Controlling Christie

There's an old joke that goes:

Q: What do you have when you have two large balls in your hands?

A:  Complete control of the Jolly Green Giant.

Reminds me of this very thorough and interesting article.


Why Christie Now Has Nothing to Lose - Esquire:

The man holding the key to Chris Christie’s political future is David Wildstein, who quit his job on December 6, when it became clear that closing local access lanes to the George Washington Bridge three months earlier was much closer to an act of war than a traffic study. The job, director of interstate capital projects at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was created for Wildstein by his old Livingston High School pal, Chris Christie. Wildstein didn’t work cheap -- his annual salary was $150,000 -- and his career as a political consultant and a pseudonymous blogger named Wally Edge didn’t match his title, which had zero to do with his actual work at the PA. Wildstein was installed there as New Jersey muscle, Christie’s spy and enforcer...

Also...

O Implyin' And Inferin' On Pot

Barack Obama Says Marijuana Classification Change Job For Congress | TIME.com:

President Barack Obama says in a new interview that that it’s up to Congress to remove marijuana from the federal government’s list of the most serious narcotics, implying but not explicitly saying that he might support such a move.

In an interview with CNN that aired Friday, Obama was pressed on recent remarks he made to the New Yorker that marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol, and on whether he would push to remove pot from the Drug Enforcement Agency’s list of so-called “schedule I” narcotics...

Waxman Of The Cavernous Nostrils To Retire

We won't have to look up his nose any longer, though I'll miss his mouth on some subjects.

Race to replace retiring Rep. Henry Waxman likely to be crowded - latimes.com:

Rep. Henry Waxman's sudden announcement Thursday that he would retire after 20 terms set off wild guesswork among political power brokers in California about who would run to replace him.

“Waxmania!” declared Democratic consultant Sean Clegg. “This is going to be a jail-break field. This is going to be a rumble on the Westside...”

Unhinged GOPer Bully Threatens Reporter

Rep. Michael Grimm Offers No Apology After Threatening Reporter - NYTimes.com:

While testy exchanges between politicians and journalists are fairly routine, the behavior of one congressional lawmaker following President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night was unusually vitriolic, as he exploded in anger and threatened to throw a television reporter off a balcony for asking an unwelcome question.

The lawmaker, Representative Michael G. Grimm, a Republican from Staten Island who is the subject of a federal investigation related to his fund-raising efforts, became enraged after the reporter, Michael Scotto of NY1, asked him about the investigation...

Fun video at the link above.

GOPers Saying "No" To Working Poor

Republicans threaten legal action over Obama minimum wage hike plan | World news | theguardian.com:

Republicans concede they cannot stop Barack Obama’s plan to increase the minimum wage for federal contract workers but have warned the president they would fight his attempts to circumvent Congress with further executive action in his state of the union speech.

The president is due to announce an increase to $10.10 an hour for new contracts as an attempt to encourage other employers to follow suit, and the symbolic measure amounts to an acknowledgement by the White House that binding national legislation is highly unlikely to pass the GOP-dominated House of Representatives...

ACA Birth Control Fight At SCOTUS

Dem senators intervene in Hobby Lobby case, urge justices to deny ObamaCare exemption | Fox News:

Democratic senators intervened Tuesday in the Supreme Court fight over whether ObamaCare can force the company Hobby Lobby to provide contraceptive coverage to workers, arguing that "secular" businesses should not be exempt from the mandate.

The 19 senators planned to file a brief before the court, which is still weeks away from considering the closely watched case. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who planned to make her case on the Senate floor, adamantly defended the Obama administration's side...

More Fox Vs. Fox

Fox v. Fox: Greta Van Susteren Slams "Disrespectful" "Jerk" Erick Erickson's Wendy Davis Attacks | Blog | Media Matters for America:

Fox News host Greta Van Susteren criticized her Fox colleague Erick Erickson for what she termed his "boorish" and "disrespectful" comments about Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis.

Erickson, who is a Fox contributor, has repeatedly attempted to smear Davis, demeaningly referring to her as "Abortion Barbie" and suggesting she is unfit for public office. He has gone so far as to question her "mental health," and recently attempted to portray her as an unstable and unreliable mother who left her "sugar daddy" husband when she no longer needed his money...

Coke GOPer Finally Quits

Trey Radel resigns from Congress after cocaine scandal � - NY Daily News:

Republican Rep. Trey Radel resigned from Congress on Monday, after he was arrested in October for buying cocaine from an undercover government agent.

In a letter addressed to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Radel explained that the "serious consquesneces" from his "struggles" prevent him from effectively serving his state...

Is Fox Fading?

Frank Rich on Fox News, Roger Ailes -- New York Magazine:

...Ailes would like the president and everyone else to keep believing he has that clout. But these days Fox News is the loudest voice in the room only in the sense that a bawling baby is the loudest voice in the room. In being so easily bullied by Fox’s childish provocations, the left gives the network the attention on which it thrives and hands it power that it otherwise has lost. As the post-Obama era approaches, the energy spent combating Ailes might be better devoted to real political battles against more powerful adversaries—not to mention questioning the ideological slant of legitimate news operations like, say, 60 Minutes, which has recently given airtime to a fraudulent account of the murders at Benghazi and to a credulous puff piece on the NSA’s domestic surveillance...

Paul Chasing Monica

Paul: Dems should recall Clinton's intern scandal - SFGate:

Democrats should remember President Bill Clinton's sexual affair with a White House intern before turning their criticism to Republicans' attitudes toward women, Sen. Rand Paul said Sunday.

"He took advantage of a girl that was 20 years old and an intern in his office," said Paul, R-Ky. "There is no excuse for that, and that is predatory behavior..."

That's a long way to go to find an actual sorta scandal.

More GOPer Crooks

In the Nation:

A Republican candidate told government investigators that conservative scholar and author Dinesh D'Souza lied to her about the source of donations made to her 2012 Senate campaign, a prosecutor said at an arraignment Friday.

The candidate, Wendy Long, made the statement to investigators as they were building a case against D'Souza, 52, who made the documentary 2016: Obama's America, Assistant U.S. Attorney Carrie Cohen said. Long lost to incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.)...

Beck Agonistes?

Shorter Glenn Beck: Media Matters Was Right About Me | Blog | Media Matters for America:

...We told you back when Glenn Beck was a Fox News host that he was a blight on our media and political culture and was doing great harm to the country. Beck now admits as much himself. Returning for an appearance on Fox this week, Beck recalled his time there by conceding he made "an awful lot of mistakes." "I think I played a role," Beck reflected, "in helping tear the country apart..."

Crazy In NC: Tea Baggin' Brannon Edition

This Week In The Laboratories Of Democracy - Esquire

"...Of all the tea partiers running for Senate in 2014, Greg Brannon, a GOP primary candidate hoping to topple vulnerable North Carolina Democrat Kay Hagan, is one of the most extreme. He opposes publiceducation, claiming it "does nothing but dehumanize" students. He doesn't believe that states have to follow Supreme Court decisions. He contends bipartisan compromises in Washington "enslave" Americans. He hails the the late Sen. Jesse Helms—who died in 2008 without ever renouncing his support for racial segregation—as a "modern hero." He claims that "all ten of [Karl] Marx's planks of Communism"—including the abolition of private property—"are law in our land today." In October, Brannon cosponsored and spoke at a rally supporting nullification— the notion that states can invalidate federal laws at will—that was cosponsored by the League of the South, a secessionist group seeking "a free and independent Southern republic." And Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has endorsed him..."

A Predictable Disaster By GOP

Boehner on 'Tonight Show': Shutdown was a 'predictable disaster' - latimes.com:

House Speaker John A. Boehner called last fall’s government shutdown a “very predictable disaster” that he warned his fellow Republicans to avoid, but ultimately went along with it at the behest of colleagues intent on a standoff with President Obama over his healthcare law...

Constitution Gets An Anti-NSA Boost

Advisory panel says NSA surveillance program should be ended - NBC Politics:

A government advisory panel said Thursday that the bulk data collection program run by the National Security Agency is illegal and should be halted.

McCain Says O The Worst

McCain: Obama is worse than Jimmy Carter:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has alternated between working with President Obama and serving as one of his biggest antagonists, said Tuesday that the president has turned out to be worse than Jimmy Carter.

"I have never seen anything like this in my life," McCain said on KFYI-AM, while talking about Obama and the situation in Syria. "I thought Jimmy Carter was bad, but he pales in comparison to this president, in my opinion..."

Uh, two words: George Bush.

Christie Bullies Olympian

Olympic champion Carl Lewis says Gov. Christie bullied him - NY Daily News:

Nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis said New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie dropped a plan to appoint him the state's first physical fitness ambassador when he launched a political campaign against a Christie friend...

O Lynching Proposed

Florida Republican Calls for HANGING of President Obama | Progressive Populist:

Joshua Black, a Republican candidate for Florida House District 68, sent out a tweet on Martin Luther King day calling for President Obama to be hung for “war crimes.”

“I’m past impeachment,” Black wrote on Twitter. “It’s time to arrest and hang him high...”

A Safe Place For Bigots

...will always exist, since it is perfectly acceptable, even encouraged, to demean poor, white Southerners with ignorant, nasty comments and actions, but the hiding places are getting smaller for other groups. (original publication date 1/15/2014)

Redskins controversy explains everything wrong with the GOP - Salon.com

Update: Look here for the latest example of racist naming by liberal bigots. Imagine the reaction if the show were Hollywood [insert ethnic slur name] instead of Hollywood Hillbillies and featured the fattest, least attractive members of that ethnic group central casting could find.

O Pot Truth

Obama: Pot not 'more dangerous' than alcohol - NBC Politics:

President Barack Obama says smoking pot isn’t “more dangerous” than drinking alcohol.

“As has been well-documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life,” Obama said in a lengthy profile in the current issue of the New Yorker magazine. “I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol...”

More BBB! Nonsense

What The Media's Rush To Attack Hillary Clinton Misses About Benghazi And Leadership | Blog | Media Matters for America:

Hillary Clinton's name doesn't appear in the bipartisan portions of the Senate review of the tragic September 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, but you would not know that by looking at the media.

"For Clinton, Benghazi report has some good, mostly bad - but no ugly," blared a Washington Post headline. "Benghazi report ups pressure on Hillary," claimed The Hill.

The report, released earlier in the week by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, has been a Rorschach test for the media, and as is almost always the case with Hillary Clinton, they are stretching to see something nefarious...

Nancy Grace Goes Pot Stupid

People On Pot Shoot, Strangle and Kill Their Families, According to Nancy Grace (Video) | Progressive Populist:

Nancy Grace, who has made a lot of money being an ambulance chaser and exploiting real-life tragedies, uttered something really stupid this past week on her CNN show.

Actually, she said two really stupid things in that same segment. The first was during an interview with the Director of Communications for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), Mason Tvert...

More NSA Limits Coming?

Leahy says Senate will push for NSA legislation, suggests Obama didn't go far enough | Fox News:

Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Sunday the upper chamber will continue working on legislation to limit NSA spying, suggesting President Obama has not gone far enough in making changes to protect Americans’ privacy...

More Bad News For Christie

UPDATE 2-Christie's staff held disaster aid 'hostage' over project -NJ mayor | Reuters:

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, whose administration is facing allegations about abusing its power, came under fire again on Saturday when a local mayor said she was denied storm relief money because she would not back a development deal pushed by people close to the governor...

Fox Scraping Bottom Again

Right Wing Media's New "Fast And Furious" Authority Is A Guy Who Was In Jail During "Fast And Furious" | Blog | Media Matters for America:

Right-wing media are citing the claims of a high-level Mexican drug cartel figure, who faces life in prison for narcotrafficking, to advance its latest conspiracy theory about a failed federal law enforcement operation to stop the flow of guns into Mexico...

Crazy In NC: Aborting Edition

Judge Declares NC Abortion Ultrasound Law Illegal - ABC News

Carville Eats BillO's Lunch

Fox News Doesn't Care About The "Bloody Senate Report" | Blog | Media Matters for America:

"I don't care about the bloody report!"

With that, Bill O'Reilly delivered the climax to a night of Senate report denialism on Fox News.

This week, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released the results of its investigation into the 2012 attacks in Benghazi. The report dispelled many of Fox News' favorite conspiracy theories surrounding the attacks, including the myth that the Obama administration engaged in a cover-up by suggesting the attacks may have grown out of protests outside U.S. facilities in Benghazi over an anti-Islam video, an idea then-U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice suggested in a series of interviews on the broadcast Sunday shows three days after the attacks.,,

Great News For Diabetics

Google announces 'smart' contact lenses that monitor glucose levels | Fox News:

Google has announced that it is testing a prototype for a contact lens that would help people with diabetes manage their disease.

In a press release distributed Thursday, the company said that the lens it is designing would measure glucose in tears continuously using a wireless chip and miniaturized glucose sensor. Google says that using the lenses would be a less invasive method of measuring glucose levels than finger-pricking...

Benghazi! Benghazi! Benghazi!

Not the same as Tora! Tora! Tora! but close-- more smoke and mirrors at the Lying Liars Who Lie cable teevee channel.

How To Ignore Reality And Keep A Scandal Going: Benghazi Edition | Blog | Media Matters for America:

A bipartisan Senate report released this week concludes that the intelligence community was behind the Obama administration's suggestion that the 2012 Benghazi attacks grew out of a protest against an anti-Islam video. The revelation is yet another devastating blow to Fox News' efforts to scandalize the administration's focus on the video. But instead of reporting on that conclusion, Fox News instead spent last night reporting that they "were told" that President Obama and his closest advisers held a meeting the night of the attack and issued "marching orders" for the "video explanation..."

NH Joins Green Nation

After Lengthy Floor Debate, New Hampshire House Approves Marijuana Legalization:

After a heated and lengthy debate on the floor of the New Hampshire General Assembly, the lower chamber of New Hampshire’s legislature voted Wednesday 170 to 162 in favor of House Bill 492, which seeks to legalize under state law the personal use and home cultivation of marijuana by persons 21 years of age or older and establish regulations for the retail production and sale of cannabis.

The historic vote makes the New Hampshire House the first state legislative chamber to ever vote in favor of regulating cannabis...

No SocioSurprises Here

The Sociopaths of the GOP : Quiet Mike:

...Politicians share many of the same traits as a sociopath. Narcissism, delusions of grandeur, the ability to lie at the drop of a hat are all at least somewhat necessary to achieve a place in the political hierarchy of America. Those may be traits shared by politicians in other countries, but since we are most affected by our own representatives, let’s keep our focus here. For the past thirty years or so, the party that seems to have attracted the most sociopaths is the GOP...

Crazy In NC: Taxing Poor Edition

North Carolina Just Gave Millionaires A Tax Cut, Raised Taxes On The Poorest 900,000 Working Families:

The 900,000 poorest working families in North Carolina just got another tax hike from the conservatives who swept state legislature elections in 2010.

The change took effect at the beginning of 2014, meaning that the taxes those families file this spring will be the last to feature the state’s tax break for the working poor. The provision, known as the Earned Income Tax Credit or EITC, will also be 10 percent less generous in its final year...

Military Doing Better Than Rest

GOP hypocrites neglect poor — while drafting secret pro-military loophole - Salon.com:

...I don’t begrudge military veterans on disability or their survivors from pension benefits they were promised at enlistment; this policy was fairly appalling. If I ran the zoo they would get enough for a stable retirement, just like every American worker whose toil deserves some dignity in old age. But the disparity between how Congress jumps for the needs of the military and how every other employee of the federal government, every long-term unemployed worker, and every food stamp recipient gets treated is striking.

I should add that this largess is not limited to a minor provision for veterans. In fact, the whole military budget will benefit from a bait-and-switch by appropriators. They kept the baseline military budget at $488 billion for the fiscal year, as per prior agreement. But they raised the “overseas contingency operations” budget, money that’s supposed to be dedicated to active war operations in places like Afghanistan, to $91.7 billion, $7 billion over the Obama administration’s 2014 budget request. The clear goal here is to give the Pentagon an OCO slush fund to make up for any reductions in their baseline budget...

Voters Like 'Em Corrupt

Out of Office and Facing the Feds - The Daily Beast:

...One thing is worth noting about McDonnell: While his popularity suffered as a result of the “gifts” scandal, Virginia voters never turned against him decisively. Polls before the election had him at 50 percent approval, and a final internal poll placed his job approval rating at 62 percent. Even with his clear corruption, voters still liked McDonnell and his tenure.

We should keep this in mind as we evaluate the scandal that has engulfed the other Republican golden boy from 2009—New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. GOP defenders of the governor have noted the extent to which “Bridgegate” has yet to touch his popularity with the state’s voters, as if this were a rebuttal to claims that the scandal could destroy his political future. It isn’t...

Will Popcorn Killer Escape Justice?

Florida theater shooting: Will suspect's age open door to ‘stand your ground’? - CSMonitor.com:

...Despite the quickly filed murder charge, however, there’s a building debate in Florida about whether Reeves may be able to legally claim that he was justified in shooting Mr. Oulson, given both Reeves’ advanced age and his training as a police officer.

“Elderly people are a little bit more vulnerable than regular adults, so what may give a younger person a black eye could mean a cracked skull for a septuagenarian – that’s certainly a factor that may be figured in,” says Bob Dekle, a former Florida prosecutor who’s now a legal skills lecturer at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law in Gainesville...

Reefer Fake Out

Dazed and Confused! Bamboozled Colorado Republican Files Bill Over False Marijuana Article! (Videos) | Progressive Populist:

...The fake news site National Report put out a false story last week with the headline, “Colorado Pot Shop Accepting Food Stamps – Taxpayer Funded Marijuana for Welfare Recipients”. You can already tell by the headline what the story is about, so no need to delve into the details, other than that it was a great satire piece, very realistic. Go read it for yourself...

You can guess what happened.

WV Poison And Koches

From the Keep Voting Republican Department

Koch-Affiliated West Virginia Water Poisoners Ask For SYMPATHY While 300,000 Go Without Water (Video) | Progressive Populist:

...West Virginians have experienced first-hand lately what it is like to live in a third-world country – one without clean water. And Freedom Industries, the Koch-affiliated company that is to blame for it has appeared less than sympathetic to the plight of the 300,000 residents who have been affected by their negligence.

In fact, Kathy Stover-Kennedy, the girlfriend of Freedom Industries CEO Dennis Farrell, has taken to Facebook to complain about death threats Farrell and others have received, and has downplayed the whole incident. She claims that she brushed her teeth with the contaminated water, and that “the boys at the plant” showered and made coffee with the water. Here is the screen shot captured by AATTP from her Facebook page, which has since been deleted...

The Weekly Idjits Speaks Quotorama

9 worst right-wing moments of the week —�polar vortex edition - Salon.com

Gates Likes Clinton For Prez

Gates says Clinton would make a good president – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs:

Republicans were quick last week to use former Defense Secretary Bob Gates' new book as ammunition against Hillary Clinton should she decided to run for president again.

But when asked if he thinks the former secretary of state would make a good president, Gates gave an answer that Clinton opponents will likely leave out of future attack ads.

"Actually, I think she would," Gates said in an interview that aired on CBS' "Sunday Morning..."

Hating On Command

Angry on command: on media and the existence of gay people:

The words "Duck Dynasty" used to refer to a mildly funny TV show, but now most Americans think of it as a reality TV show about a reality TV show — a conservative media circus designed to normalize, advance, and profit from bigotry toward gay people. It seems there is nothing that makes a consumer of conservative media products more angry than a reminder that hatred is going out of style. For this reason, and others, they are willing to hate on command. All they need is a signal from their radio or TV...

Wage Rise Called For By Millionaire

It's an AP story so no quotes are allowed. Millionaire conservative backs Calif. minimum wage increase - Associated Press - POLITICO.com

Media Getting Caught In BridgeGate

How The Media Marketed Chris Christie's Straight Shooter Charade | Blog | Media Matters for America:

...He's been relentlessly and adoringly depicted as some sort of Straight Shooter. He's an authentic and bipartisan Every Man, a master communicator, and that rare politician who cuts through the stagecraft and delivers hard truths. Christie's coverage has been a long-running, and rather extreme, case of personality trumping substance.

But now the bridge bombshell casts all of that flattering coverage into question. How could the supposedly astute Beltway press corps spend four years selling Christie as a Straight Shooter when his close aides did things like orchestrate a massive traffic jam apparently to punish the governor's political foes? When an appointee joked in texts about school buses being trapped in the political traffic backup? How could Christie be a Straight Shooter when he's been caught peddling lies about the unfolding scandal and now claims he was misled about what people close to him were up to?...

Free Lunches In GA

Georgia GOPer Attacking Free School Lunch Expensed $4,200 In Meals:

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) warned that there's "no such thing as free lunch" for school children in Georgia, but he seems to have enjoyed a few.

An investigation by Georgia's WSAV channel 3 found that Kingston, who is currently running for Senate and recently suggested students work cleaning cafeterias in exchange for lunch, had expensed as much as $4,182 worth of lunches for his office over the past three years.

"Kingston and his staff expensed nearly $4200 in meals for business purposes to his congressional office, paid for by the American taxpayer," WSAV 3's Dan Kartunen reported. The amount could have purchased nearly 2,000 Georgia school lunches...

Stewart Plays Christie In FU Sharp

Video at the link.

Jon Stewart: Yes, Chris Christie did ‘set a tone’ — and it was ‘F-U sharp’ | The Raw Story:

Pitch pipe in hand, Daily Show host Jon Stewart skewered New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) contention on Thursday that the scandal surrounding the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge was not indicative of the tone he set in his administration.

“I think I finally figured out the tone he set,” Stewart said after playing clips of several of Christie’s public meltdowns. “F-U sharp...”

NC GOPer Lying About Unemployment

Go figure.

Charlotte Observer: EDITORIAL: Republicans’ faulty unemployment tale - Kay Hagan for U.S. Senate | Kay Hagan for U.S. Senate:

...This narrative, which Republicans have pushed before, is more revisionist than reality. It ignores that Berger and Tillis – who hopes to unseat Hagan in November – ultimately allowed North Carolinians to be denied $780 million in federal unemployment benefits last year...

Another GOPer Hypocrite

Family Values Republican Congressman Hid His Out-of-Wedlock Child and First Family:

...Bill Young’s “family values” exemplify perfectly the Republican attitude toward “family” and women. It’s not that Republicans are the only politicians who cheat on their spouses. Of course not.

It’s that they do it and often abandon their first families in order to craft the perfect picture of a “family man” with their second or third family, at the expense and neglect of the other humans with whom they had a contract. They do this while hypocritically advocating for “family values” that just so happen to remove power and control from the very women from whom they demand silence and submission.

If anyone is still confused about why women burn with outrage over the Republican assault on women’s rights, this story should explain it. The premise used to justify the theft of our rights is a lie. We have known this for a long time, and yet the public still seems content to buy into the frame of moral righteousness presented by the Republican Party, regardless of their actions.

The Pettiness Of Christy

Reports: Christie aide sent emails signaling lane closure:

Emails from a top aide to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie indicate that his office, despite the governor's denials, was closely involved in the controversial -- and unannounced -- closing of traffic lanes in September over the George Washington Bridge, according to New York and New Jersey media reports.

The New Jersey Senate is looking into allegations that the shutdown, which caused a massive gridlock in the town of Fort Lee, may have been retribution for the Democratic mayor's refusal to back Christie in his re-election last year...

A Teacher's Lament

Once, near the start of my teaching career, one of the crew I employed to help erect the shell of my home, made a snarky "It must be nice" remark to my sweaty face (I was working along side the crew) about teachers and time-off. The look of surprise on his face when I lost my temper and tuned on him was almost worth the sleep-deprived rage I felt for this idiot who was mouthing off at me after one of my hundred hour weeks and second month of laboring on my house for hours each day when I wasn't teaching or grading papers was almost worth losing my cool over. I am not the only one who gets irked evidently.

‘I would love to teach but…’:

...Despite this gilt of success, I was constantly prodded both inside the classroom and out by condescending remarks like, “It must be nice to have all that time off.” Time off? Did they mean the five or less hours of sleep I got each night between bouts of grading and planning? Did they mean the hours I spent checking my hundreds of e-mails, having to justify myself to parents, bosses, and random members of the community at large? Did they mean the time I missed with my family because I had to get all 150 of these essays graded and the data entered into a meaningless table to be analyzed for further instruction and evidence of my own worth? Did they mean the nine months of 80-hour work weeks, 40 of which were unpaid overtime weekly, only to be forced into a two-month, unpaid furlough during which I’m demeaned by the cashier at Staples for “all that time off?”...

The Weekly Idjit Quotes

10 worst right-wing moments of the week — “global cooling” edition - Salon.com

Crazy In NC: Losing Teachers Edition

North Carolina’s assault on teachers has to stop.:

My son Ben’s language arts teacher emailed one morning this winter to tell me she is leaving Ben’s school. I feel sick, but I don’t blame her. Three of Ben’s middle school teachers have left in the past year. North Carolina’s intentional assault on public education is working. It is pushing our best teachers out...

Why Not Kansas?

Senate hopeful wants to move U.S. Capitol to Nebraska:

Tired of politics in Washington? Republican Senate hopeful Ben Sasse says one solution is to move the U.S. Capitol to Nebraska.

"That's it. The way to cure the incredible ineffectiveness and dysfunction of both parties in Washington? We move the Capitol to Nebraska and leave the lobbyists and influence peddlers behind. So Congress can experience family, conservative values and living within a budget," Sasse says in a new campaign ad...

Terrible Vet Stat

Why suicide rate among veterans may be more than 22 a day - CNN.com:

Every day, 22 veterans take their own lives. That's a suicide every 65 minutes. As shocking as the number is, it may actually be higher...

More O Murder Rhetoric

Man That Endorsed Assassinating Obama A Benghazi Expert on Fox News:

America has a violence and gun problem. It is irresponsible for anyone to suggest or insinuate the assassination of anyone. It should be outright criminal for a pseudo news station like Fox News to allow such a person on their network. They should know better. A real news network must...

Crazy In NC: Moyers Edition

North Carolina: Battleground State | Moyers & Company | BillMoyers.com:

First it was Wisconsin. Now it’s North Carolina that is redefining the term “battleground state.” On one side: a right-wing government enacting laws that are changing the face of the state. On the other: citizen protesters who are fighting back against what they fear is a radical takeover. This crucible of conflict reflects how the battle for control of American politics is likely to be fought for the foreseeable future: not in Washington, DC, but state by state...

Daily PUMA Roasts Rush

A righteous rant, indeed!

Daily PUMA: Rush Limbama's January 03, 2014 Hillary Clinton Tirade.:

Rush Limbaugh puts together a pretty poor group of reasons as to why Hillary Clinton should not be president...

Fox Nut Calls For O Murder

Fox's Benghazi Expert Endorsed Assassinating Obama Last Week | Blog | Media Matters for America:

Days after he wrote a column endorsing the assassination of President Obama, Fox hosted Michael Scheuer to accuse Hillary Clinton of effectively murdering the Americans who died during the 2012 attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya...

The First And The NFL

I Was An NFL Player Until I Was Fired By Two Cowards And A Bigot:

...This is a true answer. I honestly don't know if my activism was the reason I got fired.

However, I'm pretty confident it was...

Mitt Doing The RICO

Mitt Romney, Hard-Working 'Honest' Business Genius, Being Sued for Criminal Racketeering | Progressive Populist:

In case you missed it, the defeated Presidential candidate and grandfather of an adopted baby of color, together with his firm and Government Sachs, umm Goldman Sachs are the defendants in a RICO lawsuit...

Clemency For Snowden?

Rieder: Why Edward Snowden should get clemency:

...''Considering the enormous value of the information he has revealed, and the abuses he has exposed, Mr. Snowden deserves better than a life of permanent exile, fear and flight," says the Times, the nation's preeminent news organization."He may have committed a crime to do so, but he has done his country a great service. It is time for the United States to offer Mr. Snowden a plea bargain or some form of clemency that would allow him to return home, face at least substantially reduced punishment in light of his role as a whistle-blower, and have the hope of a life advocating for greater privacy and far stronger oversight of the runaway intelligence community..."

Liberal In NYC

Bill de Blasio sworn in as 109th mayor of NYC:

Bill de Blasio was sworn in as the 109th mayor of New York City on Wednesday, becoming the first Democrat to occupy City Hall in more than two decades while vowing to pursue a sweeping liberal agenda for the nation's largest city...

The GOP, So Sensitive!

This could be another episode of Pot and Kettle Theatre.

MSNBC's Harris-Perry apologizes for mocking Romney over black grandchild | Fox News:

The laughing starts almost immediately in the MSNBC segment...

Latin Pot

Uruguay may have started a marijuana legalization storm in Latin America - Quartz:

...The strongest impetus for change, though, is likely to depend on the outcome of Uruguay’s experiment. Long recognized as one of the region’s least violent nations, Uruguay had seen both drug use and drug-related crime increase in the country in recent years. It decided that it would rather elbow drug lords out of the market than chase them down with guns. If that gamble pans out, the rest of Latin America will more seriously consider following suit.

Lest We Forget: Unions

The “middle class” myth: Here’s why wages are really so low today - Salon.com:

Let me tell you the story of an “unskilled” worker in America who lived better than most of today’s college graduates. In the winter of 1965, Rob Stanley graduated from Chicago Vocational High School, on the city’s Far South Side. Pay rent, his father told him, or get out of the house. So Stanley walked over to Interlake Steel, where he was immediately hired to shovel taconite into the blast furnace on the midnight shift. It was the crummiest job in the mill, mindless grunt work, but it paid $2.32 an hour — enough for an apartment and a car. That was enough for Stanley, whose main ambition was playing football with the local sandlot all-stars, the Bonivirs...

Dumb And Dumber In America

Age of Ignorance by Charles Simic | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books:

...Even regional history has gotten a short shrift. Students who come from old New England mill towns, as I have discovered, have never been told about the famous strikes in their communities in which workers were shot in cold blood and the perpetrators got away scot-free. I wasn’t surprised that their high schools were wary of bringing up the subject, but it astonished me that their parents and grandparents, and whoever else they came in contact with while they were growing up, never mentioned these examples of gross injustice. Either their families never talked about the past, or their children were not paying attention when they did. Whatever it was, one is confronted with the problem of how to remedy their vast ignorance about things they should have already been familiar with as the generations of students before them were...

GOP Relighting Benghazi

Lawmakers push back on New York Times Benghazi report | MSNBC:

Republican House members pushed back against a New York Times article that reported local militias, not al Qaeda forces, were behind the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that killed four Americans...

A Liberal Journey

Why I fled libertarianism — and became a liberal - Salon.com:

...A month before the 2012 election, I changed my party affiliation to Democrat. I am a very late bloomer, that it took me so many decades to develop my own values. I was thirty-nine.

I don’t think regular Americans have any idea just how crazy libertarians can be. The only human corollary I can offer is unquestioning religious fervor, and hell yeah, I used to be a true believer. Libertarians think they own the word “freedom,” but it’s a word that often obfuscates more than enlightens. If you believe the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe quote “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free,” then libertarians live in a prison of their own ideology.

Christie Beats Clinton

Latest Poll Finds Christie, Clinton in Presidential Deadlock - Government - Warren, NJ Patch:

... A hypothetical presidential election between Christie and former U.S. Senator, Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton would be a tossup if the election were held this year, according to a new CNN/ORC international survey, cnn.com reports...(sic)

Let's hope not.

Lest We Forget: Wellstone And The Liars

Conservative media invoke Wellstone memorial smear in predicting politicization of Kennedy's death | Research | Media Matters for America:

Paul died on October 25, 2002, when his plane went down in Northern Minnesota. Sheila; their daughter, Marcia; his driver, Will McLaughlin; two other close aides, Tom Lapic and Mary McEvoy; and two pilots died with him. Four days later, C-SPAN, along with almost every Minnesota TV and radio station, carried a hastily-put-together memorial service for Paul, Sheila, Marcia, Will, Tom, and Mary. I was there. It was a beautiful memorial, sometimes incredibly sad, sometimes funny, sometimes rowdy, and sometimes political. Some people watching on television were offended. Some people were moved. But the right saw an opening. They took moments out of context, lied about the rest, and used it as a political club to attack the Democrats. It won them the Senate election in Minnesota and probably in Missouri, which means it gave Republicans control of the Senate.

This chapter is a case study of how the right lies and viciously distorts. It is the story of how the right-wing media repeats its fabrications until they echo into the mainstream press. It is a story of pure cynicism in pursuit of power. It is the story of how the lying liars took the death of my friends and invented a myth that changed the 2002 elections. [Pages 178-179]

Clinton and Spelling Collide

I can't get much going right now. Don't know how long the recovery process will take, but for the moment, posting is going to be light.

DD Rights

GOP congressional candidate: ‘Duck Dynasty star is Rosa Parks of our generation’ | The Raw Story:

Illinois Republican congressional candidate Ian Bayne sent an email to supporters today in which he declared that embattled Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson is the “Rosa Parks of our generation...”

Bill O Wants You To Pray For Rich

Bill O'Reilly Warns That Rich People Are 'In Danger,' Asks That You Pray - The Wire:

Fox News' demure 8 p.m. host Bill O'Reilly took a serious moment on Wednesday night to warn the country that rich people are in imminent danger, because one time a lottery winner got murdered. Yes, the myth of the embattled rich is back, thanks to the news peg of a half-billion-dollar Mega Millions jackpot...

Youe Daily Pope

Pope Francis trashes the ‘prosperity gospel’: Pompous Christians are ugly pagans | The Raw Story:

 “It is an ugly thing,” he said, according to Vatican Radio, “when you see a Christian who doesn’t want to humble himself, who doesn’t want to serve, a Christian who struts about everywhere: it’s ugly, eh? That is not a Christian: that’s a pagan!”

Boosting SS

How Elizabeth Warren Upset the DC Establishment's Plans to Weaken Social Security | Alternet:

When Senator Elizabeth Warren came out for increasing Social Security last month it set in motion a remarkable turn of events. For over a decade the only discussion of Social Security by the Washington power types was over how much to cut it and when. The extreme left position was that current spending was about right.

Senator Warren changed the debate when she endorsed a bill proposed by Iowa Senator Tom Harkin that would index retirees' benefits to an index that more closely tracks the cost-of-living of seniors. The bill also would raise benefits by roughly $70 a month. As a result of Warren's prominence in national politics, and the fact that raising Social Security benefits is actually quite popular, the Washington insider types were forced to take the idea seriously...

Fixing Education

In another of the long line of articles, posts, and sermons about our education system, the NYT restates the obvious, thus ensuring the obvious results: nothing --the same results we have had for 30 years when the string of annual banal writings on the subject are trotted out like migrating lemmings. An annual pointing of fingers ritual at those responsible for this mess (the 1%) might help, but teachers make a far less frightening target than those with real money and real power.

Why Students Do Better Overseas - NYTimes.com:

...In a recent survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a global policy organization, adults in the United States scored far below average and better than only two of 12 other developed comparison countries, Italy and Spain. Worse still, the United States is losing ground in worker training to countries in Europe and Asia whose schools are not just superior to ours but getting steadily better...

Christie Has Bridge Problem

Chris Christie Bridge Controversy Expands As Senator Calls For Federal Review:

New Jersey traffic jams have hit the nation's capital. On Monday, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) asked the Department of Transportation to look into why officials in New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) administration abruptly shut down access lanes to the busiest U.S. bridge in September and caused massive traffic jams, a move that some Democrats have characterized as political retribution...

Libertarian Lies

Cannonfire:

...But Schiff's whole premise is a lie. If Walmart workers were given a living wage, prices wouldn't go up 15 percent. Prices would go up ONE percent.

And even that rise would be mitigated if Walmart curbed executive compensation. During this country's most prosperous period -- the three decades following WWII -- the executive class earned a lot less and workers took home a much larger share of the economic pie...

The Weekly Right Wing Idiot Quote List

10 worst right-wing moments of the week — white Santa edition - Salon.com

Scholars Say "No" To Israel

Scholars’ Group Endorses an Academic Boycott of Israel - NYTimes.com:

An association of American professors with almost 5,000 members has voted to endorse an academic boycott of Israeli colleges and universities, the group announced Monday, making it the largest academic group in the United States to back a growing movement to isolate Israel over its treatment of Palestinians...

I think this is more significant than you think.

SS Discussion Has Changed

Take that, Paul Ryan! Elizabeth Warren beats back Social Security plot - Salon.com:

...Until recently, in discussions of the future of Social Security the Overton Window was positioned to exclude any discussion of raising, rather than cutting, Social Security benefits. For the last generation, the range of permissible opinion with respect to the program — which most Americans depend on for nearly all of their income in old age — ranged from conservatives who wanted to abolish Social Security altogether, to press-anointed “progressives” and token Democrats who merely wanted to cut Social Security benefits. The option of maintaining scheduled Social Security benefits, and paying for them with higher taxes, was considered unworthy of discussion by the guardians of Overton Orthodoxy, both in the press and in the two major parties. As for expanding Social Security benefits — why, that’s crazy talk!...

Palin Snark

Amazon.com: Joel Cruz's review of Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the...: One reads this book and one can only say, "Palin!", November 18, 2013v By Joel Cruz

This review is from: Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas (Hardcover)

Finally! At long last someone has said what has needed to be said. One brave soul has trumpeted it from the rooftops. Forget about the Iraq War with their hundreds of thousands of innocents dead. Remove your mind from worrisome drone strikes hitting children and families in Afghanistan. Our returning soldiers--battered, maimed, wounded in every human way possible, and now, most likely jobless, could not have returned from a more glorious conflict than the War on Christmas. This annual melee, swift on the heels of the Satanic orgy of demon-worship and candy corn that is Halloween, should be front and center on the radar of every God-loving, red-blooded American. While women line up for their holiday abortions and those godless gays don their stylish gay apparel, Mrs. Palin has reminded us that the fight for Christmas is the fight for our very souls...

Hospital/Surgery Fri.13th

I hope to have another post.

GOPer Budget Hate

John Boehner: Conservative Groups' Reaction to Budget Deal Is 'Ridiculous' - NationalJournal.com:

House Speaker John Boehner went off on outside conservative groups Wednesday morning for pushing against the new budget deal.

"They're using our members and they're using the American people for their own goals," he said. "This is ridiculous."

Several key conservative groups are against the sequester relief within the new budget deal...

Comment Of The Day: Skippy-Saudi Edition

9/11 Link To Saudi Arabia Is Topic Of 28 Redacted Pages In Government Report; Congressmen Push For Release


matthewcarmody

• 10 hours ago

Just one family of oligarchs helping another family of oligarchs. And don't expect any honesty because national security to this treasonous bunch means keeping the American people in the dark about how the Bush family has been involved in treason since before old Prescott's conviction for trading with the enemy in 1942.

Bush knew what was coming and he did nothing to stop it but he sure did move with deliberate speed to get Saudis and bin Ladens out of the country without being available for questioning by the FBI. No more Bush family members in the White House whether it be a distant cousin or whatever.

Rich Kid Gets Off Murder Because He's Rich

Everything wrong with America in a nutshell.

Ethan Couch Sentenced To Probation In Crash That Killed 4 After Defense Argued He Had 'Affluenza':

A 16-year-old avoided spending time in prison for killing four people in a car accident in June after the judge bought his lawyers' argument that he was the victim of wealth...

The Sad End Of Sears Randism

Ayn Rand-loving CEO destroys his empire - Salon.com:

... Instead of enhancing Sears’ bottom line, the heads of various divisions began to undermine each other and fight tooth and claw for the profits of their individual fiefdoms at the expense of the overall brand. By this time Crazy Eddie was completely in thrall to his own bloated ego, and fancied he could bend underlings to his will by putting them through humiliating rituals, like annual conference calls in which unit managers were forced to bow and scrape for money and resources. But the chaos only grew...

Gay Death And Dying

GOP Dave Agema's Rant: Gays want ‘free medical because they're dying’:

...What is obscene is Dave Agema’s account of gays at American Airlines where he worked. He claimed that a gay person would claim another as a lover to get medical benefits. “Folks, they (gay people) want free medical because they’re dying (when they’re) between 30 and 44 years old,” he said. “To me, it’s a moral issue. It’s a Biblical issue. Traditional marriage is where it should be and it’s in our platform. Those in our party who oppose traditional marriage are wrong...”

No Low Flags In Pickens SC

Flag Lowering Debate - WLOS News13 - Top Stories:

President Obama's decision to have American flags fly at half staff creates some controversy.

Pickens County Sheriff Rick Clark posted on his Facebook page that only Americans should be honored with flags at half staff. There is no specific law requiring that. The president, governors and other leaders can make the decision on when to lower flags in someone's honor...

WSJ Wants Unemployment Cut

...because you just can't kick a dog enough when it's down.

WSJ Uses Positive Jobs Report To Push GOP Toward Unemployment Benefits Cut | Blog | Media Matters for America:

The Wall Street Journal used a positive jobs report to urge Republican lawmakers to block an extension of unemployment benefits, ignoring the ongoing need for extended benefits and the harm that cutting them would have for the ongoing economic recovery...

An UnACA Horror Story

When does lying about Obamacare become immoral and evil?:

...There are many stories detailing the plight of the poor whose only recourse is the emergency room. They get to the emergency rooms only to be stabilized and not really diagnosed in detail. Generally, not until it is too late do they get care at a point when it is most expensive and deadly. One of the most gut wrenching stories was detailed by a Galveston, Texas medical student where she literally watched a patient die over a few months. The patient died not because they could not help his cancer, but because he was uninsured...

Newt And Mandela

Newt Gingrich To Conservatives: 'What Would You Have Done?' - Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Atlantic:

I think this is a fairly noteworthy statement from Newt Gingrich on Mandela's passing that should get some airing. Gingrich is addressing the rather disgraceful response to Mandela's passing that we've seen in some quarters:...

Warren Flogs Ed Department

Elizabeth Warren: Education Department Shouldn't Be A 'Lapdog':

...Warren, a member of the Senate banking and education committees, also said it was “shocking” that the department had not yet recovered some $22 million in allegedly improper payments made to Sallie Mae despite a 2009 recommendation from the department’s inspector general that it recover the debt.

“The Department of Education needs to be aggressive in watching out for students, not for profit-making loan servicers,” Warren said. “They’re there for our students, not to help loan servicers make a profit...”

Van Shooter Fired

New Mexico officer in van shooting is fired - Houston Chronicle:

The New Mexico State Police officer who fired shots at a minivan full of children during a chaotic October traffic stop has been fired, a spokesman with the law enforcement agency said Friday.

Lt. Emmanuel Gutierrez, a State Police spokesman, said he confirmed with State Police Chief Pete Kassetas that Officer Elias Montoya was no longer employed by the department. Montoya's termination was effective at 5 p.m. Friday...

Well, that's a start. How about a reckless endangerment charge? And what about the other two "officers"?

Fixing SS Is Simple

To Fix Social Security, Some Democrats Want To Lift Wage Cap : NPR:

...But that does not seem to faze Sen. Elizabeth Warren. The Massachusetts Democrat has gotten a lot of attention for a speech defending Social Security that she delivered last month on the Senate floor.

"With some modest adjustments, we can keep the system solvent for many more years, and we could even increase benefits," Warren says...

On GOP Defections

The GOP Is Losing Candidates Left And Right | Firebrand Progressives:

Just recently, Charlie Crist left the Republican party to run for Florida’s gubernatorial race as a Democrat. Now, he is joined by the Republican candidate for North Carolina’s third district, Jason R. Thigpen, and Texas Judge Carlo Key. Why? It comes down to a matter of principles. The party pushing for “Values Voters” has misunderstood which “values” people have, and these candidates do not want their names associated with the political mess that is today’s GOP...

O Attack Too Low For Even Wingnuts

Disgusting Liberal-Hating Facebook Page Posts Fake Photo of President Obama Inappropriately Touching His Daughter | Progressive Populist:

In what might be the sleaziest, hateful, and most detestable stunt ever pulled in the name of political warfare, a barely-human clod-brained jackass did an amateurish alteration of a photo taken of President Obama and his family leaving a grocery store. The altered photo shows President Obama with his hand down his daughter Sasha’s pants....

If you want to look at this obvious fakery, click on the link. While you're at it, can you imagine Obama in a bait shop, which what the place looks like-- it even has a "fishing tackle" sign.

Child Labor Making A Comeback In Maine

GOP Governor Wants 12-Year-Old Kids to Work - Cheaply (Video) | Progressive Populist:

Paul LePage, (Republican and need you even ask?) Governor of the great state of Maine is advocating changing child labor laws.

LePage seeks to loosen regulations currently in place. Now, students must be 16, enrolled in school and passing a majority of their classes to be able to get a job. If all conditions are met, those teenagers can obtain a work permit from the Superintendent of Schools.

The Governor wants to blow past all that falderal and have 12 year olds get the permits directly from the Department of Labor...

Economic Death Dance

Simply Left BehindThe Non-Rapturist's Guide To The Galaxy: Bad Economic Data:

...People will cut back. They have to.

After all, we’ve pulled every trick out of our asses to keep on keeping on: two-income families, with second jobs. Fewer kids. More credit. We the people are out of options, and the only one left to us is to drastically cut back in purchasing power.

Diapers Going For Guv?

Vitter eyes Louisiana governor's mansion | MSNBC:

Republican Sen. David Vitter is eyeing the Louisiana governor’s mansion, and he’ll decide over the holidays whether he will launch a 2015 bid.

The GOP senator said in an email to supporters on Wednesday he would weigh whether to launch a campaign over Christmas with his family,..

Gay Rights Gain in HI

Same-sex weddings begin in Hawaii:

Same-sex couples are taking advantage of Hawaii's newfound aloha for gay weddings.

Six couples tied the knot early Monday, shortly after midnight, when a new law allowing same-sex couples to marry took effect...

This Weeks Con Crazy Quotes

10 Outrages and Crazy Statements by Right-Wingers This Week: Pope Provokes Free-Market Freakout | Alternet: