Crazy Talk With Ron Rand Paul

There are two things I know after watching this meltdown by Rand Paul on Rachel Maddow's show.

1. Conservatives really do believe the free market will solve any problem.

2. Whoever recommended he go on the show has already been fired.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Is Mark Penn Her Political Advisor?

Blanche Lincoln seems to be doing all she can to insure that she doesn't make it out of a Democratic Primary. You have to be some kinda clueless to pull a stunt so repulsive that a columnist not fond of your opponent not only defends him from your attack, but ALSO gets to calling you a Republican in the process.

A Complete And Total Lack Of Self Awareness

From John "Oompa Loompa" Boehner's twitter:

So this is how Soviet America begins. The Dems are the REDS -- the real Americans are the WHITES.

I don't know if this was just bad wording or a dog whistle but you would think after the racist epithets thrown around by the Tea Baggers, Boehner would have more sense than this.

Almost

White House Communications director Dan Pfiefer makes a key concession about the EPIC FAIL that has been the messaging coming out of his shop for most of last year. Please allow me an edit though.

"It was clear that too often we didn't have the ballS -- Congress had the ball in terms of driving the message," communications director Dan Pfeiffer said. "In 2010, the president will constantly be doing high-profile things to be the person driving the narrative."

Now that more clearly reflects the reality of the situation.

All Politics Is Local: Teabagger Edition

National teabaggers try to stage a protest at the Detroit Auto show to protest government intervention in the car industry.

Michigan teabaggers who would have been most affected if the auto industry had gone under say TO HELL WITH THAT!

See government spending is bad, unless it is helping THEM.


Don't you just love that smell of hypocrisy in the morning?

Please Give Me Some Of Whatever Giuliani Is Smoking!

Lets, for a moment, leave aside the fact that 9/11 happened under Bush. If Giuliani's point is that we had a terrorist attack under President Obama because of he underpants bomber, doesn't that mean we also had a terrorist attack under Bush with the shoe bomber? I mean, c'mon man, how fucking idiotic can you get?

But worse than that, why isn't the guy interviewing him pouncing all over his dumbass when he spouts this bullshit? I don't think anybody bought it, but got dammit why do we even HAVE a media anymore if they are unwilling or unable to call bullshit on such a blatant ass lie?

Saint Ronny Fails GOP Purity Test

I had to chuckle a bit off of this one.

English Contest

Michael Steele is at it again with a blog post entitled (no bullshit) "What Up?" Please take a few moments to look through the post and take out your red pen to correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling. LOL

The Internet has been around a while, now. But, I still find it an amazing platform for innovation, not just in technology, but in life. Beyond admiring the way it powers so many inventions and businesses, it has become a personal thing for me. I love the fact that, wherever I might be, I can use technology to see my family and chat with them, and Social Media to tap into what my friends are doing.

Today, I want to begin to better connect with Republicans everywhere.

My first blog entry, therefore, is really a couple of questions for you; use the comment button to send me replies. We will run as many questions as we can, which I will answer.

Why are you are Republican? Think about that for a minute.

(h/t Attackerman)

Super Majority #FAIL

Jon Stewart says what needs to be said about how some of our weak kneed Democrats are acting in the Senate right now.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Democratic Super Majority
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

See, Its Only Racism When The Black Guy Does It

Man Michael Steele is such a blithering buffoon that I was almost at the point of feeling pity for him because he is in so far over his head. But then this step n fetchit, coonin ass Uncle Tom goes on national television to defend the racist assholes who oppose President Obama and in the next breath has the unmitigated gall to cast racist aspersions on President Obama himself. This muthafucka is beyond useless at this point and I can't see how his Momma could even love him. I wonder how he will react when his own kids get to calling him a sellout when they get old enough to google him. Michael Steele carries water for white racists so much that gives house niggers a bad name. Seriously.

Death Of Co Ops

Practically the only person I would ever read at Politico last year (pre Laura Rozen) was Ben Smith. Even if he was sensationalistic from time to time, for the most part he tried to play it down the middle. That is pretty much the only reason that I am willing to link to his post on GOPolitico on health care reform. Well that AND the fact that he makes a powerful point about the CBO scoring of Baucuscare, specifically the effect of his proposed co-ops.

(The proposed co-ops had very little effect on the estimates of total enrollment in the exchanges or federal costs because, as they are described in the specifications, they seem unlikely to establish a significant market presence in many areas of the country or to noticeably affect federal subsidy payments.)

The CBO confirms what liberal co-op critics have charged: That they will neither cover many people nor put downward pressure on costs, the two supposed benefits of the public option.

Looks like Kent Conrad is going to have to go back to United Health Care and ask them to give him another load of bullshit to try to offer as alternative to the public option because when other Democrats get wind of this, the co ops are toast.

Irony Alerty

Chuck Todd is on MSNBC right now talking about all of the false things about health care reform people believe according to a new NBC poll without taking even a second to reflect journalism's role in that.

We should demand better.

It Was Just A Matter Of Time

As much as it has irritated the hell out of me to see Liz Cheney all over my Tee Vee over the past few months spewing invective at President Obama and lying through her teeth to try to keep her dad from going to jail, one of the more amusing side notes has been how many so called "pundits" have rushed to say that she would be some kind of viable political candidate in the future. Nothing about her appearances had suggested that this was the case, in point of fact she has been fact checked so mercilessly as to lead most rational Democrats to HOPE she tries to run for office so she can be publicly humiliated and we can get some measure of retribution for all of the hijinks she is pulling now. But I guess because she is a Republican and she can string a sentence or 50 together without taking a breath this meme persisted and indeed started to gain momentum with the Villagers.

Now for someone like Liz Cheney they are caught in a conundrum. On the one hand she has an almost unquenchable thirst for publicisty now and she wants to be out there as much as they will have her so she can continue her low risk high reward campaign against President Obama. But on the other hand she is also batshit crazy and she as well as her handlers have to know that sooner or later the more she talks the higher the likely hood that some of that crazy is going to slip out. This makes for an interesting balancing act.

Having already noticed this dichotomy it wasn't all that surprising to me last night when reports started trickling out about an appearance that Liz Cheney made on the Larry King Show where she defended the "birthers". Here is how Salon.com's Joan Walsh put it:

After King showed video of the crazy birther who disrupted a meeting with poor GOP Rep. Mike Castle, demanding he acknowledge Obama was born in Kenya (that's one birther claim); and after Carville denounced them as a "poor, pathetic" fringe group, King gave Cheney a chance to distance herself from them. But Cheney demurred, telling King the Birther movement exists because "People are uncomfortable with a president who is reluctant to defend the nation overseas."

The rarely shocked Carville seemed briefly speechless, and even King, not known to be the most combative interviewer, tried a second time to get an honest reaction from Cheney -- which I read as expecting her to separate herself from the crazies. But Cheney repeated her talking point about Obama inadequately defending the nation overseas. Unbelievable.

At the time of that post Walsh did not have a video of the interaction and so I had to rely just on her words. But even just with her characterization to go on I figured this was going to be bad. For one she had finally run up on someone who was way out of her league. What had been so irritating to me about Liz Cheney wasn't just that she was all over cable news, but that she was almost always paired with someone sympathetic to her or at the least someone who was not very confrontational. Because of this she was allowed to say whatever the hell she wanted to without much if any pushback or fact checking on the spot. But you had to know that James Carville wasn't going to go for that.

She also has a bad habit of filibustering with long ass diatribes so that the other party doesn't have time to respond and when they do respond she loves to try to talk over them. Again that wasn't likely to happen with Carville either. I have to believe that she didn't know she would be paired up with him or she wouldn't have shown up. Having finally seen the video, if she ever really had any electoral ambitions its likely that she will forever wish she never did show up.

At first I was a little ticked that I couldn't find the video anywhere but CNN and of course their video is pretty long. But the truth is I think its good to watch her whole appearance unfold as time goes on. Carville is masterful as usual not allowing her to talk over him and by the end of her time on the show Larry King himself is constantly admonishing her about interrupting. Not only that Carville kept pointing out her filibustering that by the end of her appearance Larry King was making note of it too. All in all it was a case study in how any opponent of hers can make her look like an ass and incompetent all at the same time. Oh she brings the same sloganeering as usualy but it falls completely flat when Carville challenges her with fact.

In the end her ridiculous "birther" comments are just the cherry on top, especially when Carville calls her and her party out for encouraginig those whackjobs.



If she ever decides to put her name on the dotted line to run for elected office you can expect more of that kind of EPIC FAIL.

Breaking: Sarah Palin Will Not Seek Reelection And Will Resign Soon

So uhmmmmmmmmmmm does this mean Sarah Palin has been "hiking the Appalachian trail"?!

I would love to see your best guesses as to why she is doing this now in the comments section.


Update: We have video!

Define Ammuntion

It never ceases to amaze me how far "news" organizations will go to try to spice up their stories.

CNN has a story up entitled "CNN Poll: Americans worry Obama health care plan will increase costs"

So lets see where that part of the story kicks in around the 7th graf.

But the poll does provide some ammunition for Republicans opposed to the president's proposals. Fifty-four percent say their medical insurance costs will increase if the Obama plan becomes law, with 17 percent feeling their costs will decrease. Around one in four say their costs will remain the same. And only one in five say their family will be better off if the president's plan becomes law, with 35 percent feeling they would be worse off, and 44 percent saying they would be about the same.

So 54% of those surveyed say their costs will go up. Ok and I suppose thats a valid worry. But how did it affect their support for healthcare reform? Well for that you have to look up earlier in the article.

Fifty-one percent of people questioned in the poll say they favor the president's health care plan, with 45 percent opposed.

So let me get this straight, 54% say their costs would go up and yet President Obama's plan STILL gets 51% support?!

Well my goodness, its almost as if the American people are ready to pay more for a better health care system.

And then lets look at the other bit of "ammunition" for the GOP in the poll according to CNN.

Thirty five percent feel they will be worse off with President Obama's plan. Well that kinda sorta tracks along with the same 30ish percentage of voters who don't approve of President Obama so far, ie wingnuts. But lets do the math on the other side of the argument.

Twenty percent believe that they will be better off and fourty four percent they will be the same. Hmmm so you mean to tell me that 64% of all Americans see either no harm coming to them or a benefit coming to them from health care reform and thats supposed to be a winnning argument for the GOP?!

Sigh.

I am sure this will bring out the concern trolls in the ConservaDem ranks who ignore any polling that shows strong support for a public option in health care reform but will focus endlessly on the framing of a poll, not the poll itself mind you, that implies that healthcare reform doesn't have public support.

This kind of reporting and story framing is what will keep bloggers in business for a very long time.

Aiding and Abetting

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo coined a phrase some years ago that Washington is "wired for Republicans" and was such a prescient statement. The establishment media are now conditioned to work almost exclusively in favor of the Republican tactic of out and out lying and relying on the MSM to report the lie without any significant push back. Take for example the "liberal media" running with missing Governor Sanford aide's statement that he had spoken to Sanford today and that he was on the Appalachian Trail and that he would be back tomorrow. They are repeating this story as a fact even though Sanford hasn't called anyone else which would support the story, the aide has no way of confirming where Sanford was calling from, and the various conflicting stories his staff and his wife gave yesterday after the story broke. This media failing is getting to the point of being disgusting.

But not every example of the media being wired for Republicans has to do with them just repeating what they are told. Sometimes its that they actively incorporate what they have been told by Republicans about Democrats into their own original smears against Democrats. Take for example this question in the supposedly liberal Washington Post and supposedly liberal ABC News Poll.

8. Which of these statements comes closer to your view: (Beneath it all, Obama is an old-style, tax-and-spend Democrat) or (Obama is a new-style Democrat who will be careful with the public's money).

Now this isn't one of those notoriously wacky RNC polls, nor is it one of those hyperpartisan FoxNews polls. Hell this isn't even a right wing Rasmussen poll. This is the Washington Post and ABC News combining to project the most blatantly false and politically damaging meme about Democrats in general and Democratic Presidents in particular.

There is no good option for a person answering this question. If you say Obama is an "old school tax-and spend-liberal" you buy into a right wing stereotype that doesn't exist in the real world. If you say Obama is a "new style Democrat who will be careful with the public's money" then the clear implication is that even if you had a positive view of him personally that only means that the rest of the Democrats historically have been irresponsible with the people's money.

In short its a bullshit question. Its almost analagous to a push poll question, meant to create an impression rather than measure one.

So lets check out those "old school tax and spend" Democratic Presidents as opposed to their "fiscally responsible" Republican counterparts.




But why should our "liberal media" let a little thing like facts get in the way of smearing Democrats, right?

Assholes.

Criminal Negligence.

Today in an appearnce at the National Press Club, Dick Cheney was asked about the criticism leveled at him by Richard Clarke in an op ed published in the Washington Post yesterday. In typical Dick Cheney fashion he avoided answering the actual charges that Mr. Clarke laid out against him, and instead decided to try to lay blame for 9-11 at the feet of Mr. Clarke. Anybody paying attention wouldn't be suprised by Dick Cheney's dickish behavior, hey that's who he is. But unfortunately for him the record is clear, if there was anybody who failed America leading up to 9-11 it was he and his idiot partner in crime President Bush.

From ThinkProgress:

In fact, it was Cheney who “missed” the warning signs, not Clarke. New York Times reporter Philip Shenon’s book, “The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation,” reprinted some of Clarke’s emphatic e-mails warning the Bush administration of the al Qaeda threat throughout 2001:

“Bin Ladin Public Profile May Presage Attack” (May 3)

“Terrorist Groups Said Co-operating on US Hostage Plot” (May 23)

“Bin Ladin’s Networks’ Plans Advancing” (May 26)

“Bin Ladin Attacks May Be Imminent” (June 23)

“Bin Ladin and Associates Making Near-Term Threats” (June 25)

“Bin Ladin Planning High-Profile Attacks” (June 30)

“Planning for Bin Ladin Attacks Continues, Despite Delays” (July 2)

Similarly, Time Magazine reported in 2002 that Clarke had an extensive plan to “roll back” al Qaeda — a plan that languished for months, ignored by senior Bush officials:

Clarke, using a Powerpoint presentation, outlined his thinking to Rice. … In fact, the heading on Slide 14 of the Powerpoint presentation reads, “Response to al Qaeda: Roll back.” … The proposals Clarke developed in the winter of 2000-01 were not given another hearing by top decision makers until late April, and then spent another four months making their laborious way through the bureaucracy before they were readied for approval by President Bush.

And that is why we should never EVER let assholes like Dick Cheney get away with acting as if 9-11 didn't happen on their watch or that they had no clue it was coming. The information was in front of them, Richard Clarke was practically begging them to act, but they did nothing and look where that got us. Everytime he invokes the memory of 9-11 there should be someone around to remind him that he and the rest of Bush Administration failed the American people.

We Don't Need No Stinking Outreach!

What can I say about Michael Steele that hasn't been said before. Honestly after watching Steele wingnut out on FoxNews for the better part of last year, when his name was mentioned as a candidate to chair the RNC I thought it would be a great move.....for Democrats. But I have to admit that even I couldn't have predicted the lengths to which this man would go to help out the Democratic Party. His prolific "foot in mouth" disease is the gift that keeps on giving and it seems he just can't help himself. Having said that I believe that yesterday he out did himself.

First of all I think everyone would acknowledge that if the Republican Party is ever to make a comeback it will need to make inroads into two constituencies that they have not done well with lately, women and minorities. You would think that outreach to those two voting blocks would be one of the chief goals of any new chairman of the RNC. And you know what, maybe it is a goal of Michael Steele, but as usual he has a very odd way of showing it.

Every Friday Steele guest hosts Bill Bennett's radio show. For that reason quite a few liberal and progressive watchdog groups tune in on Friday to catch the gaffes that they at this point can assume the very reliable Steele will give them. So yesterday he presented his fans and foes with this ditty:

STEELE: The problem that we have with this president is that we don’t know [Obama]. He was not vetted, folks. … He was not vetted, because the press fell in love with the black man running for the office. “Oh gee, wouldn’t it be neat to do that? Gee, wouldn’t it make all of our liberal guilt just go away? We can continue to ride around in our limousines and feel so lucky to live in an America with a black president.” Okay that’s wonderful, great scenario, nice backdrop. But what does he stand for? What does he believe? … So we don’t know. We just don’t know.

Now just because I am a black man doesn't mean I can speak for all other minorities, obviously. However I can say for me that one of the things that pisses me off is when someone implies that the only reason I or any other minorities achieved a level of excellence is because of the color of our skin. It gives the impression that OBVIOUSLY no minority could make it on their own merits, they simply MUST have been helped by some mythical "white liberal guilt". And yet here is Michael Steele trying to further that notion in order to try to delegitimize President Obama, our first black President. But the problem of course is that this notion exists not only in politics but also in the business world. And many minorities have experienced a touch of this in their personal life. The wondering about whether we were "affirmative action" hires. The whispers about our abilities match up with our white counterparts. When Steele says these things on the radio you have to wonder if he thinks that this is the way forward to bring more minorities into the fold of the Republican Party. But then you remember that this is a guy who doesn't "think" much apparently before he speaks.

But Mike Steele wasn't content to just potentially offend minorities yesterday. You see the RNC also put up an attack ad against Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi which was supposed to hit her for saying the CIA lies to Congress "all the time" last week. Now I would like to be able to show you the ad so you could have a frame of reference to how offensive it was but it has since been taken down. But have no fear, Politco has a scathing criticism of the ad up, a criticism that may well have been the very reason why the RNC under Steele's leadership decided to take the ad down.

But when you see Nancy Pelosi, the Republican National Committee wants you to think “Pussy Galore.”

At least that’s the takeaway from a video released by the committee this week – a video that puts Pelosi side-by-side with the aforementioned villainess from the 1964 James Bond film “Goldfinger.”

The RNC video, which begins with the speaker’s head in the iconic spy-series gun sight, implies that Pelosi has used her feminine wiles to dodge the truth about whether or not she was briefed by the CIA on the use of waterboarding in 2002. While the P-word is never mentioned directly, in one section the speaker appears in a split screen alongside the Bond nemesis – and the video’s tagline is “Democrats Galore.”

The wisdom of equating the first woman speaker of the House with a character whose first name also happens to be among the most vulgar terms for a part of the female anatomy might be debated – if the RNC were willing to do so, which it was not. An RNC spokesperson refused repeated requests by POLITICO to explain the point of the video, or the intended connection between Pelosi and Galore.

But what isn’t open to debate is that the waterboarding conflict has been accompanied by a cascade of attacks on the speaker, not as a leader or a legislator, but as a woman.

Earlier this week, Pittsburgh radio host Jim Quinn referred to the speaker on his program as “this bitch”; last week, syndicated radio host Neal Boortz opined “how fun it is to watch that hag out there twisting in the wind.”

There has also been a steady stream of taunts about the speaker’s appearance, and whether it’s been surgically enhanced. On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Republican strategist Alex Castellanos said, “I think if Speaker Pelosi were still capable of human facial expression, we’d see she’d be embarrassed.”

Even erstwhile presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee took the time to pen a poem that begins:

“Here's a story about a lady named Nancy / A ruthless politician, but dressed very fancy.”

One might argue that face-lift and fashion gibes are just sauce for the goose these days – especially given the president’s crack about John Boehner’s perma-tan during the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.

But “hag”? The P-word? Really?

Not only is it bad form, say Democrats and women’s advocates, it’s bad politics. “

They can’t seem to distinguish between a backroom smirk among the boys and something you put out in public,” says former Hillary Clinton senior adviser Ann Lewis of the RNC video.

“It’s an attempt to demean your opponent, rather than debate them. If they’re serious that this is an issue of national security, then you’d think that one would want to debate it on the merits,” she says. “It’s almost as if they can’t help themselves.”

Now make no mistake, I generally don't have a problem with a political ad being a parody or an attempt at humor. But its hard to see this ad as anything other than a hamfisted attack on Speaker Pelosi's femininity. While I support Speaker Pelosi on most issues and I truly believe that she has been honest while discussing the CIA briefings I will be the first one to admit that her handling of the subject was bungled last week in her press conference. There was plenty of fertile ground for the RNC to attack her on the substance of her response, yet they decided to forgo all of that and just go to her looks and "feminine wiles". Seriously. Now I don't imagine that this ad would have offended ALL women in the middle, but I do believe it would have offended many of them. And Michael Steele still decided to put the ad out at a time when the Republican Party is bleeding members from almost every demographic. Way to build that big tent buddy.

Nothing is ever set in stone when it comes to politics and anything can happen between now and the midterms and between now and the next Presidential election in four years, but at some point Michael Steele and the RNC might want to realize that they need PEOPLE to win elections. As long as he keeps pulling this kind of stuff the issues might not even matter. If you can't get enough voters to like your party enough to vote for it's candidates then you won't win many elections. Its just that simple.

Lazy Ass Journalists

All yesterday the MSM hyped the national security speech by President Obama and Dick Cheney's Cover His Ass speech today as a duel. Give me a fucking break. You had the President talking about how we will go forward on national security issues including closing GITMO and having as much transparency as he is able to give the American people. On the other hand you had Dick Cheney solely focused on trying to justify his actions after 9-11 making pronunciations about liberals and the media and out and out lies about what President Obama has said and is saying. This was a bunch of bullshit from the start. Now you have jack asses like Chris Cilliza asking people to go "sound off on who won". Seriously. This is how and why our print media is failing and cable news won't be far behind. I will post video of President Obama's speech when it becomes available and my commentary on this but I just had to vent about the sorry assed state of our media.

Pots And Kettles

I am just wondering if any mainstream media outlet is going to get around to pointing out that one of the people bashing Speaker Pelosi for saying the CIA lied to her, Pete Hoekstra, accused the CIA of covering up a crime just last fall.


Ooops I forgot, IOKIYAR.