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.

Sarah Palin Lies about Troopergate in her book

At this point I’m willing to ask the bookstores to reshelve this book as fiction. This time, the trooper involved is speaking out against her, and considering legal action. You betcha!

Andrew Sullivan: Quote for the day

“I meet with the gays here and there. They were in my house two weeks ago. I don’t mind gays. But I don’t want ‘em stuffing it down my throat all the time,” – Utah Senator Chris Buttars, explaining his opposition to allowing same-sex couples to adopt children.

New consensus on stimulus spending

New analysis says the stimulus made the economy much better than it would have been. However, it could have been better. How? More spending early on. Oh, and those Republican tax cuts and bonuses for seniors? Yeah, they were saved and not spent, so, as was predicted before the stimulus went through, we didn’t get anything out of that money.

What happens when the leader of a doomsday cult dies before doomsday?

Apparently a lot of confusion. Hmmm, much easier to just not get involved in one of these.

Teaparty against immigrant amnesty falls to practical joker

Watch as the crowd cheers to the suggestion that European immigrants be sent back to their home country.

NOTE: the headline of this article uses the word “punks” for “practical jokes”. You’ll notice I don’t use certain words on this blog, and punks is one of them. I feel anything associated with Ashton Kutcher is derogatory to real punks, a social political movement of youthful vitality. Also, I don’t use the words “Right” and “Left” for similar reasons. The “right” is so rarely correct these days, and I don’t want to encourage them.

Infographic: Tax Revenue from pot regulation

I don’t and have never smoked the stuff myself, and in fact don’t advocate it even, but the money we spend fighting pot while the drug problems grow in the country and our jails fill with pot users just doesn’t seem right. I advocate legalization and regulation of pot just from a practical sense notion of it.

Librarian censors Alan Moore Comic on her own

Sharon Cook has been fined 10 cents per day because she won’t return a copy of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to the library she works at. That’s ten cents per day since November of 2008. She has the copy with page markers highlighting the pages that contain explicit sexuality (and which she probably looks at every night with the privacy of her own vibrator).

Sarah Palin Slams Newsweek for being sexist for using photo she posed for

Sarah Palin posed for this photo for a running magazine (not Newsweek), and now, since she can get some political points from it, she’s being critical. Makes me wonder, Sarah, when are you going to be able to actually discuss a political issue?

Michele Bachmann’s Rally may have violated House rules

She tried to skirt around the rules by calling it a press conference, but there was no conference, no questions taken from reporters, no statements issued.

More on AT&T vs. Verizon

Verizon’s response: Even AT&T says the ads are true, and the Truth hurts.

Appendix fails to assassinate Glenn Beck

The nation asks doctors to put it back for another try.

The Golden State isn’t worth it

After analysis, the studies find that the standard of living in the high tax, high social program, big government state of California, life isn’t as good as in the  no taxes, small government state of Texas, and the residents are leaving to lower taxed states in droves.

Having seen this coming, this is why I’m an advocate of small government. Too bad there isn’t a small government-lowtax social liberal party out there for me to get behind.The Democrats every once in a while show some interest in it, especially after Clinton proclaimed the era of big government is over. The rest of the party just hasn’t come around to that concept yet.

Todd Akin gambles on the Pledge of Allegiance, Loses

If you want to use it as a political weapon, you should take care to say all the words. I’m just saying.

Cheney’s FBI interview featured 72 times where he couldn’t recall

I know Reagan got away with it, but really, he had Alzheimer’s. Cheney is just avoiding the question.

And Lo, the two party system did create a void, and out of this void came…third parties

America is seeing the problem with the two parties, and we all know that being an independent is a bad route to go (Joe Lieberman). Most of Europe has several parties (BUT THEY’RE ALL SOCIALISTS), so it’s about time we got in on the action, and allowed some more voices into the debate. It can’t get any worse (right?)

Doug Hoffman, the Conservative of NY-23 claims Glenn Beck is his hero

No wonder that race got so fucked up that the Republican candidate dropped out and endorsed the Democrat. With an election as strange as that, I’m shocked there wasn’t a former porn star or reality TV b-lister also on the ballot.

As a result of Barack Obama’s policies, lobbyists are quitting in droves

If only there were a pied piper to run the rest of them out.

Iran Accepts nuclear deal

Funny that Bush was never able to do this….

Texas and Ohio voters reject red light cameras

I think that if we can’t get this on the ballot everywhere, we should reject them like the mysterious guy in Chicago: with a cherry picker and the cover of darkness.

Carly Fiorina to run for California Senate seat

Let’s see, she nearly ruined HP and Compaq, got chased out but kept her $29 million golden parachute, and then was economic advisor to John McCain.  This is one chick that has failed upwards. The difficulty on this is she has money, connections and media savvy. The easy way to beat her is to point out how few of California’s citizens have a golden parachute in their contracts. Should be easy to paint her as one of those Wall Street types that caused this whole economic disaster, and who can’t relate to the masses like her Democratic opponent.

Michele Bachmann losing aides like Washington is losing Lobbyists

Michelle Marston has left her for being too crazy.

Michael Steele on the mid-term elections: We’re Transcendant

Presumably, the chairman meant that his party is ascendant, meaning on the rise, and not transcendent, meaning beyond the limits of comprehension.

The quote says it best.

So AT&T sued Verizon, and Verizon said, “Um well, ok.”

Seems AT&T was getting killed by the Verizon ads comparing networks, and sued, claiming false advertising. The expectation was Verizom would drop the ads and they’d settle out of court. Verizon, on the other hand, replied very simply by saying, “Prove it.” See, the burden of proof is on AT&T and if Verizon has its facts together, well, AT&T has little legal recourse.

This lamp is consumer retribution

An LED lamp that connects to the phone jack in your wall, stealing power from the phone company.

Dick Grayson

The Caustic personality of Dick Grayson

I have to admit, I like him because of one of his faults. He’s overbearing, and overbearing as a real personality fault, but this also makes him a no bullshit kind of guy, and that’s really what we need in politics.

He’s so brash, nobody wants to run opposing him

That’s one way to win an election.

The Fox News Beat

Jane Hall left Fox because of how skewed they are

She says she left because they stopped debating the issues, and because “Beck is scary”.

White House to Democrats: Stop providing balance to Fox News

I think the idea is to let Fox News continue to become more extreme and more marginalized.

Of course, by the laws of Social Newtonianism, that sort of means they must also become more extreme and marginalized. I wonder if they’ve found some sort of Social Gravitation constant I haven’t worked out quite yet.

Bachmann’s Looney parade – Both Sides love it.

And why wouldn’t they? The Republicans get a crowd whose numbers they can exaggerate, and the Democrats get example 18 million of why Republicans are crazy. Did you see some of the banners they were carrying? The accused the Democrats of committing another holocaust with health care. And then they collectively cried, “The Aristocrats.”

And after all, it was “The Superbowl of Freedom”

Michele Bachmann made this claim of her event.

Republican health proposal is three pages long

Futher illustrating how out of touch they are with America’s needs, the Republicans revealed their health plan. Of course, it limits malpractice awards, doesn’t cover anyone that doesn’t already have health insurance, and does nothing else really. Oh, yeah, and it costs more than the Democratic plan and doesn’t the government save as much money in the long run. Nice work!

I Hope Joe Wilson gets Swine Flu

Seems that even after he voted against a bill containing (among other unpopular-with-Republican things like Cash for Clunkers) funding for swine flu researchand vaccine development, he’s accusing the Obama administration of shorting the American people of vaccines. Of course, he ignores the science which says this particular flu virus seems to develop slowly in the lab, hence less vaccine than we thought. He says he plans to get vaccinated after enough Americans do. I propse everybody with swine flu go to Washington for a meet and greet.

Republican Campaigner about to test the waters of the open market with a preexisting condition

Doug Holtz-Eakin, McCain’s campaign domestic policy advisor is about to run out of his government Cobra Plan and will have to search the open market. Unfortunately there isn’t an inexpensive public option for him, and a preexisting condition will likely make him uninsurable. Whereas he doesn’t seem to be one of the cranks fighting this, maybe he’ll become a voice of moderation inside the Republican Party. We can hope, right?

Michele Bachmann hasn’t said anything stupid in a while…oops, there she goes

“Health care is the crown jewel of socialism.” And “Socialism” is the crown jewel of nutjobs.

Four graphs comparing our health care costs with others

The CBO says the public option in current proposals won’t be cheaper

Decide for yourself. I think the current options are much lower enrollment than the President had set out for, and so this could play out to be true.

Lieberman sides with Republicans (big surprise) and other moderates concerns over public option

Let’s see, Lieberman takes off his Democrat coat (it was wearing a bit thin anyway) and several other moderates are backing off on the public option. 

Health care delusions left and right

Always good to know your own delusions too, easier to be objective that way.

Is the AARP the Republican’s ACORN on health care?

Let’s see. Millions of people already on the government option? Yeah, I’d be afraid.