Boehner, The Bagger's and Bad Government

Kenny O'Donnell: What did you think Congress was gonna do?
President Kennedy: Well, I, you know...
Kenny O'Donnell: Offer you unconditional support? Kiss your Catholic ass? They don't think we even deserve to be here.
Kevin Costner - Thirteen Days (2000)

There isn't a Republican Party. I wish there were. I wish there was a Republican Party; I wish there was one person you can sit across the table from, make a deal, make a compromise and know when you got up from the table it was done. That's what political party's, that's what Nancy's (Pelosi) able to do...All you have to do is look at the response to the State of the Union, what were there 3 or 4? No I'm not being facetious.
Vice President Joe Biden - FEB 2014 - Democratic Party Retreat

"Well, Bob, we should not be judged on how many new laws we create. We ought to be judged on how many laws we repeal. We've got more laws than the administration could ever enforce."
Speaker John Boehner - July 2013 - Face the Nation

“Listen, this is a problem of the president’s own making. He’s been president for five and a half years. When is he going to take responsibility for something?”
John Boehner - July 2014 - Response when asked by a Reporter if Republicans would feel the heat for not acting quickly to stop the influx of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. 

That last quote was from a month ago where the Tan Man exhibited the patented Right Wing Hissy Fit™ in order to cover is failure to do any meaningful legislation since January. And with the Congress critters gone on recess a week ago, that record will remain unbroken.

Imagine what would happen if the people of a major city like LA or New York decided to fire every police officer (40,000 sworn officers) and replace them with cronies, friends and relations that knew nothing about police work. Under the label of the TEA Party Caucus, this is what we have controlling half of the Federal Legislature and a significant part of the other  half. Check out five random picks from the list of the active members:

• Michele Bachmann (R-MN) Occupation: lawyer. Prior experience: One 2 year term as a State Senator. Received her JD degree from Oral Roberts University. 
• Vicky Jo Hartzler (R-MO) Occupation: Home Economics Teacher. Prior experience: 6 year term as a State Representative. Served as state spokeswoman for the Coalition to Protect Marriage which supported barring Gay Citizens from even entering into Civil Contracts. 
• Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) Occupation: Banker/Insurance Agent. Prior experience: 6 year term as a State Representative. Luetkemeyer co-sponsored the statewide constitutional amendment defining marriage as being between a man and a woman
• Louis B. "Louie" Gohmert, Jr (R-TX) Occupation: lawyer/Judge. Prior experience: None before federal election. From Jan 2005 to Oct 2013, Gohmert missed 551 of 6,900 roll call votes, which is 8.0%. This is more than most members of congress; the median number of such votes missed is 2.3%
• Thomas Edmunds Price (R-GA) Occupation: Orthopedic Doctor. Prior experience: 8 years in the Georgia Senate. Voted against a bill prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation (Nov 2007).

OK, Bachmann and Gohmert are fish in a barrel.  But consider the latest clueless fool the TEABAG R's elected to replace a Cocaine Cowboy from Florida:

Republican Congressman Thinks Senior State Department Officials Are Visitors From India

First things first. This article is NOT satire. On Thursday, during a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Curt Clawson (R-FL) spoke to two senior officials from the State and Commerce Departments as if they were government representatives from India. The two government officials, Nisha Biswal and Arun Kumar, had already been introduced to the panel by Rep, Steve Chabot (R-OH), the chairman of the subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific. Despite the introduction by the chairman, Clawson spoke to them at length as if they were representing the country of India.

A FRAKING amateur.  A clueless fool with zero political experience who's only claim is a bidness man of the Ferengi Model. This collection of conservative talking points is suppose to help write legislation that will impact millions of Americans? Seriously.

Growing up in the 60's with men (almost no women sadly. It was the age before feminism) such as Rayburn, Johnson, Rockefeller, Kennedy and Humphrey; I always assumed that those whose job it is to make law were professionals who understood that decisions made at the city, state and federal government have real world consequences that will effect their lives, even if the effects are too subtle to be noticed immediately. Consider the Wikipedia entry for Speaker Rayburn:

...As Speaker, he won a reputation for fairness and integrity. In his years in Congress, Rayburn always insisted on paying his own expenses, even going so far as to pay for his own travel expenses when inspecting the Panama Canal when his committee was considering legislation concerning it, rather than exercising his right to have the government pay for it. When he died, his personal savings totaled only $15,000, and most of his holdings were in his family ranch...

We now live in the age of the Randian fool,  It is a sad fact that The majority of Congress Critters see their time in office (after they have a chance to put their crackpot theories into practice) as a stepping stone to a well paying Lobbying job.

Like the majority of people who visit Daily Kos, I'm a political groupie. Politics was my major in collage and the actions of day to day government, boring to most people are my meat and potatoes. And on the one hand part of me is fascinated by the election of these amateurs that the MSM has dubbed Tea Party Republicans. Watching history as it unfolds is a poli-sci majors dream.

On the other hand, the damage these sociopaths will end up doing to America is a nightmare.

Romney. Racism and Reality

While I had faith in the mathematical genius of my half Jewish brother Nate Silver:

 

 I also realized that the Adelsons and Koch Brothers invested a lot of money to try and buy the election.  And there were enough crooked partisan politicians in Ohio and Florida to try and make Lord Romney Emperor of the United States by making sure only the white, excuse me the right people voted (It didn’t work).

GOP voter suppression fueled black turnout

By Roland Martin, CNN Contributor

updated 1:03 PM EST, Fri November 9, 2012

 But as you said, it is ultimately a matter of demographics. The United States is changing, and the WASP who use to run the joint can no longer pull that Dog Whistle Racial BS and expect to win Federal elections. Lord Romney and his backers threw every mean, dirty, nasty, underhanded innuendo against the “O” Man and it did not work.

As you might say in Vegas, it was the last roll of the dice, all their money was on the table…

And they crapped out.

Romney, Racists and Removing the a Man

It is the day after the Republican Convention of 2012. Much talk in the social media (There is no news. There is only the truth of the signal. What I see...) and the Corporate media (...And, there's the puppet theater the Parliament jesters foist on the somnambulant public.) about whether Governor Romney managed to connect to the common people. Much less talk about the strategy the Gov has decided to employ in order to kick the current occupent out of the White house.

Observing the dog whistle politics...

Forced Rape vs. Phoney Baloney Jobs

In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Richmond, Virginia the American Taliban were all set to roll Women's Rights's back to the '40s ( approximately 1540 to 1740. H/T to Feministe).

AS Del. C. Todd Gilbert said during the floor debate:

“in the vast majority of these cases, these [abortions] are matters of lifestyle convenience.” (He has since apologized.)

The bill’s sponsor in the House of Delegates, Del. Kathy J. Byron,insisted that:

“if we want to talk about invasiveness, there’s nothing more invasive than the procedure that she is about to have.”

As Ms. Dahlia Lithwick stated in her article in Slate: "Decoded, that means that if you are willing to submit to sex and/or an abortion, the state should be allowed to penetrate your body as well."

Well, all systems go. The forced birthers in the GOP had "Muscled through" the bill in the House, and the Senate had passed it a few weeks earlier. The Governor said he would sign it as soon as the House voted for final version.

At this point from the Commanders observation, Governor Bob McDonnell was either delusional or an idiot. Remember that less then 2 years ago he confronted the "Asses of the Masses" when he waged a war against Gays. Now he and his band of theocrats were going to start a war against women? Well guess what Bobby Mac:

On eve of abortion bill vote, hundreds protest

By Harry Minium
Julian Walker
The Virginian-Pilot
© February 21, 2012

As state lawmakers prepared to vote on a bill to require women to undergo an ultrasound exam before having an abortion, several hundred people gathered at the State Capitol on Monday to protest that and other anti-abortion proposals from Republican legislators.Many of those at the morning protest made their point without speaking...Some wore duct tape over their mouths with the word "Choice" written on it. One woman displayed a metal coat hanger, intended to evoke memories of back-alley abortions from the days when the procedure was illegal.

The Asses



Of the Masses

So once again the ruling class gets scared. They really did want punish a woman for exercising her rights (As Digby says, the little sluts needed to learn their lesson). But it seems they valued getting reelected even more:

Abortion bill falters as Virginia governor backs away

By Harry Minium
The Virginian-Pilot
© February 23, 2012


A Republican effort to require women to undergo an ultrasound before having an abortion is in serious jeopardy after Gov. Bob McDonnell backtracked on the issue and the author of the Senate version of the bill asked that her legislation be stricken...Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, R-Fauquier County, told the Senate that she will ask that her bill be stricken...In an interview after the session, she said, "I have a lot of sensitivity to all those issues" being raised by opponents. "I didn't believe I could continue to carry the bill with all the current questions out there."

Bull pucky. Their were only two things Ms. Forced Rape was "sensitive to":

1. It was an Election Year
2. She wanted to keep her phoney baloney job.

Harumph!

Davis, Dead Letters, and the Death Penalty

The Commander supported the death penalty most of his adult Life, on the assumption that some criminals:

deserve the final sleep when there is no doubt about their guilt (In my home state I would have volunteered to pull the lever on this individual.)

Recent results by the Innocence Project have soured my feelings on Capital Punishment, ex specially when the only evidence is eyewitness identification:

•Seventeen people had been sentenced to death before DNA proved their innocence and led to their release.
•The average sentence served by DNA exonerees has been 13 years.
•About 70 percent of those exonerated by DNA testing are members of minority groups.
•In almost 40 percent of DNA exoneration cases, the actual perpetrator has been identified by DNA testing.
•Exoneration's have been won in 34 states and Washington, D.C.

The Supremo's are in the process of the deciding the fate of Cory R. Maples and even Johnny the Robber baron, by no means a Friend of the Defendant; is troubled by this capital case.

Alabama does not provide taxpayer-funded legal assistance to death-row inmates seeking to appeal their sentence (South Carolina felt the same way in 1944, even for a 14 year old), so Mr. Maples found a couple of layers from New York, however:

..18 months nothing happened with his appeal, during which period his young lawyers left their firm without notifying Maples or the court. They did tell the mailroom. So when the Alabama court sent a ruling to his two lawyers indicating that his appeal had been denied, the mailroom stamped it “Return to Sender” and sent it back to Alabama. The county clerk stuck it in a file and Maples—who knew nothing of any of this—missed the 42-day deadline for filing another appeal. Maples’ local counsel, John Butler Jr., also received a copy of the ruling, but because he believed he was Maples’ lawyer in name only, he did nothing with it.

Sorry dude, you missed the appeal because of a postage stamp. See you at the Gurney (Yellow Mama was retired).

Voter Suppression, Voter ID, Vote not free

Voter Suppression rearing it's ugly head in Wisconsin. Ever since Johnny the Robber Baron and his conservative posse nullified the 24th Amendment by allowing voter ID laws, my Republican opponents have been doing their level best to make sure only the White, excuse me right people vote.

Brad Friedman has a video that shows how easy it is to get a 'Free' ID in the cheese head state so you can exercise the sovereign franchise (NOT!):


This ties in with a post I did 3 years ago when. I've reprinted it below. As Ms. Digby says in the end, Republicans, like all aristocrats, know that if enough average people vote, they will lose. Period.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Supreme Court handed Johnny Mac a major victory today by upholding the voter suppression laws in Indiana (excuse me, voter ID laws):

WASHINGTON — By a 6-3 vote in a closely watched election-year case, the Supreme Court on Monday upheld Indiana's strict voter-identification law, rejecting the claims of Democratic and civil-rights challengers that the law infringes on the right to vote.
The decision by Justice John Paul Stevens, one of the most liberal members of the court, emphasized that the challengers had not presented sufficient evidence that voters were kept from the polls or otherwise hurt by the law Indiana says prevents fraud.

As noted by the blogger dday:

This is, as we know, a solution in search of a problem. Voter fraud is a made-up conservative issue, backed by no evidence. While Stevens suggested that there are no "excessively burdensome requirements" imposed on voters who must show ID at the polls, he's answering an unknowable question. We simply have no idea how photo ID centers (if there will be any outside the DMV) in Indiana or anywhere else would be managed, whether the same groups that truck elderly and poor voters to the polls on Election Day will be able to do the same to get people their IDs, and so on. If they require the same documentation that the DMV does, many poor and elderly people simply don't have them. If it requires an application fee, how is that not a poll tax?

The Republican sheet heads who passed this modern version of Jim Crow had to add a provision that IDs would be issued free of charge to people without driver's licenses (can't have any appearance of a poll tax because of that pesky 24th Amendment). However, these are the combination primary and secondary documents needed for a "free ID":
This list the definition of what is an acceptable primary document:

I won't even bother listing the acceptable secondary documents. Bottom line is you need a birth certificate unless your military. Is a birth certificate free and easy to obtain in Indiana? You have got to be kidding:

Birth records in the ISDH Vital Records office begin with October 1907. Prior to October 1907, records of birth are filed only with the local health department in the county where the birth actually occurred. Fees are established by law (IC 16-37-1-11 and IC 16-37-1-11.5 ). Each search for a record costs $10.00. The fee is non-refundable. Included in one search is a five-year period; the reported year of birth and, if the record is not found in that year, the two years before and after. One certified copy of the record, if found, is included in the search fee. Additional copies of the same record purchased at the same time are $4.00 each. Amendments made to the record are an additional $8.00.

Oh yeah, did I mention that you will need to show some ID to purchase a birth certificate:

But what the heck, it is not like any of this is a real burden to those that wish to vote. And if you believe that, I got a bridge in Brooklyn I can sell you.

The Master blogger Digby sums it up:

First of all, let's not forget that this may be the biggest political land mine the Bush administration has set for Democrats. "Voter fraud" was, you'll remember, at the bottom of the US Attorney scandals and one of their main tools for suppressing the Democratic vote. This is the realization of a very long term plan to chip away at the Voting Rights Act. Republicans, like all aristocrats, know that if enough average people vote, they will lose. Period.

Special Elections, Suprise Openings and Stupid Reporters

Headline from AP reporter Michael Blood on 12 July 2011:

Tight finish possible in Calif. US House race

MICHAEL R. BLOOD, AP Political Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A special congressional election Tuesday in California has given Republicans a surprising opening to seize a House seat in a Democratic stronghold and send a powerful message nationally going into 2012.

Democrats hold a commanding 18-point registration edge in the district where Barack Obama notched a 31-point win in 2008, but the likelihood of a meager turnout, combined with widespread voter anxiety over the economy, could make for a tight finish.

Headline from AP reporter Michael Blood on 13 July 2011:

Democrat Janice Hahn wins Calif. US House race

MICHAEL R. BLOOD, AP Political Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Democrat Janice Hahn has defeated Republican Craig Huey in a bitter contest for a Southern California House seat, preserving her party's hold on the district and surviving an unusually tough race in a longtime stronghold.

With all reporting, Hahn, a Los Angeles city councilwoman, had 41,585 votes, or about 55 percent, to 34,636, or about 45 percent, for Huey, who owns marketing and advertising companies and largely bankrolled his campaign with nearly $900,000 in personal funds.

Yeah, she crushes him by 10 points, a real tight finish. The new AP editor Liz Sidoti has a history of kissing ass to Republican Candidates:




Liz Sidoti and "Sprinkles" McCain
so it is not surprising that her reporters would continue the narrative; insisting that since Hahn only beat Huey by 10 points instead of 18, it was far from impressive.

Far more interesting is the collective amnesia over the racist, sexist ad run by a group called Turn Right USA (Crooks and Liars has the details). The Huey campaign was shocked, shocked and weakly disavowed it, but as C&L stated, all the usual suspects from the right wing noise machine are connected.

Expect the failure of the press to cover Super PACS with super money as the 2012 races approach. It does not fit The Village narrative of the serious people.

Glen at the Mall, My Father and Manipulating the Masses

Our SCLM:

Dueling D.C. rallies mark King speech anniversary

...Ricky Thomas, 43, a SWAT team police officer from Chesapeake Beach, Md., brought his 10-year old son Chase to the Beck rally. "I wanted my son to see democracy in action," Thomas said.

He said he wants government to stay out of people's lives. He acknowledged that he works for government, but said it's "a part of government that helps people when they are in trouble."

Beck has given voice to those angry and frustrated with President Barack Obama and other Democrats this election year, especially members of the tea party movement.

The Angry voices at the mall remind me of the failures of my father in the last ten years of his life and his inability to accept reality.

Dad was a white collar man and a graduate of Rutgers University who spent his life as a stock broker/insurance salesmen, and he was very good at it. But like most of the TEA Party followers (White, Old, Angry), he was also good at spending more then he earned, and eventually it caught up with him.

Sometime in the '98 do to the financial shenanigans of his second wife and his own stupidity, he found himself divorced and bankrupt at the age of 65 (sound familiar). Unable to accept that it was his own fault, he desperately sought a scapegoat and got involved with the John Birch Society (yeah, I know. A hellava coincidence) and the whole anti-government movement and thus susceptible to crap like this. In other words, my Father went a little bit mad, but he believed his own insanity. Nothing I said or did could convince him that he was crazy, so I stopped trying. He passed away 3 years ago, less then a year after his third wife left him.

So an ex alcoholic Rodeo Clown (his words) with a Messiah Complex (Good article. Read it if you get a chance) captivates a group of ideological, ultra-conservative Republicans who will never admit they are ideological, ultra-conservative Republicans. They consider Beck an "educator" who teaches people history (more like his story).

Like my father, these people refuse to accept that the money men funding AstroTurf groups like the TEA party were responsible for destroying their comfortable middle class lifestyle:

Yet inexorably the Koch agenda is morphing into the G.O.P. agenda, as articulated by current Republican members of Congress, including...John Boehner, and Tea Party Senate candidates like Rand Paul, Sharron Angle, and ...Joe Miller. Their program opposes a federal deficit, but has no objection to running up trillions in red ink in tax cuts to corporations and the super rich...

The Koch brothers must be laughing all the way to the bank knowing that working Americans are aiding and abetting their selfish interests. And surely Murdoch is snickering at those protesting the “ground zero mosque.”

The manipulation of the country's economy is a complex subject that does not lend itself to soundbites (case in point). It is easier to blame scary brown people:


or big guvment:

Unable to deal with the truth, they choose to rage against the other.

And the "Liberal Media" will continue to give Glenn Beck a free pass and refuse to call him on his BS.

Possibilities, the Poor and Right Wing Populism

On this glorious 4th of July weekend, I am reminded of one of my top ten Favorite Movies (h/t M. Winship at Huffington Post) 1776 the Musical. In the restored, directors cut version of the film is the song Cool Cool Considerate Men:

From this song we get dialogue spoken by John Dickinson of Pennsylvania (actor Donald Madden) that best sums up the success of the Tea Party:

"...don't forget that most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich, than face the reality of being poor."

It is the reason that right Wing Populist consistently support politicians who vote against their (the Tea Party's) economic interest. It is also the reason that real wages for working people have gone down:

even as the incomes of the top 10% have risen dramatically:

Unfortunately for the these United States of America in CE 2010, I fear that the line from John Hancock (actor David Ford) may no longer apply:

Fortunately Mr. Dickerson,there are not enough men of property to dictate policy.

Or maybe not? We shall see if Mr. Sloan's article from the Huffington Post trumps the conventional wisdom about the November 2010 elections.

A Reporter Who Does Not Do Stenography

Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings:

The writer whose Rolling Stone article brought down Gen. Stanley McChrystal said he never thought his reporting would bring about the effective end of McChrystal’s career, as well as a crisis for the Obama administration...

But, Hastings told Lauer, he did receive pressure from the general’s staff to change some of his intended reporting.

“They tried to pressure me not to write about some things that were on the record. I told them I can’t really play that game,” Hastings said.

A generation ago, Rolling Stone gave America the “gonzo” reporting of Hunter S. Thompson. That tradition has continued today with the unfettered reportage of a new generation of writers who do not operate by the conventions of the mainstream media, including Matt Taibbi and Hastings.

“One of the things that happens in journalism, especially with powerful figures, is that they give journalists access in exchange for favorable coverage and future access,” Hastings said. “That dynamic didn’t apply to me and the story I was writing, or just my general style of journalism.”

OMG, a reporter who actually reports instead of simply doing stenography. No donuts from you Mr. Hastings:

And do not expect to be invited to any Beach party's:

From the Right or from the Left, sucking up to The Powers That Be is equal opportunity B*LL SH*T.

Update - 25 June 2010

As always, the master Political Satirist John Stewart nails the Beltway Presstitutes to the wall:

Mr. Stewart, the American News Media started to "kind a suck" 15 years ago at the start of the Hunting of the President, on to the War on Gore and fininally mutating into the Lapdog press. The problem is NOBODY but you and Colbert had the guts to call them out.

Family Values and the Fantasy of the Village

Parker’s Fantasy World of the village:

In Canteyville, USA, a warning for Washington lawmakers
By Kathleen Parker
Sunday, April 4, 2010; A13

CANTEYVILLE, S.C.
If thy name is Incumbent, you might want to start packing up those D.C. tchotchkes.

November is likely to be a cruel month.

That, at least, is the view from "Canteyville," which you won't find on a map. There is no town by this name in South Carolina, though there ought to be. Canteys are as common as front porches in this part of the country.

For these purposes, Canteyville is a state of mind, a late-night invention born of spirited conversation at a sporting clay club in the state's unfortunately dubbed "Midlands."

...The Obama administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress have acted on the conviction that they know best and that citizens eventually will come around. This may sometimes have been historically true, but here's another truth: If you can't convincingly explain the beauty of a policy to the educated, hardworking people of Canteyville, you might have a policy problem.

Meanwhile, back in the Reality Based Community:

Steele, strip clubs and the GOP's family values
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Poor Michael Steele. In the latest line of "when did you stop beating your wife" questioning, the RNC Chairman is having to deny that he spent any funds at a high-cost strip club.

The Republican National Committee went on the offensive Monday, saying it will investigate the expense by an unnamed RNC official of $1,946 at the Voyeur West Hollywood strip club in February.

Here's the media report that started the ruckus Monday.

And here's part of the RNC's response about Steele's potential involvement in the strip club spending:

The chairman was never at the location in question, he had no knowledge of the expenditure, nor does he find the use of committee funds at such a location at all acceptable.

Take that.

Still, the use of Republican National Committee funds for that kind of expense would appear to violate one of the GOP's cardinal rules:

Don't do anything that makes us look hypocritical when we talk about good old American values.

The Community’s #1 Spokeswoman (Spot on as ever Ms. D):

Ersatz America

by digby

…But contrary to Parker's romantic view of what life is like outside the green room, there are actually a whole lot of Americans who aren't white, conservative Republicans. And they actually are far more indicative of "salt-of-the-earth-hardworking-regular folks" since virtually none of them are wealthy southerners living on faux farms playing at being good old boys on the week-end.

When these Villagers make one of their anthropological treks out into the country and come back with their report, the Real Americans they seek are always either white midwestern conservatives, white western conservatives or white Southern conservatives --- usually rural, always "small town" and often sitting around a table eating and and complaining about how the world has gone to hell and a handbasket. It's like they all set out to find Real America based on their memories of 1960s TV Mayberry --- a world that never really existed and certainly doesn't exist now except among wealthy land-owners trying to create a bucolic vacation spot to entertain their urban socialite friends.

Her America is a nation that exists only in the Villagers' and Disney Imagineers' minds. But it ends up infecting the politics of this country because these people all reinforce each others' fantasies when they get back to the "greenrooms and talkshows" and give a completely skewed impression of who "Real Americans" are and what "Real Americans" think. Oddly, it turns out they always think exactly the same way the villagers do. Go figure.

Go Figure Indeed.

Governor Gay Basher and Grandpa Munster

One of the celebrity's I most admire in the liberal progressive wing was an actor named Al Lewis, who's most famous part was that of Grandpa Munster. He was an uncompromising leftist from the old school, and in an interview with the underground NY Newspaper Shadow on October 21, 1997, he gave the following quote:

"We used to have a saying: "If you don't get the asses of the masses out in the street, forget it." And you get enough of them out there, the ruling class gets scared. That's the only thing they're afraid of, is numbers. Numbers!"

Flash forward some 12 years later to the Virginia Governor's Office, and an executive order issued by Gov Bobby Mac that Rolls Back Non-Discrimination Protections for gay state workers. Not to be out done, the Gov's equally homophobic Attorney General Kenny "Cooch" Cuccinelli sent out a memo advising the state's public colleges that they don't have the authority to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The response these right wing A-holes received validated the quote from Al "Grandpa Munster" Lewis:

March to Capitol follows anti-Cuccinelli protest at VCU
By Karin Kapsidelis
Published: March 11, 2010
Updated: March 11, 2010

The protest began with the Pledge of Allegiance, but the emphasis was on "justice for all."

More than 1,000 people rallied at Virginia Commonwealth University yesterday against an attempt by the state attorney general to negate anti-discrimination policies that protect gays.

"VCU is not a place where you can bring bigotry and expect not to be challenged," said Cameron Hunt, a senior who after the rally led about 150 students on a march to the state Capitol in protest of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli...

THE ASSES

OF THE MASSES

OUT IN THE STREET

But does the Ruling Class get scared. Hell yeah:

Va Governor Robert McDonnell: Gay Discrimination Fireable Offense
By Susan Marie Kovalinsky
March 11, 2010

As Virginia's college campuses experience an uproar over gay rights, Gov. Robert F. McDonnell has now issued a directive to all 102,000 state employees Wednesday that prohibits discrimination in the state workforce, including on the basis of sexual orientation. In his directive, the Governor warns he will fire anyone who engages in such discrimination."

Because of the outrage among students, college presidents and others, the Governor seemed forced to address discrimination in his formal statement.

Gov Bobby Mac has the joy of being squeezed by two opposing forces, the small minority of Christian Creeps social conservatives from the Family Foundation who want to turn Virginia into a Theocracy and the Majority of Virginians who do not like their state to become a segment on The Daily Show, ex specially if they are trying to lure high tech Company's like Northrup Grumman. In the words of the Blog Bacon's Rebellion:

...Who's running the store? Both McDonnell and Cuccinelli are...die-hard, right wing social conservatives who want to cash in on the backlash against Barack Obama...McDonnell ran a smart campaign by downplaying the extreme views of his political past. The rumor was that he was trying to keep Cuccinelli on a tight leash...Do we really buy McDonnell's excuse that he has had to rein in "Cooch" when he was the one that set the whole thing up in the first place?

Meanwhile, McDonnell has extended lots of corporate welfare offers to get Northrop Grumman to locate in Virginia...has threatened to drive the defense contractor away with these homophobic policies.

So, we are left with two rather frightening questions. Is the McDonnell gang simply incompetent? Or is there a much broader agenda?

The agenda was to legally equate homosexuality with drug abuse and pornography as evils that "the government must restrain, punish, and deter." The incompetence was believing that his election in 2009 gave him a mandate to actually implement this policy.

The Asses of the Masses proved him wrong.

Susan, Scott and Stealth

About 13 Months ago, an ex News anchor and board member of the Seattle based Discovery Institute lost an election For King County Executive, home of the Liberal city of Seattle.
About 13 days ago, a onetime Nude model and Lieutenant Colonel in the Army National Guard took a seat in the US Senate that was held by the Liberal Lion Ted Kennedy for over 40 years.
As noted by Ms. Tarico at Huffington Post, Susan Hutchison and Scott Brown were part of the not so new Republican strategy called the stealth campaign:

As the Right Wing base sinks to new levels of insanity taking the Republican brand with it, “going stealth” has become the campaign strategy of choice in districts where an all-out, Teabagger Town Hall, Palin-Beck, froth-mouthed feeding frenzy would just turn stomachs. The Right’s agenda isn’t evolving, just its tactics…

They still want to drown government in a bathtub…They still think that some hubba hubba god made women “separate but equal"—men with brains and biceps, women with vaginas…They still think we can teach creationism in schools and…They still think we can end drug use by jailing addicts. They still think that guns don’t kill people..They still think the problem with their marriage is my brother. And they still think that you can give the free market absolute power without it corrupting absolutely.

But in some of the best run Republican and Religious Right (Rebiblican) campaigns in the country, you’d never know it.

Scott Brown and his counterpart in Virginia Bob McDonnell succeeded. Susan Hutchison and TEA Bagger extraordinaire Doug Hoffman went down in Flames. And the Main Stream Media (with the exception of McClatchy Newspapers) stuck to its script (AKA Republican Talking Points):

Brown said his win in a solidly-Democratic state, along with the interest in the Q&A session President Obama and House Republicans had on Friday, is proof that voters want more transparency and less backroom dealing.

"What it means is that now there will be full and fair debate," Brown said of his 41st Republican vote in the Senate that erased a Democratic supermajority. "And there will be no more behind-closed-doors actions."

Transparency? Yeah right. Ms. Hutchison and Mr. Hoffman received a lot of transparency, but it sure as hell was not from Gods Own Party (the blog, yes. The GOP, not so much) or the media lapdogs. Again from Ms. Tarico:

What’s interesting is that the same stealth strategy failed miserably in Washington State. Palin-wannabe Susan Hutchison was defeated by fourteen points after being ahead in the polls just weeks ago.

What happened? It’s very simple: Word got out about who she is, and it made King County’s voters a bit queasy... By November 3, the voting public knew who Susan Palin Hutchison is, and for a stealth campaign, that’s lethal…When Rebiblicans pose as moderates and change agents, they have just exposed soft tissue.

But can those of us who dream of a more progressive society cut the rotting tissue away? With Less then 11 months to go before the midterm elections of 2010, I will not give up hope, but I will equally not succumb to self-delusion: the Corporate Bastard's funding the GOP/TEA Party/Anti Health care ads have won big bidness a number of victory's.

The Supremos have handed the Corporates the ability to buy any Candidate of their choice (Chief Justice Johnny the Robber is a lying corporate hypocrite shill. Strip search Sammy is the same; and with his behavior at the SOTU he is now a political (rather than judicial) hero to Republicans and a political enemy of Democrats [hammer on the nail Mr. Greenwald]).

And finally we have the greatest asset toward a GOP sweep in November, a 24 hour News Channel that has dropped all attempts at impartiality and is now a fundraising Political Action Committee of the Republican Party.

The D's are running scared, the R's are crowing, and it's 1994 all over again (at least according to my local paper). Meanwhile, those of us in the reality based community are pissed off that my Democratic Party has the power, but is afraid to use it. Stinks.

A conversation about Race relations

Spoke to my sister yesterday, and we had an interesting conversation about Race relations in America. As I recall, the whole thing started when I mentioned that her oldest son was going to be 18 in a few years, and if he was considering his future after High school. She said that while R**** had considered going into the military, he would not do so while President Obama was in office. I pressed her on this, did she feel it was political, or was it because of the "O" man's skin color? She said she did not know, but if it was about politics then she was surprised, her son never seemed to have any political thoughts.

This eventually led to our discussion on race. Like my 2 brothers, my sister is born again and hard right, so conversations with her can be similar to those I had with my father before he passed away. We talked about Rodney King, and the New Haven Firefighters, and how my Sister believed that the Firefighters were "victims of reverse discrimination because the were white". She was disturbed because I disagreed, and that I sounded like a ?Racist? or someone who was ashamed of being white because I supported Affirmative Action. She quoted Martin Luther King, and judging people by the "Content of their Character". And when I tried to explain about segregation de facto rather then de jure, she did not get it.

Anyone who has read any of my previous post's on women's rights, civil rights and voting rights knows where I stand on these issues. The New Haven decision became a rallying cry for the followers of the Southern Strategy, but an article in Slate.com shows that when Justice Sonia Sotomayor rejected the New Haven firefighters' claim she was following established precedent:

...the city (New Haven) rejected the firefighter exam because the test violated Title VII..Title VII requires employers to consider the racial impact of their hiring and promotion procedures in order to prevent discrimination that's inadvertent as well as intentional. Ricci's claim is that the city's effort to comply with Title VII is itself race discrimination...

An employer can also discriminate by using a selection process that has a disparate impact—in other words, that screens out a particular group for no good reason...Eight black, 25 white, and eight Hispanic firefighters took New Haven's test for promotion to captain; three black, 16 white, and three Hispanic candidates passed. Nineteen black, 43 white, and 15 Hispanic firefighters took the test to become lieutenant; six black, 25 white, and three Hispanic candidates passed. This result counts as discriminatory under the rules of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. New Haven was right to worry about the possibility of a lawsuit from black firefighters if it accepted the results of the tests.

The city was also in a bind because its agreement with the firefighters union required that the exam count for 60 percent of the decision about whether to promote each candidate and because a city charter rule required that every promotion go to one of the three top-scoring candidates. These rules magnified the disparate racial impact of the exam—no black candidate and only one Hispanic candidate was eligible for promotion, even though several of them passed the test. More reason for the city to worry about a lawsuit by the African-Americans who were to be passed over.

Like his previous ruling against the Seattle school District, Johnny the Robber is determine to dismantle 40 years worth of Civil Rights protection under the guise of "reverse discrimination". Reading her descenting opinion from the bench, Justice Ruth Ginsberg stated the obvious:

The white firefighters who scored high on New Haven’s promotional exams...attract this Court’s sympathy. But they had no vested right to promotion. Nor have other persons received promotions in preference to them. New Haven maintains that it refused to certify the test results because it believed...it would be vulnerable to a Title VII disparate-impact suit if it relied on those results.

By order of this Court, New Haven, a city in which African-Americans and Hispanics account for nearly 60 percent of the population, must today be served—as it was in the days of undisguised discrimination—by a fire department in which members of racial and ethnic minorities are rarely seen in command positions.

A 60% minority population, and yet they have only one African American captain and no battalion chiefs.

But he is a Conservative Activist Judge, so it is okay...

The O man nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace Justice "Silent" Souter on the Supremo's. As predicted, the RWNM is in full rant mode (Great Stuff Joe), with the lead attack centering around that most favorite phrase of Movement Conservatives: Judicial Activism (oh the horror).

As typical, the lazy members of the news media cheerfully spread this manure without: "explain(ing) what that means, give any examples, or explain why it would be a bad thing".

An excellent article by Jeff Toobin in the New Yorker on The Chief Justice of the Supremo's Johnny the Robber Roberts shows that being a Judicial Activist is acceptable; as long as your a Conservative Activist:

(Chief Justice ) Roberts said at the time. “Umpires don’t make the rules. They apply them. The role of an umpire and a judge is critical. They make sure everybody plays by the rules...His jurisprudence as Chief Justice, Roberts said, would be characterized by “modesty and humility.” After four years on the Court, however, Roberts’s record is not that of a humble moderate but, rather, that of a doctrinaire conservative... In every major case since he became the nation’s seventeenth Chief Justice, Roberts has sided with the prosecution over the defendant, the state over the condemned, the executive branch over the legislative, and the corporate defendant over the individual plaintiff. Even more than Scalia, who has embodied judicial conservatism during a generation of service on the Supreme Court, Roberts has served the interests, and reflected the values, of the contemporary Republican Party (emphasis mine).

The majority on the Court who are affiliated with The Modern Republican Party not only believe in Judicial activism, they consistently practice it.

It is the activism that allows a Corporation to pay a women less money as long as she does not find out about it within 180 days of the offense (never mind what the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has previously ruled).

It is the activism that will ensure that non white students will continue to remain in the substandard schools as a matter of fact if not law (Brown Vs. Board of Education was so 1950's).

It is the Ultimate in Judicial Activism that allows the Majority Conservative members of the Court rather then the Majority of Voters to decide who will be the next President of the United States; in an unsigned one page opinion that must never be used as precedent.

With Spector flipping to the D's, the Republic Party is left with on 40 seats in the Senate and 178 in the House. Any attempt to block the nomination of Judge Sotomayor as only two outcomes (slim and none), so the R's are not even going to make the attempt.

What they will do is continue to ram home the talking points and make sure that they are constantly regurgitated by a media that does not do analysis, only Stenography. They are thinking long term (Elections of 2010, 2012 and 2016) and believe this may rally the base.

Unfortunately it may also rally the growing Hispanic Community in the United States.

Let Them Eat Bonuses

So the pheasants seem to be in revolt. Who could have predicted?

Bonus Outrage: AIG Employees Are Living In Fear
JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN March 20, 2009 05:22 PM EST

FAIRFIELD, Conn. — Pillars of the community are now pariahs fearing for their safety in a ritzy area of Connecticut home to many executives at American International Group Inc., hit with a backlash over bonuses it paid to top brass even as it accepted federal bailout money.

AIG Employees Worried That They'll Be Killed
Henry BlodgetMar. 19, 2009, 12:08 PM

FAIRFIELD, Conn. — Remaining employees in AIG's financial products group are worried that the angry America mob will tear them limb from limb.

Inside AIG-FP, Feeling the Public's Wrath
By Brady Dennis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 19, 2009; Page C01

They watched quietly as members of Congress referred to them as greedy and incompetent. They heard more than one demand that their names be released to the seething American public. They heard the chairman of American International Group, Edward M. Liddy, tell lawmakers that people, in e-mails sent to AIG-FP, suggested that the firm's leaders "should be executed with piano wire around their necks."

Your old Sarge has a day job working security at a local military post. Most of my coworkers are right of center, and exist on a steady diet of right wing talk radio. The vast majority buy into the talking points that have permeated American Society for the last 29 years, starting with Saint Ronnie.

It has been this constant flow of propaganda, coupled with a News media that has been bought and paid for by the corparates that has always insulated the 1/100th from any negative consequences of their actions. No act of theft, no matter how brazen or outrageous could get people to stop paying attention to the next American idol.

Thus it comes as somewhat of a shock to the New American Royalty that ordinary Americans might start to reject “bidness as usual”:

And the idea that the system might possibly be rigged so that those on top got their money not by being the most productive, but simply because they were the most successful at gaming the system.

While not quiet as long as the first one 100 years ago, the 2nd gilded age enjoyed a remarkable run in the face of one scandal or another that resulted in the Screwing of the Average Man (Read the book if you can find a copy).

Its time, however, may be past.

Good News in Iraq. Who knew?

Read the most recent article by Chucky:

Iraq: Good News Is No News
By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, February 13, 2009; Page A17

Preoccupied as it was poring over Tom Daschle's tax returns, Washington hardly noticed a near-miracle abroad. Iraq held provincial elections. There was no Election Day violence. Security was handled by Iraqi forces with little U.S. involvement. A fabulous bazaar of 14,400 candidates representing 400 parties participated, yielding results highly favorable to both Iraq and the United States.

Krauthammer is right about one thing, there was no election day violence. Instead, we just have the ordinary every day violence:

Suicide bomber kills 23 in Iraq
By Jim Heintz, Associated Press Writer

An explosives-strapped man slipped into a luncheon gathering at a tribal leader's home and blew himself up yesterday, killing at least 23 people and wounding dozens.

Suicide car bomber kills five policemen in Iraq

A suicide bomber drove a car loaded with explosives into a police checkpoint northwest of Baghdad Saturday, killing at least five policemen a week before provincial elections, police said.

Suicide bomber kills 4 U.S. soldiers in Iraq
By Tina Susman February 10, 2009

Reporting from Baghdad -- A suicide bomber detonated his car bomb near a U.S. Army patrol Monday in the northern city of Mosul, killing four soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter.
They are the first American military deaths blamed on hostile action in the country since Jan. 18. An Iraqi interpreter also dies in the attack in Mosul, a city that remains a trouble spot.

Iraq suicide bomber kills 8 near Karbala shrine
Associated Press
February 13, 2009

Baghdad -- A suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt packed with nails among Shiite Muslim worshipers Thursday in Karbala, killing eight pilgrims and wounding 52, police and hospital officials said.The blast was about 200 yards from the Imam Hussein shrine, the focal point of ceremonies that culminate Monday and draw hundreds of thousands of worshipers.

Iraqi police: Female suicide bomber kills 40
By HAMID AHMED, Associated Press Writer
Fri Feb 13, 10:18 am ET

BAGHDAD – A female suicide bomber attacked a tent filled with women and children resting from a pilgrimage to a Shiite holy city south of Baghdad on Friday, killing 40 people and injuring 60 others, said officials. It was the deadliest attack in Iraq this year and the third straight day of bombings against Shiite pilgrims.

My God Krauthammer is such an idiot.

A Community Organizer

It's been over 24 hour's since the "O" man crushed Johnny the Mac, surprising your humble Commander by the scope of his decisive 53%-46% victory.

Reviewing the campaign of 2008, I have concluded that the #1 reason for his success was his ability to get out the vote:

In North Carolina Obama has a whopping 45 field offices. McCain claims 40, but these are simply local Republican Party offices, which have to handle local and congressional races as well.

Obama's offices are his own. Each one is typically led by a paid staffer, but nearly all the work is done by the 17,000 volunteers Obama has recruited in the state. (The Republicans won't say how many volunteers they have.)

Some of Obama's volunteers sign up the old-fashioned way, in person. Others volunteer online. In their local corner of the Obama Web site, they can meet other Obamaphiles and arrange to knock on specific doors in their neighborhood.

They can download information about who lives in each house, which party they belong to and what they told the last phone canvasser. They can update this information each time they meet a voter. They can also spend hours on the Web site chatting with like-minded people, watching the candidate's speeches and uploading their own Barack-related videos.

This of course brings to mind what probably was the stupidest thing ever said by any candidate during the campaign (how stupid no one realized at the time):

Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown.
And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves.

I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a “community organizer,” except that you have actual responsibilities.

Are you and the Malkin still mocking Obamas efforts as a "Community Organizer"? Still think it's a joke? Not so funny when you perfect tactics to organize a neighborhood and use them to successfully organize a National Campaign.

Alice, tell me again about this Rabbit Hole?

Yeah, after 2 months away from this thing, I know what the Wonderland Lady feels like. In less then three months, our lily white male lock on the Highest office in America will be ended. Jefferson Davis and Honest Abe should only have lived long enough to see this.

Erik Frank Russel(or the Chinese) certainly got it right, these times are way interesting. I will spare the political analysis of the Obama and McCain campaigns, Ms. Digby does a far better job and I am not in her league. Instead I want to speak of what happens if, the Universe forbid:

1. The whore media convince enough people that Saint Johnny Mac is the second reincarnation of Regan and he wins the election.
   
2. He dies shortly after being sworn in and a 1st term Governor with little or no experience is our new Madame President.

I go even on step further. Anybody who has not drunk the Koolaid knows that Governor Palin was chosen, in the words of dday "as a wet kiss to the religious right". The power behind the GOP, the ultra secret Council for National Policy, would never throw its support for Johnny without this choice for VP. A VP with all of George Bushes messianic zeal but not as stupid.

So President Palin now has the power to run the joint, and she tells the white male power brokers like Cheney, Rove and Dobson to go and &!%$@# themselves. She does not turn into a secret liberal like Justice Souter, but neither is she a mindless conserva-clone like Justice Thomas. Instead she chooses the third way like Justice O'Connor?

If this scenario, which may be far fetch, actually happens, then it will be a testament to another alleged Chinese curse.

Update - My apologies for thinking that Governor Palin was not as stupid as Commander Codpiece. Like Saint Johnny's minions, I failed to vet the Candidate before writing about her. Seems like "Hack n' Sack Sarah" (Good one Mr. Schmeltzer) is just as much an inept leader as the Flight Suit in Chief.

Inherently Contemptible

Karl Rove, aka Bush's Brain, aka Turd Blossom, aka the The Architect, gave House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) the middle finger by refusing a Congressional subpoena to testify.

Rove Refuses To Appear Before House Judiciary Panel

By John Bresnahan
July 3, 2008

(The Politico) Karl Rove, former White House deputy chief of staff and President Bush's top political adviser, is refusing to appear before the House Judiciary Committee to testify on "politicization" within the Justice Dept. Rove had been scheduled to appear next Thursday, July 10.

"We want to make clear that the subcommittee will convene as scheduled and expects Mr. Rove to appear...a refusal to appear in violation of the subpoena could subject Mr. Rove to contempt proceedings, including statutory contempt..and proceedings under the inherent contempt authority of the House of Representatives,"

74 years ago in 1934 the last known use of Inherent Contempt procedures were used against a Gentlemen named MacCracken. In the words of the Washington post:

...Democrats have shown no appetite for the process, which has not been used since 1935. As the CRS report noted, "It became too cumbersome and time consuming to try contemptuous behavior on the floor."

Of course the WaPo has pretty much become a Mouthpiece for the Administration/RNC, so we take what they say with major scepticism. What is amazing is Commander Codpiece may be responsible for breaking an agreement with the Justice Department that has lasted for almost 8 decades.

The Administration of GWB has not only broken the law on at least 3 or 4 separate occasions (links here, here, here, and here); it has done something that Dick Nixon could only dream of in his wildest fantasy's. It routinely violates establish precedent, even if there is no actual law broken. No laws are broken because the acts are so outrageous, contemptible and beyond the pale that Congress never imagined a law would be needed to prevent them from happening.