Saturday, October 04, 2014

Saturday Stuff

I thought this was particularly NSFW spot-on commentary from Bill Maher about those wastes of space in charge of the U.S. House in particular (and to do something about that in PA-08, click here)...



...and I think Jon Stewart hit this one right out of the park, as it were (here)...


...and nice work by Chris Hayes to remind everyone how utterly wrong the wingnutosphere was on the Affordable Care Law (Hey Sean, how many stations dropped you this week – tee hee)...



...and here's a nice, rockin' non-message tune from this century (the guy with the face fungus managed to spook me out a bit, though).

Friday, October 03, 2014

Friday Stuff

I thought this was a nice feature by Chris Hayes, timed for the one-year anniversary of the roll out of the Affordable Care Law...



...and yes, I know it's truly shocking to hear about this (removing my tongue from my cheek), which puts this “Young Turks” video with Cenk and Ana from a few years ago in the proper context (and once again, the captions are unintentionally hilarious – and to send PA's “Space Cadet” governor back to private life once and for all - he who apparently was asleep for this also - click here)...



…and I get it that Leon Panetta is basically a Dem, though he does seem to sway with the prevailing wind, as it were, but I think he’s wrong to say that ISIS is Obama’s fault here, seeing as how he went along with the Status of Forces Agreement as well, which I think was the right thing to do.

As Igor Volsky of Think Progress tells us...
...while Panetta’s book reinforces longstanding criticism of Obama’s Iraq policy, his assessment clashes mightily with his public statements about the administration’s efforts to secure a status of forces agreement (SOFA) with Iraq.

For instance, during an Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Iraq in November of 2011, Panetta specifically dismissed McCain’s claims that the Obama administration was committed (to) complete withdrawal and did not want to leave residual troops in Iraq, reminding the Arizona senator that Iraqi leaders must agree to American presence in the country and provide American soldiers with immunity from prosecution.

“Senator McCain, that’s just simply not true,” Panetta began. “I guess you can believe that and I respect your beliefs…but that’s not how it happened. This is about negotiating with a sovereign country. An independent country, this was about their needs. This is not about us telling them what we’re going to do for them or what they’re going to have to do. … This is about their country making a decision as to what is necessary here.”

He stressed that for American troops to remain in the country, “you absolutely have to have immunities and those immunities have to be granted by a SOFA agreement. I was not about to have our troops go there in place without those immunities.”
Iraq told us to get out, which was their right, and Syria let the terrorist insurgents fester…not sure which president was supposed to be able to look into a crystal ball and figure that out…made me recall this Panetta-related clip (CYA 101 here as far as I’m concerned)…



…and I suppose I’m putting a twist on this by including this tune; always a cautionary lesson for yours truly.

Thursday, October 02, 2014

Thursday Stuff

Oh, and October 1st was also the first birthday of healthcare.gov - Joy Reid reports (and sorry, Dems, if you don't stand and fight over the ACA, then you deserve what you get)...



…and it looks like the Repugs are up to their typical voter-caging garbage in North Carolina, among other places I’m sure, and as you might have guessed, Chucky and Dave Koch are behind it (more on this wretched duo here - oh, and one more thing...)…



…and Melissa Harris-Perry gives us an open letter to Colorado school board member Julie Williams, who basically wants to see our history of protest taken out of our social studies textbooks (achtung, baby!)…



...and I have to tell you that I actually was having a pleasant evening until I saw this (I really wish this guy would go away. I really do).

Oh, so we're supposed to have more patience with Mesopotamia, or something, you clueless meat sack? Well, at least he didn’t say we should give it six more months.

I will say, though, that I thought it was a nice touch for Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History to be “interviewed” by Brian Kilmeade of Fix Noise, since I believe the two are intellectual equals.

Wednesday, October 01, 2014

Wednesday Stuff

Happy 90th birthday to President Jimmy Carter – yeah, yeah, we get it, one term and he left with lower approval ratings, and he didn’t play the Beltway insider game the way he should have, but I defy anyone to go back and do a fair, independent analysis of the 1980 presidential campaign and try to catalog the wall-to-wall lies of The Sainted Ronnie R; it will be an eye-opener…wouldn’t have made a difference in the outcome, but imagine the howls of outrage if a Democrat had done anything like that (actually, Bill Clinton turned the tables a bit on that score in ’92 – you know what they say about paybacks; by the way, “The Unfinished Presidency” is a great book)…



...oh, and remember what happened a year ago today? Come on, let’s think really hard now



…and Jon Stewart gives us another lesson in Civics 101 here (NSFW…I’d be laughing if it weren’t so damn true)…


…and to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the UC Berkeley Free Speech movement (here), I give you this (based on “Riot in Cell Block #9,” by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller).

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Tuesday Stuff

What’s going on in the Kansas U.S. Senate race is interesting, but what’s going on in the Kansas gubernatorial contest in intriguing also – I think we know what just about always happens when Repug “Tax Cuts Are Their Jesus” ideology collides with reality (and Kris Kobach is truly the very worst non-federal secretary of state in this country)…



…and here is still more repulsive news on behalf of the “one percent” as well as the rest of us (NSFW - more here, and here)…



…and the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR is up to more nonsense (there goes Roberts “calling balls and strikes” again…and how ridiculous is this given what Iowa Repug Senate Candidate Joni Ernst said in the clip below? And maybe Cory Gardner is technically right about the so-called "personhood" bill not being introduced in Washington, but the next question should have been "Do you support a federal 'personhood' bill?" so we can watch him lie about that too)…



...and happy 50th birthday to Trey Anastasio.

Monday, September 29, 2014

Monday Stuff

It's particularly galling to read Baby Newton Leroy and his hosanna to himself over the 20th anniversary of the “Contract on America” here – I thought Rick Perlstein provided a good response here (basically, the whole damn thing was a sap to anyone voting for Ross Perot - who? - in 1992), and the following video from K.O. definitely still fits…



…and here’s the latest on the Repugs and their efforts to reach women voters; I think Celinda Lake made a great point when she said that the Repugs only care about not losing women more than they win men’s votes, and believe me when I tell you that that cold, hard fact doesn’t make me happy…



...oh, and by the way, here is a reminder that we do indeed have a campaign to unseat Mikey the Beloved in the PA-08 U.S. House race; this is the Dem candidate, Kevin Strouse (in case you hadn't heard) – to do what you can, click here...



..and yeah, “how is this still a thing” indeed (NSFW)...



…and I know I already got into the whole “coffee cup salute” thing last Friday, but I think this borderline NSFW clip by Jon Stewart needs to be seen by as many people as possible (more here - I’m sure just about everyone already has viewed it by now, but here it is again for good measure)…


...and I thought this was a fun little video to enjoy while the days get shorter (sad).