Excuse me, but is there any real need to even contemplate reading this column?

Hasn't Bobo cranked this fucker out about 500 times already?

I did not know there was a debate

Questions you never thought about, answered.

No Surprise for Bisexual Men: Report Indicates They Exist

Thanks New York Times, now demonstrate that Marcus Bachmann doesn't find his wife's touch icky, because most of us assume that one too.

Let me share "too much information" with you

Um, ew -- the ol' blacklight test was run on the five-star hotel Dominique Strauss-Kahn was at, and as part of the evidence leading to a dismissal of the charges was this:

Three of the other stains on the carpet contained the semen and DNA of three different unknown males, and one other stain contained amylase and a mixture of DNA from three additional unknown individuals. The stain on the wallpaper contained the semen and DNA of a fourth unknown male.

But I'm sure that Holiday Express you stayed at last night was completely spotless.

The situation may be fluid

But I don't remember that many "arrested" people showing up at a hotel to discuss their lack of being arrested. But then again, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is just the son of a ruthless dictator actively engaged in a shooting war, as opposed to a civil protester exercising their First Amendments right to protest governmental policies in the "Land of the Free", those people get locked up post-haste.

The BBC and CNN quoted him as telling reporters that government forces had lured the rebels into a trap and “broken the back” of the opposition army and that pro-Gaddafi forces are back in control of the city.

The confusion made the assertion impossible to confirm, but with gunfire and explosions echoing ominously through the streets and Gaddafi’s whereabouts still unknown, it was clear that the capital was far from secure.

It's very had to determined right now how much of anyone's statement from any side of the Libya fight is accurate or a preposterous lie, but this seems like about 3 Baghdad Bob's out of 5.

This situation will undoubtedly get resolved relatively soon (give or take a decade) so our oil companies can commence a new round of exploitation for "freedom".

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Hmmmm, I wonder why?

Couldn't be because they're petty assholes now could it?

“We also commend our British, French, and other allies, as well as our Arab partners, especially Qatar and the UAE, for their leadership in this conflict. Americans can be proud of the role our country has played in helping to defeat Qaddafi, but we regret that this success was so long in coming due to the failure of the United States to employ the full weight of our airpower.”

Yes, as Benin says, forget the "blame America first" crowd, it's now "do not thank America at all" -- and naturally their major issue is WE DIDN'T BOMB MORE AND SOONER!.

Oh, well they'll still always have these fond memories:



And the camping trips.

Now that's a ringing endorsement

And the winner for psychological confliction is...

Muammar Gaddafi's former right hand man, Abdel-Salam Jalloud, who flew to Italy on Saturday after defecting, has said he doubts Gaddafi will surrender, but has claimed he "doesn't have the courage, like Hitler, to kill himself," writes Tom Kington in Rome.

So Libya's Goehring/Borman says Gaddafi worse than Hitler.

Charlie Sheen declares this the "Winning" quote of the day.

And now a word

From perpetually far more accurate that John Bolton (let alone Jonah Goldberg) middle east scholar Juan Cole -- the Krugman of international affairs (so you won't be seeing him on TV much):

I have taken a lot of heat for my support of the revolution and of the United Nations-authorized intervention by the Arab League and NATO that kept it from being crushed. I haven’t taken nearly as much heat as the youth of Misrata who fought off Qaddafi’s tank barrages, though, so it is OK. I hate war, having actually lived through one in Lebanon, and I hate the idea of people being killed. My critics who imagined me thrilling at NATO bombing raids were just being cruel. But here I agree with President Obama and his citation of Reinhold Niebuhr. You can’t protect all victims of mass murder everywhere all the time. But where you can do some good, you should do it, even if you cannot do all good. I mourn the deaths of all the people who died in this revolution, especially since many of the Qaddafi brigades were clearly coerced (they deserted in large numbers as soon as they felt it safe). But it was clear to me that Qaddafi was not a man to compromise, and that his military machine would mow down the revolutionaries if it were allowed to.

I've been critical of this process for the same reason I've been critical of much of American military policy the last few years...I just don't find bombing things to be good policy, silly me, but it appears the multi-spelled man from determined to wear every outfit on the Sgt. Pepper album has lost power. And that's not too bad a thing to happen.

But now what?

To be settled at the negotiating table?

Qaddafi is apparently on the precipice of falling/fleeing/larping. Leaving only three questions.

1. What is the official spelling?

2. Will he get to keep all his wardrobe, or has the UK confiscated it for Elton John?

3. How much marginally better or worse will his successors be?

Never mind why...

The question of "why?" was not allowed be asked in Great Britain earlier this month when an instance of police violence eventually prompted widespread rioting across the country's largest cities.

For example:



Here's what was reported shortly thereafter, but not even "dared" to be considered in relationship to rioting:

The increase in unemployment appears to have been most concentrated among the young, with unemployment among 18 to 24-year-olds increasing to 18% in Q2, from 17.7% in Q1

That's well more than double the unemployment rate in the UK as a whole (but not as high as the rate in this country USA! USA! USA!).

But like a good modern 'Villagers' everywhere the problem immediately became 'young people are not taught about respect or coddled' and other fascistic-sounding nonsense, leading to this:

The tough sentencing in the aftermath of the riots has led to outbreaks of unrest in prisons across the country, as new research for The Independent on Sunday reveals that the courts' approach to riot-related offences has piled millions of pounds on to the bill for running overcrowded prisons.

Ah yes, as ever the solution to government and societal problems is not to look for causes or ways to correct them, it is to SPEND MORE MONEY ON THE JAILS! (but not as much as this country USA! USA! USA!)

FREEDOM!!!

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

This young man can be described in one word

"HERO"

He hath now contributed more to the realm of media commentary, nay America, than Kim Kardasian.

He's bein' a "job provider"

Mitt Romney, THE COMMON MAN!

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R), who in June told voters that he was “also unemployed,” has applied for a permit to bulldoze his 3,000-square-foot, $12 million home in La Jolla, California, and replace it with one nearly four times its size. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the new home will be two stories and more than 11,000 square feet. Romney also owns a $10 million estate in New Hampshire. His campaign declined to comment on the renovation plans.

But I'm sure he can identify with your problems.

Awww

Time for some Oxy to ease the pain:

The just-released Arbitron report reveals that a lot less people are listening to right-wing talk radio.

With a lull in ratings since November, Rush Limbaugh had a 3.0 share of listeners for his radio time slot, which is a 33% slide from October and from last April, reports Crain's Business.

Meanwhile, The Sean Hannity Show was reported to be down 28% from its peak numbers in the fall.

I guess he'll have to start wearing white sheets and burning crosses to keep his remaining base.

Of course she is

Lost in the many stupidities of claiming Obama was born in Kenya is the fact that so many, uberconservative candidates are tied to violence against gays in neighboring Uganda.

The evangelical organizer who helped Michele Bachmann win the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa Saturday was previously charged with terrorism in Uganda after being arrested for possession of assault rifles and ammunition in February 2006, just days before Uganda's first multi-party elections in 20 years.

Peter E. Waldron spent 37 days in the Luriza Prison outside Kampala, where he says he was tortured, after being arrested along with six Congolese and Ugandan nationals for the weapons, which were described variously in news reports as having been found in his bedroom or a closet in his home. The charges, which could have led to life in prison, were dropped in March 2006 after a pressure campaign by Waldron's friends and colleagues and what Waldron says was the intervention of the Bush administration.

The Fox News audience

Hey, by this "logic" shouldn't we be arming against the rapture?

...more than six times as many respondents (19 percent to 3 percent) said we should focus on building weapons to kill aliens before curbing greenhouse gases. Watch a compilation

And we're not talking non-Citizen alien, we're talking E.T..

So why'd you say it then?

Just make your campaign "Gaffe 2012".

About her "fear the Soviet Union" comment on the radio, Bachmann says, "we all know that it is Russia, it's not the Soviet Union."

If everyone knows it, why don't you?

Hey, maybe he means he'll help him out

With evidence supporting evolutionary biology?



Or with suggestions for hotel room porn?

Watch much FoxNews?

Noted and reformed cocaine scholar and lottery winner Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson once said of Terry Bradshaw, "he couldn't spell "cat" if you spotted him the "c" and the "a"..."

This pithy observation goes hand-in-hand with the FoxNews-related basis by which Mr. Bradshaw appears to get his information.



Well, Cokie Roberts says it is VERY exotic.

(think he was probably joking...probably)

It's raining shoes!

This should be interesting.

Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator at the centre of the News of the World phone hacking, has been ordered by a court to reveal who instructed him to access the voicemails of model Elle MacPherson and five other public figures including Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes.

Mulcaire is due to reveal these details by the end of next week in a move that will throw further light on the scale of phone hacking at the now defunct News International tabloid.

The Guardian has learned that Mulcaire has lost an attempt to appeal against a court order obliging him to identify who instructed him to hack the phones, something he has resisted since February.

Mulcaire, who was jailed in 2007 after pleading guilty to hacking the phones of members of the royal household for the News of the World, has been forced into making the disclosure following legal action by the comedian and actor Steve Coogan.

Damn blue states

Via the ACLU and Balloon Juice:

Yes, pretty much

The Daily Show - World of Class Warfare - Warren Buffett vs. Wealthy Conservatives
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Money shot

Rick Perry, he really loved porn -- especially investing in a company that made it.

Like a good self-proclaimed fundy.

Time Capsule

I understand it is only behind her fear of Napoleon.

But what people recognize is that there's a fear that the United States is in an unstoppable decline. They see the rise of China, the rise of India, the rise of the Soviet Union and our loss militarily going forward.

This has got to be an elaborate joke

Or incredibly stupid (how 'bout both?)...I'm going with the latter regarding Sgt. "Moran" (that's right that's his name) though the name is why I'm thinking it's a really bad and foolish joke -- for that Moran.

The America Connection

Oh oh, phone hacking just got closer to Murdoch's most recent nation of claimed citizenship.

James Desborough, an award-winning reporter at the former News of the World newspaper, has been arrested by officers investigating the phone-hacking scandal...

His move to the US makes his arrest, the 13th made by Operation Weeting, particularly significant. If Desborough was involved in hacking while in Britain, as police appear to believe he was, it raises the question of whether he practised those techniques in the US – and if so, whether he was the first and only News of the World journalist in the US to do so.

And the likelihood he didn't and others also did not seems pretty low.

Odds somebody in the U.S. is arrested with the cell phone records of a 9/11 family are getting higher.

That was a pretty entertaining fixture yesterday

When Barcelona played the 1976 Philadelphia Flyers.



Morinho's eye gouge starting at 2:43 is particularly interesting, I don't remember Flyer's coach Fred Shero doing that.

And not quite Scottish Messi-induced-orgasm machine Ray Hudson's commentary adds to the entertainment value.

As for Morinho's score on the assault, we'll have to await the decision of the style referee seen in the background.

Exit Stage right!

Reformed Coven member Christine O'Donnell is not going to be badgered with your policy questions about her book about her policy positions, Pierce Morgan!

...and she stomps off the set in a huff -- undoubtedly to cast a spell, or punch a hippie, or maybe both.

Here's a suggestion, ask Morgan about phone hacking then you can both storm off the set, leaving it empty and giving CNN it's best rated program in years.

If I didn't just fall off the turnip truck (mmmm turips)

I'd swear that this Rupert Murdoch lying thing was becoming a pattern:

Rebekah Brooks remained on the payroll at News International despite the song and dance that she had made about “resigning”, belatedly, as chief executive. Now, I hear that she is enjoying a perk that has outraged fellow employees of Rupert Murdoch.

“Brooks has been allowed to keep her chauffeur-driven car for two years,” says one toiler at The Sunday Times.

What a pathetic sack of excrement

Darrell Issa is.

Has Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) turned the House Oversight Committee into a bank lobbying firm with the power to subpoena and pressure government regulators? ThinkProgress has found that a Goldman Sachs vice president changed his name, then quietly went to work for Issa to coordinate his effort to thwart regulations that affect Goldman Sachs’ bottom line.

But on the other hand some say Obama's a socialist so it's all even.

Putting the ass in best asset

Republicans really are Obama's secret weapon for re-election. Your current flavor of the month (vanilla edition) is Rick Perry. He likes threatening secession while sucking down federal money and pretending he found out Ben Bananke supplied salsa made in New York City. In the alternative he's a noted skeptic of science, thinking they play politics.

In a way this makes sense from Perry's point of view. As he got pretty much D's and C's in science, meaning the scientists were better at science than he was, which is not surprising. But he also got the same grades in political science, economics and history. So the scientists were better at that too. But hey, he's a moronic Republican Governor from Texas, so if he somehow malaprops his way into the White House he can use Bush's old lines about who the President is when he gets surrounded by "egg heads" and their 3.0 and better GPAs.

But he's definitely always been a Republican who seemed destined for the top:

John Sharp, an A&M classmate and now a former state comptroller and Texas legislator, had something else to say about college-aged Perry.

“When I first saw him, I thought he looked stupid,” Sharp said in a 1989 interview with the Abilene Reporter-News

And that guy is a personal friend.

Oh well, there's still the "Greater White Hope" that is Chris Christie, who just got his state's credit rating knocked down another notch because of his tax cuts to AA-.

Which is far too many A-grades to get himself the nomination.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Yes, but how do they do against Chlamydia?

Not that the broadcast media will ever notice:

...the Tea Party ranks lower than any of the 23 other groups we asked about — lower than both Republicans and Democrats. It is even less popular than much maligned groups like “atheists” and “Muslims.” Interestingly, one group that approaches it in unpopularity is the Christian Right.

Um, what?

Is this seriously a debate -- whether a relatively successful baseball reliever of sixty years ago, who pitched for a team no longer in New York, most famously against another team no longer in greater New York, was Jewish enough?

Thanks New York Times for your granting of column inches (and it's a long column) to the wisdom of Alan Dershowitz on the matter:

Dershowitz, in fact, theorized that Branca, to his eyes as a boy, did not pitch “Jewishly.”

What the fuck does that even mean? Is Mel Brooks supposed to write some awful sketch about this?

And it is accompanied by further commentary from the usual cast of 'who gives a shit what they think?' self-important history bores, like Doris (don't forget the Kearns) Goodwin and, oh for fuck's sake!, William Donohue.

Is this a transcript from the worst outtake in Ken Burn's 'Baseball'?

What Digby said

Leon Panetta's cunning plan to make the Department of Defense sacrosanct from cuts -- but to screw over soldiers & sailors by dumping all their retirement benefits to favor our true lords and masters Wall Street.

Yeah, brilliant.

They'll have a strong case before a court of FoxNews appointees

Really?

Cigarette Warning Labels: Tobacco Companies Sue Federal Government Over Graphic Warnings

They might have a chance, after all they are "double plus good job creators" not only employing people, but killing other people and opening up other vacancies across the nation, nay, world.

Call me Captain Renault

I for one, am again very, very, disappointed -- one might say "Shocked" at the behavior of Rupert Murdoch and the fruit of his loins.

It turns out that the very man at the heart of the hacking scandal, Clive Goodman, contrary to the testimony of Rupert and James Murdoch (and Rebekah Brooks) stated in his resignation letter of four years ago that phone hacking was long the talk of the editors.

But that's not all, Rupert and James hung their lawyers out to dry before Parliament last month, saying they had reviewed their operation to make sure it was behaving properly and given them a clean bill of health.

Uh, not quite, you aussie douchebag, not quite:

the parliamentary panel released a letter from Harbottle & Lewis, a law firm hired by the Murdochs, which they have repeatedly cited as having given the News of the World a “clean bill of health” in reviewing a cache of e-mails in 2007. The law firm’s letter contradicts that assertion and says that its own investigation had been limited strictly to advising the company in its employment dispute with Mr. Goodman.

Not that anybody of any wealth and power is going to go to jail...that sort of thing is so many Leona Helmsleys ago.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Truthiness in action

Via Digby:

Mitchell: So here she's saying to Lester Holt that raising the debt ceiling is to take care of future money not past money, which is not factual.

Cook: It's not true, but on the other hand she's not saying anything that a lot of Republican caucus attendees or primary voters would disagree with.

Mitchell: So, politically it's fine.

Cook: Yeah, politically I think it's fine ...

No wonder we have such a lofty opinion of politicians AND the media. If enough people believe in fairy tales, why IT IS AS GOOD AS TRUE!

Oh lord

Jesus' career stats:

41 completions, 82 attempts 50%, 5TDs 3 Interceptions, backing up Kyle Orton.

I shudder to think what this makes Tom Brady or Peyton Manning.

Iowa's only defense mechanism

Against Right-Wing crazy.


photo from IowaPolitics at flickr.com

The Treasonator

Good to see secession advocate Rick Perry has hit the ground running on his Republican Hypocrisy Tour.

OREGON: Vegetarian Eats

Your favorites, please? Will be in Portland, Ashland, and Eugene, among other locales.

As always, thanks.

xxx...res

You should see his coming "Illustrated Protocols of the Elders of Zion"

Shorter, Mike Huckabee: "If you cannot make a misinformative cartoon about 9/11 for kids (and most importantly FOR PROFIT!) than this isn't 'Murica anymore."

Get your cameras ready

I understand today Marcus Bachmann will be engaged in a day of prayer and counseling of those who like corndogs.

The "Commie" Super Rich

Steve Doocy and the brown-haired non-Steve Doocy will not be amused with Warren Buffett:

OUR leaders have asked for “shared sacrifice.” But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too, were left untouched.

While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. Some of us are investment managers who earn billions from our daily labors but are allowed to classify our income as “carried interest,” thereby getting a bargain 15 percent tax rate. Others own stock index futures for 10 minutes and have 60 percent of their gain taxed at 15 percent, as if they’d been long-term investors.

These and other blessings are showered upon us by legislators in Washington who feel compelled to protect us, much as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species. It’s nice to have friends in high places.

Last year my federal tax bill — the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf — was $6,938,744. That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.

Why can't he be a selfish super-patriotic asshole like those nice Koch Brothers?

It couldn't be more depressing

Could it? Look at the way supreme Villager David Gregory equates the ideological divide:

David Gregory: You know, Perry talked about potentially seceding from the union. You think that's extreme. Well people on the other side think that introducing health care reform for the whole country is akin to European Socialism.

Secession now equals what the right says about health care reform?

But it can get worse, because the White House buys that argument. God forbid they lead, much better to cower.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Better acting please

Aw man, all that charisma is gone for the race now

At least he has more sense than Gingrich (faint praise indeed)

After finishing a distant third in the Ames straw poll, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) on Sunday told supporters on a conference call he's dropping out of the presidential race, the Associated Press reports.

I hope you'll survive

No McCain, Lieberman OR Graham on the Sunday Talk Shows.

Yet still Republican dominated.

Moove On...

Bachmann and Paul may have gotten the most votes, but there is an insurgent candidate.

...the Iowa State Fair Butter Cow reportedly received three write-in votes.

You're doing it wrong

In her defense, it isn't like Marcus has been telling her what to do.

Although he may have been working with this guy.

If it wasn't for Food porn shots, the Iowa State fair would just be about the largest pig, the butter cow, and the best acts from the 70s comprised of at least 20 percent of its original lineup.

Tittie Twisters at one and a half-paces

Well, maybe since it involves Roger Ailes and Limbaugh three paces so they are not otherwise touching.

Rush Limbaugh Rails Against Fox News Over GOP Debate: 'They Want Approval From The Mainstream Media'

How about a 200-yard dash? That way we'll likely be rid of both of them.

Yeah, wake me

When the 11th Circuit en banc holds the health insurance mandate unconstitutional.

How'd this little slice of reality

Enter into the sacred Village newsletter, the Politico?

A Standard & Poor’s director said for the first time Thursday that one reason the United States lost its triple-A credit rating was that several lawmakers expressed skepticism about the serious consequences of a credit default — a position put forth by some Republicans.

Why don't you just google it?

I imagine Fox & Friends will spend most of their day pretending other Presidents haven't had a Ramadan dinner -- only Obama. But for the hosts of that show the stupid goes on 24/7, For example Gretchen Carlson on the Republican Debate topics last night:

TV's Frank tweets for me

For those wondering

If anyone will ever be allowed to explain the underlying cause of the English riots, the answer is no.



Leading one to understand, if not necessarily excuse, rioting.

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]