I now give you Republican U. S. House Numbskull #29 (on health care – backgrounder here), and that would be Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack, for the reason noted in this video, as well as here (as somebody once sang, the beat goes on - for those keeping score at home, #31 is Marsha Blackburn and #30 is David Dreier)…
…and a hat tip goes out to Jay Ackroyd at Eschaton for this – to me, the payoff comes in the last minute or so (Ever wonder why we went about 50 years between the Great Depression and a bunch of financial crises, the latest being the one we’re still trying to get out of? It’s because of those damn pinko socialist policies of FDR...removing my tongue from my cheek now)...
…and yeah, so much for Willard Mitt and his “outreach” to anyone but the one percent…
…and now I give you #30 of the 31 House Repug numbskulls trying to repeal the health care law, and that would be David Dreier of California (for this in particular, I dedicate the following video - and no, I'm not going to cut him a break because he's leaving - backgrounder here)…
…and I think the U.S. Olympic Committee is as dumb as a bag of hammers for this…
…and I tried to tie this to both the Olympics story and the monsters who enabled Jerry Sandusky, but it really didn't work (maybe the irony in the title is enough?) - it's a nice tune anyway, though, so here it is.
(I’ll try to get back to the “list of 31” I started last night tomorrow.)
In the meantime, I give you more spot-on commentary from former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich (more here)...
...and happy 65th birthday to Arlo Guthrie (and no, I don’t necessarily encourage the behavior in this video from that little outdoor concert in 1969 – and I have to admit that I got a kick out of this).
There was a time when I once published Emails like this on this site, but I
stopped for a variety of reasons. However, I’m going to restart the practice for
this one occasion:
Tomorrow will be the 31st opportunity wasted by the GOP.
When they vote to repeal Obamacare for the 31st time, they will be wasting another opportunity to do the work we sent them to Washington to do.
Thirty-one opportunities wasted to help rebuild the middle class in this country.
Join us in calling on Congress to stop wasting opportunities and get to work.
Thanks,
Will O'Neill
Health Care for America Now
I honestly think that such craven stupidity and slavish
patronage to the “pay no price, bear no burden” investor class calls for
special recognition. So, what I’m planning to do in response is to profile 31
U.S. House Republicans who have done what they can to stand in the way of
health care reform (no rhyme or reason about the order, by the way). I don’t
know how long it’s going to take me to do this, but I thought I might as well
get started now.
So, without any further ado, I give you Number 31 – Marsha Blackburn,
who, judging from this, apparently has no trouble with her party taking
meaningless votes to repeal health care reform every day.
I think that calls for the following video in response (as I keep pointing out, there are numbskulls out there who actually vote for this hairdo)…
Update 10/30/12: And just add this to the pile also.
Update 1 1/14/13: Wonder why Blackburn is the first person to come to mind on this list? Here is a reason (I know I'm repeating myself, but I don't want to imagine the life forms that actually vote for her).
Update 2 1/14/13: And a bag of each is still smarter than you are (here)...
Update 6/2/13: How about if Blackburn set an example and took a pay cut based on this?
...and perhaps if she'd had the presence of mind, she would try to sing this in response (well, maybe the title anyway).
RIP Ernest Borgnine (I thought this was a nice remembrance) – among other things, he racked up a bunch of service commendations from the Navy during WWII, and he also beat the you-know-what out of that skinny kid from Hoboken in “From Here to Eternity” (I read once that the movie role of "Marty" was turned down by Rod Steiger, and Borgnine sure ran with it, I'd say); I thought he had a great cameo role in “The Dirty Dozen” too, and what else can you say about a guy who played Mermaid Man (along with Tim Conway as Barnacle Boy) on “Spongebob”?...
...returning to politics, it looks like Willard Mitt is making all nice with the Koch brothers (big surprise, I know)...
...and I never thought I’d want to use this tune in a political context, but I guess it does fit a bit concerning the Repug presidential nominee, so here it is (from that pipe pants-wearin’, Dippity-Do decade).
Yeah, I would say that Stephanie Miller’s powerful story undoes a whole lot of wingnut garbage about health care reform (here – and never lose sight of the fact that all of it would be abolished under Republican “governance”...I think it’s shocking that she’ll be on probation for a year with her new employer, but companies pull this stuff now because they can get away with it completely, with almost no push back whatsoever)...
(I promise to stop hating on Blogger for a little while – even though I
checked out the template HTML and realized that I can’t do a goddamn thing with
it, I have to admit that it’s pretty badass to see the site on my smartphone
now...now all I have to do is create intelligent content :-).
However, turning about 180 degrees in the direction of stupidity, I give you the following instead (sooo,
it looks like Thad McCotter, after witnessing his presidential primary candidacy
going up in flames...and how sad is it to lose to Former Senator Man-On-Dog,
Baby Newton Leroy and that misogynist pizza guy anyway...decided to make a
borderline porn/white trash video in response?).
A fitting way to end the public life of the numbskull who brought us the
following (I used to call him “Mad Thad” and I was only joking – guess I was
serious after all, huh?)...
...and please be careful with the heat over the next few days, OK?
Looks like our beloved commonwealth made the national news again, but not
in a good way of course (more here - interesting that, as big of a story as this is, I couldn't find a video; don't wake our corporate media stenographers...rock-a-bye baby; maybe Russia Today will have something, or Al Jazeera, and no, I'm not kidding...)...
...and there are a few songs I could think of that come to mind in
response, but I’ll take this one.
(Here are more vids from my hideous new blog, courtesy of those numbskulls at Blogger :-(...
RIP Andy Griffith, an American icon who did us a political favor here,
among his other accomplishments (if only the Dems had pitched the Affordable
Care Act as “Medicare for all” – sigh)...
...and I would say that Number 44 is on the proverbial beam here, as
opposed to Willard Mitt...
...and I don’t know what on earth came over Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder here,
vetoing three bills to combat the thoroughly non-existent scourge of “voter
fraud,” but I think he actually deserves some credit – however, this tells us
why we shouldn’t be so quick to forgive...
No, this site hasn’t been absorbed by MSNBC or The Ed Show or something – I accidentally clicked some button on Blogger’s whiz-bang new interface, and this is the new layout. I tried to revert to the old format, but I haven’t had any luck (got a bunch of error messages about malware or something from Blogorama, which I linked to from the old site). At least I could save my old template HTML, so it looks like, at some point, I’ll have to reconstruct this site. I’m definitely not in love with this new layout, I can tell you that, but I don’t have time to play with new templates and hack around with custom HTML at the moment. I’ll keep you informed of any new developments (OK, so much for the “meta” BS).
In the meantime, I give you the following (here) concerning that supposedly fine, upstanding Roman Catholic Repug U.S. House Rep Paul Ryan (which brings to mind this clip – God, how many ways is K.O. missed)…
…and I think this almost sublime bit of absurdity from Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao calls for the following video in response (take a bow, all you Kentuckian knuckleheads who keep sending this thoroughly compromised shill back to D.C. over and over and over – sorry, no video).
...and a couple of days ago marked the 110th birthday of legendary composer Richard Rodgers, a man responsible for many memorable show tunes, including this one done by Elvis and the Jordanaires.
Before I include anything about the Supreme Court’s upholding of the individual mandate, and pretty much the rest of the Affordable Care Act (including the shocking inclusion of Hangin’ Judge JR with the 5-4 majority), I should bring you this note (backgrounder here) about more non-governance from the U.S. House Repug “leadership,” and by extension, Mikey the Beloved (how utterly predictable and pathetic, kind of like this – and by the way, more like this in response)...
“Damn that Obama – do you know I had to pay $4.60 a gallon to gas up the Doomsymobile? And it cost me over $50 to fill my bloody tank! What’s next, odd/even-day rationing and a return to hyperinflation?”
...
Uh, oops – sorry, I nodded off and must have had a bad dream (more here – and this apropos tune comes from the ‘70s, when we went through the real thing, for those of you who have to use that Google thingie to find that out...and by the way, please take note that the price of gas started to climb for real during the “oughts” – now let me think, who was president back then?)...
...and for no particular reason, I’ll now continue my theme of angst-ridden young love with this little number (works out in the end, though - ain't that nice?).
OK, I’m back, and I’m going to try and fire this up again
with more crappy videos.
And it looks like I’ll be picking up where I left off with
Willard Mitt Romney and his affinity for the “hoi polloi” (oh, but our
corporate media can’t possibly be impertinent enough to actually call him on
it, as noted here, even though Martin Bashir, as per usual, has no trouble speaking
truth to stoo-pid)…
…and before I took a break, I forgot to wish a happy
birthday to Sir Paul, so please allow me to do so now (and this is a bit of Beatles-related
news also – a sad note at that).
Happy Father’s Day – here is a good tune, though an unhappy one...
...but this is a bit more tongue-in-cheek (featuring a neat solo by Sonny Landreth).
And with that, I take my leave of you all for about a week (excuse: vacation).
Courage.
Update 6/17/12: This is simply too awesome to ignore - genius indeed.
Update 6/18/12: Almost out of here, but even though it's completely off-topic, allow me to extend happy 70th birthday wishes to Roger Ebert (currently reading "Life Itself," and my thumb, as it were, is half way on it...parts of it are terrific, but I think other parts needed work - not done yet, though).
Once more, I give you The Eternal George Carlin, bad words and all
(including my latest credo)...
...and among other things, this clip of Jon Stewart commenting on Jamie
Dimon (with, yet again, Stewart showing more guts than our media sycophants
plying their dark art at “news” organizations with initials for names)
demonstrates what a clueless moron Jim DeMint truly is (but yet again, as I
always say, there are life forms out there who actually vote for this
boob)...
...and if you want to do something about Bob Corker, the other numbskull
appropriately lampooned by Stewart, click here...
...and after yesterday, the young one can sing this song for real - maybe a little tongue in cheek considering the Carlin clip (can't totally forgive Alice for swinging with Dubya in '04, but it's still a free country I know).
..and to me, what Peter Cappelli has to say here isn’t so shocking (h/t Crooks and Liars), since it pretty
much reinforces what I and many others knew all along. What is shocking is that
it’s coming from a Wharton professor (better make sure he doesn’t get sent back
to the Glenn “Give It Your Best Shot” Hubbard factory of conservative economic
thought, where the peons get the pizza scraps and our Galtian overlords get to
recline in their barcaloungers while enjoying brandy and cigars)...
...and I don’t consider this to be shocking either – kudos to Michigan
State Rep Lisa Brown (more here)...
...and kudos also to The Real Joe Walsh for this – seems like a tune is in order.
...and I think this is a neat little number in honor of what we observe today (and yes, I forgot for awhile too – recorded in 2004 at the Philadelphia
Folk Festival by, as far as I’m concerned, the most musical ex-mailman of all
time...yep, it still works, John).
I haven’t read a column like this one today by Arianna Huffington that is
this depressing in a long, long time. And we all owe her a debt for writing
it.
See, it has to do with how our “friend” Nouri al-Maliki (remember him?) in
Iraq (remember there?) is all buddies now with Iran. And how it turns out that,
if these eternally-wrong-in-their-cowardly-warmongering conservatives had their
way, we would end up fighting both of them if we preemptively went after Iran
(with “pre-emptive war” having worked so beautifully in the prior decade).
So, for Liz Cheney and the rest of her foul breed, I thought it apropos to
recall this clip from Keith Olbermann (and featuring Rachel Maddow before her own show); even though he may never be on TV again, K.O.'s outsized body of work continues to live on in the blogosphere (and I still
dislike that word, but I can’t think of a better one)...
...and I’ve never been completely sold on these guys musically (though
their politics rock!), and I don’t usually go in for kids in these tunes because
I think it can be exploitative, but I thought this was a catchy number (sorry,
no video).
Looks like Glenn “Give It Your Best Shot” Hubbard (and econ adviser to
Willard Mitt Romney, of course) is in the news again, as noted here (and as
usual, not for a good reason; so much for stopping at the water's proverbial edge)...
...and I tried to find a good song about L.A. in honor of hockey’s new royalty – hope this will do.
Kudos to Martin Bashir for calling out Little Timmeh for
being a Beltway sycophant (here - and by the way, the private sector REALLY IS DOING FINE)…
…and by the way, speaking of the insufferable status quo, I
happened to come across this item featuring another hand-wringing liberal,
albeit one who put his money where his proverbial mouth is (h/t Atrios), and I
have a few reactions.
The author apologizes for engaging the wingnutosphere on
their stupidity and thus indirectly validating their talking points. Sorry, but
I don’t automatically consider that to be validation. The miscreants on the
right do their very best to poison our political dialogue, and we’re supposed
to just let their crap go unanswered?
The problem with that thinking is that it utterly ignores
the so-called “independent voters” who, basically, decide our elections any
more and are prone to believe this stuff as gospel because they make up their
minds about ten seconds before they enter the voting booth (not in all cases, though, I'll admit). And another problem
isn’t that we engaged the right-wing crap poisoning our dialogue – the real problem
is that it went unanswered for so long that it became enshrined as “conventional
wisdom” (The Sainted Ronnie R and his “welfare queens,” Bob Casey Sr. being
denied the opportunity to speak at the Democratic National Convention in 1992 supposedly
because he was pro-life, Al Gore claiming he invented the Internet…all of that garbage).
Yes, the Democratic Party needs to do a better job of explaining
why A CARBON TAX IS A GOOD THING, and THE DREAM ACT IS A GOOD THING, and THE
STIMULUS WAS A GOOD THING, and THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT IS A GOOD THING, and on
and on and on. But that’s because what passes for the Democratic Party “leadership”
these days doesn’t have the spine that it should have inherited from its
predecessors such as FDR, Harry Truman, JFK, LBJ, Jimmy Carter, etc., not
because some impertinent left-wing bloggers such as yours truly take it upon
themselves to speak truth to bullshit.
…and this song comes to me when I think of this wretched 112th
Congress (typo at the end, by the way).
Lawrence O’Donnell brings us an important history lesson
here, and when you recall everything he says, it only emphasizes how small,
petty and callow Willard Mitt Romney truly is (and commendable introspection on
O’Donnell’s part, by the way)…
Can’t improve upon this, ladies and gentlemen (but before we chortle too much over #1 in the clip, be advised that a certain Barack Hussein Obama signed into law legislation allowing guns in our parks – sooo, why exactly is that wasteoid Ted Nugent all POed again?)......
...and speaking of guns (God, will this country ever learn?)...
...and I now give you the latest lies from Willard Mitt Romney (and what priorities too - in a related vein, I give you this from Professor Krugman)...
Gosh, I though Norm Orenstein and Thomas Mann were fixtures on
the Sunday morning gab fests – see what happens when you tell the truth in D.C.
pundit land? The only show that will book you belongs to that troops-hating pinko
Chris Hayes (removing my tongue from my cheek)…
...and yeah, Hosni Mubarak Walker’s pals outspent the Dems and
he remained as governor – we came up short, but there’s no percentage in doing nothing
(this tune comes to mind for yours truly).
It comes down to tomorrow, people (here) – let’s make this happen for no
other reason than to stick it to George Will and the rest of the Beltway media
elite, chortling at those impolite public sector employees while they enjoy
their Bordeaux and pass the sweet and sour shrimp by the Potomac...
...and I think this is a neat tune, even if there is no video (possibly with this in mind?).
...and keyboardist Billy Powell of Lynyrd Skynyrd would have been 60 tomorrow (I guess "Free Bird" would have been more representative, but I'm keen to add this instead).
Rachel Maddow explains why the biggest “abortion,” in this country, if you will, is the Repug U.S. House “leadership” (as I and others have said too many times to count, there are people out there who actually vote for Boehner, Cantor et al)...
...and yeah, I think this tune fits when considering these imbeciles dancing to the string-pulls of their corporate puppet masters (in another context I'll admit - not too comfortable with the borderline misogyny of this vid, even though the tune kicks ass).
It’s really hard for me to get mad at this guy, but I have to admit that
I’m starting to do that.
Fresh off doing everything he could possibly do to sink the Democratic
primary candidacy of Patrick Murphy for Attorney General (solely for a political
payback), Bill Clinton (based on this) has returned to tells his centrist
Beltway Democratic pals to LEAVE BAIN CAPITAL ALOOOONE, and then to be SHOCKED,
just SHOCKED over lefty criticism for doing so.
Repealing Glass-Steagall was your idea, Number 42. Defense of Marriage Act?
Signed into law under your watch. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell too. Extraordinary
rendition? It started to expand in your term, Big Dog.
Yes, it’s possible that our economy actually performed the way it’s
supposed to for the last time (love to be wrong) while you resided in An Oval
Office. But that doesn’t give you carte blanche for saying (and doing) any
stupid crap you want...
...and happy 65th birthday to Ron Wood (and if ever there was an apropos tune to conclude this week for yours truly, it’s this one – and speaking of that war, I thought this was an inspiring story).
Yeah, he sure is, as noted here (along with Kasich, Snyder, Daniels, Governor Bully, Hosni Mubarak Walker, Brownback, Lex Luthor Scott, LePage, Martinez, Nikki Haley, Bobby ("Don't Call Me Piyush") Jindal, and on and on and on)...
Update
6/5/12: OK, so let’s see now, our Space Cadet governor calls here for “shared
sacrifice” to be meted out to beloved commonwealth’s 75,000 public employees…but
here, it’s more Free Money For Rich Oil Guys! Bitchin’!!
Would I have spoken the words that Chris Hayes did about our military (before he apologized)? No. But funny thing – last I checked, free speech was still legal in this country (here).
Besides, I’m sure most of the people complaining have no idea that he has brought us intelligent commentary and reporting, like this (like to know who was laughing at Nadler – I guarantee you he took notice)...
Considering that the jury in the OMIGOD JOHN EDWARDS IS SUCH A HORRIBLE PERSON AND OF COURSE HE’S GUILTY OF CAMPAIGN FINANCE VIOLATIONS FOR PAYING OFF HIS MISTRESS AND THEIR CHILD WITH ILLEGAL MONEY has been deliberating for five days and still hasn’t reached a verdict (allowing for the holiday weekend), is it too early for filthy unkempt liberal blogger types such as yours truly to say that prosecuting Edwards on these charges was a REALLY, REALLY STUPID IDEA AND A WASTE OF MONEY??!!
Yes, that could all change tomorrow. And yes, it’s true that Edwards is guilty in the court of public opinion of really scummy behavior. But there are politicians out there guilty of scummy behavior who have paid no price whatsoever when it comes to their jobs (see Vitter, Dave). And for the reasons Rachel Maddow reminds us of here, The Supreme Court of Hangin’ Judge JR is a hell of a lot more guilty of campaign finance abuse than Edwards ever could be (assuming he isn’t innocent)...
...and yes, even though pictures are allowed now of our fallen heroes returning to Dover, I think this song is still timely as long as we’re at war, which, sadly, we still are.
(By the way, for what it’s worth, I also posted here – don’t expect that to
become a habit, by the way.)
Rachel Maddow gives us a whole bunch of background on Willard Mitt Romney
and his “unforced errors,” as she quite rightly puts them (God, I wish our
corporate media would pay a fraction of the attention to the campaign as she
does here – I didn’t know Maddow once lived in Philly).
Yep, the news organizations with initials for names continue to ignore
Romney’s bonehead pronouncements, much like they did of a former Texas governor
in 2000...
Martin Bashir, sitting in for Lawrence O’Donnell, quite rightly ridicules
the Repugs and their “women’s caucus,” or whatever (trying to play women like
the Repugs try to play the Teahadists, the elderly, the poor, kids, Catholics,
immigrants, and on and on and on).
And by the way, I have issues with the veep myself, mainly his support of
that horrific bankruptcy law when he was the Senator from MBNA along with Carper, but I think it’s really a stretch for Melissa
Harris-Perry to go back to the Anita Hill hearings to slam him (and speaking of
issues affecting women mainly but families generally, I give you this despicable development in our beloved commonwealth)...
Nothing to see here, people, just a dead steel contractor – move
along (here...beyond belief; what country am I living in again? Any by the way, I also posted here.)...
Ed Schultz and I give you Cory Booker, sellout, along with
info on how that Keynan Muslim Marxist pre-zee-zint supposedly doesn’t know
anything about bidness (and isn’t this interesting about Booker, by the way...didn't see Rachel Maddow with Booker yet, but I'll check it out)…
You know, when our corporate media decides to portray a Republican
presidential candidate as someone whose faith supposedly dictates his decision making
and/or his approach to governance.
The New York Times devoted entirely too many column inches today
on how Willard Mitt Romney practices his Mormonism on the campaign trail, how he
supposedly did the same when running Bain Capital, how he supposed did the same
when he was governor of Massachusetts, etc (sorry, no linkee).
And for a reminder as to why this is dangerous, I give you the
following from here…
During
those private interviews, (former French President) Jacque Chirac had
purportedly confessed to the journalist some personal remarks regarding the
faith of George W. Bush that seemed quite daunting. He told the journalist that
the latter called him twice beseeching him basically, in the name of their
common “spiritual faith”, i.e., “Christianity”, to join the collective effort
of the coalition being formed to wage a preemptive war against Iraq. In his
first telephonic call he reportedly said to Jacque Chirac: “Gog and Magog
are at work in the Middle East” and then added that “the biblical prophecies are
being fulfilled”. Bewildered, Jacque Chirac did not react immediately. He
knew that Bush was somehow religious but could never have thought that the
president of the world only superpower was as mysteriously warmhearted to the
complex intricacies of the Scriptures as he seemed to be. When a day later
George W. Bush pronounced the mysterious words in a conference about the “axis
of evil” (the word “evil” was inserted by the evangelical speechwriter Michael
Gerson, the original term coined by another staff writer, the Canadian Jew
David Frum, was “axis of hatred”), the Elysée decided secretly to consult an
expert or biblical scholar about the issue.
In
order to avoid any possible leak in France, they decided to outsource or
solicit the service of a discreet and prominent outsider instead of a local
expert more prone to indiscretion. It was Thomas Römer, professor of Theology
at the University of Lausanne, who was called upon to clarify, for the
occasion, the biblical mystery at stake. His report was chilling: Gog,
prince of Magog, is merely the Apocalypse.
Oh, but Dubya was a cowboy, wasn’t he? But Romney’s a pragmatist
who could never engage in such theatrics.
And this makes me recall the following recent observations by
Bill Maher about Romney and religion (bad word at the end)…
…and I had this tune in mind also today upon reading this story
(before Kenny Rogers was “The Gambler” – should hear this tune a lot more on the
oldies station).
