Today's WTF Moment, John Stossel Edition

John Stossel of Fox News hosts a debate between Ron Paul and an Obama impersonator...

Wait.  Seriously.  Ron Paul debates an Obama impersonator.

http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201104280046

Michelle Bachman - The Gift That Keeps Giving

The Congresscritter with the crazy eyes compares taxation (currently at the lowest level compared to income in the U.S. since the 50's) to the Holocaust.  I hear her dishwasher overflowed the other day and she said it was like another Katrina..

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hURGiN38L_MrKthWW_RkKBsl8YJA?docId=4ee509eb86fd445486745474f6a47f29

Speaking Of Rich Creeps...

Montana Rep. Denny Rehberg, worth between $6mil and $56 mil, tells constituents that he's struggling just like everyone else..

Yes, trying to decide whether to drive the Aston Martin or the Ferrari today can definitely put one in a pickle.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/23rd_richest_member_of_congress_denny_rehberg_says_hes_struggling_like_everyone_else.php?ref=fpb

The Culture Of Me

The recent accession of Donald Trump in the Republican Presidential race is a sad joke that will come crashing down the instant he is confronted with any genuinely probing questions about his ridiculous past... did you know, for instance, that he once seriously proposed that Mike Tyson do "community service" in lieu of jail time for his rape conviction, said community service being to stage a couple of boxing matches at a Trump facility "for charity?"

His many failings aside, what intrigues me about Trump's recent foray is how it gives us a naked glimpse into the mindset of the rich (well, sometimes rich in Trump's case) and privileged.  When you watch Trump congratulate himself for teasing the long form birth certificate out of the President of the United States, without a hint of shame at his role in diminishing the office, the man and our country, you're seeing the raw naked selfishness that propels many (but not all) men of wealth and power.

Simply put, it is all about them.  They consider themselves surrounded by inferiors, incompetents and slackers who never made it to their lofty peak because of their own sloth.  The fact that Trump and many of his wealthy compadres inherited their head-starts means nothing.  These pampered aristocrats have convinced themselves that they are inherently "better," and so outside the social norms that most people observe.  Hence the multiple marriages, the drugs, the unimaginable hubris, the ego.  The ridiculous speeches and political positions are most likely a con, but the emptiness that propels a blowhard like Trump is not an act.  It is the core of his empty soul, an arid place where the thought of doing something for the greater good is as ridiculous as a flower doing algebra.

There are wealthy people who understand that their fortunes, often gained from their own hard work but inevitably with the help of many others, is not evidence of some Godly status but instead a gift.  One that demands humility and also an understanding that others who fail to rise to such heights are not inferior or flawed, but simply different.  Trump and his ilk will never be this....

Scratch a Tea Party Blowhard and...

Tea-party solider-man turned Florida Rep. Allen West (R for Really Crazy) likes to bark out homilies about integrity and honor when he's not accusing President Obama of being some diabolical socialist.  But when a woman at one of his scripted Town Halls dares to ask a question he doesn't like, the cops take her away to the jeers of his neanderthal constituency.  And so does "democrazy" work in West's sad little district.

When you build a movement on a house of in-bred cards, all it takes is a stiff breeze to send it flying...

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2011/04/nicole_sandler_arrested_allen_west_town_hall.php

One More Thing, Birther Edition

Aside from the utter inanity of the notion that old newspaper clippings were planted (they were actually submitted by the Hawaiian hospital where Obama was born) and the entire Hawaiian Government is involved in some massive conspiratorial cover-up to hide the idea that a Kenyan baby was spirited into America n 1961 for nefarious purposes...

Let's say it's all true.  Barack Obama was born in Kenya and rushed to Hawaii as an infant, where he was raised by an American mother in American school.  Okay, there's a line in the constitution about the President being a natural born citizen, and we all know how the birthers, many of whom are also Tenthers who believe the States should ignore Federal laws, are sticklers for the letter of the law. 

But what exactly are they saying?  That even though someone was raised in America from (hypothetically) Day 2, they bring with them from the mother-land some genetic component that will spring Manchurian Candidate style into diabolical fruition?  Even assuming the worst about President Obama, what exactly would be the grievous harm? 

It seems the blithering stupidity of the birther movement is only surpassed by the sheer ridiculousness of their overwrought concerns.

A Proud Day For America - Birther Edition

A self-promoting huckster with a sleazy television show and a history of bad business deals accuses the President of the United States of not being born in America, and the President is forced to respond with his long form birth certificate.

That Donald Trump is somehow guiding this discussion is perhaps one of the saddest and most despicable aspects of the entire story.  A man whose own background is so checkered that his so-called "reputation" crumbles at a glance, he nevertheless manages to command the attention of the television networks and press establishment.  What next?  Bernie Madoff challenging Barack Obama's tax return?

The only saving grace of this entire grotesque (and soon to be forgotten) blip is that it's pushing poor Sarah Palin toward a much deserved "trivial pursuit question" status.

The Wild Wild West

Florida Rep. Allan West (RRR, for radical ridiculous Republican) accuses President Obama of being a "low level socialist agitator." Even if the President were guilty of this diabolical socialism (while the stock market soars), "low level?" Really? I mean, he IS in charge of the most powerful nation in the world...

They can't even give him props in their insults...

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_04/029072.php

70%

So 70% of tea-partiers polled are against the Ryan plan that decimates Medicare and Medicaid.  And yet these are the same disgruntled yay-hoos who stapled tea-bags to their caps and imagined themselves revolutionary activists as they rolled their four-wheel "Rascals" into assorted town halls, screaming about socialism and "Obamacare" and Hitler.

The greatest trick the conservative movement has managed to pull off is convincing these sad, scared folks to vote against their own interests.  Preying on the American idea of exceptionalism that presumes every one of us has the gumption and pluck to become gazillionaires.  And wouldn't it be a bitch if, when we climb that glorious fiscal mountain, our maximum tax rate was a Draconian 39% as opposed to 35%.

Or even worse, that a poor family might get food stamps off the sweat of our fevered brows. The horror, the humanity...

I would actually feel sorry for these dupes, except their selfishness and self-righteousness makes it a little hard to summon up sympathy.  That, and the fact that their ignorance has given us a House of Representatives as dysfunctional as the scattered neurons in the average tea-partier's brain...

What He Said... Krugman edition

See Perino below on Democratic "incivility."  Now see Krugman on why that's a crock of shit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/opinion/18krugman.html?ref=opinion

Perino Projection

Former Bush something-or-other Dana Perino accuses the President of saying "crazy" and "offensive" things in his speech about the budget debate.  The crazy and offensive comment she cites is that the President called the Republicans "anti-American."  Which of course he never said.  But if the right would like to self-apply "anti-Americanism" to themselves, go for it, guys!

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/dana-perino-accuses-president-obama-saying

WAHHHHH...

So the tragically misunderstood Republican budget hawks got their noses out of joint when President Obama actually took issue with their plan to destroy Medicare and give more tax breaks to the rich.  As others have noted, what did the Rethuglicans (oops, don't cry boys!) expect?  Hearty handshakes and congratulations?  "Democrats are done, boys, we've seen the light.  Go ahead and dismantle the social compact and pass the savings on to your biggest contributors."

But it's not the absurdity of their whining that rankles me the most.  It's the on-going crybaby attitude adopted by the Repunklicans whenever someone dares question their policies or politicians.  It's always "unfair", a slap in the face, a complete disregard for civility and social norms.  This from the great thinkers who routinely send out racist e-mails and question Obama's citizenship.  Who cry foul at the "liberal mainstream media" (which isn't liberal and is barely  mainstream anymore) when bloated bigot Rush Limbaugh spews hours of lying bilge a day and Fox News is a 24 hour Orwellian nightmare.  Who cling to the victim card like a drowning man grabbing a life preserver away from a child whenever anyone dares question one of their crazy to crazier positions...

The only ray of light in this otherwise endless orgy of right wing hypocrisy is that they're mostly too stupid to realize when they're going too far.  Trapped like Brooks Brothers rats by their yahoo, "get your Government hands off my Medicare" tea-party brethren, Republican representatives don't stop with the bath-water, they're tossing out the baby, the tub, and three quarters of the furniture.  And it's gonna come back to haunt them come 2012...

Signs Of The Coming Apocaylpse: Trump Edition

He leads in the Republican Presidential polls by 9 points...

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/poll-donald-trump-leads-gop-primary-by-wide-margin.php?ref=fpa

More Compassion - Round Up!

Walking contradiction Donald Trump (the business genius who's declared bankruptcy repeatedly), who for some incredible reason is actually being taken seriously as a Republican Presidential candidate, reminds us that he's always had a "great relationship with the blacks."
 
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/donald-trump-ive-always-had-a-great-relationship-with-the-blacks.php?ref=fpb

Frighteningly stupid Rep. Paul Broun (R, Idiocracy) declares that FDR was actually a communist...

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/rep-broun-fdr-was-a-communist-video.php?ref=fpb

The Fox News website twists itself into a pretzel to connect the tragic suicide of a student at Geo. Washington University on Teusday to Obama's economic speech.  (Hint: there's no connection.)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/14/966850/-Fox-News-ties-suicide-to-Obama-speech

Finally --

Wait.  Donald Trump is actually being taken seriously as a Presidential candidate?!

What You Can Get At Walgreens

I understand that lobotomies are also a big ticket item, and they sell especially well at the Walgreens nearest the Fox and Friends studios...


MUST BE ONE HECK OF A WALGREENS.... The budget fight, at least the current one, is just about over, but Fox News has a few more shots to take at Planned Parenthood and the White House as the dust settles.
On yesterday's episode of "Fox & Friends," viewers saw this exchange:

Steve Doocy: [President Obama] was talking about Planned Parenthood being this great provider where women can get blood pressure checks and pap smears and breast examinations...
Brian Kilmeade: Which you can get at Walgreens.
Steve Doocy: Exactly right.

Seriously, that's what they said. There's video proof.

SOURCE: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_04/028874.php

Blog Post Of The Week - From Balloon Juice

John Cole goes to town on the pundits thrilled down to their pajama bottoms over the Paul Ryan slash and burn tax plan. This is just a sample, re: how these wealthy, Washington-innoculated typewriter commandos can enthuse over lowering the tax rate on millionaires while simultaneously destroying the safety net for middle and lower income people without even the slightest hint of empathy...


3.) They are insulated- Everyone of the people cheerleading the Ryan/GOP plan has the very best medical coverage, and really has no stake in this. Considering they are pundits, and will probably have platinum until the day they die, and Medicare is kind of an afterthought. I know that they get all heated up when you point out that they simply have no stake in this game (except more tax cuts!), but we have a village class of Beltway pundits who really are insulated from what the rest of the country is going through. These issues are abstractions to them, and they are a horrifying reality to everyone else. That’s how you can talk about slashing trillions from other people’s health care coverage while giving out tax cuts to those who don’t need them and can babble about seriousness.

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/04/09/id-add-a-couple-things/

Planned Parenthood = The Boogeyman

Since when did Planned Parenthood become a Republican punching bag?  Preventative reproductive health care saves a bundle in medical expenses in the long run.  And because of the (despicable) Hyde Amendment, not a dime of Federal money goes toward abortion.  So this organization (and *gasp* NPR) become the linchpins over a possible Government shutdown?  What exactly goes through the conservative brain when confronted with this topic?

Oops.  I said "conservative" and "brain" in the same sentence. 

Wisconsin Hijinx

So a conservative, incumbent Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, considered a shoo-in just a few weeks ago, is (barely) beaten by his less conservative opponent.   Is this because --

A): The conservative justice raised hackles when it was revealed he called another (female) member of the court "a bitch", then blamed her for forcing him to resort to that language?

B): The conservative justice aligned himself with new Governor (and incredible dickweed) Scott Walker, whose own popularity plummeted when he went into terminal GOP overreach against Wisconsin's public employees unions?

Or shall we go with freshly minted the Republican talking points:

Obvious voter fraud (per right wing weasel John Fund)?

And/or, the wrong people voted.  Gov. Walker noted that many votes from the liberal justice came from the more liberal Madison area.  His point being, I guess, that if the people in his State that he doesn't like hadn't voted, his guy would have won.  To quote the Sundance Kid, "you just keep thinkin', Butch, that's what you're good at."

Alakazam!

How do the Republican think-tankers create a budget that slashes taxes to the bone, cuts Government employment by hundreds of thousands, and yet reduces unemployment to 2.4 percent (!) and pays off the deficit?  Why it's simple.  Just make stuff up!

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/paul-ryans-multiple-unicorns/

Today's Compassion

So what's going on in the world of the compassionate conservative?  Well, just today, it appears that they are ready to shut down the Government rather than accept the "compromise" that the remarkably compliant (read "cowardly") Democrats offered, giving the Republicans everything they originally wanted.  That went so well, the goalposts were moved out even further. 

Meanwhile, Rep. Paul Ryan has unveiled a budget plan that would eliminate Medicare and Medicaid, raise taxes on the lower and middle class, and lower the tax rate on the wealthy to 25%.  This welfare-for-the-rich boondoggle is being framed by the beltway punditcracy as "courageous."

I think we have reached a turning point in this nation, and not in a good way.  Republicans understand that they will take a hit in the polls if the Government shuts down.  The difference between now and 1995 is, they don't care.  As in, they really don't care.  The Republicans and their beltway friends all understand that regardless of public opinion, they will be taken care of by their billionaire masters.  Meaning there is no longer any personal downside to wrecking the system. 

So wreck it they will, this miserable coterie of rich, white, conservative men.  And the sad, Fox addicted children who voted for them will be stunned when this disaster actually effects them.