Sarah Palin 1, Lamestream Media 0

Despite what the elitists at RedState Blog say, Sarah does not need to meet the scheduling needs of the Lamestream Media Elite:

"I hold my political cards close to my chest. I've certainly learned lessons along those lines, and I'm going to continue to do that until I'm ready to make an announcement. This is a serious decision, and I'm engaged in serious deliberations and within the next 24 hours, don't look for me to make a decision."

So what if today was some sort of self imposed a deadline to announce for the Presidency. If Sarah imposed it in the first place, why can't she un-impose it too. This makes perfect sense to me.

The Lamestream Media can just wait until she is ready to exercise her first amendment rights.

Its P-Day and I say String 'em along Sarah

“I think that practically speaking that would have to be it, that drop dead date. Also, in fairness to supporters who are standing on the sidelines, this is what I’ve told Todd over and over again, I don’t want to be perceived as stringing people along.“

Sarah Palin talking about the timeline to declare as a GOTP candidate for President.

Today is September 30th or P-Day , one of the self imposed deadlines for Sarah to announce her candidacy and RedState Blog is playing along with a mocking Hour by Hour Palin Presidential announcement watch.

At one time RedState Blog, launched "Operation Leper," a plan to destroy the careers of republicans insufficiently loyal to Sarah Palin. Today, the infatuation once felt for Sarah, has given way to almost a feeling of contempt that is just plain MEAN. I believe that this is outrageous conduct on the part of the Lamestream media outlet known as RedState Blog.

When you think about it, from Sarah's perspective, it is almost as if RedState is trying to oppress her First Amendment Rights to say what she wants to say about running for President. If she wants to exercise her right of freedom of speech today, so be it. If she wants to do it later, so be it. Its her right to speak when and where she wants, not RedState Blog right to oppress it.

If she thinks that it is necessary to run for president to beat the flip flopping freedom killing RINO Mitt Romney and the Crony Capitalist and dullard George Bush Clone Rick Perry I say she has the right to declare this whenever she wants.

I support Sarah here. String these sons of bitches along and of course….. and keep cashing their checks all the while.

BREAKING………Hostage Crisis on Capital Hill

The Congressional Tea Party Caucus has just gone Full Metal Wingnut:

WASHINGTON—Brandishing shotguns and semiautomatic pistols, members of the 112th U.S. Congress took a class of visiting schoolchildren hostage this morning, barricading themselves inside the Capitol rotunda, where they remain at press time.

If the money is not delivered by this evening, members of Congress say they will shoot a new child every hour on the hour. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who has emerged as spokesman for the bipartisan group, informed FBI negotiators that the legislative body's demands would be issued within the next hour, and that if any attempt is made to stage a rescue "all the kids will die."

"At this time, we are waiting for more information and to see what the U.S. Congress's demands might be," Special Agent Douglas Burkett of the FBI Crisis Negotiation Unit said. "In the meantime, we have snipers on the Supreme Court building, the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial, and the National Museum of the American Indian, but so far none of them has been able to get a clear shot at any senators or representatives."

"While there's an assault team on the way, they won't be able to breach the door if members of Congress have rigged the place with explosives," Burkett added. "And that's quite possible. From the looks of things, I'd say they've been planning this for a while."

Shaken witnesses reported that the ordeal broke out around 10 a.m. this morning, when in the midst of a Capitol tour, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) suddenly burst into the National Statuary Hall with a pair of black panty hose over his head and began firing a Beretta 9 mm handgun into the air, shouting, "Everybody down! Everybody get the fuck down!"

I did not know Harry Reid had joined the Tea Party. Odd. The Latest news on twitter has a special police helicopter being called away from the Capital Building after being driven off by a shotgun wielding Rep Trent Franks (R-AZ). Very odd.

UPDATE: This story is a joke - satire from the Onion. I'll admit, it sounded real. Live and learn. The scary part about this story is the potential of copy cat criminals who may read it and think that it is a good idea. Specifically, the Tea Party Congressman from Tennessee that held himself hostage at gunpoint for three hours, would seem as likely a candidate as anyone. The Feds better keep an eye on him.

Feds nail Tea Party-esque Predator

I surprised there is not more of this turning a Buck on the fears of the teabagging public. According to this Federal Indictment (pdf) of Jeffery A. Lowrance and First Capital, it can be a smooth scam - a ponzi scheme. I know there is Foxnews and AM radio but they aren't quite as brazen:

[Jeffery A.] Lowrance and First Capital sought investors for their fraudulent scheme in a predatory fashion. Perpetrating a type of "affinity fraud," Lowrance sought the trust of potential investors by pretending to share their values and aspirations. Lowrance held himself out as practicing Christian values to gain the trust Of Christian investors for his scheme. […]

Lowrance also targeted investors who shared his political beliefs. He used significant portion of the money he raised from investors to fund the creation of his alternative newspaper, USA Tomorrow, which claimed to promote "truth in journalism" and contained articles and advertisements advocating a limited government ideology. He then included in at least one

edition of USA Tomorrow a flyer advertising the First Capital investment opportunity which he distributed at the September 2008 Ron Paul Rally for the Republic in Minneapolis, Minnesota. USA Tomorrow was placed on every seat at the rally. […]

This operation started taking investors' cash in 2007, claiming that First Capital earned its "13.25% - 18.7% annual returns" because it employed "specialists in the Forex Currency Market." However after some initial payouts, the scheme collapsed:

In June 2008, Lowrance and First Capital stopped making investors' monthly return. In July 2008, Lowrance informed certain investors that First Capital's monthly payments were late because he had spent more than his share of the profits on his start-up newspaper, USA Tomorrow.

In October 2008, Lowrance falsely represented to certain investors that he would return everyone's principal by January 5, 2009. In February 2009, Lowrance admitted in writing to certain investors that First Capital never was profitable. He characterized the foreign currency trading business as "nearly impossible to make money at" and as "one big scam."

He further admitted that the daily trade emails First Capital sent to investors were fictitious and that First Capital had not actually entered into those trades. Instead, Lowrance admitted, these trades were merely recommended trades suggested by a group of three Peruvians he had trained to read foreign exchange charts. According to Lowrance, although the Peruvian chart readers made good trade recommendations, they lost money whenever they made live trades. Lowrance further admitted that he had mismanaged First Capital's funds and that by 17 September 2008 he had lost all the investors' money.

But it all was a scam. Thankfully, the Federal Government stepped in and put an end to this nonsense before too many more teabagging patriotic Americans fell victim. But I am really surprised this thing doesn't happen more often.

Via

This Week's Winger Climate Follies - Powerline Blog Edition

As Texas burns President Obama Mocked Rick Perry's Global Warming denial last week. Sure the Governor of Texas believes in the Global Warming Conspiracy at the same time as his state is on fire.

This is an outrage on the wingnet, of course. Not the part about Texas burning, but rather linking record droughts and wildfires to global warming. This is really outrageous despite climate reports prepared during the Bush Administration showing Texas and the American Southwest as the biggest losers in the coming decades. Quite simply, the Eggheads say these areas are likely to dry up and Burn.

Take it away friend:

It’s another perfect example of the non-falsifiability and complete flexibility of climate alarmism, which works like this: whenever there’s a local weather pattern—winter snowstorms (after being told 10 years ago that England would never see them again, for example), or cool summers—that runs against the global warming narrative, it is dismissed as “weather,” while any extreme local events such as tornadoes, hot weather, or drought are always called incontrovertible evidence that Global Warming Climate Change Is Happening!

[…] Meanwhile, Morano gives a hat tip to Obama on one thing: in 2008 Obama said that his election would be “the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow,” and guess what? The latest satellite data from both NASA and European scientific monitors show average sea levels have actually declined the last couple of years. A campaign promise fulfilled! At least one anyway.

Hope and change have come to the world’s mollusks!

Powerline Blogger Hayward

The wingnut fail is on so many levels, it almost hurts.

Hot weather in summer does not prove global warming is happening and despite what you read on Powerline Blog about Snow in Winter, it does not disprove global warming. There is a difference between weather and climate.

But what of the decline in sea levels the winger mocks? Could that be true? If icecaps are melting, isn't the sea rising instead? So I clicked on the Climate Denial link above which offered this page as proof that sea levels are declining not rising. The reason - Weather.

So global warming is not happening because sea levels are not rising? I think this is the winger implication here, but hey wait, I thought we weren't supposed to confuse weather and climate? The Lamestream media link says sea levels are influence be weather, like el nino and the like.

OK this is to be expected, wingers using weather to back up anti-global warming claims, but what about the President linking Burning Texas and climate change denial? Does the winger have a point here? Could the two be related? Let's turn to the Bush Administration to sort it all out. Bush Administration scientists put together this assessment (though published in 2009) for the great Southwest:

Key Issues

Water supplies will become increasingly scarce, calling for trade-offs among competing uses, and potentially leading to conflict. Water is vital to agriculture, hydroelectric power production, the growing human population, and ecosystems. Water supplies in some areas are already becoming limited. Large reductions in spring precipitation are projected for the Southwest. Continued temperature increases combined with river flow reductions and rapid population growth will increase competition for water supplies.

Increasing temperature, drought, wildfire, and invasive species will accelerate transformation of the landscape.

Impacts of climate change on the landscape of the Southwest are likely to be substantial, threatening biological diversity, protected areas, and ranching and agricultural lands. Temperature increases have made the current drought in the region more severe than the natural droughts of the last several centuries. Record-setting wildfires are resulting from the rising temperatures and related reductions in spring snowpack and soil moisture.

I don't know about you, but this and an increase of up to 10 degrees in temperature (referenced in the report) does not sound fun to me. Seems pretty straight forward. One plus one equals two and if it gets really hot and dry in Texas, it gonna burn.

Global Warming Denialism is getting to be where it looks like a religion with these wingers. It is almost as if they are saying "sure people a lot smarter than me and who have studied the issue for their professional careers say that West Texas will be near uninhabitable for our grandchildren, but I have faith in the wingnet which tells me its fake. Besides I'd rather distract people by making fun of President Obama." And this is all coming from the Powerline Blogger that is supposed to be the smart one. Live and learn I guess.

Sometime I think President Obama's biggest mistake was the FEMA camps. When he was accused of creating anti-Obama dissident camps and a secret Gestapo like police force, he should have just said, "F**k it. If I'm going to be accused of this stuff, I might as well just go ahead and do it." This was almost 3 years ago. We have those camps today, if he would just gone ahead and done it in the first place. What can you do?

Gold Bug Bailout Bill Submitted By Senate Tea Bag Caucus

Bi-Metalism Re-emerges:

Utah Sen. Mike Lee joined with fellow Republicans on Tuesday to introduce legislation that would jettison federal capital gains taxes for gold or silver coins.

Lee’s measure would treat gold or silver coins the same as regular U.S. currency in transactions, a change that he hopes will encourage a change in the nation’s monetary system.

[…]

Lee co-sponsored the legislation with Sens. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky.

The Three Amigos minus Senator Pat Toomey who I believe is in the senate Tea Bag Caucus, have offered a bill to offset potential losses speculators in Gold and Silver face.

With metal prices pushed upward, commercials on the Foxnews is urging real Americans to invest heavily in gold, when will the bubble burst? Comrade Frum Explains:

The three conservative senators have co-sponsored legislation to exempt gold and silver coins from capital gains tax. This measure won’t do much for those whose gold investments prove outright losers. But it will at least cushion the disappointment for those whose investments have fallen short of the hoped-for gains, even as shrewd hedge funds that bought gold futures, rather than the clunky solid stuff, have realized vast gains in large measure thanks to the tragically abused trust of talk-show listeners in their bought-and-paid-for gurus.

What comes up must come down. And if I had to bet, I'd say the Wall Street types will probably make out just fine. If people get caught holding the bag, there is an above average change that these folks will turn out to be Teabaggers. Good news - now there is a (proposed) bailout for them, too.

Palin Lawyers Up To Fight the Meanness

Probably the thing you don't want to do to a book that ain't selling all that well is to make it more popular. And that's what it looks like Sarah Palin is doing to the new book "The Rogue," which contains all sorts of facts and rumors about the bad behavior of the Palin Family:

The book was widely panned by critics for using unnamed sources to criticize Palin and her family. Tiemessen [the Palin's Trial Lawyer] cites an email they have access to in which McGinniss writes that attorneys from Crown Publishing told him “nothing I can cite other than my own reporting rises above the level of tawdry gossip. The proof is always just around the corner, but that is a corner nobody has been able to turn” and that McGinniss “ran out of time” to sufficiently source the book.

A source close to the Palins tells ABC News that the “Palins are fighting back and demanding answers from Random House.”

I'm sure that the book would be a fun read, but life is short and as much as I enjoy a good laugh at Sarah's expense, there are other things much higher on my reading list. But from what I understand the book merely lists the stupid things that Sarah has been confirmed (by sources) to have done and rumors of stupid things is have rumored to have done but as of this date are unconfirmed. McGinniss reports and the readers then can decide for themselves. It is sort of an enhanced fair and balanced look at Poor Sarah.

The shit you hear on Foxnews may be true, partially true or false but it is fairly balanced. You get to decide what you want to believe. If you believe in the false stuff by accident, so be it, accidents happen. McGinniss however tells the reader what is true and what may be partially true and what may turn out to be just a false rumor. Decide whether you want to believe it or not - but at least you are armed with the facts. In this way, McGinniss provides a much better product that Foxnews.

Anyway Lawyering up and whining to Media about "The Rogue" keeps Poor Sarah in the spot light, which is good for raising cash from the millions of misfits and morons that follow her, but it isn't probably a good thing if she someday wants to be taken seriously. Now that I think about it. Complaining about the book is exactly what she should be doing.

Sarah, you simply cannot stand for the lies in that book. Remaining silent is akin to appeasement and it only emboldens the lamestream media elites to do more Mean things to you. Stand up and be heard.

Global Warming Denial Explained - Useful Idiots

Sometimes the Wingers tell you what their motivations are:

Sometimes I like to point out that even if catastrophic global warming could be conclusively proven, it would not change one crucial political fact: Al Gore and the environmental left are the last people you would trust to solve the problem. This is a variation of my axiom that the environment is much too important to be left to environmentalists—they’ll just screw it up further and crush our liberties.

Via Powerline Blogger Hayward

When it comes to solving the problem, first one must acknowledge that a problem exists. Here in lies the problem. Before the scary environmental left, and the public at large can have a debate over climate change and what, if anything, to do about it, there first must be an acknowledgement of certain realities. Approximately 98% of Practicing Climate Scientists believe in human caused warming, 1% are undecided and another 1% does not believe that Anthropogenic Global Warming is occurring. This is the reality of the situation. There is no international global warming conspiracy despite what you hear at the GOP presidential debate or read at right wing blogs, see on Foxnews or hear on the AM radio.

However, conspiracy talk serves your purposes if one opposes greenhouse gas emission reductions or any new regulatory system. A confused electorate is your friend. If there is significant confusion, an honest debate cannot be held and a decision on greenhouse emission limitations will not be reached but rather delayed indefinitely (but not forever) and freedom will be saved (for now).

To this end, global warming conspiracy theorists and their right wing allies are what the commies used to refer to as useful idiots. Sure allegations of an international global warming conspiracy are blisteringly stupid, but it serves the cause. Sure you can laugh at the wingnuts in private, but one never must do so in public. Powerline Blogger Hayward must walk a fine line here. While the international conspiracy that many wingers like his co-blogger at Powerline Blog believe in is ridiculous, it should not be discussed or ridiculed. Rather, concern for the environment is the reason why that anything the scary environmental left and Algore supports should be opposed.

All in all this is smooth wingnuttery. But with that being said, until the conspiracy theorists are ridiculed and denounced as tin foil hats wearing buffoons, the field on climate change has been effectively been conceded to the scary environmental left and the responsible right, if there is such a thing anymore, does not get to play. If one believes that the environment is much too important to be left to environmentalists you must first cast out the crazies and compete in the free market of ideas. If you are not in the game, you never get to play just yell from the stands.

Don’t Terrorists belong in Guantanamo Bay

As I said last Tuesday, there is absolutely no practical reason the CR shouldn't be for the whole year rather than just until November 18 as House Republicans are insisting. The spending level for the year was agreed to in the Budget Control Act that was adopted on August 2 and both parties should be required to maintain the deal they agreed to way back then, that is, a mere seven weeks ago. There's no reason to have a short-term CR with that spending cap in place. The only reason is that the GOP wants to continue to be able to use the threat of a government shutdown multiple times in the future to get policies in place that otherwise would never be considered let alone adopted.

This is not good budgeting or management. It's nothing more than fiscal terrorism

Stan Collender @ Capital Gains

Interesting connection…..The GOP in general and Tea Partiers specifically as Terrorists. Who could have made this connection before? I did suspect that many Tea Partiers in Congress had become radicalized and some perhaps were irredeemable. But it looks like the problem is much more widespread.

As is the case with the worst of the worst Terrorizers, perhaps the most radicalized Tea Partiers should be sent to Guantanamo Bay. There are gentle ocean breezes there. And there are worse places to send the irredeemable tea partiers to – like imaginary FEMA run anti-Obama Dissident camps. In an ideal world, the worst of the worst would be rounded up and sent to Guantanamo Bay, pending a fair trial of course. But we do not live in a perfect world.

The Type of Things that Must Drive Global Warming Deniers ….. Batshit crazy

Since global warming is a hoax – which anyone can learn by reading blog posts at Powerline Blog or by listening to Smokey Joe Barton (R-Tex) on C-SPAN – news that the US Army has fallen for an international conspiracy must be devastating:

A Senate committee is endorsing a Defense Department program that aims to combine new building designs, energy conservation and use of renewable energy sources to reduce the net output of greenhouse gases on military installations to zero. …

All of the services are involved in a partnership with the Energy Department in the so-called NetZero program, which by 2020 aims to have six Army bases producing as much energy and water as they consume, while sending no solid waste to landfills. The goal is to have the entire Army at a “net zero” greenhouse gas emissions level by 2030. …

The Navy has a goal of reducing its energy consumption by 50 percent by 2020, and the Air Force has a wide-spread program using wind, solar and thermal power generation on most of its installations.

If the Global Warming is just part of an international conspiracy to implement global socialism, what is the Army’s role? Are the generals just dupes or any they active participants in the ruse? Reasonable minded Right-Wingers should be asking questions. What’s next? Solar Powered Tanks. If this is so, how do you fight the terrorists on cloudy days? Dark days are ahead.

Clearly this is a set-back for the global warming denial crowd. If you’ve lost the Army, you’ll likely lose the war. Just ask Mubarak.

A Step in the Right Direction

From last nights GOP debate:

"I think you earned every dollar, you should get to keep every dollar that you earn. That's your money, that's not the government's money. That's the whole point."

- Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)

A 0% tax rate is good for a couple of reasons. First since tax cuts cause an increase in tax revenue, as all good right wingers know, lowering the tax rate to 0% would undoubtedly lead to enough growth in Tax Revenue to balance the budget. And second, Taxes are bad. Either way this is good rhetoric for Michele.

However, there is a prime opportunity out there for Michele to regain relevance. It is the Capital Gains Tax. Instead of proposing a 0% capital gains rate which anyone could do, why not propose a negative capital gains tax instead. As every good winger knows, lowering taxes on rich folks means more jobs. And if you lowered a tax that rich folks pay, such as the capital gains tax, there would be a corresponding amount of new jobs created. Think about it. If there were a negative capital gains tax rate, it would lead to a boom in employment solving the unemployment problem with the stroke of a pen! Every time a rich fella' sold a Yacht, the Government would pay him a cut of the action instead of the other way around. What's not to love!

Michele should go for it here. This is prime wingnut territory that is hers for the taking.

GOTP Presidential Field Loses a Candidate - will endorse Willard

The internets are reporting that what's his name from Michigan is calling it quits:

Thaddeus McCotter told The Detroit News this afternoon he is leaving the race for the Republican presidential nomination after he failed to win access to the Republican presidential debates. "If they keep you out of the debates, you are out of the conversation and you can't run," McCotter said. "It was sort of death by media."

McCotter said he will give his support to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Michigan native, and will likely run again for the 11th District congressional seat he's held since 2003.

McCotter said he would back Romney after the Massachusetts governor made it clear he wouldn't seek a federal health care overhaul like the one Massachusetts adopted when he was governor. "Especially with his business background and in a stagnant economy, he may be the most electable," McCotter said.

He likes Romney rival Texas Gov. Rick Perry, but said the country isn't ready for another Texas president so soon after President George W. Bush.

Not ready for another Texas Governor to be president? NO!

The Media really was mean to what's his name. But the guy needed to shake things up to get attention from the Tea Party set. Did he call for building a wall along the Northern Border? Has he threatened any Public Officials or tricksy scientists? Has he ever worn a tri-cornered hat while speaking about run away government spending? I don't think he's done any of these things so, when it comes down to it, the only one he has to blame is himself.

John Boehner is a …..wimp

The poor fella' is getting pushed around and bullied by filthy teabaggers on a vote providing disaster relief:

Boehner was described as "spitting nails" during a closed-door member meeting on Wednesday, and his harsh talk demonstrated that the usually unflappable speaker is reaching something close to a breaking point with his internally divided conference.

Those close to Boehner said there is a growing anger in the leadership that some in the freshman class and other intractable conservatives pay no mind to the legislative dangers of abandoning leadership—especially at a time when Democrats feel as if they and President Obama are fighting for their political lives.

....In private, Boehner has grown tired of what he dismissively calls the "know-it-alls who have all the right answers." Boehner knew what a defeat would mean—a more costly spending bill, one that provides more emergency disaster relief and contains fewer budget offsets.

When the member of a party doesn't fear/respect its leader, bad things happen. Boehner would be well informed to sit the children down and explain the facts of life to them: "

Now that you are here, Teabagger, fall in line because only the Party will keep you here. Cross me again, you miserable son of a bitch, and I'll call down the wrath of Allah and see that you are teabagged out of office. When I get done with you, you'll be lucky if you can show your face at the next tractor-pull or pig kissing contest or what ever passes for entertainment in the bassackwards town you come from."

Boehner just ain't man enough to beat his troops into line. Wave elections contribute to this to be sure. Your average Teabagger likely thinks that he was elected on the strength of his candidacy, but this ain't the case. The average teabagger was elected by scared voters during the biggest downturn since the Depression. Unfortunately for Boehner this fact won't get past the average teabagger's glassy eyed stare. This couldn't happen to a more deserving fella' though.

Nobody likes Michele

No congressional republicans have endorsed Michele Bachmann for president - according to RollCall.com. Zero.

That includes none of the 60 plus members of the House Tea Bag Caucus. My conclusion to this news is simple. These people all must hate America. There is no other choice.

Facts are Elitist and Mean-Spirited and Hurt Peoples' Feelings

Debt and Deficit Factoids of the Day (warning these facts may hurt Foxnews viewers feelings):

Here is some good news from the new Harper’s Index (Oct. 2011):

* Seventy-one percent of current U.S. debt was accumulated during Republican presidential terms.

* Two-thirds of debt-ceiling elevations since 1960 have been signed into law by Republican presidents.

* In 1961 the percentage of corporate profits paid in taxes was nearly forty-one; now it is less than eleven.

* Seventy-five percent of the increase in corporate profit margins since 2001 has come from depressed wages.

* The value of government subsidies that will go to oil and gas industries between now and 2015 is estimated at $78,155,000,000.

Not only this but a fair amount of the deficits during the Clinton Administration came as a result of interest payments on Debt incurred from Reaganomics. Without this factor, Clinton's record look even better.

Senator Graham Ensnared in Dong-Wang Affair

The Honorable Senator Lindsey Graham of the Charleston Grahams has been named in a Federal Indictment. And I've taken the liberty to name it:

The president of local biotechnology firm GenPhar is accused of defrauding the federal government out of at least $3.6 million the company received to research vaccines against deadly diseases.

The charges are contained in federal indictments unsealed today that also accuse GenPhar president Jian-Yun Dong and his estranged wife of making at least $31,000 in illegal campaign contributions to U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and his political action committee.

[…]

Dong and his estranged wife, Danher Wang, could not be reached for comment today, and it could not immediately be determined if they are represented by attorneys.

Dong and Wang are charged with conspiring to make illegal campaign donations by using other people’s names to funnel money from a foreign national, federal officials said. They are also accused of making illegal contributions after they exceeded their own maximum donation amounts, officials said.

The indictment alleges that the couple conspired to funnel more than $16,000 to Graham’s campaign fund in 2007 and at least $15,000 to “The Fund for America’s Future,” a political action committee operated by the South Carolina Republican.

[…]

In September 2007, Dong sent an email to his German connection commenting on a recent development in obtaining government funds for a GenPhar project, noting that “This is your money at work,” the indictment states.

You know the drill. What did Grahamnesty, as he is lovingly referred to by the AM radio crowd, know and when did he know it. Did he have a role in obtaining Government funding for the Dong-Wang GenPhar project. Was this done quid pro quo. Was an earmark involved? If it was an earmark, does this mean Graham is an earmarxist? What do we tell the children. Etc. Etc.

The best thing for Graham to do is just to lay everything out on the table and come clean.

cheapshot/> ; Some posts write themselves. Insert optional Tea Party / Teabagger joke here.

It's Official: GOP Trying to Destroy Economy

They are not even trying to hide it anymore.

Comrade Frum, even after being kicked out of the club, can still be shocked at the behavior of the bullies in the GOP.

I’m not shocked by much any more, but I am shocked by this: the leaders of one of the great parties [ed note - Frum is mistaken about the G0P. It is not a great party but instead sucks] in Congress calling on the Federal Reserve to tighten money in the throes of the most prolonged downturn since the Great Depression.

One line in the letter caught my eye as summing up the unreality of the Republican leaders’ position:

We have serious concerns that further intervention by the Federal Reserve could exacerbate current problems or further harm the U.S. economy. Such steps may erode the already weakened U.S. dollar or promote more borrowing by overleveraged consumers.

[Sen. Mitch McConnell, Rep. John Boehner, Sen. Jon Kyl, Rep. Eric Cantor via WSJ]

Are they serious? We are living through the most rapid deleveraging of the American consumer since the 1930s.

[…]

The markets see deflation and depression, not inflation. Yet ironically this non-existent and much dreaded inflation is exactly the remedy we need to lighten the load of consumer debt.

As is, we’re looking at a continued economic slump, more unemployment, and more deleveraging via continuing catastrophic consumer default on mortgages, car loans, credit cards, and student aid. And now the GOP leadership is urging that the Federal Reserve make the catastrophe worse? To what end?

I know what the detractors will say: to the end of defeating President Obama and replacing him with a Republican president. And if you’ve convinced yourself that Obama is the Second Coming of Malcolm X, Trotsky, and the all-conquering Caliph Omar all in one, then perhaps capsizing the US economy and plunging your fellow-citizens deeper into misery will seem a price worth paying to rid the country of him.

Welcome to the Tea Party!

If a terrorizer tried to send the American economy into a second great depression he'd be hauled off to Guantanamo, however when leaders of the GOTP do it they'll be cheered by Foxnews.

I know what people are probably thinking. Sen. Mitch McConnell, Rep. John Boehner, Sen. Jon Kyl, and Rep. Eric Cantor are all really stupid and are assholes at the same time. This is a toxic combination. They are not deliberately trying to force your neighbor's house into foreclosure and onto unemployment. They genuinely believe what the Foxnews says about the imaginary inflationary menace and about the imaginary socialism of the Obama Administration. Their warnings to Chairman Bernanke have been issued out of love for Country and not a desire to hurt the economy. Sure there may be collateral damage if Bernanke succumbs to their threats and tightens up the money supply, but the end result justifies the means.

I submit that this is Bullshit. Leaving Senator Kyl out because there is no way that anyone can prove that he is not as dumb as a post - maybe he is a bright guy but the evidence just ain't that convincing, I want to focus on Eric Cantor. Everyone knows that Boehner and McConnell absolutely shameless in their conduct and they can always effectively plead ignorance. But I believe that Eric Cantor knows what he is doing, understands that inflationary menace is imaginary and understands the consequences of his conduct. Remember that, most likely after overdosing on Foxnews, Cantor put $150,000 into an inflation indexed investment product. If inflation went up, his investment would score but if the opposite happened, he'd lose his shirt. Well the opposite happened and the last time I looked, $150,000 invested as Cantor did was worth less than $75,000 today. The miserable bastard has first hand knowledge that the inflationary menace is fake. There are 75,000 reasons in front of him to prove it false. But yet he soldiers on and signs his name to an admonition against a public official that he knows to be false. Furthermore, for what can only be shamelessly partisan reasons, he urges the same public official to take actions that would risk economic calamity.

They are not even trying to hide it anymore. This shocks Poor Comrade Frum. They are not just stupid but rather venal.

Google is Really MEAN

So Says Rick Santorum

A Google search for Santorum has generated some inappropriate results since gay columnist Dan Savage organized an online campaign to link graphic sexual terms to the socially conservative senator’s name.

Now, the Republican presidential candidate says he’s convinced Google could do something to remedy the issue, if the company wanted to.

“I suspect if something was up there like that about Joe Biden, they’d get rid of it,” Santorum said. “If you're a responsible business, you don't let things like that happen in your business that have an impact on the country.”

He continued: “To have a business allow that type of filth to be purveyed through their website or through their system is something that they say they can't handle but I suspect that's not true.”

Obviously, Santorum would like the Google to ungooglify the term “Santorum.” However Google is mean and will not reverse googlify the internets for the benefit of decency.

The Nation desperately needs a Foxnews Tax

Is there a better reason for raising taxes that this one from Foxnews talking head Bill O’Reilly:

If you tax achievement, some of the achievers are going to pack it in. Let's take me. My corporations employ scores of people. They depend on me to do what I do so they can make a nice salary. If Barack Obama begins taxing me more than 50 percent, which is very possible, I don't know how much longer I'm going to do this. I like my job but there comes a point when taxation become oppressive.

I am all for this. We should definitely raise the top income tax rate to a Reaganesque 50.1% for AM Radio Infotainers and Cable news talking heads. It is not going to have much effect on your run of the mill wingers who don't earn very much. But for the wingers making the big bucks like El Dimbo, O'Reilly, Hannity, Palin and the rest it would be a good way to raise tax revenue to pay for troop draw downs, balance the budget and such.

I don't really think O'Reilly would quit his job rather than paying Reagan-Era taxes, but if he does that is OK too. Either way it is a win!

Via

Gingrich to unveil ‘very visionary’ new Contract with America next week in Iowa

Really? I doubt folks will listen though:

Newt Gingrich will unveil a “21st century Contract with America” next week in Iowa, the presidential candidate said tonight.

“It will be 10 times deeper and more comprehensive than 1994,” he told an audience of about 40 people in Council Bluffs.

The original contract Gingrich helped craft 17 years ago “didn’t fundamentally change the trajectory of America,” he said.

The new ideas Gingrich will pitch during his big speech in Des Moines next Thursday will be “very visionary,” he said. “They’re very big and they’re exactly what Abraham Lincoln would have campaigned on.”

Abraham Lincoln? Honest Abe would support a new Contract on America?

Is Gingrich planning on bringing back Tariffs on foreign imports to boost the wages of American workers? Probably not because this would violate free trade principles that the GOTP is committed to. More National Banks? We already have the Federal reserve and with Ron Paul shrieking about it, this is best not to mention. How about more public/private infrastructure projects for internal improvements. Canals are no longer needed but there are other things that the government can build that would enhance economic growth. Newt probably won't go here either because this sounds too much like scary socialism.

Is another transcontinental railroad in the mix? Probably not but since the GOTP loathes trains but I suppose a NAFTA Super highway could be on the table. How about rounding up secessionists and either locking them up or exiling them? This would be good. If Gingrich proposed this, I'd definitely be in favor of it.

Just to name a few things, I can't see how Abe would be down with a new Contract on America. Instead of Lincoln, Gingrich should have just stuck with Reagan. I think that would be easier.

Let the WAR on Math Begin!

Let's face it: Math Sucks. Everyone knows it and now the GOTP has an excellent reason to take its war against science onward to mathematics.

Quote of the Day:

“This is not class warfare. It’s math. The money is going to have to come from someplace. And if we’re not willing to ask those who’ve done extraordinarily well to help America close the deficit … then the logic, the math says everybody else has to do a whole lot more.”

Pres Obama on deficit reduction and asking wealthy folks to pay a little more

I don't think the unwashed teabagging masses are going to stop persecuting scientists and start burning math text books (or math teachers), though school children may approve of this, any time soon. But now that President Obama has invoked unholy MATH as a reason to raise taxes on millionaires, I do think they have a chance to put these know-it-alls in their place. Can there be a much greater threat to Freedom than a homework obsessed 8th grade algebra teacher? Yes. A Freedom hating Algebra teacher who believes that math justifies tax increases for millionaires is far worse.

Math teachers should be on notice.

I am not a renowned economist from an elite coastal university or anything, but…..

….Karl Marx and Paul Ryan weren't either and it didn't stop either of them from the cooking the books.

I don't know but accusing President of Obama of causing the threats of scary inflation and scary deflation at the same time has got to be the smoothest bit of wingnuttery on the web today:

In my estimation, those interventions and most others — cash for clunkers, the first-time homebuyers’ tax credit, quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve and the sharp increase in federal spending — have not only been ineffective but have also lowered investment and consumption demand by increasing concern about the federal debt, another financial crisis and threats of inflation or deflation.

NYT Op Ed by a former Bush Administration Guy Writing from a (very elite) Coastal University

I am sure there is some reason why removing thousands of old, unsafe and high polluting cars from the freeways was bad for freedom. I am also sure that there is also a reason why replacing those clunkers with new automobiles at a time when the auto industry was about to collapse was bad, too. Just about everything is bad, after all. However, I cannot see how it is possible to cause both inflation and/or deflation at the same time. But then again, I am not a famous economist or former Bush Administration official.

This kinda wingnuttery reminds me of NRO-guy and Law Expert Big Ed Whelan and his rhetoric against Obama appointee Harold Koh. H-dog, my man Harold Koh, according to Big Ed is a radical transnationalist i.e., he believes in subordination of red-blooded american law to international legal standards. So the story goes that on one day H-dog and his transnationalism could use effete european law to recognize Gay Marriage in the US. Then on the next day, Koh could invoke shariah law from Iran and execute all the gay folks that got married the day before.

It is kinda hard to think both rules sets could apply and function at the same time. Only the smoothest wingnuttery can pull it off. And I mean Smooth, just like smoking a pack of Pall Malls, man. But hey I hear tax cuts actually raise tax revenue. This leads me to believe that the best way to pay for rising medicare costs for the baby boomers would be to cut taxes down to 0%. Think of all the revenue that would raised in the process. A Zero Rate would lead to a Boom in Tax Revenues. Think of all the possibilities. Problem solved! \

Now on to the deflationary/inflationary menace. Everyone agrees that it is certainly bad. It is a menace after all. Just ask Eric Cantor, it robbed him big time. What should Obama have done to prevent the deflationary/inflationary menace from occurring during the first years of his presidency? What could he have done to save the Eric Cantor's of the world? I sure as hell do not know. But then again I do not think deflation and inflation happen at the same time.

Is the GOP just suck in the past or is it backasswards?

Perhaps both. But it is oriented in the states of the Old Confederacy as this RINO notes:

Wars don’t necessarily change cultures. The South has experienced waves of Federal Reconstruction, including the post-war occupation, the New Deal, and the Civil Rights Movement. Yet my people have never openly confronted the central question that still hangs in the air.

Will we decide – deliberately – to join a modern capitalist nation with all the complex responsibilities and spectacular benefits it brings, or will we continue to cling to the dead vision of The Confederate Dream?

Now we have fielded a Republican Congress which is determined to burn down the Hamiltonian Republic that has emerged since the war and return to a “simpler” time. Along the way they would damage (or even destroy) the benefits we’ve gained from our reluctant capitalism. If you want to know what a Neo-Confederate political model looks like in a modern country, try to find a good public school for your kids in Mexico.

We may not think that’s what we voted for. No one can say out loud that they are fighting for the Confederate way of life, and some who embrace it may not even recognize it. You can get some hints at what’s going on if you probe Ron Paul’s fans for their thoughts on Lincoln. The weird AM radio and Tea Party rhetoric of fighting “socialism” sounds absurd, but only if you take it literally. We want to relive a fleeting moment of Jeffersonian simplicity.

The rebellion against the Neo-Confederate Revolution must start inside the Republican Party. If we fail to manage the complexity of our age, there are horrors that await. Jefferson’s world is gone, but we can still have a banana republic if we so insist.

- Comrade Chris a young wet behind the ears whippersnapper at Frum Forum.

They're really cute when they are young.

This critique of a capitalist north vs a feudal south is a little over simplified. The early Secessionists were hardcore capitalists and not just idyllic Jeffersonian yeomen farmers. There is a reason why Natchez, Mississippi was the Millionaire Capital of America before the civil war. Slavery was Profitable. There is a reason that there were near continual efforts to annex Cuba, Nicaragua and Northern Mexico just up to the start of the Civil War. There were big bucks to be made through plantation slave labor.

However, Comrade Chris' Heart is in the right place so good luck with the whole reforming the GOP thing so I wish him best of luck. It is, as they say, better late or even really, really late than never. Be sure to say hi to the wingnuts for me. I am sure they will give your ideas a fair hearing.

An Scary New Axis Forming?

Maybe it'll be Turkey.

Under Neoconservative Ideology, having a foreign enemy is essential not only for justifying high defense spending, but to unify the average voter to a common purpose (defense against the scary bad guy) and around the concept of the need for a strong President who can kick ass and takes names when necessary. With the Soviet Union toasted out, it looked like the sneaky Neocons were turning to China to fill the role of a foreign enemy, however after 9/11 their attention quickly shifted to the middle east culminating in the Iraq War.

Another part of Neocon Ideology calls for unquestionable loyalty to Israel. With that being said, I wonder just who could fit the bill to be America's next enemy?

ANKARA, Turkey — A newly assertive Turkey offered on Sunday a vision of a starkly realigned Middle East, where the country’s former allies in Syria and Israel fall into deeper isolation, and a burgeoning alliance with Egypt underpins a new order in a region roiled by revolt and revolution.

The portrait was described by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey in an hour long interview before he was to leave for the United Nations, where a contentious debate was expected this week over a Palestinian bid for recognition as a state. Viewed by many as the architect of a foreign policy that has made Turkey one of the most relevant players in the Muslim world, Mr. Davutoglu pointed to that issue and others to describe a region in the midst of a transformation. Turkey, he said, was “right at the center of everything.”

He declared that Israel was solely responsible for the near collapse in relations with Turkey, once an ally, and he accused Syria’s president of lying to him after Turkish officials offered the government there a “last chance” to salvage power by halting its brutal crackdown on dissent.

Strikingly, he predicted a partnership between Turkey and Egypt, two of the region’s militarily strongest and most populous and influential countries, which he said could create a new axis of power at a time when American influence in the Middle East seems to be diminishing.

“This is what we want,” Mr. Davutoglu said.

“This will not be an axis against any other country — not Israel, not Iran, not any other country, but this will be an axis of democracy, real democracy,” he added. “That will be an axis of democracy of the two biggest nations in our region, from the north to the south, from the Black Sea down to the Nile Valley in Sudan.”

[…]

Other countries — Iran, Saudi Arabia and Israel — would undoubtedly look upon an Egyptian-Turkish axis with alarm.

There have been Neocon grumblings about Turkey for a while now after Turkey declined to participate in the invasion of Iraq and because of Turkish relief sent to Gaza during the flotilla affair. If you start to hear warnings of a New Ottoman Empire anytime soon from the Neocon press, we'll know that America may soon have a shiny new enemy.

Of course this will lead to some confusion. What happens to Iran? Apparently it is being left out of the new axis. Since Iran already plays the role of bad guy, Turkey could make things easier on the Neocons if it just included Iran in its new Axis. That way we would not have to deal the old enemy of my enemy is my friend unless it ain't game. This would be confusing indeed, if Iran all of a sudden became an ally and I don't think the Neocons would want this to happen.

Better yet for the Neocons, would be for Turkey just to announce that it was joining the Axis of Evil. Ahmadinejad would surely raise a fuss and such and say he wasn't going to let Turkey into his Axis of Evil. But I don't think this would actually matter for the Neocons as long as they have their scary new enemy. They won't let facts get in the way. They haven't in the past. Anyway, look for talk of a scary new Ottoman Empire forming.

Climate Conspiracy Continues to Grow....

....as it always seems to do.

All good right wingers know that anyone involved in snow dependent industries or ice based research has got to be in on the international global warming conspiracy. Ice after all has a well known liberal bias. Ice researchers are the worst of a bad lot of tricksy scientists. So news that some winter sports enthusiasts have joined the global global warming conspiracy should surprise nobody.

A trio of professional snow shredders are charging the biggest hill in Washington, D.C., this week.

Their message: Congress is getting too radical.

Extreme skier Chris Davenport, Olympic snowboarding silver medalist Gretchen Bleiler and big-mountain ripper Jeremy Jones will be on Capitol Hill tonight with U.S. Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet and U.S. Rep. Jared Polis to discuss their firsthand accounts of climate change. Then on Thursday, the athletes will deliver a letter to Congress asking lawmakers to chill out on their assault against the Environmental Protection Agency and its ability to continue to regulate greenhouse gases.

All good right wingers can spot this one a mile away. These fine young folks are merely entrepreneurs, trying to promote their businesses, right? It is the American way. It worked for big tobacco. Smoking used to be good for you until is wasn't.

Here is the proof :

As representatives of 21 million skiers and snowboarders in the $66 billion snow sports industry, we are determined to protect our mountain economies, our sport, and the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of Americans from the effects of climate change. We must ensure that vibrant, prosperous winters endure for generations to come, and therefore support protecting one of America’s greatest assets – a stable climate – and strongly oppose all Congressional efforts to undermine EPA’s authority to set carbon pollution standards.

Every major scientific body from every nation, including our own National Academy of Sciences, has spoken unequivocally on the realities and implications of climate change. 2010 was the warmest year on record, and every decade is now warmer than the last. Extreme weather has become the norm. In our work, we’ve witnessed first-hand climate impacts on our mountains, from reduced snowpack and melting glaciers to dying alpine forests and shorter winter seasons. There is no debate. Climate change is already happening and we’re seeing it every day.

66 billion reasons, baby.

As to melting snow - it happens. It happens every year. Then it comes back and that is just the way it is. It is the rhythm of life. Have you ever seen snow fall and then notice that it melted? I have and it happens.

About the allegedly dying trees - have you been in the forest? I have and trees die. It happens. Sometimes they fall down, too. There is a reason that an old saying goes: "if a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, does it make a sound?" This is because it happens all the time. It is not proof of anything, other than the common knowledge that tree fall over. Besides, what do extreme skiers really know about the biology of alpine forests. Not much, I'd hazard. Instead of studying biology in school from some know-it-all pinheaded professor, they (understandably) spend their days skiing in the snow. That is why they are extreme skiers and not biologists. QED.

Global Warming Denial is easy anyone can do it. However for some reason the global warming denial game is dominated by wingnuts and former big tobacco scientists. Go figure?

Rick Perry Once Supported Pole Taxes.....

...and I think he still does.

I forgot this fact, but it is true. All the way back in 2009, when the Texas Pole Tax was going into effect, who would have thought that it, a Pole Tax and Secession advocating Southern Governor, would play a role in the 2012 presidential election.

I wonder if the Tea Party opposes or supports this form of taxation. How would one protest a Pole Tax these days?

Jennifer Rubin is Shrill

Apparently the GOTP candidates for President Suck….big time:

it’s a false choice that Republicans are being asked to make at this stage. It may be that they accept either Perry or Romney at some point, but they don’t have to. Not now. The only thing standing between the GOP primary electorate and a better choice is the misguided belief that there is no alternative to the current crop. Well, that and someone who is willing to make a “sacrifice” of a few months to see if he can capture the nomination and give his party a better shot at the presidency. We just went through a weekend of tributes to the sacrifices of servicemen and women and their families (not to mention ordinary civilians caught up in an attack on America). In light of those sorts of sacrifices, it really too much to ask for one of these Republicans to give the presidential race a try? Good grief, they surely can’t imagine that they will endear themselves to Republican voters if they sit this one out and President Obama is reelected, do they?

Actually the state of the field reflects the state of the Party. The party is unhealthy and this assortment of yahoos is what it produced. Donald Trump as a Front Runner? Michele Bachmann as a front runner? A Hermann Cain boomlet? Sarah Palin? And now George Bush Redux Rick Perry? Voter infatuation with this set of candidates is not a sign of health. It is a sign of moral decline.

Ms Rubin, I dare say, should give the domestic front a rest. The Base has tuned her out. Instead she should turn to writing about foreign policy and the need to invade Iran or Argentina or where ever it is that Neocons want to attack these days. The teabagging base may be more receptive to these arguments.