For the record, this is Cheri Bustos, Democratic Party U.S. House Member from Illinois.
Also, she is absolutely driving me nuts with solicitation Emails and phone calls (home and cell) to support her campaign for re-election.
Let’s see now, Cheri Bustos…why is that name familiar again?
Oh yeah, it’s because she partnered with our very own Mikey the Beloved in this “No Labels” idiocy over at least the last two years. You know…pretending to be a Sensible Centrist™ even though she is, in fact, a version of Republican Lite (more here).
So guess what, Cheri Bustos? I hope you lose your election. And stop asking me for money, because I’m not giving you a dime!
Yeah, that means one less Dem in a contest where we need all the Dems we can get, I know. But with “Democrats” like Bustos, we’d be better off with the wretched status quo we already have.
Back to the videos - and all I have to say in response to this is buen trabajo, Tim Kaine (in the clip below, Kaine joined the filibuster by Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut in favor of common sense gun reform - can't track down the rest of what Kaine said, but I think you can get the gist from the clip)...
...and kudos to the NBA for this (and Pat McCrory’s utterly predictable, and stupid, temper tantrum of a response is here)...
…and I think this utterly idiotic GMO labeling law is par for the course with this wretched Congress…
…and here’s something a little dreamy and ethereal in the spirit of the season.
In light of all of the nonsense from Cleveland this week, I thought I would provide this as a palate cleanser of sorts.
Now that the convention idiocy is over and the “party of Lincoln” has proclaimed Donald Trump as its standard-bearer, Republicans all over the place are saying, “oh, Trump doesn’t represent me…how in Heaven’s name did we get to the point where he is our nominee for President,” clutching their metaphorical pearls all the while and looking for their also-metaphorical fainting couch.
(In a similar vein, I give you this today from the eternally wretched Christine Flowers, concocting yet another unintentionally hilarious diatribe which is truly all we can expect from philly.com’s conservative quota hire columnist.)
Do you want to know how you got to the point where “Fergus Laing” is actually your nominee for president, Republicans? Do you want to know who is really to blame?
Try looking in the goddamn mirror!
Every time you demonize and ridicule someone without any basis in actual fact, or at least without any evidence that will stand up to what you might call “the cold light of day”…every time you demonize and ridicule someone merely because they belong to a particular race, gender, or other demographic that takes issue with what you might call your political point of view…every time you repeat baseless charges over and over and over again against your opposition when they have been thoroughly or utterly disproven or, perhaps, not even proven to begin with…every time you demonize a political member of the opposition for all of the reasons I noted previously in this paragraph without any provable, corroborated facts or evidence…every time you demagogue against those who are most vulnerable in our society, again without facts or evidence…every time you demagogue against someone trying to address the most vital issues we face, such as matters of war and peace, the economy (and, as a part of that, issues pertaining to what you might call economic and social justice), and the future survivability of this planet (and, in the process, argue with proven principles of math, science, and, pretty much, plain common sense)…when you do any or all of that, do you know what you also do?
You perpetuate the forces that ultimately gave us Donald J. Trump as the Republican Party nominee for President of the United States, that’s what you do.
So spare me your pitiable mea culpas, because, now, it is up to Democrats to try and clean up the mess you created but, not surprisingly, couldn’t find the political will to fix yourselves.
Now for some videos – and it looks like, based on this, Laura Ingraham gave away the game, as they say…
…and yeah, it sounds like Bill Maher captured what went on in Cleveland this week pretty well (here)…
…and I thought this was some great perspective on “The Donald” from filmmaker Ken Burns, speaking with Christiane Amanpour (and of course, the inevitable wingnut outrage followed here)…
…and our neighbors to the north are paying attention (as is the rest of the world, as noted here – dear Lord)…
…also, I cannot possibly imagine why Fix Noise didn’t want their viewers to see this (here – removing my tongue from my cheek)…
…and it seems like Republicans can’t get through a week, or even days sometimes, without infringing on a musician’s work without getting permission, which, in this case, I’m sure they’d never get anyway (I think the following tune, were it to be allowed by the estate, would be more appropriate).
Awww, poor “Governor Bully,” in response to this (naah – just kidding…more here and here)…
…and this is funny stuff from Stephen Colbert, bringing back his “Comedy Central” character a bit, but the very last sentence is about as tongue-in-cheek as you’re going to get (here)…
…and Trump’s veep nominee gets the Samantha Bee treatment here (NSFW)…
...and no "milestone" or "message" music tonight - just a cool new tune.
It looks like time is drawing short for Roger (“Voldemort”) Ailes in light of this (a day that has been a long time in coming)…
...and golly, it looks like the latest trophy wife of "The Donald" sure put her I'm-sure-elegantly-pedicured foot in it big time (here)...
…and Kyle Kulinski tells us about the latest in the annals of “Do As I Say, Not As I Do” Repug Party nonsense, particularly regarding Trump VP nominee Mike Pence (NSFW)…
…and I know people are going to be having fun with the latest idiocy that transpires from Cleveland (not a shot at the city, mind you – we hosted these characters in 2000, after all), and it’s going to be hard to pick and choose of all of what I would call “hate porn” in an effort to find what is most despicable (the grieving Benghazi mother who deserves our prayers, respect and support but who was allowed by life forms almost too despicable for words to rant in a public forum against HRC, along with all of the calls for Former Secretary of State Clinton to be imprisoned or worse, etc.), but right now, this might be the lowest of the low (a lot of competition, I’ll admit) – if Freddie Mercury were still with us, he might offer this as a response.
Yeah, I know some of this stuff may be a little too “inside baseball,” but I still think it shows that not everyone is singing “Kumbaya” in Cleveland (here)…
…and speaking of the all-but-named Democratic Party nominee, I have only three words for this video: Nail. Hammer. Head. (here)…
...also, David Pakman tells us about recent shootings in this country we may not have heard about (telling that, while overall violent crime is down in this country, shootings are up)...
…and happy belated 70th (!) birthday to Linda Ronstadt; all those years I spent holding up her poster with one hand – smile.
