I Hope You're Happy

Doing a little article housecleaning here, and the holidays are keeping me very busy.  Whatever your holidays, have a celebration this year, and let’s make this thing better next year, OK? Oh, and can we vote out Lieberman now instead of 2012? That’s my Christmas wish.

Speaking of which, here he is confused as to what party to run with in 2012

Um, the Aetna Lobby party? Oh, no wait, the satanist party?

Living the stereotype

White supremacist wanted for murder in Texas, nickname is Bubba, drives a pickup, Nazi tattoos, Republican party sticker in the window. You can’t write it any better than this folks.

White house changes F-22 at press conference with F-15

Well, since the F-22 is such an engineering failure, I can hardly blame them.

Pranksters use GOP URL shortener for mischief, bring down the site

So the GOP has GOP.am as a device to share links between followers. More savvy members of the public at large used it to link to porn sites and liberal sites, and the GOP had to take it down less than 24 hours after it launched. Good work, everyone. If you want to put some of these articles through that and spread it to the Republican end of the spectrum, feel free.

Republican Filibuster use this year is unprecedented

They’ve used the F-word on every major piece of legislation. Hm, “party of no” anyone? I’ll be highlighting this idea a bit more in the new year, I think.

Orrin Hatch: Republican Standard operating procedure under Bush was to no pay for things

Hence the GOP belief that the deficit doesn’t matter, except when the Democrats are in office. Hypocrisy and political credibility don’t go well together, my friends.

When pressed, they can’t even admit to their hypocrisy

Just the usual talk around and blather.

Blackwater founder was a CIA operative?

I’m not sure this ever actually played out, but I’m not surprised. The line between Blackwater and CIA did blur greatly as the war in Iraq wore on, and it played a nice trick by renaming itself Z industries, making it practically impossible to track in defense spending reports.

Just goes to show, don’t rely on God for anything

GOP Prayer leader believes gays are possessed by demons, really

Author of “Cure the Gays” B.S. gets a tongue lashing on Rachel Maddow

Worth the view.

Minnesota could lose a congressional seat in census

Hm, if only the redistriciting could cost Michele Bachmann her seat, our long national embarrassment would be over.

Al Franken beginning to use his satirical side in the Senate

My question is, if our politicians are the best at what they do, successful in such a large national intellectual sport as politics, why can’t they match wits with a comedian with no training in doing this? The flip side, of course, is can Franken control his tongue enough to be able to do business in Washington? This will get interesting.

What? TARP Profits at $16bn so far?

Well, until it’s all repaid, there isn’t really a profit in my book, but this is looking a bit better than we had hoped. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. and it isn’t a freight train.

The al Qaeda leader behind the underoo bomber was released by the U.S. from Gitmo in November 2007.

Thanks, for keeping us safe, George!

Illinois Republican Senate Primary challenger runs ad claiming opponent is gay

Keep it classy guys. Really, isn’t this the slum of elections? The Republicans in my home state of Illinois (motto: Politics, we like ours dirty) are resorting to dirty tactics early.

Karl Rove granted a divorce

I think we should demand proof he was married in the first place.

2,000 years on, an impoverished itinerant preacher has been made into a rich man

And just a little more perversion to that fun institution we call religion. I can’t wait until somebody comes up with a ministry of the rich Buddha.

The world is ending in 2011 if you’re a Christian who makes shit up about the bible

AIG’s emails as the company crashed and burned

And an exec at AIG quit over pay limits

To be fair, she handled HR, Corporate Communications and the like, not SubPrime loans. I’d rather she got paid a comparably fair wage, and the morons who got us into this got paid even less than the Federally mandated maximum.

Iraq

Obama hints at Iraq/Al Qaeda link

Hard to deny since we did a lot of leading them there.

Afghanistan

Karl Rove says Obama can win in Afghanistan

It’s a nice thought, but Rove doesn’t exactly have a great track record in being right, if you know what I mean. Didn’t he also say Iraq would be a breeze?

Gen. McChrystle: Hey, how about we go for Bin Laden?

Yes, that would be a welcome change to the war strategies of the last 8 years.

Switching Sides

Why Little Green Footballs is leaving the Republicans behind

Charles Johnson doesn’t like being associated with conspiracy theory wingnuts and haters, for some reason.

Andrew Sullivan in rather more words and eloquence

Maine politician leaves GOP over Health Care Reform

Maine State Rep. Jim Campbell leaves his party because his party left him behind.

Parker Griffith, Democrat from Alabama switches to Republicans because of Pelosi

He’s fed up with the deficit spending, but he specifically named Pelosi.

Anti-socialist Michele Bachmann took $250K in Federal farming subsidies.

Fun with Climate Change

Al Gore can’t get the facts straight

While I admire his dedication to the political aspects of this, because of the position he has put himself in, he needs to have bulletproof facts.  Otherwise, he opens himself to mockery.

Another

Proof he’s going to get pushed harder than anyone else on this.

James Inhofe: Climate change denier denied

As theatrically as a Republican with his panties in a bunch, he flies to Copenhagen to give an interview to one reporter. Message received, Jim.

DOE: Windfarms don’t hurt property values

So what else you got? And don’t give me any Wind Turbine Syndrome Bullshit.

Skepticism is not the bane of science, despite what the press will tell you

This is a major story that many lay people who oppose many issues are trying to create. Don’t believe any of it. Science likes skepticism. It’s just a shame the American education doesn’t teach the scientific method well enough for people to get it.

Diane Feinstein wants to kill 13 solar and wind power projects to protect Mojave Desert

Yet another reason not to like her. There’s no reason why we can’t build an ecologically sensitive green energy plant, figure it out.

Iran

Note to Obama: the diplomacy didn’t work

Iranian document says they tested a bomb component. They’re using the North Korean school of diplomacy where they pretend to give a concession then stall and never do. How much line will we give them before we try something else?

Revolution is imminent

Opposition forces taking control of police weapons and vehicles.

Fox News: Give me a poorly forged Iran nuclear document and I’ll give you a war

You guessed it, that document proving Iran is making warhead components was a fake.

Ayatollah Kadivar is putting his money on revolution because the people know the government is Bullshit

Republicans take note.

Alan Grayson

Well, somebody had to tell Cheney to STFU

Not too into this one Alan. This is America and we have free speech

The unfunny Palin

Media guidelines for a Palin book tour appearance

No foreign journalists, no taping, no interviews. Maybe the Canadian chick got to her.

Going birther

Leave no lunatic stone unturned.

She got an award! Biggest lie of the year

Death panels wins her the honor.

Blogger on her banned list

And he’s rightfully proud. I would be, too.

The logic is perfect

Bachmann: A year ago, 100% of the private economy was private

Um, yes, it sure was.

Lou Dobbs: NOW I’m for Amnesty for illegal immigrants

Hm, I’m smelling a sellout to an election demographic that isn’t going to vote for him anyway.

Fox News: We know this is a lie, so we no longer will officially follow our official no tolerance truth policy

Apparently rules and journalistic ethics are only for amateurs.

Another Republican politician can’t accept modern societal sensitivity

The quote was, “Really, your son is a homo?” This continued insensitivity to those who aren’t “like them” further distances the Republicans from modern reality. This time it was Mecklenburg County South Carolina commissioner Bill James.

Republicans in Indiana are kicking out people who aren’t conservative enough

Yeah, that makes perfect sense, kick out the majority middle folks. I like the quote that people are inherently conservative. That’s a pretty big assumption, there buddy, and what do you have to back that statement up? Huh buddy? People aren’t inherently anything, there’s no conservative political gene, and this assumption is part of what is wrong with the Republican party, too much assuming they are right, and not enough actually going out and finding out if they are.

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Glenn Beck lost his sponsors

In fact, he lost what has to be most of his sponsors in a week. That kind of makes it difficult to produce a show, now, doesn’t it? Of course, being a raving lunatic with an indefensible position just looking to make a buck off blatant sensationalism may be somewhat distracting to a corporate brand.

The oil industry is taking lessons on protests at townhall meetings

Further showing their short sightedness, oil continues to not pursue the strategic vision of energy independence, choosing instead to pursue a business that will, like the record companies, become increasingly irrelevant. I’d pull my money out of oil stocks now.

The soaring deficit
The Republicans have always been right on this one, Democrats like to spend money. Of course, to Republicans, deficits don’t matter, so I don’t know what they’re complaining about. Look at the chart, they took two years of surplus, cut taxes, and turned it into six years of straight deficits. Obama is in a bind, and he has to get the economy moving first, so long as it doesn’t destroy us later. If only there were a way to cut spending without reducing taxes so that we could pay off our deficit. I remember having this argument with a Republican in the ‘04 election. I’m sure he’s still screaming now. Doesn’t matter. History is telling me I’ve been right all along.

A GPS in every car to report our mileage?

Most of us would call this an odometer, but for Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, we need GPS, a whole program to monitor them, and then tax collection agents. No wonder Democrats can’t create a streamlined, efficient government.Thanks for dispelling that Big Brother image.

We pay more than other countries for our crappy cell phone service

Hmm, that’s just like health care. Other countries pay less, get more. I’m sure the Republicans are calling it a Democratic plot.

Typical Teenage Rebellion story, Michele Bachmann style

Looks like her son has joined Americorp, or as she calls it, a Democrat Reeducation camp.

A little more Republican Waffling on the birth certificate

Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina again proves the difficulty of having a lunatic voter base.

Santorum 2012?

Already campaigning, instead of doing something, I don’t know, useful.

Unfinished Business from the previous administration pt. 1

Looks like Karl Rove is very central to the Attorney Firings.

Unfinished business from the previous administration pt. 2

Alberto Gonzalez regrets torture memo, (but he remains silent on the actual torture)

What Orly Taitz believes

This Salon.com article did what MSNBC couldn’t do, give Orly Taitz a non-confrontational place to look like a village idiot. This columnist allowed her to ramble, and ramble she did. There’s a good litany of bizarre conspiracy theories here that go well beyond the birth certificate. It proves a point though, in biased news outlets like Foxnews and MSNBC, you don’t have to shut them up, put them down or anything of the sort. Just let them rant and look like imbeciles. It’ll serve you better.

Why 14 yr old girls aren’t the best spokesmen for a religion

Two Christian girls try to convert an Indian Hindu in what is certain the be an emotionally tramatic experience for all of them.

You want proof?

Let’s re-wind to the RNC. Here’s what they had to do to have a hope of looking, um, let’s say, um, competent: keep people from remembering the failures of Dubya. What happened? Hurricane Gustav, coming for New Orleans and looking like a Cat 4.

Next, let’s go to Bobby Jindal’s Ill-fated response to Obama’s speech on the stimulus package. What did he question? $140 million for volcano monitoring systems. This from the guy who is the Governor of Louisiana, a veritable target of natural disasters and ecological mis-management. What happened that week? Mount Redoubt erupts in Alaska, Sarah Palin’s home state. Call that a two-fer.

Now, here’s the kicker. During the Stimulus spending debate, the Republicans, led by Karl Rove, stripped the bill, very vocally, in fact, of $900 mil for Flu Pandemic preparedness. From Mexico. Which will likely cross the border in Texas.

Consider this divine ironic intervention. If you believe in such things.

Reason #1 why being at Harvard doesn’t mean you’re the smartest thing on the block

This writer tries to make a comparison between Bush ignoring the advice of people outside his administration for that of his misguided cronies to Obama’s economic decisions. Problem is, he says that Obama is ignoring the advice of “nearly every eminent economist in the world.” Well, he fails to cite any of these “eminent” economists. Truth is, Obama has consulted everyone and everything he can get his hands on, and is following a path that the rest of the world’s governments also are following based on teh advice of their own eminent economists and the global community of eminent economists. The economists this guy adheres to are apparently conservatives who think reducing taxes on the rich is the way to go. You should also probably avoid articles where the first line is “Now, I’m pretty slow sometimes.”

As a matter of fact, this article isn’t so much an article as a cheap shot. So, to respond in kind, Harvard boy, you’re ugly and your mother dresses you funny.

Reason #2 why being at Harvard doesn’t mean you’re the smartest thing on the block

Now check out this slick young Harvard student who thinks his less than 20 years of living can outsmart Barney Frank’s years in Congress.

Like the polar ice caps, the Republican party is at a record small size

It’s shrinking and it’s membership thinks it should become more conservative. Yeah, have fun with that.

Turns out if they want to keep their jobs, they should have taken that stimulus money

Republican governors who initially made a stand against accepting stimulus spending because it would make them appear more stodgy, Republican, and dumb have realized stodgy Republican and dumb don’t make you popular. Their state legislatures, from both parties have forced them to accept.Featuring our favs, Palin, Jindal, and Sandford.

Palin knows how to pick ‘em

AG nominee quoted “If a guy can’t rape his wife…who’s he gonna rape?” and “There wouldn’t be an issue with domestic violence if women would learn to keep their mouths shut.” Stay classy.

That resignation that she asked for, she never asked for, kinda like that bridge

The laughs never stop with her.

Karl Rove says Biden lies…or exaggerates

It’s kind of like that whole Iraq WMD 9/11 thing but this time he gets to point the finger, so it’s all fine then.

About that whole Christian nation thing

This guy doesn’t know how biased his opinion is. He criticizes Obama for saying that we aren’t a Christian or a Muslim nation but a nation of individuals. He then tries to make the case that we are even though 1) there’s no official national religion 2) there are non-Christians in this nation, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans, atheists and they in fact, make up a statistically significant portion of the population, and 3) the founding fathers recognized the division among sects of Chrsitianity (Catholics, Protestant, etc) made life as bloody and difficult as our current drawing of lines between religions.

My favorite argument this guy makes is this:

The concept of unalienable rights inheres in the Judeo-Christian precept that an all-loving God created man in his image, thus entitling him to dignity, freedom and rights that cannot be divested by the state.

The twist in the argument is that these statements were made in reaction to abuses they saw in limiting the rights of the colonists on the part of the king. There was no basis in Judeo-Christian theology bullshit. I think I need to write a big article on this concept, the founding fathers, whether they were Christian, Secular, atheist, or whether that even mattered in the context of the nation building.

Sign of the times

Star salesperson, needs operation for life-threatening operation, so the company, Zales (looks like I won’t be shopping there) fires her, and messes up the COBRA paperwork. It gets worse from there.

Faith Groups are losing the gay rights fight

Maybe it’s because their argument is “Only my rights matter.”

Scientist who Turned Anglican Priest thinks we’re all going to Hell if we don’t pray or something like that

Wow. Cuckooo!!!

How GM Crushed Saturn

One thing I’ve learned is if you have a high concept for a project, stay true to it.

The End of Christian America

Looks like we’re heading to America 2.0. Only like 8 years too late.

Canadian MP vs. Science

I don’t know how separation of Church and State work in Canada, but I’m sure glad we have it here. Oh…wait.

And a pair of Daily Show clips

And # 2

The Parade of Racist Republicans Continues

They should probably get a marching band dressed in hoods….This time it was Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose who sent an email with a racially inappropriate content-namely, the White House issuing a statement that there would be no Easter Egg hunt this year due to the Watermelon patch. Them Negros like their watermelons, ya know, heh, heh, heh…..at least he has the class to resign.

The Holocaust Denying Bishop’s Apology falls a little flat

The Vatican said Bishop Richard Williamson’s apology wasn’t quite up to snuff, and he’s going to have to do a little bit better. Williamson apologized for his remarks on Thursday, saying he would never have made them if he had known “the full harm and hurt to which they would give rise.” The Vatican implied that he would actually have to change his position to fit that of actual historical fact, not just apologize for saying it while continuing to hold onto those beliefs. The Pope then returned to his adherence to a book that has very little basis in fact.

Bobby Jindal Lied to You

Remember that story about Bobby Jindal (Republicans: we can has minorities) cutting through red tape while sitting in the sheriff’s office during Katrina? Yeah, that didn’t happen. He wasn’t there. He was hardly even near there as news reports can confirm. In fact, he was in his palace overlooking the city, playing a violin the whole time. See how quickly he will lie to manipulate you?

Karl Rove = pot kettle = doing the economy harm

Karl Rove, just off a nearly eight year stint of destroying the nation, took some time out to explain how Barack Obama’s budget is bad for the economy. Because he is overspending. And he says it with a straight face. With bonus high tech dry-erase board graphics.

Rising stars: 10 Republicans to watch

And not a single one of them is competent.