I Totally Would Have Done What I Didn't Do

WASHINGTON — Former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld has scoffed at praise for President Barack Obama for ordering the killing of Osama bin Laden, saying he would have recommended the operation in a minute.The blunt-talking and controversial former Pentagon chief, best known for the Iraq invasion, was asked in an interview whether he agreed with remarks by his successor, Robert Gates, that Obama made a “gutsy” call.

First of all this guy lied and cheated to put us into a devastating war and occupation in Iraq.  People who lie about the need to go to war, and then go to war based on those lies, are war criminals.  He hurt the United State more way more than Al Queda did.  It's a crime against humanity that this disgusting excuse for a human being is not in the Hague.  If you believe in hell, you must believe that's where this butcher will end up.

Second, he says he would have taken the risk to get Bin Ladin, but when he was he was SECDEF,  he did not make that call, so he's full of crap.  There's nothing more pathetic than somebody who had the chance to do something but didn't, and then subsequently when somebody does, that first somebody claims he would have done the same thing.

And last, he's just pissed because Robert Gates threw him and his boss under the buss of history.   And there they shall remain.  Forever.

Christian Taliban.

Raw Story:  Democratic candidate Richard Becker on Thursday blasted comments made by Rep. Nan Hayworth’s (R-NY) official campaign spokesman.

On a Facebook discussion board maintained by local Democratic activists, Jay Townsend mockingly suggested throwing acid on female Senators who supported the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act but paid their male staffers more than their female staffers.

“Listen to Tom,” he wrote Saturday, in reply to another Facebook user who had criticized Republicans. “What a little bee he has in his bonnet. Buzz Buzz. My question today…when is Tommy boy going to weigh in on all the Lilly Ledbetter hypocrites who claim to be fighting the War on Women? Let’s hurl some acid at those female democratic Senators who won’t abide the mandates they want to impose on the private sector.”

Makes sense.  That's what the Taliban does.  The GOP has a lot in common with the Taliban.

Fire One Million (Fifth Element reference)

Mitt Romney on Obama yesterday:

That stimulus he put in place, it didn't help private sector jobs, it helped preserve government jobs, and the one place we should have cut back was on government jobs. We have a 145,000 more government workers under this president. Let's send them home and put you back to work!

First of all, he's lying. Obama signed the stimulus in February of 2009. Since then thanks to tax cuts for people like him and companies like his public sector employment has dropped by 608,000.  Second, his contention that his favorite pastime (firing people) would result in putting different people in this country back to work is ridiculous.  In fact, exactly the opposite is true.  If he fires another 145,000, that's 145,000 less people with money to spend in the private sector.  Which of course means less jobs.  And who exactly in the public sector does he want to cut anyway?  Firefighters?  Police?  Teachers?  They're already emptying the jails because tax cuts for people like him are leaving us unable to pay for essential services.

Defend Yourself

GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- Dozens of inmates ran whooping from a small town jail into the sunshine Wednesday after a cash-strapped county in Oregon's timber region was forced to release them amid budget cuts.

And still the GOP fights for more tax cuts for this rich and the transnational corporation.  Good thing Romney only pays 13.9% though.

The article says gun sales went way up.  See, the GOP is good for business after all.

President of China

Mitt Romney yesterday:

“In addition to the age of the president and the citizenship of the president and the birthplace of the president being set by the Constitution, I’d like it also to say that the president has to spend at least three years working in business before becoming president of the United States.”

Putting aside his pandering to the birthers, somebody should ask him why he's not happy with the constitution. This is a serious question given his party's disdain for the document.  And perhaps that's not a notion that should be floated by a business man that made millions by bankrupting American companies, destroying American jobs and screwing American workers out of their pensions. It makes more sense for him to run as president of China. He's done a good job for them.

War Hero, Citizen, Can't Vote

Think Progress:  Bill Internicola is a 91-year-old, Brooklyn-born, World War II veteran. He fought in the Battle of the Buldge and received the Bronze Star for bravery. He’s voted in Florida for 14 years and never had a problem. 

Three weeks ago, Bill received a letter from Broward County Florida stating “[Y]ou are not a U.S. Citizen” and therefore, ineligible to vote. He was given the option of requesting “a hearing with the Supervisor of Elections, for the purpose of providing proof that you are a United States citizens” or forfeit his right to vote. 

He should sue that crook Rick Scott and the Republican party for millions.  Forget about government, more than a few Republicans should be in prison for against democracy.

So while this patriot, a man that fought for his country, is out of luck, the GOP base continues to prefer the confederate flag to the American flag, thus glorifying treason and those who took up arms against the country.  The evidence continues to mount, from democracy, to racial equality, to democracy, the constitution and the separation between church and state, they hate the principals upon which America is based.  Instead of trying to rob war heroes of their right vote they should get out of the country.  Everybody would be more happy.

Paris Is Magnificent

SAN DIEGO -- Mitt Romney took advantage of one of his largest crowds of the campaign season on Memorial Day to warn of the dangers of a shrinking U.S. military in a dangerous world.

Whatever.  Willard dodged the draft and allowed others to fight and die in his place in Vietnam by running off to Paris.  He's the last person to lecture Obama on anything military, especially since Obama is the one who got Bin Ladin.

Joker

Raw Story:  A senior adviser to presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said recently that an old joke about firing a hotel maid proved that the candidate wasn’t as stiff as he seems.

This guy used his daddy's money to start a firm that made millions by bankrupting American companies, destroying American jobs and screwing American workers out of their pensions. He likes firing people. And he laughs about it about it all the time.  This is not the kind of person we need as president of the United States.

The Confederates

Think Progress: According to Professor David Blight of Yale University, the first Memorial Day took place on May 1, 1865 in Charleston, SC, after a group of African-Americans, mostly former slaves, gave 257 Union soldiers a proper burial. The black community in Charleston then consecrated the new cemetary with “an unforgettable parade of 10,000 people,” led by 3,000 black school children. It was initially called “Decoration Day.” 

On this day we remember American soldiers - many of whom died fighting Confederate soldiers - who made war on the United States - in order to preserve slavery.  We should also remember that the modern GOP deliberately built its base with racists, to this day has its political and philosophical power base in the confederate south, and has a base that for the most part prefers the confederate flag to the American flag.  Despite their eagerness for war we can't imagine that conservatives really appreciate this holiday, especially given its true origins.  Certainly their unwillingness to take care of soldiers once home from war indicates that. 

Like The Nazis

Limbaugh: Obama Like the Nazis

That's cute.  Especially for a member of a political party that makes common cause with Nazis, has candidates that like to dress up and behave like Nazis, deny the Holocaust, and accept endorsements from Nazis, has Nazis working for them overseas, has presidential candidates that pose for pictures with Nazis, former officials that are Nazis, senators who are supported financially by Nazis, commentators that praise Nazis and administrations that employ "Jew Hunters."  And oh yeah, whose preeminent political family got rich underwriting the Nazi war machine.

Remembrance

National Organization On Disability: Since 2001, more than 500,000 military personnel have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with disabling conditions, many of them severe enough to be life-altering.

On this day we remember all those families that have been ripped apart because the Republican party will lie and cheat cheat to send this nation to war and occupation in order to make Halliburton, Bechtel, and all their other war profiteer cronies rich with taxpayer dollars, and so they may wrap themselves in phony patriotism to win elections.  If you don't want it to happen again remember this also in November when you vote.

Ugly Couple

Raw Story: Republican candidate Jesse Kelly on Wednesday refused to answer a question about his endorsement by a controversial political action committee linked to neo-Nazi groups.

And according to the report, he accepted.

Katherine Harris Fan

Florida Congressman Ted Deutch (D) told Think Progress today that Gov. Rick Scott was engaging in a “blatant attempt to supress voter turnout.” Scott is currently involved in a massive effort to purge up to 180,000 from the voting rolls. The list, purportedly of non-citizens, has proven unreliable. Earlier this week, Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Mike Ertel, a Republican, posted a picture on Twitter of a voter on the list falsely identified as ineligible, with his passport. 

We can add this to the long list of Republican efforts to rob all manner of poor, elderly, and minority Americans of the right to vote,  Republicans are engaging in fraud in order to steal elections.  Forget about government, more than a few of them should be in prison for these crimes against democracy.

Round em Up

Daily Kos:  Janesville, Wisconsin, teachers who signed—or simply may have signed—petitions to recall Gov. Scott Walker are being targeted by an anonymous group. The group, fronted for by Citizens for Responsible Government, a conservative Milwaukee organization, filed freedom of information requests and obtained the names, job titles, and salaries of every teacher in Janesville, then produced a flier listing the names and salaries of the 321 highest-paid teachers. The flier urges recipients to look for the teachers' names on a list of recall petition signers and:

At the bottom of the flier is a "Parents' Rights Protection Form" urging parents to send it to Superintendent Karen Schulte and request that "my child be assigned to a classroom taught by a non-radical teacher during the 2012-2013 school year." [...]

That's called fascism.  And the fact that Scott Walker has friends like this might just be the best reason yet to remove him from office.

#LogicFail

WASHINGTON -- The White House has laid siege to capitalism, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declared Tuesday.

Asked if President Barack Obama's campaign attacks on Mitt Romney's time running the private equity firm Bain Capital were out of bounds, McConnell didn't answer directly, but instead accused Obama of undermining the American economic system.

Ridiculous.  Criticizing what Bain Capital did doesn't mean one is a communist.  That's like saying if you criticize mass murderers you're against the right of self defense.

The Bain Of Vulture Capitalism

Will Cain, CNN contributor and Mitt Romney supporter, this morning on CNN Starting Point:  Profit creates jobs.

This was in a discussion about Bain Capital.  It's not true.  Profits create big bank accounts for the CEO, they create a short term return for the shareholder, but they do not create jobs.  What creates jobs is demand.  What creates demand is a strong middle class.  What creates jobs is jobs and since Mitt Romney was all about delivering profit to himself and his investors by bankrupting American companies, destroying American jobs and screwing American workers out of their pensions he's a terrible choice to lead the country.

The Corruptionists

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Sunday dismissed financial regulations that could have stemmed $3 billion or more in losses on derivatives by JPMorgan Chase & Co. because the company “should be held accountable by the market.”

And you should be held accountable by the electorate (if not the justice system).  Because you and your party have as a cornerstone of your public policy deregulation of any and all corporate behavior, which more often than not just turns into a license to steal, pollute, and otherwise sell out public safety for profit.

Banks that hold people's money and extend the credit that allows the economy to function should not be allowed to invent new financial instruments that nobody understands, use them to hide loans they knew were bad when they made them, and sell them in a system designed mostly to confer ridiculous levels of wealth upon those committing the fraud.  And when it all comes crashing down, the tax payers get stuck with the billl.  This is criminal behavior.  And the fact they turn around and with their ill-gotten gains bankroll your grip on power so you can continue to make the rules that allow them to do what they do makes you part of a criminal conspiracy. 

If history is not enough, we offer as proof of our allegations of corruption and quid pro-quo the graph at the top of this post.  Once your team used your deregulation to loot the financial system and stick the taxpayers with the tab, Obama and the Democrats immediately proposed re-regulating the financial industry to prevent it from happening again.  And just as immediately Wall Street dramatically shifted their contributions from the Democrats who were in power (blue line) to you (red line).

They're getting what they paid for out of you Speaker Boehner, and as this episode with JP Morgan illustrates, we're still subject to the instability and potential disaster that results.

Known As a Job Destroyer

Raw Story:  CNBC personality Jim Cramer provided an opinion Sunday morning that won’t be endorsed by Republican presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney, calling his time at Bain Capital as one more about firing than hiring people. 

Appearing on Meet The Press in the roundtable segment, the Mad Money host differed with David Gregory’s perspective that Romney had a “real area of strength” over President Barack Obama on the economy. Gregory based his view on a recent ad from the Romney campaign that mentioned how the former Massachusetts governor would approve of the controversial Keystone pipeline if he was president. 

“Romney is known as a job destoryer, not a creator,” Cramer said

Mitt Romney was born rich and used his daddy's money and connections to start a firm that made millions by bankrupting American companies, destroying American jobs and screwing American workers out of their pensions.  What's good for Mitt is bad for the country.  Better to not let him be president.

The Corruptionists

The U.S. Supreme Court has blocked the Montana Supreme Court's decision in December upholding the state's century-old ban on corporate political spending.

Once again, as with Citizens United, the conservative majority on the USSC has ruled in favor of corruption. Electing Republican presidents (who appoint conservatives judges) is destroying our democracy.

Etch-a-Mitt

Romney yesterday:

ROMNEY: I’m actually gonna — I’m not familiar precisely with exactly what I said, but I stand by what I said, whatever it was. I’ll go back and take a look at what was said there.

Yes, he really said that.  How can you trust a guy who not only says something different every time but claims to stand by what he doesn't know he said?  Once again we ask, if you like Mitt Romney, how do you know?

No Black People Allowed

Think Progress: Ed Klein, the author of a new, thinly-sourced book attacking President Obama and Michelle Obama with gossip and innuendo, went on far-right talk show host Dana Loesch’s radio show today to suggest to listeners that the president is a secret Muslim.

He's not.  But Romney is Mormon.  If we're to have a discussion of if Obama is really a Muslim or how Jerimiah Wright may have impacted Obama's world view, then we'll be talking about how the tenants of Mormonism, as they were when Romney was young, may have impacted his world view.  And if that's part of the national conversation Romney will lose 49 states in November.

The Way America Works For Me

Raw Story:  Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Wednesday defended a shocking $3 billion loss on derivatives by JPMorgan Chase & Co. by saying it was just “the way America works.”

Sorry Willard, that's not how America works.  That's how fraud and thievery works.  We understand you want to be able to have your country club crowd loot the financial system until the entire thing is about to collapse and the taxpayers have to pony up to prevent total meltdown, but it's not right.  We were just forced to do that because of the public policy you support, and we do understand that if you're elected, we'll have to do it again, but that's not how America works.  In fact, that's how America doesn't work.

The Projectionists

Huffington Post:  At a fundraiser in Elbert County last weekend, Colorado Republican Congressman Mike Coffman shared some startling thoughts about President Barack Obama, raising the issue of the president's United States citizenship. Toward the end of his speech, after citing the downturn in the U.S. economy, Coffman said:

I don't know whether Barack Obama was born in the United States of America. I don't know that. But I do know this, that in his heart, he's not an American. He's just not an American.

This is just projection.  Conservatives consistently show hostility to most of the things that make America what it is, democracy, upward mobility, public education, the constitution, due process, civil rights, equal rights and immigrants to name a few.  It's clear they're not happy with America.  They should leave.

Sick

Headline:  Massive Whooping Cough Epidemic In Washington State Related to Severe Budget Cuts

Since it is GOP policy to cut funds for public health in favor of tax breaks for the rich and transnational corporations it would be justice if only Republicans got sick and died because of it.

DOH!

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Foreclosure filings in April fell for the third straight month to the lowest level since July 2007.

That's good news.... unless you're a Republican.   Romney must be sad.

AP: Romeny Is a Liar Who Will Put Us Deeper In Debt

WASHINGTON (AP) — When Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney decried the "prairie fire" of U.S. debt Tuesday, he ignored some of the sparks that set it ablaze.

One was the Great Recession that took hold before Barack Obama became president. That landmark event went unmentioned in Romney's speech. Another was a series of Bush-era tax cuts that Romney wants to follow with even lower rates.

Those two paragraphs are pretty good.  We would have also liked to see the GOP wars and the fact the Republicans have been deliberately destroying the tax base for the last 30 years in there as well.  But whatever, this is as good as we're going get out of the corporate media.

For more historical perspective consider this:  From 1981 to 2009 the only Democratic president was Bill Clinton.  He actually eliminated the federal budget deficit and started paying down the national debt.  Despite Clinton's fantastic results, from 1981 to 2009 the national debt went from under a trillion dollars to 11 trillion dollars.  So basically the Republicans took a level of debt that had taken this country over 200 years to accumulate and increased it 11 fold in 20 years.  Our predicament is their fault.

Shooters

TPM: This week Republicans will attempt to move the national political conversation back to a familiar theme with a series of attacks on President Obama over the national debt. The GOP released a web video Monday bashing his “broken promises” on the deficit and previewed a major speech Tuesday by likely presidential nominee Mitt Romney on the issue.

Divorced from context, the numbers are uncomfortable for the President and are ready-made for pointed partisan attacks. Under Obama’s watch the national debt has risen from roughly $10 trillion to $15 trillion, a record high. But to what extent are his decisions while in office to blame? The answer: very little. The vast bulk of the debt is the result of policies enacted during the Bush administration coupled with automatic increases in federal spending and decreases in tax revenue triggered by the economic downturn.

This is rather like shooting somebody in the back and then blaming them for bleeding on the carpet.  

The Anti-Americans

Think Progress:  Eduardo Saverin, the co-founder of Facebook whose falling out with the company and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg was the subject of the 2010 blockbuster The Social Network, renounced his US citizenship last week, and the right has wasted no time labeling him a hero.

It's not a surprise the right-wing thinks this guy a hero..  Their words and actions indicate they're not too fond of America.  They constantly fight against the ideals that make America great, that made America America. Hell, conservatives made war on the United States in order to keep slavery.  And to this day they prefer the confederate flag to the American flag and have their power base in the confederate south.  They cheered the last Republican administration when they committed treason by deliberately burning a vital American spy network,  they lied us into a devastating invasion and occupation in Iraq,  they can't stand the constitution,  they're not too fond of democracy, and they advocate the return of public policy that history has proven to be a disaster for the country.  We could go on and on but you get the point, these people are openly hostile to what it is that truly makes us Americans and act in their own best interest to the detriment of the country.  And that makes them a very dangerous bunch to have around.

We Suck So Vote For Us

RNC Chairman Reise Priebus interview:

GREGORY: You think we need less financial regulation, rather than more?
PRIEBUS: I think we need less. I mean, the fact of the matter is, Dodd-Frank didn’t work. [...]
GREGORY: So, you’re satisfied with the way Wall Street operates, with the kinds of bets that were taken by JPMorgan Chase that led to this kind of loss. You don’t think that Washington regulators can remedy that?
PRIEBUS: Certainly Dodd-Frank didn’t remedy it.

So the GOP waters down Dodd-Frank to limit its effectiveness and then they use their own successful effort to thwart re-regulation to try and make a case for more de-regulation.  Let's be clear:  Republican deregulation caused the financial meltdown we've been suffering under since the end of the Bush administration.  So not only are they a clear and present danger to the stability of the financial system, but by blaming a law that they themselves made ineffective, they've shown themselves to be dishonest scumbags in the process.

Gay

Rep. James Lankford (R-OK) told Think Progress last week that he believes someone should be able to be fired for his or her sexual orientation.  In a conversation on Capitol Hill, Lankford expressed his strong belief that being gay is a choice, and that LGBT workers should not be protected from workplace discrimination because it’s something they can change.

If Lankford feels that he can make the choice to become sexually aroused enough to have intercourse with another man, he needs to take a hard look at his own sexual orientation. If he doesn't think he can make that choice it would be illogical to assume somebody else could. Therefore, he's most likely gay.

Check His Bigot Card

Think Progress:  Among Mitt Romney’s timid responses this week after President Obama’s endorsement of marriage equality was an admission that he was “fine” with same-sex couples adopting children, saying, “that’s something that people have a right to do.” But by Friday afternoon, he was already backing away from that position, suggesting that he merely “acknowledges” that many states offer same-sex adoption:mong Mitt Romney’s timid responses this week after President Obama’s endorsement of marriage equality was an admission that he was “fine” with same-sex couples adopting children, saying, “that’s something that people have a right to do.” But by Friday afternoon, he was already backing away from that position, suggesting that he merely “acknowledges” that many states offer same-sex adoption:

ROMNEY: Actually, I think all states but one allow gay adoption. So that’s a position which has been decided by most of the state legislatures, including the one in my state some time ago. So I simply acknowledge the fact that gay adoption is legal in all states but one.

Mr Etch-a-Sketch flip-flops again, this time in one day.  Literally overnight.  Seriously, if you like Mitt Romney, how do you know?

On this issue we now have a well established pattern of Willard trying to seem like he's not a bigot, but then pretty quickly getting rolled by bigots into being a bigot.  The question then becomes, is he a bigot or only acting like a bigot because he trying to motivate a bigoted GOP base.  Either way, unless you're a bigot, you would be crazy to vote Republican.

Project-a-Nazi

Think Progress:  At a Tea Party rally two weeks ago, Pittsburgh Tea Party Chair Patricia “Patti” Weaver told supporters that President Barack Obama, like the Nazis in World War II, is an “an evil in this country that you are standing up to,”

That's cute.  Especially for a member of a political party that makes common cause with Nazis, has candidates that like to dress up and behave like Nazis, deny the Holocaust, and accept endorsements from Nazis, has Nazis working for them overseas, has presidential candidates that pose for pictures with Nazis, former officials that are Nazis, senators who are supported financially by Nazis, commentators that praise Nazis and administrations that employ "Jew Hunters."  And oh yeah, whose preeminent political family got rich underwriting the Nazi war machine.

By the way, the picture of Glenn Beck in this post?  It's the actual cover of one of his books.  Not Kidding.

Bully. Sociopath. Bigot. Asshole.

Washington Post:  Mitt Romney returned from a three-week spring break in 1965 to resume his studies as a high school senior at the prestigious Cranbrook School. Back on the handsome campus, studded with Tudor brick buildings and manicured fields, he spotted something he thought did not belong at a school where the boys wore ties and carried briefcases. John Lauber, a soft-spoken new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually teased for his nonconformity and presumed homosexuality. Now he was walking around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye, and Romney wasn’t having it.

“He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend in the Stevens Hall dorm, according to Friedemann’s recollection. Mitt, the teenaged son of Michigan Gov. George Romney, kept complaining about Lauber’s look, Friedemann recalled. 

A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors.
....
“It happened very quickly, and to this day it troubles me,” said Buford, the school’s wrestling champion, who said he joined Romney in restraining Lauber. Buford subsequently apologized to Lauber, who was “terrified,” he said. “What a senseless, stupid, idiotic thing to do.”
...
Romney is now the presumed Republican presidential nominee. His campaign spokeswoman said the former Massachusetts governor has no recollection of the incident.

And then they all went and entertained themselves for hours pulling wings off flies.  Look, we just suffered through 8 years of a Republican sociopath president.  The country was damaged greatly as a result.  The last thing we need is to go through that again.

As for what Romney did here, it's reprehensible.  It's assault and battery and perhaps a hate crime.  Since he was 18 when he led his little prep school lynch mob, he should have a criminal record because of it.   

Keep Them Poor And Under-educated

Headline:  GOP Votes To Double Student Load Rates

Education is an investment in the country's future and Republicans just proved yet again they don't give a rip.  Instead they voted to further enrich their robber baron bank cronies at the expense of struggling students and the future competitiveness of the country. 

Education is also a big part of becoming upwardly mobile, a big part of what made America the land of opportunity.  This is yet another American Ideal they do not share.  They really are terrible Americans.

The South Shall Rise Again

Huffington Post: A monthly newsletter published by the Greene County Republican Committee in Virginia is raising eyebrows for including a column in its March edition that calls for an "armed revolution" if President Barack Obama is elected to a second term in November.

There's a a word for that: treason.

Of course conservatives have never embraced the multiculturalism and equality upon which the country is based.  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.  And any drive around the south will show quite clearly the GOP base prefers the confederate flag to the American flag.

The unfortunate fact of the matter is they've always been racist, they can't stand democracy, and they're not terribly fond of the constitution. They're gun crazy and prone to violence  (just last week they threatened to kill a Democratic senator).  In short, they're terrible Americans. 

In 1864 Conservatives made war on the United States in order to preserve slavery. They already betrayed the United States once.  By their own words and actions you better believe they're capable of doing it again.

Fugative From History

Huffington Post:  Despite his 2008 call to "let Detroit go bankrupt," presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said Monday that he would "take a lot of credit" for his impact on the U.S. automobile industry's comeback.

Well it certainly seems like you're going to try Willard.  Unfortunately for you, it's ridiculous.  We have a record of your words, and your actions, and we have history.  And all of it says you're being about as dishonest as one can be.  It says you deserve less than zero credit for the recovery of the auto industry.  It says you got it exactly wrong.

You wrote a piece in the New York Times titled, Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.  GM was one foot in the door of liquidation and it's a matter of public record that you said let them go.  Hell, you even predicted it was Obama's fix that would end up dooming the industry.  And now they're making record profits.  Yeah, scoreboard.

Of course this is what one would expect of somebody who made 250 million dollars bankrupting American companies, destroying American jobs and screwing American workers out of their pensions. What turns out good for the country turns out bad for you because your interests run contrary to the best interests of the country.

So go run for the presidency of the United States of Chinese Factory Owners or the Transnational CEO Association or something.. You've done well for them.  We're sure they're grateful.  But as far as the citizens of the United States of America are concerned, you're a God-damn-national-disaster.  Your attempt to influence the process in the direction of letting Detroit go bankrupt is a perfect illustration of that fact.  And that you're trying to so blatantly lie about now speaks to your character better than we ever could.

Bad Call

AFLCIO: The Republican National Committee (RNC) used a call center based in the Philippines to hold a media conference attacking President Obama's economic record, the Chicago Sun-Times reported today.

Makes sense.  The Republican party represents trans-national corporations that have zero allegiance to the United States. They long ago threw the American worker under the bus.  And their new standard bearer, Willard Romney, got filthy rich bankrupting American companies, destroying American jobs and screwing American workers out of their pensions. It makes perfect sense they would outsource their political operation to the Philippines.

Crime Story

Brad Friedman:  You're unlikely to hear a peep about this on Fox "News" (unless they happen to have me on), but the California Secretary of State's Election Fraud Division is now reportedly investigating a firm hired by the Sacramento County Republican Party said to have submitted thousands of fraudulent voter registration forms.
 
According to a report today from Sacramento ABC affiliate News10 [see video posted below], a private, for-profit firm calling itself Momentum Political Services, hired by the local Republican Party "to boost GOP registration ranks in key battleground communities" has turned in more than 3,100 invalid voter registration cards during their recent drive.

Three takeaways from this strory:  1) This could be far worse than ACORN.  ACORN got blasted out of existence because some of the people they were paying to register folks, because they were paid by the registration, signed up people that didn't exist. And ACORN self reported it.  In this case the Republican organization itself seems to have orchestrated the fraud. 2) Since the corporate media took down ACORN for basically nothing, and have not covered this story at all, it's more proof the corporate media is in the bag for Republicans. 3) Forget about individual voter fraud, by their constant efforts to rob all manner of poor, elderly, and minority Americans of the right to vote, Republicans are engaging in election fraud.  More than a few of them should be in prison for these crimes against democracy.  

Gutless

Think Progress:  American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer led the right-wing charge against Mitt Romney’s ousted foreign policy spokesman Ric Grennell, lambasting the presumed GOP nominee for hiring the openly-gay aide. When Grennell resigned under pressure from social conservatives this week, Fischer declared it a “huge win.”
 
But today, Fischer himself backtracked a bit. On his radio, the far-right activist noted what many liberals have, asking, why should voters trust Romney to confront Russia or North Korea if he can’t even stand up to a “yokel” talk show host? Right Wing Watch flagged the clip:

FISCHER: If Mitt Romney can be pushed around, intimidated, coerced, co-opted by a conservative radio talk show host in Middle America, then how is he going to stand up to the Chinese? How is he going to stand up to Putin? How is he going to stand up to North Korea if he can be pushed around by a yokel like me? I don’t think Romney is realizing the doubts that this begins to raise about his leadership.

This may the first and last time we ever agree with a right-wing bigot.  But agree we do...

If Only...

Romney: We should be seeing numbers in the 500,000 jobs created per month. This is way, way off from what should happen in a normal recovery.

Let's see.. At the end of the last Republican administration we were losing 800,000 jobs a month.  Romney favors the exact same public policy that caused that disaster.  With Obama's public policy we've gained jobs for 25 straight months.  Since we're gaining between 100,000 and 200,000 jobs a month, taking into account the net difference, Obama is literally a million times better than Romeny.  But maybe Romney is right.  If we get rid of all the Republicans in congress, and keep him out of the Whitehouse, maybe we would improve to plus 500,000 jobs a month.  Certainly the trend seems to suggest that.

Pro-Violence Against Women

WASHINGTON: -- The House Republican version of the new Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) would dramatically rollback confidentiality protections for abused immigrant women, make it more difficult for undocumented witnesses to work with law enforcement officials, and eliminate a pathway to citizenship for witnesses who cooperate with police on criminal cases. 

When the GOP comes up with a law called Violence Against Women, they apparently don't mean they're trying to prevent it.  Honestly, if women just started randomly attacking Republicans on the street it would be self-defense.

Don't Believe Your Eyes

Raw Story:  Florida Republican congressman Rep. Allen West has torn a page from Sarah Palin’s book and issued a proclamation to the world via his Facebook page.

West cited the 13 percent unemployment rate among black Americans and wrote, “The failed economic policies of President Obama are destroying the black community and lessening the chances for economic freedom while promoting economic dependence.”

That's right.  The African American president and his party are destroying the black community by looking out for the poor and middle class, but the deeply racist conservative movement, a movement that fought to keep slavery and has been working on behalf of the plantation owner since before this country was founded are their champions.  The confederate flag is really a pro-civil rights symbol and all the Republican efforts to suppress the African American vote are actually for their own good.  And oh yeah, calling somebody an Uncle Tom is really a complement.

Neo-Nazi And Former Republican Official

Headline:  Arizona Shooter Was Neo-Nazi And Former Republican Official

An Arizona man who on Wednesday reportedly killed four people, including a 47-year-old grandmother and a 15-month-old infant, and then took his own life was also a former Republican Party official, a former white supremacist neo-Nazi and the founder of a border patrol vigilante group that advocated using violence on immigrants.

That's one hell of a headline.  Of course this is exactly what one would expect of a political party that deliberately built its base with racists, makes common cause with Nazis, has its political and philosophical power base in the confederate south, and to this day prefers the confederate flag to the American flag. The preeminent Republican party family of our time, the Bush dynasty, got rich underwriting the Nazi war machine. The Republican party is racist through and through. This is just more evidence of that.

Note - we realize this post is basically the same as the one from earlier today.  But this is a yet another, different reason to say the same thing.  And until this becomes the GOP brand we're all going to have to keep these saying these things over and over.  It's the truth, as the constant flow of evidence leads us to conclude,  so this is not only our right, but our duty.

Motive

TPM: Consider the following scenario: U.S. intelligence gets a tip about the whereabouts of a senior Al Qaeda figure inside Pakistan. Plans are drawn up to fly into the airspace of an uneasy ally. Elite U.S. forces are readied. The administration is asked for the go-ahead. 

In 2005, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reportedly called off such a mission, despite the fact that intelligence officials had “unusually high confidence” about the whereabouts of Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda’s then-second-in-command. According to a 2007 New York Times report revealing the aborted raid, Rumsfeld was concerned about both the size of the operation — which grew to include several hundred military personnel and CIA operatives — and the potential reaction from the Pakistani government.

In 2011, President Obama was faced with a similar decision that obviously ended differently.

Ok so let's recap.  Willard said he would not risk going into Pakistan to get Bin Ladin for fear of upsetting the Pakistanis.  The Bush administration had the chance to get Ayman al-Zawahiri but didn't.  And of course Bush chose to let Bin Ladin get away at Tora Bora.  The question is why?  They obviously were willing to needlessly sacrifice thousands of American lives in Iraq so risking American military personal couldn't be the issue.  Really the most likely explanation is that they wanted these people alive and well so they could scare people into voting Republican and transfer a few trillion more dollars of tax payer money to their crony war profiteers.  For that they should be in prison, not our government.

How They Think

Think Progress: The wife of a prominent North Carolina state senator and supporter of Amendment 1 — a proposed ballot initiative that would outlaw same-sex marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships in the state — claimed earlier this week that her husband advocated for the measure to protect the “Caucasian” race. 

They are of course, Republicans.  This of course is exactly what one would expect of a political party that deliberately built its base with racists, makes common cause with Nazis, has its political and philosophical power base in the confederate south, and to this day prefers the confederate flag to the American flag. The preeminent Republican party family of our time, the Bush dynasty, got rich underwriting the Nazi war machine. The Republican party is racist through and through. This is just more evidence of that.

Stand Your Ground White People!!

Huffington Post: It took nearly a year’s worth of violent physical abuse before Marissa Alexander decided to stand her ground against her husband. 

On Aug. 1, 2010, her husband cornered her in their Jacksonville, Fla., home. Alexander said she ran to the garage to escape, but the garage door was jammed, so Alexander grabbed a pistol. Her husband, Rico Gray, 36, saw the gun and threatened to kill her, Alexander would later say in court documents.

Fearing for her life, she raised the pistol above her head and squeezed the trigger, the crackle of gunfire pelting the kitchen ceiling. 

While the shooting may have gotten Alexander out of one jam, it put her in another: She has been in a Florida jail since 2010 awaiting a mandatory sentence of 20 years in prison for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Seems these right to murder laws only work if 1) you actually kill somebody and 2) if you're white.