Mitt The Wimp

Michael Tomasky on Wimpy Mitt Romney’s Missing Backbone - The Daily Beast

What’s in a word? I guess a lot. All of us here at NewsBeast knew the word “wimp” would carry a charge and get people to pay attention. So to the extent that I have people’s attention, what I really would like them to focus on is the question of what makes this guy tick, and more specifically on his total lack of political backbone, because that seems to me a very serious potential shortcoming in someone who’s aiming to be president of the United States, and one that ought to be discussed more than we’re discussing it...

Mitt Paid No Tax

Like the classic accusation,"Senator, when did you stop beating your wife?", this is one question that must be answered.

Harry Reid’s Wild Speculation About Mitt Romney’s Unreleased Tax Returns - ABC News

Here’s a totally unsubstantiated rumor: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said that he’s heard that Romney did not pay any taxes for 10 years. Democrats have criticized Romney for not releasing more than two years of his tax returns.  But there has never been anything to suggest that Romney’s tax bill was zero.
The presumptive GOP candidate has said he always paid all of the taxes he was required by law to pay. But he has said releasing more tax returns would likely not quiet critics...

No Surprise Mitt

Mitt Romney’s insults and mistakes while at the London Olympics aren’t gaffes as much as a fair representation of his worldview. - Slate Magazine

Mitt The Bully: Israel Edition

Mitt tells the locals about their problems. Bark Bark Woof Woof: Easy Target

...The prep school reference is to the incident in 1965 where he pinned down a boy he perceived to be gay and cut off his hair.

It's further proof that the man is a sniveling coward and a bully who will never pass up an opportunity to beat up on the weak and the downtrodden. But then, that's the GOP platform.

The Daily Flashback: Smart Canada Edition

Canada Refuses to Allow Fox "news" A License - Lying to People is Illegal There - .

“Fox News will not be moving into Canada after all! The reason: Canada regulators announced they would reject efforts by Canada’s right wing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to repeal a law that forbids lying on broadcast news.  Canada’s Radio Act requires that ‘a licenser may not broadcast….any false or misleading news.’ The provision has kept Fox ‘news’ and right wing talk radio out of Canada”   -Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – Huffington Post...

On The Presidential Launching Pad

Elizabeth Warren to open for Bill Clinton at Democratic convention - ABC News

Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren announced late Monday that she is slated to open for former President Bill Clinton at this summer's Democratic National Convention...

Clinton For President-- Again

When Does Hillary Clinton Get Some Credit? « Uppity Woman

...An adept presidential “diplomat”?  He is no diplomat.  He is the President.  His chief diplomat has a name and her name is Hillary Clinton.  The “adept diplomat,” widely recognized by left and right alike to be a superb Secretary of State, is arguably the one improving our position around the world, if anyone is, putting out fires with a toughness that has her nicknamed “the iron fist in the velvet glove.”  And often, she is smoothing over the President’s gaffes.  Clinton is the one holding “town-terviews” in every foreign country she visits to raise awareness about the U.S., to share our values and improve our image worldwide.  She is the one tirelessly fighting for women’s rights and gay rights.  She is his Secretary of State, which is not the same as being his secretary.  She does more than run his errands...

Koching The World

A Vision For America

Arizona-Utah border towns still under the grip of FLDS polygamy cult leader Warren Jeffs | God Discussion

...The two towns, he says, are "irredeemably corrupt" because their government structures are used to carry out the orders of Warren Jeffs, not to adhere to the law. "Utilities are used to persecute people. The cops are in essence the enforcers of Warren Jeffs," he said.

The majority of the people who live in Colorado City are members of the FLDS church, but a significant portion are not FLDS because they were thrown out of the church, left the church on their own, or were never members of the church in the first place. Watkiss says that Warren Jeffs has had a history of tearing families apart in cruel ways, such as taking men's wives and children and giving them to other men. If the men who lost their families speak up, the FLDS cops threaten them. Under the "tyranny of the majority," non-FLDS members have had their animals killed or abused. In one instance, a cat was buried in concrete as a "message" from FLDS thugs, as Watkiss describes them...

The First Pot Republic

Uruguay Considers Legalizing Marijuana to Stop Traffickers - NYTimes.com

...Uruguay’s famously rebellious president first called for “regulated and controlled legalization of marijuana” in a security plan unveiled last month. And now all anyone here can talk about are the potential impacts of a formal market for what Ronald Reagan once described as “probably the most dangerous drug in America...”

Defending More Crazy

Right-Wing Grassroots Rises to Defend Michele Bachmann Over Abedin - The Daily Beast

...“John McCain needs to sit down and shut up,” said Judson Phillips, head of Tea Party Nation, in an email blast headlined “Michele Bachmann and the battle for the truth.” The Family Research Council lauded her for asking the “tough questions,” saying, “Like us, she believes the business of national security shouldn’t be driven by political correctness. It requires careful scrutiny, vigorous debate, and fearless leadership—three things on which Rep. Bachmann will not compromise.” Sean Hannity called Bachmann and her four congressional colleagues “modern day Paul Reveres.” Christian radio host Steve Deace tweeted, “Grassroots patriots: want to know who’s at least somewhat on your side? Look at their response to Michele Bachmann controversy. Litmus Test...

Dem Leads In ND

Heidi Heitkamp, North Dakota Senate Candidate, Has Lead, Internal Democratic Poll Says

A new poll commissioned by the North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party gives Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Heidi Heitkamp a 6-point lead over her Republican opponent...

Mixed Views On Racial Improvements

With Obama as president have race relations improved in America? - CSMonitor.com

Darth Doesn't Like Palin

Dick Cheney disses John McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin for vice president in 2008 - NY Daily News

Dick Cheney says that John McCain should have thought twice before naming Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008.

The former Republican vice president told ABCNews that McCain made a "mistake" when he picked Palin to be his No. 2 on the GOP ticket in the last presidential race...

Who's Getting The Welfare?

Corporate Welfare vs. Social Welfare Statistics

About $59 billion is spent on traditional social welfare programs. $92 billion is spent on corporate subsidies. So, the government spent 50% more on corporate welfare than it did on food stamps and housing assistance in 2006.

Corporations Are Not People Amendment

Coffee Party Nation | In Bipartisan Vote, Massachusetts Senate Calls on Congress to Enact Constitutional Amendment Reversing Citizens United Decision

The Massachusetts State Senate today passed a resolution calling on the United State Congress to enact a federal Constitutional Amendment to reverse the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, and restore fair elections and constitutional rights to the people...

Comment Of The Day: Nun Edition

Catholic Bishop Responds to The Nuns’ Story « The Confluence

JeanLouise, on July 28, 2012 at 12:57 pm said:

The Pope has said that he would be satisfied with a smaller but more “pure” church. He would be more than happy to see the nuns leave because they’ve been challenging him and his predecessor or decades.

I would probably leave but I would like to see the nuns stay and fight the good fight. If the Pope ex-communicates them, I think that even more American Catholics will go with them. The Roman Catholic Church is way too powerful in American politics and that needs to change. That’s more likely if the church is in the news every day because they’ve thrown out yet another nun who followed her conscience.

An archbishop in Arizona ex-communicated a nun who is a hospital administrator in that state. She was kicked out in 2009 for approving a life-saving therapeutic abortion for an eleven-year-old girl. Her ex-communication resulted in a lot of bad publicity and, I’m sure, a lot of reflection on what it means to blindly follow RC teachings. She has been welcomed back to the church because of, I think, public pressure. Not a single pedophile priest has been ex-communicated. That outrageous difference in how women and men are treated in the RC Church needs to be on the front page of every newspaper and blog in the country. My hope is that the RC hierarchy will be too busy dealing with the fallout to insert themselves into public health policy.

The LCWR is meeting in August. My guess is that they will not leave the church but will remove themselves from the authority of the Vatican. I’m not sure how that works but, apparently, it’s been done by dissident groups before.

Some Dem Spine In PA

Official Wouldn’t Enforce Pennsylvania Voter ID Law | TPMMuckraker

Christopher Broach, a Democratic inspector of elections in Colwyn, Pa., says he won’t enforce Pennsylvania’s voter ID law.

“To ask me to enforce something that violates civil rights is ludicrous and absolutely something I am not willing to do,” Broach told the Philadelphia Inquirer...

Buffonery Above & Beyond

via Media Matters: Limbaugh: "Feminism Was Established" So "Unattractive Women" Could Have "Easier Access To The Mainstream"

Real Men Don't Eat Chicken

Chick-fil-A sandwiches become a political symbol | Nation & World | The Seattle Times

All of a sudden, biting into a fried chicken sandwich has become a political statement...

Uh-huh, so conservatives eat chicken and liberals eat beef. Strange bedfellows and strange sandwiches...

Death At Chic

Head of Chick-fil-A PR group dies suddenly - chicagotribune.com

Don Perry, the long-time head of Chick-fil-A's public relations department, died unexpectedly on Friday, the company said, even as the fast food chain tried to negotiate a PR firestorm over its president's recent comments on gay marriage...

Mitt Is A Wazzock

"Mitt the Twit" at the London Games : The New Yorker

No Vaginas In Michigan

‘Don’t say vagina’ bill faces vote in Michigan senate committee | The Raw Story

The Feudal Tax Lords Rise Again

Estate tax debate heats up in tax fight | Reuters

The partisan fight in the Congress over the "death tax" - the Republicans' moniker for federal taxes levied on estates passed on by individuals to their heirs - is back.

 Debate is ramping up because the estate tax is part of the mass of tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003 that are now set to expire at the end of 2012...

Next, they'll be wanting prima nupita.

The Bottom Of The 99%

Hardworking Americans should not be living in poverty - CNN.com

...Neither facts nor common sense support a federal minimum wage stuck at $7.25. It wasn't low-wage workers who crashed the economy. It was not a raise for these workers, but rather an unquenchable thirst for profit, that led to Wall Street's disastrous game of financial Russian roulette. Why, then, should low-wage workers pay the price?

How high must profits go before a modest wage increase isn't raised as a specter of impending corporate doom? It's easy to exploit such fears in this economic climate, but these tired old canards -- trotted out in every minimum wage fight -- are just an excuse for political inaction and continued corporate greed.

The bottom line is that people who work for a living put their money right back into our economy. What business in this country needs right now is customers and too many hardworking Americans aren't making enough money to get by. If we raise the federal minimum wage and demand the 1% pay their fair share to reduce income inequality, we will boost our economy, help small business grow and create jobs.

Clift Flogs Mitt

Mitt Romney Denies Anglo-Saxon Claim, But His Camp Has Been Trying to Label Obama Un-American - The Daily Beast

I'd love to see Iceland happen here.

First $250k Exempted

Democrats Find Their Spine On Bush Tax Cuts | TPMDC

Senate Democrats have accomplished a feat they were unable to muster back in 2009 and 2010, when they had a much larger majority: On Wednesday, they passed a bill to extend the Bush tax cuts for everyone’s first $250,000 in income.

The legislation prevailed 51-48 — a vote that signals Democrats would ultimately be willing to allow tax cuts for high-income earners to expire at the end of the year...

Saving America

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Break Up The Banks!

Break up big banks, former Citigroup CEO Sanford Weill urges - latimes.com

The crowd that wants to break up the biggest banks in the wake of the financial crisis has a new member — a former big banker.

Sanford "Sandy" Weill, who helped build Citigroup Inc. into one of the nation's largest financial institutions, shocked many people Wednesday when he said that investment banking should be separated from traditional banking...

Romney Denies White

Romney camp denies "Anglo-Saxon heritage" comment - Political Hotsheet - CBS News

Odd But True

Opposites attract: Republican Don Young endorses Democrat Mazie Hironi in Hawaii | The Ticket - Yahoo! News

Rep. Don Young is anything but conventional. Still, the Alaska Republican appeared to take that reputation to a new level Tuesday by crossing oceans and party lines to make a very unusual endorsement.

Young announced his endorsement of Democratic Rep. Mazie Hirono in the Hawaii Democratic Senate primary...

Tax Code Collapsing

Firms Pass Up Tax Breaks, Citing Hassles, Complexity - WSJ.com

Why The GOP Will Lose

GOP's Obama obsession will lose it the election - CNN.com

...As a political strategist, however, I find this new tactic reckless and dangerous for a political party that needs to broaden its base of support to win -- among independents, women and especially Latinos. This kind of language will do the opposite.

As an American Latina born in Colombia, I recoiled at this language, the same way I did in 2008 when Bachmann used it. It reminds me -- and I suspect it reminds many other Latinos in this country -- of the lengths to which many in this Republican Party have gone to marginalize those who represent the new and changing demographics in the United States....

A Gun Control Rant

No matter which side you are on, this is well worth reading. Jason Alexander’s amazing gun rant - Salon.com

PA Voter ID Problems Don't Exist

Pennsylvania admits it: no voter fraud problem - The Plum Line - The Washington Post

...In other words, the state knows that voter fraud is a nonexistent problem, but will nonetheless defend a law that could potentially disenfranchise a huge number of the state’s voters. Of course, it’s not hard to see why the state — and particularly its Republican governor — would continue to support the measure...

More Penn State

Other schools have been trashed an equal amount, if not more, for "victimless crimes" like recruiting violations, so is it penalty enough?

Penn State Is Hit Hard. Is It Enough? - NYTimes.com

...But at big-time sports schools, football is always placed ahead of everything else. The essential hypocrisy of college sports is that too many athletes are not real students — and no one cares. Coaches make millions and lose their jobs if they fail to win. Universities reap millions by filling stadiums and making attractive television deals. They serve as the minor leagues for the pros. Everybody knows this — including the N.C.A.A. The notion that the Penn State case is going to change all of college sports is absurd. College football almost can’t help but corrode academic values. Nothing that happened on Monday is going to change any of that..

Sally Ride, Gender Rights Pioneer, Dies

Sally Ride, Trailblazing Astronaut, Dies at 61 - NYTimes.com

...But there were still rough spots. Before the first shuttle flight, Dr. Ride — chosen in part because she was known for keeping her cool under stress — politely endured reporters’ asking whether spaceflight would affect her reproductive organs, whether she planned to have children, whether she would wear a bra or makeup in space, whether she cried on the job, how she would handle menstruation in space. The CBS News reporter Diane Sawyer asked her to demonstrate a newly installed privacy curtain around the shuttle’s toilet. On “The Tonight Show,” Johnny Carson joked that the shuttle flight would be delayed because Dr. Ride had to find a purse to match her shoes...

The Collective Success

Are we Borg or are there unfettered folks who made themselves with no help from anyone? Ultimately, it's all a stupid argument but the journey can be worthwhile.   An Uncomfortable Rumbling « Uppity Woman

The Evil Brands

A Guide To Consumer Brands Helping Bankroll Right-Wing Attack Ads | ThinkProgress

Why The Economy Is Stalled

Mountain of Corporate Cash Sits Idle (Video) - Truthdig

Figures from the Internal Revenue Service suggest that nonfinance companies based in the United States are holding more than $5 trillion in cash, triple what the Federal Reserve reports—idle money that Reuters columnist David Cay Johnston suggests would be better spent creating jobs, paying dividends and sharing the burden of taxes...

More of the same: Report: World's rich hide at least $21T offshore - CBS News

What Defines A Hunting Rifle

Bill Kristol: People Don't Have a Right to Assault Rifles | Video Cafe

...But tea-party backed Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) on Sunday argued that 100-round ammunition magazines and AR-15 assault rifles like the ones used in Aurora are "basic freedoms" that are protected by the Constitution.

“The left always uses the term ‘assault rifle,’ and they’re really talking about semi-automatic weapons that are used in hunting,” Johnson explained. "These are rifles that are used in hunting. Just the fact of the matter is this is really not an issue of guns. This is about sick people doing things you simply can’t prevent. It’s really an issue of freedom.”

Birthers Rebirthing Again

Obama birth record 'definitely fraudulent,' Sheriff Joe Arpaio says | Fox News

JoePa Goes Down

Penn State takes Paterno statue down - College football- NBC Sports

Retirement Failure

Our Ridiculous Approach to Retirement - NYTimes.com

...It is now more than 30 years since the 401(k)/Individual Retirement Account model appeared on the scene. This do-it-yourself pension system has failed. It has failed because it expects individuals without investment expertise to reap the same results as professional investors and money managers. What results would you expect if you were asked to pull your own teeth or do your own electrical wiring?

Although humans may be bad at some behaviors, we are good at others, including coming together and finding common solutions that protect all of us from risk. Surely we can find a way to help people save — adequately and with little risk — for their old age.

Some Good News

Rupert Murdoch’s Stunning Exit: A ‘Saigon Moment’ for the U.K. Mogul - The Daily Beast

In a move that could bring to an end Rupert Murdoch’s 30-year dominance of the British press, the 81-year-old media mogul has resigned as director of The Sun, The Times, and The Sunday Times, and stepped down from the board of the News International Group, Times Newspaper Holdings, and News Corp. investments in the U.K...

Scum

Anti-Obama group raising money off events related to Colorado shooting | The Ticket - Yahoo! News

Less than 24 hours after a shooting at a Colorado movie theater claimed the lives of 12 people and injured dozens more, a conservative political action committee sent supporters an email using coverage of the event to push for donations...

Great News: Spam Reduction

Possible source of half of all web spam meets its end | Technology News Blog - Yahoo! News

...Experts estimate that Grum's spam production may have accounted for as much as 50% of the web's total. So, will you notice an immediate difference in the amount of junk mail or scam-ridden chat messages? Perhaps, but with botnets such as this, as soon as one is taken down there are typically several more lined up to take its place. Still, lowing the hammer on Grum is definitely a big step towards a safer internet.

Another Call For Secession

Two proposals for solving the gun problem « The Confluence

Bush Trying Not To Sink Mitt

Ex-president Bush to skip GOP convention - Times Union

Gun Laws

After Aurora: If gun laws are off the table, where is the plan B? - Opinion - The Boston Globe

...Each incident provokes a now-predictable reaction: a round of hand-wringing — followed by nothing. The most obvious preventive measure, tighter gun control laws, has been taken off the table. Both political parties — the Republicans by inclination, the Democrats by calculation — refuse to consider stricter rules. And federal courts have been increasingly unfriendly to existing gun control laws.

But if political leaders can’t enact common-sense gun limits, they have an obligation to come up with an alternative strategy to prevent such horrifying acts. An answer may lie in more monitoring of ammunition and military equipment purchases, more aggressive mental health intervention, or more sophisticated policing methods. The portrait of the suspect in Friday’s shooting, James Holmes, 24, is still coming into focus. But he was apparently able to acquire a weapon, ammunition, a smoke device, a bulletproof vest, and a gas mask. Law enforcement needs a way to detect these clues, recognize that they add up to a warning sign, and act on them early. The tools authorities have now failed in Connecticut in 2010, when a disgruntled worker opened fire at a beer warehouse, killing nine; failed in Arizona last year, when a deranged man wounded a congresswoman and killed six others; and failed again in Colorado on Friday...

O Flames "Build" Ad

Obama: Romney's 'you didn't build that' ad is 'bogus' - CSMonitor.com

President Barack Obama is denouncing as "bogus" criticism from Mitt Romney and Republicans about his stance on entrepreneurship and the supportive role government plays...

Batman Massacre

What hath Limbaugh wrought? James Holmes, 24, identified as suspect in deadly mass shooting at Aurora, Colorado, movie theater - CBS News

Ann's Error

Ann Romney's 'you people' comment angers Twitter users

Drone Worries In US

Protect privacy from drones at home, lawmakers say | DAWN.COM

Before thousands of civilian drones begin flying in US skies, Congress should take steps to protect the public’s privacy and prevent terrorists from hacking or jamming signals that control the aircraft, lawmakers said Thursday... 

The Lying Liars Keep At It

REPORT: Fox News Spends Two-Plus Hours Distorting Obama's Small Business Comments | Blog | Media Matters for America

Over two days, Fox News spent 42 segments and more than two hours of airtime manufacturing a scandal by deceptively editing comments President Obama made at a campaign appearance in Virginia.  

On July 13, Obama made the unremarkable observation that business owners do not achieve success in a vacuum, but that public infrastructure - such as roads, schools, and fire departments - create a community that supports businesses:...

Huckabee Half-Truth Does A Mitt

Huckabee Vs. Huckabee On TANF Waivers | Blog | Media Matters for America

Mike Huckabee appeared on Fox & Friends on Tuesday morning to attack President Obama over a plan to allow states to apply for waivers from welfare work requirements. But in 2005, as governor of Arkansas, Huckabee endorsed federal legislation that would have created even more expansive state waivers than the ones being implemented by the Obama administration, signing a letter that promoted "increased waiver authority" as a means "of moving recipients from welfare to work." The attacks from the right-wing media mirror attacks from GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who also endorsed Temporary Assistance for Needy Family (TANF) waivers as governor of Massachusetts in 2005...

The Problem With Higher Ed

The following paragraph could well describe 90% of colleges and universities today, including those without any kind of athletic program,

The woman who stood up to Joe Paterno - CNN.com

...At the heart of the problem, the Freeh report stated, were university leaders eager to please Paterno above all else, a rubber-stamp board of trustees, a president who discouraged dissent and an administration that was preoccupied with appearances and spin...

No Gays For Chick

Chick-fil-A steps out of public debate on gay marriage - latimes.com

Chick-fil-A caused a stir after its president publicly voiced opposition to gay marriage this week. Now, the fast-food chain is hoping to back out of the debate altogether...

The Presidential Patriot

Michael Tomasky on Romney: the Un-American in the Presidential Race - The Daily Beast

...I originally had mixed feelings about Obama’s “America the Beautiful” ad, the one that uses Romney’s wobbly warbling of the song as backdrop for text that read: “He had millions in a Swiss bank account... Tax havens like Bermuda... And the Cayman Islands.” It seemed, and maybe was, a little bit churlish to use Romney’s singing, which wasn’t what you’d call good but more or less followed the tune. But the ad succeeds marvelously at making Romney’s career not just about rapacious pursuit of profit, but about patriotism. I don’t ever recall a Democratic campaign implying that a Republican’s behavior was unpatriotic. So consider my hat tipped, in a big way. It’s as if Obama changed the directional flow of a mighty river...

The Birthers Reborn

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Birther Brouhaha - The Daily Beast

Just two days before Arizona’s “Sheriff Joe” Arpaio was scheduled to face a federal court trial alleging he rampantly racially profiled Latinos during traffic stops, Arpaio launched yet another a limp birther publicity stunt...

The Left Hand Of Darwin

Why did Neanderthals have such humongous right arms? - CSMonitor.com

On Mitt's Tax Returns

Why won't Romney release more tax returns? - CNN.com

...The U.S. presidency is a position of immense magnitude and requires a thorough vetting. What the American people deserve is a complete and honest presentation by Romney of how his wealth was accumulated, where it is now invested, what purpose is served by all the various offshore vehicles in which he has an interest and what his financial relationship with Bain Capital has been since his retirement from the company. These are all factors that go to the heart of his character and values.

For a nominee to America's highest office, a clear and transparent reporting of his finances should be nothing more than routine.

MoDo On Mitt

Who’s on America’s Side? - NYTimes.com

...Aside from his time running the Salt Lake City Olympics, which he’s happy to publicize, Romney’s whole life, from his $250 million fortune to his tenure at the cultish Bain to his Mormonism, seems as though it’s secreted in a hidden shelter.

Like W., he’s coming across as the privileged kid who grew up at the country club and got special deals because of his dad, but then runs around claiming to be a self-made businessman. That lack of self-awareness, and Romney’s refusal to take responsibility for his own company, are disturbing traits in a leader.

More Crazy Back With More Crazy

Ed Rollins Blasts Michele Bachmann: 'Shame On You' | TPM Livewire

Ed Rollins, who formerly served as Rep. Michele Bachmann’s campaign manager in her bid for the Republican presidential nomination, blasted the congresswoman today for “downright vicious” accusations against Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“I am fully aware that she sometimes has difficulty with her facts, but this is downright vicious and reaches the late Sen. Joe McCarthy  level,” Rollins wrote in Fox News...

TN Gov Too Liberal

SQUATLO RANT: TENNESSEE TEABAGGERS WANT TO "SANCTION" REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR FOR "LACK OF CONSERVATIVE VALUES"

According to an article in this morning's The Tennessean (motto: "Did we mention we recently won some journalism awards?") eight statewide chapters of the Tennessee Republican Party have passed resolutions calling for unspecified "sanctions" of our governor for his "consistent lack of conservative values"... 

Voodoo Econ 090

Return Of The Lieberweasel

Joe Lieberman’s Slow-Motion Divorce From the Democratic Party - The Daily Beast

...Lieberman is retiring at year’s end rather than run for a fifth term as an independent. He leaves the scene as a man without a home, who somehow migrated from being Al Gore’s running mate to a star speaker at John McCain’s Republican convention in eight short years. Despised by some on the left but not fully trusted by the right, he is a moral man with a sanctimonious streak who has never quite been comfortable in the Beltway’s polarized culture...

Stewart & Romney

BAIN DAMAGE - Jon Stewart hits Romney hard this Monday | Liberal Info

Will This Compare To Zimmerman?

Florida officers shoot and kill the wrong man at the wrong address

When someone loudly banged on the door of his apartment at 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, Andrew Scott opened it with a gun in his hand. The 26-year-old Florida man was then shot and killed by the Lake County Sheriff's Deputies on the other side. The officers realized too late that Scott wasn't Jonathan Brown, the suspect they were looking for, and their decision not to announce themselves as the police (they said they stayed quiet for "safety reasons") might have cost Scott his life. "It's just a bizarre set of circumstances," Lt. John Herrell said. "The bottom line is, you point a gun at a deputy sheriff or police officer, you're going to get shot." Bizarre? We would've said 'tragic.' [Source]

Sununu Wrong On NASA Charge

Sununu’s Out-of-this-World Outsourcing Claim - Yahoo! News

John Sununu claimed President Obama “outsourced a major portion of the U.S. space program to the Russians.” But it was President Bush who set NASA on a path eight years ago to retire the Space Shuttle and rely on the Russians for space travel.

“[Bush] Administration policy is to retire the shuttle in 2010 and purchase crew transport from Russia,” as then-NASA Administrator Michael Griffin once explained...

More JoePa Roasting

Rick Reilly: Joe Paterno's True Legacy - ESPN

What a fool I was...

Frying The Media

Read this post. It is delicious. David Brooks, Joe Klein, and the Courtier Press - Esquire

...The institution of the mainstream press continues to fail us all in so many ways, but none so badly as it fails us in its inability to shake loose all those ingrained instincts for compromising with the truth of things that it continually mistakes for "ethics." In the long con of American politics, the mainstream press continues to be the biggest collection of buffoons at the grand ball.

Penn St. Death Penalty?

College sports head says nixing Penn State season an option | Reuters

The head of the NCAA, which governs U.S. college sport, said the Penn State sex abuse scandal involving a former football coach was so egregious that he would not rule out applying the so-called "death penalty" to the university, which would cancel an entire football season...

Norquist vs. Coburn

Norquist jumps the shark | The Middle Ground | Scoop.it

Has Grover Norquist gone too far? The uncompromising starve-the-beast activist — before whom (nearly) all Republicans bend a cowering knee, for fear of violating his anti-tax-hike pledge — has always had a way with the over-the-top sound bite. On Monday, he reaffirmed his penchant for lethal toxicity and may have finally stepped over the line, when he called a conservative Republican senator a liar who appears to have developed Stockholm syndrome.

The senator in question is Oklahoma’s Tom Coburn, and there’s some history here...

Fox Lies Again

Fox & Friends Deceptively Edits Obama's Comments On Small Business | Blog | Media Matters for America

Fox News this morning deceptively edited President Obama's remarks to make it seem as though he was claiming that small business owners do not deserve any credit for their own success. But Obama's actual remarks show that he attributed the success of small businesses to both the individual drive of small business owners, and to the benefit provided by influences such as great teachers, and government-created infrastructure...

GOP Sez Dems Bad

GOP accuses Dems of toying with economy - The Washington Post

Republicans accused Democrats of playing politics with the economy, after the No. 4 Senate Democrat warned that her party would let $600 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts take effect in January unless the GOP agrees to raise taxes on the wealthy...

The Summer Of Mitt Discontent

Analysis: The summer Mitt Romney didn't want - Yahoo! News

Somehow, the summer of national economic discontent morphed into the summer of when Mitt Romney left Bain Capital and how many years' worth of tax returns he's released to the public.

Along the way, Romney has lost control of his campaign message, and lost perhaps his best opportunity to define himself to undecided voters...

Taxes At 30-Year Low

» Taxes Fall To Thirty Year Low Under Obama Liberal Values

Americans paid the lowest tax rates in 30 years to the federal government in 2009, in part because of tax cuts President Obama sought to combat the Great Recession, congressional budget analysts said Tuesday.

A sharp decline in income — especially among the wealthiest Americans, who pay the highest tax rates — also played a role, according to the report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Household income fell 12 percent on average from 2007 to 2009, with income among the top 1 percent of earners decreasing by more than a third.

Still, at the very moment anti-tax protesters were emerging as the most powerful force in American politics, handing Republicans landslide control of the U.S. House, the data show that people were sending the smallest portion of their income to the federal government since 1979...

TSA Disses Human Remains

TSA agent opens jar of man's ashes, spills them on the floor, then 'stands and laughs' as grandson scrambles to gather them up | Mail Online

Over-The-Top Crapfest

26 Shocking photos of merchandise from Tea Party & Right-Wing websites | Liberal Info

This is the mildest of the images. Go to the link if you can stand it.

Gov Spying On Self

F.D.A. Surveillance of Scientists Spread to Outside Critics - NYTimes.com

A wide-ranging surveillance operation by the Food and Drug Administration against a group of its own scientists used an enemies list of sorts as it secretly captured thousands of e-mails that the disgruntled scientists sent privately to members of Congress, lawyers, labor officials, journalists and even President Obama, previously undisclosed records show...

More JoePa Fallout

Penn State cannot be allowed to have a football team - ESPN

...As with the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts (among other large organizations that have previously failed to stop abuse), no parent can send a child into the world without wondering not only if a Sandusky is near their child but also if there are Paternos and Spaniers, Curleys and Schultzes who lack the courage and priority to protect them. The trusted failed, and everyone lost.

A New Judge For Zimmerman?

George Zimmerman wants a new judge | The Raw Story

A Florida neighborhood watch volunteer who shot an unarmed black teen to death on Friday requested that a new judge preside over his murder trial, accusing the current judge of bias against him...

Jail Time!

WA Congressional Candidate Darcy Burner: Criminal Bankers Should Go to Jail | Occupy America

Mitt's Got Some "Free Stuff"

Romney's 'Free Stuff' Speech Is a New Low | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone

...As far as free lunches go, we of course just witnessed the biggest government handout in history, one that Romney himself endorsed. Four and a half trillion dollars in bailout money already disbursed, trillions more still at risk in guarantees and loans, sixteen trillion dollars in emergency lending from the Federal Reserve, two trillion in quantitative easing, etc. etc. All of this money went to Romney’s pals in the Wall Street banks that for years helped Romney take over companies with mountains of borrowed cash. Now, after these banks crashed, executives at those same firms used those public funds to pay themselves massive salaries, which is exactly the opposite of “helping those who need help,” if you’re keeping score... 

The 1% Footballers

Joe Paterno Got Richer Contract Amid Jerry Sandusky Inquiry - NYTimes.com

..In the end, the board of trustees — bombarded with hate mail and threatened with a defamation lawsuit by Mr. Paterno’s family — gave the family virtually everything it wanted, with a package worth roughly $5.5 million. Documents show that the board even tossed in some extras that the family demanded, like the use of specialized hydrotherapy massage equipment for Mr. Paterno’s wife at the university’s Lasch Building, where Mr. Sandusky had molested a number of his victims.

The details of Mr. Paterno and his family’s fight for money seem to deepen one of the lasting truths of the Sandusky scandal: the significant power that Mr. Paterno exerted on the state institution, its officials, its alumni and its purse strings...

Evil Apple: ReGreen Edition

City of San Francisco Will No Longer Buy Apple Products

Apple’s Cupertino headquarters may just be a few miles away from San Francisco, but the city won’t be spending any more cash on its products...

Apple Returns to Green Registry After ‘Mistake’ - Businessweek

Apple Inc. (AAPL) (AAPL) said it’s rejoining an environmental rating system after its exit from the group threatened to halt sales to governments and universities that use the registry when making purchasing decisions...

Reflections Of Shame

"The Person Involved": The Freeh Report and Penn State's Shame : The New Yorker

Senior administrators—notably Graham Spanier, the university president; Joe Paterno, the football coach; Timothy Curley, the athletic director; and Gary Schultz, the vice-president for finance and business—exhibited a “striking lack of empathy” for the children. In a half dozen or more places, the report returns to some iteration of this sentence:...

For a spirited defense of Coach JoePa, his statue, and the Penn State football program, go here. You may also note a "striking lack of empathy," especially if you read the comments.

Waste In Iraq

Auditors say billions likely wasted in Iraq work during war – USATODAY.com

...In what it called its final audit report, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Funds on Friday spelled out a range of accounting weaknesses that put "billions of American taxpayer dollars at risk of waste and misappropriation" in the largest reconstruction project of its kind in U.S. history...

Are They All Crooks?

With ego too big to fail, Iowa broker admits 20-year fraud | Reuters

Russell Wasendorf Sr, arrested on Friday, confessed to a 20-year fraud at his now-bankrupt Iowa brokerage, saying business troubles and his "big" ego left him no choice: "So I cheated."

 In the dramatic conclusion to a week-long saga that has shaken trader confidence in the trillion-dollar U.S. futures markets, authorities released parts of a detailed statement in which one of the industry's best-known veterans explained how he used little more than a rented P.O. Box, Photoshop and inkjet printers to dupe regulators in a more than $100 million scheme...

The Palin Shadow

Expert: Romney Won't Pick Woman VP Because of Sarah Palin - The Ballot 2012 (usnews.com)

Despite hints from Ann Romney, wife of likely Republican nominee Mitt Romney, that her husband is considering at least one woman in his vice presidential search, it's unlikely he'll actually a tap a female for the post.

That's because the long shadow of Sarah Palin still hangs over vice presidential politics, says Jennifer Lawless, director of American University's Women and Politics Institute. John McCain's decision to share the ticket with the former Alaska governor in 2008 was widely panned after a series of missteps by Palin, a relatively inexperienced politician many criticized for not being ready for the national stage...

Comment(s) Of The Day: White Race Edition

Comments on Lexington: What’s eating Appalachia? | The Economist

Ludavico Corde 24 mins ago

These Scots-Irish, cretin, rednecks of Appalachia, are truly a barbaric race. They have created a backward, third-world, impoverished, no-man's land, that spans entire State geographies and several State borders. This is in large part due to their backwardness, isolation, tribalism, xenophobia, and general lack of education. How did America let this happen??? We have let a third world country develop right in in our southern heartland. I just feel sorry for the innocent children in those areas, being raised in filth and squalor, and with little chance of education and jobs.

vyjgrande in reply to Ludavico Corde 6 mins ago

You, sir are an ignorant bigot. Nothing more. I am Scots-Irish, Appalachian born and bred. I still call this area home after exploring much of America and the world. There is no better place to live on the planet. I am saying this with an objective set of eyes. Your comments represent what is wrong with our country. An opinion filled with bigoted hate based on a generalization of a whole region of people. Have you ever visited Appalachia? Visit a ghetto in Norfolk Va. or Flint, MI and call the inhabitants of those regions "a truly barbaric race". See what happens...the backlash from the posters on this website would be monumental.Is it really okay to attack a "race" of people and generalize the whole lot of them? My education and upbringing here taught me that it is not okay to do that. I have more choice words for you, but I was always taught to take the high road, as you have apparently not learned.

The last time, I think, the Scots or the Irish were referred to as a race was when the English were trying to justify murdering them and stealing their  property. Hmmmm.

How Roberts Becomes An Almost Liberal

I've known several former conservatives, and sorta conservatives, including myself, who have undergone this metamorphis.

The Mystery of John Roberts - NYTimes.com

...Readers of this column know from my regular references to Judge Richard Posner of the federal appeals court in Chicago that he is one of my favorite judges. A pragmatic libertarian and prolific author, Judge Posner has the enviable quality of being willing to say out loud exactly what he thinks. So his comment on what may lie ahead for John Roberts, in a July 5 interview with Nina Totenberg of NPR, was perhaps not surprising, but I still found it amazing. Here is what he said:

“I mean, what would you do if you were Roberts? All of a sudden you find out that the people you thought were your friends have turned against you, they despise you, they mistreat you, they leak to the press. What do you do? Do you become more conservative? Or do you say, ‘What am I doing with this crowd of lunatics.’ Right? Maybe you have to reexamine your position.”

Mitt & The NAACP Speech

Michael Tomasky on Mitt Romney the Race Baiter at the NAACP - The Daily Beast

Until yesterday, I thought of Mitt Romney as a spineless, disingenuous, and supercilious but more or less decently intentioned person who at least wasn’t the race-mongering pyromaniac that some other Republican candidates of my lifetime have been. Then he gave his speech to the NAACP, and now I think of him as a spineless, disingenuous, supercilious, race-mongering pyromaniac who is very poorly intentioned indeed, and woe to us if this man sets foot in the White House as anything but a tourist...

Seems a tad over the top to me but...

When Crazy Becomes Stupid

The New Obama Typeface: Revolution Gothic

Offensive Post Head

Which Female Politician Is Pretty Enough to Run for VP Beside Mitt Romney? (PHOTOS) | The Stir

I'm waiting for the male headline: "Who Is Hung Enough To Be President?"

Two Americas Redux

People laughed at John Edwards when he talked about The Opportunity Gap - NYTimes.com.

Horrors! GOP Lies About O

Top Ten Republican Lies about Barack Obama

Bring Back The Draft

Let’s Draft Our Kids - NYTimes.com

IN late June, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the former commander of international forces in Afghanistan, called for reinstating the draft. “I think if a nation goes to war, every town, every city needs to be at risk,” he said at the Aspen Ideas Festival. “You make that decision and everybody has skin in the game...”

Stupid Is, As Stupid Does

Texas GOP Declares: "No More Teaching of 'Critical Thinking Skills' in Texas Public Schools"

The Republican Party of Texas has issued their 2012 political platform and has come out and blatantly opposed critical thinking in public schools throughout the state. If you wonder what took them so long to actually state that publicly, it is really a matter of timing. With irrationality now the norm and an election hovering over the 2012 horizon, the timing of the Republican GOP announcement against "critical thinking" instruction couldn't be better.  It helps gin up their anti-intellectual base....

It's Just Summer!

From Crooks & Liars:

Update:Officials: Past 12 months warmest ever for U.S. - CNN.com
Update:Scientists attribute extreme weather to man-made climate change | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Climate change researchers have been able to attribute recent examples of extreme weather to the effects of human activity on the planet's climate systems for the first time, marking a major step forward in climate research...

How Blind Is Your Trust?

Mitt Romney defends his finances - Political Hotsheet - CBS News

Mitt Romney took to the defensive Monday after a series of Democratic attacks on his finances, stating he has no knowledge of the specifics of his holdings because they're in a blind trust ...

Why You Should Vote For Roseanne

Daily PUMA: Were feminists ever really for Hillary Clinton? Have 2012 Gays become Heterophobes?

...Roseanne Arnold is trying to win the Green Party Nomination. If the feminist vote really mattered, what a better way to send a message to the 2012 democrat party than by fully backing Roseanne Arnold.

Roseanne Arnold's television sitcom of the late 80's and early 90'swas groundbreaking on many levels. Arnold's sitcom really was about a lower middle class family with real family problems. Roseanne's television was so solid she didn't get booted off the air after her national anthem screed that made here one of the most disliked personalities around, for about a week, then all was forgotten...

Paul'er Gets Hillary'ed

This seems very familiar...

18 year-old Ron Paul supporter barred from GOP convention slams party's 'corrupt power brokers' - Lean Forward

18 year-old Evan Kenney of Massachusetts got a great start in politics earlier this year when he ran for a spot as an alternate Republican delegate to the GOP presidential convention. He was elected to the spot, beating out the former GOP nominee for governor in the state, Charlie Baker, in a huge upset.

But because Kenney had proclaimed support for candidate Ron Paul in the past, the state GOP tried to force him to sign an affidavit pledging his loyalty to Mitt Romney. Kenney said that he had no problem supporting Romney, since the state's Republican voters chose him as their candidate, but he balked at signing the pledge as written. In response, the Massachusetts Republican Party effectively denied Kenney a spot as an alternate delegate, along with fifteen other Ron Paul delegates and alternates, several of whom had also beaten prominent Romney-backing GOP bigwigs...

Would You Get Reinstated?

The police officer featured in this video is trying to get his job back, after his conviction for felony assault. He would get back pay if reinstated, though I though a felony conviction would automatically preclude you from protecting and serving, Amazingly, this is his second assault conviction. btw, my family has several members of law enforcement in it, and I have many friends who are police officers, so I know this cop is far and away atypical, probably fewer than one in a thousand would behave as such.
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No Dancing In NYC

If this had happened in Mobile, the media would be all over it-- flogging those backward rednecks. Couple arrested for appalling crime of dancing in public. I wonder if that is related somehow to this: Harlem Couple Branded 'Professional Agitators' in NYPD 'Wanted' Poster - DNAinfo.com New York

Evil Apple: UK Patent Edition

Samsung did not copy 'cooler' Apple iPad, High Court rules - Telegraph

Iceland Did It Their Way

Iceland’s Economy Is Mending Amid Europe’s Malaise | Coffee Party News | Scoop.it

...But during the crisis, the country did many things different from its European counterparts. It let its three largest banks fail, instead of bailing them out. It ensured that domestic depositors got their money back and gave debt relief to struggling homeowners and to businesses facing bankruptcy...

Cons Flogging Mitt

Why are all these conservatives beating up on Mitt Romney? - CSMonitor.com

...On “Fox News Sunday,” it was Weekly Standard editor William Kristol. He said Romney needs to do more than just cite the nation’s economic woes as reason enough to oust President Obama. He needs to articulate a plan, Kristol said, not only on the economy but on other key issues including health care...

Huntsman Flexes His Spine

I was pulling for Huntsman to get the nod; he's the one GOPer I could support.

Huntsman won’t attend GOP convention until party can “put our country before politics” | Coffee Party News | Scoop.it

Still smarting from his unsuccessful presidential campaign, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman won’t attend next month’s Republican National Convention or future GOP gatherings until the party starts to tackle the "bigger" issues.

Huntsman, who says he has been at every convention since 1984 when he was a delegate for Ronald Reagan, told The Salt Lake Tribune in a statement that he’s been asked repeatedly whether he would attend the August convention in Tampa, Fla., but noted that he is skipping it.

"I will not be attending this year’s convention, nor any Republican convention in the future," Huntsman said, "until the party focuses on a bigger, bolder, more confident future for the United States — a future based on problem solving, inclusiveness, and a willingness to address the trust deficit, which is every bit as corrosive as our fiscal and economic deficits..."

About That Boson

Our Political Black Hole - NYTimes.com

...The first thing all patriotic Americans are going to want to know is why something this important happened elsewhere. The Large Hadron Collider, where the physicists did the work, was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research. We were building a Superconducting Super Collider of our own, in Waxahachie, Tex., but Congress stopped the financing for it in 1993.

“It’s disheartening that a large number of fairly intelligent people could do such a thing,” said Leon Lederman, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, when the budget-cutting House of Representatives ended the program. This was, of course, a long time ago, back when Americans still undertook expensive, daring construction projects and believed the House of Representatives had a large number of fairly intelligent people...

The Week's Most Important Post

If you read nothing else this week, read this--Cannonfire: "Offshore outrage: Will we eliminate taxes on corporations and the rich?"

Who Do You Blame For The Economy?

Hullabaloo: "Shades of grey (austerity): remember what they did to you"

In case you are wondering just why there have been such dismal job numbers and the government is doing everything it can to make it worse, here's a handy little primer on who's really responsible:...

And now the rebuttal:

Recap « The Confluence

...Let’s face it, the Democrats did this to the country when they decided to put a complete novice, bought by Wall Street, who had almost no legislative experience, in charge of the most important nation in the world in the midst of the worst economic downturn in 80 years.  There is no getting around it.  Obama’s lack of legislative progress reminds me of JFK’s and that was primarily self-inflicted because the Kennedy crew refused to use LBJ to muscle arm people into line.

Obama wasn’t dealing with a 100% hostile Congress in 2009.  He had almost a mandate and he could have used his political capital at that time to demand just about anything.  Instead, he spent an awful lot of time preening for the camera during the first two years and I know this because his face was on TV in the company cafeteria every fricking day during lunch...

All of which proves we need Hillary Clinton as POTUS.

Moyers On Democracy

Mitt Must Fire Someone

Rupert Murdoch, Mitt Romney and the Aztec Sacrifice Ritual | Swampland | TIME.com

...At the moment, News Corp. mogul Rupert Murdoch now looms over the Romney campaign as a Tezcatlipoca-like figure. (“He is the god of the nocturnal sky, god of the ancestral memory, god of time and the Lord of the North, the embodiment of change through conflict.”) Last week Murdoch tweetedhis displeasure with Romney’s campaign, warning that Obama would be “hard to beat unless [Romney] drops old friends from team and hires some real pros.” Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch concurred, and now lesser deities like the Wall Street Journal editorial board, Tea Party hero Allen West and talk radio host Laura Ingraham are piling on. The drums are pounding...

Better Slow Than Not

A slow death for No Child Left Behind? - Political Hotsheet - CBS News

The Department of Education announced Friday that two more states - Washington and Wisconsin - have been granted waivers from the No Child Left Behind education law. That brings the total number of states that have been granted waivers from the program to 26, which means more than half of states have now been freed from having to meet the law's requirements...

 

A Woman For Mitt

Ann Romney says VP could be a woman, blasts Obama’s ‘destroy Mitt’ strategy | The Ticket - Yahoo! News

Mitt Romney has declined to say much about his vice presidential search, but the Republican nominee's wife offered a new clue about what he might be thinking.

Ann Romney says her husband is considering a woman for the ticket—and admitted she's been playing a big role in the VP search, too, according to an interview with CBS News,..

How about a sane, sensible person of any gender? Please, no Bachmanns.

Evil Apple: Copying Kindle Edition

Launch Appears Near for Smaller Apple Tablet - WSJ.com

Heroes

Cannonfire: "Of power and paranoia"

...Odd, isn't it...? Americans are trained to hate the Evil Gummint. Yet all the jobs that produce heroes -- firemen, soldiers, teachers, rescue workers, power grid repair crewmen, even cops -- are government gigs. Yes, people who toil in retail and fast food often work very hard. Yet it must be admitted that -- perhaps unfairly -- nobody has ever used the word "heroic" to describe a cashier at McDonalds. Governments have a near monopoly on the heroic. Although some have used that adjective to describe investigative journalists, it's hard to think of any other examples from the corporate world...

I remember noting during the collapse of the WTC that all the private employees were running out of the buildings, while all the public employees were running into the buildings.