Guilt And Taxes

Letter from Guilt-Ridden Billionaire: Tax Me More! (Video) | Progressive Populist:

...Bill Gross is a billionaire financial manager and the co-founder of Pacific Investment Management (PIMCO), a global investment firm. Gross is also an author who writes articles for PIMCO’s website.

This month, he authored a letter in which he acknowledged that much of his success and wealth can be attributed in part to being born at the right time, a time of a credit boom and low tax rates for the wealthy. He also acknowledged that he made his fortune at the expense of labor and believes that our tax system should be overhauled, with a higher tax rate implemented on capital along with a more favorable climate for economic growth and labor.

Gross feels guilty and feels sorry for those who are less well-off than he is, and that prompted him to write this letter, most of which is shown below. For further reading, check out his blog article in full on the PIMCO website...

No Job Creators Here

Henry Blodget Now Gets It–Rich People Do Not Create Jobs:

...It was a pleasant surprise to read yesterday’s piece by Henry Blodget. It is titled Sorry, Folks, Rich People Actually Don’t ‘Create The Jobs’. Henry Blodget wrote,

But, more importantly, this argument perpetuates a myth that some well-off Americans use to justify today’s record inequality — the idea that rich people create the jobs.

Entrepreneurs and investors like me actually don’t create the jobs — not sustainable ones, anyway.

Yes, we can create jobs temporarily, by starting companies and funding losses for a while. And, yes, we are a necessary part of the economy’s job-creation engine. But to suggest that we alone are responsible for the jobs that sustain the other 300 million Americans is the height of self-importance and delusion...

Crazy In NC: Summary Edition

In North Carolina, a hard-right shift hits a roadblock | MSNBC:

... In short, the GOP has turned America’s 10th-largest state —traditionally known as a rare bastion of southern moderation—into a massive testing ground for pure conservative ideology. The hard-right lurch has already inflicted hardship on countless North Carolinians. And it has offered a real-world glimpse of the playbook that many conservatives—including McCrory’s hosts at Heritage—would like to use across the country...

The Daily Flashback: Bush Crime Family Edition

Crimes of the Bush dynasty:

THE GREAT myth about the United States is that we live in a "meritocracy," where the "best and brightest" will rise to the top, and anyone can make it with intelligence and hard work. The slightest examination of the Bush family tree proves that all this is a lie...

Lying About The Vatican Embassy

The embassy is not closing, it's moving, and furthermore the plans to move it were first proposed by Skippy Bush. It's amazing that Cons continue to echo crap like this when it is easier to debunk than a flying saucer on the White House lawn.

No, Obama Is Not Closing The Vatican Embassy:

...So you might be surprised to learn that, in fact, Obama is not closing the embassy — or diminishing U.S. diplomatic relations with the Holy See in any way...

Winning The War On Thanksgiving

My bold. The War on Thanksgiving - NYTimes.com:

...Retailers wouldn’t open on Thursday if they thought customers would rather spend time at home. The problem is their policies don’t just dilute the spirit of Thanksgiving. They’re hard on workers, who are often given no choice but to work on the holiday. One Cleveland lawmaker wants to help. Mike Foley, a Democrat in the Ohio House of Representatives, has drafted state legislation that would require employers to pay triple-time on the holiday or give workers the option of staying home. He has acknowledged that it’s unlikely to pass Ohio’s Republican-controlled House, but it would make working on Thanksgiving more worthwhile.

Honests Cons

Bryan Henry: A look at Conservatism and Obamacare - Kingwood Observer:

...Daniel McCarthy, the editor of The American Conservative, recently explained why the Tea Party cannot govern: “What they [are] against [is] always more clear than how they could create an alternative – a modern alternative, not simply a return to an idealized past.” Conservatives must abandon their dogmatism and face reality if our two-party system is to solve complex problems and improve society. Solving something is preferable to remaking nothing.

The ACA Is Working

How Print And Broadcast Media Are Hiding Obamacare's Success In Controlling Costs | Research | Media Matters for America:

After weeks of highlighting negative aspects of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), media outlets have largely underreported the law's success in helping slow the growth of health care costs...

The Daily Flashback: Skippy Guard Edition

Dan Rather is right | Research | Media Matters for America:

...After all, for lots of Bush bloggers, two absolute truths that must never be questioned in public are that the CBS memos were proven forgeries (they weren't), and that the whole Bush-skipped-out-on-his-National-Guard-duty story was bogus (it wasn't).

Turns out, though, it wasn't the suits at CBS or the right-wing bloggers who busted the biggest vein over Rather's lawsuit. It was mainstream journalists who rushed in to denounce the former anchorman as dishonest, arrogant, bitter, and delusional, all the while making sure not to take up Rather's challenge of addressing the underlying facts of the story surrounding Bush's no-show military service...

Vatican Embassy Flap By Wingnuts

Obama’s call to close Vatican embassy is 'slap in the face' to Roman Catholics - Washington Times:

The Obama administration, in what’s been called an egregious slap in the face to the Vatican, has moved to shut down the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See — a free-standing facility — and relocate offices onto the grounds of the larger American Embassy in Italy...

When The Death Penalty Is Not Enough

Cases like undermine the entire country just as surely as treason does.

Law Offices of Jonathan Franklin: 1st Time Ever, a Prosecutor Goes to Jail for Wrongfully Convicting an Innocent Man:

In Texas, former prosecutor and judge Ken Anderson pled guilty to intentionally failing to disclose evidence in a case that sent an innocent man, Michael Morton, to prison for the murder of his wife. When trying the case as a prosecutor, Anderson possessed evidence that may have cleared Morton, including statements from the crime’s only eyewitness that Morton wasn’t the culprit. Anderson sat on this evidence, and then watched Morton get convicted. While Morton remained in prison for the next 25 years, Anderson’s career flourished, and he eventually became a judge...

Bengahzi Liars Bopped

REPORT: Lara Logan Taking Leave Of Absence From 60 Minutes | Blog | Media Matters for America:

60 Minutes correspondent Lara Logan and her producer Max McClellan will reportedly be taking a leave of absence from the program, per a memo from CBS News chairman (and 60 Minutes executive producer) Jeff Fager obtained by Huffington Post media reporter Michael Calderone...

Coker GOPer To Go?

Florida GOP leaders call for Radel to resign:

The executive committees of two county Republican Party groups in Florida have called for the resignation of Rep. Trey Radel, the embattled first-year lawmaker who was the first sitting congressman ever arrested on cocaine charges...

ACA Horror Debunked-- Again

Obamacare horror story debunked by Seattle Times columnist | The Raw Story:

...“So here’s a family that was totally uninsured for 15 years because it had always cost at least $500 to $600 a month for skimpy policies to cover them both. And what they can get now is full coverage for $30 a month for the son and scantier coverage in the $250 to $300 a month range for the mom. How is that a horror story?...”

Lest We Forget: Raygun And Iran

Second Thoughts on October Surprise | Consortiumnews:

New evidence has shaken the confidence of former Rep. Lee Hamilton in his two-decade-old judgment clearing Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign of going behind President Carter’s back to frustrate his efforts to free 52 U.S. hostages in Iran, the so-called October Surprise case, Robert Parry reports...

Oh and let's not forget Tricky Dick: Did Nixon Commit Treason in 1968? What The New LBJ Tapes Reveal.

Walrus Opines On O'Iran

My bold. Cannonfire "Variously...":

...Funniest response to that Iran deal (the one that every sensible person likes): John Bolton, witty as always, offers the following...

Abject Surrender by the United States
What does Israel do now?

I dunno, John. Perhaps they can try living in peace with their neighbors? Perhaps they can give up their dreams of beguiling the US into overthrowing large states that threaten Israel's interests? And while we're at it: May I please be allowed, as an American, to give a damn about my interests, not those of Israel?...

School Super Charged In Rape Case Aftermath

School superintendent, 3 others charged in Steubenville rape case - latimes.com:

The Steubenville School Superintendent was among four adults charged by a grand jury that investigated the case of a 16-year-old West Virginia girl who was raped last year by football players at a party in Ohio.

The indictments, a mixture of felony and misdemeanor charges, were made by the grand jury last week and announced on Monday by Ohio Atty. Gen. Mike DeWine at a news conference televised from Steubenville. With the announcement, the grand jury has completed its investigation, he said...

Wow. It would be wonderful see some accountability at other levels of government.

Palin vs. Bashir

Palin tags Bashir's insults as 'evil,' vows to charge forth | Fox News:

Sarah Palin publicly responded for the first time on Sunday about comments made about her by an MSNBC host, saying they were “vile” and “evil,” but that they will not stop her from arguing for conservative values.

“I don't have to accept his words, his vile, evil comments,” Palin, a former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, told “Fox News Sunday.” “So they don't have to affect me. I move on. And I charge forth...”

Iran Nuke Deal

Iran, six world powers clinch breakthrough nuclear deal | Reuters:

Iran and six world powers reached a breakthrough agreement early on Sunday to curb Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for limited sanctions relief, in a first step towards resolving a dangerous decade-old standoff...

Between this and the filibuster changes the GOP will be whining like a Patriot's fan in Bank of America Stadium.

A Tax Break Busts

Breaking: Federal District Court Declares A Religious Income Tax Exemption Unconstitutional | The New Civil Rights Movement:

A federal district court judge has declared “unconstitutional” a portion of U.S. law that allows “a minister of the gospel” to not pay income tax on a specific portion of their compensation...

Backing Into Socialism

GOP Bob Ehrlich: Men don’t need mammograms. Blasted On Maher (VIDEO):

...When Bob Ehrlich continued attacking the ills of the Affordable Care Act, Dan Savage sarcastically conceded. He said, “I completely agree with you. The Right Wing plan for healthcare is bad for everybody in this country and we should adopt the socialist Single Payer model and not this crap cooked up by the Heritage Foundation and adopted by a Democratic president.”

NYT Wrong About South

My bold below: The South’s New Lost Cause - NYTimes.com:

...The only good news is that a handful of political leaders down South have grasped the utter stupidity of refusing to help their own people, or even giving the state exchanges a chance. In this month’s recent special election for a congressional seat in a solidly Republican Louisiana district, a pragmatic businessman, Vance McAllister, beat a Tea Party candidate with the full Obama derangement syndrome. The winner said Obamacare was the law of the land and might as well be applied in Louisiana, the nation’s third poorest state. (It didn’t hurt that he had the backing of a “Duck Dynasty” star.)

But most of the South is defiant -- their own Lost Cause for the 21st century.

It's damn sure more than a handful. In NC, Democrats received more votes than Republicans but lost control of both Houses-- thanks to gerrymandering and other GOP tactics. When the majority can not rule in a state, it is up to the Federal government to step up and make things right--- that's on you, America, not on us.

New Dems Dance

New breed of Senate Democrats drove filibuster change - latimes.com:

...But behind closed doors in a room off the Senate floor, some of the newer Democratic senators couldn't help themselves, gathering for a quick party to congratulate one another. They were the ones largely responsible for pushing the veteran Nevada lawmaker to pull the trigger on ending filibusters against most presidential nominations.

The partisan revelers were part of a new breed of Democrats emerging in the Senate. Mostly elected after 2006, these relative newcomers have only known a Democratic-controlled Senate and have little experience with successful bipartisan cooperation, due largely to the tea party's grip on the Republican Party...

The Weekly Idjit Quotes

This Week's 10 Worst Conservative Quotes (November 21, 2013) : Political Moll

The Real Holiday War

Uppity Woman | I'm just one of those Uppity Women. Live with it.:

Despite what the well-respected, fact-bound, paragons of virtue like Bill O’Reilly and One Million Moms (really about 35) say, there is no War On Christmas. It’s a War On Thanksgiving...

Rush, Rape, And Filibusters

Rush Limbaugh Invokes Rape Analogy To Criticize Filibuster Reform (AUDIO):

Rush Limbaugh invoked a rape analogy on Friday to criticize President Obama's move to support filibuster reform...

Pierce Talks Drug War

Annie Dookhan Gets Off Easy - The Incredibly Silly "War" On "Drugs" - Esquire:

The one thing we cannot have in our ridiculous ongoing modern prohibitionist state is a criminal justice system that punishes the criminals in law enforcement as harshly as it punishes those at whom the laws are aimed, and on whom the law principally falls. Congresscritters get nabbed with some blow and it's off to treatment. Cops skimming the profits from drug dealers -- or, even more heinous, the ones that use the preposterous civil forfeiture statutes to shop for some new wheels -- get slapped more lightly than the dealers from whom they skimmed. There is an essential corruption at the heart of the enforcement of the drug laws that rots the whole legal infrastructure of those laws from the inside...

UT GOPer Crook

Utah attorney general announces resignation in wake of bribery probe - U.S. News:

Utah Attorney General John Swallow announced Thursday that he is stepping down amid multiple investigations of bribery and misconduct that have hounded him ever since he took office at the beginning of the year...

More On Senate Nuke

Republicans provoked 'nuclear option': Our view:

...This time, Republicans took the filibuster to new levels by making it destructively commonplace. In the past month alone, GOP senators have blocked Obama's nominee to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency, plus three well-qualified nominees to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

So now, as a result of Thursday's move, all of President Obama's nominees except those for the Supreme Court can be approved by a simple majority, rather than the 60 vote majority required to end a filibuster...

Fox And Accents

Before we get our Liberal Drawers in a knot, ask yourself this question: How many times have you mocked someone with a Southern accent, y'all? Oh that doesn't count? Why not? Please explain.

Laura Ingraham Repeatedly Mocks An Immigration Protester For Speaking Accented English | Blog | Media Matters for America:

...On her radio show, Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham repeatedly mocked then imitated the accent of a woman whose native language appeared not to be English as the woman made comments in protest of the Obama administration's record number of deportations...

GOPers Shoot Foot

My bold-- Republicans have only themselves to blame for Reid’s ‘nuclear option’:

...There is no mention of the filibuster in the Constitution. Until very recently in U.S. history, filibusters were rarely used. Half of all filibusters of executive-branch nominees have occurred under President Obama, and it was obvious from the first day of his presidency that Republicans would use the tactic to hamstring the government and block Obama...

O'Donnell On Deadly Force

Lawrence O'Donnell Blasts New Mexico Police Who Open Fire On A Van Full Of Children (Video) | Political Minute:
...Also, since when do police open fire when they are in no physical harm. Last week Bill Maher had Radley Balko on who stated that if you have ever been pulled over in New Mexico you would feel like you live in a police state and even said that your interaction with those police may be your last interaction. The usual anxiety and fear that you may feel from a regular police stop are probably times ten in those situations. They also discussed the rise in the use of lethal force and Balko said that where they used to teach officers how to use the least amount of force possible and focused on conflict resolution, they now teach you justify force AFTER you have shot a suspect...

Dems Threaten Filibuster Rules Again

Senate Democrats threaten to change filibuster rules on a party-line vote - The Washington Post:

The Senate is on the verge of striking down the long-standing filibuster rules for most presidential nominations, potentially doing so on a party-line vote that would alter nearly 225 years of precedent...

Crazier As Genius

Is Yglesias A Tool Of Capitalism Or ...

Seattle socialism: Kshama Sawant has some bad ideas.:

...Can Boeing's front-line workers actually retool an airplane factory and turn it to bus production and win contracts to sell buses that raise enough revenue to keep everyone employed? Only time will tell for sure, but in the real world the answer is "no." This is exactly what you need executives for. Retooling plants, establishing relationships with suppliers and customers, understanding the size of the market for buses, and all that other stuff is a nontrivial task...

So an econ professor can't recognize the real world? Maybe she has.

On Presidential Legacies

Opinion: Bush and Clinton take opposite approaches to legacy - CNN.com:

Former President George W. Bush briefly jumped back into the national conversation Tuesday night with his interview on "The Tonight Show." Bush told host Jay Leno that "I don't miss the spotlight" and that he was thoroughly enjoying his post-presidential life. On Wednesday, former President Bill Clinton is in the news as he receives a Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama...

GOPer Cokeman

Rep. Trey Radel pleads guilty to cocaine charge:

Rep. Trey Radel, R-Fla., pleaded guilty Wednesday to possession of cocaine and was sentenced to one year of supervised probation...

Blackwater Founder On Security

Blackwater Founder Erik Prince: War on Terror Has Become Too Big:

In an interview Monday, Prince said the national security state he once served has grown too large.

“America is way too quick to trade freedom for the illusion of security,” he told The Daily Beast. “Whether it’s allowing the NSA to go way too far in what it intercepts of our personal data, to our government monitoring of everything domestically and spending way more than we should. I don’t know if I want to live in a country where lone wolf and random terror attacks are impossible ‘cause that country would look more like North Korea than America...”

The GOP Alternative To The ACA

A New G.O.P. Excuse for Doing Nothing - NYTimes.com:

...Millions of Americans will pay less next year for health insurance, or get it for the first time, because they will be eligible for the big government program known as Medicaid. Half of those who buy policies on the individual market will qualify for subsidies; they will get as good or better coverage than they had. And millions of people whose policies have been canceled or denied because of illness will now be insured.

What is the Republican alternative to this government program, flawed as it is right now? There is none. Party members simply want to repeal the health law and let insurers go back to canceling policies at the first sign of a shadow on an X-ray. They have no immigration policy of their own. They have no plan that will stimulate job growth. They are in favor only of shutdowns and sequesters and repeals, giving the public no reason to believe they have a governing vision or even a legislative agenda...

Xian Tippers Again

Justin Lee: When Christians Are Christianity's Worst Enemy:

...In my book "TORN: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs.-Christians Debate," I argue that we Christians have often become our own worst enemies. In many communities, our reputation is that of uncompassionate culture warriors, quick to shout about gays or abortion or political candidates, but slow to show grace and mercy in our everyday lives. And these acts of ungrace by Christians have far more power to damage Christianity's reputation and influence than any attack launched at the church from the outside...

The Pregnant Old

Elisabeth Hasselbeck: Obamacare Causing ‘Many’ Pregnant Elderly Women To Lose Doctors | The New Civil Rights Movement:

...Today, Hasselbeck furthered her ignorant exploration of issues confronting average Americans, by claiming that “many” elderly pregnant women are losing their doctors, thanks to, you guessed it, Obamacare...

The issue was really about changes in a Medicare supplement policy-- I think. Suffice it to say, elderly women rarely need to be covered for pregnancy, though that does sound a growth area for scammers.

Katrina And A Website

d r i f t g l a s s: Sunday Morning Comin' Down:

...For example, consider how something as simple and entertaining as holding the heads of our Elite Beltway Media underwater for one hour could clearly demonstrate in a way understandable even to laymen with no scientific training --


-- the difference between "Hurricane Katrina" and "a glitchy website..."

Sanders For POTUS?

Bernie Sanders Considering 2016 Run for President | Crooks and Liars:

It's true! Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) wants a progressive 2016 presence in the White House, and if no one else steps up, he just may decide to run for POTUS...

Bill Power

Bill Clinton Remains Relevant:

Bill Clinton has remained extremely relevant in politics since leaving the office in 2001 after 2 terms as President of the United States, as evidenced by the effect just one statement published this week had on not only his own legacy and a possible campaign run for president by his wife, Hillary Clinton, but also on the political debate regarding Obamacare. Stating that “even if it takes a change in the law, the president should honor the commitment that the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got,” Clinton gave Democrats the opening to write legislation that will address a major issue with Obamacare, but that will also damage the very same law for which they had so strongly fought.

Importantly, Bill Clinton did not reject Obamacare in its entirety, but maintained that the United States is a better country for having it...

Palin Roasted

EPIC! Sarah Palin Shredded, Called America’s 'Resident Dunce' by Normally Mild-Mannered Bashir (Video) | Progressive Populist:

...Anyway, Bashir came out with both barrels blazing at Palin, first calling her America’s “resident dunce” and describing her comments as “scraping the barrel of her long-deceased mind, and using her all-time favorite analogy in an attempt to sound intelligent about the national debt...”

Cool News From Seahawk Country

Socialist Kshama Sawant Elected To Seattle City Council:

 Seattle voters have elected a socialist to city council for the first time in modern history...

Starr Vile

“He Took the Time to Chat”: Ken Starr’s Plea for a Child Molester:

What’s Ken Starr up to these days? According to Virginia court documents, the famously pious former Clinton prosecutor recently pleaded with a Fairfax County judge to let a confessed child molester go free. Because he’s a family friend. Here’s the letter...

One of the commenters over at Gawker wondered why this story wasn't front-paged on the New York Times. Good question.

Political Error By Christie

NJ Christie's political move disappoints mentor - Houston Chronicle:

...The question of Christie's loyalty has been raised before.

His Republican National Convention speech was panned as self-serving as the GOP was rallying behind Mitt Romney. His allegiance to Romney was doubted again when he embraced President Obama days before the 2012 presidential election. The hug, which came while Obama toured the Hurricane Sandy-battered Jersey shore, drew such fury that Christie was forced to do damage-control with calls to News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch and other influential Republicans...

Web Sites Are Not Hurricanes

This is a point that O's people need to keep hammering-- no one drowned from the ACA rollout. They need to be constantly reminded of the GOP's attempts to rewrite history and their pledges to obstruct the ACA at every point.

Comparing Obamacare to Hurricane Katrina - Nobody Drowned From Obamacare - Esquire:

...No, actually, it's not. When you all cocked up the response to Hurricane Katrina, thousands and thousands of people died unnecessarily. When you all went out of your way to dismantle FEMA, which had been one of the crown jewels of the previous administration, and then handed the remnants over to the failed CEO of a luxury show-horse organization, thousands and thousands of people actually died. They were not inconvenienced for a spell by a botch of a website. They were really, most sincerely dead...

Kennedy Blocks Media

Or a Tempest In A Tea Pot or Much Ado About Nothing...
 
Greta: Caroline Kennedy, State Dept. get an 'F' in transparency | Off the Record | On the Record | Fox News:

...And it gets worse. At a reception for Ambassador Kennedy later in the day, she made brief remarks to the press, but then reporters were not allowed to ask questions. Yes, of course, over the years, Ambassador Kennedy and her family have been hounded by the media, who sometimes have been brutal and even mean, and never because she asked for it...

 In a related story...

A reporter covering Sarah Palin at a book signing on Thursday said that she and other members of the press were kept in a guarded room and prevented from talking to Palin and customers in the store... 

Weekly Idiot Quote Sampler

The 6 Worst Quotes From Republicans This Week : Political Moll

Screech Harpy At It Again

Ann Coulter: Still Racist:

Rightwing columnist Ann Coulter continued vilifying immigrants as criminals Wednesday in a column poking fun at people with “comically foreign” names...

Yellen Rebuffs Committee

Janet Yellen Shames Congress For Austerity, Being Terrible:

It looks like Janet Yellen will have no problem tackling one of Ben Bernanke's most important jobs: shaming Congress for ruining the economy.

Yellen reminded lawmakers of their sheer terribleness during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Thursday about her nomination to replace Bernanke as chair of the Federal Reserve when his term ends in January. Republican senators moaned and groaned, as usual, about the Fed's extreme easy-money policies. Yellen reminded everybody that Congress has forced the Fed to act by constantly imposing harsh austerity measures on an economy still recovering from a financial crisis and deep recession...

More CBS Questions

What Is CBS Hiding? Who Is CBS Protecting at 60 Minutes? | Blog | Media Matters for America:

Journalism veterans and media observers continue to strike the same chord while launching a chorus of criticism at CBS News in recent days: The network needs to be transparent and explain exactly what happened with its botched Benghazi report, and start detailing how such an obviously flawed report made in onto the most-watched news program in America.

And yet it's silence from CBS, which is now stonewalling press inquiries, as well as the calls for an outside review of its Benghazi reporting. CBS' refusal to undergo a public examination in the wake of such a landmark blunder stands in stark contrast to how news organizations have previously dealt with black eyes; news organizations that once included CBS News...

Pay Attention, Stupid Liberals!

The so-called Democrats with CDS have already swarmed several sites, threatening everyone over supportin' another trianglulatin' Clinton-- yes, complete with fake Southernisms and rancid hillbilly, redneck swipes. (Obama is just so cool, dontcha know?). If you want a Democrat in the White House, Clinton is a sure thing. Anyone else is a maybe. So please go crawl up Nader's dress.

The Clinton vs. Warren fantasy: Why progressives shouldn’t get distracted - Salon.com:

Let me be clear: I’m Ready for Hillary – and for Elizabeth Warren, too. I think a 2016 Democratic presidential primary process that featured both women would be epic. I don’t expect to see it, but I don’t think it’s a disastrous prospect, a terrific idea or impossible. It’s November 2013. Almost anything can happen.

What interests me right now is the outsize reaction to Noam Scheiber’s New Republic piece on Warren as “Hillary’s nightmare.” It makes me think about something I realized back when disgruntled progressives were (briefly) making fretful noises about needing to find someone to challenge President Obama in a primary. Progressives are just way too invested in using the primary process every four years to get the country to take big leaps forward that probably could be better pursued in other ways...

Bill O Whines

Bill O'Reilly: Politics in America getting even more bitter | Talking Points | The O'Reilly Factor | Fox News:

...But there comes a point when people who hold strong beliefs have to make a decision. If the Republican Party remains divided, they'll be defeated in the midterm elections next year and lose the presidency in 2016.

The GOP situation is exacerbated word of the day "exacerbated" by the media. The liberal mainstream media which despises Republicans encourages the civil war. Talk radio and some on table news stoke the fires of conservative ideology by labeling people that compromise RINOs, Republicans In Names Only.

With President Obama on the ropes, Republicans have a huge opportunity right now but it looks like that opportunity may slip away.

And that's "The Memo."

Dems Fed-Up With GOP Filibusters?

Patrick Leahy Slams GOP For Blocking Another Nominee, Demands Filibuster Reform:

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Tuesday tore into Republicans for filibustering another one of President Barack Obama's judicial picks, and warned that Democrats are dangerously close to changing Senate rules to strip the minority of the power to block certain nominees.

"If the Republican caucus continues to abuse the filibuster rule and obstruct the president's fine nominees to the D.C. Circuit, then I believe ... a rules change should be in order," Leahy said on the Senate floor, just before Republicans blocked Nina Pillard's confirmation to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals...

Comment Of The Day: Palin As Quayle Edition

Palin Compares Federal Debt To Slavery - Dimwits We Have Heard On High - Esquire
Ed Tracey · Top Commenter · Pace University

And also Charlie: she "went there" in a taped tribute for Billy Graham's 95th birthday salute. She allowed that "My mom was raised Catholic, and she … was yearning for something more .... she became a Christian, led the rest of the family to Christ". I thought that was a thing of the past; with the entente between the evangelical fundies and the Bill Donoghues .... apparently not.

Lying Honkie Burns Black Voters

White guy wins after leading voters to believe he’s black | khou.com Houston:

Dave Wilson chuckles as he talks about his unorthodox political campaign.

"I'd always said it was a long shot," Wilson says. "No, I didn't expect to win."

Still, he figured he'd have fun running, because he was fed up with what he called "all the shenanigans" at the Houston Community College System. As a conservative white Republican running in a district whose voters are overwhelmingly black Democrats, the odds seemed overwhelmingly against him.

Then he came up with an idea, an advertising strategy that his opponent found "disgusting." If a white guy didn't have a chance in a mostly African-American district, Wilson would lead voters to think he's black...

Deceit. Funny ha-ha.

Klingon Wins Seat

Star Trek Did You Know A Klingon Won on Election Day?:

It may have gotten lost in the shuffle the other day, as the media focused on the gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, but a Klingon was voted into office, too. John Hertzler – better known as J.G. Hertzler – won a two-year term to serve on the Town Board in Ulysses, New York, near Ithaca. Star Trek fans will recall that he played more than a half-dozen different roles across Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise, making his greatest mark on the franchise in his recurring DS9 role as the Klingon general, Martok...

Comment Of The Day: CBS Benghazi Edition

Negative Effects From 60 Minutes' Failed Benghazi Story Continue | Blog | Media Matters for America

Wallace Bray• 3 hours ago

CBS News lost their credibility when they fired Dan Rather for telling the truth about GW Bush's military record. Now they have gone and hired former Security Advisor and former Secretary Of State under the Bush 2 administration Condoleezza Rice as a news correspondent. She looked the other way on intelligence information from more than 50 security sources from around the world months before 911 and was a major cheerleader in the illegal war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, Howard K. Smith, Eric Sevareid and Douglas Edwards are all rolling over in their graves right now. If its truth telling you want you won't get it from any of the major media outlets. Wait you'll see. In a couple weeks they will still lie to us about a lone gunman in a schoolbook building that killed the 35th President of the United States Of America 50 years ago.

McCain vs. NSA

John McCain: Keith Alexander Should Resign As NSA Head:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is calling on Keith Alexander to resign as director of the National Security Agency...

The UnDoing Of Democracy

'Dollarocracy': How Special Interests Undermine Our Democracy | Money & Politics, What Matters Today | BillMoyers.com:

...The United States has experienced fundamental changes that are dramatically detrimental to democracy. Voters’ ability to define political discourse has been so diminished that even decisive election results like Barack Obama’s in 2012 have little impact. That’s because powerful interests — freed to, in effect, buy elections, unhindered by downsized and diffused media that must rely on revenue from campaign ads — now set the rules of engagement. Those interests so dominate politics that the squabbling of Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, is a sideshow to the great theater of plutocracy and plunder. This is not democracy. This is dollarocracy...

States Rights For Reefer

Bipartisan Marijuana Bill Appears To Have One More Big Supporter In Its Corner: The NAACP:

A bipartisan bill advocating for states rights on marijuana appears to have one more big supporter in its corner.

Marijuana Majority said Saturday in an email that the NAACP's Board of Directors passed a resolution last month in support of H.R. 1523 -- the Respect States Marijuana Laws Act. Introduced in April by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), the legislation is designed to protect both medical and recreational pot users from federal prosecution for following state laws...

The Daily Flashback: Skippy Church Edition

USATODAY.com - Democrats voted out of church because of their politics, members say:

Democrats voted out of church because of their politics, members say

WAYNESVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Some in Pastor Chan Chandler's flock wish he had a little less zeal for the GOP.

Members of the small East Waynesville Baptist Church say Chandler led an effort to kick out congregants who didn't support President Bush. Nine members were voted out at a Monday church meeting in this mountain town, about 120 miles west of Charlotte...

Weiner Rehab Begins

Anthony Weiner Comes Out Strong On Bill Maher | Firebrand Progressives:

...But on Friday night, during an appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher, an all but forgotten articulate, confident, and poised Anthony Weiner—the same Anthony Weiner many of us so fondly remember from his days in congress— sparred with fellow panelists GOPAC president David Avella and political scientistDr. Victoria DeFransceco Soto on the topic of Obamacare.

While I could use this space to quote and summarize the discussion and ensuing argument that took place during the exchange, nothing I say will paint as vivid of an image as simply watching the video. What I will say instead is that as I watched this, I realized two things: I am now even more saddened that Anthony Weiner fell so far from grace, and I’m not sure I would ever count him out. Time has a funny way of healing things, and in spite of all the bizarre comments and behavior that we saw and heard from him during the past year, he still has that fire that immediately endeared him in the hearts of so many progressives when he was in congress...

Tea Learning

Four years later, the Tea Party has learned nothing - Salon.com:

The Tea Party is no longer a brand-new movement in American politics. So, more than four years in, what do they appear to have learned? How about: nothing. And they seem to want it that way...

The Nut Didn't Fall Far From The Cruz Tree

Ted Cruz's Dad Declares God Is Pro Death Penalty:

Evangelical pastor Rafael Cruz, father of shutdown dramatist Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), served up a stemwinder this week, laying out God’s positions on the death penalty, guns in schools, gay marriage, communism and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), all in an impassioned 45 minutes...

The Daily Flashback: Skippy Vet Edition

Dan Rather is right | Research | Media Matters for America:

...Now, I realize the accepted Beltway media takeaway from CBS' National Guard controversy is supposed to be that the network was guilty of a colossal, historic newsroom blunder from which there is no possible defense or redemption. (Personally, I'll leave that category to the Judy Millers of the world.) But the dirty little secret that bloggers and mainstream journalists don't want to discuss is that Rather is right -- the National Guard story was true...

Will Benghazi Retraction Be Rather-Level?

CBS’ erroneous Benghazi debacle explodes - Salon.com:

...We initially covered the questions about the 60 Minutes report last week, after Media Matters for America’s David Brock, author of the book, The Benghazi Hoax, penned a letter to CBS demanding a retraction of the story and a full investigation into what appeared to be a fabricated story by Davies.

Brock cited CBS’ response to questions about 60 Minutes‘ 2004 story on questions about George W. Bush’s Air National Guard service (which turned out to be true, though the provenance of one of the documents used in the report was never able to be verified as authentic.) Following that report by Dan Rather, CBS quickly launched a full investigation into the matter. “Similar standards must be applied in this case,” Brock said in his letter last week to CBS News chairman Jeff Fager and its president David Rhodes...

Lying Benghazi Liars Lying Lies Exposed

CBS Admits Error in Benghazi '60 Minutes' Story - ABC News:

CBS News said Friday that it was misled by a "60 Minutes" source who claimed he was on the on the scene of a 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya when it now turns out there are serious doubts about whether he was...

Ask The Headhunter Hits E$con Homer

Ask The Headhunter: Unemployment -- Made in America by Employers | The Business Desk with Paul Solman | PBS NewsHour | PBS:

... Human resources executives run around in their corporate offices with their eyes closed, throwing billions of dollars at applicant tracking systems (ATSes) and job boards like Taleo, Monster.com and LinkedIn, and they pretend no one can see they are dancing in circles buck naked. HR keeps talking about a talent shortage, but the only talent shortage is in the HR offices. HR executives need to learn how to match up the 3.9 million vacancies with some of the 25 million under-employed.

What's going on? The economy is certainly one factor, but businesses, the media and the federal government continue to ignore the structural problems in our employment system. I'll tell you what I think the main problems are...

Another highlight (but read the post, too):

On A Lighter Note

Who We Are

Tufts Magazine / fall 2013:

THE BATTLE LINES OF TODAY’S DEBATES OVER GUN CONTROL, STAND-YOUR-GROUND LAWS, AND OTHER VIOLENCE-RELATED ISSUES WERE DRAWN CENTURIES AGO BY AMERICA’S EARLY SETTLERS

Cruz Doesn't Want President In Texas

Cruz To Obama: Don't Promote Obamacare In Texas:

Cruz added, “President Obama should take his broken promises tour elsewhere so Texans can continue focusing on the solutions that have allowed our state to become and remain the nation’s economic and job creation powerhouse."

In a kinder, gentler time, one NC bigot opined:

...In 1994, Helms created a sensation when he told broadcasters Rowland Evans and Robert Novak that Clinton was "not up" to the tasks of being commander-in-chief, and suggested two days later, on the anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination, that Clinton "better not show up around here [Fort Bragg] without a bodyguard".^[233] Helms said Clinton was so unpopular and said he had not meant it as a threat...

Another Police Execution

Cop Caught On Tape Shooting Unarmed Man Won't Be Charged With A Crime | ThinkProgress:

...In the prosecutors’ defense, putting a cop in prison is remarkably difficult. Police officers are allowed to shoot if they fear for their lives, and proving that use of force was “unreasonable” sets a very high bar. Few police who have used force under suspicious circumstances ever face a judge. A 2007 study by UChicago law professor Craig Futterman found that just 19 of 10,149 complains of excessive force, illegal searches, racial abuse, sexual abuse, and false arrests led to a police suspension of a week or more. Individual police officers are also largely protected from damages claims in civil court through “qualified immunity...”

Good Labor News For A Change

Cincinnati Pension Overhaul Voted Down - Organized Labor Was The Real Winner This Election - Esquire:

All right, so I've been the skunk at the garden party long enough today. If you want to find a clear -- if largely unacknowledged -- winner in last night's electoral shindig, take a look at organized labor. In Boston, where John Connolly attached himself to the Rhee-ite school "reform" movement and criticized Martin Walsh for being a tool of big labor -- In other words, this was a race between Democrats in which union support was an actually an issue. Never thought I'd live to see that in Boston. -- Walsh beat Connolly fairly handily. And in Cincinnati, a bastion of hard-bar Republicanism in Ohio, a really remarkable thing happened...

The Most Amazing Abuse Of Authority Ever

David Eckert: Colonoscopy, Enema, X-Ray By Cops For Drugs (VIDEO):

David Eckert went shopping at a Wal-Mart in Deming NM on January 2nd, 2013. He then got into his car to leave the parking lot. David Eckert was then stopped by Officer Chavez for allegedly not yielding at a stop sign. Officer Chavez ordered David Eckert out of his car. Things went downhill after that...

VA Gov Race Analysis

Why Did the Polls Miss McAuliffe's Margin of Victory? | Kristen Soltis Anderson

With public polling averages indicating Terry McAuliffe would win yesterday's gubernatorial election in Virginia by at least a touchdown, many were surprised to see his Republican challenger Ken Cuccinelli come within three points of the win.

So... what happened? Twitter is abuzz with theories on what went wrong, ranging from a late-breaking Cuccinelli surge fueled by the rocky rollout of Obamacare's exchanges, to complications stemming from polling with a third-party candidate, to the difficulty of nailing the makeup of an off-year electorate...

Finally, A Good Idea On SS

Dem Senators: We're Doing It Wrong, Let's Expand Social Security:

In a town consumed by how quickly and how deeply to cut Social Security, a handful of Democratic senators have a different idea: expand it.

Their pitch is to grow Social Security benefits by attaching it to a new formula, known as CPI-E (Consumer Price Index for the Elderly), which is based on the theory that seniors face higher-than-average price increases, such as on health care and housing. It would be paid for by phasing out the cap on wages subject to the payroll tax, which is currently $113,700. Supporters say this would raise Social Security compensation for all beneficiaries by $70 per month.

Legislation to this effect was introduced earlier this spring by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee. The Strengthening Social Security Act of 2013 has since been co-sponsored by Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI), Mark Begich (D-AK) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), who added his name this week...

No Tea GOP

Business interests line up against Tea Party candidate in Alabama - chicagotribune.com:

A tight primary election in an Alabama Republican stronghold has pitted a business-backed former state senator against a Tea Party movement favorite in a race highlighting tensions between the party's pragmatic and ideological wings over the recent government shutdown...

Voter Suppression, Texas Style

Former House Speaker denied voter ID card in Texas after voting since 1944 | FreakOutNation:

Former House Speaker Jim Wright was denied a voter ID card Saturday at a Texas Department of Public Safety office and says, “Nobody was ugly to us, but they insisted that they wouldn’t give me an ID.” Wright has voted in every election since 1944.

About ten days ago, a Texas district judge was almost barred from the polls. She has voted for the past 49 years without issue until now, courtesy of the state’s new voter ID law...

Rand The Swordsman

Move over, Ted Cruz: Rand Paul’s wacko public meltdown - Salon.com:

...Just when Sen. Ted Cruz’s self-promoting extremism seemed to create room for a far-right 2016 rival who wouldn’t scare children (and the donor class), Sen. Rand Paul is blowing his big chance.

Last week the New York Times reported that in the wake of Cruz’s implosion, Paul’s aides had taken to calling Cruz “the chief of the wacko birds,” using John McCain’s memorable epithet for the junior Texas senator. Paul himself, Jonathan Martin reported, “has quietly been reaching out to more establishment forces within the Republican Party, trying to prove to big donors and mainline Republican organizations that he is more than a Tea Party figure or a rerun of his father’s failed candidacies.” And establishment Republicans were beginning to use the word “grown” and “matured” to describe Paul.

That’s not the word they’re using today, on the heels of a crazy appearance on ABC’s “This Week” where he wished he could challenge the journalists who’ve accused him of plagiarism to a duel...

 Especially since she's a girl! Ewww!

Comment Of The Day: Benghazi Edition,3

David Brock to call on '60 Minutes' to retract Benghazi report - POLITICO.com

jaxas4

• 9 hours ago

Benghazi resonates with a very narrow slice of the American people primarily on the far right of the republican party. The vast majority of the public has rendered the correct verdict that Benghazi was a CIA-Military FUBAR project. Efforts to tie President Obama and Hillary Clinton to some sinister coverup are not very much different than the Vince Foster affair in the 1990s when investigation after investigation was executed at considerable cost in dollars and wasted time only to reach the same conclusion time after time. That is what is going on here. It is only being kept in the news by a mainstream media that wants to ingratiate itself to the far right and convince them that they are not all liberals in the tank for Obama and Clinton. The truth is most of the media carry water for the republican party.

Bad Words In The Airport

There's only one way to wipe out racism and that is to wipe out all racism. Please join me and remind people that bigotry extends beyond pigmentation.

When no one said anything: How racism goes unquestioned - Salon.com:

...Not one person said anything; I was surrounded by people...

Nor did you.

I've been called disparaging names to my face many times and routinely see offensively enraging terms used casually in the media. The Oneida don't like "Redskin" and I don't like: hick, hillbilly, cracker, or any of the other names used to insult rural Appalachian mountaineers. Every time I see or hear those racist insults I call the person out. If it's in my face, I usually say something like "I don't like being referred to that way." If it's on the Internet, I typically leave and an opinion that it is racist to refer to any group stereotypically, which sometimes sets off long and often vulgar retorts that nearly always contain the reminder that "we whipped your ass in the Civil War."

One of these days I'm really going to wind the stem on that watch. 

Crazy In NC: Getting Sane Through GOPer Switches Edition

Jason Thigpen, GOP Veteran Switches Party, A trickle Becoming A Stream:

...This is likely a difficult decision for Mr. Jason Thigpen. He must be applauded for the courage it took. He will be accepted into the Democratic Party with open arms. One can only hope that moderate Republicans take back their Party. America needs a multi-party system to force all politicians of every stripe to earn the votes of every American. The trickle of Republicans switching is bound to become a stream as the extremist continue to hold their party and the country hostage.

Elections Shall Have No Juducal Consequences, GOPers Think

The Politics of Petulance - NYTimes.com:

...The problem, as Senate Republicans now claim, is that the court’s workload is too light to justify filling its three vacant seats. This is a transparently bogus argument, and the Republicans know it. The D.C. Circuit’s caseload is essentially unchanged from 2005, when Senate Republicans voted to confirm two of President George Bush’s nominees to the court. But now they accuse President Obama of trying to “pack the court.”

Putting aside the flatly dishonest use of that term, the Republicans’ real concern, as the Senate minority whip, John Cornyn, told reporters this week, is that nominees like Ms. Millett will “tilt the court ideologically in a way that favors the big-government agenda of the Obama administration.” Many are responding to business lobbyists who do not want important commerce cases decided by a judge appointed by Mr. Obama...

GOP And ACA Sabotage

The Obamacare sabotage campaign - Todd S. Purdum - POLITICO.com:

...To the undisputed reasons for Obamacare’s rocky rollout — a balky website, muddied White House messaging and sudden sticker shock for individuals forced to buy more expensive health insurance — add a less acknowledged cause: calculated sabotage by Republicans at every step...

Bill Gives Political Lesson

E.J. Dionne Jr.: Prof. Clinton explains the far right - The Washington Post:

...Yet those inspired by passionate belief — people, Clinton says, with “steam coming out of their ears” — do have one important virtue: “They will show up and vote.” Offering a quick political science lecture about who votes when, Clinton explained that “in the non-presidential years, a whole different America shows up than in the presidential years.” The lesson to moderates and progressives: “You’ve got to care as much about this election as you did about the election in 2012...”