Instructive

Huffington Post: Danny Hafley of Casey County, Ky. said this week that people are reading the mannequin in his front yard depicting President Barack Obama eating a watermelon completely wrong.

"The way I look at it, it's freedom of speech," Hafley told Lex 18 in a recent interview, going on to state that he had included the watermelon not in attempt to play to any racist stereotypes, but because the statue "might get hungry standing out here."

According to Hafley, the display is "popular" and a frequent draw for people passing by to stop and take pictures.

We're quite sure it is popular with that crowd. It is freedom of speech.   And we would like to thank him for it.  The more we can discuss how racist the GOP base is the better we can show good people the Republican party is not for them.

We Want Clean Elections For Christmas

The Examiner:  Someday Americans may know the name of King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell like they know Brown v. Board of Education. This case was filed on August 31, 2006 over allegations stemming from vote count irregularities and voter suppression in violation of the 1st, 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution in the presidential election of 2004 in Ohio.

Putting aside for the moment the fact that by their constant efforts to rob all manner of poor, elderly, young, and minority Americans of their right to vote, Republicans are betraying democracy, or that with Citizens United they're trying to buy the outcomes, on top of all that, they're also rigging the vote count.  The GOP stole the election in 2000 in Florida.  They stole it 2004 in Ohio.  Roves now famous election night freak out in 2012 indicates they tried to steal this one as well (2008 was apparently not even close enough to try). And they're already trying to steal it in 2016.

We almost had our smoking gun in 2008 but after being threatened with death the star witness mysteriously died  in a plane crash right before the trial.  
   
So we need to do some things, 1) a federal election protection law that takes control of elections away from partisan state officials and demands a paper trail in every state, 2) a federal investigation into Republican party election rigging, and 3) a coordinated, sustained effort to brand the GOP as the election stealing scoundrels that they are.

We need to  be able to win elections when the electorate says we won, and not only when GOP public policy causes complete economic and fiscal meltdown making the election a blowout or when hackers prevent the theft.  We need to drive a stake into the heart of the America killing criminal conspiracy that is the Republican party.  These are great ways to get that done.

Merry Christmas.

From The Elephants Mouth

Jennifer Rubin on the GOP:  A Republican senior aide explained, “We have some members that would rather let all tax rates go up ‘without their fingerprints’ than save some taxpayers from a tax hike and letting just the top rate go up. That is what it amounts to.”

So there you have it, in their own words.  Republicans are so clearly only out to serve the billionaires they will fuck the middle class to do it.   In 2014 Americans have a chance to get rid of these people.  Let's hope we've finally learned our lesson. 

Explanation

NEWTOWN, Conn. — A man opened fire inside the Connecticut elementary school where his mother worked Friday, killing 26 people, including 18 children, and forcing students to cower in classrooms and then flee with the help of teachers and police.

This continues to happen because the NRA (and the gun industry they represent) and their whores in the Republican party have made sure military style guns are so widely available and easily obtained that any nut job can get as many as they want.  As if that's not enough, they constantly take funding from mental health care to pay for tax cuts for the rich.  The first part plus the second part will continue to equal a steady stream of these kinds of horrors. 

Trust

Raw Story:  Mitch McConnell’s campaign suggested that Obama ordered a polling firm to “manufacture” a survey that said he was the “most unpopular senator in the country.”

Right.  Except the firm, Public Policy Polling, has a track record.  And a pretty good one.  In fact, of all the people polling the presidential election, PPP was number one.  The most accurate.  Out of everybody.  What this means is that there is not a more reliable organization in the entire universe when it comes to making this kind of judgement.  But there is a larger point here, Republicans are lying scumbags who can't be trusted on this or anything else.  Vote for them at your peril. 

Terrorist Watch List

Raw Story: Conservative rocker Ted Nugent is urging the Republican Party to “stop the insanity” and insist that voting rights be suspended for welfare recipients as a part of a larger budget deal. 

Perhaps we should insist people who obviously can't stand democracy, threaten the president, prefer the confederate flag to the American flag, and openly wish the south had successfully betrayed and defeated the United States in the civil war should have their citizenship suspended and be immediately deported as part of a national security effort to root out potential terrorists and traitors. 

Teh Crazy

Huffingtonpost:  How badly are Republican voters taking the results of the 2012 election? Pretty badly, according to the latest numbers from Public Policy Polling. Fully one-quarter of the Republicans they surveyed want their state to secede from the Union, "compared to 56% who want to stay and 19% who aren't sure." That's a real blow for patriotism, and it also indicates that the word hasn't gotten out about the GOP's successes in redistricting. But if there's one part of the poll that sums up what a terrible place Republican voters are in, emotionally, it's this:

49% of GOP voters nationally say they think that ACORN stole the election for President Obama. We found that 52% of Republicans thought that ACORN stole the 2008 election for Obama, so this is a modest decline, but perhaps smaller than might have been expected given that ACORN doesn't exist anymore.

Great, more than half of the Republicans believe an organization that doesn't exist stole the election for Obama.  Of course nearly a quarter of Republicans think Obama just might be the anti-Christ.  And last, we haven't seen any polling but we're pretty sure a majority of Republicans think the earth is only 5000 years old and cavemen used to ride around on the backs of dinosaurs. This is the base of the GOP.  If you're a reasonable person and you vote Republican, please just know you're voting the same as bunch of lunatics.  And we're going to go out on a limb here and say that's probably not a good idea.  

That's Not It

Huffington Post:  Forrmer Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (R) said the criticism of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice over the September 11 attack in Benghazi, Libya has nothing to do with racism or sexism.

For once we agree with Palin.  For proof look no further than Condi Rice. Black and female, she stood up there and lied for years to get us into, and to keep us in Iraq.  That cost us 40,000 dead or maimed American troops and several trillion dollars.  Not one Republican called for her prosecution on war crimes. 

Treason (R)

Think Progress:  Twenty five percent of registered Republicans want their state to secede from the United States, according to a new poll from Public Policy Polling. 

Yeah, conservatives tried that over slavery.  Stands to reason they wouldn't want to be part of a country that actually has a black president.  But the reality is this crowd has long shown hostility to the very things that make America American - civil rights, equal rights, the constitution, upward mobility, democracy, reason, compassion, politics without violence, etc.  That's why the base of the Republican party is more partial to the confederate flag than the American flag.  But we are a society accepting of all views, no matter how disgusting or un-American.  So we'll let them live here.  And they can even fly their confederate flag.  Given their hostility to our American ideals however, letting them serve in government is not a good idea. 

Robbery

Washington Post: “I think we’re going over the cliff. It’s pretty clear to me they made a political calculation. This offer doesn’t remotely deal with entitlement reform” Graham said on CBS’s “Face The Nation.” 

Lets be clear.  Whenever anybody says entitlement reform, they're talking about stealing the earned benefits Americans pay into their entire working lives.  We earn our Medicare and Social Security benefits.  Republicans want to steal them to give tax cuts to the rich.  

(Other) Country Singer Trace Adkins

Country singer Trace Adkins raised eyebrows on Wednesday night when he sported a Confederate-flag earpiece during the nationally televised Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting.
...
Adkins is no stranger to politics. The country star, a Republican, appeared in Tampa for the GOP convention in August, where he debuted a politically-themed anthem called "Tough People Do."
According to the singer's book, "A Personal Stand" -- where he refers to the Civil War as the "War Against Northern Aggression" -- he is a lifetime member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

All the conservatives who celebrate taking up arms against the United States by flying the Confederate flag (and we estimate this to be most of the Republican base) need to get the hell out of the country.  Fucking traitors.  

Screw The Middle Class

CNN: Conservatives including House Speaker John Boehner rejected Rep. Tom Cole's proposal that his Republican colleagues agree to immediately renew middle-class tax cuts. FULL STORY

As long as we keep getting headlines like that, we'll pay the extra taxes for a couple years.  It will be a small price to pay to get rid of the Republican majority in the house.  

Fake, Rich, Fat, Christian

Huffington Post:  Saddleback Church founder and author Rick Warren, who once praised President Barack Obama's "courage" for inviting the conservative pastor to give the invocation at his inauguration and hailed the president's "commitment to model civility," has drastically changed his tone on the man who helped make the evangelical pastor a familiar name to many Americans.

Obama is "absolutely" unfriendly to religion and his administration's policies have "intentionally infringed upon religious liberties," Warren said in an interview Wednesday.

Nice of him to take a break from fleecing his flock to slam the President.   This well fed huckster has racked up an estimated net worth of 25 million dollars claiming to speak for God.  His corruption and love of money infringes on true Christianity far more than any made up construct that says Obama is hostile to religion. 

Public Airwaves

Think Progress: Fox News might not need to invite Republican guests onto their programs any more; the hosts themselves seem to be doing a good enough job of reciting GOP policies live on air.
In the latest example, host Martha MacCallum on Tuesday quizzed Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) repeatedly on why his party wouldn’t raise the Medicare age, going so far as to disagree with surveys the Congressman cited and proposing to find other guests who might accept a different set of facts:

MACCALLUM: But you are reforming the Medicare system because it’s going to go bust in several years, so if you prolong the program and you make the age later — people are living longer, so isn’t that age sort of outmoded and isn’t that a good thing to address long-term?

VAN HOLLEN: There are a lot better ways of doing it. [...]

MACCALLUM: But what we’re seeing, though, is people are losing services because what’s happening is doctors are no longer taking Medicare patients. You need to find a different way to get at the problem because they are losing those services as a result of that anyway.

VAN HOLLEN: Actually, Martha, every survey that’s been taken shows that patient satisfaction in the Medicare program is much higher than patient satisfaction in the private health insurance market. That’s been the result of numerous surveys that have been done over the last couple of years.

MACCALLUM: I could introduce you to doctors who would say otherwise and say they are no longer taking Medicare patients as a result of all this.

Van Hollen did pretty good but really, if Democrats are going to make a fundamental impression on the American realpolitik they're going to need to go beyond playing polite defense. When MacCallum said "I could introduce you to doctors who would say otherwise and say they are no longer taking Medicare patients as a result of all this," Van Hollen should have responded, "perhaps, but that doesn't change the fact that overall the Medicare program has much higher patient satisfaction than exists in the private health insurance market and using the public airwaves to say it doesn't - to deliberately spread disinformation - is neither appropriate or good for the country.  And if I have any say congress is going to do something about that."  

Splain That If You Can

"We need candidates who are capable of articulating their policy positions without alienating massive voting blocks," said Kevin McLaughlin, a Republican operative who worked on several Senate races for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

So he's talking about the rape baby brothers Murdock and Akin.  But here, as with most things GOP, it's the Republican party policy positions themselves that alienate massive voting blocks, not the fact they sometimes actually articulate them.  It is a plank in their party platform that abortion should be illegal even in the case of rape, incest, and danger to the mother.  Most Americans recoil in horror at the notion.  So good luck in explaining that better...

Smoking Guns

TPM: A Florida law that led to longer lines at polling locations was intentionally designed by Republican staffers and consultants to make things difficult for Democratic voters, two former GOP officials told the Palm Beach Post.

Former Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer, who has been indicted for allegedly stealing $200,000 from the party, and former Gov. Charlie Crist, who is now a Democrat, both said that early voting days and hours were reduced for the benefit of the Republican Party, according to a report from the newspaper on Sunday. “They never came in to see me and tell me we had a (voter) fraud issue,” Greer told the paper. “It’s all a marketing ploy.”

GOP consultant Wayne Bertsch told the paper that targeting Democratic voters was the goal of the restrictions because Democratic early voting turnout operations "sent a chill down our spines."

Right.  We need a federal investigation into Republican election fraud and voter suppression and we need it now.  Don't wait.  By the time the mid-term elections roll around we need to have this problem fixed and the American people well aware the GOP has been engaging in a systematic, institutional effort to steal elections.

Not only is it our right to smash this assault on democracy once and for all, it's our duty.  Voter suppression is part of the GOP brand now.  The best way to fix the problem is to make sure everybody knows it. 

Underestimating The Voter Suppression

David Atkins via Hullabaloo:  Peggy Noonan's now-famous column predicting a Romney win has been widely mocked as the musings of an ignoramus unwilling to admit obvious polling data--the dying gasp of a political crowd that trusts its gut "vibrations" over scientifically available evidence. All that is true.

But there's also a revolting cynicism at play about what constitutes the "American people" for pundits like Noonan. Consider this passage: 

 Among the wisest words spoken this cycle were by John Dickerson of CBS News and Slate, who said, in a conversation the night before the last presidential debate, that he thought maybe the American people were quietly cooking something up, something we don’t know about.

I think they are and I think it’s this: a Romney win.

One could interpret this as a belief that Romney's support was undercounted by the polls. But that doesn't make much sense: all the enthusiasm and likely turnout models were actually more favorable to Republicans than the eventual result. It's hard to believe that GOP pundits really thought that the polls were underestimating Romney's legitimate base support.

And in fact we know that's not the case. The reason that conservative pundits from Dick Morris to George Will to Peggy Noonan were predicting blowout wins for Romney was that Romney's own people were expecting that, too. But not because they believed the polls were undercounting Romney support. Instead, Romney's pollsters believed a Romney blowout would result from base Democrats simply not showing up to vote.

That's almost correct.  But a more accurate description of what happened is Republicans believed that victory would be born from Democrats simply not being allowed to vote.  The only thing they underestimated was the effect of their voter suppression efforts.  And all you have to do to know that's true is listen to the Republicans themselves.

Dude, Google...

Headline:  Rubio declines to say how old earth is.  Rubio: I'm not a scientist, man.

This should matter to voters for a couple of reasons: 1)  if he doesn't accept  the conclusions of the entire scientific community, he's not fit to be president. It would be dangerous to let him be president.  And 2) if he does accept the conclusions of the entire scientific community and he just wont say so for fear of  pissing off the GOP primary voters, he's a liar and a con man, and thus not fit to be president.  Worse yet, any vote for him or any other Republican nominee for president is a vote along the lines of the GOP base who believes that the earth is 5000 years old and cave men used to ride around the backs of dinosaurs.

More Black People Voting

Think Progress: On Thursday, the head of the Maine Republican Party found himself on the wrong side of controversy after he questioned the legitimacy of “dozens” of black people voting at the polls on Election Day. “Nobody in town knows anyone who’s black,” Charlie Webster — who has since apologized for his comments — declared. 

Such faulty logic is more widespread throughout the Republican party, it seems. Racial justice news site ColorLines published a video the day after the election of a self-identified Republican poll worker in Colorado who can be heard phoning in his concerns that “a very high concentration of people of color” were turning out in his precinct, and that such turnout was suspicious because he normally sees fewer minorities “at the mall”:

“Yeah, a very high concentration of people of color. It’s not a problem, but, you know, when I go to the mall I see, you know this amount. Well I’m seeing at least double or triple that amount here. So what I’m saying is, it looks to me like this voting location was selected as the place they told everyone to come.”

Fathom that, people who don't have the money to spend the day at the mall have the gall to come out and vote. But this guy need not worry.  He can rest assured his Republican party is working on solving that problem.   

A Giant Projector For Christmas

CNN Healine:  Romney's 'gifts' comments not a new idea on the right

First of all, our earned benefits (Medicare, Social Security, unemployment insurance, etc) are not gifts.  We earned them (granted, since Willard had his lot in life handed to him he might not appreciate what that means but..).  Now, if you want to call food stamps or regulation that produces affordable healthcare "gifts," you can do that, but you sound like a dangerously out of touch plutocrat.  And even so, these pale in comparison to the trillions in tax cuts, tax shelters, tax rebates, subsidies, and other largess Willard and his ilk have been gifting to the transnational corporations and richest among us.  This has got to be the most massive case of projection the world has ever seen.  What a bunch of scumbags. 

Now They Even Vote!

TPM: Maine GOP Chair: 'unusual' to see black people voting...

...since we try so hard to keep them from doing so.

And Democrats are so stupid, trying to sneak fake black voters into Maine to vote.  Any idiot knows that if you're going to sneak fake voters into Maine, make sure they're white!

Counterstrike

Daily Kos: Yesterday, senator and professional camera-hog John McCain (R-Sunday) gave a very angry press conference demanding a congressional committee to investigate conservatives' various, ill-defined Benghazi conspiracy theories. Ah, but then some nasty persons found out that McCain was actually skipping out on a classified briefing about Benghazi being given to the Senate Homeland Security committee (which, yes, he is on) in order to, yes, have his press conference about how we needed to be having more meetings about Benghazi. 

This struck some people as odd. You might even see it as rather noteworthy evidence that John McCain cares far more about feigning Benghazi outrage in front of television cameras than he gives a damn about actually learning things about Benghazi. Apparently, John McCain thought nobody would ever consider this possibility, because McCain's response to a reporter asking him why he missed the meeting in order to demand a meeting was to have a considerably impressive meltdown.

This is just the begging of a 90's style GOP effort to get the Democratic president by whatever means necessary.  The goal is to impeach him if they can, and if not, weaken him as much as possible.  We've seen it before.

Obama must realize this right now.  He can't just play defense like Clinton did.  If he does, he'll be weakened in his second term just as Clinton was.  The country can't afford that.  He needs to go on offiense.  We have no doubt that most Republicans in congress and from the past administration are criminals with crimes that would be easy to prove.  He needs to take a couple of them down.  Now.  If he does that team GOP will back off and the country will be better for it.

How Did The White Supremecists Vote?

Media Matters:  Seizing on a newspaper report, Fox News host Sean Hannity claimed voter fraud was to blame for Mitt Romney failing to get a single vote in 59 voting divisions in Philadelphia. But anecdotal and historical evidence showed that these totals were not only possible but highly likely.

Repeating a Philadelphia Inquirer article, Hannity said on his syndicated radio show it's "mathematically impossible" that no one voted for Romney in these districts and that, if true, "that means we've got cheating going on in our elections."  American Center for Law and Justice chief counsel Jay Sekulow agreed with Hannity.

Of course it's mathematically possible the Republican party nominee wouldn't get single vote in overwhelmingly minority neighborhoods.  Just as as it's mathematically possible that Obama would lose, and the GOP would get 100% of the KKK and Neo-Nazi vote. Such is life in a political party that deliberately built its base with racists and prefers the confederate flag over the American flag.

Economic Traitor

TPM:  Mitt Romney has a simple explanation for donors as to why his presidential campaign came up short: President Obama gave out too much stuff. 

According to reports in the Los Angeles Times and New York Times, the former Republican nominee said during a call with donors on Wednesday that Obama had been “very generous” in doling out “big gifts” to “the African American community, the Hispanic community and young people” as well as to women throughout his first term. Benefits such as access to “free health care,” guaranteed contraceptive coverage, more affordable student loans, and “amnesty for children of illegals,” all combined to give the president a decisive edge in popularity.

Whatever Willard.  You made billions bankrupting American companies, destroying American jobs and screwing American workers out of their pensions. You help pioneer the mass outsourcing that's killing the  middle class. And then you stashed your ill gotten gains in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.  You're a traitor to your country and a first class asshole. Like Grover Norquist said, you lost because people think you're a shithead.  Just go away. 

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

Mother Jones: President Obama is using a Cold War-era mind-control technique known as "Delphi" to coerce Americans into accepting his plan for a United Nations-run communist dictatorship in which suburbanites will be forcibly relocated to cities. That's according to a four-hour briefing delivered to Republican state senators at the Georgia state Capitol last month.

There is something to be afraid of here but it's not a secret Obama mind control plot.  It's that a significant percentage of the Republican party believes in these fantasies. As a result, peddling this stuff has become a  cottage industry.  And if you think this particular case isn't indicative of the paranoid delusions suffered by a substantial part of the GOP base consider this: nearly one in four Republicans think Obama just might be the anti-Christ.  If you're a reasonable person and you vote GOP, please just know you're voting the same as bunch of lunatics.  And we're going to go out on a limb here and say that's probably not a good idea.  

Death Of The Mother

Raw Story:  Health authorities in Ireland are investigating the death of a pregnant woman whose husband says she was denied an abortion following severe complications.

Savita Halappanavar, who was 17 weeks pregnant, died of septicaemia a week after presenting with back pain on 21 October at University hospital in Galway, where she was found to be miscarrying.

After the 31-year-old dentist was told that she was miscarrying, her husband reportedly said that she had asked for a medical termination a number of times over a three day period, during which she was in severe pain.

But he said these requests were denied because a foetal heartbeat was still present and they were told at one point: “This is a Catholic country.”

Whether it be wars, jihad, or reproductive rights, when religion becomes public policy people die because of it.  It's a plank in the Republican party platform that abortion is murder even in the case of rape, incest, or danger to the mother.  This story is yet another illustration of how dangerous it is to give them power.

No Shit

Bill Kristol: 'It Won't Kill The County To Raise Taxes On Millionaires

Not only wont it kill the country, but it will help tremendously.  It will reduce the deficit, create jobs, and fund investment in our future competitiveness (education, infrastructure, basic R&D, etc). And we know it will do these things because that's exactly what's happened every time we've done it before.  Hell, it's what built the middle class in first place.  Conversely, cutting rates for the mega rich and the transnational corporation only explodes the deficit and sends jobs to China.  That's not anybody's opinion.  That's history.  Republicans voters need to start paying attention to it or let somebody else decide who makes public policy.  

The Un-Americans

Huffpost: As some Republicans continue to cope with the prospect of another four years under  President Barack Obama, a Texas GOP official is floating a simple way out: cleaving his state from the union.

Yeah, conservatives tried that over slavery.  Stands to reason they wouldn't want to be part of a country that actually has a black president.  But the reality is this crowd has long shown hostility to the very things that make America American - civil rights, equal rights, the constitution, upward mobility, democracy, etc.  That's why the base of the Republican party is more partial to the confederate flag than the American flag.  But we are a society accepting of all views, no matter how disgusting or un-American.  So we'll let them live here.  And they can even fly their confederate flag.  Given their hostility to our American ideals however, letting them serve in government is not a good idea. 

Still President Obama

CNN: Four More Years

America wins.

Hardball progressives, good work.  You did pretty good.  Take a week off.  But then come back harder, braver, and more disciplined than ever.  And maybe we can prevent the traditional mid-term massacre we usually suffer because too many of us stay home.  

A Million Times Better

TPM: The U.S. economy added an estimated 171,000 jobs in October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly employment report released Friday.

In November 2008, the country lost 803,000 jobs. Now we're gaining nearly 200,000 per month.  That's 33 straight months of job growth and nearly a million jobs a month better than the last time the GOP was in charge. Unemployment is down from over 10% to under 8%.  In case you've forgotten what things were like in 2008/2009, we're here to help.

Going beyond the jobs front, the DOW is twice what is was when Obama took over, GDP is up, and we're not all watching the news to see when we're going to have to run down to the bank and pound on the glass to try and get our money out before the entire system collapses.  Whatever you think about the economy now, you have to realize it's much better than it was when the GOP was in charge.  We're improving.

Unless you're a fan of complete economic and fiscal meltdown, it would be beyond crazy to let the team that caused it back into power now. 

The Profiteers

Americablog:

DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: In 2011, during the Republican primary, Mitt Romney said flat out that he thinks that FEMA should abolished, and should be privatized. Really?  At this moment in time, I think that’s the kind of thing, that’s the kind of comment, that could come back to haunt somebody like Mitt Romney.

GOP STRATEGIST RON BONJEAN: I have to say that I don’t think anyone, most people don’t have a positive impression of FEMA, and I think Mitt Romney is right on the button.  I don’t think anybody cares about that right now.

Privatize FEMA.  Because really, there is much profit to be made from people that have just lost everything.  This guy shouldn't be anywhere near a government by the people.  He doesn't understand it. He doesn't like it.  He should not be allowed to participate in it.  And neither should his Republican party.

Iraqed

TPM: John McCain had some more critical words for Colin Powell on Friday, saying the former Secretary of State’s involvement in the Iraq War should hurt his political appeal. Powell endorsed Obama this week for a second straight election. “Colin Powell, interestingly enough, said that Obama got us out of Iraq,” McCain told the National Review. “But it was Colin Powell, with his testimony before the U.N. Security Council, that got us into Iraq.”

No John, the entire Republican party, you included, got us into Iraq.  With glee.  Fucking war criminals.  

What a weasel McCain is for trying put that off on Powell just because he endorsed Obama.  

And be warned  America, If Romney gets in there, they will do it again with Iran.  They did it once.  
They will do it again.  So unless you want to sacrifice your kids on the alter of another dishonest,
horrific GOP war, you best vote for Obama. 

Full Of Racists

Huffingtonpost: Colin Powell's former chief of staff condemned the Republican Party on Friday night, telling MSNBC's Ed Schultz, "My party is full of racists."

Of course it is.  In fact, the modern GOP deliberately built its base with racists and to this day has its political and philosophical power base in the confederate south.  To this day any drive around the south will show quite clearly the GOP base prefers the confederate flag to the American flag. And it's not because they're expressing their desire for an agriculture based economy. (And a note to Jews, they hate you too).

The Confederate Flag Party

Raw Story:  John Sununu, a top surrogate for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, on Thursday night suggested that former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed President Barack Obama because he is black.

Since Powell actually worked for only white presidents, and before Obama endorsed only white presidential candidates, this is most likely not true.  But since Sinunu (an Arab born in Cuba) brought it up, it is true the the GOP base won't vote for Obama because he's black.

The Republican party is - at its core - a racist political party.  They deliberately built it like that.  If you have any doubt, take a drive around the south and have a look around.  There's a reason these people chose the confederate flag over the American flag.

Mitt Romney Is An Economic Traitor

Buzzfeed: Workers' Voice, the AFL-CIO-affiliated super PAC is out with a harsh new ad campaign Thursday morning branding Mitt Romney an "economic traitor."

"Bain Capital is outsourcing jobs at Sensata Tech in Northern Illinois to China," the website economictraitor.com states. "When executives from the new plant in China came in to visit the factory, Bain Capital made Sensata staff take down the American flag until they left."

The Republican base prefers the confederate flag anyway, so they probably don't mind. 

Rape, The Gift From God

NEW ALBANY, Indiana— At a debate this evening with his Democratic opponent Rep. Joe Donnelly(D-IN), IndianaGOP Senate candidate Richard Mourdock claimed that raped women should be forced to carry their rapist’s baby to term because their forced pregnancy is a “gift from God”:

I believe life begins at conception. The only exception I have for to have an abortion is in the case of the life of the mother. I struggled with myself for a long time but I came to realize life is that gift from God, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape. It is something that God intended to happen.

This - along with their attempts to re-define and minimize the definition of rape - is another step in the long GOP walk around the objection to the plank in their platform that says abortion should be illegal even in the case of rape, incest, and danger to the mother.  Because it is especially under those circumstances that most  Americans recoil in horror at a proposed abortion ban.

And for all those who think they can't do anything about this guy because they don't live and vote in Dumfuckistan, great news, Romney cut an ad for this neanderthal just yesterday.  A vote against Romney is a vote againt Mourdock.  A vote against the GOP is a vote against this agenda. Or put another way: any vote, anywhere, for any Republican is a vote against  a woman's right to govern over her own body and her own life.

Threats To National Security

Booman Tribune:  I call on Mitt Romney to demand the immediate resignation of Rep. Darrell Issa from his chairmanship of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. And I call on Rep. Darrell Issa to immediately resign from Congress in disgrace. To stand for reelection after endangering the lives of Libyans working in cooperation with the United States or seeking our assistance would be an insult to our country. 

Of course to be fair this isn't as bad as when they deliberately outed the Valeria Plame spy network that existed to keep WMD out of the hands of terrorists and rogue states, but Booman is still right.  Add on top of that things like wasting massive amounts of blood and treasure by waging a corrupt, dishonest, and unnecessary war and occupation in Iraq and one can only come the conclusion the biggest threat we face to our national security is posed by the Republican party. 

Throwing Granny Under The Bus

Headline:  AP: $200/month increase in Medicare premiums under Romney/Ryan

Not that they care.  People on Medicare are part of the 47% of Americans Willard has promised not to lift a finger for so it's understandable he's more than willing to sacrifice them on the alter of his billionaire country club public policy.

Lessons

TPM:  Democrats wanted an aggressive Joe Biden at the vice presidential debate here, and they got one. 

Lessons from the VP debate:

1) If Mitt Romney had been president Osama Bin Ladin would still be alive.
2) Romney/Ryan would voucherize Medicare and privatize Social Security.
3) If elected Romney/Ryan will end the home mortgage deduction.
4) Romney/Ryan will bring back the exact same public policy that caused the 2008/2009 crash.

Killer Public Policy

Think Progress:  Mitt Romney doubled down on his suggestion that uninsured Americans can find the care they need in emergency rooms, telling The Dispatch that people will always receive the treatment they need, and do not die or suffer because they can not pay for care. 

Well, except for the 45,000 Americans that do die every year because they don't have insurance, that's true.  Of course those people are likely part of the 47% of Americans Willard has promised not to lift a finger for so it's understandable he's more than willing to sacrifice them on the alter of his billionaire country club public policy.

Murder For Thee, Ok For Me

Headline: Pro-Life Congressman Pressured Mistress To Get An Abortion.

He is of course a Republican.

More GOP Equals Less Voting

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio's election chief is appealing a ruling by a federal court that reinstates the final three early voting days in the battleground state.

Secretary of State Jon Husted (HYOO'-sted) said Tuesday he will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to make the final decision on whether the state Legislature or federal courts should set Ohio election laws.

Husted called Friday's decision by a federal appeals court "an unprecedented intrusion" into how states run elections.

And we call Husted actions an unprecedented assault on democracy and a naked attempt to suppress the vote and steal an election.  This guy is not fit to serve in a government by the people.  On a more personal note, he's a total scumbag.

Can't Stand the Heat

Raw Story: After recently promising to end funding for beloved Sesame Street character Big Bird, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is now refusing to take questions from children on a Nickelodeon special, Kids Pick the President: The Candidates.

Although both then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) appeared on the special in 2008, only Obama has agreed to participate this year, the network said on Monday. 

What a wus.  How is this assclown going to stand up to Al Queda when he doesn't even have the guts to take questions from kids.   Hell, maybe he thought one of them might ask how he can justify massive tax cuts for the rich and the transnational corporation while axing Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch.  Yeah, perhaps best he only takes questions from mega-rich donors.  Kids he can't handle. 

The Confederate States Of Jesus America Party

Americablog:  Charles Fuqua is a Republican candidate for the US House from Arkansas, and he wants to expel all Muslims from the United States.

Charles Fuqua of Batesville, Arkansas, is currently seeking a House of Representatives seat. His e-book “God’s Law: The Only Political Solution” came out in April on Amazon.”I see no solution to the Muslim problem short of expelling all followers of the religion from the United States,” he writes in his book, according to The Arkansas Times newspaper.

Another Arkansas Republican thinks slavery was a “blessing” for blacks.

In his book, [state representative Jon] Hubbard says “…the institution of slavery that the black race has long believed to be an abomination upon its people may actually have been a blessing in disguise. The blacks who could endure those conditions and circumstances would someday be rewarded with citizenship in the greatest nation ever established on the face of the Earth.”

First of all, anybody who says God's law is the only law is not fit to serve in a government who's laws are based on the constitution. If you're for a system that's not based on a few people's purported religious beliefs, it's very dangerous to have people like that around.  It's very dangerous to vote for them or for their political party. 

Second, the base of the Republican party is racist.  It's that way because they deliberately built it like that.  If you have any doubt, take a drive around the south and have a look around.  There's a reason these people chose the confederate flag over the American flag.

Bottom line:  if you're a racist, vote GOP.  If you want to replace the constitution with the bible, vote GOP.  If not, and you vote GOP anyway, you're playing a very dangerous game.

Don't - Fuck - With - Big - Bird

Huffington Post: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney may have some ground to make up before November if he hopes to gain more support among female voters, a majority of whom have consistently shunned him in the polls. But his comments during Wednesday's debate about cutting funding to PBS are not likely to do the trick. 

"I like PBS. I love Big Bird," Romney said. "But I am not going to keep spending money on things [we have] to borrow money from China to pay for."

The comment provoked a strong, emotional reaction among some parents. "As a mother of two young girls (5 and 7) raised on PBS, my jaw dropped when Romney made that statement," Liz Gumbinner wrote to The Huffington Post. "The more I thought about it, I went from shock to outrage. It alienated an entire nation of parents." 

Willard said it's not right to borrow money from China to subsidize PBS.  But we can borrow far more money from China for massive tax cuts for the rich, subsidies for oil companies, and horrific, counter productive wars.  We can borrow money from China to bail out Willard's Wall Street billionaire buddies.  But when it comes to Sesame Street, well, you heard the man, Big Bird, and Oscar the Grouch, they all get the axe.  Hopefully enough parents and other people who are not total scumbags will vote to keep Mitt - Montgomery Burns - Romney out of the Whitehouse and far away from Big Bird.  And oh yeah, pay your fucking taxes Mitt.  Help us pay for the national treasure that is public broadcasting. Deadbeat.

Bin Ladin, Bitches

Raw Story:  A big-name Hollywood fundraiser for Barack Obama is releasing the first feature film about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden two days before the US presidential election...  In a trailer posted online Friday, characters are heard saying “We’re going to be the team that takes out Osama” and “the president of the United States is going to be staking his presidency on this call.”

Obama won't politicize this, but we will.

Obama got Osama Bin Ladin you stinking right-wing slugs.  Yeah that's right.  Your boy dubya and his puppeteer Dick Cheney lied and cheated to invade Iraq (and got 40,000 American soldiers killed or maimed in the process) but President Barak Obama got the guy that did 9/11. It was one of the most courageous calls any president has ever made.  And he did stake his presidency on it.  And Romney did say he wouldn't risk it. And Osama Bin Ladin is dead.  You chickenhawk little bitches...

Percents

WASHINGTON  -- Mitt Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan, share a similarly dim view of a very large portion of Americans, according to previously unreported remarks by Ryan. Both believe that many of their fellow citizens are dependent on government and have no motivation to improve their lives -- but they disagree over the precise number.

Romney's estimate, famously, is 47 percent. For Ryan, it's 30 percent. 

"Seventy percent of Americans want the American dream. They believe in the American idea. Only 30 percent want the welfare state," Ryan said. "Before too long, we could become a society where the net majority of Americans are takers, not makers." (It's not definitively clear whether Ryan said "the welfare state" or "their welfare state." HuffPost originally transcribed it as "their welfare state." Regardless, the comment was made in reference to people on government assistance.)

Ok, let's play the percent game.  25% of the electorate or 99% of the Republican base is racist.  Thanks for playing.  

So What Was Bush's Problem?

Raw Story:  Seeking to undercut one of President Obama's strongest reelection talking points that her ordered the mission that took out Osama Bin Ladin, Romney surrogate John Sununu said in an interview with the New York Times that Obama should have moved more aggressively than he did to kill bin Laden.  

Whatever.  Rmoney on Bin Ladin (when he was still alive):: “It’s not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person.” And while were here, let's see what Robert Gates had to say about Obama pulling the trigger  "I worked for a lot of these guys. And this is one of the most courageous calls – decisions — that I think I’ve ever seen a president make.”  Sununu really shouldn't bring it up...

Multiple Personality Disorder?

Raw Story: Ann Romney, the wife of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, told a Nevada television station her main concern if her husband wins the upcoming election would be over his state of mind.

“I think my biggest concern, obviously, would just be for his mental well-being,” she told KTVN-TV Thursday. “I have all the confidence in the world in his ability, in his decisiveness and his leadership skills, in his understanding of the economy, in his understanding of what’s missing right now in the economy – you know, pieces that are missing to get this jump-started. So for me I think it would just be the emotional part of it.”

Ok yeah, then for sure he should not be president. This would also explain how the guy can flip flop back and forth between both sides of an issue multiple times on the same day.

Rape Games

TPM: It looks like the Todd Akin Freeze Out (TAFO) is just about officially over.

The Republican Senate campaign committee has decided to reconsider supporting Todd Akin.

This is mostly because the Republican party agrees with this troglodyte.  They want to limit the
definition of rape because the American people recoil in horror to the plank in their platform that 
seeks to ban abortion even in the case of rape, incest, or danger to the mother.  So they want to try
to limit the definition of  rape, say you can't get pregnant from rape, etc.

Are They All Gay?

Buzzfeed:  Florida House Rep. Mike Horner of Kissimmee "abruptly ended his re-election campaign Monday after he was named as a client in a prostitution and racketeering case," the Orlando Sentinel reported Monday.

The Miami Herald reported that sources told the paper that "the prostitution ring included prostitutes catering to gay clients." Horner, a Republican, is not the target of any investigation, according to all accounts.

Ok, forget for the moment that here we have yet another holier than thou, do as I say not as I do, fake morality Republican.  But are all "family values" Republicans gay?  Seriously. It seems that way.  Obviously this crowd has issues that drive them to spend an inordinate amount of time and energy thinking and talking about gay sex.  This is a pretty strong indication that most of them are gay themselves.  The rest of us just don't give a shit.   

Second Choice

Buzzfeed:  Former President George W. Bush is set to deliver the keynote address at the Cayman Alternative Investment Summit on Grand Cayman just a few days before the election. 

Of course Rmoney would be better suited for that gig. He is Mr. Cayman Islands. But either way, Republicans need to find some economic patriotism or step aside and let others lead this country. 

Run For President of China Then

Think Progress:  In recent years, Republicans have taken to calling uber-wealthy Americans “job creators” to justify holding the government hostage to protect their low tax rates. Less than a week after GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney released his tax returns and revealed his 14.1 percent rate — far lower than any president’s since Richard Nixon — Ryan used a local interview to revive the job creator myth.

Romney saved $1.2 million in taxes thanks to a preference that allows investment income, known as capital gains, to be taxed at a lower rate than wage income. Ryan told Cincinnati’s WLWT that paying such a low rate was justified because low capital gains rates boost job creation:

RYAN: Point number two is this money creates jobs. When people invest in riskier propositions, meaning invest in businesses, they don’t know if they’re going to succeed or not. So you want to have more capital that goes to more businesses, especially small businesses like this one, so more people can go back to work. That creates economic growth. You know what we learned about Mitt Romney in his tax returns? He’s a successful businessman. That’s a good thing.

He's right, Rmoney has created a lot of jobs... in China, and in India, and in Bangledesh, but here at home he's been a God-damn-national-disaster. 

Get The Fuck Out And Never Come Back

Americablog:  Who will Mitt Romney offend next?

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney came to the Golden State for a two-day series of high-profile fundraisers and reportedly took a shot at California in front of a $25,000 a ticket crowd in Del Mar.

Romney “took a pretty big shot at California,” according to a pool reporter.

“He said that under President Obama we’re becoming a lot more European and that the state of California was something he didn’t want to see the rest of the U.S. look like in a few years,” a pool reporter related.

Hey Mitt, go fuck yourself you middle class killing, tax evading, piece of shit.  If California were a country we would be the 7th largest economy in the world.  We contribute far more to the federal coffers than we take out - unlike most red states.

You don't like it?  Go to inbred Mississippi and try to raise money from the racist Republican base.

Get the fuck out of our state and never come back.  Asshole. 

Collapsing

Reuters: New polling by Reuters/Ipsos indicates that during the past two weeks - since just after the Democratic National Convention - support for Romney among Americans age 60 and older has crumbled, from a 20-point lead over Democratic President Barack Obama to less than 4 points.

Romney's double-digit advantages among older voters on the issues of healthcare and Medicare - the nation's health insurance program for those over 65 and the disabled - also have evaporated, and Obama has begun to build an advantage in both areas.

The Republican party long ago lost the minority vote, the young vote, the female vote, the Jewish vote, the Muslim vote, the poor vote and the middle class vote.  Now that they're losing the senior vote, all they really have left is the southern white racist vote.

Update:  Seems Romney is even losing the NASCAR and the military vote.  

Buzz Bomb

Buzz Flash:  In a videotape posted on YouTube on May 15th of this year, Mitt Romney is seen at a public even talking about alternative energy (which Republicans in Congress have done everything possible to prevent).  In the midst of some spaghetti on the wall ideas about new energy sources, Romney gives a hat tip to Hitler (about 42 seconds into the tape):

Liquified gas. Gosh, Hitler during the Second World War I guess because he was concerned about losing his oil, liquefied coal.  That technology is still there.

First of all, it's a bad idea.  One needs to go no further past the facts it doesn't come out of the ground in liquid form and once you have it, you still need to burn it to know that.

As for Romney, it's usually not the very top of the conservative movement that goes out of its way to praise the Nazis.  As Karlan said, let's get this Romney hat tip out to the Florida media market and see how it plays there. Further, since it was developed in Germany in the 1920's, improved upon just recently, and there are companies doing it today, you damn sure don't need to go straight to Hitler to bring it up.  Romney is one strange dude. 

Held Hostage

The Deputy PM of Australia:

“Let's be blunt and acknowledge the biggest threat to the world’s biggest economy are the cranks and crazies that have taken over the Republican Party... Despite President Obama’s goodwill and strong efforts, the national interest was held hostage by the rise of the extreme Tea Party wing of the Republican Party."

Besides the Fox News crowd the whole word knows this to be true.  

Investing In Enemy Number One

Buzzfeed:  Mitt Romney acquired and sold shares last year in the politically powerful Russian gas giant Gazprom. Ann and Mitt Romney's family trust return, released Friday, shows Romney sold his Gazprom stock at a loss last September in advance of election season.
 ...
The GOP nominee told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in March that Russia is America's "number one geopolitical foe." Again in July, Romney told Blitzer that "in terms of geopolitics....Russia is the number one adversary."

He says nobody who pays more tax than legally required is qualified to be president and then he does exactly that.  And now, by his own petard he hoists himself on a trading with the enemy charge.  Sometimes it seems all you have to do to know Mitt Romney would be a horrible president is listen to Mitt Romney.

The Last Four Years

Think Progress: The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol advised the Mitt Romney to avoid making the election about the last four years, noting that the Obama administration inherited the crisis from Bush and has handled it well. “If this election is just about the last four years, that’s a muddy verdict. Bush was president during the financial meltdown. The Obama team has turned that around pretty well. Bill Clinton’s speech at the convention was very important in that way,” he said.

The Dems should put that in an ad right now.   Right out of Mr GOP's mouth: "Bush was president during the financial meltdown. The Obama team has turned that around pretty well."  Obama turned around Bush's mess.  Democratic public policy fixed Republican disaster (again).  Which leaves no other possible reason to vote for Thurston Howell Romney III, or for any Republican for that matter, anywhere.  Ever. 

Look, Willard will institute the exact same public policy that caused the meltdown in the first place.  Elect him and it will happen again.  It's Einstein's definition of insanity to expect otherwise.