J. Miller Rampant!

Charles Pierce is AWESOME Today!

2012-02-16T00:43:00.000-10:00

This is some of the best political writing out there, IMHO. Reading his account of Rick Santorum's lying, berserk, unhinged, lunatic, ignorant ranting to an equally unhinged ultra-right wing crowd in Idaho will make you tremble for our nation's future. It's also brutally funny. Recommended!

Something You Absolutely MUST See

2012-02-14T13:41:00.001-10:00

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

THANK YOU, Jon Stewart! THANK YOU!!

2012-02-14T13:13:00.001-10:00

Rick Santorum is Insane

2012-02-09T13:39:00.001-10:00

And no, I am not using the term insane figuratively.

Concerning the (completely dishonest) controversy over contraceptive mandates in the federal health care law, Little Ricky had this to say:

They are taking faith and crushing it. Why? Why? When you marginalize faith in America, when you remove the pillar of God-given rights, then what’s left is the French Revolution. What’s left is the government that gives you right, what’s left are no unalienable rights, what’s left is a government that will tell you who you are, what you’ll do and when you’ll do it. What’s left in France became the guillotine. Ladies and gentlemen, we’re a long way from that, but if we do and follow the path of President Obama and his overt hostility to faith in America, then we are headed down that road.

That's right you psychotic clown. We're on the path that will lead to the decapitation of religious people.

Santorum: a frightening right-wing authoritarian lunatic.

I don't know what else to say.

2012-02-07T21:21:00.001-10:00

HAW HAW HAW! Willard Screws the Pooch MULTIPLE Times!

2012-02-07T18:17:00.001-10:00

Looks like Little Rick "Frothy Lube" Santorum has won Missouri's non-binding primary and Minnesota's caucuses. He might even win Colorado's caucuses, making it 0 for 3 for Willard. After Mittens buried Gingrich in Florida under a ton of ads (99% of which--no joke--were negative) and won a super-low turnout caucus in Nevada, he thought he had it wrapped up. Guess not, Willard. (BTW, turnout in all three contests was wretchedly bad.)

Oh. And the crowd at Willard's headquarters tonight? 80.

HAW HAW HAW!

Donald "My Comb-Over Looks Like a Dead Ferret" Trump Endorses Romney

2012-02-02T15:10:00.002-10:00

The gruesome details are here. Does this mean Romney is going Birther? Heh heh. Just jokin' Willard.

Democrats, LIST THE FACTS and WIN, Part 2

2012-02-02T12:40:00.001-10:00

Democrats, LIST THE FACTS and WIN

2012-01-24T00:42:00.000-10:00

DEFINITELY click to enlarge.

2012-01-23T11:19:00.001-10:00

2012-01-21T22:00:00.002-10:00

HAW HAW HAW! Willard Screws the Pooch Again, This Time in South Carolina

2012-01-21T15:00:00.000-10:00

Poor Mittens. First, we find out that Rick "Frothy Mixture" Santorum actually edged him out in Iowa. And now Newt "Bloated Amphibian Scumbag" Gingrich has THRASHED him in South Carolina! And Willard spent MILLIONS there. Gawd, is this great. Poor Willard. Nobody really likes him all that much. Maybe it's because he talks and acts like an arrogant, entitled, "I'm-better-than-you" asshole. Think that might have something to do with it? BTW, this means that Mittens has now lost 2 out of 3. And for all that money. Tough break, Mittens!

HAW HAW HAW!!!

2012-01-20T15:41:00.001-10:00

2012-01-19T23:09:00.001-10:00

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER! JosephMiller41

2012-01-19T01:34:00.001-10:00

2012-01-16T10:19:00.002-10:00

(Click for enhanced amusement.)

I HAVE to Share This With You

2012-01-15T23:29:00.002-10:00

I don't support Ron Paul, but this commercial is just freaking PRICELESS. Right on the money!

Gawd, I Love Stephen Colbert!

2012-01-15T11:31:00.001-10:00

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

2012-01-14T21:36:00.001-10:00

What Romney is Hiding by Refusing to Show Us His Tax Return: HE SENDS HIS MONEY TO THE CAYMAN ISLANDS TO AVOID TAXES

2012-01-13T14:37:00.001-10:00

If this doesn't get you angry, I'm not sure what would.

2012-01-13T11:07:00.002-10:00

2012-01-12T10:33:00.001-10:00

(By all means click to enlarge)

It's a Hit! One Thousand Page Views in One Week for ROMNEY THE LIAR

2012-01-11T11:04:00.001-10:00

Yes, my new blog, a true labor love and hate, is off to a flying start. It's had 1,000 page views since 4 January, the day I started it. Check it out EVERY DAY for yet another post on the most shameless liar in American politics, Willard "Mittens" Romney. The blog is right here. Read Willard's pathetic lies--and then pass my posts exposing them around.

Good times!

Holy Crap! Right-Wing Anti-Romney Group Putting Out DAMNING Film!

2012-01-07T22:36:00.001-10:00

Seriously, check these two snippets out:

I mean, I couldn't have said it better myself. This stuff is political dynamite. I hope his opponents use it to blow up Willard's filthy career.

2012-01-06T12:25:00.001-10:00

Check Out My New Blog ROMNEY THE LIAR

2012-01-06T11:47:00.000-10:00

Hey folks! In this election year, I've found that keeping track of Mitt Romney's constant stream of lying BS requires a blog that focuses on nothing else. I've named it ROMNEY THE LIAR. Good title, huh? Short, truthful, descriptive, punchy, and right to the point. It's located here. Mitt Romney lies with such breathtaking ease that I thought I should try to document all of his fantastic, utter falsehoods.

Here's the blog's header, which you should click for additional amusement, created by my artist friend Lance Ehlers :

Very cool, Lance!

I admit I have only one misgiving about this project:

It will be a challenge to keep up with Old Mittens.

2012-01-05T17:08:00.001-10:00

The Colbert Report
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Yeah, Baby!

2012-01-04T15:18:00.002-10:00

To All Those Right-Wingers Screeching About Obama's Recess Appointments:

2012-01-04T13:43:00.000-10:00

A. Sit down.

B. Shut up.

HAW! HAW! Willard Screws the Pooch in Iowa

2012-01-03T22:27:00.008-10:00

In the Iowa caucuses, Willard Mitt Romney--and Willard is his actual name, despite his pathetic lie that his first name is Mitt--is essentially tied with Rick Santorum. (Make sure you click the link.) Little Ricky is a batshit crazy ultra-right wing nut-job who thinks that contraception should be illegal, gays should be in prison, and that the government has the right to regulate everyone's sex lives, heterosexuals included. And Willard couldn't even put him away. In fact, Old Mittens got FEWER votes in 2012's caucuses than he got in 2008. Think about it--he's been campaigning for president for about six years, and he's gotten NOWHERE. That's just AWESOME! Maybe it has something to do with him being a weasel-like whore who will literally say anything to win. Mike Huckabee, in 2008, said that all of the other Republican candidates came to despise Romney for his dishonesty and utter lack of scruples. I believe it. It seems like the more people see of Mittens, the less they like him. He represents everything that is wrong with our politics--unlimited corporate money buying elections, pandering to right-wing fools and fanatics by reinforcing their hatreds and bigotry, and above all, uttering a continuous river of damned stinking lies, smears, and slanders. Romney lies so brazenly, so insistently, so repeatedly, and so incessantly that it almost beggars the imagination. (See here and here.) I want this son-of-a-bitch to go DOWN, and if we all get together, we can mop the floor with him if he becomes the lone survivor of the Clown Car that is the GOP presidential field this year.

Oh, and one last thing:

Romney outspent Santorum by about EIGHT TO ONE.

And the Republican turn-out in Iowa was lousy, even with all the Paulbots.

Is that GREAT?

Yes, the Republicans Really ARE Trying to Destroy Medicare

2011-12-20T17:32:00.001-10:00

Despite what you may have heard from Politifact, the statement, "The Republicans are trying to end Medicare" is the TRUTH, not the so-called "lie of the year". Jason Linkins at HuffPo has the lowdown on all this right here. Excerpt:

But let's recall, Politifact, that your lie of the year is "Republicans voted to end Medicare." And end it, they did vote to do! Now, if the Democrats had said, "Republicans take Medicare out behind the Cannon Office Building and horsewhip it," that's a different story. But you've decided -- incorrectly -- that the most vanilla way of the describing what happened is a deception.

And "privatizing" Medicare ends Medicare, as Medicare is a public entitlement program. (As a thought exercise for the folks at Politifact, why not stop buying gas for your car? You'll notice that at some point, your car will stop going forward without you pushing it. You did not "end your car." You've just made it less useful by no longer "funding" it with petrol.)

Politifact goes on:

They ignored the fact that the Ryan plan would not affect people currently in Medicare -- or even the people 55 to 65 who would join the program in the next 10 years.

Ha! No one in the world ignored that! That's the way you make ending an entitlement politically palatable -- you tell the people who are currently receiving the entitlement or about to receive the entitlement that it won't affect them. That way, the AARP doesn't, you know, SUMMON THE FORCES OF DARKNESS to vote you out of office. It's actually like Politifact just showed up in Washington yesterday!

[Politifact]: They used harsh terms such as "end" and "kill" when the program would still exist, although in a privatized system.

But it wouldn't exist in a privatized system as imagined by Paul Ryan! In the Paul Ryan plan, the premium support is not tied to health care cost. Healthcare costs go up, the premium support fails to keep up, and the result is altogether unrecognizeable from Medicare.

Read the whole thing, as they say in BlogLand. And remember:

Republican politicians are the ENEMIES of ordinary Americans. Period.

HURRAH! Kim Jong-il is Dead!

2011-12-18T19:13:00.002-10:00

The most brutal tyrant on Earth, the leader of the Stalinist hell known as North Korea, has finally died. Kim was a brutal, vicious, unfeeling monster who allowed millions of his own people to starve and built around himself a cult of personality so vulgar and obscene that Caligula would be embarrassed by it. North Korea is quite literally the least-free nation in the world, and quite possibly the worst nation in the world in which to live. It is all the fault of the barbaric government first headed up by Kim's father, the scum-sucking Kim Il-sung, and then by Little Stalin himself. If I believed in hell, Kim Jong-il would be headed there. Good riddance to this piece of human garbage, and may his brutally and cruelly oppressed people someday be liberated and shown the truth about their "Dear Leader".

I'm only sorry that he didn't die 30 years ago.

Think I'm too over the top in my sentiments? Read on--and link on, my friends.

An account of the death toll from North Korea's famine in the 1990s is here.

Satellite photos of North Korean death camps are here.

An account of conditions in North Korea's Gulags may be found here.

Additional information on North Korea's death camps, including accounts of grotesque, hideous atrocities, is here.

Amnesty International's report on North Korea's barbaric government is here.

An account of the wretched living conditions in North Korea is here.

Reporters Without Borders reports on North Korea's system of utter and complete censorship here.

And a satellite picture to remind us of the contrast between a free society and a slave state:

2011-12-12T11:34:00.002-10:00

(Click to Enlarge to Be Both Disgusted and Amused)

Something You REALLY Need to Read

2011-12-11T19:23:00.000-10:00

It's from our friends at DKos,and it's right here. The title alone is worth it:

Newt Gingrich is a Lousy Human Being

(They had me at that.)

But the contents of the article BEG for your attention. It's not just Gingrich's views that are so often utterly, shockingly, confoundingly wrong--it's the fact that Gingrich himself is such a rotten person.
For example, did you know that not only did Gingrich argue with his first wife about a divorce the day after her third surgery for cancer, he stiffed her on child support after the divorce to the degree that his wife couldn't pay bills for electricity, medical care, and other expenses for Gingrich's own children? (I understand she was forced to turn to charity for help.) What a bastard. (I also understand that Gingrich said his first wife wasn't attractive enough "to be the wife of a president"!!!)

Read the whole thing and let me know what you think.

And then if you agree that this sumbitch needs to be politically destroyed, let me know and we'll help save America--together.

Seventy Years Ago Today

2011-12-07T01:17:00.000-10:00

I've been to Pearl Harbor twice. You really owe it to yourself to go. You really do, if only to experience the Arizona Memorial.

Eternal rest to them.

2011-12-05T15:59:00.001-10:00

Gingrich: Liar, Hypocrite, Fraud, Grifter

2011-12-04T12:53:00.000-10:00

There are many people to blame on the political Right for the appalling landscape of American politics. Roger Ailes, who has been a race-baiter and professional liar par excellence ever since his days working for Nixon, and who is the evil presence behind Fox "News", the television propaganda arm of the Radical Right, certainly has been key. Utterly vile Republican political consultants, such as the late Lee Atwater and his apt pupil, Karl Rove, have lowered our politics to depths of ugliness and dishonesty so astonishing and depraved I would have hardly thought them possible at one time. Smirking racist and anti-Semite Patrick Buchanan has consistently interjected white supremacist poison into our discourse. And of course, the whole network of Right Wing Hate Radio hacks, led by vicious, corrupt, borderline-criminals such as Rush Limbaugh, vomits out a constant river of lies and smears. But in this whole despicable bunch, one figure stands out: Newt Gingrich, now the favorite to be the Republican candidate for president in 2012. Jonathan Alter has given us a useful reminder of this lying con-artists's personal history here:

In 1988, as a young representative, he helped drive House Speaker Jim Wright from office for allegedly violating House rules to profit from a book; at the same time Gingrich himself was skirting House rules to promote his own book. A decade later, in a separate matter involving a college course he taught, the Republican-controlled House made Gingrich the first speaker ever to be fined for violating House rules.

In 1989, he viciously attacked Democratic corruption at the House bank and post office. It turned out he was among those members overdrafting from the same House bank.

In 1994, he implied that liberals were at fault in the Susan Smith case, in which a mother infamously drowned her children. He later said the shootings at Columbine and Virginia Tech stemmed from the same “situation ethics” of liberals.

In 1998, he led the fight to impeach President Bill Clinton for the Monica Lewinsky affair while he was already five years into an extramarital affair of his own — with a congressional staffer (soon to be his third wife) who was 23 years his junior.

In 2009, he called Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor a “racist” not long before he said the secret to understanding President Barack Obama was his embrace of the radical “Kenyan anti-colonial” mentality of his late father.

In 2011, he blasted the president for seeking the help of the United Nations instead of just bombing Libya unilaterally. After military action began, he said without blinking, “I would not have intervened.”

Liar. Right-wing radical. Moral lowlife. Smear-artist. Con man. Lobbyist king. That's Gingrich in a nutshell. And lest people allow themselves to be impressed by "professor" Gingrich's academic credentials, one of the commenters on this story makes an excellent point:

I wish people would stop referring to him as a history professor with the same tone of voice that they use for real academicians. He got his doctorate from Tulane studying Belgian education policy in the Congo. He taught at West Georgia College for crying out loud and couldn't get tenure. How bad do you have to be???

I don't doubt that the reason he was hired in the first place is that the year (1969) before he was hired (1970) the university went on a hiring binge where they got more new professors than had been on the whole faculty ten years prior.

If Freddie Mac paid $1.6 million for a "historian" with these credentials, then that in itself shows that Freddie Mac management is totally and completely inept.

Heh heh. well-put. And by the way, remember this: Gingrich ACTUALLY said that President Obama is a graver threat to America than Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler were. If he actually believes this, he's somewhere between an idiot and a lunatic. If he doesn't, he's a cynical, lying scumbag who is feeding the worst hatreds of the Radical Right's most unhinged members. In any event, he deserves to be politically crushed as thoroughly as any human in America deserves to be. In a way, it'll be fun if Gingrich is nominated by the lunatic Republicans.

We'll strip the bark off of this son-of-a-bitch.

An Answer to the Charge of Liberal "Rudeness"

2011-11-29T18:50:00.001-10:00

From JD Rhoades, commenter on Balloon Juice, who very, very much speaks for me:

After Willie Horton ads, Swiftboating, GOP convention-goers waving purple band-aids to mock a veteran’s war wounds, birtherism, Ann Coulter saying the “only choice was whether to impeach or assassinate” President Clinton, Coulter claiming 9/11 widows were “enjoying their husband’s deaths,” Rush Limbaugh mocking Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease, ads falsely claiming Barack Obama favored “comprehensive sex education for Kindergartners,” Rand Paul supporters trying to stomp the head of a protester, ads claiming Kay Hagen was “godless,” Michelle Bachmann calling for an investigation of ‘un-American views” among the Congress, “If ballots don’t work, maybe bullets will,” “Obama hates white people,” ‘GET OFF MY PHONE YOU LITTLE PINHEAD!” “YOU LIE!”, wingnuts at FreeRepublic calling 11-year old Sasha Obama a “street whore” for wearing a peace sign on her t-shirt, outright lies about “death panels,” “Bury Obamacare with Kennedy,” cheering for executions, booing soldiers in war zones for being gay, comparing poor people to stray animals you shouldn’t feed, “’we’ve got one raghead in the White House, we don’t need a raghead in the governor’s mansion,” supposed “Christians” suggesting that people pray for the President using Psalm 109:8 (“May his days be few; may another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow”) as a text, Limbaugh calling the First Lady “uppity,” and on and on and on, all without a single peep from the Right…They can take their whiny-ass bullshit about liberal “rudeness” and peddle it somewhere else. We ain’t buyin’ it here.

The DNC Strikes HARD at Two-Faced Mitt

2011-11-28T11:50:00.000-10:00

2011-11-24T20:34:00.004-10:00

(Click to Enlarge for Additional Mirth and Enlightenment)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!

2011-11-23T23:39:00.000-10:00

I recommend serious overeating followed by vegging on the couch, followed by enthusiastic pie eating.

WHO'S WITH ME?!?!?

ROMNEY THE LIAR: The Meme That We We MUST Spread

2011-11-23T12:23:00.001-10:00

Because it happens to be true.

In the larger context, how much more deception can Romney try to get away with before he develops a reputation as a candidate with an honesty problem? Last week, an MIT economist who worked with Romney said the former governor is “just lying” about health care policy. The same week, Romney was caught lying about the makeup of the last Congress, and also got caught lying about a quote from the president…

This in addition to Romney LYING by claiming that President Obama has "massively" cut defense when in fact the defense budget has risen under Obama. This is in addition to Romney LYING when he says that Obama has "apologized" for America, when in fact the President has done no such thing. The conclusion is clear:

MITT ROMNEY IS A PATHOLOGICAL LIAR. EVERY TIME HE LIES, HE SPITS IN THE FACE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

Spread the meme, folks. Spread it far and wide, because Mitt Romney has brought it on himself:

ROMNEY THE LIAR

Oh,and one more thing: Romney claims his first name is Mitt. It isn't. It's Willard.

He can't even tell the truth about that.

HAW HAW HAW! [Click to Enlarge for True Hilarity]

2011-11-23T11:35:00.002-10:00

Well Said!! (Definitely Click to Enlarge)

2011-11-21T12:05:00.004-10:00

No, Folks, Romney DOESN'T Know What He's Talking About in Foreign Affairs

2011-11-14T19:13:00.000-10:00

It's just that compared to the rest of the ludicrous Republican circus (Jon Hunstman excepted) he doesn't sound like a complete blithering idiot. But man, he most assuredly is. Steve Benen has the takedown here:

[Last Saturday] The former Massachusetts governor effectively called for a trade war with China, which is hopelessly insane, and is based on Romney’s confused understanding of what’s procedurally possible at the WTO. He also called for U.S. support for “the insurgents” in Iran, apparently unaware of the fact that there are no such insurgents.

Romney went on to say he would never negotiate with the Taliban in Afghanistan, which is naive and at odds with the assessments of all U.S. military leaders, and added that he’s both for and against withdrawal timetables.

Remember the time Romney told ABC News he would “set a deadline for bringing the troops home” from Iraq — but only if it’s a secret deadline? How about the time Romney, more than four years into the war in Iraq, said it’s “entirely possible” that Saddam Hussein hid weapons of mass destruction in Syria prior to the 2003 invasion? Or the time Romney pretended “Hezbollah and Hamas and al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood” were all the same thing? How about my personal favorite: the time Romney made the bizarre assertion that IAEA weapons inspectors were not allowed entry into Saddam Hussein’s Iraq?

More recently, Romney tried to trash the New START nuclear treaty in an op-ed, prompting Fred Kaplan to respond, “In 35 years of following debates over nuclear arms control, I have never seen anything quite as shabby, misleading and — let’s not mince words — thoroughly ignorant as Mitt Romney’s attack on the New START treaty.”

Yes, friends, Romney is as much of a hopeless buffoon as almost all of the rest of the Republican field. It's just that he can speak in complete sentences and doesn't start shooting sparks from his temples like Bachmann or Perry. But he would be incredibly dangerous and incompetent in foreign affairs. It would be back to the dark days of W.

But with better grammar--and really swell hair.

Marvel at Herman Cain's Incoherent Babbling...

2011-11-14T15:04:00.000-10:00

and see if you can sit through all five minutes of it.

As Bugs Bunny would say, "What a maroon."

If You Wonder Why We Have Veterans Day...

2011-11-11T14:31:00.001-10:00

Read this. It is,in part, about Iraq, but American veterans of all eras have had similar experiences, and we owe it to them to understand that. We owe them a debt of gratitude that can never be fully repaid.

On Veterans Day, Romney Proposes Privatizing Veterans' Health Care

2011-11-11T13:33:00.000-10:00

Damn, is this guy Romney a piece of work or what? Now he proposes a "voucher" system for veterans so that they can experience the joys of the wondrous private health care insurance market. In effect, Romney now proposes to cripple the Veterans Administration, just as he proposes to destroy Medicare, just as he proposes to raise the Social Security retirement age, just as he proposed letting the auto industry collapse, just as he proposes letting the housing market "hit bottom" so speculators can snatch up properties and rent them out. It needs to be said, loudly and clearly:

MITT ROMNEY DESPISES ORDINARY AMERICANS AND HAS NOTHING BUT CONTEMPT FOR THEM. HIS GOVERNMENT WOULD BE GOVERNMENT OF THE RICH, BY THE RICH, FOR THE RICH--PERIOD.

Do you ever get the feeling that I viscerally dislike this clown?

New Ad Hits Romney HARD On His Lies and Heartlessness

2011-11-10T13:45:00.000-10:00

2011-11-08T12:42:00.003-10:00

(Click to Enlarge for Further Hilarity)

Mitt Romney Pledges to Destroy Medicare

2011-11-04T20:21:00.004-10:00

Yes, he'll embrace Paul Ryan's viciously cruel plan to replace Medicare with vouchers that will pay less than half of what the elderly have been receiving via Medicare. Elderly Americans will be expected to buy insurance on the private market (!!), even though they are in many ways the worst risks for insurers. Yes, you'd have 80 year-olds negotiating with a health insurance company, begging them for coverage.

DON'T LET THE REPUBLICANS GET AWAY WITH THE UTTER, OUT-AND-OUT DAMNED LIE THAT THIS MEASURE IS INTENDED TO "SAVE" MEDICARE. IT IS INTENDED TO DESTROY MEDICARE, WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT IS DESIGNED TO DO.

We're talking about a "system" that will condemn countless older Americans to an early death. We're talking about the REAL death panels here--the insurance companies that turn down the elderly, because the insurance companies would go bankrupt trying to provide for them. We're talking about destroying one of the most effective government programs in history.

People, WAKE UP. The Republican Right-Wing fanatics and ideological lunatics want to destroy Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid because they show the entire conservative argument--the contention that government is the problem--is a lie. They want to destroy these programs not because they've failed.

They want to destroy them because they work.

Send This Message to Everyone You Know

2011-11-02T11:53:00.000-10:00

Yes!! Going to War Against the SCUM and the PEDOPHILES Putting Child Pornography on the Web

2011-10-24T22:37:00.000-10:00

It's called Operation Darknet, and their goal is to block/destroy/disrupt as many of the sick, vile child pornography sites on the Web as humanly possible. GO ANONYMOUS! WRECK ALL OF 'EM!!

I Always Love a Good Smackdown of Willard Romney

2011-10-19T23:08:00.000-10:00

And you can find one here, courtesy of Charles Pierce. His piece on the farcical Republican multi-car crash/debate is classic. Money quote:

Here are the two things we learned about the actual frontrunners last night. First of all, Mitt Romney is still a smug, entitled prick. His regular-guy shtick has never been convincing, and it never will be, so he abandoned it entirely last night. If he wasn't whining, continuously, about how he wasn't being allowed to speak, he was letting loose with the kind of contemptuous snicker that you aim at the help when they fall down the stairs. (Remember in 2000, when pundits wouldn't shut up about Al Gore's alleged sighing? This was worse.) For some reason — and "utter, flop-sweaty desperation" is the first answer that leaps to mind — Perry decided to go after Romney on an old story from the Boston Globe in which it was reported that the Romneys had illegal immigrants doing yard work on the family manse back in Massachusetts. Romney parried the attacks ably with his usual mixture of condescension and contempt for the lower classes who dare question him. And then he proceeded to drop his hands, and stick his chin out.

First he said that, when he learned that the landscaping company had hired undocumented workers, Romney told Perry that he told the company, "You can't have any illegals working on our property. I'm running for office, for pete's sake, we can't have illegals."

Translation: "We don't hire illegals because it might hurt our campaign! Not because it's illegal or anything. I mean, do you really think rules apply to people like me?

What a tool.

(Hat tip: Balloon Juice)

What She Said

2011-10-19T22:55:00.003-10:00

(Click to Enlarge)

Wow! What a Surprise! Romney's Lying Through His Teeth--Again

2011-10-07T11:46:00.000-10:00

Is there ANYTHING Willard can tell the truth about? I kind of doubt it. Now, he claims he needs to be be president to reverse the "massive defense cuts" imposed by the Evil Obama. Just one problems with that argument:

IT'S A DAMNED LIE. Here are the FACTS of the matter:

REMEMBER, EVERYONE. ANY TIME ROMNEY OPENS HIS MOUTH AND SAYS SOMETHING, IT IS ALMOST INVARIABLY LYING BULLSHIT.

Period.

It's Mitt vs. Willard! Or Willard vs. Mitt! I Forget Which is Which

2011-10-05T17:14:00.003-10:00

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

2011-10-03T11:42:00.004-10:00

Rick Perry, Mr. Crony Capitalism Himself

2011-09-12T17:19:00.001-10:00

(Click to Enlarge)

On the Tenth Anniversary of the 9/11 Attacks

2011-09-11T10:26:00.003-10:00

I'll have more to say tomorrow, but for today, let this be our sentiment.

P.S. Powerful images related to the 9/11 attacks can be found here.

Why I Am Becoming Radicalized, Part One

2011-09-07T16:57:00.041-10:00

Please enlarge this. Absorb what it's saying. And then tell me that this nation's middle class isn't under serious assault, an assault led by powerful corporate interests.

To repeat:

Productivity, up 80%--EIGHTY PERCENT--from 1980 to now.

Total hourly compensation of all kinds up 8% in constant dollars. EIGHT LOUSY PERCENT IN THIRTY YEARS.

Total hourly wages up 7% in constant dollars. SEVEN LOUSY PERCENT IN THIRTY YEARS.

Income gains for Bottom 20% of population, 1980 to 2009: NEGATIVE FOUR PERCENT.

Income gains for Top 20% of population, 1980 to 2009: PLUS FIFTY-FIVE PERCENT.

Share of the National Income That Goes to the Top 1% of Earners: 23.5%, the highest share since 1928.

Percentage of women with children under 18 who work:

1975--47%
2008--71%

Household debt as a percentage of disposable income:

1947--26%
2008--132%

And the Republican response to all this?

MORE TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH AND MORE "AUSTERITY" FOR THE MIDDLE AND LOWER CLASSES, INCLUDING THE DESTRUCTION OF SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE.

People, wake up--these right-wing politicians DESPISE you. They consider you LOOTERS, MOOCHERS, "UNPRODUCTIVE", "INSIGNIFICANT".

THEY ARE YOUR ENEMIES.

STOP VOTING FOR THEM. THEY ARE AGAINST YOUR FAMILY AND YOUR FUTURE. THEY MUST BE STOPPED--NOW.

Period.

2011-08-30T13:30:00.002-10:00

Click to enlarge--and pass it around!!

2011-08-27T18:23:00.001-10:00

2011-08-16T13:50:00.003-10:00

Click to enlarge--and then pass it around.

2011-08-14T19:29:00.001-10:00

Obama Caves In, America Loses

2011-07-31T20:15:00.007-10:00

The deal that Barack Obama and the Congressional leadership have agreed to is a disaster for our country and a complete victory for the blackmailing, vicious Tea Party fanatics who threatened to destroy the full faith and credit of the United States if they didn't get their way. In the midst of a cruel and prolonged recession, the government is going to do EXACTLY the wrong thing at the wrong time. This is a complete abdication of responsibility on the part of the President, a man in whom I am severely disappointed. Our "leader" is a man who couldn't negotiate his way out of a paper bag and continues to try to placate people who HATE HIM and will NEVER support him in any way. And do you think any of this will stop the Republicans from waging the ugliest, most vile, most hate-drenched campaign in American history in 2012? They're STILL going to screech that Obama is an Anti-American/Marxist/Terrorist/Nazi/Communist/Muslim Traitor. And you know what? There's a damn good chance they'll win, and that we will have a government that makes Bush and Cheney's horrendous administration look benign by comparison.

Can you imagine--CAN YOU IMAGINE--the tragedy of having someone like Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann in the White House? And yet, this is what this cowardly "Democratic" president is leading us to. If the ultra-Right wins power next year, it will institute policies so radical and destructive that it will mean the effective end of our democratic-republic. Science will be rejected in favor of creationist idiocy and global warming denial. The poor will be beaten into the ground and left to fend for themselves. Medicare will be destroyed and Social Security will be "reformed" out of existence. The tax code will be dictated exclusively by criminal grifters like Grover Norquist and will pour obscene amounts of money into the pockets of the ultra-rich. The gap between rich and poor will reach shocking new proportions as a permanent underclass will be doomed to suffer lives of unending wretchedness. The health care reforms won at such great effort will be wiped out and the chronically ill will continue to suffer needlessly. Immigration? Expect Arizona on a national level. Infrastructure improvement will be ignored, environmental protections will be gutted, worker safety will be ignored, unions will finally be smashed, and the government's regulatory powers permanently crippled. Women will be reduced to second class citizenship as the Fascist Right destroys not only abortion rights but outlaws contraceptives on "moral grounds". (And don't forget that Scalia says that women aren't covered by the equal protection of the law--for real.) Gays will be legally shoved back into the closet and made into targets of official hatred, as the more radical Teabagger states start sending gays to prison again. And the insane "war on drugs" will be brutally accelerated. All this while the Republicans make it harder and harder for the poor and minorities to vote, effectively making fascist rule permanent. At the top, it will be government by Corporatist Kleptocracy. For everyone else, it will be "Christian Nation" theocracy, as Christianist fundamentalism is made into the semi-official State Religion. And I don't even want to think of the nuclear arsenal of the United States being in the hands of people who think the "End Times" are upon us, nor a foreign policy designed by William Kristol and the other Chickenhawk homicidal maniacs.

You think I'm exaggerating? EVERY SINGLE THING I've just cited is an official right-wing policy objective. That's what actually will happen if and when the Fascist Right comes to power, something that may just happen because the economy will continue to slide further and further downward.

We're screwed

I thought I was voting for FDR in 2008.

Instead, I got Neville Chamberlain.

You TELL 'Em, Whoopi!!

2011-07-12T14:10:00.000-10:00

Bachmann's Minister: Vicious Bigot and Perverted Fanatic

2011-07-09T12:20:00.001-10:00

We have to fight these people with all our heart and soul. They want America to be a religious dictatorship--run by them. We MUST stop them.

Happy 235th Birthday, United States of America!!

2011-07-04T00:28:00.001-10:00

History by Michele

2011-06-29T13:02:00.001-10:00

Hey, it's not much different from what she actually believes.

Michele Bachmann: Evil, Dangerous, Perverted Fanatic

2011-06-15T16:21:00.002-10:00

I've been trying to spread the word on this woman for a long time. Bachmann is as sick, as demented, and as dishonest a politician as we have in America. She's also a threat to the very survival of this nation. Were she somehow to attain high office, it would signal the effective death of the American Republic and signal to the broader world that the American age had passed. Think I'm exaggerating? Check this post from Michelle Goldberg at The Daily Beast right here if you doubt me. Excerpts:

(Bachmann shrieked that she was being held against her will when a lesbian named Pamela Arnold merely confronted Bachmann with questions in a public bathroom.) Lots of politicians talk about a sinister homosexual agenda. Bachmann, who has made opposition to gay rights a cornerstone of her career, seems genuinely to believe in one. Her conviction trumps even her once close relationship with her lesbian stepsister. "What an amazing imagination," marvels Arnold. "Her ideology is so powerful that she can construct a reality just on a moment's notice."

*****

Belief is the key to understanding Michele Bachmann, who announced her presidential candidacy during Monday's Republican debate. Her impressive performance, which catapulted her close to the front of the presidential pack, surprised some, who perhaps expected her to be as inarticulate as Sarah Palin, to whom she's often compared. But in Minnesota, even those who don't like her politics say she shouldn't be underestimated. "The fact that she's not a heavy lifter, the fact that she's relatively unconcerned about the substance of legislation, does not mean that she's not crafty, that she's not intelligent and she's not fast," says former Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson, a Republican. Her ideological radicalism should not be mistaken for stupidity.

*****

On Monday, Bachmann didn't talk a lot about her religion. She didn't have to—she knows how to signal it in ways that go right over secular heads. In criticizing Obama's Libya policy, for example, she said, "We are the head and not the tail." The phrase comes from Deuteronomy 28:13: "The Lord will make you the head and not the tail." As Rachel Tabachnick has reported, it's often used in theocratic circles to explain why Christians have an obligation to rule.

Indeed, no other candidate in the race is so completely a product of the evangelical right as Bachmann; she could easily become the Christian conservative alternative to the comparatively moderate Mormon Mitt Romney.

*****

A key moment in her political evolution, as for many of her generation, was the film series How Should We Then Live by the theologian Francis Schaeffer, who is widely credited for mobilizing evangelicals against abortion, an issue most had previously ignored. A Presbyterian minister, Schaeffer argued that our entire perception of reality depends on our worldview, and that only those with the right one can understand the true nature of things. Christianity, he argued, is "a whole system of truth, and this system is the only system that will stand up to all the questions that are presented to us as we face the reality of existence." Theories or assertions from outside this system—evolution, for example—can be dismissed as the product of mistaken premises.

*****

At Coburn, Bachmann studied with John Eidsmoe, who she recently described as "one of the professors who had a great influence on me." Bachmann served as his research assistant on the 1987 book Christianity and the Constitution, which argued that the United States was founded as a Christian theocracy, and that it should become one again. "The church and the state have separate spheres of authority, but both derive authority from God," Eidsmoe wrote. "In that sense America, like [Old Testament] Israel, is a theocracy."

Eidsmoe, who hung up the phone when asked for an interview, is a contentious figure. Last year, he withdrew from speaking at a Wisconsin Tea Party rally after the Associated Press raised questions about his history of addresses to white-supremacist groups. In 2010, speaking at a rally celebrating Alabama's secession from the Union, he claimed that Jefferson Davis and John C. Calhoun understood the Constitution better than Abraham Lincoln.

Reading Eidsmoe, though, some of Bachmann's most widely ridiculed statements begin to make sense. Earlier this year, for example, she was mocked for saying that the Founding Fathers "worked tirelessly" to end slavery. But in books by Eidsmoe and others who approach history from what they call a Christian worldview, this is a truism. Despite his defense of the Confederacy, Eidsmoe also argues that even those founders who owned slaves opposed the institution and wanted it to disappear, and that it was only Christian for them to protect their slaves until it did. "It might be very difficult for a freed slave to make a living in that economy; under such circumstances setting slaves free was both inhumane and irresponsible," he wrote.

*****

After graduating from Coburn in 1986, Bachmann went on to get a degree in tax law from William and Mary School of Law in Virginia, while her husband studied psychology and counseling at Regent University, the school founded by Pat Robertson. His thesis was about the harmful effects of day care on children. "[T]he best interests of the public would be served if one parent did not work outside of the home unless it was absolutely essential," he wrote.

*****

In the statehouse, Bachmann made opposition to same-sex marriage her signature issue. Both she and her husband, by all accounts her most trusted political adviser, believe that homosexuality can be cured. Speaking to a Christian radio station about gay teenagers last year, Marcus, who treats gay people in his counseling practice, said, "Barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined, and just because someone feels this or thinks this, doesn't mean that we're supposed to go down that road." [Emphasis added]

In 2004, Bachmann gave a speech warning that same-sex marriage would lead to schoolchildren being indoctrinated into homosexuality. She wanted everyone to know, though, that she doesn't hate gay people. "Any of you who have members of your family in the lifestyle, we have a member of our family that is," she said. "This is not funny. It's a very sad life. It's part of Satan, I think, to say that this is gay."

*****

None of this is likely to sour her many devoted fans. Indeed, it's precisely her unwavering ideological commitment that endears her to them. "She's not afraid to say things that other people on the right are probably thinking, but they're just too wimpy to say," says [a supporter]. "She says these things and she promotes these views because she really believes them."

Hate-filled, violently anti-gay. Determined to make America into a right-wing radical "Christian" [sic] theocracy. Ally to white supremacists. Holds an utterly distorted view of American history. Militantly anti-science. Bachmann is more dangerous than Palin, who is an ignorant fool and a grifter, because she's smarter and more articulate. Bachmann and her supporters are a deadly threat to this country. These people VIOLENTLY HATE AMERICA AND EVERYTHING IT STANDS FOR. Their coming to ultimate power--something to which they ludicrously believe they are entitled--would be a catastrophe of the first order. And remember folks--THE REPUBLICAN PARTY'S BASE LOVES THIS PSYCHOTIC WOMAN. She IS the Republican Party, heart and soul. Never forget that history takes wildly unexpected turns, and it is possible--perhaps not yet probable--that this woman and her minions will take over this country. If that happens, America is through.

And it's about that simple.

Rick Perry: Dangerous, Lying Right-Wing Fanatic

2011-06-10T14:33:00.001-10:00

From our friends at Think Progress, right here. To summarize the main points:

(1) PERRY ALLOWED THE EXECUTION OF A LIKELY INNOCENT MAN, THEN IMPEDED AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE MATTER

(2) PERRY WANTS TO REPEAL THE 16th AND 17th AMENDMENTS, ENDING DIRECT ELECTION OF U.S. SENATORS AND THE FEDERAL INCOME TAX

(3) PERRY PROPOSED LETTING STATES DROP OUT OF SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICAID

(4) TEXAS IS THE COUNTRY’S BIGGEST POLLUTER, BUT PERRY SUED THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FOR DISAPPROVING OF THE STATE’S AIR QUALITY STANDARDS

(5) PERRY DESIGNATED AS “EMERGENCY LEGISLATION” A BILL REQUIRING ALL WOMEN SEEKING ABORTIONS TO HAVE SONOGRAMS FIRST

(6) PERRY GUTTED CHILDCARE SERVICES EVEN AS TEXAS CHILDHOOD POVERTY HIT 25 PERCENT

(7) PERRY WAS A STRONG SUPPORTER OF TEXAS’S ANTI-SODOMY LAWS

(8) PERRY IS A STIMULUS HYPOCRITE WHO LOUDLY CRITICIZED FEDERAL RECOVERY MONEY BUT USED IT TO BALANCE HIS STATE’S BUDGET

(9) PERRY SAID THAT TEXAS MIGHT HAVE TO SECEDE FROM THE UNITED STATES

(10) DESPITE HAVING THE WORST UNINSURED RATE IN THE COUNTRY, PERRY CLAIMS THAT TEXAS HAS “THE BEST HEALTH CARE IN THE COUNTRY”

And this dangerous ultra-right radical is being talked of for the Presidency.

Wow. A radical right-wing Texas governor. How'd that work out last time?

Let Freedom Ring, You Betcha, By Golly

2011-06-06T17:40:00.004-10:00

(Enlarge for greater amusement)

2011-06-03T21:45:00.002-10:00

Enlarge for Humorous Details

Moron. Just a Freaking Moron.

2011-06-02T23:15:00.003-10:00

I used to say that her understanding of American government and U.S. history was at the level of the average 4th grader. I now realize what a disservice to 4th graders those sentiments were.

2011-06-01T21:11:00.001-10:00

Talk About a Hopeless Battle

2011-06-01T19:08:00.003-10:00

(Click to enlarge, if you want to be both amused and horrified.)

The Republican War on Workers Explained

2011-05-31T14:28:00.000-10:00

And explained very well, right here. The key quote:

Since we’re identifying basic goals here, let me name one for the right: degrading the standard of living for the large majority of the American people. You degrade the ability of everyone to make a decent wage by destroying unions, one of the traditional models for how to improve the standard of living of broad groups of the American people. (Including, incidentally, those of non-unionized workers, whose wages were historically inflated due to the threat of unionization.) You eliminate pensions; you replace them with things like 401ks, which don’t provide enough for retirement. You oppose health care reform; in fact, you work to degrade Medicare with a voucher program that doesn’t keep up with the cost of health care. You eliminate social services and government programs everywhere. You do all of it in the name of the free market.

Read the whole thing, as we say in Blogland.

Auggghhh!! Run for Your Lives!!

2011-05-31T00:34:00.003-10:00

(Click to enlarge.)

Poem: The semantics of flowers on Memorial Day

2011-05-29T21:48:00.001-10:00

Historians will tell you my uncle
wouldn’t have called it World War II
or the Great War plus One or Tombstone

over My Head. All of this language
came later. He and his buddies
knew it as get my ass outta here

or fucking trench foot and of course
sex please now. Petunias are an apology
for ignorance, my confidence

that saying high-density bombing
or chunks of brain in my cold coffee
even suggests the athleticism

of his flinch or how casually
he picked the pieces out.
Geraniums symbolize the secrets

life kept from him, the wonder
of variable-speed drill and how
the sky would have changed had he lived

to shout it’s a girl. My hands
enter dirt easily, a premonition.
I sit back on my uncle’s stomach

exactly like I never did, he was
a picture to me, was my father
looking across a field at wheat

laying down to wind. For a while,
Tyrant’s War and War of World Freedom
and Anti-Nazi War skirmished

for linguistic domination. If
my uncle called it anything
but too many holes in too many bodies

no flower can say. I plant marigolds
because they came cheap and who knows
what the earth’s in the mood to eat.

- Bob Hicok, from Insomnia Diary

Hat Tip: My dear friend Paul Claycomb

More Like This, Please

2011-05-25T00:36:00.004-10:00

The Next U.S. Senator from Hawaii

2011-05-19T22:34:00.001-10:00

BTW, you can find Mazie's record here.

2011-05-13T21:29:00.002-10:00

Man, I Just HAD to Steal This.

2011-05-11T17:04:00.000-10:00

GINGRICH 2012: HE WILL ALWAYS LOVE AMERICA. UNLESS IT GETS CANCER.

Hahahahahahahahahahaha!

Are There ANY Lies John Boehner WON'T Tell?

2011-05-10T14:51:00.000-10:00

My God, this lying clown repeats just about EVERY single right-wing lie imaginable about the economic meltdown. What a mendacious, viciously dishonest so-called "leader". Media Matters is on the case:

CLAIM: Speaker Boehner Claimed That "Government Mortgage Companies...Triggered The Whole Meltdown" In Our Economy

BOEHNER: And the government mortgage companies that triggered the whole meltdown went untouched.

FACT: Lax Oversight And Potentially Fraudulent Financial Practices Caused The Housing Bubble And Ensuing Meltdown

The Collapse Of The Housing Bubble Triggered A Banking Crisis That Lead To A Massive Recession. From Slate: "The only near consensus is on the question of what triggered the not-quite-a-depression. In 2007, the housing bubble burst, leading to a high rate of defaults on subprime mortgages. Exposure to bad mortgages doomed Bear Stearns in March 2008, then led to a banking crisis that fall. A global recession became inevitable once the government decided not to rescue Lehman Bros. from default in September 2008. Lehman's was the biggest bankruptcy in history, and it led promptly to a powerful economic contraction. Somewhere around here, agreement ends." [Slate, 1/9/10]

Subprime Mortgage Data Do Not Support Claim That Government Actions Triggered Housing Bubble. Barry Ritholtz, who wrote the book Bailout Nation about the housing bubble and ensuing financial crisis, reports:

Federal Reserve Board data show that:

-More than 84 percent of the subprime mortgages in 2006 were issued by private lending institutions.

-Private firms made nearly 83 percent of the subprime loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers that year.

-Only one of the top 25 subprime lenders in 2006 was directly subject to the housing law that's being lambasted by conservative critics. [The Big Picture, 12/16/10]

Complex Accounting Tricks By Wall Street Firms Contributed To The Magnitude Of The Recession. From Slate: "A bit farther down on the list are various contributing factors, which didn't fundamentally cause the crisis but either enabled it or made it worse than it otherwise might have been. These include: global savings imbalances, which put upward pressure on U.S. asset prices and downward pressure on interest rates during the bubble years; conflicts of interest and massive misjudgments on the part of credit rating agencies Moody's and Standard and Poor's about the risks of mortgage-backed securities; the lack of transparency about the risks borne by banks, which used off-balance-sheet entities known as SIVs to hide what they were doing; excessive reliance on mathematical models like the VAR and the dread Gaussian copula function, which led to the underpricing of unpredictable forms of risk; a flawed model of executive compensation and implicit too-big-to-fail guarantees that encouraged traders and executives at financial firms to take on excessive risk; and the non-confidence-inspiring quality of former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's initial responses to the crisis." [Slate, 1/9/10, emphasis added]

There's more, much more. This is the person we need to throw OUT of the Speaker's chair next year. I'm ready to help. How about you?

WTF??? Listen to Christiane Amanpour from 2008

2011-05-08T23:15:00.000-10:00

The President Announces Bin Laden's Death

2011-05-01T19:38:00.001-10:00

2011-05-01T19:11:00.001-10:00

2011-05-01T17:36:00.001-10:00

JUSTICE AT LAST! OSAMA BIN-LADEN HAS FINALLY BEEN KILLED! THANK YOU TO THE BRAVE WARRIORS WHO DID THIS, AND THANK YOU PRESIDENT OBAMA!!

Heh Heh Heh!

2011-05-01T00:24:00.000-10:00

Colbert Rocks--Again.

2011-04-28T12:05:00.001-10:00

The Colbert Report
Tags: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Oh HELL Yes!

2011-04-27T18:26:00.002-10:00

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

The Voice of the Insane

2011-04-22T11:21:00.000-10:00

Some 45% of Republicans don't think President Obama was born in The United States.

Sure, I want to hand the country over to a bunch of Birther idiots who think the Earth is 6,000 years old and who think the Confederacy was a great and noble idea. Really, who could object?

"I Give Up"

2011-04-03T12:44:00.001-10:00

The Daily Show - I Give Up - Pay Anything...
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

This is What the Truth Sounds Like

2011-03-27T23:34:00.000-10:00

Study These Charts, and Then Tell Me America Isn't in Trouble

2011-03-23T18:28:00.000-10:00

The horrible evidence of the impact of conservative policies on America can be found here. Wealthy business interests have rigged America's economic system to benefit themselves and screw everyone else. A few examples: (You may need to click to enlarge them)

Oh, and by the way, don't let anyone snow you with the phony "rich people pay all the taxes lie". The lower income groups pay sales taxes, state income taxes, real estate taxes, excise taxes, you name it. And the share of taxes as a share of GDP is the lowest it's been in over 50 years.

This is what America is coming to. Just what do you intend to do about it?

Trace the Upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa

2011-03-22T20:27:00.001-10:00

Right here,courtesy of Slate. Good animated map with a good chronology of the uprisings. Check it out.

The Last Word on David Broder

2011-03-15T17:28:00.000-10:00

It's right here. You owe it yourself to read all of it. Excerpt:

In fact, this fetish [of "balance" in political reporting] became so obsessive that, in the end, it became the great, tragic irony of David Broder's professional life. Because at last he simply could not bear to part with his fantasies about what he wished America to be and face the brutal realities of what America was actually becoming, David Broder -- this "Dean of the Washington press corps" -- totally missed out on covering the greatest story of his time; the utter collapse of the American news media and the mutation of the GOP from a political party into a dangerously fascistic cesspit of oligarchs, lunatics and rubes.

Enlarge This Chart. And Then Enlarge Your Understanding of How Things Actually Work in America

2011-03-06T16:10:00.000-10:00

These are some of the proposals being pushed the hardest by the Republicans:

Scott Walker: Dangerous, Radical Right Wing Fanatic

2011-02-27T12:26:00.001-10:00

In addition to his war against working men and women, radical right-wing Wisconsin governor Scott Walker is backing a plan so extreme, so downright lunatic-right in its orientation, that it would shock a John Bircher. Highlights include:

1. ELIMINATING MEDICAID: The Budget Repair Bill includes a little-known provision that would put complete control of the state’s Medicaid program, known as BadgerCare, in the hands of the state’s ultra-conservative Health and Human Services Secretary Dennis Smith. Smith would have the authority to “to override state Medicaid laws as [he] sees fit and institute sweeping changes” including reducing benefits and limiting eligibility.

2. POWER PLANT PRIVATIZATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL NEGLECT: The same budget bill calls for a rapid no-bid “firesale” of all state-owned power plants. One progressive blogger called the proposal “a highlight reel of all of the tomahawk dunks of neo-Gilded Age corporatism: privatization, no-bid contracts, deregulation, and naked cronyism” and suggested that the provision will open the way for large, politically connected corporations to buy up the state’s power plants on the cheap.

3. DANGEROUS DRINKING WATER: Republican lawmakers have introduced bills in both the Senate and the House which would repeal a rule requiring municipal governments to disinfect their water.

4. DESTROYING WETLANDS: In January, Walker’s proposed regulatory reform bill exempted a parcel of wetland owned by a Republican donor from water quality standards.

5. FISCAL IRRESPONSIBILITY: Walker signed a bill this week requiring a 2/3 supermajority in the legislature to pass any tax increase. Republican lawmakers are now reportedly considering a constitutional amendment that would make the rule permanent. A similar constitutional amendment in California has been called the “source of misery” of that state’s crippling budget crisis and has forced lawmakers to “gut public education, slash social services and health care programs, close prisons, and lay off record numbers of public employees.”

6. DISENFRANCHISING VOTERS: This week, Republican lawmakers moved forward on a bill that would require voters to present a photo ID from the DMV at the polls, making it significantly more difficult for the elderly, the disabled, college students, and rural residents to participate in elections. While Republican lawmakers insist the bill is necessary to prevent voter fraud, there have been almost no documented cases of fraudulent voting in the state. Instead, the Wisconsin State Journal writes, the GOP bill is going “overboard in limiting ballot access in a state proud of its long history of high participation in elections.”

7. CUTTING JOBS, LOSING THE FUTURE: Last fall, Walker killed an $810 [million] federally funded high-speed rail project, forcing the Transportation Department to pull its funding. Walker’s decision killed 130,000 expected jobs and forced the Spanish company Talgo to close its Milwaukee factory and layoff its 40 person staff. A spokeswoman for the company told The Daily Reporter that “the state’s decision to back away from the high-speed rail project sends a terrible message to businesses considering locating in the state.”

8. STIFLING INNOVATION: In late January, Walker introduced a bill that would ban wind-powered energy from Wisconsin and exacerbate the state’s dependence on out-of-state coal. If passed, it’s estimated that the law would immediately eliminate $1.8 billion in new wind power investments and jeopardize eleven currently proposed wind projects. After a public outcry earlier this month, Walker’s bill is (for now) dead.

9. “NAKED POWER GRAB”: Earlier this month in a party-line vote, the legislature ceded “extraordinary control” of the state’s rule-making oversight process to the governor. Walker now has complete power to draft agency rules which the legislature must then either approve or reject. The law gives Walker the power to write rules for formerly independent state agencies like the state Departments of Justice and Education — and most ominously the Government Accountability Board, the state’s ethics watchdog.

Democrats, this is the kind of wretched garbage we get thrown in our faces WHEN WE DON'T VOTE. We let right-wing crooks and idiots like Scott Walker and his rich cronies set public policy. There is a recall movement underway in Wisconsin. Walker becomes eligible fore recall in January 2012. LET'S GET RID OF HIM and flush his right-wing clown circus out of power once and for all.