The Real October Surprise

Sandy puts climate change back on the US election agenda | Environment | The Guardian

The images of a paralysed New York City at the mercy of Hurricane Sandy's wall of water have forced climate change on to the political agenda in the final week of the 2012 presidential election campaign. Campaigners said the devastating storm could turn out to be the October Surprise of the elections, exposing Republicans' failure to engage with an issue that is no longer a distant threat, but a present day danger...

North Carolina Republicans, at various times. have made an effort to pass legislation that would force everyone in the state to pay the same base premium for home insurance, in effect, forcing poorer mountainous counties to subsidize the wealthy coastal communities and their hurricane prone homes. This little bit of attempted socialism was the Republicans only sorta positive response to climate change, though they all seem to think oil drilling and fracking are also positive responses to climate change, which, of course isn't happening anyway so who cares?

Oh, and by the way, "normalcy"  is illiterate, even if it was spoken by a POTUS; things should return to normality.

Mitt v. MoTown

2 American Automakers Rebut Claims by Romney - NYTimes.com

Mitt Romney’s latest advertising campaign suggesting that the auto bailout recipients Chrysler and General Motors were shifting jobs to China drew him into a public argument with top executives at both companies, who condemned the advertisements as false on Tuesday...

High Snow

A few miles north and a thousand feet higher...

Update: Tuesday, Oct.30 8:21 p.m. Winds died down. Snow all around but none here in the valley. Two feet on the ground in the GSMNP; expecting another foot in the park.

Update: 5:34 p.m. Wind gusts up to 65 mph; calling for two feet of snow in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, about 30 miles west of me. Snow creeping closer.

Update: 5:43 p.m. Oh and btw, another earthquake.

Update: 11:00 p.m. Local news crew stuck on top of mountain.Video here.

 News 13's Russ Bowen and photojournalist Adam Jukkola found themselves being part of the story instead of covering the story.

They were traveling in Haywood County as part of our team snow coverage when GPS sent them up Wesley Creek Road to get to their destination. It was the wrong road. Their vehicle got stuck in heavy snow and they had to call Haywood County 911. Fines Creek Volunteer Fire Department and Rabbit Skin Wrecker Service came to their rescue...

Keep The Safety Net!

Don't let O or R touch Social Security.
William K. Black: The Great Betrayal -- and the Cynicism of Calling It a Grand Bargain

...Do not concede the phrase "grand bargain" to the proponents of the betrayal. We should heed Camus' warning that it is essential to call a plague by its real name if one is to resist it -- and it is essential to resist the pestilence. "[W]hen you see the suffering and pain that it brings, you have to be mad, blind or a coward to resign yourself to the plague." We must refuse to resign ourselves to being betrayed by Democratic leaders. Our actions must make it clear that we are not mad, blind, or cowards. We refuse to fall for their faux moral panics. It is our leaders who are all too often mad, blind, and cowards.

More Tax Breaks For Mitt

Mitt appears to have done everything to avoid "doing" for his country.

Bloomberg News: Romney ‘rented’ Mormon church’s exemption to defer taxes for 15 years | The Raw Story

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney used a loophole to “rent” the Mormon church’s tax exemption status and defer paying taxes for 15 years, according to a new report.

Tax returns obtained by Bloomberg News through a Freedom of Information Act request indicated that Romney set up a charitable remainder unitrust (CRUT) in June 1996 just before Congress cracked down on the loophole in 1997...

Christie Credits Obama

Gov. Christie praises Obama's response to Hurricane Sandy as ‘outstanding’ - The Hill's Video

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) praised President Obama’s work to help states battered by Hurricane Sandy as “outstanding” Tuesday, but cautioned that the recovery would be a prolonged effort...

OWS Got It Right

Bank of England official: Occupy movement right about global recession | The Raw Story

The Occupy Movement has found an unlikely ally in a senior Bank of England official, Andrew Haldane, who has praised protesters for their role in triggering an overhaul of the financial services sector.

Haldane, who oversees the City for the central bank, said Occupy acted as a lever on policymakers despite criticism that its aims were too vague. He said the protest movement was right to focus on inequality as the chief reason for the 2008 crash, following studies that showed the accumulation of huge wealth funded by debt was directly responsible for the domino-like collapse of the banking sector in 2008...

Climate & Sandy

Well, duh.
Did Climate Change Cause Hurricane Sandy? | Observations, Scientific American Blog Network

If you’ve followed the U.S. news and weather in the past 24 hours you have no doubt run across a journalist or blogger explaining why it’s difficult to say that climate change could be causing big storms like Sandy. Well, no doubt here: it is...

The Ragin' Right

Frank Rich: Right will rage if Obama wins | The Middle Ground | Scoop.it

Ever since the days of Barry Goldwater, many liberals have assumed — or naively hoped — that each national defeat would teach Republicans that they had overreached, and pull them back from the extremes. Instead, the opposite has happened: The lesson of every loss, even the routs, has been “we were not conservative enough...”

The Roasting Of Mitt: Parent Edition

Michelangelo Signorile: Shocking Footage Emerges of Mitt Romney Spouting His Bigoted Bile Against Gays (VIDEO)

In The Graveyard Of The Atlantic

14 rescued, 2 missing from HMS Bounty off N.C. coast - U.S. News

Updated at 1:33 p.m. ET: A search was under way Monday for two crew members of the stricken ship HMS Bounty, which sank off the coast of North Carolina after it was caught in Hurricane Sandy, the U.S. Coast Guard said. Earlier Monday, two Coast Guard helicopters rescued 14 people from life rafts after they were forced to abandon ship...

NYT Favors O

Barack Obama for Re-election - NYTimes.com

The economy is slowly recovering from the 2008 meltdown, and the country could suffer another recession if the wrong policies take hold. The United States is embroiled in unstable regions that could easily explode into full-blown disaster. An ideological assault from the right has started to undermine the vital health reform law passed in 2010. Those forces are eroding women’s access to health care, and their right to control their lives. Nearly 50 years after passage of the Civil Rights Act, all Americans’ rights are cheapened by the right wing’s determination to deny marriage benefits to a selected group of us. Astonishingly, even the very right to vote is being challenged.

That is the context for the Nov. 6 election, and as stark as it is, the choice is just as clear...

The UnJesus Party

The post contains a comprehensive list of unJesus GOPer attitudes. Following is my favorite.
The myth of the Christian right | The Smirking Chimp

...Jesus said, "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." (Matthew 6:5-6)

But the "Christian" Republicans have to drag their "religion" not only into the public square but into our political process as well, despite the First Amendment's separation of church and state...

The Toad On Rape

Gingrich on Mourdock’s rape comments: Stephanie Cutter should ‘get over it’ | The Raw Story

Former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, who is now a surrogate for Mitt Romney, on Sunday told President Barack Obama’s deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter to “get over it” and stop talking about Republican Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock’s assertion that pregnancy from rape “is something that God intended to happen...”

It's Not One World: North Korea Edition

North Korean army minister 'executed with mortar round' - Telegraph

Kim Chol, vice minister of the army, was taken into custody earlier this year on the orders of Kim Jong-un, who assumed the leadership after the death of his father in December.

On the orders of Kim Jong-un to leave "no trace of him behind, down to his hair," according to South Korean media, Kim Chol was forced to stand on a spot that had been zeroed in for a mortar round and "obliterated..."

Calling A Bishop A Spade

Catholic bishops urging parishioners to vote Republican again

And I’m sorry, but all the issue they chose for their “voter scorecard letter” were issues the Rs do well on and we don’t, in their view. It’s code for voting Republican.

You don’t see the Catholic bishops taking a stand against politicians who want to decimate programs for the needy. Or against war. No, it always seems to be two issues that Democrats tend to favor, and Republicans don’t – gay rights and contraceptive rights. And I’m sorry, but it sure does feel like the Catholic leadership is in bed with the Republicans. And that only serves to push people further and further away from the Catholic church...

The Daily Flashback: Hillary Hate Edition

Cannonfire: "Screw you, Moulitsas"

Tilting The Playing Field

Sheldon Adelson Pressures Casino Workers With Pro-Romney Voter 'Guide'

Billionaire Sheldon Adelson apparently isn't content to influence the presidential election through his multi-million dollar donations to conservative super PACs. It seems the casino mogul wants to see his workers vote his way, too.

Management at Las Vegas Sands Corp., Adelson's casino group, has been distributing voter guides friendly to Republican nominee Mitt Romney and critical of President Barack Obama to its casino employees in Las Vegas...

Powell Accused Of Racism

Sununu suggests Powell motivated by race - POLITICO.com

Dems Screwed In OH

Ohio Early Voting: Judge Refuses Order To Rehire Fired Democratic Election Officials

A federal judge on Thursday refused to order the rehiring of two local election officials, both Democrats, fired by Ohio's Republican secretary of state after they tried to extend weekend hours for early, in-person voting ahead of the Nov. 6 election...

Gutting Medicaid

Study: GOP Plan Cuts Medicaid Rolls in Half

The plan offered by the Republican presidential ticket to turn Medicaid into a block grant program run by the states would cut enrollment in half, a study found.

Between repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and its Medicaid expansion and moving to a block grant program, the plan proposed by GOP vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) would cut enrollment between 31.3 million and 37.5 million, an analysis by the left-leaning Urban Institute found...

Mitt Meets In Kitchen Closet

Romney held secret meeting with gay Republican leaders a week ago

The reason that gay Republican leaders are “confident” that Mitt Romney will support banning workplace discrimination against gay and trans people is because leaders of the lead gay Republican gay group, Log Cabin Republicans (LCR), met secretly with Romney a week ago at a remote Virginia farmhouse...

Powell Hearts O

Colin Powell endorses Barack Obama for president - CBS News

"...I voted for him in 2008 and I plan to stick with him in 2012 and I'll be voting for he and for Vice President Joe Biden next month..."

Graves Could Beat Crazier

Democrat Jim Graves Has a Chance to Unseat Michele Bachmann - The Daily Beast

Jim Graves is a 58-year-old self-made Minnesota businessman and grandfather of seven, still married to his high-school sweetheart, running against a symbol of unhinged hyperpartisanship in the halls of Congress. Bachmann’s bizarre presidential run only highlighted what an awkward fit she is for the common sense civility that characterizes “Minnesota Nice...”

Mitts Hearts Mourdock

Romney campaign stands by Mourdock - CBS News

Amid ongoing controversy surrounding Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock's comments about pregnancies resulting from rape, the Romney campaign said today it will stand by the candidate, even while Mitt Romney "disagrees" with him regarding abortion policy.

Mourdock, a Tea Party-backed candidate who beat longtime moderate Sen. Richard Lugar in the state's Republican nominating contest earlier this year, came under fire from the left last night after suggesting that pregnancies resulting from rape are "something that God intended to happen..."

Mitt & Race

Romney And Mormonism's Long History Of White Supremacy - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast

...Romney was not incensed by the racism as some of his peers were. He regarded their protests as "unseemly." He was incensed that BYU's racism led to a boycott of BYU's football team! And he saw that boycott - not the policy - as bigoted.

Trumping Myth Rmoney

Why does Mitt Romney have anything to do with that buffoon Donald Trump?

O Still Fighting For NC

Begala: I’m ‘Glad To Hear’ Obama Is Contesting NC

Paul Begala told TPM Monday he's happy to see President Obama's campaign committed to winning North Carolina following his appearance on CNN Monday, where he said the president was no longer playing for the state...

Leave Lance Alone!

Picking At A Dead Carcass 

...He brought fame and fortune to a huge number of people in the sport. Because of Lance, the Tour de France has a regular spot on American television. Because of Lance, bike manufacturers around the world saw a boom in their sales. Because of Lance, Bicycling Magazine had something to write about three months out of the year which means Rodale made a boatload of money. Because of Lance, Trek Bikes, Nike, and other products that Armstrong endorsed made tens of millions. Because of Lance, George Hincapie has a line of clothing and has made millions, as have nearly all of Armstrong's teammates from the US Postal squad...

Your Classy GOPer Of The Day: Immigration Edition

He spins fast.

Steve King: Comparing Immigrants To Dogs Was 'A Compliment

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) on Sunday stood by eyebrow-raising comments he made in May, insisting that he was praising immigrants when he compared selecting visa recipients to choosing a "good bird dog..."

O'Women Landsliding

‘Gender Gap’ Near Historic Highs

If only women voted, President Obama would be on track for a landslide re-election, equaling or exceeding his margin of victory over John McCain in 2008. Mr. Obama would be an overwhelming favorite in Ohio, Florida, Virginia and most every other place that is conventionally considered a swing state. The only question would be whether he could forge ahead into traditionally red states, like Georgia, Montana and Arizona...

GOPer Fraud Happenings

Strange goings-on from PA GOP

The Pennsylvania man arrested in Virginia on Thursday for allegedly throwing completed voter registration forms into a dumpster was released overnight on a $3,000 bond and scheduled to be back in court the day before the election.

Colin Small, a 23-year-old from Phoenixville, Pa., is scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 5, Rockingham County Sheriff Bryan Hutcheson told TPM. Small has been charged him with four counts of destruction of voter registration applications, eight counts of failing to disclose voter registration applications and one count of obstruction of justice.

While Small listed himself as a “Grassroots Field Director” for the Republican National Committee on his LinkedIn profile, spokesman Sean Spicer told NBC that Small was never directly employed by the RNC and will be “told to take that down.”...

R&R Cleaning Coming

Not sure I like what the "embed" button at Raw Story did. In fact, I'm gonna clip a bunch-- for the whole story, click on the link.

Friday night on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” host Rachel Maddow discussed how the campaign to elect former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA), never a model of honesty and forthrightness, is now mounting an all-out putsch to scrub portions of its record before the election.  Maddow said that they’re working…

Terrible Journalism

Or is it CDS? Marie Claire e-mail miscasts Hillary Clinton as a meanie - Erik Wemple - The Washington Post

The Unsuitable Mitten

The Romneys are who we thought they were -- and that ain't good - Politics - The Detroit News

When people tell you who they are, listen.

And what the Romney family has told us is that they are singularly unsuited to do anything but take public tours at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

It starts with Mitt Romney, the candidate, but it’s more than that. I have the problems with Romney that one would expect from someone who believes in things like social nets, choice and empowering the middle class. I’m not inclined to believe that people create jobs because they have more money in their pockets, they create jobs when demand makes it profitable to hire another worker. Common sense things....

Hope For Pakistan

The shooting of a girl should awaken Pakistan to the dangers of extremism - Editorials - The Boston Globe

If there is a simple human decency that unites people around the world, Ziauddin Yousafzai embodies it. He spent 14 years running a school for girls in his native region of Swat, Pakistan. When the Taliban overran his hometown, he closed the school to keep his students – including his own daughter, Malala — safe. But he refused to leave. He did not want to hand over his beloved hometown to the Taliban.

“I must bring them out from that quagmire,” he told a documentary filmmaker in 2009. “This is my duty, and if I die for that, I think there is no chance for me to die better than this...”

Boy Scout Files Opened

Boy Scouts release secret child abuse files -- 'the pain and the anguish of thousands' - U.S. News

More than 1,200 formerly  secret Boy Scouts’ files detailing accusations of child sex abuse within the organization from 1965 to 1985 were published online Thursday by lawyers, who said they offered lessons in the battle against pedophiles...

Little Mitt Wants Piece Of O

On Being a Liar | TPM Editors Blog

Mitt The Chicken Hawk

Chicken Hawk Down - NYTimes.com

O Beats Mitt

Voters say Obama beat Romney in second debate | Reuters

Voters say that President Barack Obama performed better than Republican rival Mitt Romney by a substantial margin in their second debate, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday...

About That Coultergeist

Ann Coulter announces "disown your (gay) son day" - AMERICAblog

...I’ll add a word too. Coulter is a joke, so why do we write about her? Because she and Rush Limbaugh are the biggest things the Republicans have going as far as intellectual leaders. In all their coarseness, rudeness, and bigotry, they represent the leadership of the modern GOP. They’re not a bug, they’re a feature. And it’s important that Americans be reminded, every day, of who the Republican party really is, and what it’s become. Limbaugh and Coulter are outcasts on the left, and they get big bucks to speak on the right. We don’t do ourselves any favors by ignoring them. We should do what the right would do had we anyone this embarrassing – give her a pedestal and let her turn independents against the GOP...

Calling Terror, Terror

Romney Caught Flatfooted Making Incorrect Claim About Libya | TPMDC

n a defining exchange of the second presidential debate Wednesday night, Mitt Romney repeated a false claim about President Obama’s reaction to the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya — and got called out by the moderator...

Reminder News

Romney Invested in Medical-Waste Firm That Disposed of Aborted Fetuses, Government Documents Show | Mother Jones

O'Voting

Charles Pierce’s instant emetic « The Confluence

...Let’s be frank here: after the 2008 financial meltdown, most people would have voted for a mixed asian-african american, Muslim, lesbian hermaphrodite if he/she had a “D” after her/his name.  And that’s because the American people wanted that person to aggressively fight back against the forces that were destroying their lives...

No Specifics From R&R

The Vice Presidential Debate: Joe Biden Was Right to Laugh | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone

...Raddatz did exactly the right thing. She asked a yes-or-no question, had a politician try to run the lamest kind of game on her – and when he was done, she called him on it, coming right back to the question and translating for viewers: "No specifics."

Think about what that means. Mitt Romney is running for president – for president! – promising an across-the-board 20 percent tax cut without offering any details about how that's going to be paid for. Forget being battered by the press, he and his little sidekick Ryan should both be tossed off the playing field for even trying something like that. This race for the White House, this isn't some frat prank. This is serious. This is for grownups, for God's sake...

Anti-Akin Ad

Crazier Gets Serious Challenge

National Dems boost Bachmann challenger - Salon.com

Dog Whistling GOPers

Wis Thompson says son sorry for Obama-Kenya remark - News - Boston.com

Republican Senate candidate Tommy Thompson’s campaign says his son apologizes for suggesting voters in the fall election should send President Barack Obama back to Kenya...

Your Classy GOPer Of The Day: Coulter Edition

Ann Coulter On Death Of Former Sen. Arlen Specter: "Arlen Specter Has Just Switched To The Dead Party" | Blog | Media Matters for America

The Other Refugee Shoe Dropping

When the Arab Jews Fled - WSJ.com

Iran Not The Front Page Because...

enjoy the moment: economic warfare!

...the thing i find most curious and possibly most disturbing about iran's difficulties is that it's not front page news. if iran threatens israel it's front page news and the world hears about it but when economic sanctions are really working well it seems to be buried. it's almost like israel and the military industrial complex want to keep the option of a military strike as the top option for dealing with iran.

A Crack Of Light In Pakistan

The Malala moment: Tens of thousands rally in Pakistan for girl shot by Taliban - CSMonitor.com

Tens of thousands rallied in Pakistan's largest city Sunday in the biggest show of support yet for a 14-year-old girl who was shot and seriously wounded by the Taliban for promoting girls' education and criticizing the militant group...

Shooting Dems

Shot fired at Obama campaign officer in Denver | ABC57 | South Bend IN News, Weather and Sports | Top Videos

Comment Of The Day: Student Edition

Bill Maher Slams Focus On The Family & Being Wrong With No Penalty (VIDEO)

Demarcus Jackson

Southern Psychology Professor

I think Bill Maher is funny often, but I do disagree with him often too. But, on this issue, I agree with him wholeheartedly. As a professor, I see it all the time...this insistence by students that their opinion is as correct as any other opinion, regardless of facts or evidence. There is plague of "false equivalence" in our society today, that is more pervasive than at any point in our young nation's history. I believe that if it is not "cured", that false equivalence will be a death nail in our nation's fall into inevitable irrelevance...

Giving A Whole New Meaning To "Koch Blocked"

William Koch, Billionaire Koch Brother, Accused Of Imprisoning Executive

Billionaire William Koch is facing a lawsuit in federal court from a former top-level employee who claims the energy mogul lured him to a secluded property, where he was imprisoned and interrogated for a period of time, according to a report in Courthouse News.

John Houston Scott, an attorney for Kirby Martenson, a former executive for a number of Koch subsidiaries, confirmed the story to HuffPost, adding that he guessed the case could go to trial in a year...

GOP Damages Security

U.S. intelligence hurt when Libya base was abandoned | Reuters

U.S. intelligence efforts in Libya have suffered a significant setback due to the abandonment and exposure of a facility in Benghazi, Libya identified by a newspaper as a "CIA base" following a congressional hearing this week, according to U.S. government sources...

Go here and here for the back-story.

 

Fox Thinks Joe's Cranky

Hume: Biden looked like 'cranky old man, to some extent, debating a polite young man' [VIDEO] | The Daily Caller

Your GOPer Crazy Of The Day

Gentleman in Virginia Romney Office Has Novel Idea For Welfare Reform: Execute ‘Illegitimate’ Parents, Adopt Out Their Kids

… well, let’s let Clifford Russell speak for himself, with Cook offering him chances to walk back or clarify his views:

I’ll tell you what really need to do with these illegitimate families on welfar — give all the kids up for adoption and execute the parents.”

I stare at him and blink in a glaze of shock.

Just to be sure I heard him right, I ask him to repeat it, twice.

“Yes, I mean it. Get rid of all of them, give the kids up for adoption, execute the parents, and you get rid of the problem.” (When I call him back to revisit the issue, he elaborates: “put the children up for adoption and execute the parents, and word would get out soon” that poor people shouldn’t have kids.)...

Scooter's Ghost, Act II

Hero Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz Outs Pretty Much Entire CIA

Jason Chaffetz, how is your MENSA membership? Still in good standing? Oh, good! Now, we know you and your brethren want to make some political hay out of the Libya fiasco. Who could blame you? Even we were like (secretly, in our brainpans), sup, did Hillz drop the ball? And if hacks like us are wondering that, then it is probably a potent issue indeed! But FIRST you admitted that actually, you and all your GOP buddies had voted specifically to cut funding for embassy security — “priorities,” you said, while accusing Chick Clinton of not having enough embassy security — and then you totally Valerie Plamed an entire CIA … platoon? Gaggle? Murder? Nipple? A nipple of CIA dudes? Well, whatever a bunch of CIA dudes would be. GOOD JOB IN YOUR PUBLIC TELEVISED HEARINGS ON MATTERS OF NATIONAL SECURITY, GENIUS...

...SO. If the lapses were indeed the fault of the CIA, then we can rest easy that our image of Hillary Clinton as kick-ass superhero can remain unmolested. (Hooray!) And also, pinning State with not having security when you’ve cut funding for security for State might just backfire when people are reminded you are the party that wants to prove that government is ineffective and terrible by making government ineffective and terrible.

You know. Just saying. So thanks Jason Chaffetz, we feel totally 10 times better now!

Here's Hoping For Pot Sanity

Yes on I-502 Starts Airing Two New TV Ads | Just Say Now

With the election entering its final stretch the campaign behind Initiative 502, which would legalize, tax and regulate marijuana for adults in Washington State, just started airing two new TV ads. The two ads are simple and direct...

The Ghost of Scooty Libby Returns

House GOP outs 'undercover CIA operation in Libya' on C-SPAN

Bra-vo.

While attempting to use the death of American government officials in Libya to help Mitt Romney’s election bid, fellow Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz, and his House Republican colleagues on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, outed a classified CIA operation, on C-SPAN no less, endangering American national security.

Oops.

Oh but, as the saying goes, it gets better...

A Point For Women

Mitt Bombed

Mitt Romney 'Google Bombed' - typing 'completely wrong' into image search returns dozens of pictures of him | The Sun |News

Your GOPer Hypocrite Of The Day

Report: Anti-choice Republican forced mistress to have an abortion | The Raw Story

A Tea Party Republican congressman who has backed anti-abortion legislation has been revealed to have pressured a mistress to get an abortion of her own.

The Huffington Post reported Wednesday that Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN), a former physician, had an affair with a patient that resulted in him pressuring the unidentified woman to get an abortion in September 2000...

Economic Truths

Bullying Workers

The comment thread at this post is amazing-- there are numerous people defending these douchebags. Talk about kissing the whip.

David Siegel Email To Workers Threatens Layoffs If Obama Is Reelected (UPDATE)

...Siegel has a history of injecting himself in to critical political events. In the “The Queen of Versailles,” the documentary chronicling Siegel’s quest to obnoxiously build the biggest house in America, the Florida real estate mogul claims he was “personally responsible” for George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential victory. He also goes on to say that his tactics for helping Bush win “may not necessarily have been legal.”

Siegel isn’t the first CEO to push his political preferences on his employees. Bob Murray, CEO of coal company Murray Energy, allegedly pressured his workers to donate money to the Romney campaign. Murray energy workers have also accused the company of forcing them to participate in a pro-Romney rally, give up a day’s worth of pay and face the possibility of getting fired if they didn’t.

And Richard Lacks, CEO of car parts manufacturer Lacks Enterprises, urged his employees to vote for Romney on the basis of the claim that four more years of Obama would mean a boost in taxes and a decrease in pay. Talk about rocking the vote...

From The Duh Department Of O'Politics

Obama says he was 'too polite' toward Romney in first debate - First Read

President Barack Obama engaged in some post-debate self-analysis Wednesday morning, saying on a radio show that he thought he was “too polite” during last week’s debate with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney...

USAF UFO

Declassified at Last: Air Force's Supersonic Flying Saucer Schematics | Danger Room | Wired.com

Your GOPer Crazy Of The Day

Charlie Fuqua, Arkansas Legislative Candidate, Endorses Death Penalty For Rebellious Children In Book

Charlie Fuqua, the Republican candidate for the Arkansas House of Representatives who called for expelling Muslims from the United States in his book, also wrote in support for instituting the death penalty for "rebellious children..."

Hope On The Labor Front

Walmart Worker Wildcat Strikes Spread | FDL News Desk

For the second time in a week, workers at Walmart stores, this time in five states, have walked out on the job. While Walmart does not allow unions, and the strikes are relatively time-limited, this surge of worker activism at the nation’s largest employer is one of the biggest stories in US labor relations...

Defending Big Bird

Big Bird swoops into presidential campaign - CBS News

...In 2012, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps support PBS, NPR, American Public Media, and Public Radio International (PRI), received about $445 million - or about 0.012% percent of the nation's fiscal budget -- in federal funding. Democrats point out that cutting funding for the CPB would do little in and of itself to ease the nation's economic woes...

The Sensitive Mitt

AP publishes unflattering pic of Romney bending over | Fox News

Tebowic Raving

Tim Tebow has plans for 666th Monday Night football game

And so it was that on the morn of the 666th Monday Night Football game in the course of mankind, Timothy Richard Tebow noticed this numerical oddity and took to the mount to declare his righteousness against the mark of the beast.

On the second Monday of October, Tebow took a respite from reading his papyrus playbook to declare his intentions for the eve: "Looking forward to giving God all the glory in tonight's 666th Monday Night Football game. Romans 8:37-39..."

Preventive Spying

Espionage fiasco: ‘Top Chinese firms should be banned from US’ – report — RT

US firms should stay away from doing business with two Chinese telecom giants due to a national security threat they pose, states a draft congressional report. It recommends barring the companies from the US market, yet fails to detail evidence.

The House Intelligence Committee in its report to be released Monday urges US regulators to ban all merges and acquisitions in US by Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and ZTE Corp, which are among global suppliers of telecommunications gear and mobile phones...

Newt Peeps Truth

Gingrich On Romney Tax Plan: 'I Think It's Clear He Changed'

Gingrich acknowledged the clear inconsistency, saying “I think it’s clear he changed.” He described the change as “good politics.”

Romney In Fantasy Land

Romney pledges to make country 'more united as a people' - latimes.com

Wrapping up a three-day tour of Florida, Mitt Romney promised voters Sunday that he would do everything in his power “to make us more united as a people” and would seek out Democrats as legislative partners...

Making Business Sense

Measure Results, Not Hours, to Improve Work Efficiency - NYTimes.com

Lettting The Bigotry Out

Republican state rep Jon Hubbarb calls slavery a 'blessing' as Charlie Fuqua advocates deporting all Muslims in books | Mail Online

A Republican member of Arkansas' House of Representatives has written a book calling African Americans' slavery a 'blessing in disguise' prompting outrage as a fellow state candidate writes advocating deporting all Muslims...

Mitt's Pre-Existing Errror

Romney’s Sick Joke - NYTimes.com

“No. 1,” declared Mitt Romney in Wednesday’s debate, “pre-existing conditions are covered under my plan.” No, they aren’t — as Mr. Romney’s own advisers have conceded in the past, and did again after the debate.

 Mr. Romney lying? Well, either that or he was making what amounts to a sick joke. Either way, his attempt to deceive voters on this issue was the biggest of many misleading and/or dishonest claims he made over the course of that hour and a half. Yes, President Obama did a notably bad job of responding. But I’ll leave the theater criticism to others and talk instead about the issue that should be at the heart of this election...

Casual Sexual Harassment

Of course, if you're the target, it's probably not casual. Hey baby! Women speak out against street harassment - CNN.com

Talk About Insensitive...

Tamon Robinson Billed for Damage to Police Car That Hit and Killed Him - NYTimes.com

Late last month, Laverne Dobbinson received a letter, addressed to her son, from a law firm notifying him that it had been retained by the City of New York to collect money for damages to a police car...

Vote For The Orc!

Republicans out Democrat in 'World of Warcraft' witch hunt - InGame on NBCNews.com

Colleen Lachowicz is a Democratic candidate running for State Senate in Maine. She's also a level 85 orc in the massively popular online game "World of Warcraft." And for that, the Republican party says she is unfit for office...

Your Cheatin' Mitt

Yes, he cheated during the debate. Here's the evidence: Litbrit: Mitt the Cheat: Busted in 8 Frames. UPDATED 4X

Outing Jawbones

Well, if they're criminals...

New Labor Dept. Rule Would Require Employers To Out Their Own Lawyers - Forbes

How To Stop Abortions

Free birth control cuts abortion rate dramatically, study finds - Vitals

A dramatic new study with implications for next month’s presidential election finds that offering women free birth control can reduce unplanned pregnancies -- and send the abortion rate spiraling downward.

When more than 9,000 women ages 14 to 45 in the St. Louis area were given no-cost contraception for three years, abortion rates dropped from two-thirds to three-quarters lower than the national rate, according to a new report by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis researchers...

Mitt Lies-- Again

At Last Night's Debate: Romney Told 27 Myths In 38 Minutes | ThinkProgress

Pundits from both sides of the aisle have lauded Mitt Romney’s strong debate performance, praising his preparedness and ability to challenge President Obama’s policies and accomplishments. But Romney only accomplished this goal by repeatedly misleading viewers. He spoke for 38 minutes of the 90 minute debate and told at least 27 myths:..

Hillary Clinton For President: Debate Edition

Some possible explanations for Obama’s poor performance « The Confluence

...Ah, yes, another urban legend, Obama’s famed rhetorical skills, dies an ignoble death.  I have always noticed that without a teleprompter, or over-rehearsal, that Obama’s speaking style consists of sentences with multiple, labyrinthine prepositional phrases that lead listeners down blind alleys until they are lost.  Whether he does this intentionally to baffle us with bullshit or whether it comes naturally is debatable.  You shouldn’t have to do this if you are familiar with and committed to the concepts you are talking about...

Incredible Injustice

Hero Connecticut Supreme Court Justices Defend Rapists From Clutches of Temptresses With Cerebral Palsy

...Justices ruled, 4-3, that despite evidence that the 26-year-old woman cannot speak and has little body movement, there was no evidence she could not communicate her refusal to have sex with the defendant, Richard Fourtin Jr....

Update: For all you regionalist bigot a-holes, note that Connecticut is not now nor has it ever been a member of the Old South, though from the comments at some of the sites that reported this travesty, you'd thought for sure it was Jim Crow hillbilly hick time justice.

Flogging Wall Street

No, they cannot be beaten enough.

Keith Rothfus New York Times Profile - Why I Don't Feel Bad for "Wall Street" Candidates This Year - Esquire

...If "Wall Street" becomes a pejorative in our national dialogue for a while, then that's exactly what "Wall Street" deserves. If an association with "Wall Street" becomes toxic for politicians for a couple of years, then "Wall Street" is still getting off too easily for what it did. I mean, Jesus H. Christ in a top hat and tap shoes, the anti-war movement — which, we should ever recall, was right about everything — was used as a club for so long against Democrats that Democrats eventually learned how to use it on themselves. That went on for decades. We're still only four years out from "Wall Street"'s eating the damn world, and I'm supposed to feel bad because some politicians are being roughed up over it for a cycle or two?

Don't even try.

The Stoopid: Akin Edition (New Evidence!)

Daily Kos: Todd Akin: "Doctors Give Abortions To Women Who Are Not Actually Pregnant"

An old video has surfaced, of a speech given by Todd Akin on the House floor back in 2008.  It is so detached from reality that it has the capacity to make his claims of a woman's body 'shutting down conception' after rape seem measured by comparison. He claims to have misspoken when he said that raped women rarely get pregnant. Judging by his old comments, perhaps he meant he was not outlandish enough...

Gridlocking

Simply Left BehindThe Non-Rapturist's Guide To The Galaxy: Tyranny Of The Minority

...The Senate, for example, can effectively vote a bill down with the filibuster. The filibuster means that if only 40% of the Senate disagrees with a bill, it's gone. It doesn't matter if 70% of the people would vote for it, all you need are 40 Senators who refuse to even consider it.

 

Talk about a tyranny of the minority!

 

Even at the state level, we see this. California, for instance, can't even raise taxes without two-thirds approval by the legislature. That's democracy? That's unAmerican, is what that is: the legislative process is held hostage by a small minority of radicals who legislate strictly on ideology, with no consideration of rationality or even practicality.

 

Keep that in mind when you cast your vote for President this election cycle. It's about as close to democracy as even America will ever get.

Fashion Wingnuttery...

...with a dash of racism.

Michelle Obama 'Doesn't Look Or Act' Like A First Lady, Says Virginia Voter Bobbie Lussier

Mitt's Mind Matters

(VIDEO) Ann Romney: Biggest Fear Is For Mitt’s ‘Mental Well-Being’ This Is A Huge Story

As reported by Reuters, Ann Romney’s says her biggest concern about Mitt Romney winning the presidency is his Mental Well-Being. I am sure Ann Romney was tired and that if she knew the implication of such an answer she would not have made it...

Mitt The Munificent

Romney won't revoke young illegal immigrant visas - CBS News

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says he would honor temporary work permits for young illegal immigrants who were allowed to stay in the U.S. because of an executive order signed this summer by President Barack Obama.

Romney told The Denver Post, in an interview appearing in Tuesday's edition, that people who are able to earn the two-year visas to stay and work wouldn't see them revoked under a Romney administration...

From The Soylent Green Department

Mitt's 'Harvest' Comments: Typical MBA-Speak ... or an Omen of Alien Invasion? | The Smirking Chimp

David Corn at Mother Jones has released another Romney video. This one's from a Bain Capital meeting in 1985 in which Romney says Bain's business model is to acquire companies and then "harvest them at a significant profit" in five to eight years...

Good News In PA

Judge blocks Pennsylvania voter ID law - NBC Politics

A Pennsylvania judge has blocked enforcement of the key section of a voter identification law which the state legislature enacted and Republican Gov. Tom Corbett signed last March, meaning that the law will not be in effect for the Nov. 6 election...

The Waitress Moms

Simply Left BehindThe Non-Rapturist's Guide To The Galaxy: Keen Tactics

...These "waitress moms" have voted Republican in every election since 1980. Except 1996.Mitt Romney is the ideal candidate to alienate them completely, if you think about it, and nearly every substantive misstep he's made has alienated them further...

News From The Other Side...

...of reality.

Creationists and dinosaurs: Answers in Genesis teams with dissident scientists to deny feathered dino fossil record - Slate Magazine

...Creationists are on a campaign to “take dinosaurs back.” Earlier this year, the creationist crackpot Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis—the organization that established the fundamentalist funhouse called the Creation Museum—said, “Dinosaurs have been held hostage for decades” by his mortal enemy, the nefarious “secular humanists.” Ham is determined to appropriate dinosaurs for biblical literalists. (The organization’s website even sells a “We’re taking dinosaurs back!” bumper sticker.)...

O In OH

OH GOPer: "I've never seen such hate this year in the Republican party" - AMERICAblog

...That shows up in voters such as poll participant Wayne Butterfass, 70, a retired store owner from Cincinnati who said he has voted Republican for most of his life.

But not this year.

“Obama was handed an economy on the skids, after eight years of Bush,” Butterfass said in an email. “All he ever did was think about war. I’m afraid Romney will do the same, especially the trickle-down theory.

“I don’t know why any woman or gay would ever vote for Romney. All you have to do is look at the Republican platform. I’ve never seen such HATE this year in the Republican Party, national or state...”

Wingnuttery

Great collection here. The sample below is just one example of the incredible level of Teh Stoopid in evidence.

Green Eagle: Wingnut Wrapup

..."Back when “living” conditions in Victorian London were unspeakably appalling, Jack the Ripper was practically doing those women a favor…Instead, today’s poor are often petulant, entitled, irresponsible and ungrateful, caught up in a culture of crime and cheap thrills."

Yeah, I remember the poor in London demanding:  "Let Jack the Ripper be- I might be lucky enough to be next!"  And how can we doubt the truth of Kathy's claim that today's poor are "ungrateful" for the privilege of being poor?...

No More CA Conversion

AFP: California bans gay conversion therapy

Old-Time Fair-Sharing

Two Santa Clauses or How The Republican Party Has Conned America for Thirty Years | Common Dreams

...Which was why the most successful Republican of the 20th century up to that time, Dwight D. Eisenhower, had been quite happy with a top income tax rate on millionaires of 91 percent. As he wrote to his brother Edgar Eisenhower in a personal letter on November 8, 1954:..