More Saturday Stuff

I would like to have seen a bit more of an edge, but Kathy is the one running against Mikey, not me - to help, click here...



...and happy birthday to Jeff Tweedy of Wilco (I think I put this up once before, but that's OK).

Saturday Stuff

You want to try shooting yourself in the foot again, Willard Mitt? And to do something about it, click here...



…and I think this was a pretty tidy wrapup of the Repug presidential nominating circus (hat tip to Crooks and Liars)…



…and RIP Neil Armstrong…



…probably too easy of a selection as a tribute, but there you are (sorry, no video, just some pics).

Friday Stuff

I’ll probably wrap up the congressional countdown this weekend, but not tonight (Wondering who gets the top “honors”? It won’t be long).

In the meantime, I have only this to say in response to this story – let him rot in prison until he’s dead, then cremate him and burn his ashes (no video)…



…and happy what-would-have-been 100th birthday to Gene Kelly – there’ll never be another…



…and I’ve been meaning to put up this ad featuring President Clinton for the whole week; still not totally happy with him for torpedoing the PA Attorney General prospects for Patrick Murphy, but as somebody said, politics ain’t beanbag…



…and this week marked what would have been the 66th birthday of Keith Moon, so allow me to provide the following (literally Moon’s final performance; there was no footage of this tune available for “The Kids Are Alright,” so they performed it specifically for the film, and Moon died soon afterwards…probably a bitterly ironic selection given the idiocy upcoming in Tampa next week, I realize).

Thursday Stuff

(I also posted here.)

Good luck to you two crazy kids – hope she got her “happy ending” (hey now!)…



...and now, time for the penultimate post on the congressional countdown…

#3, John Boehner
#4, Eric Cantor
#5, Michele Bachmann
#6, Paul Ryan
#7, Louie Gohmert
#8, Allen West
#9, Joe Pitts
#10, Jack Kingston
#11, Patrick McHenry
#12, Spencer Bachus
#13, Jim Gerlach
#14, Cliff Stearns
#15, Jean Schmidt
#16, Phil Gingrey
#17, David Schweikert
#18, Virginia Foxx
#19, Pete Sessions
#20, Charlie Dent
#21, Cathy McMorris Rodgers
#22, Chris Smith
#23, Todd Akin
#24, Buck McKeon
#25, Kristi Noem
#26, Hal Rogers
#27, Lou Barletta (Two bonus selections: Boren and Ross)
#28, Paul Broun
#29, Mary Bono Mack
#30, David Dreier
#31, Marsha Blackburn (including backgrounder)

…and that brings us to #2 on the list of U.S. House Republicans opposed to health care reform, and given that, I have a question:
You really didn’t think I was going to forget our own PA-08 rep, did you?

Now you may ask why, aside from reasons of personal pique, I might put “Mikey The Beloved” Fitzpatrick so high on the list, above high-profile miscreants like John Boehner or Eric Cantor. After all, Mikey only sits on the House Financial Services Committee, and he isn’t even the chairman (Spencer Bachus has that role, and he’s #12 on the list…speaking of money, it should also be noted that Mikey signed Grover Norquist’s “no tax pledge” in 2004; as far as I know, Norquist doesn’t live in PA-08).

It has to do with the issue of health care in particular, as opposed to, say, energy, foreign policy, the economy, etc.

You see (as noted here), Fitzpatrick is a cancer survivor (colon cancer, to be exact). I give him credit for his recovery and I wish him continued good health (my disagreements with him are political, not personal).

Given that, though, wouldn’t you expect him to have some insight into the whole issue of health care that other politicians don’t have? Wouldn’t you expect him to realize that our system of delivering health care in this country is fundamentally broken, and we need both government and industry working together to make it more equitable for everyone and thus delivering better results for our health care dollar (kind of the way, say, FDR better understood the poor and downtrodden in this country when he was treated for polio at Warm Springs, Georgia, though Heaven forbid that I would even imagine comparing Mikey to either Roosevelt who was elected president)?

I mean, you would expect that, wouldn’t you? However, since we’re talking about Mike Fitzpatrick, I have four words in response.

Na. Ga. Ha. Pen.

So let us begin with this, shall we…

Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick claims in his campaign literature and ads to be "leading the fight against Obamacare" in order to "preserve Medicare." There are worse Republicans in Congress than Mike, but on this issue, and too many others, he is lockstep with the tea party, and is leading the wrong fight.

Obamacare does not threaten Medicare. It does not cut the statutory Medicare benefits offered to seniors at all. It merely trims back the "Medicare Advantage" bauble added by President Bush to the Medicare tree so that private insurers could administer benefits to Medicare recipients instead of the government, at what has turned out to be a much higher cost. All of us want to trim the deficit. Cutting a boondoggle like Medicare Advantage is the right place to start.

The real threat to Medicare comes from the infamous Paul Ryan budget, which Fitzpatrick unwisely supported. It would cut the heart out of Medicare as we know it, ending the federal commitment to provide the current statutory Medicare benefits for future Medicare participants who are not yet 55. Ryan offers instead federal "premium support" (essentially a fixed price voucher) for seniors to use to buy private insurance or traditional Medicare, and tosses the program to the states to do with as they will. There would be no guarantee that either the private insurer or what is left of Medicare would continue to provide the same benefits Medicare now provides, or that the federal "premium support" would cover the costs of either program. Seniors might well be stuck paying more for less comprehensive coverage.

Fitzpatrick voted for the Ryan budget, and Mitt Romney says he supports it, too. It is the GOP agenda for gutting Medicare. For all the gory details, read Paul N. Van de Water's March 28 article "Medicare in the Ryan Budget" on the website of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, here.

Ryan argues that cuts in Medicare must be made to reduce the budget deficit and keep Medicare solvent, but then proposes in his budget an increase in military spending, even though we presently spend more on defense than all the rest of the nations of the world combined, and are not more secure for it than Scandinavia, Switzerland, Germany, Canada and a lot of other countries who spend a fraction of what we spend per citizen. They also provide more generous assistance in obtaining medical care to their seniors and to the less fortunate among them. They, and President Obama, have the right priorities. Mike Fitzpatrick, Mitt Romney and the GOP are on the wrong track.

Gregory S. Hill
Richboro, PA

And concerning other matters, I give you the following:

Fitzpatrick also voted in support of HR 822, “a bill that would force PA to accept concealed carry permits from every other state, even if a carrier is too dangerous to be granted a permit under our own laws,” as Retired Chief of Police in West Goshen, PA Mike Carroll told us (more is here).

He also gets it for holding a “tele” town hall, as noted here, even though he criticized Patrick Murphy relentlessly for it during the 2010 campaign (and during his first congressional break, he held a “town hall” event at a senior center…nothing wrong with that except for the fact that he totally froze out working people from attending...hasn't had any lately either, I don't believe; haven't heard of any - could be wrong).

And oh yeah, he did have another “town hall” with the Teahadists, as Think Progress reminds us here (the one in which Mikey accused President Obama of treason from 4:16 to 4:20, even though the “professional” journalists of his house organ, the Bucks County Courier Times, had not one word to say about it).

And of course, totally ignoring the maxim that criticism of the Commander-in-Chief stops at the water’s proverbial edge, he visited our troops in Afghanistan here and said that Number 44 “risked mission failure” with force reductions (of course, not a word from Mikey about how Obama’s wretched predecessor continually shortchanged the effort).

There’s a whole bunch of stuff on Fitzpatrick and energy here, including votes against funding clean energy and preserving tax breaks for oil companies (and incorrectly blaming President Obama for rising oil prices).

This takes you to a three-part series of posts I did earlier this year concerning all of Fitzpatrick’s supposed “accomplishments” in 2011, including supporting the “TRAIN” Act (HR 2401), which, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, would permanently block environmental rules on mercury and other cross-state pollution, possibly leading to as many as 25,000 deaths from heart and asthma attacks; the “Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011” which amends the Clean Air Act to prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from “(issuing) any regulation concerning, taking action relating to, or taking into consideration the emission of a greenhouse gas to address climate change”; and HR 140, which would end birthright citizenship in this country, thus repealing the 14th amendment to the Constitution.

More stuff on Fitzpatrick and health care is here (more evergreen BS - “Obamacare” was supposedly “railroaded” through Congress…a particularly silly lie…and “tort reform” is supposedly needed to keep coverage affordable…also, Fitzpatrick has claimed that “Obamacare” would take about $500 million from Medicare, which is most definitely not true.)

(And by the way, in the Wordpress post above, Fitzpatrick claimed that the health care reform bill was 2,700 pages. In the previous video, he says the bill was 2,600 pages. Earlier in the countdown, Louie Gohmert claimed that the bill was 2,800 pages. Which is it, Repugs?)

And in response to this, Mikey claimed that the Democrats were “playing politics” (how con-vee-nient for Mikey – basically, he messed up by opposing the Democrats yet again; he could have voted to penalize offshoring companies and still kept the spending bill alive)…

The congressman said he voted against a motion by Democrats because he thought it would have killed the legislation and prevented Republicans from cutting the budget.

Two weeks ago, while defending his vote not to penalize companies that ship jobs overseas, Bucks County Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick said the motion defeated in January would have sent the full bill back to committee, where it would have been killed.

And since it was tied to House Resolution 38, which allowed Republicans to cut federal spending, the GOP would have been prevented from slicing the budget. It turns out, that's not the case.

Because the term "forthwith" was included in the Democrats' motion, the proposal to "curb the practice of U.S. companies sending jobs overseas" would have been attached to the spending-cuts bill and it could have been voted on immediately.

That was confirmed by the office of another House Republican and Lara Brown, a political science professor at Villanova.

"It is true that there are two forms of recommit motions, and yes, the 'forthwith' does matter in terms of whether the bill dies because it gets sent back to the committee or it is voted on with the new language inserted," Brown said.

…

Jesse Ferguson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said this about Fitzpatrick's vote:

"While Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick talks about cutting spending, he should stop spending taxpayer money on corporations that ship American jobs overseas. The Republicans' plan to reduce federal spending protects tax breaks for companies shipping our jobs overseas, and is funded on the back of middle income families."

Continuing, I also give you the following…

There’s no question that our election politics are full of extreme rhetoric, which both sides can agree is not helping us have an intelligent debate. But the mud slinging described in “Politics of the extreme” (Aug. 12) does not factor in one thing: actual votes.

Rep. Fitzpatrick has earned his reputation as a far-right congressman, whether you agree with his votes or not. He voted for the Ryan budget twice, which would turn Medicare into a voucher program while giving tax breaks to the super wealthy. He voted against considering a bill called the Bring Our Jobs Home Act to stop tax incentives for companies that ship jobs overseas. And recently, he voted to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent.

These are just a few votes among many Congressman Fitzpatrick has taken that fall in line with the increasingly far-right Republican Party. Mitt Romney took a gamble choosing Paul Ryan because he thinks voters will accept his party’s extreme positions. Congressman Fitzpatrick’s gamble is that he hopes his moderate district won’t notice.

Lindsay Patterson, President
USW Local 404
USW Political Coordinator

…and if you’re looking for another less-than-illustrious moment from Mikey during his return to Congress, I give you this…



…though I think this video tells the story pretty much…



...and here is yet another example of Mikey's brand of "constituent service" (Gee, "no cameras," huh? Part of the job description is facing those you don't agree with, congressman.)...



And in conclusion, I should note that a Courier Times story from February 2011 (link expired) quoted attorney Mary Helf, who said after hearing him speak that Fitzpatrick has “got a lot to learn. I just want the enormous challenges our country faces to get fixed, and I hope he's up to it."

Well, I think we have our answer. And to do something about it, click here.

Tuesday Stuff

(Maybe back to the congressional countdown tomorrow, or the day after – not sure yet.)

Meanwhile, the numbers don’t lie, people, no matter how much the punditocracy tries to spin them (and I’m not talking about Krugman)…



…but when you need up-to-the-minute reporting on the Repug National Convention coming up in Tampa, that means it’s time for America’s Finest News Source…


Tampa Bay Gay Prostitutes Gearing Up For Flood Of Closeted Republicans

…in the humor department, though, let’s remember a real pro; RIP Phyllis Diller (And how many of you out there knew that she was also a classical pianist? Show of hands)…



…and somehow I missed the passing of one-hit wonder Scott McKenzie, but what a hit it was (hat tip to Crooks and Liars for the last two vids).

Monday Stuff

And then there were three...

#4, Eric Cantor
#5, Michele Bachmann
#6, Paul Ryan
#7, Louie Gohmert
#8, Allen West
#9, Joe Pitts
#10, Jack Kingston
#11, Patrick McHenry
#12, Spencer Bachus
#13, Jim Gerlach
#14, Cliff Stearns
#15, Jean Schmidt
#16, Phil Gingrey
#17, David Schweikert
#18, Virginia Foxx
#19, Pete Sessions
#20, Charlie Dent
#21, Cathy McMorris Rodgers
#22, Chris Smith
#23, Todd Akin
#24, Buck McKeon
#25, Kristi Noem
#26, Hal Rogers
#27, Lou Barletta (Two bonus selections: Boren and Ross)
#28, Paul Broun
#29, Mary Bono Mack
#30, David Dreier
#31, Marsha Blackburn (including backgrounder)

(Hat tip for the pic to Jed Lewison of Daily Kos.)

…and that indeed brings us to #3 on the list of U.S. House Republicans opposed to health care reform, and that would be John Boehner of Ohio, the House Speaker.

To be honest, I’m starting to run out of words to describe these characters, so I’ll just turn it over to Matt Taibbi again, as I did with Moon Unit Bachmann (here)...

John Boehner is the ultimate Beltway hack, a man whose unmatched and self-serving skill at political survival has made him, after two decades in Washington, the hairy blue mold on the American congressional sandwich. The biographer who somewhere down the line tackles the question of Boehner's legacy will do well to simply throw out any references to party affiliation, because the thing that has made Boehner who he is — the thing that has finally lifted him to the apex of legislative power in America — has almost nothing to do with his being a Republican.

The Democrats have plenty of creatures like Boehner. But in the new Speaker of the House, the Republicans own the perfect archetype — the quintessential example of the kind of glad-handing, double-talking, K Street toady who has dominated the politics of both parties for decades. In sports, we talk about athletes who are the "total package," and that term comes close to describing Boehner's talent for perpetuating our corrupt and debt-addled status quo: He's a five-tool insider who can lie, cheat, steal, play golf, change his mind on command and do anything else his lobbyist buddies and campaign contributors require of him to get the job done.

I said earlier that I thought Eric Cantor represented everything wrong with the Republican Party (on the national level, at least), and I still feel that way. However, at least Cantor makes the admittedly flimsy attempt to pretend that he’s acting according to something that he perceives to be the public interest. However, Boehner cannot be bothered with even that degree of pretense. Whenever the opportunity arises for him to shamelessly demagogue, pander on behalf of a preferred constituency or cravenly pursue legislation to further ensconce his deep-pocketed campaign donors, he is as remorseless as a shark (and, as is the case with just about all of the people on this list, I cannot possibly imagine how he manages to garner even a single vote, but of course he does, and too many more).

And by the way, the reason why Boehner is on this list is because he once referred to health care reform as “Armageddon,” as noted in the video below (here)…



You want more proof? Here it is…

Here, he called an extension of the middle class payroll tax cut “chicken shit” (looks like we’ve finally determined another area of Boehner expertise, besides fundraising that is).

And speaking of shaking people down, Boehner did that the night of the memorial service for the Tucson shooting victims, including fellow congressperson Gabby Giffords of course (here - all class).

Boehner replied “Are you kidding me?” here when asked if this country was better off under President Obama than under his ruinous predecessor (actually, the answer is yes, and here is just one measure).

Boehner said that if federal budget cuts mean job losses, “so be it” here (Rachel Maddow has more on this a bit later).

Here, he blamed the Democrats for lack of progress on a payroll tax cut – and he then left town (figures).

He blamed the weak Sept. 2011 jobs report on “the threat of high taxes,” or something, here.

This tells us how Boehner “walked away” from debt negotiations last September, which was actually a good thing given that Number 44 was ready to give away the proverbial store, again (and this tells us how he and Eric Cantor planned to renege on the debt deal anyway).

Here, he promised Obama the Repugs wouldn’t attack him over the debt ceiling negotiation, or something (the post contains a lot of evidence as to why Obama shouldn’t believe a word of what Boehner says…oh, and by the way, the post features Boehner saying that “most Americans don’t have a clue” when it comes to entitlement reform...someone is clueless all right, but it's not who Boehner thinks it is).

And in a low moment even for him, Boehner refused to allow Frank Buckles, the last surviving veteran of World War I, the honor of lying in state in the Capitol upon Buckles’ death in March of last year here (no line that Boehner and his pals won’t cross).

Boehner refused to support a capital gains tax for small business under Obama, but had no problem with supporting two such tax breaks under Dubya (here).

Boehner also incorrectly claimed that “nobody” wants to pay for infrastructure projects, supposedly, here.

Oh, and former New York Times columnists Bob Herbert reminds us here of how Boehner once handed out checks from tobacco lobbyists on the floor of the U.S. House (tells you where Boehner’s loyalties truly lie).

Boehner also told the American Bankers Association (who lobbied Boehner to keep intact our ridiculous student loan financing process in which banks were paid exorbitant fees to do virtually nothing, though the Democrats cleaned that up as soon as they took over the House in 2006) “know that I have you in my trusted hands” here.

He also said that troop deaths in Iraq are “a small price” to pay here (he obviously has no family member who serves or knows of anyone who does, or else he surely would have known to shut his trap on that...this from a man who apparently looks for reasons to cry about everything else).

As noted here, MIT professor John Reilly told Boehner to stop “misrepresenting” a study on green energy to propagate the incorrect talking point that related legislation before Congress would “cost every American family up to $3,100 per year in higher energy prices.”

Here, Boehner blamed President Obama for failing to pass the DREAM Act (uh, you pass legislation and, if he approves, he signs it – guess you missed that lesson in civics class, Orange Man).

And here, Boehner actually blames President Obama for the weather – no, seriously, Boehner really does that.

Also, here, Boehner tried to “scale back” the Violence Against Women Act (the same mentality as the one behind this as far as I’m concerned…and featuring Puppy-Dog-Eyes Paul Ryan, the Repug veep nominee? Color me shocked!).

And at this point, I’m not sure what else there is to say about Boehner, except to note what Rachel Maddow tells us here…

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

...however, I believe this video captures Boehner in his essence, sort of...



...and, with a nod not towards politics in any way, allow me to extend a happy 60th birthday to John Hiatt (nice assist here by Sonny Landreth).

Saturday Stuff

Further down the list we go, people...

#5, Michele Bachmann
#6, Paul Ryan
#7, Louie Gohmert
#8, Allen West
#9, Joe Pitts
#10, Jack Kingston
#11, Patrick McHenry
#12, Spencer Bachus
#13, Jim Gerlach
#14, Cliff Stearns
#15, Jean Schmidt
#16, Phil Gingrey
#17, David Schweikert
#18, Virginia Foxx
#19, Pete Sessions
#20, Charlie Dent
#21, Cathy McMorris Rodgers
#22, Chris Smith
#23, Todd Akin
#24, Buck McKeon
#25, Kristi Noem
#26, Hal Rogers
#27, Lou Barletta (Two bonus selections: Boren and Ross)
#28, Paul Broun
#29, Mary Bono Mack
#30, David Dreier
#31, Marsha Blackburn (including backgrounder)

…so now we turn to the next U.S. House Republican opposed to health care reform (#4 for those playing along at home), and that would be the pre-eminent sleazy weasel himself, Eric Cantor of Virginia.

It would be too easy to say that Cantor (the true leader of the U.S. House, sadly – heckuva job, 2010 voters!) represents everything I thoroughly detest about today’s Republican Party on the national level, but that statement comes pretty close. The whiny faux self-loathing that thinly disguises the scorched-earth, take-no-prisoners mentality of a “true believer” of movement conservatism, the insistence on propagating talking points conducive to right-wing beliefs that have long since been disproven in the cold light of day, the “all-for-me-and-everyone-else-can-drop-dead” depraved philosophical underpinning of any legislation he supports (based in some notion of “glibertarianism”), public statement he utters or position he ascribes to…if you’re looking for all of this and (sadly) much more, rest assured that you will find it in Eric Cantor.

And if you want to know why Cantor is on this list as a U.S. House member opposed to health care reform, I have but one question: who else do you think is leading the repeal effort (here – a video later will provide more evidence)?

As I’ve said frequently, I don’t advocate violence against people at this site for a lot of reasons. However, if were to make an exception, it would be for Cantor. Simply put, if he somehow discovered a shred of decency in his being and started doing the people’s business for a change instead of his own (dragging “Man Tan” Boehner with him), our politics and our country as a whole would be in a decidedly much better place than we are right now. But because that has not happened, and likely never will happen, the U.S. House will remain, for the time being at least, under the control of thoroughly insufferable, utterly propagandistic ideologues (slavishly courting the Teahadists, who should have been told to go to hell a long time ago) who will make sure that we remain mired in our problems until Election Day at least (forever for reasons of trying to mine some political advantage of course), and no doubt well beyond.

With all of that said, let’s go to the “lowlights”…

Here, he called for cuts to first responders in exchange for emergency disaster aid on the eve of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 (the bar can never be set too low for Cantor).

He also supported funding for schools in Iraq, but not this country of course (here...and speaking of our "ally," isn't this interesting?).

Oh, and Cantor is definitely an “Islamophobe” too, as noted here.

He also said here that there should be no spending on disaster relief for the victims of the Joplin, Missouri tornado unless there were spending cuts elsewhere (what a swell guy).

Here, Cantor bailed on a speech at the University of Pennsylvania because he was afraid of the “Occupy” protestors.

Here, Cantor said that protestors who paid for space next to a ballroom at a hotel where Cantor was scheduled to speak were an “unproductive distraction” (however, I’m sure if they were Medicare beneficiaries carrying racist signs, wearing trifold hats and complaining about government healthcare (!), they would have been welcomed with open arms).

Want to learn about Cantor’s supposed plan for job creation (no regulations for business, no taxes of course, and lots of “free” trade agreements)? Click here.

Here, Cantor called the unemployed a “distraction” also and refused to meet with them (lots of “distractions” in Cantor’s life, apparently).

Also, last year, Cantor said here that the House wouldn’t vote on the “entire” jobs bill from President Obama, presumably just the parts Cantor likes, such as tax cuts (Wonder how much better off we’d be if Cantor had made sure the bill passed? Should I even ask?).

Here, Cantor announced that the House “didn’t have time” to honor the troops who killed Osama bin Laden (lots of time to name a courthouse after Dubya, though), though Cantor did add that the House would include “language” in a Defense Authorization bill recognizing the Navy SEALs, whatever that means.

Here, Cantor claimed that the voters of this country would hold Democrats responsible for the government shutdown that loomed in March 2011, despite polling evidence to the contrary.

And with that in mind, I should point out that Cantor also invested in “an exchange-traded fund that ‘takes a short position in long-dated government bonds’ — effectively betting against the U.S. Treasury bonds that the government uses to fund its operation,” as Think Progress tells us here (with Cantor trying to make money off the shut down, of course, if it had happened – typical).

Also, Cantor and his playmates threatened a government shutdown if they couldn’t repeal “Obamacare” here.

And here, Cantor bragged about his home state balancing its budget, which would be OK were it not for the fact that it took $70 billion from health and human services from the state to do it.

Also, here, Cantor called for “tolerance” within the GOP, though he has shown none of his own in the past.

Believe it or not, all of this only scratches the surface with Cantor. However, I know you get the idea.

Now, I’ll go to some clips featuring more Cantor "fun" (I don’t want to imagine what motivates the life forms who actually vote for this utter sleazeball…Rachel Maddow gives us an introduction of sorts here)…



...next, Ed Schultz brings the outrage big time against Cantor on health care reform, with a cameo by President Snowe at the end...



...and K.O. names Cantor "Worst Person" for another typically whiny screed as an excuse to do nothing - interesting revelation about Cantor's wife at the end...



...and do you want to know what this election is really about, by the way? Look no further than this video (more here)...



...and I thought this was a neat new tune - sorry, no video again.

Friday Stuff

(I also posted here.)

(Also, this ended up being a pretty bad week for the congressional countdown – hopefully I’ll have better luck with it in the coming days.)

Until then, allow me to point out that I neglected to note that Wednesday was the 77th birthday of Social Security, as noted here; if – God help us – Willard Mitt Romney and Puppy-Dog-Eyes-Carrying-The-Shiv Paul Ryan have their way, it won’t see 78…



…and I’m sorry, but I’m goddamned angry about this; there was a time when this country, let alone the rest of the nations of the world, once gave a damn about human rights. But I guess that’s so “pre-9/11” of me, right?

As nearly as I can tell, there have been ZERO expressions of outrage from world leaders over the fact that the three young women in the story, who engaged in what probably was a juvenile prank and nothing more than that, will go to prison in protest of Vladimir Putin and his regime. And actually, by visiting his grotesque punishment on them, he has validated their protest against him more than the young women could have ever done on their own.

What else can you expect, I suppose, from a country where fearless journalists, speaking truth to the most heavy handed of power, end up martyred in darkly lit corners of dank stairwells in the rundown tenements where they live (execution style, just to make sure)?

I know this song is about this person, but I don’t care – it’s been running around in my head all day, so here it is (with no video…sorry not to end things for the week on a happier note, but there you are).

Thursday Stuff

And now it’s time to take a ride on the crazy train, my fellow prisoners…

#6, Paul Ryan
#7, Louie Gohmert
#8, Allen West
#9, Joe Pitts
#10, Jack Kingston
#11, Patrick McHenry
#12, Spencer Bachus
#13, Jim Gerlach
#14, Cliff Stearns
#15, Jean Schmidt
#16, Phil Gingrey
#17, David Schweikert
#18, Virginia Foxx
#19, Pete Sessions
#20, Charlie Dent
#21, Cathy McMorris Rodgers
#22, Chris Smith
#23, Todd Akin
#24, Buck McKeon
#25, Kristi Noem
#26, Hal Rogers
#27, Lou Barletta (Two bonus selections: Boren and Ross)
#28, Paul Broun
#29, Mary Bono Mack
#30, David Dreier
#31, Marsha Blackburn (including backgrounder)

…and that means it’s time to turn to #5 on the list of U.S. House Republicans trying to overturn health care reform, and that would be none other than Michele (“Moon Unit”) Bachmann of Minnesota.

There are a few different facets and personalities, I guess you could say, when talking about today’s Republican Party. There’s the utterly shameless corporate facet that would sell the pennies on their grandmother’s eyes if they could use the money to launch a campaign attack ad (John Boehner, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, etc.). There’s the rabid, openly combative wing of the party that routinely tries to bait anyone and anything that is contrary to their beliefs (Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry). And there are also many other individuals who, I realize, cross over multiple categories.

But when it comes to sheer deer-in-the-headlights moonbattery, Bachmann is the undisputed leader of the pack.

At Matt Taibbi reported in Rolling Stone in June of last year…

Bachmann is a religious zealot whose brain is a raging electrical storm of divine visions and paranoid delusions. She believes that the Chinese are plotting to replace the dollar bill, that light bulbs are killing our dogs and cats, and that God personally chose her to become both an IRS attorney who would spend years hounding taxpayers and a raging anti-tax Tea Party crusader against big government. She kicked off her unofficial presidential campaign in New Hampshire, by mistakenly declaring it the birthplace of the American Revolution. "It's your state that fired the shot that was heard around the world!" she gushed. "You are the state of Lexington and Concord, you started the battle for liberty right here in your backyard."

I said lunch, not launch! But don't laugh. Don't do it. And don't look her in the eyes; don't let her smile at you. Michele Bachmann, when she turns her head toward the cameras and brandishes her pearls and her ageless, unblemished neckline and her perfect suburban orthodontics in an attempt to reassure the unbeliever of her non-threateningness, is one of the scariest sights in the entire American cultural tableau. She's trying to look like June Cleaver, but she actually looks like the T2 skeleton posing for a passport photo. You will want to laugh, but don't, because the secret of Bachmann's success is that every time you laugh at her, she gets stronger.

And actually, when you think of it, it’s a testimony to her political acumen that she managed to out flank Just Plain Folks Sarah Palin Donctcha Know among the “values” voter crowd while the former half-term governor of Alaska was debating in front of everyone who cared to listen in the matter of whether or not she wanted to take a shot at becoming her party’s standard bearer; while Palin was doing her little fan dance of a fashion on Fix Noise, Bachmann was out doing the glad-handling politico stuff that, even though it constitutes epic drudgery for most other life forms (kissing babies, shaking hands, attending 4-H club dinners on the stump), is nevertheless important when you’re trying to build a legitimate grass roots campaign.

Also on the subject of the Repugs’ own particular brand of crazy, I think it is a further testimony to Bachmann that it took at least four men to end up neutralizing her (Santorum, Gingrich and Perry, along with pizza man Herman Cain…well, maybe five if you count Ron Paul) and thus clear the way for the choice of the individuals who truly call the shots in that party, and that would be the plutocrat-in-chief himself, Willard Mitt Romney, as well as Puppy-Dog-Eyes (With The Shiv In His Pocket) Paul Ryan.

But this is all supposed to be about Bachmann and health care reform, so I’ll now turn to that…

Here, she tells us what she plans to do about the law (how many times can you say “repeal” in one sentence, I wonder?).

Here, she started down the road of demonizing the HPV vaccine against cervical cancer, claiming it could cause mental retardation, which happens to run contrary to all medical evidence to date (to be honest, aside from the other candidates, that may have doomed her candidacy more than anything else).

Here, she accused Huma Abedin, aide to Secretary of State Clinton and wife of former U.S. House Rep Anthony Weiner, of engaging in “The Ramadan Conspiracy,” or something (yep, just like Louie Gohmert, as I noted a few days ago).

Oh, and when talking about Bachmann, who can forget this truly precious moment when an eight-year-old boy told her that his mom is gay and “doesn’t need fixing”?

And who can forget this moment when she said thank you to a caller to a phone-in radio show who said he would vote for Charles Manson over President Obama (uh, no – the correct response is “Mister, you’re a freaking lunatic and you need professional help.”).

Here, Bachmann meant to praise John Wayne, but ended up praising serial killer John Wayne Gacy instead (as Matt Taibbi says, if you laugh at her, she just gets stronger).

And in kind of a litmus test of sorts for her party, Bachmann claimed here that she never personally benefitted from earmarks, even though she did (I always felt the so-called earmark controversy was nothing but a tempest in a proverbial tea bag, if you will).

Last and certainly least, she (as noted here in January 2011)…

…unveiled a plan to cut $400 billion in federal spending that includes freezing the Veterans Affairs Department’s health care spending and cuts veterans’ disability benefits. The Air Force Times reports her plan would slice $4.5 billion from the VA, including reducing 150,000 veterans’ disability compensation and the amount they receive in Social Security Disability Income.

Actually, I guess I stand corrected; maybe Bachmann represents more of the Boehner/Ryan/McConnell wing than I thought – anyway, here’s a video of her in action from February 2009, with Keith Olbermann and Chris Hayes having a bit of fun about how today's Republican Party was supposedly approaching irrelevance or something...would that that were true, though no one was chuckling over a year and a half later, after our corporate media started paying way, waaay too much attention to the racist-sign-and-funny-hat crowd…



Update 8/17/12: Curious...

...and on this general topic, this tune works for me.

Wednesday Stuff

Back to the countdown tomorrow, probably :-)...

In the meantime, nice work from Chuck Todd here, something I don't say too often because, often, I have no reason to say it - nice to make an exception...



...and The King left us 35 years ago tomorrow.

Tuesday Stuff

(I’ll probably get back to the Repug congressional countdown tomorrow – I’ve only got five left, and I want to be deliberate.)

From the usually reliable Joe Nocera, I give you this today, on the subject of Willard Mitt Romney’s tax returns (aside from the disgusting meme of “even though Paul Ryan is a shameless, craven ideologue, he’s somehow ‘serious,’ so now we can have a ‘discussion’ on money matters”)…

Ever since the campaign entered the postprimary, preconvention phase, with the two candidates turning their attention to each other, it has been a depressing spectacle. The Democrats have demanded that Romney release more of his tax returns — though we already know all we need to know. (Like every wealthy businessman, Romney works hard to minimize his taxes.)

Really? So, should we just “trust our leaders,” then, “Britney” Nocera (more here)?

Nocera is a pro – I definitely expected better from him than something like this.

As somebody said (I think it was Atrios), the issue of Romney’s taxes really isn’t about the money anyway. It’s a question of judgment. What does it say about Romney that he thinks it’s OK to run for the most important job in the world and not come completely clean on this subject like many other politicians, including his father? Just how much “to the manor born” does Romney think he is (though we’re finding out the answer more and more every day)?

Well anyway, this clip goes out to Nocera, who I’m sure will do much better work in the future…



…and here’s a tune that we can rage with as the days of summer wind down.

Monday Stuff

Once more unto the breach, dear friends...

#7, Louie Gohmert
#8, Allen West
#9, Joe Pitts
#10, Jack Kingston
#11, Patrick McHenry
#12, Spencer Bachus
#13, Jim Gerlach
#14, Cliff Stearns
#15, Jean Schmidt
#16, Phil Gingrey
#17, David Schweikert
#18, Virginia Foxx
#19, Pete Sessions
#20, Charlie Dent
#21, Cathy McMorris Rodgers
#22, Chris Smith
#23, Todd Akin
#24, Buck McKeon
#25, Kristi Noem
#26, Hal Rogers
#27, Lou Barletta (Two bonus selections: Boren and Ross)
#28, Paul Broun
#29, Mary Bono Mack
#30, David Dreier
#31, Marsha Blackburn (including backgrounder)

…and that brings us to #6 on our list of U.S. House Repugs opposed to health care reform, and that would be none other than the man of the hour, Willard Mitt Romney’s VP nominee himself, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

As I work my way down this list, I feel my level of disgust rising more and more with each of these fools and frauds, and though it may rise higher still before I’m all done with this, I must tell you that it’s pretty damn elevated at this moment. And that’s because, like no other politician with the possible exception of John McCain, Puppy-Dog-Eyes Ryan has the Beltway media-political establishment utterly cowed.

It doesn’t matter how many times Ryan’s supposedly bold and visionary economic proposals are blown up by actual economists performing actual math showing the actual, real-world misery that would result if Ryan’s horrendous scheme were ever signed into law, under the guise of supposed deficit reduction (which, as is just about always the case with this bunch, would in fact make the deficit worse). And it just doesn’t matter how many times Ryan, among others, spouts the utterly craven lie that he, in fact, is the supposed protector of Medicare, as opposed to that mean, nasty President Obama who supposedly wants to destroy it.

And it also just doesn’t matter how many times it is pointed out that what Ryan proposes goes so completely against what he is supposed to represent as a Roman Catholic (his alleged religious affiliation) that it makes a sick mockery of that faith. Short of a charge of criminal activity resulting in prosecution in a court of law (and I don’t believe that will ever happen, if for no other reason because Ryan wouldn’t be where he is unless he were a smart and cagey individual, and I don’t see him doing anything like that), we are going to keep hearing the same mythology from our corporate media that we’ve been hearing from Ryan from now into the distant future.

So, with all of this in mind, I give you the following:

Here is a primer, more or less, on Ryan, courtesy of Think Progress.

When the Repugs are busy trying to spin Number 44 as the person supposedly trying to gut welfare through granting waivers to states, more or less (hilarious to hear a Repug pretend to care about welfare), I would ask that you keep this in mind.

He believes ending a pregnancy should be illegal, even if the pregnancy is the product of rape or incest or endangers the woman’s health (here).

Oh, and as noted here, Ryan trashed “Romney-Care” in 2010 (ruh-row).

And Ryan was so productive on the job too, as noted here.

But don’t you know that Ryan had “a dozen” Democratic supporters for his budget, who Ryan won’t reveal (just like he won’t reveal his tax returns further than two years back – and stop me if you’ve heard this before).

Finally, choice items here include his endorsement from the Log Cabin Republicans, a truly laughable group of human beings at this point for their relentless capitulation to the GOP even when it is in opposition to their professed positions; also, Ryan financially benefits from the health insurance industry; Think Progress also tells us how Romney-Ryan would protect “too big to fail” banks; and of course, now that the Repug presidential ticket has zero foreign policy experience, that’s OK (as opposed to that baaad Kenyan Muslim socialist in ’08, who had not much also and was vilified relentlessly for it).

The selection of Paul Ryan for Willard Mitt Romney’s VP candidate is the perhaps inevitable result of the “magical” thinking of that party in collusion with our Beltway media political complex, where facts are impervious to the bubble of pseudo-reality in which they surround themselves. And as far as I’m concerned, that makes it the sworn duty of every American voter to rupture that bubble beyond any possible repair in November...



Update 1 8/17/12: Such a fine, upstanding Christian man of morality and integrity (here)...

Update 2 8/17/12: Nice idea, but good luck with this.

Update 8/30/12: Thoroughly beneath contempt (here)...

...and when I think of Ryan (which I try not to do, actually), this song somehow comes to mind.

Sunday Stuff

I give you Mikey the Beloved in Bucks County’s conservative house organ today (here)…

“(Kathy Boockvar’s) pilgrimage to San Francisco to be with her fellow extreme ideologues to raise money from the far left’s radicals in their home base demonstrates to our community all we need to know about Boockvar’s misguided beliefs,” according to the release, attributed to Faith Bender, Fitzpatrick’s campaign manager.

OMIGOD NANCY PELOSI NANCY PELOSI NANCY PELOSI NANCY PELOSI NANCY PELOSI!!!!

Do you want to know what happened when Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats were in charge of the U.S. House (and Mikey was busy campaigning against Patrick Murphy telling us how many jobs he was going to create)?

Try this (and if you want to tell Mikey to shove it, start by clicking here)…



…and given the events of the past week around Le Manse Doomsy, this is a song I feel like listening to, so here it is.

More Saturday Stuff

Here’s more on Paul Ryan, Willard Mitt Romney’s VP nominee, and his “funny number” creation (Or maybe the top of the ticket instead, as noted here? Unbelievable…for more, click here)…



…but even though the supposed GOP financial “architect” will come a bit later on the list, for now, we’re going to journey to “the land of the yellow rose”…

#8, Allen West
#9, Joe Pitts
#10, Jack Kingston
#11, Patrick McHenry
#12, Spencer Bachus
#13, Jim Gerlach
#14, Cliff Stearns
#15, Jean Schmidt
#16, Phil Gingrey
#17, David Schweikert
#18, Virginia Foxx
#19, Pete Sessions
#20, Charlie Dent
#21, Cathy McMorris Rodgers
#22, Chris Smith
#23, Todd Akin
#24, Buck McKeon
#25, Kristi Noem
#26, Hal Rogers
#27, Lou Barletta (Two bonus selections: Boren and Ross)
#28, Paul Broun
#29, Mary Bono Mack
#30, David Dreier
#31, Marsha Blackburn (including backgrounder)

...and that means it’s time for #7 on our list of U.S. House Repugs opposed to health care reform, and that would be Louie Gohmert of Texas (by the way, I should warn that there may be bad words on some of the pages I link to here – I don’t usually say anything about that since I believe that other people’s content isn’t my problem, but others, to their credit, have also pointed out this stuff about Gohmert, and his particular type of confrontational wingnuttery has, not surprisingly, generated some rather strong feeling).

Saying this is probably going to make me sound like an elitist liberal or something, but it’s hard to truly “wrap my head around” Gohmert’s particular type of ignorance. He may be the one of the stupidest people in the country. He may be one of the stupidest people on the planet. It’s possible that he could be one of the stupidest people in the entire solar system (with the possible exception of anyone who actually voted for him).

I’m not sure where to begin, so I might as well just pick a spot and get going:

Here, he cheapened the recent massacre in Aurora, Colorado by saying it supposedly wouldn’t have happened if everyone had been armed (as you can see, there’s no line that Gohmert won’t cross when spouting this garbage).

Here, he said that Number 44 somehow timed the who mess over the debt ceiling last year so it would coincide with his 50th birthday (actually, I take back what I said earlier – Gohmert may not be just the stupidest person in the solar system, but possibly the entire galaxy).

Here, he said the hate crimes bill passed by Congress would lead to Nazism, or worse (cue scary background theme - and speaking of that former Austrian postcard painter, Gohmert said here that a column by Thomas Sowell comparing Obama to Hitler was “brilliant”).

Here, he said Obama would somehow use the Affordable Care Act to call up troops to fight in Libya (WHAAA?????!!! And by the way, as noted from the link, Gohmert claimed that the health care bill was 2,800 pages in length – I’ll come back to this talking point in a future post).

And oh yeah, TERROR BABIES!!! (here).

Here, Gohmert referred to Sen. John McCain as “numb nuts” (of course, Gohmert would have ended up crying like a little bitch after enduring a day or two of what McCain endured as a POW for 5 ½ years – I don’t like McCain’s politics, but that doesn’t mean that the man doesn’t deserve respect).

Here, Gohmert made disparaging remarks about former Obama Commerce Secretary John Bryson, who suffered a seizure and crashed his car; Bryson took a medical leave of absence (another "class" moment from Gohmert).

Here, Gohmert claimed that Huma Abedin, the wife of former Dem U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner and aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was in league with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, or something.

I’ll tell you what – since a picture is worth a thousand words (last I checked), I’ll just “go to the tape”; here, Rachel Maddow and Kent Jones introduce us to “Gohmert” Pyle (someone else came up with that, not me)…



…and in case anyone has any doubt as to whether or not Gohmert should be on this list concerning health care reform, I give you this (I’m sure I’ll put this video up again before this list is complete - more here)…



…and here’s a tongue-in-cheek song for Gohmert, who probably will think it’s a documentary (sorry, no video).



Update 8/28/12: I just found this - truly, words fail.

Update 1/5/13: As I said, he's the stupidest life form in the galaxy (here).

Update 4/30/13: What a dipshit (here).

Update 10/23/14: Lather, rinse, repeat (sigh).

Saturday Stuff

I think this selection sends the following message to the “values voter” zealots of the Republican Party who, to be fair, comprise a lot of their “foot soldiers” too…

...and here is Willard Mitt's VP selection doing something he does well, unfortunately...



…and I think this contains what should be the Romney/Ryan campaign theme song.

Friday Stuff

(I also posted here.)

I just can’t face doing the congressional list tonight (partly a commentary on the next person coming up, to be honest). I promise I’ll get back to it soon.

In the meantime, isn’t it interesting how the political party that screams the most about “voter fraud” is so good at actually practicing it (here, which made me recall this clip about McCotter, the guy who tried to teach everyone “how to speak Democrat” )…



…and happy 65th birthday to Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull (another tune appropriate for this week, unfortunately).

Thursday Later PM Stuff

I meant to get to this a few days ago, but I know I'm a little late - sorry (have to relish the good news when we can...hat tip for the pic to bluegalfran at Crooks and Liars)...

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

...and this video should be completely unnecessary, but unfortunately it isn't (here - never occurred to me the toll that job has taken on him until I watched this clip)...



...and for the next installment of the countdown, it's time to journey to the primordial swamps of Florida, where misbegotten creatures emerge from the unholy ooze...

#9, Joe Pitts
#10, Jack Kingston
#11, Patrick McHenry
#12, Spencer Bachus
#13, Jim Gerlach
#14, Cliff Stearns
#15, Jean Schmidt
#16, Phil Gingrey
#17, David Schweikert
#18, Virginia Foxx
#19, Pete Sessions
#20, Charlie Dent
#21, Cathy McMorris Rodgers
#22, Chris Smith
#23, Todd Akin
#24, Buck McKeon
#25, Kristi Noem
#26, Hal Rogers
#27, Lou Barletta (Two bonus selections: Boren and Ross)
#28, Paul Broun
#29, Mary Bono Mack
#30, David Dreier
#31, Marsha Blackburn (including backgrounder)

…and that brings us to #8 on the list of U.S. House Repugs opposed to health care reform, and that would be Allen West of The Sunshine State.

Now before I say anything else, I should note that Alan Colmes, among others, has said something to the effect of “well, West has actually said that there are some parts of health care reform that he likes,” or whatever. If so, then please explain this.

(Also, I should probably say something about my thoroughly unscientific method of compiling this list as long as I’m thinking of it. There are people who you probably aren’t going to see on this list, though I can’t totally guarantee it, such as Peter King, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Dana Rohrabacher, and others. I definitely have disagreements with these individuals, but on the issue of health care reform, I’ve done a bit of research and haven’t found anything worth trying to nail them. Ros-Lehtinen and Rohrabacher are really bad on foreign policy as far as I’m concerned, but they’re actually a lot better on HCR than some of their same-party counterparts. And as awful as Peter King is on the “OMIGOD, SCARY MUSLIMS!!!” stuff, he actually said to Eric Cantor that we should, in essence, just move on after the recent Supreme Court ruling on the mandate, which I think showed some notable common sense...of course, that sleazy weasel Cantor – who definitely is coming later – has no intention of doing that.)

Now, back to West...

With the possible exception of Joe Walsh of Illinois, I don’t know anyone else remaining on the list who has said and done so many provocative – and just about always mind-numbingly stupid – things in less than two years in Congress (though it’s not as if we weren’t warned by folks such as Keith Olbermann, who we’ll hear from a little later). Race baiting, class baiting, questioning or trying to outright destroy the patriotism of those with whom he disagrees…none of that matters to West. I cannot recall a single episode where he has decided to refrain from demagoguery and adhere to the simplest possible standard of common decency (here, in response to a vote trying to hold President Obama to a timetable of troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, West said some of those in Congress advocating for troop withdrawal should “get shot at a few times”…and this came just a few months after the carnage in Tucson in January 2011).

Here, West said the Congressional Black Caucus was “racist” for supporting Attorney General Eric Holder in the wake of all of that “Operation Fast and Furious” business, in which Holder honestly tried to get to the bottom of that utter fiasco, with no help from House Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa (with “F&F” predated by the similar “gun-walking” idiocy of Operation Wide Receiver, though I don’t hear a word of complaint about Bushco AG Michael Mukasey). Also, West said that President Obama wants “you” (??) to be his “slave” here (nice – I’ll let you, dear reader, try and unpackage the crazy of that one). Oh, and among other things, West also said that drivers with Obama bumper stickers are “a threat to the gene pool” here (takes one to know one, I guess).

West also said here that student loans were “communist” here, and harking back to that once career-fatal but now laughable slander, he said here that there were “80 communists” in the House. He also said that early voting was an “unconstitutional entitlement” here (speaking of voting, he wanted to withhold foreign aid to Egypt to protest that's country's democratic election here). He added that Obama’s refusal to deport the children of “undocumented” workers who would have been covered under the DREAM Act, had it been passed, constitutes “voter fraud,” or something here (with West thinking they would be inclined to vote for Obama which, the last I checked, wasn’t a crime). And just to make sure that West is keeping his utter wingnuttery current, this tells us that he sent “chicken and biscuits” from Chick-Fil-A to a recent Congressional Black Caucus meeting and offended just about everybody.

As long as this post is, I should note that there’s a lot more that I could point out to show that West is an utterly craven life form that (you could argue) doesn’t deserve the company of respectable human beings, let alone a career in public life. Instead, I’ll just include this link and let you read the evidence for yourself (oh, and as noted here, count West as yet another elected official who has played the teabaggers for fools).

I wonder if he had that same insipid, half-smiling smirk on his face when he tortured his Iraqi prisoner in 2003, avoiding a court-martial even though he had to pay a $5,000 fine and accept non-combat duty (K.O. gets into that and other stuff shortly). Also, if you’ve had enough of West (haven’t you?), click here to support Florida’s Patrick Murphy, thus restoring a bit of sanity and plain decency to the House…



Update 8/26/12: Just a bit of projection here, you think?

Update 9/10/12: Point, meet counterpoint.

...and I have a feeling that this tune will be appropriate for a little while.