Quick, there's a possiblity that peace may break out

You cannot boogie without a boogieman.

A senior Iranian official has claimed a significant step forward at nuclear talks in Geneva, saying Tehran's proposed plan for resolving the decade-long impasse over its atomic programme has been accepted. Abbas Araqchi, the deputy foreign minister, said the six world powers at the talks had "accepted the framework of Iran's proposal". "The aim of both sides is to sign the agreement," he told Iranian journalists after the first session of talks.

We cannot have that!

John Bolton is reiterating his calls for Israel to unleash a military strike against Iran, saying he doesn't "think Israel has much time" to make that "fateful decision" and that ultimately it should "have done this years ago."...

Bolton slammed the Obama administration's policies towards what he called "Iran's nuclear weapons program" as "utterly feckless," and criticized the negotiations the U.S. has undertaken with Iran because they "will lead to a diplomatic victory for Iran."

Yes, a world where ANYTHING that avoids Iran being bombed, is a victory for Iran and hence a loss for Bolton.

With that kind of sober, rational analysis it's no wonder that...

In 2016, the most interesting wild card is former UN Ambassador John Bolton. Bolton's plain spoken "no surrender" approach to America's role in the world has particular resonance with Republicans who will have watched eight years of President Obama's "apology tour" with dismay and distress. Bolton's brand has grown since leaving the Bush administration as Fox News has given him a national audience.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Oh, I remember the 80s

When you could find a stripmall Typewriter store next to the Blockbuster.

America's Concern Troll

Comes to a dramatic conclusion, 150 years after it was relevant.

Shorter Richard Cohen.

"Slavery bad"

Way to go out on a limb there Chief.

All part of the plan...

How could this end, any other way

Than this?

A Sasquatch hunting expedition in Oklahoma ended in tragedy this weekend when one hunter accidentally shot another in the back. A subsequent investigation led to three arrests: the trigger-happy hunter, the trigger-happy hunter's father, and the trigger-happy hunter's wife.

The incident took place Saturday afternoon in Rogers County. According to Sheriff Scott Walton, two men claim they were hunting the mythical apelike creature when a “barking noise” caused one of the men, 21-year-old Omar Pineda, to turn and fire his weapon. Unfortunately for everyone, Pineda's friend happened to be standing in between the noise and Pineda, and was shot. The friend, while seriously injured, is expected to survive.

Okay, first of all, Oklahoma?  Second of all, the myth continues...the myth of an intelligent person who searches for Bigfoot.

This reminds me of the great "Noah's Ark massacre of aught-six" in Idaho.

Election rigor, er, post-mortum

Well it appears that despite the best efforts of America's most racist newspaper Bill de Blasio has been elected General Secretary of the Peoples Republic of New York, by the kind of margin a Party Congress usually provided. Unleash the workers paradise.

Why do I have a feeling the above will pretty much be the New York Post's lede the next four years, between ghoulish race-baiting, while those voting for de Blasio spend the same period disappointed it isn't more accurate? Perhaps because that's the way it always goes.

Meanwhile, in Virginia the last desperate effort of Ayatolla Cuccinelli was made.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) has been getting a last-minute boost in his bid for governor, with a number of robocalls accusing his Democratic opponent of profiting off a dying man and favoring "abortion on demand."

Ooh, Virginia remains for incompetent lovers -- a slight bit of good news for Kenny the Cooch. Kenny asked God for a miracle, and apparently the Almighty said, "meh, not with Santorum involved".

On the other hand, no American Pol came out and admitted they were, in fact, smoking crack, but ONLY because they were as usually rip-roaring drunk. So, uh, Freedom?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

The "outreach" continues

Go ahead and click on the link and look at the picture of this moron. Could not be more of a cartoon, right down to the hideous tie...and his family looks full of both "happy pills" and loathing.

A Republican congressional candidate from Alabama with a history of combating homosexuality said on the campaign trail in 2002 that gays should return to California or Vermont or "wherever they came from." Mother Jones on Monday surfaced a Associated Press interview from 2002 with real estate developer Dean Young, who is vying for the Republican nomination in a runoff election Tuesday for Alabama's first congressional district, in which the candidate suggested gays must have moved to Alabama from other areas since they're not native to the state.

Yeah, gay people, they're just like pelicans or okra.

"Aha! Here's my chance!"

Sincerely, Brett Favre, and Brett Favre's camera-phone.

Voters, we can't have too many of those

Well it's another off-year election day, and what better day than for people who do not actually want voters to, y'know vote. Behold Virginia, where self-annointed as God's proxy Ken Cuccinelli and his Republican handlers have announced the secret to their victory:

...only Republicans are actively hoping that moderate floating voters stay home this time. “If turnout is in the 30s, the low 30s, we’re gonna win,” Virginia Republican party chairman Pat Mullins was reported to have told supporters this weekend. “If it gets higher up in Fairfax [in Democratic-leaning northern Virginia], say, like, 40, it’s likely we won’t. I don’t think it’s going to hit 40 anywhere. I’m looking at 32.”

If only their Party had a systemic plan to effectuate this dream? [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

American Nutrition: The latest example of "we just gave up"

*Sigh*

Sometimes you really need something salty and something sweet come dessert time. But it’s just so much work to combine those two mouth experiences. For those lazy snackers among us, Lay’s is rolling out chocolate-covered potato chips this week. The offering is a limited-time deal, meaning if you want to get yours hands on Lay’s Wavy Potato Chips Dipped in Milk Chocolate, you won’t have an eternity to get your hands on some. Each five-ounce bag goes for $3.49 and will be sold only at Target stores through the holidays.

There's a second video?

Apparently Rob Ford isn't just in a video smoking crack...he apparently is in another one. Perhaps he was doing the Whitman's Drug Sampler (available only in Canada I guess).

Broken Clock still one up on her...

Still, undoubtedly a hilarious scene involving Michele Bachmann last year after she bit the dust in the Iowa Caucus.

Sitting in her campaign bus, in the same seat where she cried with joy in August, she now sobbed over her drubbing. “God, I’m a loser,” Bachmann said.

The operative question on the NSA remains...

Who have they not spied upon?

Israel has been the target of spying by the U.S. National Security Agency and also collaborates on intelligence gathering with the United States, The New York Times reported.

Of course, the U.S. and Israel spying on each other is a long-standing tradition, ask Jonathan Pollard. But the answer to the question is, probably everyone except the people they should probably actually be spying on. This information comes through information provided by Russia's No. 1 IT hire, Edward Snowden. Meanwhile, as noticed by Digby, contributing as always to the self-parody that is the perpetual defense of the police state, Diane Feinstein actually stated: "...if Snowden had been a true whistle-blower, he could have reported it to her committee privately." Yeah, because there's been no lesser proponent of the privacy of American citizens and proponent of excusing spying excesses than good ol' DiFi. I'm sure Snowden considered that about a millisecond. [Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

It was 'The Lone Ranger' wasn't it?

Vanessa Paradis Breaks Silence About Johnny Depp Split

Still living but brain dead for a long, long time

With each passing year, the right-wings mouthpieces -- who are somehow still talked to -- become even worse.

In a radio commentary today Schlafly – who previously argued that the Bible’s mandate for “compassion” doesn’t apply to immigrants – commemorates the anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty by declaring that the statue “has nothing whatsoever to do with immigration.” Instead, she argued, “people who had nothing to do with this great gift from the French were allowed to paste a plaque on the base of the statue with a quotation that has misrepresented the statue as an invitation to open immigration.” 

“Remember, it’s the Statue of Liberty, not the Statue of Immigration,” she concludes.

Yeah, it's never come to have that value at all, other than every speech every politician ever made there.

Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly is sick and tired of people invoking the Statue of Liberty to advocate for fixing our immigration laws.
In a radio commentary today Schlafly – who previously argued that the Bible’s mandate for “compassion” doesn’t apply to immigrants – commemorates the anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty by declaring that the statue “has nothing whatsoever to do with immigration.” Instead, she argued, “people who had nothing to do with this great gift from the French were allowed to paste a plague on the base of the statue with a quotation that has misrepresented the statue as an invitation to open immigration.”
- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/schlafly-its-statue-liberty-not-statue-immigration#sthash.G2b9MqDx.22TZnmH2.dpuf

Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly is sick and tired of people invoking the Statue of Liberty to advocate for fixing our immigration laws.
In a radio commentary today Schlafly – who previously argued that the Bible’s mandate for “compassion” doesn’t apply to immigrants – commemorates the anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty by declaring that the statue “has nothing whatsoever to do with immigration.” Instead, she argued, “people who had nothing to do with this great gift from the French were allowed to paste a plague on the base of the statue with a quotation that has misrepresented the statue as an invitation to open immigration.”
- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/schlafly-its-statue-liberty-not-statue-immigration#sthash.G2b9MqDx.22TZnmH2.dpuf

Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly is sick and tired of people invoking the Statue of Liberty to advocate for fixing our immigration laws.
In a radio commentary today Schlafly – who previously argued that the Bible’s mandate for “compassion” doesn’t apply to immigrants – commemorates the anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty by declaring that the statue “has nothing whatsoever to do with immigration.” Instead, she argued, “people who had nothing to do with this great gift from the French were allowed to paste a plague on the base of the statue with a quotation that has misrepresented the statue as an invitation to open immigration.”
- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/schlafly-its-statue-liberty-not-statue-immigration#sthash.G2b9MqDx.22TZnmH2.dpuf

Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly is sick and tired of people invoking the Statue of Liberty to advocate for fixing our immigration laws.
In a radio commentary today Schlafly – who previously argued that the Bible’s mandate for “compassion” doesn’t apply to immigrants – commemorates the anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty by declaring that the statue “has nothing whatsoever to do with immigration.” Instead, she argued, “people who had nothing to do with this great gift from the French were allowed to paste a plague on the base of the statue with a quotation that has misrepresented the statue as an invitation to open immigration.”
- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/schlafly-its-statue-liberty-not-statue-immigration#sthash.G2b9MqDx.22TZnmH2.dpuf

Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly is sick and tired of people invoking the Statue of Liberty to advocate for fixing our immigration laws.
In a radio commentary today Schlafly – who previously argued that the Bible’s mandate for “compassion” doesn’t apply to immigrants – commemorates the anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty by declaring that the statue “has nothing whatsoever to do with immigration.” Instead, she argued, “people who had nothing to do with this great gift from the French were allowed to paste a plague on the base of the statue with a quotation that has misrepresented the statue as an invitation to open immigration.”
- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/schlafly-its-statue-liberty-not-statue-immigration#sthash.G2b9MqDx.22TZnmH2.dpuf

Oh no, how will they survive?

Better prepare another round of targeted tax cuts.

Exxon Mobil Corp.'s quarterly profit fell 18% from last year, but the oil and gas giant still made nearly $8 billion... It was Exxon's second-smallest quarterly profit since mid-2010, beating only this year's second-quarter earnings of $6.86 billion. Still, the results exceeded expectations.

But in these austere times, where will we find the money to help a poor multinational out? Oh, yeah.

...the food-stamp program is now set to downsize in the weeks ahead. There's a big automatic cut scheduled for Nov. 1, as a temporary boost from the 2009 stimulus bill expires. That change will trim about $5 billion from federal food-stamp spending over the coming year.

Funny how Exxon Mobil could pick up the tab on that and still have $3 billion in profit, yet I'm pretty sure we're going to find a way to give them even more. 

[cross-posted at Firedoglake] 

Modern 'murican media

Via Balloon Juice:

That's nice, can we have some jobs now?

I mean, that would actually be awesome...hello?  hello?

At $680 billion, the fiscal 2013 deficit is 51 percent less than it was in 2009, when it hit a record high nominally of $1.4 trillion. 

As a percent of the economy, it's also considerably smaller than it's been in the past five years, coming in at 4.1 percent of gross domestic product. By contrast, the annual deficit in 2009 topped 10 percent of GDP. And last year it was 6.8 percent.

One would say squandered opportunity...

But it's probably all part of the plan.

Unemployment is set to rise again in the US if the pace of jobs growth continues to erode, a top economist warned Wednesday. Mark Zandi, the chief economist of Moody’s Analytics and a former adviser to presidential candidate John McCain, made his comments as ADP, the giant payroll provider, said the private sector added 130,000 jobs from September to October. ADP revised September’s job gain down from 166,000 to 145,000. Moody’s helps compile the closely-watched poll. "The government shutdown and debt limit brinksmanship hurt the already softening job market in October. Average monthly growth has fallen below 150,000. Any further weakening would signal rising unemployment,” said Zandi.

And Mark Zandi should know, the people who organized the shutdown and the debt limit idiocy were the people who used to pay him.

But thanks the the sequester, for one example, it's all part of the bipartisan clusterfuck that will have everybody pointing fingers for the indefinite future while the bulk of the country struggles mightily.

Awesome.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Oh happy day

As some readers may remember, I've been walking and walking (90 to 100 miles a week) the last eight months or so now and accompanying the walk have always been podcasts...mostly on four topics:  comedy, history, sports, and science.

But the best one, the one I look forward to the most is this one.

Best history podcast out there, maybe simply the best podcast out there...and the newest one just came out.

I have about 60 or so different podcasts in my i-Tunes que, but what do you listen to?

Suggestions appreciated, though I may already have the one you're thinking of in the list.

America October 2013

Hey, it's me "your Boss".

We're going to have to cut your hours indefinitely, but hey, today you can dress up in a silly costume.

And we are getting rid of our health insurance plans for non-essential employees, and guess what you are?   But hey, today and maybe even tomorrow, feel fee to dress up as the Hulk, as long as you don't smash.

And your annual bonus, will not be paid, for the seventh annual year.   But you do a great Snow White.

In addition, remember that cutting your hours thing we talked about above?  Yeeeeeaaah, we are simply changing those to "volunteer time" where we passively-aggressively ask you to stay late and come in on the weekends...if you'd like to keep working here.   But hey, you'll occasionally get a T-shirt, and the rest of this week, until casual Friday, you can dress up as Walter White (but not Miley Cyrus).

Thanks for being a relatively valuable member of our team.

Have a nice day, that Batman outfit isn't pathetic at all.

Your Boss

Clearly had better things to do, like cash a donor check

An inspiring tale of courage from our Congress...but then again, they are no different than our media or the rest of the nation. As those who read here and a few other select places the victims of drone attacks in Pakistan appeared before a Congressional Committee yesterday. This included this testimony:

The family of a 67-year-old midwife from a remote village in North Waziristan told lawmakers on Tuesday about her death and the "CIA drone" they say was responsible. Their harrowing accounts marked the first time Congress had ever heard from civilian victims of an alleged US drone strike.

' She was apparently one of the 900 or so civilians killed in drone attacks. So we are consistently killing civilians by the hundreds using drones. You'd think this would be a big story. You'd be wrong, at least in the country responsible for the killing.

The hearing was attended by only five members of Congress, and Grayson said such low numbers of lawmakers at hearings were not unusual. Those attending were all Democrats: Rush Holt of New Jersey, Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, John Conyers of Michigan, Rick Nolan of Minnesota, and Grayson, the Florida Democrat responsible for inviting the family to Washington and for holding the hearing.

Inspiring.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Apparently it isn't worth a crap without collagen and silicon coverage!

Ladies and Gentlemen, who James Taranto believes qualifies as an "expert".

There's always money in stupidity

One need never worry about "merit" in the right-wing (nepotism, need not be mentioned thank you very much), for having the temerity to be a mean-spirited idiot apparently comes with the security of perpetual employment somewhere.

Jason Richwine, who parted ways with the Heritage Foundation over his research arguing Hispanics are intellectually inferior to whites, has quietly begun writing semi-regularly for the flagship conservative publication National Review.

"Let's give a gig to the guy too bigoted for the Heritage Foundation!" I believe he inherited the John Derbyshire endowned Chair.

Meanwhile, Ward Churchill is probably still looking for a job.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Wayne LaPierre -- not a pedophile...but possibly just as bad

Ugh.

A new study says that each year approximately 7,500 children are admitted to U.S. hospitals with gunshot wounds and more than 500 children die during hospital admission from these injuries.

An abstract of the study, titled "United States Gunshot Violence--Disturbing Trends," was presented on Sunday by researchers at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition in Orlando, Fla. The study also found that states with higher numbers of firearm ownership had higher proportions of childhood gunshot wounds. 

"Handguns account for the majority of childhood gunshot wounds and this number appears to be increasing over the last decade," Arin Madenci, MD, MPH, the author's lead study, said in a statement issued by the AAP. "Furthermore, states with higher percentages of household firearm ownership also tended to have higher proportions of childhood gunshot wounds, especially those occurring in the home."

It doesn't matter the source, the head or the tail, it only matters that

The fish rots:

Three disclosures this week show that the United States is losing its way in the struggle against terrorism. Sweeping government efforts to stop attacks are backfiring abroad and infringing on basic rights at home.

CIA drone strikes are killing scores of civilians in Pakistan and Yemen.  The National Security Agency is eavesdropping on tens of millions of phone calls worldwide — including those of 35 foreign leaders — in the name of U.S. security.

And the Department of Homeland Security is using algorithms to “prescreen” travelers before they board domestic flights, reviewing government and private databases that include Americans’ tax identification numbers, car registrations and property records.

Will we create a Minority Report-style Department of Precrime next?

Obama administration officials have a duty to protect Americans from terrorism. But out-of-control NSA surveillance, an ever-expanding culture of secrecy and still-classified rules for how and when foreigners and even Americans can be killed by drone strikes are excessive, unnecessary and destructive.

Twelve years after September 11, 2001, the United States’ obsession with al Qaeda is doing more damage to the nation than the terrorist group itself.

The "Devil you know" versus the DEVIL as you know him

While we behold the wonders of just who we as a country have not been spying on since 2001 (I'm guessing pretty much the ones we probably should actually being spying on) let us consider the wonders of this.

Recently there have been reasons to believe that there has been progress in our dealings with Iran and it's nuclear program.

Progress to such an extent stories like this have come out.

Iran's apparent new readiness to address international concerns about its atomic ambitions will be tested in talks with U.N. inspectors on Monday, with diplomats hoping for progress such as on access to a sensitive military site.

Well, we cannot have that.

On ABC's 'This Week', host George Stephanopoulous asked Cheney about the effectiveness of diplomatic talks in Iran. "Is military action against Iran inevitable?" he said.

"I have trouble seeing how we're going to achieve our objective short of that," Cheney said.

Always nice to see the undead's perspective on things, of course, militarism has it's business models, and a bankroll.

Republican Party mega-donor and casino mogul Sheldon Adelson caused quite a storm this week after it was reported that he suggested that the United States use nuclear weapons to get the Iranians to end their nuclear program.

Irony not only dead, but glowing.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

It's Performance Art by this point

How else do you explain this:

Cheney also criticized Obama for not taking better advantage of the intelligence he had on bin Laden. "With bin Laden, [the White House was in] such a hurry to go out and announce victory, that I’m convinced that they probably did not get maximum damage out of the intel that they had captured," Cheney said.

Yes, this comes from the guy in the Administration who reacted so expertly to this...

Fox Business News discusses new opportunities for oil drilling...and your funeral

Temporarily good news for those who can afford aqualungs and water purifiers...made of gold.

New research shows that average summer temperatures in the Canadian Arctic over the last century are the highest in the last 44,000 years, and perhaps the highest in 120,000 years.

That's strange, what's been happening differently in the world the last century other than global industrialization?

Oh, right. Still, if you have enough short-term interests you can pretend this isn't happening and keep working on your personal moai.

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

You tell 'em Charley!

Mr. Pierce has a good pithy take down on the "really" difficult decisions Ted Cruz doesn't have to make (I just pray for his sake he was able to marry somebody from one of the major Ivys).

Maybe he was just trying to vaccinate her?

Oh lordy, give it a break!

The morning after a Connecticut judge granted convicted murderer and Kennedy relative Michael Skakel a retrial, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Skakel’s cousin, appeared on The Today Show in an interview with Matt Lauer, where the 59 year-old radio host defended Skakel’s innocence, or tried to.

So who killed Moxley? Kennedy revisits the 2003 claim that two friends of Gitano “Tony” Bryant (the cousin of Kobe), whom Tony had brought to Greenwich from the Bronx on the night of Moxley’s death, beat her “caveman style” with a pair of golf clubs. That theory ultimately failed to exculpate Skakel.

Admirably, Lauer repeatedly presses Kennedy to explain his arguments for his relative’s innocence (one of which appears to be that a key witness, Gregory Coleman, was a heroin addict) and tries to reign him in before he goes too far off the deep end.

Robert Kennedy Jr. has had a lot of tragedy in his life and done a lot of good too.  But I'm still not ready to forgive him for scaring parents from getting their kids vaccinated...obviously.

There's no cure for being an Asshole apparently

Pat Robertson -- he's quite a dick.

Responding to a question from a mother who asked why her hearing impaired son hasn’t been healed despite her prayers, [Pat Robertson] said that her son may be hindered by a “spirit of deafness.”

“I have dealt with people who are deaf and you rebuke the spirit of deafness and they get healed,” Robertson said. “I don’t know what you’re doing wrong.”

“Why don’t you try that and if it doesn’t work, try something else,” he said.

Pat Robertson says you must be doing something wrong if you can’t “heal” your son of deafness. After all, Robertson himself has healed deafness before, he said on the 700 Club today. Responding to a question from a mother who asked why her hearing impaired son hasn’t been healed despite her prayers, Robertson said that her son may be hindered by a “spirit of deafness.”
“I have dealt with people who are deaf and you rebuke the spirit of deafness and they get healed,” Robertson said. “I don’t know what you’re doing wrong.”
“Why don’t you try that and if it doesn’t work, try something else,” he said.
- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/robertson-mother-who-cant-heal-sons-deafness-must-be-doing-something-wrong#sthash.IDLFWUnj.UuldLc9d.dpuf

Pat Robertson says you must be doing something wrong if you can’t “heal” your son of deafness. After all, Robertson himself has healed deafness before, he said on the 700 Club today. Responding to a question from a mother who asked why her hearing impaired son hasn’t been healed despite her prayers, Robertson said that her son may be hindered by a “spirit of deafness.”
“I have dealt with people who are deaf and you rebuke the spirit of deafness and they get healed,” Robertson said. “I don’t know what you’re doing wrong.”
“Why don’t you try that and if it doesn’t work, try something else,” he said.
- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/robertson-mother-who-cant-heal-sons-deafness-must-be-doing-something-wrong#sthash.IDLFWUnj.UuldLc9d.dpuf

Pat Robertson says you must be doing something wrong if you can’t “heal” your son of deafness. After all, Robertson himself has healed deafness before, he said on the 700 Club today. Responding to a question from a mother who asked why her hearing impaired son hasn’t been healed despite her prayers, Robertson said that her son may be hindered by a “spirit of deafness.”
“I have dealt with people who are deaf and you rebuke the spirit of deafness and they get healed,” Robertson said. “I don’t know what you’re doing wrong.”
“Why don’t you try that and if it doesn’t work, try something else,” he said.
- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/robertson-mother-who-cant-heal-sons-deafness-must-be-doing-something-wrong#sthash.IDLFWUnj.UuldLc9d.dpuf

Pat Robertson says you must be doing something wrong if you can’t “heal” your son of deafness. After all, Robertson himself has healed deafness before, he said on the 700 Club today. Responding to a question from a mother who asked why her hearing impaired son hasn’t been healed despite her prayers, Robertson said that her son may be hindered by a “spirit of deafness.”
“I have dealt with people who are deaf and you rebuke the spirit of deafness and they get healed,” Robertson said. “I don’t know what you’re doing wrong.”
“Why don’t you try that and if it doesn’t work, try something else,” he said.
- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/robertson-mother-who-cant-heal-sons-deafness-must-be-doing-something-wrong#sthash.IDLFWUnj.UuldLc9d.dpuf

But if they use their "gun safe" how are they supposed to shoot the people coming to steal their guns?

Moron Congressperson and her moron husband have moronic incident and ... FREEDOM!

U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers’ husband reported an AR-15 rifle stolen from the family’s home in Dunn last week, according to a police report.

The weapon had been left leaning against a gun locker in an unlocked garage on Kingsway Drive, the report said.

The rifle, a gun case and a GPS, with a cumulative value of $1,100, were reported stolen, according to Chief J.D. Pope. Police think the theft happened on the night of Oct. 15.

“According to the report, they had been out target shooting and brought the gun back and leaned it against the gun safe,” Pope said. “ … The garage door was left unsecured, according to the report.”

Geniuses, truly.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/10/22/3303721/unsecured-ar-15-reported-stolen.html#storylink=cpy

Proliferate this

So THE directory of National Security for Non-Proliferation of weapons at the White House spent his off-time trolling twitter to castigate his fellow officials or other adversaries?

As far as we know even Paul Wolfowitz never did that.

What an asshole.

That worked out well

In Virginia prior to the shutdown things were not going well for ultra-conservative oral sex hater Ken Cuccenelli, but when your ideological kinsfolk put a half-million Virginia Federal Employees out of work that coffin in nailed shut.

Democrat Terry McAuliffe has jumped to a 17-point lead over Republican Ken Cuccinelli in the Virginia gubernatorial race following the federal government shutdown that hit Northern Virginia hard and Hillary Clinton’s weekend visit to the state.

For anybody to be nearly 20 points behind Terry McAuliffe is a tremendous feat, but Ken Cuccenelli is the kind of politician that plans on losing for as much as possible, no matter how uninspiring the alternative. Behold the secret plan.

Rick Santorum is signing up volunteers for a “strikeforce” to help Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in his bid to become governor of Virginia.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Oh good plan!

Good job, great effort:

In a sign of the political hangover congressional Republicans are suffering in the wake of the government shutdown, three-quarters of Americans in a new national poll say that most GOP members of Congress don't deserve to be re-elected.

A Decade's worth of stupid

Hey remember the perverse stupidity that was (is) Jonah Goldberg's foreign policy advice circa 2003?

"The United States needs to go to war with Iraq because it needs to go to war with someone in the region and Iraq makes the most sense." Elsewhere, he writes: "Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show we mean business."

Oh the inanity managing not to eclipse the sheer cruelty. Turns out, that ACTUALLY was the policy.

A book written by New York Times reporter Peter Baker reveals the take of a senior official from former President George W. Bush's administration, who is quoted as saying that America went into Iraq to 'find somebody's ass to kick'.

Well, that's comforting...knowing your most bitter cynical assumption about the Bush Administration turned out to be right. The rest, not so much.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

A-Yup!

Sociopath

How do you identify one?  Like this, for example:

For example, on March 28, 2001, Vice President Cheney wrote a “pending” letter of resignation because he suspected he might at any moment become incapacitated by health problems. This was surely a surprise for those affiliated with the Bush campaign who had vetted Cheney’s health before asking him to run. But Cheney's cardiologist was a big fat liar and told the Bush campaign cardiologist that Cheney “was in good health with normal cardiac function.”

When Gupta asked Cheney to explain the doctor's false claims, Cheney responded, “I’m not responsible for that.” Gupta answered, “But sir, you saw it.” And then Cheney, refusing to address the lie, dug in: “Listen to me, I think the bottom line is: was I up to the task of being vice president? And there's no question. I think based upon the fact that I did it for eight years that they were right.”

What the author forgot to note is..."Who was in charge of vetting VP Candidates for the Bush Campaign?"

Oh, yeah.

Richard Cheney. How was Richard Cheney expected to know that Dick Cheney had a serious heart problem?

And this guy pretty much ran things...

I'm starting to wonder if Boy Blunder at least may have actually managed to keep shit from getting even worse.

Though this sounds like a joke, former Vice President Don Cheney and his doctors were legitimately scared about him getting assassinated via terrorists hacking into his defibrillator and causing a heart attack. So they turned off the wireless feature so nobody would kill him via heart hack.

Remember this is the same genius who during the First Gulf War tried to send military strategy tips to to his generals by sending tapes of Ken Burns' The Civil War.

Another day, er, hour, another classy statement from a FoxNews pundit

FoxNews is already your television home for Assholes...which is really quite the proclamation when you think about it...deep pool.

But they cannot just be assholes, they have to be the biggest possible assholes.

A Fox News guest said that a Missouri teen who says she was raped by a classmate was asking for it by going out late at night. He also accused her of lying. 

“What did she expect to happen at one in the morning after sneaking out?” attorney Joseph DiBenedetto said on Shephard Smith Reports. “I’m not saying — assuming that these facts are accurate and this did happen — I’m not saying she deserved to be raped, but knowing the facts as we do here including what the prosecutor has set forth, this case is going nowhere and it's going nowhere quick.”

Shep Smith immediately jumped in and refuted his claims.

“What you’ve done, Joseph, is taken an alleged victim of rape and turned her into a liar and a crime committer,” he said. “That’s a far jump from a 1,000 miles away."

And at FoxNews you have a feeling it is Shephard Smith that will be getting the write-up.

While you pat yourselves on the back over the shutdown Conservatives

Here's something for you to keep your policy abuse chubby for at least another four hours:

A majority of students in public schools throughout the American South and West are low-income for the first time in at least four decades, according to a new study that details a demographic shift with broad implications for the country.

The analysis by the Southern Education Foundation, the nation’s oldest education philanthropy, is based on the number of students from preschool through 12th grade who were eligible for the federal free and reduced-price meals program in the 2010-11 school year.

"Schools, who needs 'em, there's poor kids there unable to pull themselves up by their Goodwill-Shoe purchased bootstraps."

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Credit where it's due

As he hasn't had the opportunity to go on "Meet the Press" and demand somebody be bombed the last couple weeks (how long until David Gregory wipes his chin and gets on that?) John McCain actually had time to be pithy, and I admit it worked.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) shrugged off Rep. Louie Gohmert’s (R-TX) insinuation that he was an “al Qaeda supporter” in an interview with NBC Nightly News host Brian Williams on Wednesday, while conceding to an increasing amount of polarization between lawmakers.

“On that particular issue, sometimes comments like that are made out of malice,” McCain told Williams. “But if someone has no intelligence, I don’t view it as being a malicious statement. You can’t respond to that kind of thing.”

"Lonegan is still going to win Ohio!!!"

Another stunningly accurate prediction from Conservatives.

He gave "Our American Cousin" three thumbs up!

Ted Cruz's PAC must smell like Napalm in the morning.

As CNN’s Dana Bash pointed out to Cruz, he had nothing to show for his efforts — President Barack Obama’s health care reform law had not been defunded nor delayed — after 16 days of a government shutdown. Cruz, however, said that he disagreed: “Months ago, when the effort to defund Obamacare began, official Washington scoffed, they scoffed that the American people would rise up, they scoffed that the House of Representatives would do anything and they scoffed that the Senate would do anything.”

Scoffing's effectiveness has certainly been underestimated.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

As I was saying

From Robert Costa, the "Nutjob Whisperer":

Referring to his plan to preemptively send the Senate a House-passed bill, Speaker John Boehner told his conference this morning that he’d “rather throw a grenade than catch a grenade.” But with his right-wing troops abandoning him again, it was the speaker who was left holding the bomb.

After a day of furious negotiating with fellow Republicans over how to tweak a bill he had unveiled in the morning, it was left to stunned members of his leadership team to confirm to reporters that the vote had been canceled...
 
The canceled vote was no Twilight Zone episode, however, but something far too familiar. Republicans eagerly compared it to the fiscal cliff’s famous “Plan B” episode, when Boehner brought lawmakers into a closed-door meeting in the Capitol basement, said the serenity prayer, and told them the vote was canceled.

The Christian rite accompanying legislative chaos today was Florida representative Steve Southerland’s rendition of “Amazing Grace” — “all three verses,” said Representative Michael Burgess (Texas) afterwards in amazement.

But Southerland is an undertaker by trade, and the song is normally sung at funerals. It’s hard not to see’s today’s failure as the death of the House GOP’s role, in at least this standoff.

Well, this has worked out well

Boehner would like to add, he really enjoyed "Our American Cousin".

The office of Speaker Boehner told the office of Majority Leader Harry Reid's on Tuesday night that they would be willing to send them a "message" so that the procedural process of getting a debt limit and government funding bill could move faster. 

The communication between the two was first reported by Salon's Brian Beutler and was confirmed by an aide to the Huffington Post. The aide said that the news was delivered after House Republican leadership failed to move their own bill to resolve the dual matters.

A message is a legislative vehicle that if sent from Boehner to the Senate would allow Reid to skip one cloture vote. This would ensure that if one Senator wanted to gum up the works, he or she could only force 30 hours of consideration.

We have gone past the singularity into the event horizon of full derpitude

I guess even the densest of the right-wing's usual apologist only have extreme irony left.

Yes, of all the people to ask that question. Hard to believe that it took until now for her to ask whether the Party being controlled by a bunch of homophobic immigrant hating creationists who think Obama was born in Kenya have only NOW shut down their brains. But then again, she's Megan McArdle and thankfully you are not.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Sad news for her NFL Career

I am the co-habitant of a four legged fuzz ball that has from time-to-time been featured on this here blog.   She's a good ol' mutt who is now over 14 years old -- this weekend she tore her ACL -- ending her season on whatever NFL team a 25-pound long-haired Border/Gordon mix would play for.

She's getting better, but it must be tough to have to give up jumping after all these years.

Always popular at funerals

A Gathering of the Legion of Dumb

Or THE BANQUET OF PLAINLY NUTS...all last night in the basement of a restaurant.
As opposed to where they should all be...the basement of their parent's house.

Sen. Ted Cruz met with roughly 15 to 20 House Republicans for around two hours late Monday night at the Capitol Hill watering hole Tortilla Coast.

The group appeared to be talking strategy about how they should respond to a tentative Senate deal to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling without addressing Obamacare in a substantive way, according to sources who witnessed the gathering. The Texas Republican senator and many of the House Republicans in attendance had insisted on including amendments aimed at dismantling Obamacare in the continuing resolution that was intended to avert the current shutdown.

Sources said the House Republicans meeting in the basement of Tortilla Coast with Cruz were some of the most conservative in the House: Reps. Louie Gohmert of Texas, Steve King of Iowa, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Raúl R. Labrador of Idaho, Steve Southerland II of Florida, Mark Meadows of North Carolina and Justin Amash of Michigan.

The group is a collection of members who have often given leadership headaches in recent years by opposing both compromise measures as well as packages crafted by fellow Republicans. And, it seems, leadership unwittingly became aware of the meetup.

The tortillas were more sentient than that group.

Sums it up well

From here.

John McCain would have remembered it, he lived it.

Oh the things you learn.

You hear a perfect record cited over and over in the debt limit debate: The United States has never defaulted. Better put an asterisk by that. America has briefly stiffed some of its creditors on at least two occasions.

One was in 1979 because of a technical glitch, quick rectified under "History's Greatest Monster", Jimmy Carter. The other...during the War of 1812, or as Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz know it, "the time Roosevelt let the Germans burn down a white house at Pearl Harbor"

Once, the young nation had a dramatic excuse: The Treasury was empty, the White House and Capitol were charred ruins, even the troops fighting the War of 1812 weren't getting paid...

Undoubtedly, this seems like a capital idea for reenacting by the modern Tea Party.

 [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Well, at least they aren't subtle

What a benevolent sight...where was the wooden cross and lighter fluid so you could REALLY get what passes to you as a point across?

Joshua Roberts/Reuters

I am not the first person to note this

But doesn't Ted Cruz have a striking resemblance not only psychologically but physically with Joe McCarthy?

Oh look "Democracy Fan Fiction"

Congress has probably never been less popular (which is a bit like saying "Syphilis sees popularity dip") but I'm going to peremptorily call bullshit on this one.

Only one-quarter of Americans think that their own member of Congress should be reelected, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll. That's a sharp departure from similar polls conducted before the government shutdown.

In the new survey, 25 percent of respondents said they believe the member of Congress from their district deserves to be reelected, while 47 percent said they did not. Another 27 percent said they weren't sure.

It would be nice to think that the crazy party would be replaced by the party of generic kleptocrats but considering past history and the fact that the GOP has twelve and a half-months to get outraged about an African-American guy I'm pretty confident crazy will survive...the rest of us, not so much.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

There are spelling errors...

And then there are SPELLING ERRORS!

Leebus Christ!

Koch brothers must have outsourced for assholes from overseas...

Looks like 'Murica just isn't into teabagging anymore:

The tea party group FreedomWorks has fallen into dire financial straits, and was forced to take out a $1 million line of credit earlier this year, sources close to the organization told BuzzFeed.

Judging by the picture in the story of the wanker who runs it now, Artisanal Hipster is not in fashion.

Derp! Derp!

Uh...derp?

A public hearing for suspended Gliberton, Pa. police Chief Mark Kessler, whose YouTube gun demonstration videos drew national attention, was cut short Thursday night when a man dropped a semi-automatic pistol on the floor, the Republican Herald reported.

An unidentified man dropped the pistol, which the Republican Herald described as possibly a .45 semi-automatic, about 90 minutes into the hearing. The firearm did not discharge and no one was injured.

Behold the genius

I know, hard to believe that this:

According to the Washington Examiner, Ted Cruz held a closed-door lunch meeting on Wednesday during which he claimed that his plan to defund Obamacare through a government shutdown had placed the GOP in a politically advantageous position.

Turns out to be wrong...

The Republican Party has been "badly damaged" by the government shutdown, according to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Thursday evening, which finds public opinion souring on the GOP and some of its core positions.

Americans blamed Republicans over President Barack Obama for the shutdown by a margin of 22 percentage points, with 53 percent saying the GOP deserved more blame, and 31 percent saying Obama did. Approval ratings for the Republican Party and the tea party were at 24 percent and 21 percent respectively -- both record lows as measured by NBC/WSJ.

Let bygones be bygones...or else

Hard to believe big banksters feel immune from little things...like the law and ethics. Those are for other legal entities that are defined as people, namely the one's that are actually people.

In a March 2012 meeting, a group of examiners at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York agreed that Goldman Sachs had inadequate procedures to guard against conflicts of interest — guidelines aimed at stopping firms from putting their pursuit of profit ahead of their clients’ best interests. The examiners voted to downgrade a confidential rating assigned by the New York Fed that could have spurred costly enforcement actions and other regulatory penalties. It is not known whether the vote materialized in a rating change. The former examiner who pushed for a downgrade, Carmen Segarra, now contends in a lawsuit filed Thursday that just weeks after the vote, her superiors asked her to change her findings on Goldman and fired her after she refused.

One cannot take a few million out of Lloyd Blankfeld's bonus package, it's so unfair, unfairness is for everybody else.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

And somewhere the Koch Brothers are going "what a clever idea!"

Future GOP policy:

Oops: Azerbaijan released election results before voting had even started

Mmm...mmmm...my Generation!

Is probably the last generation that has a chance to make any positive contribution to prevent catastrophic climate change.

And so far all we've produced is gay marriage and the Tea Party.

 So that's a mixed bag (although let's face it the Baby Boomers own the Tea Party).

So we've blown it...fortunately we have a good shot at being dead before this happens.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Starting in about a decade, Kingston, Jamaica, will probably be off-the-charts hot — permanently. Other places will soon follow. Singapore in 2028. Mexico City in 2031. Cairo in 2036. Phoenix and Honolulu in 2043. And eventually the whole world in 2047. A new study on global warming pinpoints the probable dates for when cities and ecosystems around the world will regularly experience hotter environments the likes of which they have never seen before. And for dozens of cities, mostly in the tropics, those dates are a generation or less away. "This paper is both innovative and sobering," said Oregon State University professor Jane Lubchenco, former head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who was not involved in the study.

You can see my generation's contributions in the comment section.

Ugh.

A large group of Major Kong Impersonators

They ALL want to ride the bomb down to the ground.

But what Wall Street fails to realize, according to Potomac Research Group's Greg Valliere, is the extent to which the Tea Party just doesn't care. Valliere wrote to clients this morning:

We talked to Tea Party stalwarts last night, and tried to make our best arguments. "Don't you realize the Republicans could lose the House in 2014?" We don't care, they said. "Don't you worry about a catastrophic reaction in the financial markets?" We don't care, they said. "Don't you worry that the Democrats will aggressively play the Social Security card with seniors?" We don't care, they said.

"This is the Alamo, it's Braveheart, battles to the death. These people are on a Mission from God," Valliere says.

It's going to be a long wait for that mortality table to catch up to me. [Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Get the viscous fluids, pullies, levers, and gin ready

Because it's time to try to make "Jism Bob":

After suffering a devastating miscarriage in December 2011, Michelle Duggar is trying to get pregnant again with her 20th child. The 19 Kids and Counting reality TV mom says she and husband Jim Bob Duggar are hoping to be "blessed" with another pregnancy.

For a pair who thinks they hear God telling them what to do, you'd think they might have thought the Almighty was giving one a hint...

Getting to do something Goebbels couldn't do

Because I'm sure that roast would be one of the few to top the appalling sight of this:

Conservatives gathered at the Plaza hotel in Manhattan Monday night to roast the former Vice President at an event where many of the biggest laugh lines touched on the most controversial policies of a key architect of his administration’s War on Terror. At the gathering, hosted by Commentary, figures including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey drew a mix of chuckles and winces with jokes that left few lines uncrossed, according to three guests.

Senator Joe Lieberman “said something to the effect that it’s nice that we’re all here at the Plaza instead of in cages after some war crimes trial,” recalled one person who was there.

No, it isn't.

“There were some waterboarding jokes that were really tasteless,” the guest said. “I can see the case for enhanced interrogation techniques after Sept. 11 but I can’t really endorse sitting there drinking wine and fancy dinner at the Plaza laughing uproariously about it.”

Cheney himself told one waterboarding joke, the attendees said, which he attributed to Jay Leno. It centered on a one-shot antelope hunting contest in Wyoming in which the loser had to dance with an Indian squaw. Cheney’s shot got caught in the barrel, producing a dispute over whether it counted as a hit or a miss — and Leno, according to Cheney, joked that Cheney wanted to go catch the animal with his bare hands and waterboard it.

"Games"manship

Projection has always been a strength of the modern GOP:

Speaker John Boehner rallied his troops this morning at a closed-door conference meeting at the Capitol. Democrats are trying to “annihilate us,” he told his members. “We can get through this if we stick together.”

Yeah, amazing how that 12th dimensional chess works...secret is for Obama not to play it apparently.

And remember, let's see four days ago, when Boehner tearfully proclaimed "THIS IS NOT A GAME!"?

About that:

The Ohio Republican added that a “grand bargain” is off the table. What he wants is something that “builds on the gains we’ve made over the past three years, puts points on the board, and doesn’t raise taxes.”

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Good optics

While engaged in the consumption of great amounts of gin, John Boehner has his other priorities in predictable order during the shutdown.

Head Start programs have been shuttered, small businesses can’t get loans and hundreds of thousands of federal government employees are furloughed. But the exclusive gyms available only to members of Congress have remained open throughout the shutdown.

A House aide confirmed to ThinkProgress that the House member’s gym is open. The House gym features a swimming pool, basketball courts, paddleball courts, a sauna, a steam room and flat screen TVs. While towel service is unavailable, taxpayers remain on the hook for cleaning and maintenance, which has been performed daily throughout the shutdown. There are also costs associated with the power required to heat the pools and keep the lights on.

According to the aide, the decision to keep the gym open — even while other critical government services were shelved — came directly from Speaker Boehner’s office. Meanwhile, the staff gym available to Congressional staff has been closed.

Good choice

If you want to hire a guy to defend your patently racist team nickname as being sacrosanct then you need to hire an asshole with no moral scruples...the kind of guy who will advocate for any third-rate dictator for a six-figure retainer.

Oh, good choice.

Lanny Davis, once a Bill Clinton strategist, a pal of Joe Lieberman and now attorney for the Washington, D.C., NFL football franchise, chastised President Obama Monday for commenting unfavorably on the name of that team.

Whistling past the graveyard...while on the run

How do you know the conservative editorial stooges of the Washington Post don't like the optics?

They write columns like this:

Once again, good job 'the South'

This guy wants to ride the bomb down:

The Post has a profile in motion of freshman House Republican Ted Yoho (FL). The focus is how he's part of the faction who forced John Boehner to trigger the government shutdown and now wants to move along to default on the national debt. How bad will default be? "I think, personally, it would bring stability to the world markets," Yoho told the Post.

Absorb that for a moment. He's on the team that's driving this bus. What would at best be a huge jolt to the global economy and more likely trigger a global financial crisis and do irreparable harm to the country, he thinks will actually improve things.

Somebody in his family, unsurprisingly, did not know how to spell "Yahoo".

I believed they'd file dissenting opinions

The ol' "some of my best friends are..." gambit.

In an interview with New York Magazine, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said he has friends who are "homosexual."

"I have friends that I know, or very much suspect, are homosexual. Everybody does," Scalia said.

"Very much suspect" ---  surely always the gateway to prevent any sort of understanding or tolerance.

South Carolina, 1832:

The Ordinance of Nullification declared the Tariff of 1828 and 1832 null and void within the state borders of South Carolina. It began the Nullification Crisis. Passed by a state convention on November 24, 1832, it led, on December 10, to President Andrew Jackson's proclamation against South Carolina, the Nullification Proclamation of 1832, which sent a naval flotilla and a threat of sending government ground troops to enforce the tariffs. In the face of the military threat, and following a Congressional revision of the tariff, South Carolina repealed the ordinance.

So lost that one. Lesson learned, right? South Carolina, 1860:

We, the People of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, That the Ordinance adopted by us in Convention, on the twenty-third day of May in the year of our Lord One Thousand Seven hundred and eight eight, whereby the Constitution of the United State of America was ratified, and also all Acts and parts of Acts of the General Assembly of this State, ratifying amendment of the said Constitution, are here by repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of “The United States of America,” is hereby dissolved

That worked out well, huh? Still, lesson surely learned now right? South Carolina, 2013:

The South Carolina state House passed a bill Wednesday that declares President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to be “null and void,” and criminalizes its implementation.

So, hard to believe that South Carolina's "intellectual" legacies would pass up a chance to kill the American government once and for all.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Brainiacs

Geniuses all:

“So what are the tips you need to know, to do it correctly -- you grew up on tacos, correct?” Fox News commentator Brian Kilmeade asked Latina meteorologist Maria Molina during Friday’s broadcast of Fox and Friends. “She Colombian,” Steve Doocy chimed in, also missing the mark. “No, I did not grow up on tacos,” Molina says, laughing. “I’m Nicaraguan, and it’s not a native food.”

Smaller tent, bigger fits

Republican "outreach" continues apace:

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett has compared the marriage of same-sex couples to the marriage of a brother and sister during an appearance on a morning TV news show.

Although you have to admit, you would think most Republicans nowadays would at least be more familiar with incest than others.

Consider the Source

This is from the American Conservative...wha????

They are a barking-mad pack of ideologues, is what they are. I haven’t written much about the Obamacare thing because I don’t follow policy closely. As far as I know, Obamacare is a bad idea. But here’s the thing: it’s the law. It was passed, signed by the president, and upheld in the Supreme Court. There is no way the House Republicans, or Ted Cruz or Rand Paul, is going to overturn it. The best they can do is to delay it. And then what? Guess what: the 2012 elections were their last, best chance to overturn Obamacare, and the country didn’t go for it. There are other battles to fight. These guys are taking the government and the economy to the brink of crisis, and for what? For the sake of rebel yells and the Lost Cause?

...and I bet he'll still end up voting Republican.

He may lobby for hobbies, but God Bothering is his passion

I have no idea why anyone would go to Hobby Lobby to get their cheap crap but here you go:

The Hobby Lobby Hanukkah controversy began when Berwitz learned that on a recent shopping trip his wife’s friends could not find anything related to Hanukkah at their local Hobby Lobby store in Marlboro, N.J., though it was stocked with Christmas items. According to Berwitz, one of the women asked about bar mitzvah cards, and a Hobby Lobby salesperson replied: “We don’t cater to you people.” That story prompted Berwitz, who own a market research company and writes the “Hopelessly Partisan” blog, to call the Marlboro store and ask why it seemed to be ignoring Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish festival of lights, which begins on Nov. 27 this year. He wrote that he received the following response: “Because Mr. Green is the owner of the company, he’s a Christian, and those are his values.”

They Learned from the Master

Newt Gingrich last seen in a variety of locations from keeping his priorities straight while visiting Auschwitz to violating unenforced CNN ethics rules has ridden to the rescue of all slightly inconvenienced victims of the government shutdown. Meanwhile. [Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Modern Republicans

Death Panels...for real

On your conscience, if you had one, John Boehner:

As long as the government is shut down, the National Institutes of Health will turn away roughly 200 patients each week from its clinical research center, including children with cancer.

 

That's according to Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health. He laid out the situation for the Wall Street Journal:

At the National Institutes of Health, nearly three-quarters of the staff was furloughed. One result: director Francis Collins said about 200 patients who otherwise would be admitted to the NIH Clinical Center into clinical trials each week will be turned away. This includes about 30 children, most of them cancer patients, he said.

Trying a bit too hard

The ever relinquishing grip on reality of not only the far-right, but establishment conservative media continues to pick up speed. FoxNews reliably chump-enabling.

What the Obama administration is portraying as a "shutdown" of the federal government -- complete with signs posted at the entrances to government buildings, parks and monuments -- is turning out to be more of a "slimdown," as all but non-essential workers reported to their jobs Tuesday.

I suppose the next thing to state is that hundreds of thousands of governmental employees rudely took an indefinite vacation -- just not to a national park. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Neither does oxygen or operating synapses, apparently

Hannity Dismisses Shutdown: "This Doesn't Impact Me Mentally"

Congrats on electing raging alcoholics with gun fetishes!

Thanks again teabaggers.

Rest Easy America

In case America's drunkest legislature insists on shutting down the Federal Government the most important of its agencies will remain as vigilant as ever.

(Reuters) - The Securities and Exchange Commission will remain open for business even if Congress fails to strike a budget deal to keep the government operating, SEC spokesman John Nester said Monday.

So don't you worry Banksters and Hedge-Fund Managers the SEC will be their "open FOR business" as usual, so you'll be able to get away with all manner of crimes as usual. The rest of you 99 percenters can suck it.

 [cross-posted at Firedoglake]