Friday Stuff

Point, meet counterpoint (from wingnuttia-land)…



…and somehow I have a feeling that, if Rod Serling were still alive, he would approve of this message (here, and in a related story as they say, this piece in the Times today made me want to puke)…



…and Rachel Maddow and Dave Weigel tell us here that it’s déjà vu all over again for the Repugs (and actually, her analogy between 2008 and this year holds up better when you realize that Former Senator Man-On-Dog quite probably won the Iowa caucus, as Weigel mentions - truly scary)…

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

…and on this day in 1968, Johnny Cash performed live at Folsom Prison – nice bit of a remix.

Friday Mashup (1/13/12)

This post at The Daily Tucker tells us the following…

The rise of Ron Paul in the Republican primary season has raised questions about what Americans expect from the executive office. The accepted interpretation of presidential powers and executive effectiveness centers on the “use” of the office. “Active” executives, such as Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, are usually considered “great,” while those who did “little” in office round out the list. For example, a 2010 Siena Research Institute survey included both Roosevelts and Lincoln in the top five while Wilson, Dwight Eisenhower and Harry Truman were in the top ten. The bottom dwellers included Andrew Johnson, John Tyler, James Buchanan and Franklin Pierce. Grover Cleveland and Martin Van Buren were also in the bottom half.

Author Brion McClanahan, author of The Founding Fathers Guide To The Constitution (yep, that wingnut alarm in the back of my head just went off) then uses this as an excuse to defend former Presidents John Tyler, Grover Cleveland, Martin Van Buren, James Monroe, and (perhaps most egregiously) James Buchanan (presumably for low taxes, low tariffs, and lower spending than other chief executives – McClanahan does defend his selections of course, as he should).

When considering John Tyler, our 10th president, I think we should also look at the following (from here)…

He sided with the Confederate government, and won election to the Confederate House of Representatives shortly before his death (and Texas was annexed under his administration - maybe better left with Mexico? :-).

And what of Grover Cleveland? Well, from here…

He vetoed hundreds of private pension bills for American Civil War veterans, believing that if their pensions requests had already been rejected by the Pensions Bureau, Congress should not attempt to override that decision. When Congress, pressured by the Grand Army of the Republic, passed a bill granting pensions for disabilities not caused by military service, Cleveland also vetoed that.

Oh, and there was that fathering-a-child-out-of-wedlock business, but that happened before he was elected to the White House (God knows what Fix Noise and their pals would do with that now, though).

I think we should also consider the following about Martin Van Buren (who came after Andrew Jackson)…

He oversaw the "Trail of Tears", which involved the expulsion of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw and Seminole from Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and South Carolina to the Oklahoma territory. To help secure Florida, Van Buren also pursued the Second Seminole War, which had begun while Jackson was in office. The war, which would prove the costliest of the Indian Wars, was highly unpopular in the free states, where it was seen as an attempt to expand slave territory. Fighting was not resolved until 1842, after Van Buren had left office.

The one selection where I don’t have much of a bone to pick, as it were, with McClanahan concerns James Monroe. However, the following should be noted from here…

As Secretary of State, Monroe dismissed Mordecai Manuel Noah from his post as consul to Tunis in 1815, for the apparent reason that he was Jewish. Noah protested and gained letters from Adams, Jefferson, and Madison supporting church-state separation and tolerance for Jews.

He also brought slaves with him to the White House, but that apparently was a common practice back then (repugnant still, though, I realize).

Monroe also said the following (to his credit)…

"It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising their sovereignty. Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found. The people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement and ruin."

And finally, this brings us to James Buchanan, the only president who came from our beloved commonwealth. As noted here…

Knowing that secessionist fervor was strongest in South Carolina, Buchanan made a quiet pact with South Carolina's legislators that he would not reinforce the Charleston garrison in exchange for no interference from the state.[53] However, Buchanan did not inform the Charleston commander, Major Robert Anderson, of the agreement, and on December 26 Anderson violated it by moving his command to Fort Sumter. Southerners responded with a demand that Buchanan remove Anderson, while northerners demanded support for the commander. On December 31, in an apparent panic and without consulting Anderson, Buchanan ordered reinforcements.

I think that Buchanan’s predecessor Franklin Pierce had at least as much to do with the runup to the Civil War as Buchanan did, though, truth be told, you could argue that no one could have prevented it (kind of the way that Calvin Coolidge was at least as much at fault for the Depression as Herbert Hoover because of his inaction…I realize, though, that all of this is conjecture in the end).

This probably would be a more appropriate topic for President’s Day next month, but I guess now is as good a time as any to comment on this subject too.

Next, I couldn’t help but come across this item from The Hill, in which Repug U.S. House Rep John Fleming of Louisiana criticizes Number 44 as follows…

With his new defense strategy President Obama has charted another step on his road map for American decline. His inconsistent, lead-from-behind mentality has diminished our standing in the world. As our exit from Iraq last month demonstrated, the commander in chief is more concerned with political appearances than with well-thought-out strategy.

The men and women of the United States military do an extraordinary job of executing their orders. They have been stretched throughout the past decade, but their service has paved the way for freedom in Iraq, while keeping terrorists from using their familiar haunts in Afghanistan to plan and carry out attacks on innocent Americans.

Hmmm, John Fleming, John Fleming – why does that name sound familiar?

Oh yeah, it’s because he’s one of these supposedly oppressed millionaires in the House whose $6.3 million swag is apparently only worth $400 grand, and he was all “woe is me” about it here (cry me a river, dirtbag).

Oh, and by the way, as noted here, the exit of our troops from Iraq had nothing to do with President Obama. It was negotiated in the Status of Forces Agreement under Dubya (and before you start blaming Obama for not enough troops in Afghanistan, take a look at this to see how President Hopey Changey has sent more of our people over to The Land Where Empires Go To Die after years of us shortchanging the war effort under Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History).

Finally, I thought the Bucks County Courier Times was occasionally lucid in this editorial this morning over the fact that Patrick Murphy, former U.S. House congressional rep and current candidate for the Dem nomination in the PA Attorney General’s race, did not take the PA state bar exam…

Criticizing Murphy for opting out of the only bar exam that tests students’ knowledge of Pennsylvania law, a spokesman for (Philadelphia prosecutor Dan McCaffery, another candidate) asserted, “Not taking the Pennsylvania bar exam automatically disqualifies (Murphy) for attorney general. It’s a fatal flaw.”

Maybe it will be for voters; we’ll see. But we don’t think it should be.

We further think the spokesman’s comments are a cheap shot because requirements for the job of attorney general do not include trial experience. In fact, the only professional qualification that the Pennsylvania Constitution mandates for attorney general is to be a member of the state bar.

Uh, yep – and as noted here…

Murphy's also taken some hits recently because he never sat for the Pennsylvania bar exam, but rather became licensed to practice in the state through a very common process known as "reciprocity," which involves passing another state's exam and then gaining sufficient legal experience. Speaking as a lawyer, this kind of criticism is manifestly stupid—if Pennsylvania thought it necessary for all lawyers practicing there to take the PA bar, they'd make that a requirement. But they don't, and it's not. That said, things play differently on the campaign trail than they do at bar committee meetings, and McCaffery has been making a big deal of this story.

To help out Patrick Murphy, click here (and as mentioned in the Daily Kos post, good luck to Dem Kathy Boockvar, who has lined up to challenge Mikey the Beloved for Murphy’s old seat…click here to help).

Mikey's "TRAIN In Vain" And Other Follies, Part 1

A correspondence from our PA-08 U.S. House rep recently arrived at Le Manse Doomsy, which is Mikey The Beloved’s “2011 Year-End Review and Issues Update.” In this post, I will list the legislation Fitzpatrick supported, along with what I consider to be appropriate responses (the legislation is divided by headings, one of which appears below; I will not be able to cover the entire correspondence today, but I’m sure it will end up providing future posting material also).

Empowering Small Business Owners

HR 2401 – TRAIN Act

As noted here…

The health standards that the TRAIN Act will prevent are long overdue and would save tens of thousands of lives every year once they are implemented (including the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule and Mercury and Air Toxics standards). Blocking these standards for just one additional year would result in:

• up to 25,300 lives lost;
• more than 11,000 heart attacks;
• more than 120,000 asthma attacks;
• over 12,200 more hospital and emergency room visits; and
• many hundreds of thousands more days of missed work or school.

And the bill’s lengthier minimum periods of delay (15 & 19 months) would result in up to 33,450 premature deaths. The real toll likely will be much higher since the legislation allows indefinite delays in these vital public health safeguards.

Continuing with Mikey (what a great start)…

HR 3094 – Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act

As noted here…

The House this evening passed (235-188) legislation (H.R. 3094) that gives employers new tools to combat and delay elections by workers who try to form unions. Dubbed the Election Prevention Act by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the bill is the congressional Republican effort to block some modest rule changes proposed earlier this year by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to reduce unnecessary litigation and modernize the way union elections are conducted.

…

While they have refused to pass jobs legislation this year, congressional Republicans have made nearly 50 separate assaults on the NLRB since January by proposing bills to gut the agency’s oversight and funding, holding hearings and issuing subpoenas, according to American Rights at Work (ARAW).

Your House Repugs on the job, ladies and gentlemen.

Continuing with Mikey again…

HR 527 – Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act

As Michigan Dem congressman John Conyers noted here…

Rounding out the trio of public safety killing legislation is H.R. 527, the “Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act of 2011.” Under current law, rulemaking agencies must make an analysis for every new rule that would have significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities, such as small businesses. Among other things, this bill repeals the authority of an agency to waive or delay this analysis in response to an emergency that makes compliance or timely compliance impracticable.

So if there is an epidemic of E. coli or listeria infection caused by some item in our nation’s food distribution network, or if there is an imminent environmental disaster that could be addressed systemically through regulation, this bill says “Don’t worry. Don’t rush.”

My conservative colleagues argue that this legislation is necessary because too much regulation is responsible for our nation’s current economic difficulties. They must be suffering from some collective form of amnesia. It was not too much regulation of Wall Street that led to the near collapse of the worldwide marketplace. It was not too much regulation that caused the BP oil spill. And, it was not too much regulation that allowed mortgage brokers, servicers, bankers and others to engage in predatory lending and falsify foreclosure documents in court proceedings.

Continuing with Mikey…

HR 10 – REINS Act and HR 3010 – Regulatory Accountability Act (I combined them)

As noted here about REINS…

The first of these is the childishly-named "Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act"(H.R. 10). Currently, Congress passes a regulatory law and it is up to the agencies within the Executive branch to write the regulations based on that direction from the Legislative branch. If Congress doesn't like how it is done, there are expedited ways for them to halt the new or changed regulations.

Under the REINS Act, this all changes. Now, any new regulation that is deemed to be a "major regulation" (having an impact of $100,000,000 or more) must be APPROVED by both the House and the Senate. Not only that, it must happen within 70 days of being submitted to Congress.

Think about that for a minute. When was the last thing Congress did anything in 70 days?

The impact of this is dramatic. The current way regulations are written attempts to insulate the regulatory process from the political winds that buffet our country. It's not a complete insulation, of course, but it's an important separation. If this law passes, a small handful of legislators with a political axe to grind can bring the process to a near standstill, all but guaranteeing the 70 day window will close and no action is taken on the new regulation. When that happens, the regulation is scrapped.

If this becomes law, it also would allow a current Congress to thwart the actions of a previous Congress without ever having to repeal any legislation, a subjugation of our democratic process.

And as noted about the RAA from the same Daily Kos post…

The Regulatory Accountability Act (S. 1606/H.R. 3010) will grind to a halt the rulemaking process at the core of implementing the nation’s public health, workplace safety, and environmental standards. This bill will not improve the federal regulatory process; it will cripple it. Rules that somehow make it through the RAA's process would tilt against the public interest and in favor of powerful special interests.

The RAA would cover every rule and guidance – big and small – proposed by any executive regulatory agency and any independent regulatory agency. It seeks to fundamentally rewrite and expand the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), a 65-year-old statute that can be considered as a kind of Constitution for administrative agencies and the regulatory process. There are now more than 110 separate procedural requirements in the rulemaking process; the RAA would add more than 60 new procedural and analytical requirements. For the country's most important rules, the RAA would add no fewer than 21 to 39 months to the rulemaking process.

And as noted from here…

The REINS Act is built on the faulty premise that the regulatory state is out of control. It’s easy to mock government rules, of which there are many, if you focus only on their costs and ignore their benefits. But, in reality, every major federal rule is already subject to extensive cost-benefit analysis by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and, under President Obama and President Bush, OMB has consistently concluded that the benefits of federal regulations far outweigh the costs. Last year, it concluded that the annual cost of major rules issued between FY 1999 and 2009 was $43 to $55 billion, while the annual societal benefits of those same regulations ranged from $128 billion to $616 billion—an excellent return on investment by any standard.

And lastly (for now)…

HR 910 – Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011

As noted here…

The bill prohibits the Environmental Protection Agency from protecting the environment. And other than the title, the word "tax" does not appear at all in the bill. This legislative lunacy has inspired a couple of obviously frustrated Democratic congressmen to offer amendments that seek to improve at least the official title of the bill.

Jared Polis of Colorado submitted an amendment to change the title to "The Dirty Air Act of 2011." Gerry Connolly of Virginia was somewhat more industrious. He submitted eight amendments including "The Koch Brothers Appreciation Act," "The Protecting Americans from Polar Bears Act," and "The Head in the Sand Act."

Some people may think that these sorts of pranks mock the serious responsibilities of the institution. But the truth is that these amendments are no more ridiculous than the title as written in the bill's original language. And nothing is more ridiculous the actual intent of the bill. This is a great way to illustrate that it's the GOP who are a joke.

Including Mikey the Beloved of course; I’ll plan to return to Mikey’s “year in review” later.

Thursday Stuff

Well golly gee, it looks like that little puke Jimmy O’Keefe may have added a felony to his rap sheet (here, with a reminder below of one of his most notorious escapades; also, more here)…



…and here’s a little number to help make our days more tolerable.

Wednesday Stuff

Listening to Baby Newton Leroy and “Goodhair” Perry trying to claim the moral high ground here is hilarious, though they definitely have a point about the presumptive Repug presidential nominee…



…and here’s something you’re not hearing much of, though you should, as Cenk Uygur tells us (more here)…



…and as Think Progress tells us here, today marks ten years since the first “terrists” were detained at Guantanamo, which makes me recall this clip from November 2008 (just after the election – more good “Young Turks” stuff)…



…and with that in mind, I bring you this – if the DFHs have a “national anthem,” it’s probably this song or that tune by Country Joe and the Fish at Woodstock (two notes first: 1) Though I definitely have disagreements with Obama from time to time, it should be noted that, while he’s shown in this clip, he did try to close GITMO, and 2) It might be worthwhile to read the story of John Kay, lead singer of Steppenwolf, and his harrowing escape from then-East Germany when he was young – songs like this arise from a true sense of idealism about this country, which I think is commendable).

And by the way, under the heading of “Crime and Punishment,” I have a great big “WTF?” reaction over this.

Tuesday Stuff

I’m sure the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Bucks County Courier Times wrestle with this question every day, since it hits so close to home for their core demographic – heh…


How Will The End Of Print Journalism Affect Old Loons Who Hoard Newspapers?

…and from the Department of Double Standards, I give you this (oh, and by the way, I hate to shock anyone out there, but Mitt Romney won New Hampshire – yawn)…



…and speaking of Willard Mitt and his pals, I thought this was a bit of fun…



…and let’s hope we’re not all singing this tune after this November (speaking of New Hampshire).

Tuesday Mashup (1/10/12)

This Daily Tucker post tells us the following…

The Department of Justice’s inspector general has refused to investigate Attorney General Eric Holder’s response to public safety threats stemming from the ongoing “Occupy” movement nationwide, especially in New York City and Washington, D.C.

The nonprofit investigative firm Cause of Action asked DOJ Inspector General Cynthia Schnedar to look into Holder’s response to concerns about the potential for violence in connection with Occupy protests.

About the group Cause of Action, here is a link to their web site. If you have better luck finding out who is behind this organization than I did, please let me know (ahhh, I can smell the Astroturf!).

Also, this link from the Daily Tucker “story” provides a video showing what is supposed to be an attack by “Occupy” protestors on “elderly women” outside of a Washington, D.C. fundraiser. Well, I watched the six-minute-or-so video (heavily edited as most clips from conservative sites are), and while it is possible that two women who weren’t particularly elderly were roughed up a bit in a scuffle between “Occupy” protestors and the D.C. police (you see the after effects more than the actual supposed misconduct, which again is typical), you also see a tall man in his 50s or 60s (I would guess) trying to manhandle two shorter (and younger) “Occupy” protestors, and you also see a confrontation resulting from this.

If the Department of Justice and the Inspector General aren’t going to investigate the car attack on the three “Occupy” protestors, then it would be utterly farcical to investigate any alleged “attacks” against those attending the Koch Brothers soiree in our nation’s capital.

Next, BoBo asks “Where are the liberals?” here. And if you guessed that this line is another excuse for a column full of straw man arguments against all Republican opposition, then you win a complimentary “Obama/Hillary 2012” bumper sticker courtesy of Bill Keller (here).

Actually, I think there are more than a few liberals here, BoBo (and here is more food for thought on that subject…by the way, I always thought that a liberal was someone seeking a benefit from the government and a progressive was someone who sought change through governmental legislation; if that's not totally correct, I'm open to discussion on that).

Finally, this tells us the following…

Tony Blankley, who frustrated and entertained reporters as press secretary to Newt Gingrich during his rise to power in the House, then joined the press corps himself as a columnist and editorial page editor for the Washington Times, died Saturday in Washington. He was 63.

Before I say another word, I wish to extend my condolences to Blankley’s family and friends. I think that 63 is too young of an age for someone to cash in, as it were.

However, that being said, I think the following should be noted about Blankley…

Here, he once called Valerie Plame “a CIA operations officer with relatively minor responsibilities” (last bullet).

Really?

Here, he said that Bill Clinton vetoed welfare reform twice (wrong, and this is particularly funny since, as was already pointed out, Blankley was Baby Newton Leroy’s press secretary at the time, so he should have known better).

Here…well, you can read a whole bunch of Blankley BS, so take your pick.

Again, it is sad for Blankley’s cohorts that he has passed, and I acknowledge that. What is sadder still is that his legacy, such as it is, is service for such an utterly dishonorable cause.

Monday Stuff

I was trying to find a way to respond to the latest pain narrative from Fluffyhead here (h/t Atrios), and I think this clip sums up my feelings pretty well; this features Sam Seder in Wisconsin last March or April in response to the antics from Hosni Mubarak Walker.

(Oh, and here is another item to raise the blood pressure, I know, from last month - missed it while I was in "Do-Gooders and Dregs" mode)...



…and by the way, happy belated 65th birthday to David Bowie, featuring a song that mentions the place where David Gregory surely lives.

"Orwell That Ends Well"

From Bill Maher’s great new book (a Christmas present from Mrs. Doomsy – this is dated March 16, 2007)…

New Rule: Liberals must stop saying President Bush hasn’t asked Americans to sacrifice for the war on terror. On the contrary, he’s asked us to sacrifice something enormous: our civil rights. When I heard George Bush was reading my Emails, I probably had the same reaction you did: “George Bush can read?” Yes, he can, and this administration has read your phone records, credit-card statements, mail, Internet logs – I can’t tell if they’re fighting a war on terror or producing the next season of Cheaters. I mail myself a copy of the Constitution every morning on the hope they’ll open it and see what it says.

So when it comes to sacrifice, don’t kid yourself; you have given up a lot. You’ve given up faith in your government’s honesty, the goodwill of people overseas, and six-tenths of the Bill of Rights. Here’s what you’ve sacrificed: search and seizure, warrants, self-incrimination, trial by jury, cruel and unusual punishment; here’s what you have left: handguns, religion, and they can’t make you quarter a British soldier. If Prince Harry invades the Inland Empire, he has to bring a tent.

In previous wars, Americans on the home front made a very different kind of sacrifice. During World War II, we endured rationing, paid higher taxes, bought war bonds. In the interest of national unity, people even pretended Bob Hope was funny. Women donated their silk undergarments so they could be sewn into parachutes – can you imagine nowadays a Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan going without underwear? OK, bad example.

George Bush has never been too bright about furreners, but he does know Americans. He asked this generation to sacrifice the things he knew we wouldn’t miss: our privacy and our morality. He let us keep the money. But he made a cynical bet that we wouldn’t much care if we became a “big brother” country that has now tortured a lot of random people. And yet no one asks the tough questions like “Is torture necessary?””Who will watch the watchers?” and “When does Jack Bauer go to the bathroom? It’s been five years – is he wearing one of those astronaut diapers?”

After 9/11, President Bush told us Osama bin Laden could run, but he couldn’t hide. But then he ran, and hid, so Bush went to Plan B: pissing on the Constitution.

Conservatives always say the great thing Reagan did was make us feel good about America again. Do you feel good about America now? I’ll give you my answer, and to get it out of me, you don’t even have to hold my head under water or have a snarling guard dog rip my nuts off. No, I don’t feel very good about that. They say that evil happens when good men do nothing. And the Democrats prove it also happens when mediocre people do nothing.

The new season begins this Friday.

Update 1/9/12: And here is something else to keep in mind about Former Commander Codpiece (which isn't surprising in the least).

Saturday Stuff

It truly is the civil rights struggle for our times (more here – oh, and I believe the Repug presidential wannabes are having their 1,254th debate tonight; yawn)…



…and speaking of the presumptive nominee Willard Mitt, Lawrence O’Donnell has a particularly good “Rewrite” here…



…”Worst Persons” from last night (Billo and Laura Ingraham – the former with at least half a load on, apparently – are railing against our Kenyan Muslim socialist pre-zee-dint because he’s going to lavish money for abortions, supposedly, which of course is completely illegal and something Obama has no intention of doing, but as we know, silly things like facts have never gotten in the way of Fix Noise before; Repug House Rep. Allen West is the runner up for apparently taking issue with Senate Republicans, which I agree with, actually; but the new president of Penn State, Rodney Erickson, takes the top “honor” for thinking that “taking control of the narrative” was the most important consideration about the Jerry Sandusky scandal – almost too disgusting for words)…



…and today was the annual “prog rock” show on public radio station WXPN in these parts, but I didn’t hear this tune (with a little Prokofiev thrown in, I believe), so here it is (sorry, no video).

Friday Stuff

The U.S. House Repugs have obviously learned not a thing from the Mikey Fitzpatrick/Steny Hoyer debacle a few weeks ago (here)…



…and once again, when it’s time to take a hard look at the news events affecting our lives (harking back a bit to the item above), that means it’s time for Jon Stewart (here, including more of the video below)…



...and maybe Hulu's videos will cooperate, and maybe they won't - sigh...

…and in case anyone out there is still nostalgic for 2011 somehow (count me out), Mark Fiore is happy to oblige here…



...and I've been trying to get around to this video for a few days - better late than never.

Thursday Mashup (1/5/12)

This story in today’s Bucks County Courier Times tells us the following…

As a real estate developer, Robert Loughery focused on transforming vacant properties from blighted to bustling.

On Wednesday, he pledged to try something quite similar with all of Bucks County.

The 41-year-old founder of the Keystone Development Group was named chairman of the Bucks County commissioners after a unanimous vote from its three-member board.

I mean, it might as well have been unanimous, since Dem Commissioner Diane Marseglia would have been outvoted anyway. And of course I didn’t expect Loughery and Charley (“I Have A Semi-Open Mind”) Martin to name Diane chairman anyway; as much as I would have liked to have seen that, it would have gone against the wishes of the voters after all.

But what really gets me about this story is this…

Charley Martin was named vice chairman of the commissioners Wednesday over objections from minority board member Diane Marseglia.

The lone Democrat on the board, Marseglia had nominated herself to be vice chairman. She called on Loughery and Martin to support her in the spirit of nonpartisanship.

Marseglia’s predecessor as minority commissioner, Sandra Miller, was never named chairwoman or vice chairwoman during several terms of office as county commissioner.

“But things are supposed to be different now,” said Marseglia.

Typically petty and stupid from Loughery and Martin (take a bow once more, all you Dems and independent voters who thought it was too much trouble to vote for Det Ansinn last November).

Update 1/6/12: Gee, it must be worse than I thought for Mikey The Beloved's press service to actually take notice (here).

Next, I give you Cal Thomas, who is a busy wingnut these days; here, he’s blaming President Obama for ending Dubya’s NASA Constellation program, which would include a return trip to the moon presumably to launch further space exploration.

As noted here, though, Obama canceled those plans in February 2010, which would have cost taxpayers $100 billion by 2020. Instead, he called for spending $6 billion over five years to focus on research and commercial development of rockets, robotics and other space-related technology.

On top of that, NASA (in the form of the so-called Augustine Commission) said it would require $50 billion more than that hundred billion over 10 years just to get to where we had planned to go under Constellation.

I think the excerpt from the Forbes article linked to here sums it up pretty well…

It comes down to money.

NASA is sacrificing the shuttles, according to the program manager, so it can get out of low-Earth orbit and get to points beyond. The first stop under Obama's plan is an asteroid by 2025; next comes Mars in the mid-2030s.

Private companies have been tapped to take over cargo hauls and astronaut rides to the space station, which is expected to carry on for at least another decade. The first commercial supply run is expected late this year, with Space Exploration Technologies Corp. launching its own rocket and spacecraft from Cape Canaveral.

Nary a day goes by without yours truly hearing about the supposed evils of “big gumint.” Well then, let our glorious private sector do a little better job of stepping up when it comes to space exploration instead.

Continuing, J.D. Mullane is lamenting here the fact that an ad campaign is apparently necessary to remind parents to make sure their kids practice good dietary habits. Which, to me, is another example of Mullane trying to have it both ways.

You see, as noted here…

…the Affordable Care Act provides $25 million in funding for the Childhood Obesity Demonstration Project, which was established through the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) legislation signed by President Obama. The Secretary of Health and Human Services will award grants to develop a comprehensive and systematic model for reducing childhood obesity.

And as noted in this post from 2009, who was one of this area’s biggest whiners and complainers about “ObamaCare”?

You see, in J.D.’s imaginary, ‘50s-black-and-white-TV version of this country, people always do the right thing (or else Joe McCarthy will get you), liberals are beaten into submission, and everyone is following the career of that handsome, well-spoken actor from California and his commercials for General Electric. You know, that Ronald Reagan fellow.

And as J.D. reminded us here, everyone is well dressed at all times when speaking to politicians…uh huh.

Finally, I give you some true hilarity from Jack Kelly here, claiming that Obama is laying the groundwork for defeat in Afghanistan, more or less, using Yusuf al-Qaradawi of the Muslim Brotherhood for (supposedly) trying to broker peace talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan…

In 2003, he issued a fatwa calling for the killing of U.S. troops in Iraq. When the imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca opposed the killing of civilians, Mr. al-Qaradawi criticized him. Yet the Obama administration considers Mr. al-Qaradawi to be a “moderate.”

I’m not going to go back and research every possible inflammatory piece of rhetoric al-Qaradawi might have actually said. What I will point out, though, is that, as noted here, al-Qaradawi also denounced the World Trade Center attacks, and he also supported the U.S. military in 2001 with a fatwa here.

Am I going to argue that al-Qaradawi isn’t a “bad apple” from time to time? No (and if he does anything worse than spout bilious rhetoric from time to time, please let me know, OK?). All I’m saying is that we’re foolish to apply some kind of a litmus test to every individual we may hope to use for our benefit without looking at it from some sort of a cost/benefit perspective, that’s all (after all, Dubya and his pals did that for Quaddafi, didn’t they? And I’m not aware of any complaints from Kelly about that...and as noted here, Kelly is a serial misinformer on other topics also).

Of course, it’s ridiculous to assume that Kelly knows anything about war and that area of the world anyway based on this.

Wednesday Stuff

So it looks like we won’t have Moon Unit Bachmann to kick around any more, at least not as a presidential candidate (here…oh, and by the way, as I watched K.O. talk with Matt Taibbi, I just kept thinking “can we finally put to rest the notion that the Teahadists can be ‘king makers’ – or 'queen makers,' I guess – when it comes to anything?”).

The only thing I'll say in fairness to Bachmann was that her campaign was severely hampered by the entrance of "Goodhair" Perry into the fray, since that basically split the "duuuhhh" faction of the GOP, which is probably bigger than anyone wants to admit...



…and while I know this song deals with a different context than a political campaign, I still thought of it anyway on this occasion.

Wednesday Mashup (1/4/12)

(A bit overdue I know, but posting is going to be highly sporadic for a little while…)

As I point out periodically, part of what I do here is to read the Bucks County Courier Times for posting material so others don’t have to subject themselves to that publication, and the paper rarely disappoints (good for me, but bad for the purpose of informed discourse overall).

And today, Cal Thomas whines that “a weak mind dumbs-down our politics,” from here.

Actually, based on what happened in Iowa yesterday, I agree with that for a change (shocking, I know).

Not to be outdone, though, someone named Ben Shapiro claimed earlier in the Courier Times (from here, a few days ago) that “the liberal effete class… believe that all robbery is a noble redistributionist impulse…”

Funny, but didn’t a certain OxyContin addict once say that “a conservative is a liberal who got mugged”? Well then, if that’s so, why would that person turn from a liberal to a conservative if Shapiro was right?

Shapiro also opined as follows…

Let them shut down the government, other than essential services. Good riddance. Let them warn of dire economic consequences if they're unable to send billion-dollar checks to abortion clinics. Somehow, we'll deal with it.

No word on what those “essential services” are, by the way. More importantly, though, this tells us that federal law already prohibits funding of abortions, due to that amendment named after a deceased Republican House member who was also a serial philanderer.

Oh, and what could be a rather interesting example of projection on Shapiro’s part, I give you this.

Next, I give you the following from last weekend in an otherwise highly sensible column from Frank Bruni of the New York Times about Iowa (here)…

In its least hypocritical moments, the Republican Party has provided an important counterbalance to a Democratic tropism toward paternalism and bloat.

I don’t know what the hell Bruni is talking about here, but if he’s referring to Democrats versus Republicans on the budget, then I think the following should be noted from here.

Which political party was in charge of Congress when the decision was made to put two wars, the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit and George W. Bush’s stinking tax cuts “on the card”? Not the Dems (talk about "bloat").

Oh, and Bruni also suggests that Michael Medved is one of the “more pragmatic conservatives” basically because Medved opposes Ron Paul, which I will admit is a point in Medved’s favor.

However, I think the words “Michael Medved” and “pragmatism” really are unrelated based on this.

Finally, I give you the latest from The Daily Tucker (here)…

When Americans flock to the polls in 13 months, we will not simply decide which direction our country should take over the next four years. Rather, we will decide whether or not our fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms will survive over the next several decades.

Currently, the Second Amendment clings to a 5-4 pro-freedom majority on the Supreme Court. Just one vote is all that stands between the America our Founding Fathers established and a radically different America that Barack Obama and his supporters envision.

Yep, it’s time for more “Oooga Booga” scare BS from the NRA about how that dern Kenyan Muslim Socialist pre-zee-dint is supposedly going to steal everyone’s guns.

There are a few different directions I can go with this, but let me just begin by pointing out what we learn from here; it turns out that Margaret Anderson, a Mount Rainier part ranger, was recently killed in a shooting during a traffic stop in the park on New Year’s Day (our sympathies to her family and friends).

And by the way, who was it who signed legislation last May permitting licensed gun owners to bring firearms into national parks and wildlife refuges as long as state law allows it? President Hopey Changey, that’s who (here).

You want to know what’s really going on here in this Daily Caller screed by the NRA’s Chris Cox? Basically, this is a fundraising appeal, and as noted here, the NRA has raised a ton of dough playing this trick in order to try and defeat President Obama (not illegal I know, and I wouldn’t care if it weren’t for the fact that people’s lives are at stake).

In a few days (January 8th to be exact), we’re going to mark the one-year anniversary of the Tucson, AZ massacre last year in which Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was very nearly killed, and 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green and Federal Judge John Roll, among others, actually were murdered, to say nothing of those besides Congresswoman Giffords who were injured.

And what did we do in response (after the funerals and commemorations)? Absolutely nothing.

No, the federal assault weapons ban wasn’t reinstituted. No, this eminently intelligent proposal by Repug U.S. House Rep Peter King wasn’t passed and signed into law either (I agree with King on practically nothing, but he was right here).

However, the one thing too many of us can agree on is that the biggest threat to our safety supposedly comes from our 44th president instead.

And the title of this post is more apropos than ever.

Monday Stuff

Gee, ya’ think that maybe – just maybe – Mr. and Mrs. America are getting just a wee bit tired of being lied to (here)?...



…and with that, I find myself harking back to this melodic tune from Frank Zappa (in honor of Ailes and company).

Sunday Stuff

Yeah, I would say so too (and again, he's the only one in that entire gaggle of idiots who matters)...



...and yes, I know it's naughty of me to put up a video like this with a bad word in the lyrics and title, but I kind of like the beat, so I'll give it a 7 (and speaking of "Rate a Record" and "American Bandstand," for the love of God, Dick Clark, please retire - you've had a great run, but it's time to step off the stage).

Saturday Stuff

Happy belated 75th birthday to boomer icon Mary Tyler Moore (and best wishes for good health too)…



…and I think this is a good question aimed at the presumptive Repug presidential nominee…



…and this, when all is said and done, is probably my favorite tune from the year that is coming to a close (so apropos)…



…and yeah, I think this is a nice tune for ringing in 2012; won’t mind seeing 2011 fade into obscurity (and once more, Happy New Year to one and all).

Friday Stuff

Huffington Post is replaying what it considers some of the funniest political moments on late night TV over the past year, and here is one - I would be inclined to agree (And remember when it was supposedly a big deal that Conan O'Brien was shopping around for a new channel for his show?)...



...and here is another favorite video from the last 12 months.

Doomsy's Do-Gooders And Dregs (2011 - Pt. 12)

(I know it's hard to believe, but since all good things must come to an end...Part One is here, Part Two is here, Part Three is here, Part Four is here, Part Five is here, Part Six is here, Part Seven is here, Part Eight is here, Part Nine is here, Part Ten is here, and Part Eleven is here.)

RIP

Pete Postlethwaite, Anne Francis, Gerry Rafferty, Matthew Crozier, Federal Judge John Roll, Christina-Taylor Green, Dave Nelson, Susannah York, Josephine Harris, Sargent Shriver, Don Kirshner, Jack LaLanne, David Kato, John Barry, Ernest McCulloch, Brian Rust, Maria Schneider, Ahmad Mohamed Mahmoud, Gary Moore, Rashawn Anderson, Chuck Tanner, George Shearing, Kenneth Mars, Frank Buckles, Jane Russell, Shabhaz Bhatti, David Broder, Rick Martin, Warren Christopher, Bill Winslade, Elizabeth Taylor, Joseph William “Pinetop” Perkins, Geraldine Ferraro, Richard Leacock, Joe Bageant, Sabah al-Bazi, Farley Granger, John Adler, Baruch Blumberg, E.J. McGuire, John Sullivan, Sidney Lumet, William Donald Schaefer, Tim Hetherington, Anton Hammerl, Chris Hondros, Madelyn Pugh Davis. Michael Sarrazin, Phoebe Snow, Don Clark, Marian Mercer, Jackie Cooper, William Campbell, Cornell Dupree, Odell Brown, Jr., Harmon Killebrew, Jeff Conaway, Gil Scott-Heron, James Arness, Andrew Gold, David Mason (trumpet player on “Penny Lane”), Carl Gardner (lead singer of The Coasters), Wild Man Fischer, Clarence Clemons, Yelena Bonner, Peter Falk, Gil Spencer, Margaret Tyzack, Fred Steiner (composer of this theme, among others), Anna Massey, Cy Twombly, Armen Gilliam, Betty Ford, Shannon Stone, Facundo Cabral, Sherwood Schwartz, Sam Denoff, Jerry Ragovoy, Ketzel (meow), Amy Winehouse, G.D. Spradlin, Dan Peek, Bubba Smith, Hugh Carey, Bernadine Healy, Nancy Wake, Jared Hagemann, Albert Brown, Christina Santiago, Ruth Brinker, Nick Ashford, Jerry Leiber, Brad McCrimmon, Pavol Demitra, Mike Flanagan, Casey Ribicoff, David “Honeyboy” Edwards, Kyle Willis, Charles S. Dubin, Cliff Robertson, Charles Percy, Burhanuddin Rabbani, Troy Davis, Wangari Maathai, Ralph Steinman, Steve Jobs, Fred L. Shuttlesworth, Derrick Bell, Bert Jansch, Roger Williams, Dan Wheldon, Paul Leka, Virginia Knauer, Robert Pierpoint, Andy Rooney, Joe Frazier, Bil Keane, Tom Wicker, Harry Morgan, Dobie Gray, Oscar Griffin, Jr., Desmond Ryan, Cesaria Evora, Vaclav Havel, Dan Frazer, Michele O’Callaghan, Jacob Goldman, Kim Geun-tae, Simms Taback, Nicol Williamson

Dregs of the Year

After reviewing all of the evidence, I don’t know how it could be anyone else but this guy, Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News International.

This tells us about the phone hacking scandal that broke open over the summer after the British newspaper The Guardian reported on Milly Dowler, 13, who disappeared on a walk home in a London suburb in 2002. Days later, private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, working for News of the World, allegedly started intercepting Dowler's cellphone voicemail messages, and erasing them to make room for more. The deletion of messages gave Dowler's family and the police false hope that Dowler was alive, until her remains were found in September of that year.

Oh, but News Corp conducted an “investigation” in August that did little more than further cover up phone hacking allegations on both sides of the Atlantic, as Eric Boehlert of Media Matters noted here.

Also, this UK Guardian article tells us, among other things, that 803 phone hacking victims were identified by police, including Sara Payne, whose daughter Sarah was abducted and murdered in July 2000 (Keith Olbermann provides more information here in an interview with British journalist Robert Moore).



So what do Rupert The Pirate and company have to say in response? This tells us about the various denials by News Corp employees that turned out to be thoroughly disproven, and this tells us about the ongoing investigation by the Justice Department (with United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, recusing himself from the office's ongoing investigation into News Corp. because of a longstanding friendship with Viet Dinh, a News Corp. board member). In addition, this tells of the typical Murdoch hubris on display as the investigation unfolded.

For these reasons (particularly the hacking of Milly Dowler, Sarah Payne, and the Iraq and Afghanistan military personnel, all of which took place and more with his approval as far as I’m concerned), Rupert Murdoch is Dregs of the Year (at least).

Do Gooders Of The Year

Time Magazine recently named “the protestor” as its Person of the Year, as noted here; I’m not so sure I would go that far because I still have a “wait and see” attitude towards Egypt and Libya (though I think the movements to depose Mubarak and Quaddafi were basically good developments). However, I definitely would name the “Occupy” movement as Do Gooders of the Year.

It most definitely is a positive development that the “Occupy” movement has brought the issue of class inequality front and center in this country, doing so by making great sacrifices and with a bit of flair at the same time, concocting stunts such as this “human red carpet” at a Chamber of Commerce soiree in Washington, D.C. (for which the “Occupy” forces have earned the wrath of the “pay no price, bear no burden” bunch, as noted here, which the group should wear as a badge of honor, particularly Iraq war vet Scott Olsen, as noted here).

I think an example of the group’s dedication to change on behalf of the “99 percent” is noted here in K.O.’s interview with Dorli Rainey, the 84-year-old Seattle “Occupy” member who was pepper sprayed by that city’s police force (Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn later apologized – more about the group can be accessed from here and here)…



For all of these reasons and many more, the “Occupy” forces are, collectively, the Do Gooders of the Year (and here is a song for the occasion).



Update: And in the spirit of the season, I give you the following (here)...



Also, in keeping with my annual custom, I want to thank everyone who has taken any time whatsoever over the prior year to visit this site and read and/or comment on what I have to say (particularly my “followers”; I’ll try my best in the New Year to return the favor). There’s more competing with my posting time than ever before, which has definitely cut down on my output (including the congressional vote write-ups – not sure what I can do about that at the moment). I’ll keep you all informed as best as I can on any future developments as they occur.

I hope you all have a great 2012 – in the coming year, let’s keep doing what we can as our means allows to put our country back on track.

Thursday Stuff

What a shame these kids can’t vote – yet (more here and here)…



…and here is another fave from earlier in the year.

Wednesday Stuff

Basically, I don’t give a crap about the hoopla going on in Iowa right now on the Repug side – what I care about is infrastructure, the economy, and the fact that our planet is melting and the Repugs continue to pretend that it isn’t happening; given all of this, why would I even consider voting for any of those clowns?

And with that in mind, I give you the following about the person who will end up as their nominee…



…and here is another video I found this year that I want to show again (though I think it's from '09...oh well).

Doomsy's Do-Gooders And Dregs (2011 - Pt. 11)

(Not quite at the end, but close...Part One is here, Part Two is here, Part Three is here, Part Four is here, Part Five is here, Part Six is here, Part Seven is here, Part Eight is here, Part Nine is here, and Part Ten is here.)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

I never thought I would end up giving a citation to Dem Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, but I must for going along with Puppy Dog Eyes Paul Ryan and his scheme to drown Medicare in the Grover Norquist bathtub, as it were (here...um, I thought these guys cared about the deficit – but of course, as Atrios as well as many others have pointed out, it’s really all about preserving those stinking tax cuts and making everyone except the richest 1-2 percent in this country suffer).

…and a Do Gooder citation to the Obama White House for this…

Dregs of the Year Nominee

There are a lot of reasons to give a citation like this to a creep like Andrew Breitbart, but here, he was busted by Media Matters for running a Nazi-era cartoon on his web site (would that this would receive a fraction of the coverage that Breitbart, O’Keefe and company received for their bogus “stings” on ACORN, Shirley Sherrod, etc.).

Dregs of the Year Nominees

Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao and the rest of the Repug congressional “leadership” for this (one way to answer is for President Obama to keep touring the country making the case directly to voters in swing states – of course, another way is for idiot voters not to elect Repugs in the first place, though I might as well try to teach my cat to play the piano for all the good wishing for that will do me)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Repug U.S. House Rep Steve King for this (apparently bored by the testimony of fellow Rep Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas regarding that awful Stop Online Piracy Act…you Iowans who continually vote for this numbskull every two years must be so proud – Jackson-Lee is a Dem, by the way)

Do Gooder of the Year Nominees

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a lower court ruling that a new rule created by the FAA that discounted employees that don't vote in elections to create a union, rather than counting their discounted votes as no votes, was legitimate (a tactic used by the Repugs and their corporate puppet masters for years to make unions look more unpopular than they are; looks like “Man Tan” Boehner has something else to cry about…poor baby - here).

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Guy Petroziello, Op-Ed page editor of the Bucks County Courier Times, gets another dishonorable mention, and the reason why is because, in lieu of editorial content that is actually interesting and informative, the paper is instead publishing excerpts from comedy monologues by late-night comedians on a fairly regular basis (as if some of the newspaper’s “Vents” aren’t comical enough).

Yeah, who needs to read actual progressives or writers besides those appearing on the Op-Ed page of the Washington Post (though Gene Lyons is definitely an exception).

I cannot possibly imagine how this newspaper continues to make money (also, nice work to include a writeup on the Op-Ed page called “How to avoid gift wrapping your pet” on 12/22).

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Baby Newton Leroy, for saying here that “activist judges” should be arrested…

Here’s your first candidate, Disgraced Former House Speaker (for this).

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Little Ricky (“No One Ever Died Because They Didn’t Have Health Insurance”) Santorum here - uh, no…

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Mikey The Beloved gets a mention – yet again – for contributing to gridlock – yet again – on the matter of passing the extension of the payroll tax cut proposed by President Obama (here).

"In the 2010 election I heard loud and clear what the people were saying," Fitzpatrick said. "They wanted us to go to Washington and put the country's fiscal house in order. That's what we've been doing. It's difficult finding bipartisan solutions when you're dealing with the Senate, which hasn't passed a budget in three years."

Really, Mikey? Check this out from one of your fellow Repugs…

In an unusually harsh critique of his own party, moderate GOP Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts said House Republicans' opposition to the two-month extension was "irresponsible and wrong" because it threatened to result in tax increases and jobless benefit cuts.

"We cannot allow rigid partisan ideology and unwillingness to compromise stand in the way of working together," Brown said in a written statement.

This is another reason why can be thankful for the U.S. Senate candidacy of Elizabeth Warren, people (oh, and maybe Mikey and his pals should have listened to these people in his party also, particularly his party’s nominee in the last presidential election).

And I’m long past the point of being sick of listening to Mikey whine about the debt. Take a look at the graph in the fourth bullet from here (showing the debt he helped to run up from 2004-2006 when he last took up space in Congress) and tell me why anyone should take him seriously on this subject.

…here is more on this whole mess…

…and of course, as has been already noted, the Repugs caved on this one (Do Gooder citations to everyone who contacted these clowns in the House and complained – more like this).

And one last note about Saint Mikey…we received a political mailer from him telling us that “Washington has to tighten its belt” and we should “Respond with your ideas to Congressman Fitzpatrick,” just like the mailer I completed a month or so ago with my ideas that our wet noodle PA-08 U.S. House rep promptly ignored.

Oh, and did I mention that we received Mikey’s mailer on Christmas Eve? As if we don’t have infinitely more important things to accomplish at that moment.

What class.

Update 1/1/12: Oh, and I forgot to note this earlier, but in response to Mikey's garbage about the Senate supposedly not passing a budget in three years, I ask that you read this.

Do Gooder of the Year Nominees

The 30,000 (!) Chinese “Occupy” protestors noted here

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Braylon Edwards of the NFL’s San Francisco Giants – as noted here…

As a Cleveland Browns rookie in 2005, Edwards announced he'd give $10,000 in scholarships to 100 area eighth-graders if they could graduate high school with over a 2.5 GPA and 15 hours community service. Of the 100 who were afforded the opportunity, 79 met the criteria and have begun their first year of college. Many are attending Ohio universities, but the schools represented spread across the country and include Harvard, Cornell and Johns Hopkins.

Basically, given that Edwards will make about $1 million this year, the donations will eat up most of his salary.

Kudos to him for his generosity and not going back on his word.

Update: Oh well, good luck to Edwards anyway (here).

Dregs of the Year Nominees

John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou, hosts of The John and Ken Show on the Clear Channel radio station KFI in California, for giving out on the air the personal cell phone number of Jorge-Mario Cabrera of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA); Cabrera was then subject to “hateful and threatening phone calls” from the single-digit-IQ listeners of the radio show – apparently these two idiots have a history of this sort of behavior (noted here)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Repug Michigan Governor Rick Snyder for this (of course, no taxpayer funds will be wasted in the costly court battle that, quite rightly, will now ensue – of course not)

…also for this (scumbag)…

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Francis Cardinal George of Chicago for comparing LGBT individuals to the Klan here (um, I hear plenty of demonization of gays from the pulpit, but I don’t hear the same response towards the church from these people trying to obtain marriage rights)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Troy, MI Repug mayor Janice Daniels, who turned down $8.5 million in federal grant money here to build a transportation center in the city and thus create, you know, JOBS (And did I mention that she founded a local teabagger chapter?).

Oh, and check this out about Daniels…

The transit fight is not Mayor Daniels’s first brush with controversy. Earlier this month, it was revealed that she posted a message to her Facebook page last June, after New York State approved same-sex marriage, stating, “I think I am going to throw away my I Love New York carrying bag now that queers can get married there.” In an interview, she said she regretted the online comment.

“Regretted” but did not apologize for, it should be noted (of course).

Dregs of the Year Nominees

The Obama FCC gets a dubious mention here for “preparing to relax a longstanding rule that limits the ability of companies to own both a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same local market,” thus further consolidating the corporate voice (Now let me see, exactly where did I leave that dictionary? Ah, here it is – I need to look up a couple of words…”hope and change, hope and change”…).

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Baby Newton Leroy again, who compared his failure to qualify for the Virginia GOP primary to the attack on Pearl Harbor here (you’re at about 14:50, Mr. GOP Idea Guy…too funny)

…more here…

…also for this…

…and for this too…

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Lou Williams of the 76ers, who managed to persuade a gunman trying to rob him to cease and desist, and Williams even ended up treating the guy to a meal at McDonald’s (no word if charges were pressed – Williams has got more guts than I do...here)

Dregs of the Year Nominees

The utterly clueless editorial board of the Bucks County Courier Times gets a mention for complaining about that darn, unruly Internet here for distributing the video of Mikey Fitzpatrick banging the House gavel, ending the session and cutting off Steny Hoyer from making a motion to vote on the middle-class payroll tax cut (and of course, Hoyer gets blamed also for calling out Fitzpatrick as Mikey turns and exits, stage right).

Ever since the PA-08 voters, in their eternal, dunderheaded stupidity, turned out Patrick Murphy and reinstalled this fraud into the U.S. House, he has done nothing but preach this austerity crap while our economy has continued to flounder (yes, I know unemployment is 8.6 percent, a decrease from 9 barely outside the margin for error, but let’s see if it remains at that rate or goes down after those seasonal workers hired for the holidays are done). It’s long past time for him to face the proverbial music as a result.

And of course (as already noted), the tax cut was eventually passed anyway, putting Mikey firmly on the wrong side of the issue along with “Man Tan” Boehner, who faces a very good possibility of losing the role of Speaker of the House because of it.

Of course, you’d never know any of this reading this latest fluff from Mikey’s press service, who, among other faults, will never question Fitzpatrick for meeting only with “job creators” instead of residents of his district who are actually unemployed.

Do Gooder of the Year Nominees

Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey of The Who get a mention here for founding the Daltrey/Townshend Teen And Young Adult Cancer Program at UCLA, the first project of its kind in the country. It will build on the work of the UK trust they’ve also sponsored, which has helped fund 19 special teen cancer units in the UK (I guess that’s what you’d expect from two guys who performed songs stating “sickness will surely take the mind where minds can’t usually go” and “every moment has its special charm”…nicely done).

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, a former prosecutor who was appointed to her state’s highest court by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA), who became the latest high-ranking official to question whether her state should continue to impose a death penalty (here – use it effectively or get rid of it, and unfortunately, I’ve seen too many problems in its application)

Update: Dregs of the Year Nominee

The Pentagon inspector general who ruled here that it was just fine for our retired generals to shill for themselves and the Iraq war on network TV (I can't imagine how this person lives with himself, or herself)

I'll end this next time, I promise.

Tuesday Stuff

(Hopefully back to Do-Gooders and Dregs tomorrow - not much more to go...)

Don’t let the door hit you in the ass, “Benator” (here; so let the damn state go Repug, then – if the people living in it don’t have enough common sense to see who’s selling them out, then they get what they deserve)…



…and before the year ends, I want to present some of my favorite videos once more that I happened to come across – here is one.

Monday Stuff

Notwithstanding the utterly cretinous Dana Loesch (And why exactly is she on the show anyway?), I thought this was a memorable New Rules segment from Bill Maher that I wanted to revisit (from here)…



…and Happy Boxing Day (some fun, eh?).

Merry Christmas 2011

From me and Nat...