More On GOP Voter Fraud

How the RNC's Florida ACORN moment helped Barack Obama | Naked Politics

President Barack Obama has received unexpected help from the unlikeliest of quarters: The Republican National Committee.

Devoted to bashing Obama, the RNC gave the president’s reelection campaign a political contribution of sorts by insisting that state parties, such as Florida’s, hire a vendor that’s now under investigation for voter-registration fraud by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in as many as 10 counties involving at least 220 suspect forms.

Remember all that talk from Republicans about voter fraud?...

Vets Waiting

Count me as disgusted. I've been turned down twice for medical assistance (I was injured on active duty in 1967). I don't know what to do really. My local veterans rep keeps referring me somewhere else so that seems a dead end since all those places hand me the same papers I've filled out before. Both my deafness and orthopedic problems are service connected. I'm thinking maybe I'll put in for disability and see if I can get a hearing aid that way. Hundreds of thousands of war vets still waiting for health benefits - CNN.com

A Burning Question For Democrats

What every Democrat should be asking: why aren’t our representatives fighting for workers the way French Minister Mountebourg is fighting for French workers? « The Confluence

Polling Nonsense

Electoral Predictions: The Obama-Romney Map is Turning Blue : The New Yorker

...Karl Rove and other Republican strategists are suggesting that some polling organizations are overestimating the number of Democratic voters, but that argument is largely a red herring. In many swing states, successive polls carried out by the same pollsters, using the same sampling procedure, have showed Obama gaining ground. Even polling organizations that tend to lean Republican have found the same trend...

More Democrats are sampled because there are more Democrats than Republicans. Duh.

Democracy 101

The Unraveling of Government - NYTimes.com

Frustrated over the inability of political leaders to find common ground on even the most pressing national issues, Americans have developed a long list of people or political practices to blame for the fact that government doesn’t seem to work anymore. But the real problem is something that’s not high on most such lists, something that’s far more crucial...

Reverse Phone Jam Non-Scam

Ring-Wing Goes Crazy Over 'Obama Phones' Which Are Actually 'Reagan Phones' | Alternet

...But it’s the right that are going to end up looking like the ignorant fools. What Limbaugh, Malzberg -- and likely the majority of the million people who viewed the video -- didn’t know was that these “Obama Phones” are actually a creation of their beloved Ronald Reagan, who began the program in 1984.

 

Actually called the “Lifeline program,” the legislation permits some households to receive a free landline under Congress’s rationale that "telephone service provides a vital link to emergency services, government services and surrounding communities..."

Akin Doesn't Like Equal Pay

How Is Missouri Senate Candidate Todd Akin Setting His Compound On Fire Today?

...AKIN: Well, first of all, the premise of your question is that I’m making that particular distinction. I believe in free enterprise. I don’t think the government should be telling people what you pay and what you don’t pay. I think it’s about freedom. If someone what’s to hire somebody and they agree on a salary, that’s fine, however it wants to work. So, the government sticking its nose into all kinds of things has gotten us into huge trouble...

How Job Cuts Should Be Handled

Read the entire post and see how job adjustments should be handled.

Big Pharma and the power of a union « The Confluence

...There you go, folks.  If you want to stand up to the bonus class and save your jobs, you need to get a union and the government behind you.  Or maybe just the government behind you.  You don’t need to work 24/7 like a maniacal drone on crack, cranking out work and trying to impress everyone working like crazy, singing, “I really need this job.  Oh, God, I need this job” to guys on Wall Street who don’t give a shit anyway.  No, you have your union representatives negotiate a contract that makes it extremely painful for the company to drop its commitment to you...

No Presidency For Bill

Sorry, France and Ireland: Bill Clinton Can’t Be Your Next President | NewsFeed | TIME.com

Registration Fraud By GOP

Suspicious voter registration forms found in 10 Florida counties - latimes.com

Florida elections officials said Friday that at least 10 counties have identified suspicious and possibly fraudulent voter registration forms turned in by a firm working for the Republican Party of Florida, which has filed an election fraud complaint with the state Division of Elections against its one-time consultant...

Say What? Unconstitutional Much?

Tell Congress: Amend "Anti-Protest Bill" to Ensure First Amendment Protections

Imagine an America in which the government can deny protest in any public space it deems fit. Where wearing a dissenting shirt around an elected official could be construed as a felony. Where First-Amendment protections become privileges subjectively doled out by the state. Sadly, that America is pretty much here.

In March, Congress passed HR 347, a bill that limits Americans' ability to protest in public and on government grounds. Mainstream media didn't raise peep, but now there's finally some anger building. The bill, passed almost unanimously, makes it a federal offense punishable by up to ten years in prison to "knowingly" protest in the vicinity of the Secret Service--that is anywhere the Secret Service "is or will be temporarily visiting..."

GOP Shrinking

Is the GOP Still a National Party? | The Middle Ground | Scoop.it

There are reasons to think it isn’t: Republicans have failed to win a plurality of voters (or a majority of the two-party vote) in four of the last five presidential elections. The single win was 2004, when George W. Bush was re-elected by the lowest margin of any successful incumbent since 1828. GOP talking points at the time touted Bush’s victory as a historic landslide because the map of sparsely populated counties he won (see above) covered almost the entire U.S. Therein lies a tale...

Election Stealing Set-up Continues

Are polls "biased" to boost Obama? - CBS News

On the heels of several new polls showing President Obama opening up big leads over Mitt Romney in key battleground states, some Republicans are accusing pollsters of a Democratic bias -- and suggesting that the recent poll numbers don't tell the real story...

Why Mitt Is The Number Two...

...luckiest guy on the planet.

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Pepper Sprayers Cost UC Megabucks

University of California settles pepper spray suit for $1 million | Reuters

University officials in California have agreed to pay $1 million to settle a lawsuit over a pepper-spraying incident last year that came to symbolize law enforcement aggression against anti-Wall Street protesters, court papers filed on Wednesday showed...

O'Polling Good

Polls Show Obama Widening Lead in Ohio and Florida - NYTimes.com

For weeks, Republicans in Ohio have been watching with worry that the state’s vital 18 electoral votes were trending away from Mitt Romney. The anxiety has been similar in Florida, where Republicans are concerned that President Obama is gaining the upper hand in the fight for the state’s 29 electoral ...

Foot-Dragging In NJ

New Jersey Foreclosures Crisis: Chris Christie Not Using $300 Million In Federal Funds To Help Distressed Homeowners, WABC Reports

...In 2011, New Jersey accepted $300 million in federal money to start the Homekeeper Program, which would, as its website advertises, promote "neighborhood stability in New Jersey communities by providing financial assistance to eligible homeowners in danger of foreclosure."

New Jersey currently suffers the second-highest foreclosure rate in the nation, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. However, Hoffer reports that more than a year after the Homekeeper Program was launched, the state has doled out only $4 million, of $300 million available, to 498 families -- while nearly 2,000 applicants have been denied...

Mitt Goes Off The Rails Again

Romney: Teacher contributions to politicians should be limited - Political Hotsheet - CBS News

Republican nominee Mitt Romney said Tuesday that Democratic politicians have a conflict of interest in dealing with teacher unions because the unions contribute so heavily to their campaigns. He suggested that money should somehow be diverted or cut off, although he did not offer details...

Explaining Bush, Condemning Obama

Those fine and fair-minded paragons of conservative virtue at the Wall Street Journal have finally demonstrated how they are blameless for deficits. Of course, they had to reach all the way back to World War II to begin their daisy chain of reasoning. Review & Outlook: The 10% President - WSJ.com

O At UN

Obama’s Address to United Nations - NYTimes.com

President Obama challenged the Arab world to use its newfound embrace of democracy to ensure protection for freedom of religion and speech and even life, using the last address of his first term to the General Assembly on Tuesday to call for a renewed focus on the “painstaking work of reform...”

Write Mr. Rape A Check

Todd Akin: Constituents Who Want My Attention Should 'Write Me A Decent Check' | ThinkProgress

...In the recording, taken in May, Akin suggests that the best way to get his attention is to make a donation to his campaign...

Ted Koppel Makes My Day

Watch all the way to the end.

Comment Of The Day: Evolution Edition

Bill Nye to creationists: Don't teach your kids to deny evolution - latimes.com

Jersey Dave at 4:05 PM September 24, 2012

"The word has been hijacked by a narrow group of creationist fundamentalists in America to mean something it didn't originally mean at all. It's another form of the God of the gaps. It's bad theology in that it turns God once again into the pagan god of thunder and lightning."

- Guy Consolmagno, Papal Astronomer, talking about ID & Creationism

Mitt's Submarine Has Screen Doors

Romney mocked for comment about jet windows - latimes.com

The Toad Endorses The Snake

Women's rights advocates should try not to prematurely explode with indignation at this news.

Gingrich Endorses Akin, Urges More GOP Support - Businessweek

Former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich broke with national party leaders and endorsed Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin, saying other Republicans must “in good conscience” do the same...

Screech Harpy Attacks Nest-Mates

Right-Wing Family Feud: Malkin Calls Kristol A "Windbag" In "Meltdown Mode" | Blog | Media Matters for America

...Malkin's response? Fox News contributor Kristol's part of the media problem and he's in on the colluded effort to doom Romney's campaign!

The intramural name-calling highlights the right-wing media fracture visible in the wake of Romney's "47 percent" debacle. Sides are being taken as to whether Romney's remarks were imprudent (i.e. "stupid and arrogant," as Kristol put it), or whether they can be used as a rallying cry to rescue his campaign...

Beneath The Teacher's Strike

Fox Won't Disclose News Corp. Testing Contracts At Heart Of The Chicago Teachers' Strike | Blog | Media Matters for America

In 89 segments between September 10 and 16, Fox News reported on the Chicago Teachers Union's strike without disclosing its financial ties to the educational technology company administering the standardized tests with which the union takes issue...

Medical Transparency Benefit

How to Stop Hospitals from Killing Us - WSJ.com

...Political partisans can debate the role of government in fixing health care, but for either public or private approaches to work, transparency is the crucial prerequisite. To make transparency effective, government must play a role in making fair and accurate reports available to the public. In doing so, it will unleash the power of the free market as patients are better able to take charge of their own care. When hospitals have to compete on measures of safety, all of them will improve how they serve their patients.

Transparency can also help to restore the public's trust. Many Americans feel that medicine has become an increasingly secretive, even arrogant, industry. With more transparency—and the accountability that it brings—we can address the cost crisis, deliver safer care and improve how we are seen by the communities we serve. To do no harm going forward, we must be able to learn from the harm we have already done.

Message For Evangelicals

My Take: It’s time for Islamophobic evangelicals to choose – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs

...If I could get one message through to my evangelical friends, it would be this: The greatest threat to evangelicalism is evangelicals who tolerate hate and who promote hate camouflaged as piety.

No one can serve two masters. You can’t serve God and greed, nor can you serve God and fear, nor God and hate...

On Muslim Rage

Islam must embrace reason and responsibility | Henry Porter | Comment is free | The Observer

...And let's not forget that minority sects in Muslim societies that suffer as well. The point is that while Muslim spokesmen demand respect for their faith they are not often prepared to give it to others, and in the west this inconsistency is a significant obstacle to a better understanding of the offence taken from the film and cartoons.

Free speech is at the heart of this issue, but western governments should not be bamboozled into imposing restrictions that exceed present laws. On the contrary, we should proclaim its value, because the kind of free debate the young people in the Arab Spring yearned for will bring about transformation in states where torture, discrimination against women and religious minorities and the failure to build modern civil societies all go unchallenged.

Perhaps someone will engage in a tactic of constant rage inflammation, say an Outrage of the Week, keeping the fabled Muslim Street in constant faux frenzy until all of the crazy heads finally explode. Then... Peace on Earth, Goodwill to All Humans.

Mitt Feels A Little Pain

Romney’s taxes: The GOP candidate’s preposterous explanation for overpaying them. - Slate Magazine

...Romney’s charitable contribution to the Treasury concedes this unfairness. The real reason Romney is overpaying is that it simply feels wrong to most people, if not also to him, for someone who earned $13.7 million to be paying less than 13 percent of his income in taxes when working people face a payroll tax of 15.3 percent on their first dollar of income (temporarily reduced to 13.3 percent). By yielding to political criticism and moral pressure about how little he pays, Romney implicitly accepts that under a fairer tax system, people like him would be required to pay more. 

Rush Gets His Man On

Before you get into Rush's rant, you might note the shrinkage of penises correlates with an increase in conservative politics; therefore, is it reasonable to conclude that wingnuttery causes short peckers?
Rush Limbaugh Blames 'Feminazis' For Study Finding About Shrinkage In Male Genitalia (AUDIO)

For whatever reason, Rush Limbaugh decided to discuss a study about male genitalia on his Friday radio show...

Some Bain Missing In Returns

Romney tax returns: What’s missing in his report? - CSMonitor.com

...What’s missing, tax experts say, are the details of Romney’s retirement account from the Bain Capital investment firm he started and ran for years. Much has been made of Romney’s investments in offshore accounts in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. Isn’t that a way of avoiding taxes, critics ask?...

9-11 Minister Scamming

AP IMPACT: Tragedy meant big money for NY minister - seattlepi.com

Mitt The Wrong-- Seven Whys

Why is Romney Such a Loser? Seven Theories : The New Yorker

...What’s gone wrong for Romney? Here are seven possible explanations:..

Digging Deeper With The AARP

Ryan booed, Obama cheered at AARP conference - Political Hotsheet - CBS News

The audience reception for President Obama and Paul Ryan at Friday's AARP convention couldn't have differed more: Obama won cheers for discussing his signature health care law, while Ryan drew the most aggressively negative response he has faced as a GOP vice presidential candidate for vowing to repeal it...

Drudge Crap

Fox News and Matt Drudge turn ‘pirate’ gag into international incident | The Raw Story

If you were watching Fox News or reading The Drudge Report on Thursday morning, you might mistakenly believe that President Barack Obama blew off the prime minister of Israel this week to chat up a colorfully costumed man who looks more like “Captain Morgan” than any government leader...

Shafting The Vets: Jobs Edition

Robert L. Borosage: Senate Republicans Shaft the Vets

The young men and women who serve in our military return from fighting in the longest wars in American history to the worst jobs market in generations. They suffer higher unemployment rates than the general population: over one in ten is officially counted as unemployed -- and that does not include those who have stopped looking for work or are forced to work part-time.

So yesterday, in one final vile act before adjournment for the elections, Senate Republicans used a point of order to block passage of the Veterans Jobs Corps proposal that would have provided a modest $1 billion to hire veterans to tend federal lands or gain priority in hiring at police and fire departments. The bill was crafted with bipartisan support. 58 Senators supported the bill, but Republicans put together the 40 votes needed to block its passage...

Mitt Make-up Mix-up?

Go to the link and you'll see someone missed his ears. Mitt Romney Dons Brownface For Forum With Mexicans

A Trio Of Stewart

Jon Stewart Dissects Fox Spin & Provides Economic Lecture One Would Expect From Mainstream Media

A Week Inside The Deep Right

FOCUS | My Week As a Republican

Ryan's Plan For SS Robbery

Cannonfire-- "Paul Ryan: The Secret Tape"

Forget that video of Mitt peeing on the peons. The hot new transcript is Paul Ryan talking to his fellow Randroids about the pressing need to transform Social Security and Medicare into profit-making ventures...

No Zero Tolerance For Mitt

I'm glad someone else besides me puts some weight on this little prank.
Mitt is down; out looms next - Roger Simon - POLITICO.com

...And there is another thing that troubles me even though some dismiss it as trivial. I am still bothered by Romney attacking that gay kid and cutting off his hair with a pair of scissors when they were in prep school.

A ghetto kid does that and he gets booked for assault with a deadly weapon. But what does the son of a governor get? A law degree from Harvard...

Strike: Never About Salaries

A Look at the Deal that Ended the Chicago Teachers Strike | FDL News Desk

Dylan Matthews intends to wrap up the Chicago teachers strike with an assessment of what both sides got out of the contract “in one post.” Here’s a list, in one post, of some of the things he left out, culled mostly from what the CTU informed its members was in the contract...

Blinking Chickens

Did Chick-fil-A just blink on gay marriage? | Political Insider

The Civil Rights Agenda, an Illinois advocacy group focused on sexual orientation issues, says a letter from a Chick-fil-A executive to a Chicago alderman indicates the Georgia-based fast-food chain is backing off its financial support for political opponents of gay marriage...

Who's Not Paying?

The 47 percent: Here's who pays no federal income tax - Economy Watch

...Not everyone who pays no federal income tax is in the lower income brackets. A separate report released last spring by the Internal Revenue Service found more than 35,000 people who made more than $200,000 in 2009 also managed to zero out their tax bills. That report noted that it generally takes a number of different credits and deductions for wealthy people to not pay any federal income taxes.

Carter's Grandson Finds Mitt's Video

Your morning jolt: James Earl Carter IV and the ‘poetic justice’ behind the Romney video | Political Insider

Comment Of The Day: Chicken Hawk Edition

Neocons Slither Back - NYTimes.com

• Larry Eisenberg
• nyc

Report Inappropriate Comment

• Vulgar
• Inflammatory
• Personal Attack

• Spam
• Off-topic

Flag

The Chicken Hawks once more are loose,

Eager Obama to traduce,

Dan Senor por favor

Every fact did ignore,

For truth telling Dan has no use.

Paul Ryan, so adept at lyin',

To slander Obama is tryin',

Senor's voice, Ryan's lips,

With pure venom drips,

Like Cheney who once had us cryin'!

What Mitt Thinks Of You

SECRET VIDEO: Romney Tells Millionaire Donors What He REALLY Thinks of Obama Voters | Mother Jones

During a private fundraiser earlier this year, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a small group of wealthy contributors what he truly thinks of all the voters who support President Barack Obama. He dismissed these Americans as freeloaders who pay no taxes, who don't assume responsibility for their lives, and who think government should take care of them. Fielding a question from a donor about how he could triumph in November, Romney replied:...

Here's the video itself. (There are several others and much more information at the Mother Jones link.)

O'Winning

Simply Left BehindThe Non-Rapturist's Guide To The Galaxy: I Love The Smell of Desperation In The Morning

...As if he isn't already. The only poll that shows Romney with even half a chance of beating Obama is Rasmussen, and Rasmussen is practically the house organ (heh!) of the GOP. Indeed, Rasmussen shows Obama winning handily in three key battleground states Romney must win-- Florida, Ohio, and Virginia-- thus negating the "national" polling...

Hillary Clinton For President

Thanks to Daily Puma for calling this post to my attention. Is it a concern troll? Or is it an honest-to-God apology? Apology, I think, but I could be wrong. of course. Now where's the apology to all us Pumas who were accused of everything from racism to goat bestiality? Anyway, read the post-- it is a good one.

An apology to Hillary - BostonHerald.com

At Andrews Air Force Base on Friday, a military band played “Nearer, My God, to Thee.” Marines in dress uniforms carried to four black hearses the flag-draped caskets of the Americans, including Winchester native Glen Doherty, killed at our consulate in Libya. President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton led the solemn ceremony, Clinton speaking before him.

“If the last few days teach us anything, let it be this: that this work and the men and women who risk their lives to do it are at the heart of what makes America great and good,” said Clinton, her voice at times uneven with emotion for the dead men she had employed.

Then she said: “So we will wipe away our tears, stiffen our spines, and face the future undaunted...”

The One Dimensional Campaign

Romney Campaign Re-Thinking Strategy -- Daily Intel

Now that Mitt Romney's convention bump has fizzled and the polls (including in supposed swing states like Florida and Ohio) seem to be moving firmly in President Obama's favor, the Romney campaign is starting to think outside the "keep it to the economy" strategy box, according to Buzzfeed. "No one in Boston thinks this can only be about the economy anymore," one top aide told the site. "The economy narrows the gap and puts us in contention, but we have to bring more to the table..."

Bill-OGoes Nuts-O

Mitt's Middle Class

Mitt Romney Might Be a Little Out of Touch

...GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Is $100,000 middle income?

MITT ROMNEY: No, middle income is $200,000 to $250,000 and less.

Wow, people making $200,000 are still what we would call “middle-income”? Maybe! If you define “middle” as the middle 97 percent or so! Because according to the Tax Policy Center, you’re in the top 20 percent of earners if your household income is above $100,000. If you bring in more than $180,000, you’re in the top 5 percent...

Paradigms Can Shift

Why I left the GOP - Salon.com

...I always imagined that I was full of heart, but it turned out that I was oblivious.  Like so many Republicans, I had assumed that society’s “losers” had somehow earned their deserts.  As I came to recognize that poverty is not earned or chosen or deserved, and that our use of force is far less precise than I had believed, I realized with a shock that I had effectively viewed whole swaths of the country and the world as second-class people...

Fox Oddity

Why did Obama use the N-word to describe his grandfather? | Fox News

Limit Campaign Cash

Poll: Strong support for campaign spending limits - Yahoo! News

Americans don't like all the cash that's going to super political action committees and other outside groups that are pouring millions of dollars into races for president and Congress.

More than 8 in 10 Americans in a poll by The Associated Press and the National Constitution Center support limits on the amount of money given to groups that are trying to influence U.S. elections...

Mitt's Ahead!!!!

Mitt Romney electoral vote lead holds strong through both conventions - Arlington Conservative | Examiner.com

One Down In Libya

At least 1 arrest in killings of Americans in Libya - CNN

At least one person has been arrested in the killing Tuesday of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, the Libyan prime minister said Thursday.

"Three or four are currently being pursued," Mustafa Abushagur told CNNI's "Amanpour." He said the arrest was made early in the day in Benghazi and that the person arrested and those being sought are all Libyans...

Comment Of The Day: Bad Film Edition

A statement and a "film" - Roger Ebert's Journal

furiousxgeorge

| September 13, 2012 12:53 AM

Amen, Roger. Thanks for saying it. The media is becoming obsessed with timelines but they aren't looking at the words. There was no apology for America, only condemning a video that is the YouTube equivalent of a Klan rally

I question if Romney or Obama or most of the media have even looked at it. It's not some shining example of American values, it's the trash we have to tolerate for the positive concept of free speech to work. Someone needs to challenge Romney on what the values he is talking about in that video really are.

More Libyan Reaction

What Libya Lost When Ambassador Stevens Died - NYTimes.com

...This week the United States lost one of its most admirable public servants, and I can report that at least some Libyans are profoundly aware that the loss is theirs as well. As we arrived at the airport under armed escort, a member of the airport ground crew said: “Today I will go home, I will take off these clothes, and I will put on only black. As a Libyan, I am so sorry this has happened.”

Union Drama In WI

Judge strikes down Wisconsin law limiting union rights | Fox News

Wisconsin judge on Friday struck down nearly all of the state law championed by Gov. Scott Walker that effectively ended collective bargaining rights for most public workers.

Walker's administration immediately vowed to appeal, while unions, which have vigorously fought the law, declared victory. But what the ruling meant for existing public contracts was murky: Unions claimed the ruling meant they could negotiate again, but Walker could seek to keep the law in effect while the legal drama plays out...

Clinton On Violence

More GOPer PP Nonsense

GOP Rep. calls Planned Parenthood 'racist' baby killers - First Read

A Republican member of Congress equated Planned Parenthood to “slavery forces” and called it a “racist organization” that was “created with the sole purpose of killing children that look like mine...”

Libyan Defenders

Libya U.S. Embassy attack: Hillary Clinton was eloquent regarding Ambassador Stevens, Mitt Romney smirked. - Slate Magazine

...First, diplomacy still matters, perhaps above all else. Hillary Clinton reported this morning, in her most eloquent news conference as secretary of state, that Libyan citizens and security forces had tried to fight off the small mob of militants who set fire to the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and that, afterward, they’d sheltered many survivors and carried the ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, to a nearby hospital. They did this, in good part, because they knew Stevens. A year ago, as the U.S. emissary, he had helped the rebels—who now form Libya’s fledgling democratic government—in their fight to overthrow Muammar Qaddafi. Ever since, he’d been greeted as a friend in his travels around the country...

Bush Still Running

Why George W. Bush Will Decide the 2012 Election - Newsweek and The Daily Beast

...Mitt Romney is not a great candidate; Barack Obama is a better one. But without the Bush legacy, Romney would be leading this race. His problem is that except among staunch conservatives, Bush has so hurt the GOP’s brand that Romney doesn’t look like the fresh economic fix-it man that Republicans want to portray him as. Instead, it’s all too easy for Democrats to paint him as George W. Bush the 3rd, just as they painted John McCain as George W. Bush the 2nd...

Right Wingnuttery Hijinks

Reactions on the Right--Funny, Tragic - The Daily Beast

Where The GOP Will Lose

By alienating Veterans and their supporters, the GOP has broken off a significant chunk of their nominal base, though I know just as many vets who are Democratic supporters as Republican.

The Ryan Sinkhole - NYTimes.com

...Interviews I conducted with New Hampshire voters last month reveal the political liabilities of telling potential Republican voters exactly what the Romney-Ryan ticket intends to cut. Two voters, both Republicans, told me they could not bring themselves to vote for their party this year because the Ryan budget cuts spending for veterans’ benefits...

Mitt's Terrorist Mistake

Obama Says Romney 'Shoots First and Aims Later' in Embassy Attack Comments - ABC News

President Obama said today that criticism of his handling of the assaults on American embassies in Libya and Egypt was off the mark, suggesting that Mitt Romney has "a tendency to shoot first and aim later" with his political attacks.

Romney had charged earlier today that the Obama administration's response to the attacks in which four Americans died was "disgraceful" and amounted to apologizing to the militants...

Mitt Getting Flogged By Own

Mitt Romney Panic Syndrome - Political Hotsheet - CBS News

Mitt Romney is enjoying at least the fourth public loss of confidence by conservative elites since winning the nomination. The first came in June when Rupert Murdoch and others complained that he was not taking the fight to Barack Obama. Then in July, he was faulted for thinking he could skate to victory by running only as the anti-Obama. Then in early August, GOP veteran voices again counseled against the passive campaign and urged Romney to be bold by picking a vice president with some substance. Now the fever arrives again from a variety of conservative quarters that he is not giving voters a reason to vote for him...

Our Regressive Taxes

This post has one of the best analyses I've read concerning  the amount of tax low-income Americans pay; the result is much worse than you think, proving we have a horribly regressive tax system in place. The snippet is the bottom line.

John R. Talbott: Do the Rich Pay Their Fair Share of Taxes?

...I have watched my native Kentucky lose its manufacturing plants overseas and have its union plants busted up solely by the threat to outsource jobs. Manufacturing wages in my parent's home town in Kentucky have declined from $15 an hour plus benefits to $7-$8 an hour with no benefits.

You cannot raise a family on seven dollars an hour even if both parents work. We are killing this country. CEOs, entrepreneurs, bankers, lawyers, doctors and politicians at the top of the pyramid are all benefiting from the lower cost of labor for their employees and the lower cost of goods imported from low-wage countries. But our workers, our dear workers are getting crushed. This is not the America I grew up in. And this shall not stand.

Pizza Politics

After bear hug, pizza shop owner barraged by negative reviews

A small business owner in Ft. Pierce is on the defensive after giving President Obama a big hug.  Images of the bear hug have been Tweeted
around the world and back. 

Now, Big Apple Pizza owner Scott Van Duzer is under attack, the victim of partisan politics.  The restaurant keeps getting negative reviews online that insult the food, the president, and even call for a boycott...

Mitt Will Close Your 'Holes

Mitt Romney needs to offer specifics on his tax plan - The Washington Post

REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL nominee Mitt Romney is specific about how much he will cut income tax rates for every American: by one-fifth. But he is vague about how he’ll pay for this, though he insists he can cut rates without losing revenue.

The danger is a repeat of 2001 and 2003, when President Bush and Congress enacted tax cuts that plunged the nation into debt. Mr. Romney says he can prevent a repeat by closing loopholes. But the “loopholes” that cost the Treasury most are deductions and other provisions that Americans have become rather attached to — for example, measures that promote homeownership, charitable giving and employer-provided health insurance...

Whistle-Blowing Investment?

Birkenfeld, a Whistle-Blower, Is Awarded $104 Million by I.R.S. - NYTimes.com

...But Mr. Birkenfeld, 47, has a lot to show for his time and effort: The Internal Revenue Service acknowledged Tuesday that information he had provided was so helpful he would receive a $104 million whistle-blower award for revealing the secrets of the Swiss banking system...

Pie In The Sky?

No Labels Innovation Can Save Our Nation - Forbes

Last night, I was one of about 40 people at the home of former U.S. Rep. Jane Harman where I was thrilled to hear four former White House Chiefs of Staff and other political luminaries discuss the future of our country. All of us in attendance have embraced the “No Labels” movement, which is designed to change American government so it focuses on solutions rather than party bickering. As one attendee said, “Party labels have become chapels and obstacles. Leaders feel compelled not to cooperate with each other...”

Pot Critical Of Kettle

Charles G. Koch: Corporate Cronyism Harms America - WSJ.com

...So why isn't economic freedom the "default setting" for our economy? What upsets this productive state of affairs? Trouble begins whenever businesses take their eyes off the needs and wants of consumers—and instead cast longing glances on government and the favors it can bestow. When currying favor with Washington is seen as a much easier way to make money, businesses inevitably begin to compete with rivals in securing government largess, rather than in winning customers.

We have a term for this kind of collusion between business and government. It used to be known as rent-seeking. Now we call it cronyism. Rampant cronyism threatens the economic foundations that have made this the most prosperous country in the world...

The Curse Of Number Two

Al Qaeda's No. 2 in Yemen Killed in Airstrike - WSJ.com

Draft Dodging 101

How Mitt Dodged the Draft » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

Religion At The DNC

Democrats’ altar call in Charlotte - Guest Voices - The Washington Post

After more than 30 years of teaching religion, I have concluded that all religion, not just my own Christian faith, is about finding answers to two questions: Am I alone and what can I trust?

By that measure the Democratic National Convention, just completed in Charlotte, was the most religious in my memory.

The Democrats asked us to consider whether we are all just on our own, alone in both our successes and failures, or are we together? They also hit the theme of whether voters can trust the “fact-challenged” Republicans; some speakers made that point more forcefully than others...

Mitt: Roe Must Go

Cannonfire: "Romney likely to win, ban abortions" ---

On "Meet the Press," Mitt Romney said -- explicitly -- that he will appoint judges who will overturn Roe vs. Wade...

O'Bounce

Talking Points Memo | Breaking News and Analysis | TPM

President Obama gets a 52 percent approval rating against 43 percent disapproval in Gallup’s daily tracking poll sampling the nights of the Democratic National Convention—a major jump...

Ryan Goes Crazy

Obama’s ‘Gone to Great Lengths’ to Keep Gas Prices High, Ryan Says - ABC News

Paul Ryan said today the president has gone to “great lengths” to make gas more expensive in this country...

Joe's Bumper Sticker

What they said: Quote from Joe Biden - SFGate

"I've got a little bumper sticker for you. Osama bin Laden is dead, and General Motors is alive."

Vice President Joe Biden, pitching a re-election campaign message...

Pentagon Pork

Sequestration could be Pentagon pork killer - CBS News

...Coburn says a full report, coming out soon, will show how $95 billion defense dollars could be saved painlessly over 10 years. Savings of $25 billion would come alone if the Pentagon could audit itself, which it hasn't been able to do yet in the 22 years since the law started requiring it.

Taylor On "Romney & Bain"

Not Pot Rot

Reagan-appointed Judge Richard Posner calls marijuana prohibition ‘really absurd’ | The Raw Story

Judge Richard A. Posner, a Chicago law school professor and Reagan-appointed jurist on the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, said Thursday that the criminalization of marijuana is “really absurd,” explaining that he sees no difference between the currently-criminalized substance and cigarettes.

“I don’t think we should have a fraction of the drug laws that we have,” he said, speaking to an audience at Elmhurst College in Illinois. “I think it’s really absurd to be criminalizing possession or use or distribution of marijuana. I can’t see any difference between that and cigarettes...”

Mahr Talking Shaft

HBO - Real Time with Bill Maher Blog - Talkin' 'Bout Shaft

Here's the big lie of this campaign, the thing the Tea people can't seem to understand: the wealth is being redistributed in this country, but not from hardworking, taxpaying "real Americans" to lazy, good-for-nuthin' welfare leeches. Oh sure, that happens -- but it’s nothing compared to the redistribution from the middle up. Wealth is being taken, and has for decades been taken, from the middle class and redistributed to the rich-prick, top one-percent whose money makes money tax-free...

The Daily Flashback: Mad Bill Edition

Jon On Bill

via Crooks and Liars:

Fighting Another Old Battle

John Dewey’s Vision of Learning as Freedom - NYTimes.com

...This critique may be new, but the call for a more narrowly tailored education — especially for Americans with limited economic prospects — is not. A century ago, organizations as varied as chambers of commerce and labor federations backed plans for a dual system of teaching, wherein some students would be trained for specific occupations, while others would get a broad education allowing them to continue their studies in college. The movement led to the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917, which financed vocational education, initially for jobs in agriculture and then in other industries.

The philosopher John Dewey, America’s most influential thinker on education, opposed this effort. Though he was open to integrating manual training in school curriculums, Dewey opposed the dual-track system because he recognized that it would reinforce the inequalities of his time. Wouldn’t such a system have the same result today?...

Democratic Zingers

Best lines of Democratic convention – from Jennifer Granholm to John Kerry - CSMonitor.com

Crist At Dem Convention

Practical governing, not party ideology - Tampa Bay Times

Charlie Crist, the man without a party, still manages to find a way to be invited to one and deliver a message. President Barack Obama's invitation to the former Republican governor to speak at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday was attacked by Republicans in Florida and elsewhere as a desperate act by two self-serving politicians. But the reality is that Crist has a message to deliver about pragmatic governing based on consensus-building rather than ideological purity. When he felt unwelcome in his own political party, he left and changed his voter registration to no party affiliation. And that says more about the modern Republican Party than it does about the former Florida governor...

Puff Adder Journalism

R.E.M.HQ: NEWS

R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion" was used in the Fox News coverage of the Democratic National Convention last night. R.E.M. today, through its music publisher, Warner-Tamerlane Music, demanded that Fox News cease and desist from continuing its unlicensed and unauthorized use of the song. Michael Stipe said, "We have little or no respect for their puff adder brand of reportage. Our music does not belong there."

Clinton's Speech

Health Care Waste

Waste in U.S. health care system - SFGate

The U.S. health system wastes more than $750 billion a year - or 30 percent of medical expenses - in unnecessary, inefficient services, and each year tens of thousands of deaths could be averted through better care, according to a report released Thursday by the Institute of Medicine...

Shaving A Killer

Judge in Fort Hood Case Orders Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s Beard Shaved - NYTimes.com

A military judge on Thursday ordered officials to forcibly shave Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist charged in the shooting rampage at the Fort Hood base here in 2009, a move that islikely to delay the start of his trial for weeks or even months as his defense lawyers appeal the ruling...

Judd Articulates O'Support

Exclusive: Ashley Judd on Why She’s Voting for Obama, GOP’s War on Women, & More - The Daily Beast

Deranged GOPer Imaginary Plot

I finally figured who was really sitting in that empty chair: an invisible assassin.

Fox's Dick Morris: Clinton "Wants Obama Defeated" But Won't Say "Because His Wife Is A Hostage ... They'll Kill Her If He Loses" | Video | Media Matters for America

I Miss Bill

Enough said.

An Appalling Rape Comment List

Don't go here if you're sensitive. The 9 Most Horribly Insensitive Republican Rape Comments

Comment Of The Day: BillO-Raygun Edition

O’Reilly on Kennedy’s DNC tribute: ‘Like a vampire rising from the dead’ | The Raw Story

 

John M Conley • 5 hours ago

Hey, Bill O'REALLY?.......me thinks you have your bloodsuckers mixed up. Ronald Reagan was the President who, by trying out his disastrous Laffer Curve, trickle-down theory, exploded the deficit by handing out unpaid-for taxes cuts to the wealthy and eventually sucking the blood out of the middle class when taxpayers were forced to cover the losses. Remember? Remember the Reagan-de-regulated lending binge of the S&Ls? (remember FSLIC Insurance, folks? That's was us!).....Remember the resulting stock market crash of 1987? Sound familiar anyone? Where are the political writers today who remember?
I clearly remember Ronnie suggesting hungry children could eat pickle relish instead of fresh vegetables. That's how Republicans cut. They're every bit as mean-spirited today as Ronbo was back then. It's no wonder Tip Oneill said it was a disgrace to have a President (speaking of Reagan) who knew so little about the American economy. (That statement actually surprised me at the time, because it left room for the possibility that Reagan might at least know something...)
And, now, they're saying...forget all that....and let's try the trickle down theory? How stupid do they think the American people are? Did Romney hire more employees with his tax windfalls, or did he hide and shield this wealth from American tax scrutiny? Only Sweeden and the Caymans know for sure.

Hackers Get Mitt's Returns?

Hackers allegedly holding Romney tax returns for ransom | The Raw Story

The financial firm PricewaterhouseCoopers is taking the alleged theft of Mitt Romney’s tax returns seriously, according to BuzzFeed, though it has no evidence that any documents were actually stolen...

Blimp Race Baits Panther Fans

Limbaugh: Venue Change For Obama Speech Means He Can't Fill "Black Panther Stadium" | Video | Media Matters for America

Evil Apple: Connector Edition

Report: Apple to Control Sales of Dock Connector Adaptors | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

Technology Democracy

Michelle Obama causes spike in social media comments - Politics - The Boston Globe

First Lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday caused the biggest spike in social media comments of any convention speaker in either party so far -- more than 30,000 per minute at her peak, according to analysis by Bluefin Labs in Cambridge.

Obama generated 30,510 comments per minute on Twitter and Facebook during her address at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, eclipsing Mitt Romney’s mark of 17,458 at last week’s Republican convention in Tampa...

WSJ Propaganda

We know who owns you, WSJ, both literally and figuratively, so if you think you're gonna win R&R covnerts by attacking "fact checkers" and their inconvenient facts, you're wrong. But you are quite welcome to continue tarnishing what journalistic brass you once had by preaching to the choir.
The Pinocchio Press - WSJ.com

We Really Built This

[My Bold]-- Far From ‘Junk,’ DNA Dark Matter Proves Crucial to Health - NYTimes.com

...The discovery, considered a major medical and scientific breakthrough, has enormous implications for human health because many complex diseases appear to be caused by tiny changes in hundreds of gene switches.

The findings are the fruit of an immense federal project, involving 440 scientists from 32 labs around the world. As they delved into the “junk” — parts of the DNA that are not actual genes containing instructions for proteins — they discovered it is not junk at all. At least 80 percent of it is active and needed...

Best Line Of The Night

Ted Strickland Sets DNC Crowd On Fire With Anti-Romney Jeremiad | TPM2012

“...Mitt Romney proudly wrote an op-ed titled, ‘Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.’ If he had had his way, devastation would have cascaded from Michigan to Ohio and across the nation,” Strickland told the crowd Tuesday night. “Mitt Romney never saw the point of building something when he could profit from tearing it down. If Mitt was Santa Claus, he’d fire the reindeer and outsource the elves...

Before He Even Speaks...

Carter Is Worse Than Clint - The Daily Beast

Corporate Welfare Costs

Government Spends More on Corporate Welfare Subsidies than Social Welfare Programs | Coffee Party Feminists | Scoop.it

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...

Murdock Hacking Vics Increase

Pool of likely phone-hacking victims skyrockets, police say - CNN.com

The number of likely victims of phone hacking by people working for Rupert Murdoch's London media empire has jumped to more than 1,000, the top police officer working on the case said Tuesday...

The Daily Flashback: Good Business Edition

Henry Ford, When Capitalists Cared - NYTimes.com

...Today, we are all paying the price for this shift. As Ford recognized, if average Americans do not have secure jobs with steady and rising pay, the economy will be sluggish. Since the early 1990s, we have been mired three times in “jobless recoveries.” It’s time for America’s business elites to step beyond political rhetoric about protecting wealthy “job creators” and grasp Ford’s insight: Give the middle class a better share of the nation’s economic gains, and the economy will grow faster. Our history shows that.

The O'Haters

GOP Specifically Stated They Wanted Obama To Fail And Would Obstruct At Every Turn

...Obama does better when America does better, so Republican politicians have been sabotaging our recovery since day one. That’s like setting fire to the house, keeping your foot on the water hose, and telling everyone the firefighters did it. It’s the worst kind of politicians who keep voting against their own constituents’ interests — so their constituents will vote against the President...

Biden Says It's Better

Biden Insists America Is Better Off Today - ABC News

Vice President Biden joined the chorus of Democrats declaring that America is better off today than four years ago.

“Folks let me make something clear, and say it to the press: America is better off today than they left us when they left,” Biden said referring to the Bush administration. A crowd of 3,500 at a Labor Day rally in downtown Detroit applauded...

The Forgotten Troops

Senior Romney adviser: It wasn’t necessary to thank troops at convention | The Raw Story

...Crowley pointed out that even conservative Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol also blasted the former Massachusetts governor for failing to “utter a word of appreciation to the troops fighting.”

“It has been since 1952 when a Republican did not mention troops serving overseas,” the CNN host told Fehrnstrom. “In hindsight, he should have said something...”

Comment Of The Day: Missing GOPers Edition

Clint Eastwood Gets Cut From Romney RNC Video - ABC News

Clint Eastwood isn’t all that was left out. Missing from the RNC was George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, Sarah Palin, and the clown car of GOP presidential candidates who competed against Rmoney. Why? Because they represent the failure of GOP policies that have put this country into a tailspin and from which we are still emerging. What an embarrassment!

Posted by: Martin Kendrick | September 2, 2012, 5:45 pm 5:45 pm

The Good, The Bad, And The Invisible

Clint Eastwood Gets Cut From Romney RNC Video - ABC News

A video mash-up of speakers from last week’s Republican National Convention does not include an appearance from the “mystery RNC speaker,” Clint Eastwood...

MoDo "Cares"

Cruel Conservatives Throw a Masquerade Ball - NYTimes.com

MESSAGE: They care.

Republicans care deeply. They really do.

They care deeply about making us think that they care deeply.

That’s why they knocked themselves out producing a convention that was a colossal hoax...

The Daily Flashback: Katrina Edition

Five myths about Hurricane Katrina - The Washington Post

Your Complete GOP Link List

15 Things the GOP Doesn't Want You to Know About Taxes and the Debt | Crooks and Liars

...So, as the Republicans make Mitt Romney their official nominee for President of the United States, here are 15 things the GOP doesn't you to know about taxes and the debt.
(Click a link to jump to the details for each below): [after you go to C&L!]

1. President Obama Cut Taxes for Almost All Working Americans
2. Ronald Reagan Tripled the National Debt
3. George W. Bush Doubled the National Debt
4. Reagan Raised Debt Ceiling 17 Times, Bush Seven
5. Tax Cuts Don't Pay for Themselves
6. Almost All Working Americans Pay Taxes
7. The GOP's "Job Creators" Don't Create Jobs
8. Low Capital Gains Taxes Fuel Income Inequality...
9. ...But Not Investment
10. The Estate Tax Has Virtually No Impact on Family Farms and Businesses
11. Income Inequality Has Reached an 80 Year High...
12. ...While the Federal Tax Burden Has Hit a 60 Year Low
13. Romney-Ryan Plan Another Massive Tax Cut Windfall for the Wealthy
14. Romney, Ryan Won't Say Which of the $1 Trillion in Tax Breaks GOP Will End
15. Romney-Ryan Will Add More Debt Than President Obama

The Best Tweets: Buzzfeed Has 'Em

You may have a humor overload here. The Greatest Clint Eastwood Tweets

Flogging CA Unions

Having spent my life in a state where unions are all but outlawed, I can say with absolute certainity that everyone, everyone, needs to be in a union (your country, obviously, no longer represents your interests). However, this is article is convincing in its assertion that unions, like any other organization, can become powwer mad. The "nose under the tent" argument is presented and largely dismissed but in doing so the author misses a central point: the "nose" wouldn't be an issue if the average worker could trust any of the bosses to act like human beings, or missing that, could rely on the government to step in and set things right.

The Weekend Interview with Gloria Romero: The Trials of a Democratic Reformer - WSJ.com

Republicans Are Funny And Brillant!

Healthy Ridicule - WSJ.com

Hypocrites One And All

Clint Eastwood’s RNC Speech: Ben Affleck and Other Hollywood Insiders React - The Daily Beast

...Forget that Eastwood endorsed Richard Nixon in 1968 and 1972. And forget that Eastwood, a legendary womanizer who fathered seven children with five women—including a daughter he refused to acknowledge for 32 years—followed Mitt Romney preaching “family values” and Ann Romney’s “We’re the mothers, we’re the wives…” appeal for the female vote. And forget that Eastwood name-checked Jon Voight, who was estranged from his children, Angelina Jolie and James Haven, until 2007 due to his marital infidelity. And forget that he criticized Obama for failing to shutter Guantanamo Bay, and then closed his speech by quoting his famous, “Go ahead, make my day,” line from Dirty Harry, a violent right-wing revenge-fantasy film...