I wouldn't hire Sarah Palin to run a Walmart in Wasilla

This NRO guy and Cornerite offers the same for Herman Cain:

I got a lot of grief for writing that, based on my interaction with Mr. Cain, I would have hesitated to hire him to run a pizza company. I am feeling more comfortable in that judgment.

- Kevin Williamson

I am pretty sure that this Williamson character is kept around at the NRO kind of as a novelty. He's a young fella' who seems genuinely concerned about his fellow wingers inability to tell fact from fiction. This is of course one of the main missions for the NRO - to keep its readers in the dark.

Anyway they are cute when they are young. The world is open to all sorts of possibilities.

Operation Batshit Back on Track…..for the moment

With Pizza Magnate Herman Cain caught up in scandal, Willard "Mitt" Romney is poised to reclaim the lead in the GOP primary polls. It is fairly odd that once a non-Romney candidate starts gaining traction, a bombshell is dropped on him in an almost Karl Rove-esque manner. Its probably just a coincidence, though.

The key for Romeny to keep the lead, of course, will be to keep any one crazy candidate, i.e., an unelectable candidate, from consolidating the Crazy Vote. This is no easy task with Romney capped at 23-25% of the vote. With that being said, it is past time for my chosen crazy candidate, Rick Santorum, to quit pussy footing around and step up and take the mantle as crazy candidate of the week/month. With Gingrich barred from the Presidency by the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, the prize is there for Santorum to seize.

There is simply no-good reason anymore that Santorum's Theocracy-style vision for America should not be more popular with Base voters. All it requires is better marketing and of course to blur the differences between Perry's preferred fundamentalist protestant style theocracy with Santorum's own preferred Theocracy based on selected things that this Pope or that Pope has written. In America it has always been best to keep the Pope out of election and while folks are more tolerant today, if it came down to picking which style of Theocracy they'd prefer, I have a feeling that Perry's Theocracy would whip Santorum's Theocracy. With that being said, it's in Santorum's best interest to market a Generic Theocracy to the public.

Anyway it is time for Santorum to step up and act like a man for a change.

Quote of the Day - The Cain Mutiny

It looks like it is Herman Cain's turn to play the part of piñata as new allegations have hit the internets drawing attention to his conduct toward the opposite sex. Never worry Ann Coulter is on the Beat and offers this simple explanation:

"Liberals are terrified of Herman Cain. He is a strong conservative black man. Look at the way they go after Allen West and Michael Steele and they aren't even running against Obama. They are terrified of strong, conservative, black men,"

With allegations of the sexual harassment in the news regarding Mr. Cain, it is obvious why Sweet Ann left off the most likely candidate to play the part of strong black conservative man who terrify liberals - Clarence Thomas. The reason of course is that Clarence Thomas is an equal opportunity terrorizer - he terrifies black women as well. With Judge Thomas off the list, we might as well remove Michael Steele as well. I am pretty sure that Steele is little more than a Deranged RINO who was run from his last post as RNC chairman due to insufficient craziness.

If Ann had to do over again, why not cast Booker T Washington to play the part of conservative male. I know he's dead, but nobody is afraid of Michael Steele for Pete's sake.

The New 1% Doctrine.......

.......better than the Old 1% Doctrine and chocked full of nutty goodness.

The Old 1% Doctrine formulated by Dick Cheney held that if there was a 1% chance of a terrorist threat to the USA, it was appropriate to treat this threat as if it were a 100% certainty and act accordingly. Thus the threat that Saddam Hussein's remote controlled balsa wood airplane making it from Baghdad to America and thereby attacking the American homeland justified the Iraq War or something like that. I've lost track, admittedly, of the rationales for the Iraq War, but this one seems as good as some of the others. I would posit that there was less than a 1% chance of this happening - an Iraqi remote controlled plane flying half way around the world in order to strike America - but why quibble at this point?

With this being said of Dick Cheney's excuses, has anyone noticed that the 1% Doctrine may play a larger role in GOP thinking than has been noticed. This 1% number keeps coming up. Why? The GOP is fiercely down with the 1% of those who control so much of the Nation's Wealth while mocking those concerned in the remaining 99%. Republicans are also backing the 1% of the Climate Scientists who do not believe in Global Warming over the 99% who do not believe in an elaborate Global Warming Conspiracy.

Surely there is a connection here other than a stupid blog post (which admittedly this probably is).

Not to draw this out any further than necessary but, I'd put the risks of roving Death Panels traveling city to city in black helicopters at no more than 1%. And look at the freak out that happened over Death Panels. The same is true of the chances that President Obama would create a Gestapo-like secret police force to be used in the creation a fascist and/or marxist dictatorship. It can't be any higher than 1%. I'd also put the creation of FEMA run anti-Obama dissident camps at a frustratingly low 1%, as well. Yet some in the GOTP freaked out about these imaginary threats, too.

Let's face it - this 1% number just keeps coming up. It is hard not to think there is not a connection.

Wingnut Dictionary- Warmist

WORD OF THE DAY:

WARMIST

DEFINTION:

(1) a scientist; (2) when used in the context of global warming, a befuddled scientist; (3) a stooge of the international global warming conspiracy.

USED IN EVERY DAY WINGER CONVERSATION:

GODDAMN IT! Warmist Berkeley University Professor Richard A. Muller is a very confused man. Muller, now a "warmist," is claiming in a October 21, 2011 OPED that skeptics of man-made global warming fears no longer have any basis to doubt “global warming” because his new study confirms that the Earth has warmed since the 1950s! Son of a Bitch!

Muller seems to imply that the terms “global warming” and man-made global warming are interchangeable and any warming is somehow "proof" of human causation. Muller is being described by many in the media -- including NYT's Andrew Revkin – as being a climate “skeptic.” But clearly, the Warmist Muller must not have gotten the memo, as he is lustily referring to skeptics as “deniers” in his lamestream media blitz. Clearly Muller is a very befuddled man.

CONTEXT WITHIN RIGHT WING THOUGHT:

Current Wingnut mythology holds that the theory known as Anthropogenic Global Warming is a hoax being perpetrated by a cadre of tricksy scientists and evil one world government types. Warmists, within this context, aid the global warming conspiracy by publishing or endorsing the findings of so-called scientific studies which support the so-called scientific consensus that the earth is warming due to human activity. This warmist behavior then lends credibility to efforts to impose global socialism through climate change legislation and/or treaties.

Help us Richard Muller, you are our only Hope

Tales from the not so distant past - Back When Richard Muller was a Darling of the Wingnet.

From what I can gather, the last of the respectable Climate Skeptics has recanted his opposition the consensus that the earth is getting warmer and human activity is to blame. This is Richard Muller who, for the wing-net, was the last egghead standing when it came to credible opposition to the scientific consensus. Sure they have other hacks and former tobacco industry guys, but everyone knows that smoking is not good for you and that hacks are not to be trusted, because....... they are hacks.

But as far as I could tell, Muller was/is a respectable fella'. I think he's suffers from a little Gore Derangement Syndrome, but nobody is perfect. Not surprisingly, as a respectable fella' as opposed to an industry bought hack or an ideological extremist, Muller has changed his mind as a result of a new study he conducted on global warming, the Berkeley Earth Temperature Study. In short the BEST study confirms the consensus that its real and we are doing it. I think Al Gore is still fat with this viewpoint, but Muller has joined the 98% of the eggheads who have studied this field and agree with the consensus.

One of the added benefits of the BEST Study is that, since various wingers either assumed that Muller was one of their own or perhaps were so far deep in the conspiracy theory bubble to know up from down, they (Koch Industries) helped pay for it! Wingnut fail can be truly Awesome sometimes.

If you watch the wingnuts, one of them is always predicting that the next big study, the next Foxnews special or the next big report is going to blow the lid off the international conspiracy known as anthropogenic global warming. But inevitably when the Sean Hannity program airs, it fails to live up to its billing instead containing just more of the same bullshit we have come to expect from Foxnews. Likewise the same is true when a big study comes out like the last one produced by the Eggheads at CERN last month. The study came out, the wingnet seizes on some small portion of the study, quotes it out of context and proudly proclaims victory over the international global warming conspiracy. This feeling of victory is only temporary however, as the eggheads at CERN quickly debunk the claims that the study proves that global warming is all a big stupid lie.

Here is another prediction from the not so distant past from the smart blogger at Powerline Blog:

in the aftermath of Climategate, Muller is "going big" you might say. Watch this and you'll see what I mean, especially his summary phrase, "You're not allowed to do this in science." Muller is not just tenured, but is late in his career, so feels free to speak out, unlike younger academics who don't dare cross the Climate McCarthyism of the universities. More importantly, Muller is heading up the new Berkeley Earth Temperature Study, which will review and analyze all of the data on this subject starting from scratch. Unlike the Climategate cabal in Britain and in our NASA, the Berkeley group will share its data with all comers. Keep your eye on this; it will take time--years more than months probably--but may prove to be the thread that unravels the main prop of the climate campaign.

Or not, just like usual. My advice to the wingnet is to stick to Sean Hannity Foxnews programs. That way you can control the results. This science mumbo jumbo can really suck.

Wingnut Fail. Minus One Powerline Blog. Minus Two Koch Industries.

Random Feats of Wingnuttery - Hinderaker Edition

The Occupy Wall Street movement claims to be a defender of free speech. “Free speech,” in their case, often means rioting, attacking policemen, drug dealing, sexual assault and so on. Still, they pay lip service to the First Amendment. So it was striking that when we linked to the brand new web site Occupy Wall Street Exposed, it almost immediately came under a denial of service attack by liberals.

[…]

This is an age-old story: the far left pretends to support free speech, but they mean theirs, not yours. If they had the power, the Occupiers would shut up everyone who disagrees with them, as their forebears did in the USSR, China, Cuba, Albania, North Korea and everywhere else the Left has prevailed.

Blogger Hinderaker

Yes the Dirty Hippies want to impose a dictatorial communist regime, (sigh).

I have written lots of mean things about teabaggers, but all in good fun though. I have called them filthy, mocked their hygiene practices, mocked their phony grievances, etc. I have implied that the Tea Party chose the name "teabagger" because they like....….teabagging, when there is no firm evidence that this is true. It could be true, but most likely it is not. We simply do not know however. I'll mark it down as unconfirmed.

I've pointed it out when an american nazi group invited the "Tea Party Patriots" to join its anti-immigration rally due to, as the Nazi group put it, their overlapping conservative ideologies. The teabaggers didn't show up to the Nazi Anti-immigration protest, which was disappointing and I noted that the baggers were a no-show despite a cordial invite from the nazis. And I didn't imply that the baggers were nazis, but only that the nazis thought the teabaggers had a lot in common with them. Never mind that the Nazis might be offended if some teabagger showed up to the rally with a stupid sign depicting Obama as Hitler, and by inference, leader of the nazis. It would be entertaining to see the dispute resolution process following such an exchange of views on the subject.

This is all, you know, good fun stuff to post. But I don't think I ever seriously wrote that if Teabaggers got into power they would open fascist concentration camps and round up their opponents like Blogger Hinderaker hints that the dirty hippies would do if OWS had its way. Of course I have lamented that there are no Obama run Gestapo-like secret police force and that there are no FEMA run Anti-Obama dissident camps to round up and to send baggers to that House Tea Party Caucus members have talked about, i.e., Michele Bachmann, Paul Broun, etc. But this was done in good fun too.

One of the problems that modern American Wingnuts, i.e., scientific name - Wingnuttus Americanus, face is that many just can't get over the fact communism is dead and young folks are not particularly concerned about the red menace anymore. It is just plain gone and it is not missed. However your various wingers, like those Japanese soldiers stranded on remote pacific islands after WWII, just keep fighting on - damned be it if the foe is imaginary and the fight is already over.

It must be tough to be a wingnut. Not much you can do about it really. Now if there were just some FEMA run re-education camps that we could send them to help them out, things could be much better.

Winger on Winger Violence - Mayflower Mark Edition

NRO guy Mayflower Mark Kirkorian is Mad at George Bush's Speech Writer. And as usual, when Mayflower Mark is Mad it is likely about immigration:

What is it about the immigration issue that brings out the worst in pundits?[ed note- See Kirkorian, Mark aka "Mayflower" Mark] Michael Gerson proves today that he’s given immigration policy no more thought since his last sanctimonious and sneering column on the topic. His writing on the subject reads almost like a Mad Lib, where you fill in the words to complete the sentence: “(Name of Republican politician) is a (contemptuous adjective) (contemptuous noun) because he opposes the provision of (taxpayer-funded benefit) to undocumented immigrants.”

In this piece, the GOP presidential candidates are “vicious” and “repellant” because some of them oppose taxpayer subsidies for the college education and medical procedures of illegal aliens. Oh, and Americans of Mexican origin will vote Democrat if Republicans don’t start sluicing tax money to illegal aliens.

[…]

[Bush Speech Writer] Gerson scoffs at the idea that taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal aliens are a magnet, saying that jobs are the real magnet. So, if jobs are the real magnet, then why isn’t he praising Romney for supporting E-Verify and criticizing Perry for opposing it? Because he doesn’t want mass immigration to stop and opposes anything that impedes the untrammeled movement of people into the United States. In other words, if more people want to move here than the law provides for, then the it’s the law that has to give way. If he would just fess up to wanting open borders, rather than engaging in tendentious debate over specific policies, his commentary might be less irritating, and certainly more honest.

My two cents.

Both should be Honest. Bush Speech Writer Gerson should admit that he wants open borders and untrammeled immigration. Mayflower Mark should admit that he is vicious, repellent and wants emergency room patients turned away if they don't have papers. If he'd rather that hospitals roll these patients out to the parking lot to die, he should admit this and in doing so his commentary might be less irritating, but certainly it'd be more honest.

On the other hand, everyone knows that the overwhelming majority of folks cross the border in order to find work that pays more than what is available at home. They also come here because, like Marco Rubio's parents decided before Castro came to power, things are relatively good here. However if there were no jobs available to undocumented workers, there would be little immigration because one can not feed a family on free emergency room care or by obtaining instate tuition for your child in 18 years. Besides, don't wingers believe in Federalism? If folks in Texas want extend instate tuition to all residents, why can't they do this? This is not rocket science. Really it is not.

Next, if Mayflower Mark is serious about reducing immigration, he needs to call for a Reagan Style Asset Forfeiture Program for all business that hire undocumented workers. Treat employers like drug-dealers. If an employer stands to lose everything if he hires an undocumented, he will likely not hire an undocumented worker. No jobs equals very little immigration. Problem solved.

Third, where the hell did Kirkorian or his family immigrate from anyway? Now that I think about it, I doubt his ancestors walked down the gangplank of the Mayflower. They must have gotten here some other way, I suspect. But I guess it really doesn't matter.

NEW Photo ID Law Working as Intended in Tennessee, cntd

The new GOP law to reduce voter turnout combat fraud has snared another Tennessee voter. Here is the latest rapscallion caught in the voter fraud dragnet:

Darwin Spinks survived WWII and The Korean War.

That patriotism might explain why he was willing to go through the trouble of waiting more than an hour to get a picture ID to vote.

"I did enough waiting in the Navy," said Sinks.

New laws require a government picture ID to vote and Spinks was among the 126,000 elderly voters who don't have a picture on their license.

The state has promised to make picture ID's available free for them but that didn't happen in this case.

"She said 8 dollars. I said am I gonna have to pay twice for my license," said Spinks.

Democratic lawmakers like Senator Joe Haynes say this story is another example of why they worry the new law will keep people from voting.

"Here's a man who has fought for his country, served in WW II and the Korean War and now there's a bottle neck for him to exercise his right to vote," said Haynes.

This fella' got his free voter ID, but it cost him (and how many others). Not to worry, now that the story has made the news, State Officials tell us that they will send Mr. Spinks some more forms to fill out and a self addressed envelope to mail them back to the State. Then in due time he'll receive a refund. This process (repeated up to 126,000 times) seems like a horribly inefficient way to stamp out non-existent voter fraud to me, but that is just me.

The GOP has traditionally (during the last 50 years) pushed measures that limit access to the polls. This is the case today with the new voter ID laws popping up in states controlled by the GOP. And it was the case in the old days with Former President George H.W. Bush's objection to and veto of the motor voter law. This common sense law enabled folks to register to vote at the same time they renewed their drivers licenses. Why would anyone object to motor voter? Why, it is due to non-existent systematic voter Fraud, that is all!

Here is the deal. There are 126,000 elderly folks without photo id's (stated above), who knows how many young folks without id's and thousands of others who may be new residents to the state or just don't have an ID. If the GOP can pass a law that knocks 50,000 of those folks off the voting rolls in order to prevent 2 or 3 cases of voter fraud, then BAM why not do it baby!

These are just the cold hard facts.

Let's Face it at his core Marco Rubio is Vapid

At worse he's Florida's version or Sarah Palin minus Todd and the snowbillies. At best he's a Latino version of Paul Ryan. I suspect he's less like Sarah than Ryan, but that's just me. Pointing this fact out, that Rubio is Vapid, really upsets the wingnet.

Here's Lamestream Media Figure and Wingnut Blogger Erickson emoting over the latest outrage surrounding Rubio that started when a birther (and later picked up by The WaPo) discovered that key elements of Marco Rubio's life story are just not accurate:

Last week, the Washington Post attacked Marco Rubio for “misrepresenting” his family’s story. The Post got called out by other newspapers for the Post’s egregious truth stretching to make its story fit. In the quotes the Washington Post cited, the reporter misrepresented the context of Marco Rubio’s remarks. It was true that Rubio had gotten some details wrong. But it was also very clear that they were the innocent mistakes of a son retelling his parents’ story. It was also true the Washington Post got parts of its reporting wrong.

But the Washington Post has not stopped. Now the paper is back at it premising a new article on the last story without nothing the Washington Post itself got key elements of its story wrong. This time, the Washington Post wants to make the case that Marco Rubio could be a risky Vice Presidential pick for the GOP.

Rubio's parents applied for Permanent residence in the USA several years before Castro came to Power. Who can blame them. The USA is awesome. There were Chevrolets, apple pie, poodle skirts and lots of good stuff. I can see why they wanted to emigrate. Lots of people from all over the world try to move the good ol' USA every year. Rubio's parents cast in with this lot and it paid off. They did not flee their beloved homeland from a freedom hating godless commie bastard. They choose to move to a better place, the USA god bless her, for other reasons.

With that said, Rubio's emotional rants about being the son of Cuban exiles are just that - emotional outbursts describing events that never happened. Sure, I grant that his feelings are real, but that is all it is. When talks about being the son Cuban exiles, he is swimming with the current of the right wing feelings of victimization that are all too common these days. This is why Rubio is so popular on the wingnet, he expresses his feelings so very well. That is all.

A Tea Party Senator done in or at least knocked down a rung or three by a Birther, is that poetic justice or not? Sounds like it to me. The GOTP whipped up these unstable fringe types with their birth certificate conspiracy theories for short term political gain. This led to unexpected collateral damage when one of their loons turns on the Party's shiny new object - Rubio.

You know who else may be haunted by the Birth Certificate Fairy - Bobby Jindal, that's who. In wingnutspeak, Mr. Jindal qualifies for what the wingers derisively refer to as an "anchor baby." Among wingers this is a very bad term. Among rational people, applying such labels to people based upon the circumstances of their birth is plain idiotic. But this is just the world we live in.

/meanspiritedness>

Dueling Headlines of the Day

One of these is an actual headline and the other should be:

Boehner: 'Great concerns' Obama is exceeding Constitution

The Public: 'Great concerns' Boehner is a Douche

/cheapshot>

Shocker: Right Wing Blogger Not Fond of OWS

Quote of the Day -

I wrote yesterday that the occupiers aren’t a political movement, they are a crime wave.

Powerline Blogger John Hinderaker

While it is unsurprising that a right wing activist does not like Occupy Wall Street folks, it should also be noted that Blogger Hinderaker is on record as having called The Tea Party MainStream. Really, he did. He called the Tea Party a Mainstream operation with its views enjoying majority support in America. He has also called George Bush a genius, so go figure.

Wingnuts.

Things Wingers Should Have Thought About Before The Iraq War

In the wake of the American-led invasion, the Christian population has been cut in half.

Amid President Obama’s announcement that the United States will bring home the remainder of its troops from Iraq by the end of this year, Church leaders in Iraq said the situation for the country’s Christians remains unchanged. Yet they expressed hope for their future.

“Even with the American presence here, we have had problems — explosions, kidnappings, murders, attacks on Christian churches,” said Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk, a flashpoint in the conflict.

Since the American-led invasion in 2003, Archbishop Sako said, violence has claimed the lives of 905 Iraqi Christians, including one bishop, five priests and a number of sub-deacons. Despite the U.S. presence in the country, 54 churches have been bombed, mainly Chaldean. Prior to the invasion, Christians in Iraq numbered 800,000 to 1 million. Now just 400,000 to a half million remain.

“The situation is still fragile and not stable. We don’t know what will be next with the pullout,” Archbishop Sako said.

The National Geographic has called the cleansing of Christianity from the Holy land an Exodus. While the hat tip for this piece goes to the NRO, the wingers there provide no commentary. It is just something that is happening. Since there is no commentary at the NRO, I take up the cause and offer this question as a good topic of conversation to engage with George W Bush:

Mr. President, followers of Jesus are disappearing from the land where their faith was born. Records indicate that this Exodus, as it is being called, of Christians from the Holy Lands, coincides with your decision to launch a war in Iraq in 2003.

Having been established in the Holy Lands for nearly 2,000 years, the demise of Christianity in Mesopotamia since 2003 is a significant legacy to be attributed to any historical figure. How do you reconcile your place in history with the decision to invade Iraq and the Exodus of Christians from the Holy Lands and Mesopotamia?

Tough times for those folks.

Awesome Wingnuttery Found on Web

From Zellephant Miller (R-GA):

"Like our founding fathers, President Bush understands that God wants all individuals to be free. That is because only free people are able to do God's will. God's natural laws require that all people are equally free to pursue happiness. God's providence ensures that happiness naturally comes to those who do God's will. Because we are all created in God's image, God wants the best for us. After all, our happiness is God's happiness.

A Deficit of Decency, Page 66

Contra Rousseau who puts it: "Man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains" i.e., it is civilization that corrupts man from his natural state. This occurs as man trades some freedom he enjoys in his natural state in order to join and benefit from the security provided by society.

For some reason I don't think, when it comes to describing the social contract, that Zellephant Miller is going to bump off Rousseau on the reading list any time soon.

ALERT…..Wingnut on Wingnut Violence ahead

RedState Blog and Lamestream Media Figure Erick Erickson has some frank words for Right Wing WaPo blogger Jennifer Rubin:

Jenn Rubin, when not pushing out Romney talking points is in favor of freeing traitors, claims to be a conservative covering the conservative movement, though she has nothing in common with conservatives other than hating terrorists. A conservative friend says she’s best understood as ‘Likud’ rather than Republican or conservative. There’s nothing wrong with being Likud, but one ought to be honest about it.

In any event, in a profile in the Politico, we get two rather stunning admissions for a supposedly objective blogger covering the conservative side of the aisle for the Washington Post.

Couple these two together and one must objectively wonder how the Washington Post can keep her on the payroll without fundamentally changing the description of who she is and what she does.

Truth in advertising, I get it, but Did Erickson also just call a fellow winger, Un-American? Sounds like it to me!

Well done old chap, Well done.

BREAKING…… ACORN LIVES, Goddamn it, behind OWS.....Film at 11:00

Son of a Bitch, I heard ACORN was dead. However, since it is close to Halloween, it may have been resurrected in zombie form as Foxnews is reporting the earth shattering news that the community group known as ACORN is Playing Behind Scenes Role in Occupy Movement:

The former New York office for ACORN, the disbanded community activist group, is playing a key role in the self-proclaimed “leaderless” Occupy Wall Street movement, organizing “guerrilla” protest events and hiring door-to-door canvassers to collect money under the banner of various causes while spending it on protest-related activities, sources tell FoxNews.com.

The former director of New York ACORN, Jon Kest, and his top aides are now busy working at protest events for New York Communities for Change (NYCC). That organization was created in late 2009 when some ACORN offices disbanded and reorganized under new names after undercover video exposes prompted Congress to cut off federal funds.

NYCC’s connection to ACORN isn’t a tenuous one: It works from the former ACORN offices in Brooklyn, uses old ACORN office stationery, employs much of the old ACORN staff and, according to several sources, engages in some of the old organization’s controversial techniques to raise money, interest and awareness for the protests.

Sources said NYCC has hired about 100 former ACORN-affiliated staff members from other cities – paying some of them $100 a day – to attend and support Occupy Wall Street. Dozens of New York homeless people recruited from shelters are also being paid to support the protests, at the rate of $10 an hour, the sources said.

At least some of those hired are being used as door-to-door canvassers to collect money that’s used to support the protests.

Sources said cash donations collected by NYCC on behalf of some unions and various causes are being pooled and spent on Occupy Wall Street. The money is used to buy supplies, pay staff and cover travel expenses for the ex-ACORN members brought to New York for the protests.

In one such case, sources said, NYCC staff members collected cash donations for what they were told was a United Federation of Teachers fundraising drive, but the money was diverted to the protests.

Sources who participated in the teachers union campaign said NYCC supervisors gave them the addresses of union members and told them to go knock on their doors and ask for contributions—and did not mention that the money would go toward Occupy Wall Street expenses. One source said the campaign raked in about $5,000.

From one tree, comes many nuts. They report, you decide.

When Elizabeth Warren was Young and Irresponsible, she was young and irresponsible

MA Senate Candidate and Pres. Obama's one time choice to head the consumer protection board was once Republican….. 20 years ago. A youthful indiscretion perhaps?

"I was a Republican because I thought that those were the people who best supported markets. I think that is not true anymore….I was a Republican at a time when I felt like there was a problem that the markets were under a lot more strain. It worried me whether or not the government played too activist a role."

It is important to note that at one time there were republicans who were sane, thoughtful and responsible. At one time there were.

And there are such people today who are either sane, or responsible, or thoughtful. However there are no such republicans who are sane, thoughtful and responsible. That being said, the Republican Party should just go on and declare bankruptcy.

Rick Perry introduces 3 Point Economic Plan

Not be outdone by Hermann Cain's three point plan known as 9-9-9, Perry is out with his own three point plan - "Cut, Balance and Grow." This should not be confused with "Cut, Cap, and Balance" or "Cut Cap and Teabag," as I like to call it, which was a popular GOTP talking point during the debt ceiling debacle. All that needed to be done according to these fine folk was to cut every portion of the federal budget but social security, medicare, interest on the debt and paychecks to soldiers the debt problem would go away. Ah, the heady days of August 2011.

Back to "Cut, Balance and Grow," what does it include:

A flat-tax proposal,

A plan for partial privatization of Social Security and a

A 0% Estate Tax and capital-gains tax.

While Perry's Texas roots and similarities with former Texas Governor George Bush are the reason for his plan to privatize social security, and is thus understandable, but from my perspective Perry is really wimping out. Any asshole can propose a flat tax or a 0% estate tax or capital gains tax. This is true. But it takes an asshole of a special type to propose a NEGATIVE CAPITAL GAINS TAX for millionaires. Why not give'em more money to stimulate the economy? And if you are trying to get to the right of 9-9-9, why not go full metal wingnut and call for a negative tax rate for millionaires?

This plan is just standing there waiting for someone with the balls to take it up. Looks like that person is not Perry. Perhaps Bachmann will step up to the plate and take this on. How many times do I have to pitch a negative capital gains tax rate before one of these clowns thinks it is a good idea and takes up the cause. If they want attention, you have to work for it. Go negative, man.

MEAN SPIRITED WINGNUTTERY OF THE WEEK

Strong Women scare some fella's, then they write something like this:

There isn’t – and shouldn’t be – equity in athletic facilities. Seriously, when the softball team wins a pair of national championships … then we’ll talk “equity.”

Until then, the only way a softball stadium in South Carolina will ever draw 1,350 people is on “Free Strap-On Night” – with a post-game Indigo Girls concert thrown in for good measure (unless of course S.C. Chief Justice Jean Toal makes attendance compulsory for all sorority pledges).

IT is rough being a winger. I don't know what is worse - is it the homophobia, the fear of providing equality in education or the Galtian Anti-tax philosophy?

The one thing I do know is that there should be more government programs oriented at helping folks adapt to modern civilization. I'd start by issuing grants to pointy headed liberal college professors. Some could study the problem and design educational tools. Others could provide counseling services. You'd just approach it one wingnut at a time.

It's ON! Get ready for some Wingnut on Wingnut Action, TEA BAG style

The Disgraced Ex- Speaker of the House, Newt Gringrich will take on Ex-Pizza Magnet Hermann Cain in a one on one duel (but unfortunately not to the death):

A group of tea-party activists in Texas will host a “modified Lincoln–Douglas debate” between Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich next month.

Bill O’Sullivan, the treasurer of Texas Tea Party Patriots, tells National Review Online that both candidates have confirmed their attendance at the forum, which will focus on fiscal issues.

...Organizing the event was relatively easy, he adds. “We had a relationship with Herman Cain. He spoke at our tea-party event six months ago. We contacted him, asking if he was interested in a Lincoln–Douglas debate on entitlements. Then we got in touch with Speaker Gingrich.”

“This debate is going to be dominated by the candidates going back and forth, in a respectful way,” O’Sullivan says. “It will be divided into parts, one for each major entitlement — Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid — with each candidate detailing their arguments.”

No broadcast network has agreed to air the exchange but O’Sullivan is hopeful. “These two candidates have been the most interesting people to watch in the debates,” he says. “So having them together for a modified Lincoln–Douglas debate will be great; it’ll be a real opportunity for the conversation about entitlements to get serious.”

The Freak Show Rolls on. This one may actually be fun to watch. Gingrich is already on record as having called out the Republican Plan to end Medicare, right wing social engineering. Of course, he had to recant when the teabaggers blew a fuse. Maybe he can use this opportunity to attack himself for having said that.

UPDATE: The internets are reporting that it cost big bucks just to see this freak show with the proceeds going to some Tea Bagging Outfit. Oh well, there is probably more productive ways to use one's time than to engage in such frivolities as a Gingrich - Cain Shout Down.

Belated Happy Birthday to The Earth

Yesterday was the Earth's 6015th Birthday. My apologies to the Earth for forgetting.

What Obama Derangement Syndrome Looks Like

This from Lamestream Media Figure Head and Wingnut Blogger, Erick Erickson:

By now you’ve probably heard about Barack Obama’s interview with Jake Tapper where he says, “I believe all the choices we’ve made have been the right ones.”

I want to focus on something else that I think gets to the heart of the matter. It’s Barack Obama’s fun use of the pronoun “it,” as in the economy. He tells Tapper, “The economy is not where it wants to be.”

Since when did the economy have an opinion on where it wants to be? When did we anthropormophize the economic? Does Walt Disney know about this? Maybe we should put this economy in the Hall of Presidents or something and let it speak for itself.

“I want to be bigger,” said Mr. Economy.

Nooooooo. This is the President giving away the game. Barry O thinks, like with the physician, the economy should heal itself. The economy does not want anything. People want jobs. Investors want growth. The economy Does. Not. Want.

Barack Obama has become so detached from his own destructive policies, he is having to anthropormophize the freaking economy and give it wants and desires so he can just blame it. It’s just not living up to what it wants.

He's got the derangement syndrome bad, man. He's got it so bad that I bet he thinks its other people who are crazy ones - you know the folks who haven't joined the Pronoun Police to protest the President.

Now everyone wants a faster recovery to the global economic near collapse that occurred during the Bush Administration. Granted, President Obama has been unable to wave a magic wand and make the global financial crisis go away. Sure he could have tried to abolish the EPA, burn kittens , default on the Nation's debt and whatever else they advocate in the wingnut-o-sphere, but this would not have helped. But these are just facts.

Moammar Gadhafi Dead

This is Yet Another Thing That Obama Has Accomplished that Bush Failed to do:

The Onion January 24, 2001 | ISSUE 37•02

WASHINGTON, DC–Remember SDI, deregulation, and tax cuts? The new administration does. That's right, '80s retro fever is sweeping the executive branch, with President Bush and his nostalgia-crazed colleagues going wild for the people and policies of that "totally tubular" decade.

"The '80s were so awesome," said Bush, grabbing a handful of Jelly Bellys from a jar on his Oval Office desk. "They had, like, the best policies back then, like trickle-down economics and communist containment. And the Cabinet members were the coolest: Ed Meese, Caspar Weinberger, George Shultz. I'm so totally going to find a position for Donald Regan in my administration."

Bush has already begun indulging his love of all things '80s, nominating James Watt for Secretary of the Interior.

"Remember in '83, when Watt didn't want The Beach Boys to play that Fourth Of July party because he said they were unwholesome?" Bush asked. "And then when he said the thing about his staff having a black, a woman, two Jews, and a cripple? That was hilarious."

Nearby, vice-president and fellow '80s-lover Dick Cheney reclined on a couch. "You know who else we should nominate?" Cheney asked. "Robert Bork for Supreme Court!"

"Bork? Who's that?" Bush responded. "Oh, wait–that's the arch-conservative judge with the funny little chin beard, right? God, I totally forgot about that guy! Yeah, we should definitely nominate him!"

Bush also tapped Donna Rice for White House press secretary but retracted the offer when he realized he was thinking of Fawn Hall.

"I always get those two confused," Bush told Cheney. "I know one was with Oliver North and the shredder, and the other was with Gary Hart and the Monkey Business, but I forget which was which. Then there's Jessica Hahn. She was the one with Jim Bakker, right? Or was it Jimmy Swaggart? Anyway, I want the Ollie North gal."

Bush praised Hall, calling her "a major-league babe." Cheney affirmed the appraisal, saying, "Yeah, big-time."

Though too young to remember much of the decade, Bush nevertheless said he had "tons of fun" in the '80s.

"Once, when I was 36, my dad took me to the CIA to meet William Casey," Bush said. "It was one of the best days of my life: I got to watch a National Security Council meeting. Then, afterwards, Mr. Casey let me sit in his big leather chair. Even though I was really young at the time, I remember the whole thing like it was yesterday."

"Even the enemies were cooler in the '80s," Bush continued. "Back then, there was Russia, Libya, and Iran. Now, those were some bad guys. What do we have today? North Korea? How lame is that?"

GOP Apparatchiks Coalescing Around Romney

But it ain't easy.

Your Willard Milton Romney Enthusiasm Quote of the Day:

“I feel like the bride in an arranged marriage I can’t get out of.”

A Winger, on the thought of supporting Romney

The establishment may be coming around to realizing that Willard Romney is it. He is the best they are going to get. But this does mean that the Wingnuts have to accept this fact. Nor should they.

If you are an Apparatchik or party loyalist or are a wingnut for that matter, remember that Mitt is on record as being both for and against:

• The individual Mandate for Health Insurance
• Nationalized Romneycare
• Pro-Life/Pro-Choice
• The Tarp, aka the Bailout
• The Auto Rescue
• Keynesian Economics in General
• And the need for Stimulus, in specific, and
• Ronald Reagan

among other things. He also speaks french on the Youtube which he learned while living there during a good portion of the Vietnam War.

And also remember in 2008 before the Florida Republican Primary, Willard tried to represent himself as both for and against the Surge in Iraq. McCain absolutely crucified him turning him into a cheese eating surrender monkey willing to both be the father of Hillary's love child while offering to provide anger management therapy to Osama Bin Laden. Mitt was toast after that. Imagine that, Mitt giving in to the terrorizers. That Bastard.

But you have got to love the brazenness of Mitt Romney. He can criticize an opponent, with a straight face, for holding a view that he, Mitt Romney, held 5 minutes ago and is planning to hold again in the near future if need be.

What's a loyal party man to do?

Corporations are People, My Friends

Ba Humbug! The Dirty Hippies protesting Wall Street need to get off the Backs of the Job Creators:

It is precisely the desire to maximize profits that drives businessmen, consistent with their fiduciary duties, to work hard; to innovate; to compete; to operate efficiently so as to reduce costs and prices, and thereby gain market share; and on on. Is this “greed?” Of course not. It is progress.

Do liberals really want the rest of us to be lazy; to be uncompetitive; to squelch change; to be inefficient and to pass the costs of that inefficiency on to our customers? Well, yes, actually, they do–just as the federal government passes the costs of its inefficiency on to its customers, the taxpayers.

But then, liberalism is the reactionary dogma of our age. If you hate progress and would rather live in poverty than see someone else prosper, you are a born liberal.

Powerline Blogger Hinderaker

I love it! Up is down. Day is Night and Progressives oppose Progress!

Oh those wingers. But what can you expect from the Blog that Proclaimed George Bush to be a Genius whose leadership is Rivaled only by Lincoln, Washington and maybe, just perhaps, FDR. Either way, Bush was either Third of Fourth on the Greatness scale according to Powerline Blogger Hinderaker.

But what I think the ever zany Powerline guy is trying to express is that the free and unfettered market is the only means by which a people and a society be perfected. The Free Market Almighty is magic, omnipotent and all knowing. Only through it and through service to its apostles - corporations, can one would achieve salvation. To oppose the perfection of mankind through the free market almighty is to oppose progress.

Of course this is bullshit.

There is nothing immoral from rounding the rougher off edges of the Free Market to make its effects on working folks more humane or pro-life so to speak. Was wrong to prohibit corporations from using 9 year olds to work mines? Was it immoral to implement workplace safety regulations so that laborers are not broken by the time they reach 40 or that there are not 10 of thousands of funerals a year for victims of workplace accidents as there once were? Of course not. It is likely what Jesus would have done had he been in position to do so at the time. And this cannot be wrong, can it?

Capitalism may be more efficient without regulations, I know the big polluters certainly made this position known during the debates regarding the clean air act and the clean water act. Thankfully public health was deemed more important than efficiency and these laws, regulating corporate behavior, passed. It is a good thing too. The air and the water of the United States are cleaner today than each were before the laws passed, fewer folks die prematurely from preventable things such as respiratory disease, the old the young and the sick have a better shot at living a full life and children can safely fish and swim most where ever they please. These are goods things and are likely what Jesus may have done had he been in such a position back then. It is also progress.

It is progress when the People who run Corporations are told - go about your business, create new and useful things people want to buy; make a lot of money in the process and pay some of back it in taxes, but as you conduct your business please do no harm. There is more to life than just the bottom line. Ask Ebenezer Scrooge. That is all.

Leading Republican: Romney not Truthful

This is Earth Shattering News:

I don't know but it sounds to me like Mitt has trouble telling the truth.

More 999 nonsense

The 999 plan is really simple and easy to understand………..if you are Hermann Cain:

Cain had nothing on 9-9-9. Whenever the other candidates talked about how the two consumption taxes and the flat income tax would increase taxes on the middle-class and working poor, Cain would just talk about how his analysis was different from that of independent observers and common sense. His defense seems to be that the 9-9-9 plan is so simple and transparent that Cain and Cain’s economic team are the only people on Earth who understand how it impacts anybody, so don’t worry your pretty little head if it looks like a tax increase.

The 999 plan has to be dead when the wingnet starts piling on.

Obviously Hermann Cain isn't Stupid, but……….

999 could be the largest tax increase in History on ordinary folks:

Herman Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan would raise taxes on 84 percent of U.S. households, according to an independent analysis released Tuesday, contradicting claims by the Republican presidential candidate that most Americans would see a tax cut.

The Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank, says low- and middle-income families would be hit hardest, with households making between $10,000 and $20,000 seeing their taxes increase by nearly 950 percent.

"You're talking a $2,700 tax increase for people with incomes between $10,000 and $20,000," said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center. "That's huge."

Households with the highest incomes, however, would get big tax cuts. Those making more than $1 million a year would see their taxes cut nearly in half, on average, according to the analysis.

Among those in the middle, households making between $40,000 and $50,000 would see their taxes increase by an average of $4,400, the report said. Those making between $50,000 and $75,000 would see their annual tax bill go up by an average of $4,326.

"It's very, very regressive compared to the current system.

This really isn't that hard to figure and someone who has run as many Burger King Restaurants and Pizza joints as Cain has, not knowing this fact is gross negligence or reckless indifference to the plight of working folks.

If he cares about working folks, the middle class and anyone who is not a Millionaire, he should admit his error, apologize and be done with the whole mess.

I predict he'll Adopt Hermann Cain's 999 plan next….

…..and turn it upside down.

Gary Johnson’s unorthodox campaign for the Republican presidential nomination continued Sunday, when he spoke at a Google+ town hall conducted by representatives of various pagan media outlets.

The former New Mexico governor spoke with members of the Pagan Newswire Collective, ModernWitch Podcast and Patheos.com, among others. He said it was important to reach out to voters that fall outside the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths, and slammed his own party for being too beholden to the Christian right.

“I think the world looks down on Republicans for their socially conservative views, which includes religion in government,” Johnson said. “I think that should not play a role in any of this. When Republicans talk about values — you know what? I bet you and I have the same values.”

I don't want to rain on Gary Johnson's parade or anything, but one of these days he has got to realize that he's in the wrong party. Talk about slow learners, but this takes the cake. I mean, four candidates for the presidency in his party are telling folks that God wants him, and in Bachmann's case her, to run for president. Sure God is likely just pulling a practical joke, old testament style, on these four. But these people and the Base is serious about this stuff.

Santorum a victim of Anti-Anti-Gay Bigotry

Wingnut Dictionary - Klimate Khange Kool-Aid

Word of the Day:

Klimate Khange Kool-Aid

Definition:

(1) Term used by right wing bloggers and other right wing fringe groups in the USA to describe the discipline within scientific study referred to as "Climate Science" (2) a clever inference to imply that Climate Scientists are similar to the racist right wing populist, anti-immigrant, anti-government, and anti religious minority rights group of the same initials, i.e., the Ku Klu Klan, which was popular during the 1920's. (3) Phrase used by old men seen yelling at clouds for no apparent reason.

Used in Everyday Winger Conversation:

(1) Goddamn it! A small Cabal of Uber-scientists are using Klimate Khange Kool-Aid to perpetrate the great hoax known to manind in order to implement global socialism, bicycle sharing programs in Denver and the UN's Agenda 21 which will force patriotic tea partiers to live in "hobbit homes" in designated "human habitation zones". Goddamn Klimate Khange Kool-Aid!

(2) The Economist is a schizophrenic magazine, but that’s one reason to read it. It is so obviously superior to Time and Newsweek in its erudition and depth, which is all the more impressive as most of its stories are written anonymously, a welcome contrast to the stuffed-up ego bylines of the American journalists who parade themselves on TV and the high paid lecture circuit.

One glaring flaw is that The Economist does seem at times to have had an extra helping of the Klimate Khange Kool-Aid. I was told once by one of their Washington correspondents that this stemmed from an edict from the owners and senior editors in charge back in London. (And their U.S. coverage sometimes partakes of an “oh those silly colonials” tone. We’ll save that for another time.)

Context of Klimate Khange Kool-Aid within American Politics:

Within Right Wing Mythology, i.e., wingnut mythology, it is generally believed as fact that Anthropogenic Global Warming is a hoax and is being perpetrated by an international conspiracy made up of the lowliest bureaucrats and researchers to the highest world leaders and super tricksy Scientists. Yet despite all the protests by leading Right Wingers, Sean Hannity Foxnews Specials and blog posts, the Global Global Warming Conspiracy just keeps growing larger. This creates a condition of helplessness felt by right wingers thereby leading to evermore strident and shrill rhetoric such as comparing Scientists to the Klan to combat the "Hoax."

Solutions to Klimate Khange Kool-Aid Delusion Syndrome:

There is no known solution to address the role of conspiracy theory infecting fringe groups in American Politics. Such is the case with Klimate Khange Kool-Aid delusion syndrome. However it is thought by a growing consensus that FEMA run re-education camps offer the best approach to treat those afflicted with this syndrome.

Why the 999 plan seems like an upside down 666 plan to me

It is Quite simple. If your Red State taxes grocery sales at a high rate (which many do for some reason), the Cain plan will wipe out your grocery budget. If you live in a God-fearing Red State, your grocery bill would likely soar if Hermann Cain gets his way. For example in Alabama, you'd see food price increases as high as 26.89% every time a cashier rings you up. In Louisiana the Cain Wallet Drain would add an additional 25.89% to your grocery bill. In Mississippi - 23.89%, Oklahoma - 24.89% and Tennessee it'd be 24.49%.

Why is the Cain Plan so cruel? Because a consumption tax hits low margin high volume businesses like grocery stores heavily. Grocery stores currently pay taxes on profits - say 2% of sales (and social security on salaries, etc.). However, roughly speaking, instead of the 35% current corporate tax being applied on 2 cents of every dollar of sales (or a tax of $0.007 per dollar of sales), the 999 plan would add 9 percent to every dollar of sales (or $0.09). Even when you add payroll tax savings to the mix, the stores will be paying a lot more in taxes under 999 than current law and will need to raise prices to offset the coming Cain tax increase.

And when you add this new Cain consumption tax to a Cain federal sales tax and an already high state sales tax, the Cain Plan means disaster at the check out line. Here is an example: if you buy one hundred dollars of food at your local Red State Walmart to feed your family, you better be prepared to shell out an additional 25 bucks to pay your 999 tax. Ouch.

This leads to a larger question. Is Hermann Cain deliberately targeting Red State folks with his crazy scheme? It hits the poor the hardest as well as people living in God fearing Red States. Why is he doing this? Is Michele Bachmann correct that his plan really just an upside down 666 plan? I don't know the answer, but it is clear that if you buy groceries, the Cain plan is not your friend.