, National Review's John Derbyshire takes a different approach, the kind of fair-minded one we've come to expect:

Today Britain is merely a place, a bazaar. Let it burn!

So Derbyshire goes Kurtz's fictional Obama one better, and publicly supports burning a country to the ground because amongst other things he doesn't like chicken curry.

As you might imagine, he'll continue to collect a pay check.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Please Stop Now

For fuck's sake, can we please stop this We should have gone with Hillary bullshit? First of all, Hillary is quitting her job at the end of Obama's (first) term. If she can't handle Secretary of State for two terms, what makes you think she can handle POTUS for even one? Secondly, can you name one single major accomplishment she's had as Secretary of State? Seriously, she's ranked right up there with Condi Rice on the "List of U.S. Secretaries of State with the Most Accomplishments". Finally, I chose Obama because I thought if we elected Hillary it'd be, "We're gettin' the band back together", and that would mean Rahm Emmanuel, Larry Summers, Robert Rubin back in governm ... Oh, wait. Anyway, I'm still sick of the Clintons and Clintonistas, and that's not going to change, so let it go, for the love of God.

Dammit!

Why didn't I think of that line!?

Angry Birds

The Right-Wing is now outraged over Bachmann's Newsweek cover picture in that it accurately portrays her as crazy and creepy rather than as a person of substance and "greatness".

Uh-huh.

So in the name of fairness, I'll make it appear more like Lincoln and less like Blinkin':























I know, I know, it's a bad beard, a fake beard. Plus, everybody knows that the fake beard in that family is Marcus.

Rimshot

Well, this will cause some consternation

This will piss Londoners off, because after two nights of rioting, they knew a third one was coming:

Reporting on the U.K. riots, Sky News said that 1,700 extra police officers were deployed, contrasted with 5,000 assigned to the Royal Wedding.

It will finally hopefully end tonight in one way or another as according to a radio report I just heard they are going to put 13,000 cops on the streets tonight (aka Rupert Murdoch's secret payroll), which is more than double the total last night.

The only thing this thing is missing so far is punk rock.

Underneath the surface

Not long ago Paris rioted, then recently Athens rioted, now London riots. The type of rioting is, of course, ridiculous and inexcusable a mob driven desire (mostly teens) for wanton destruction (and mass looting)...much like the inexorable effect of the policies that eventually caused them -- especially say you are a First World Country tossing "smart" bombs into a middle eastern country you don't like.

Once again, little attention is given to the reasons for the rioting, just the desire to crack heads.

Blather rinse repeat.

On Wisconsin

Today's the day when you get to vote (if that's still allowed in your area). Perhaps it is time to send a signal to folks like this:



Since they are so big on the fruits of human misery. Goodness knows the nation's most prominent Democrat will not do so.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

OREGON: Willamette Valley Wineries

Any recommendations?

(Umpqua Valley, too.)

The creepy underbelly of sports

I suppose in a way this could be a good thing for a poor family (if that is their situation)...but really?

Real Madrid has signed a seven-year-old football prospect from Argentina, who goes by the name Leo.

Leonel Angel Coira has signed with the Spanish club and will begin training Sept. 6, Madrid spokesman Juan Tapiador tells The Associated Press.

Argentine sports daily Ole reported last week that Coira had become the youngest player signed by Madrid but Tapiador said he is not.

That's getting dangerously close to Toddlers & Tiaras territory (creepiest and most awful show on television -- and I say this based upon never actually seeing it, I just rely on 'The Soup' to guide my opinion).

How shallow and malleable is Mitt Romney?

Pretty damned shallow and malleable.

In a 1994 Senate debate with Ted Kennedy, Mitt Romney revealed a startling chapter from his past: A close relative had died many years earlier in a botched illegal abortion, shaping Romney's stance in favor of safe and legal access to abortion for all women. But in the many years since that revelation, even as Romney flipped his position and became an ardent opponent of legal abortion, the details of his young relative's story, including even her name, have never been reported.

The relative he was referring to back in '94, Salon has learned, was a Detroit woman named Ann Keenan. She was the sister of Romney's brother-in-law and died at the age of 21 in 1963, a full decade before Roe v. Wade. While much of what happened remains murky, an investigation by Salon has uncovered never-reported details about her life and death, including: how she died (an infection); that her grief-stricken parents asked for memorial donations to be made to Planned Parenthood; and that the family apparently wanted to keep the death quiet because Romney's politically ambitious father, George, was then governor of Michigan.

But if they memory of a dead relative can be tossed into the ol' varmint patch or dog-cage, well Mitt's more than willing to pay the price.

"Congresswoman please strike a pose that does not make you look insane"

And that's the best she could do.

Seems familiar somehow.

Just to put things in perspective

About how so many on the Right probably still think.

Although I wasn't invited to shake hands with Hitler, I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President either.
-- Jesse Owens

Or as Republicans call them, the good ol' days.

Funny

The unemployment situation and stagnation has persisted for months and here comes austerity's nightmare. But the moment the stock market takes a hit, the Villagers and their 401Ks start to notice.

Who could possibly know more

About economics (this side of Rick Perry) than a man who spends all of his personal income at the casino?

NBC's Meet the Press: Debt ceiling - .... NBC's Meet the Press: Debt ceiling - John Kerry (D-MA), John McCain (R-AZ).

Frankly, Kerry himself married to an incredibly rich person isn't much better.

But in the mind of David Gregory, they're both just awesome.

That about sums it up

Marcy Wheeler sums up the effect of the Teabaggers precious desire to go all "burn-baby-burn!" on the American economy:

Last week, when analysts were contemplating a debt downgrade, they put a price tag on it: $100 billion...

A better way of thinking of it is how much every American will have to pay. That $100 billion among 310 million Americans works out to be $322 for every man, woman, and child to pay for the TeaBagger’s little temper tantrum.

To put that in perspective, that’s more than the 2008 Bush tax rebate gave to taxpayers (rebate checks started at $300/person).

So the TeaBaggers are now taking away whatever benefit we got from Bush’s last tax cut.

What the fuck!?

Clearly this is another FINE investment over y'know our own people.

Insurgents shot down a NATO Chinook helicopter during an overnight operation in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 37 people on board, a coalition military official said on Saturday. It was believed to be the deadliest helicopter crash in the nearly decade-long war, punctuating a surge of violence across the country even as American and NATO forces begin a modest drawdown of troops.

Afghan military officials put the death toll at 38, including 31 Americans and 7 Afghan commandos.

Obviously this means we're winning.

Yeah, he's a strong Republican contender alright

In addition to obtaining a "gentlemen's C" in American History and failing or barely passing any course dealing in science, Rick Perry proves once again, no Republican Governor from Texas can be too dumb to be strong candidate for the Party's Presidential Nomination.

"I got 98% of what I wanted" continued

Felix Salmon:

America’s ability to pay is neither here nor there: the problem is its willingness to pay. And there’s a serious constituency of powerful people in Congress who are perfectly willing and even eager to drive the US into default. The Tea Party is fully cognizant that it has been given a bazooka, and it’s just itching to pull the trigger. There’s no good reason to believe that won’t happen at some point.

And on the cable networks the effort to spin this as both parties fault was well underway.

If there is a way to pin this upon Democrats it is ONLY to the extent they are willing to be economic Neville Chamberlains and waive about the Debt-Ceiling deal as "Peace in our Time".

But in the end, that is like blaming the abused spouse for not walking away, there's only one real villain here (although as Res said S&P have volunteered for the role of Quisling).

NOW Can We Put The Ratings Agencies Out of Business?

No, because now it would look like sour grapes, wouldn't it? Vindictiveness? Partisan? Downright Putin-esque, actually. But shouldn't the S&P's grade of U.S. long-term debt have about as much credibility as Henry Blodget's grade of U.S. stocks? The administration should have prosecuted S&P and the the other criminally negligent ratings agencies when it had the chance. Too late now.

Morons. We have morons on our team.*

*Kewpie doll to whomever gets that reference.

Good governin'

It never fucking ends...please enjoy your diminished medicare and terminated unemployment benefits:

Before Congress voted to cut $2.4 trillion from government expenses over the next decade, lawmakers budgeted a 1.2 percent increase, to $8.6 billion, for all missile defense programs in fiscal 2012. That would raise total costs to about $150 billion, or roughly the inflation-adjusted amount poured into the Apollo program sending men to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s.

Of course one was an edifying moment in human history, the other the prattle-brained natterings of an old idiot and has been a demonstrably colossal failure. Other than that they are the same.

And he seemed like such a sympathetic defendant too

Hard to believe he got his kid rapin' ass convicted:

As a prophet of his polygamist sect, Warren Jeffs documented everything he did, keeping track of every marriage he performed, every young woman he wed, and even recording his intimate moments.

It was those meticulous records – including an audiotape of what prosecutors said was him sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl he'd taken as a bride – that helped authorities secure two child sex assault convictions against the 55-year-old ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Can't say you weren't warned

Huzzah! Only seven months in too:

The debate over raising the debt ceiling, which brought the nation to the brink of default, has sent disapproval of Congress to its highest level on record and left most Americans saying that creating jobs should now take priority over cutting spending, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.

A record 82 percent of Americans now disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job — the most since The Times first began asking the question in 1977, and even more than after another political stalemate led to a shutdown of the federal government in 1995.

A-U-S-T-E-R-I-T-Y for thee

But not for them:

How much is $22.5 billion? Our government could buy over 150 shiny new F-35s. Or it could fund the entire public school system for a quarter of the year. Instead, it spent it repairing rusting-away boats, planes, and tanks. Ugh.

Why that's almost as much as we spend on air conditioning in countries we currently occupy.

Meanwhile,

Canada's entire military budget in 2009 was $21,800,000,000.

Yeah, but they have to spend all that money (still far less than we do btw) on providing all of their citizens with medical care.

Wow, just like Bin Laden would have done

Holy crap!

The News Corp’s The Daily has a drone that it’s sent out a few times, as noted by The Observer. After The Daily broadcast some incredible footage of Alabama after it was devastated by storms, UAS Vision reported that The Daily owns a MicroDrone MD4-1000. The Daily sent it out again in June to bring back video from Minot, North Dakota after intense flooding there. (Total non-sequitur: Drones can hack cell phones now, you know.)

I thought the only drones Rupert owned were the hosts of Fox & Friends.

Hmmm, better bomb 'em anyway

You know for peace:

Iran has no intention of making an atomic bomb and its nuclear program is for purely peaceful purposes, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a television interview on Wednesday.

C'mon it won't cost much, Joe Lieberman will find somebody in this country to deprive.

Ever growing Republican Land

Lost in our continued economic devolution to the world of the Cleveland Administration (either non-consecutive term) are the human rights issues of the marching (they are very good at marching) Right.

The shame of Iowa, Steve King, for example:

In apocalyptic tones, King warned that free birth control would “prevent a generation” from being born and make America a “dying civilization”

Remember it's not just abortion they are at war with, it is plain ol' sex that doesn't involve the married, missionary, and unprotected. Ironically, considering King's proclivities, just like the Catholic Church wants to keep Africa.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

If he wasn't rich in irony

Newt would just have to be rich in Tiffany's credit lines and saturated fats:

The new age of "Hope"

Yeah, this will do it

Twitterers were aflame last evening with the prospect that Pat Buchanan had finally gone too far:

“Reverend Al, please don’t throw me into that briar patch.”

“Your boy, Barack Obama, caved in… “

“He’s your boy in the ring!”

And it was the pure delight he put on uttering 'briar patch' and 'boy' that made it the whistle so fierce a pack of dobermans were seen outside the MSNBC studios (of course, that just may be Pat's entourage).

But fret not, there's no chance anyone like Pat Buchanan will ever be out of a job, that's something "other" people experience.

There is nothing that Pat Buchanan can do to be fired, suspended, scolded, or even not complimented.

He has stuck up for Hitler; he has stuck up for death camp capos (comparing them to Jesus); he has stuck up for Jim Crow; he has stuck up for Apartheid; he's even most recently stuck up for Nordic spree killers. Yet the paychecks keep getting bigger. How is this new race-baiting going to do him in?

Nope, he'll always be there, in the Eichmann-like glass booth just kept outside the MSNBC studios ready to be set loose at all times of the day. The Buchanity of Evil.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Why You Will Never Be as Cool as James Wolcott

Because you can't put together sentences like this:

I wished I believed in hell so that I could picture Pam Geller there, where she belongs, chained forever to Roy Cohn with the nail polish just out of reach.

Sell the House. Sell the Car. Sell the Kids.

The debt bill is a POS; David Frum makes sense; the Market is going to zero; and on top of all of this, there are the groundhogs.

I need a drink.

The other eight percent were comprised of real people not living in reality

Hard to believe that 92% of Newt Gingrich's twitter followers do not actually exist.

Much like Gingrich's fan-base.

It's just Mark Halperin, the Tiffany's counter person and whoever Next is currently having an affair with.

All Apologies

Representative Doug Lamborn (R - Colorado) would like to apologize for referring to President Obama as a tar baby. Henceforth he shall use less racist descriptions like spook or spear-chucker.

Because Doug Lamborn wants you to know he is not a racist. A homophone homophobe and bigot sure, but not a racist. Some of his unmet best friends are black.

As I (and many many others) were saying

Over and over:

...a frustrated Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) said that Democrats "have negotiated with terrorists" who "have made it impossible to spend any money," according to Politico's sources in the room.

Biden responded to Doyle by saying that the Tea Party Republicans "have acted like terrorists," Politico said, citing several sources in the room. Biden's office declined to comment to Politico.

I wouldn't be surprised if Grover Nordquist now has a couple dozen stinger missles in his garage.

Humanity

While Pam "Atlas Juggs" Geller tries to wash her hands of Anders Behring Breivik being a big fan and instead blames Islam (pathetic, naturally) somebody shows what class is:

"My heart goes out to each of you as you deal with the unimaginable grief of your loss...I see the same wishes for our children to have happy, healthy lives; I see the same concerns for others less fortunate than ourselves; I see the same desire for peace and dignity."

That's Mohammad Ali.

And in the same story...

Lesbian Couple Rescued 40 Teens During Norway Massacre

There's not a goddamn thing in these stories that doesn't make extreme-rightest look like assholes.

Better continue negotiating with 'em Barack.

How orange was he, did he cry a lot?

It makes too much sense:

The FBI says it has a "credible" lead in the D.B. Cooper case, which involved the 1971 hijacking of a passenger jet over Washington state and the suspect's legendary parachute escape.

Assholes

Krugman (via Digby) sums it up quite well:

President Obama could have been more adamant in dealing with Republicans, perhaps threatening to use constitutional powers to ignore the debt ceiling if Congress abrogated its responsibility to raise it. But this episode demonstrates the effectiveness of extortion. Reasonable people are forced to give in to those willing to endanger the national interest.

And the media gives a notable assist to the destroyers.

Because Krugman has this terrible habit of being right I guess. How...dare...he!!!

(h/t Balloon Juice)

Deja Vu Sucks

In other even worse stories, history repeats itself yet again:

Syrian forces killed nearly 140 people on Sunday including 100 when the army stormed the flashpoint protest city of Hama to crush dissent on the eve of Ramadan, activists said.

If that seems at all familiar, it is because it should. In February 1982, the original Assad, Hafez, ordered an assault that his son Rifaat led killing perhaps tens of thousands in a crackdown in the same city. Not quite 20 years later another son Bashar has done it again.

Never mind forgetting history, this is reliving it in the worst possible way.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Groundhog Daze

Hegemaniacs,

You have such a head for knowing. You know everything! So tell me how to get rid of the groundhogs that have taken up residence under The GC's deck. They're eating all the plants and scaring the hell out of me.

And no, we can't kill them. That's illegal in the state in question.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.
res

Well, this will be interesting

In between the falling ash of the inevitable economic meltdown.

Senior lawyers at royal solicitors Harbottle & Lewis are "furious" at the way they have been blamed by Rupert Murdoch and others in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal, The Independent on Sunday has learned. They will meet the Metropolitan Police to explain their position "in the next few days".

They've been released from confidentiality and they are not going to take Rupert Murdoch blaming them lying down.

The Masters of the Universe have decreed

That we are all fucked.

I guess it is a "victory" so far as Obama is concerned as his wife and daughters were not given up in the deal.

I guess that's for the upcoming budget negotiations.

Yeah, right

I always roll my eyes in wonder at maintaining stupid explanations -- but then consider the acumen of the source:

Former President George W. Bush says his apparent lack of reaction to the first news of the September 11 2001 attacks was a conscious decision to project an aura of calm in a crisis.

Oh bullshit, it is so blatantly obvious you didn't know what the fuck to do. You're not running for shit anymore, just admit it.

Well that stunt wasted a lot of time

On to the next series of stupid stunts.

Under Ronald Reagan, the first George Bush, and Bill Clinton, payments on federal debt often got above 3% of GDP. Under Bush the second, payments were about where they are now. Yet suddenly, we are in a near collective hysteria.

Gee what could be the difference?

Pie Guy is an Ass

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Well, thank goodness "austerity" is the plan

Of our leaders of the beltway!

The economy grew less than expected in the second quarter as consumer spending barely rose amid higher gasoline prices, and growth braked sharply in the prior quarter, a government report showed on Friday.

Growth in gross domestic product -- a measure of all goods and services produced within U.S. borders - rose at a 1.3 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said. First-quarter output was sharply revised down to a 0.4 percent pace from 1.9 percent.

I guess the only thing to do is blame Paul Krugman for being right again. Damn liberals.

And they don't believe in 'Evolution'

Conservatives used to be fans of the old Vietnam maxim of burning a village in order to save it.

Now, they're aiming higher, now they aim to burn down the United States.

It's still a book

If it is on a Kindle right?

I don't do many book reviews, in fact, Res has done some and she reads "q-u-a-l-i-t-y" literature. I've done a very few for books authors have been kind enough to send me (a very very rare treat, FREE BOOK!). One of the former that we both highly recommend is "The Looming Tower" by Lawrence Wright which is simply the best book about Al Qaeda that I can conceive of. One of the latter is Charles Pierce, "Idiot America", a triumph of justifiable scorn about conservative idiocy even before they idiotically called themselves 'Teabaggers'.

But, I have digressed.

The reason I don't do book reviews is that most of the books I read are non-fiction and historical and really, do you want a book review of some 900 page tome about "London" or the "First World War"? I don't.

But I have to say, I do love the non-fictional works of Eric Larson that read like the sugar candy of a great crime novel. 'Devil in the White City', loved it. 'Thunderstruck', loved it. And now, I just finished reading 'In the Garden of Beasts' primarily about the Ambassador to Germany at the dawn of Nazi Germany and his daughter (a writer of some later consequence and the very model of an impressionable dilettante). You couldn't make that story up, it's so bizarre. Essentially they know (and in the case of his daughter, intimately) many of the famous and infamous people of the American and German 30s. It's like Herman Wouk's Henry family, only they are interesting.

Oh, and it is also a cautionary tale of what you write in your diary and how it looks to posterity.

Highly recommended diversion from our modern era of depression, to read about the last one.

To Boldly Go

Shatner's going to screen The Captains for free on the U.S.S. Intrepid this weekend.

Can you imagine how crazy this screening's going to be? I foresee a lot of middle-aged guys squeezed into the Star Trek tunics and wielding the phasers they carried around when they were eight.

Twin bill from hell

Ugh.

"SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Reunion with Victoria Jackson & Joe Piscopo @ the new CLUB PISCOPO in Atlantic City."

How is this not in Branson?

Dear George W. Bush

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you again for your tax cuts, your two pointless wars, and your massive expansion of the national security state.

We couldn't have reached this point without you.

Ass.

xxx...res

And so it continues

Another day another bit of assholery revealed:

Sara Payne, whose eight-year-old daughter Sarah was abducted and murdered in July 2000, has been told by Scotland Yard that they have found evidence to suggest she was targeted by the News of the World's investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who specialised in hacking voicemail...

The evidence that police have found in Mulcaire's notes is believed to relate to a phone given to Payne by [Rebekah] Brooks as a gift to help her stay in touch with her supporters.

And in perhaps the more incredulous statement of the year Brooks replied:

The idea of her being targeted is beyond my comprehension.

Really?!!! That's what you say, NOW?

Jeebus.

Cruel irony

Murdoch now convinced he's the Tsar of all the Russias!

Former staff at the News of the World are understood to be underwhelmed by efforts by News International to find them work after they were handed a list of potential jobs which included posts in Siberia

Retaliating with more democracy

Rather incredible pictures from Norway in the wake of Brevik's killing spree...or as Pat Buchanan calls it, "understandable but a little dramatic".

Can we at least significantly hike Buchanan's taxes?

It isn't like Ernst Stavro Blofeld didn't get briefings either

Oh, wait, even fictional supervillians don't get this kind of access:

The extraordinary access that Cabinet ministers granted Rupert Murdoch and his children was revealed for the first time yesterday, with more than two dozen private meetings between the family and senior members of the Government in the 15 months since David Cameron entered Downing Street.

In total, Cabinet ministers have had private meetings with Murdoch executives more than 60 times and, if social events such as receptions at party conferences are included, the figure is at least 107.

On two occasions, James Murdoch and former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks were given confidential defence briefings on Afghanistan and Britain's strategic defence review by the Defence Secretary, Liam Fox. A further briefing was held with Ms Brooks, Rupert Murdoch and the Sunday Times editor John Witherow.

Only on Fox

Apparently there is a "Democratic analyst" (always must be in quotes with Fox) that Rupert occasionally throws up on his cable news empire named "Krystal Ball".

If you are going to employ ringers, could you at least give them names that don't come in a Rex Morgan, M.D. theme?

Like we’ll need infrastructure in this country

Dear advocates of having roads to drive on that remain paved or bridges that don't collapse -- don't you people know their are at least three or four countries out there that haven't been invaded or occupied?

The engineers found that overall, the cost of failing to invest more in the nation's roads and bridges would total $3.1 trillion in lost GDP growth by 2020. For workers, the toll of investing only at current levels would be equally daunting: 877,000 jobs would also be lost. Already, the report found, deficient and deteriorating surface transportation cost us $130 billion in 2010.

Cry me a river (no wait, there's no need as one will soon be arriving when that nearby damn breaches). Have you not caught on to our nations brilliant jobs strategy? Instead of spending trillions on internal improvements (screw you Henry Clay!) we'll spend it occupying ever "ran", "raq" or "stan" we damn well feel like, the more vowels the better.

Soon, the only jobs will be in the military (or para-military) until you can finally retire and collect Social Security at 65, 67, 69, 71 oh screw it you cannot retire, somebody has to pay for the tax cuts of Luke Russert II, and various and sundry Bushes.

Just remember how free you are you ungrateful bastard.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Sums up the sociopathy perfectly

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

It's because he "earned it" undoubtedly

All, undoubtedly, on "merit" right daddy?

James Murdoch could soon earn a cash bonus of up to $12m (£7.3m) from News Corporation on top of his $3m salary even though the part of the company he has run has been mired in the phone-hacking scandal, shut one of its flagship British newspapers and been forced to abandon the bid for BSkyB in the wake of cross-party hostility in the UK.

I just pray they'll escape the totalitarian oppression of the private jet tax!

Beyond Parody

If the media actually fairly applied coverage of the parties this might actually reveal the psychopathy:

According to the Washington Post, the House GOP leadership played a short clip from the Ben Affleck movie “The Town” to rally their caucus around Boehner’s debt plan:

Ben Affleck: I need your help. I can’t tell you what it is. You can never ask me about it later. And we’re going to hurt some people.

Jeremy Renner: Whose car are we going to take?

In the movie, the characters then put on hockey masks and bludgeon two men with sticks, then shoot one man in the leg.

I'm just relieved they didn't show Joe Pesci highlights from Casino they may have started masturbating right there.

Tell it to the Albigensians (among countless others) asshole

Bill O'Reilly has spent a decade tarring Muslims with the broad brush of mass murder so naturally...

But Breivik is not a Christian. That's impossible. No one believing in Jesus commits mass murder. The man might have called himself a Christian on the net, but he is certainly not of that faith.

In a long series of stupid statements, this may be the dumbest statement Bill O'Reilly has ever made.

Let us eat shit-cakes

This is an abysmal system that is going to end badly one way or another. No shared sacrifice from these assholes.

The 400 richest Americans used to pay 30% of their income on the average to Uncle Sam. Today, they pay 18% on the average, according to Steve Rattner, a Wall Street financier, who just presented these figures on Mornings With Joe,MSNBC.

The main reason for the drop in their tax rate of some 40% is the tax cuts by George Bush in 2003, taking the rate paid on dividends and capital gains down to 15%.

Not all that far afield really

Social Security Reform Bill Encourages Americans To Live Faster, Die Younger

Poor BP

They're only on pace to make over $22 billion in profits this year.

We better cut their taxes.

If I was Speaker of the House

I'd have to match Boehner by running my political platforms by Tommy Chong before I tell the caucus.

Although at least Tommy has some appreciable skill besides mastication.

Hmmm, I wonder why?

Funny first this happened:

The former Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Lord Macdonald was warned by his own employees as far back as 2006 that there were a "vast array" of News of the World phone-hacking victims.

And then this happened:

However, the hacking investigation was never widened despite pressure on the police and Lord Macdonald, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service at the time, to do so.

And then this happened:

Lord Macdonald...has since been hired by the newspaper's owner, Rupert Murdoch

I'm sure it's just a coincidence and there's no reason to suspect a connection...at all.

Keep it classy asshole

Glenn Beck was big enough to say at least they didn't deserved to be killed though...sorta.

Beck said the camp "sounds a little like the Hitler Youth. I mean, who does a camp for kids that's all about politics?"

He then went on to say that he had warned that there would be horrible consequences due to the rise of what he called the "evil" strain of Islam in Europe. Islam, he said, is "squeezing the neck" of the continent, and multiculturalism is "killing" it.

So you see, even when Muslims are not involved...they're still to blame if some white people get killed.

Update:

As to "who does a camp for kids that's all about politics?" Well, among others, followers of Beck's 9/12 project have done exactly that this summer with a program called "Vacation Liberty School." In these classes, children are taught about the supposed values of the country's founders. The school is organized and run by followers of the conservative tea party movement, although they have no official ties to Beck.

Lame or crazy?

Well, those really were some awesome speeches. The less fortunate get it...or everybody does.

Inspiring.

But truly none so inspired as "I'm shooting for no better than a single A rating" Boehner.

"I didn't sign up for going mano-a-mano with the President of the United States" — Speaker of the House John Boehner (R - Ohio), overheard by CBS News' Jill Jackson as he left the Capitol building following tonight's televised address.

No, he signed up for this:

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) outlined the GOP's debt-ceiling plan to conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh on Monday before showing it to his conference.

Priorities.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Welcome to My World

Dear Gay Friends,

Now that same sex marriage is legal in New York, there's no doubt that some of the questions/comments I've had to put up with as a singleton for years will be coming your way. See a list of examples below (Hegemaniacs: add yours in comments.) The ones in bold are the ones that well-meaning people have directed at me over the years.

I suggest practicing your best fake-smile in anticipation.

xxx...res

• When are you gonna get MAR-RIED?





• I just want to see you settled.





• Are you EVER gonna get MAR-RIED?





• What are you waiting for?





• All I want is a grandchild. Is that so much to ask?





• Do you want to break your mother's heart?





• You know what he's/she's thinking? "Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?," that's what he's/she's thinking!





• You're not getting any younger, you know.





• If he/she is not marrying you after two years, he/she is not marrying you.





• I just want you to be happy. (h/t watertiger)





• It's as easy to fall in love with a rich man/woman as it is to fall in love with a poor man/woman.





• Do you want your mother to die before she sees you married? (h/t watertiger)





• If you're good-for-nothing brother can get divorced, then so can you! (h/t watertiger)






• Your father and I were married? What? It's too good for you?





• I just want the best for you.





• If you don't hurry up, all of the good ones will be taken.

And my personal favorite:

If you don't watch out, you're going to wind up like your cousin Maryanne.*

*Died alone in her apartment at age of forty-five.

ASIDE: What the HELL is wrong with Blogger's formatting?!?!??!

You sure about that?

Seems like the very definition of a consensus to me.

BTW, that piece of shit opened at 10 more theaters this weekend and its box office take dropped about two-thirds.

Can we just confirm that the only people that appreciate this person are cable news channels and smart-ass bloggers looking for material?

Dear CNN

I've really had enough of the "Glamor Shots" pictures of Norway's new Quisling when ever you speak of him.

Right Wing Has Beens

This article about right wing fossil Dinesh D'Souza's latest wingnut welfare gig is really funny.

Domestic Terrorism

Charles Pierce, writing in Esquire:

But above all, they will say, Ignore the fact that there is still a horrible utility in political violence, the way there was during Reconstruction, or during the labor wars of the early twentieth century. If there were not, it wouldn't be so hard to get an abortion in Kansas, and assault weapons would not have been accessories of choice at recent rallies purportedly held to discuss changes in the way the country organizes its health-care system.

If you haven't read Pierce's excellent article, you should. And if you're a Norwegian politician who thinks that you ought to let a domestic terrorist dictate public policy, shame on you. You need only look at the example of the United States to see how well that works.

This can go right next to the Grover Nordquist post

A post literally on how Amy Winehouse's death can be used in your small business plan.

Obviously I've been using the obsolete Freddie Prinze business plan.

State of Cosplay

John Boeher: We insist you shoot the American economy in the head.

Barack Obama: How about just in the foot? Okay, okay, both feet, but for now, that's my final offer. But you guys have to hold the gun.

Harry Reid: Let's compromise, let's shoot it in the gut and see what happens.


[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Speaking of Right Wing Nutters

Amen

The Brits Tory/Lib Dem coalition in England can summarize the state of our nation quite well:

Business Secretary Vince Cable has launched an extraordinary attack on "right wing nutters" in the US who are threatening to cripple the world economy...

"The irony of the situation at the moment, with markets opening tomorrow morning, is that the biggest threat to the world financial system comes from a few right-wing nutters in the American congress rather than the eurozone."

Mr. Cable is a Liberal Dem the middle of the road party in the UK, but I think it is fair to assume this is an agreed upon position in the entirety of the Cameron government.

Where's John McCain

This morning talking about how to balance the federal budget by having Cindy take care of it, like she does his?

Maybe he'll show us the hip slide-rule moves that crashed many a plane in the Navy?

Kindred spirit

Sounds like the worst Norwegian since Quisling was a Glenn Beck script-writer.

And I'm not going to watch the video but according to Balloon Juice this was included.



Most all of the GOP is gonna be pissed they didn't come up with this first.

I'm willing to bet

That John Boehner walked out on Barack Obama more often than he's walked out of a tanning booth.

But at least Boehner took the time to take in a ballgame.



(pic via Deadspin)

I'm a good portion "Norwegian"

But along with running the fuck away from lutefisk, my family abandoned the language so by the time the fourth generation came around (waves) I cannot understand a lick of it.

But apparently the right-wing mass murder suspect liked Pam Geller's Atlas Shrugs a lot.

Go figure.

But but we already blamed a Muslim!!!!

The nightmarish day in Norway naturally had people "suspecting" Al Qaeda in the kind of societal scapegoating we've come to expect.

Of course, suspecting is a little much in Rupert-Land desperate to fan the flames of full on insanity in a direction other than themselves (I wonder if they'll hack the nation's cell phones tonight to see if it worked?).



Naturally, it turns out it wasn't Al Qaeda, but rather the kind of right-wing bible-distorting lunatic that is all too well-known (and well ignored) in this country but God-forbid it gets mentioned in various terrorist warnings.

The 32-year-old suspected of massacring at least 80 young people at a summer camp and setting off a bomb in downtown Oslo that killed at least seven is a mystery to investigators: a right-winger with anti-Muslim views but no known links to hardcore extremists.

"He just came out of nowhere," a police official told The Associated Press.

My sympathies Norway

A bombing near the Prime Minister and then a mass shooting where they thought he would be. Dozens killed.

Awful.

Au contrarian

Really, this is what it has come down to at Slate?


What is next, "Pumpkins, they are ruining Halloween!" or "The flag, stripes make our country look fat!"

Oh, I've got one. "Constant contrariness is ruining everything! I mean it's why SLATE exists!"

This tweet is right!

Get on with it already

Justice delayed...

Top Pentagon leaders will notify Congress as early as Friday that the Defense Department is ready to end the ban on gays serving openly in the military, officials said, a landmark moment after almost two decades of controversy.

The action means the ban will formally disappear in late September.

Will the last person in Britain, not hacked

Please call me...on their landline?

Three solicitors representing phone hacking victims were themselves targets of the News of the World, according to Newsnight. They included Mark Lewis, the lawyer for the family of Milly Dowler and Gordon Taylor, the former head of the Professional Footballers' Association. The programme reported that the solicitors were not put under surveillance for the purpose of writing stories about them.

Murdoch may have flown out of the country on his private jet, but the scandal is ever metastasizing.

And the "hacking" may soon find news areas of privacy invasion by Murdoch, Inc.

Tom Watson, the Labour MP who helped expose phone hacking, has warned that the illegal interception of emails will be the next big scandal to emerge.

Get ready to sign more checks Rupert. In the UK Murdoch's pernicious power has -- for now at least -- been diminished substantially. Here, not so much. The vast majority of Americans want such potential privacy invasions looked into. What reason do we have to believe this Administration, so preternaturally afraid of attacks from the Right (as opposed to their base), will do so thoroughly? We will see.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Why can't you be the son of someone famous?

Because that's how it works for Luke Russert!

Cenk Uygur--the progressive online talk show host whose brief tenure as an MSNBC anchor ended on Wednesday--tore into the network in a lengthy monologue on Wednesday night, saying he had turned down a smaller role on MSNBC because he had been told he was too combative towards "those in power."

Always figured this was under Karl Rove's bed

A sinkhole formed in a house on July 19, 2011 in the north of Guatemala City. (Johan Ordonez/AFP/Getty Images …

End of an Era

Ends quietly in the middle of the night. Who knows whether we'll ever summon up the initiative to return.

The thing about Allen West

Is that working for him is proof you're on par with being as crazy and mean as he is...which means he must employ Tex Watson and Squeaky Fromme.

Eh, close enough

The kind of victory Pyrrhus could appreciate.

Muammar Gaddafi could stay in Libya if he gives up power, France said on Wednesday, signalling a new effort to find a diplomatic solution to a five-month-old war that has failed to oust the resilient leader.

The United States said Gaddafi must quit, but whether he remained in Libya after that would be up to the Libyan people.

Couldn't they at least suggest Elba?

Yet another great policy victory for our nation's strategy of eventually fighting every possible nation. You better get ready Lichtenstein and Lesotho!

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Pies in the face are bad enough

But when did the Tories start electing sex-dolls?



via Watertiger.

Edvard Munch is not amused.

Just how bad is it?

How slimy is the Murdoch scandal? This slimy.

They literally employed an axe murderer to "hack" people.