Say hello to the Old Nazis!

Hey somebody kept their promises -- a true ex-"Patriot":

Frank Szabo, the one-time candidate for Hillsborough County sheriff who sparked controversy when he declined to rule out using deadly force to stop abortions, has left the country.

Szabo pledged to protect citizens against rogue federal bureaucrats if elected, arresting government agents if he thought it necessary to protect property and personal rights. In an earlier interview with WMUR, he had said he might use deadly force to stop abortions but later retracted that statement, saying that he would simply arrest abortion providers.

On Sunday night, Szabo announced on Facebook that he had left the United States. He didn’t name his destination, though other recent posts indicate he’s in the South American nation of Chile…

His family requested he spend less time in the same hemisphere with them.

Well he does have better odds of joining a good junta down there.  Is he living in the Pinochet Heights Condominiums?

Obviously, the problem with voting is too many voters

I'm just an old guy, but I remember when high voter turn out was something that a state was proud of.

In 2008, Wisconsin enjoyed the second highest turnout of any state in the nation (72.4 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot), due largely to the fact the Badger State law allows residents who aren’t registered or have recently moved to register at the polls.

The figures will probably be similar in 2012. But something terrible seems to happen when there is high participation in a democracy...apparently too many people vote and people ruin it for everyone else...hurting Republicans.

Gov. Scott Walker (R) announced one of his major policy proposals for the upcoming session: ending the state’s 40-year old law that allows citizens to register to vote on Election Day.

You'd think Walker would want large voter rolls, because he might need the biggest jury pool he can get.

Gov. Scott Walker and his top campaign and Milwaukee County aides were implicated Monday in a scheme in which they routinely commingled political and official county business. The disclosures came during the sentencing of a former aide to Walker during his last year as Milwaukee County executive.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

God-sized overcompensatoin

Remember Bush favorite General Jerry "My God is bigger than the Muslim's God"* Boykin?

Well he's still around, retired, and working for the hate group known as the Family Research Council.

How'd that ol' heterosexual Petraeus come to lose his job Jerry?

TONY PERKINS: So General, let me be clear. The, what we see here, this rash of general officers that have been brought down through scandal, sex scandal, you believe this is a reflection of a declining moral standard within the military as a whole.

GENERAL BOYKIN: I do think that is the case, Tony. I think that this is, ah, concrete evidence.

Straight-men cheating with the ladies...is all the gay peoples' fault.

Yeah, the right-wing will be getting sane any century now.


*Neat trick since they are the same.

I don't speak Arabic

In fact I cannot speak any language in non-Latin form...as well as every language in Latin-form except English and a few vital Spanish phrases and swear-words.

So I cannot speak of what "Benghazi" means in Arabic, but I'm guessing in "Republican" it means the same thing as "Solyndra".

Good byeeeeeeee!

Alan West demanded his recount and he got it...turned out real good for him.

Results of recounting more than 37,000 St. Lucie County ballots were announced shortly after 2 p.m. Sunday and preliminary figures given by Canvassing Board member Tod Mowery placed Jupiter Democrat Patrick Murphy farther ahead of Republican Allen West than before the two-day effort began. 

Murphy campaign senior advisor Eric Johnson was quick to reaffirm victory.

"As far as we're concerned, this puts an end to it," Johnson said. "The West people demanded a recount. They got that retabulation and Patrick Murphy gained a margin of 242 votes.

""This election is over," Johnson added.

Time for that FoxNews gig.

"...and furthermore, give me your shovel"

Lindsey Graham gave us a good example of the bifurcated nature of the Republican political brain yesterday. Appearing for the 87 bazillionth time on a Sunday Talk Show he was asked about Mitt Romney's "gift" remarks to his donors last week.

“We’re in a big hole,” said Graham in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press." “We’re not getting out of it by comments like that. When you’re in a hole, stop digging. He keeps digging."

Yes, stop it Republicans. Stop putting forth crazy conspiracy theories that appeal just the impulsive of your base.

Unless, of course, you are in a primary where you need the "base" ...like Lindsey Graham:





You cannot reach the bottom without a lot of digging Lindsey.

When even Joe Lieberman calls you out...creepily of course...it is not a good sign.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Hey look it's a human in troll form

Rupert's been hanging out with Pat Buchanan again:

Wow...a guy who owns waaaaaaay too much of the media complaining about a "Jewish owned press"?

Ugh.

Somebody got paid for this

And it wasn't from the Onion:

Hey GOP, take the Palin cure

She's hot, she's blue collar, she's electable...

Sarah Palin is the new Ronald Reagan: charming and affable and unwilling to back down if she's right. I can't see what's wrong with that.

Crazy is as crazy does

Let's see the election happened on November 6th, Obama is constitutionally barred from running again, and Romney won Mississippi so naturally...

This week, Taitz filed new papers with a federal court in Mississippi in an effort to get Obama removed from the ballot in that state.

I guess it beats these folks spending money on cross-burning.

Naturally

McCain and Graham have clearly stepped into the bullshit this time -- I'm sure they'll be punished and shamed appropriately.

No?

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) noted that Petraeus "was adamant there was no politicization of the process, no White House interference or political agenda. He completely debunked that idea."

The names of terrorists believed to be involved were removed for reasons of national security, and all of the relevant intelligence agencies signed off on the edited text. As Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) explained to the AP, "[I]n an unclassified document you want to be careful who you identify as being involved."

Susan Rice then relied on the intelligence community's findings to update the public five days after the attack, and everything she said reflected the best information available at the time.

And before Fox News suggests Petraeus is still lying in order to protect the Obama administration, let's not forget that Petraeus is no longer part of the Obama administration. He's a private citizen, free to speak his mind -- and in this case, everything Petraeus is saying is consistent with everything the White House has said. Petraeus' remarks have left the right's conspiracy theories in tatters.

No.

This Sunday:

Meet the Press -- Lindsay Graham

Face the Nation - John McCain

I'm sure they'll be "really" challenged.

So how about something you can sneak on your parent's computer over the holidays

That tells them the right-wing bullshit mass email they are about to forward to you is, in fact, bullshit before you write them back and tell them -- and add "stop watching FoxNews you look like an idiot" causing hard feelings all around.

This is the App to handle the matter.

Of course, the first time this happens there are two possible scenarios.

1.  They freak out and think the black helicopters are after them.

2.  They call you to badly describe the problem for you and expect you to use your barely passable IT skills to fix the problem and tell them there is an "any" "anykey".

So I guess you can just block them.

And THAT'S how you do it

The GOP has obviously decided that the Benghazi matter has a blue dress somewhere and yesterday in a House hearing Dana "I sure loved me the Taliban" Rohrabacher proclaimed the matter worse than 'Watergate' -- which must have made the loss of the marine's in Lebanon under Reagan worse than all the Wars EVER! in comparison.

But New York Rep. Gary Ackerman had enough:

Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) unloaded, first sarcastically: "Let's just hang the guilty parties."

"The stench of hypocrisy that hangs over this city today emanates from this room," Ackerman said. "I've listened to my colleagues talk about the President of the United States and others in the administration using [the] terms 'deliberate', 'lies', 'unmitigated gall', 'malfeasance,' which is malicious and knowing evil-doing, 'disgust', 'coverups'."

He continued, "If you want to know who is responsible in this town, buy yourself a mirror!"
Ackerman went on to say that Republicans had "the audacity to come here" when the administration requested, for worldwide security, "$440 million more than you guys wanted to provide. And the answer is that you damn didn't provide it!  You REDUCED what the administration asked for to protect these people. Ask not who the guilty party is, it's you! It is us. It is this committee, and the things that we insist that we need have to cost money."

He added, "Could you tell me which of my colleagues on this committee was as bodacious in their insistence that we provide more money for American security in the State Department budget. I would appreciate it."

Ackerman then asked them to raise their hands and gave them a count of five to do so. None did.

Safe District

If you are wondering about how effective the 2010 census was in redistricting for the benefit of the Republican Party look no further than this guy:

Records released Thursday from Rep. Scott DesJarlais's (R-Tenn.) 2001 divorce appear to confirm previous reports that DesJarlais had sexual relationships with patients while a practicing physician in Tennessee. The Chattanooga Times Free Press obtained the documents, which reveal that DesJarlais, who opposes abortion rights, supported his ex-wife in obtaining two abortions before their marriage.

In a profession famous for hypocrites the self-proclaimed "family values" conservative Scott DesJarlais stands at the very top by having a morality dealt from the bottom of the deck.

All of this information was pretty well covered in the press before the 2012 election as DesJarlais ran for his second term. But DesJarlais had the greatest of weapons in his arsenal an (R) behind his name. The result confirmed it as the voters of Tennessee's 4th District returned him to Congress with 56% of the vote, only 1% less than he had received two years before.

 The nation's demographics may favor the modern Democrats, but the GOP has managed to gerrymander a stable majority out of a minority in voting by creating districts represented by people like Scott DesJarlais.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Of course he did

"Mr. Straight Talk" alright a report from CNN:

I have to tell you something that just happened on Capitol Hill, and that is our senate producer Ted Barrett just ran into John McCain and asked about something that we’re hearing from Democrats, which is John McCain is calling for more information to Congress, but he had a press conference yesterday instead of going to a closed briefing where administration officials were giving more information. Well, Ted Barrett asked John McCain about that, and it was apparently an intense very angry exchange and McCain simply would not comment on it at all.

Not a denial mind you...just a freak out that someone in the press wasn't on their knees with their hands out and mouth open.

Their "outreach" to minority voters

Is sure to win a whole bunch of new converts:

Maine's outgoing Republican Party chairman plans to investigate claims that "dozens of black people" unfamiliar to local officials voted in rural Maine towns, the Bangor Daily News reports. 

“In some parts of the state, there were dozens of black people who came in to vote,” Charlie Webster said in an interview. “Nobody in town knew them.”

Mr. Webster forgot to also add, "and they all looked-alike".

Yes, can no one end this scourge of invisible black people that suddenly appear in rural Maine every four years for the literal crime of "voting while black"?

Although I do wonder how Paul Ryans "urban voters is why we lost" theory matches up with the theory that the same "urban" voters invaded the back woods of Maine?

Oh, I'm sorry, logic doesn't apply to Republican voting theory.

For all the secessionists

Here's an old chestnut for you.

Still works.

And here's one that also still works.

Awesome

From here.

Way to handle it jackass

At least John McCain waited a couple months before becoming a bitter asshole...well, bitter-er.

A week after losing the election to President Obama, Mitt Romney blamed his overwhelming electoral loss on what he said were big “gifts” that the president had bestowed on loyal Democratic constituencies, including young voters, African-Americans and Hispanics.

As opposed to doing the "honorable" thing and just give "gifts" to rich white guys.

The New Copperhead

Sean Hannity:

Hannity Responds To Caller: "I'm Not For Secession, But I Understand Why People Might Be"

Nah, it is not fair to compare Hannity to a Copperhead...they have value.

Well, of all the people to lie to us once again...

Who would have ever picked (other than many other times) the Oil Companies?

West Coast gasoline price spikes in May and October were widely blamed on refinery outages, but new research to be released at a California hearing Thursday shows that refiners continued to produce gasoline in periods when the public was told the contrary.

*Shakes Fist at Toby Lundberg* How did they get away with that one?

...in May, at a time when Royal Dutch Shell’s Martinez, Calif., plant was reported to be down for maintenance for two weeks, it appears to have been making gasoline for at least half that time. That conclusion is reached from state environmental documents showing nitrogen oxide emissions had returned to normal at the refinery a full week before it was reported to have come back on line. The research also concludes that gasoline inventories actually were building in May during a time in which West Coast motorists paid at least 50 cents more per gallon than the national average

But I'm sure it's just all a product of the market, the sweet ginned-up "free" market. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]