"Polls. All of them."

Great Ghu. This election has truly gone down the rabbit hole. I would really like to crawl under the covers and hide until November 8, but unfortunately I can't.

The meltdown at Trump Tower on Election Night is going to make Karl Rove's denial of reality when Barack Obama took Ohio in 2012 look like a roadside picnic.

Buckle your seat belt, folks. We're in for a bumpy ride.

Oopsy Daisy

This is just hilarious. Of course the clueless white man should've done his homework, but after a while you start to feel a bit sorry for the guy.

"Ignorance is the curse of God"

Jay-sus Christ on a saltine cracker. These people must be talking about hidden aliens descended from the Roswell spaceship crash, because they're certainly not talking about female homo sapiens.

Swanson: I’m beginning to get some evidence from certain doctors and certain scientists that have done research on women’s wombs after they’ve gone through the surgery, and they’ve compared the wombs of women who were on the birth control pill to those who were not on the birth control pill. And they have found that with women who are on the birth control pill, there are these little tiny fetuses, these little babies, that are embedded into the womb. They’re just like dead babies. They’re on the inside of the womb. And these wombs of women who have been on the birth control pill effectively have become graveyards for lots and lots of little babies.

I do not think that word--"birth control"--means what you think it means.

On a more serious note, how can people be so ignorant in the so-called "information age"? Thirty seconds on Google would disabuse them of their delusions.

I don't know which is the most depressing--the idea that these people are grifters, intentionally pushing such untruthful, unscientific nonsense to raise money, or the possibility that they might actually believe it.

"The sheer hard-on of owning a gun"

“How many have to die before we will give up these dangerous toys?”  ~Stephen King, Guns

You must watch this incredible testimony from the father of one of the children killed in Sandy Hook. I wish he could have been at the Senate hearings to throw this in Wayne LaPierre's face.

“I do not think the composition of that foundational phrase [life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness] was an accident,” he said. “I do not think the order of those important words was haphazard or casual. The liberty of any person to own a military-style assault weapon and a high-capacity magazine and keep them in their home is second to the right of my son to his life.”

Of course, this is not the position of the NRA, where the Second Amendment outweighs everything else, even the Constitution itself.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Bottom line: My life is more important than your gun. Period.

Asshat of the Day

I've held off making Mitt Romney the Asshat of the Day, because if I really dedicated myself to it, I could have been making two or three posts a day for the past month and never had time to talk about anything else.

Now, however, he has done something so monumentally stupid I can't ignore it.


Let’s start by getting the facts straight. The Romney campaign has reduced itself to arguing with this statement from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, issued yesterdray:

The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.

At the time this statement was released, the U.S. embassy was under siege from protesters and was trying to pacify crowds and prevent violence from occurring. Even if one disagrees with this sentiment, the rationale behind releasing it is not difficult to understand.

Still, that didn’t stop the Romney camp from going into full attack mode, unbelievably accusing the Obama Administration of "sympathiz(ing) with those who waged the attacks." 

The marvelous Jim Wright from Stonekettle Station weighs in here.


I’ve read though the President’s public statement regarding the attack last night on American embassies in Egypt and Libya.  I’ve read through them twice.  I watched the videos. Hell, I even watched Fox News, because I figured if anybody would have tape of Obama palling around with terrorists, it would be them.

Nowhere, no Goddamned where, did I see President Obama express anything even vaguely resembling sympathy with those who waged the attacks – unless Mittens was implying that the family of US Ambassador to Libya, the late J. Christopher Stevens, and the families and friends of the other three slain State Department employees were in fact Muslim extremists who assaulted the embassies in Egypt and Libya.  See, because those were the only people President Obama expressed sympathy for.  


Looking at this event in the cold light of a rainy Alaskan afternoon, this is what I immediately [saw]:

Barack Obama condemned the attacks, he spoke against violence and expressed sadness for the dead and sympathy for their families and friends, he told us what he was doing to protect our people in similar situations around the globe, and he promised us justice.  About what you would expect from your President in such a situation.

Mitt Romney attacked his own government and his fellow Americans.

The President was coldly angry, but determined in his public response to prevent further bloodshed, further violence.

Mitt was outraged.

The President’s concern was for the dead, for their families, for people.

Romney’s concern was that somebody touched our stuff.

Obama responded like a president.

Romney acted like a businessman.

Finally, from Andrew Sullivan.

Of course, sitting in my blogging chair on the Cape, I can demand as radical a defense of blasphemy and hate speech as Romney can. But I was not inside an embassy in a foreign country as mob violence was building outside and as the US government was being conflated entirely with a bigoted anti-Muslim fanatic. And practically speaking, the embassy was trying to calm a situation, not inflame it. And diplomacy in the real world, where American lives are at stake, can necessitate such frustrating but necessary nuances. But such nuances are lost on Romney, as is, it seems, the basic notion of agency and responsibility:

These people are simply unfit for the responsibility of running the United States. The knee-jerk judgments, based on ideology not reality; the inability to back down when you have said something obviously wrong; and the attempt to argue that the president of the US actually sympathized with those who murdered his own ambassador in Benghazi: these are disqualifying instincts for someone hoping to be the president of the US. Disqualifying.

I honestly don't know what is in the Romneybot's head. It certainly isn't any recognizable human thought. I wonder if he's subconsciously starting to realize that he's really, really not cut out for the job of being President, but his ego and sense of entitlement ("You people owe me that position, dammit!") won't let him back down.

The result?

Multiple cascade failures of the positronic brain. Shutdown imminent.

My Kingdom for a House

Mitt Romney has six houses.

What in the hell do you do with six houses?

I live in Arizona, and I can just barely imagine having two houses. One in the southern part of the state for winter, and one in the northern part of the state for summer, and roughly splitting one's time between them. Given that this week, before the monsoons started, the temperatures in Bullhead City and Lake Havasu were 121/122 degrees, I can easily see how having a summer home might literally be the difference between life and death.

Still, even that evokes possessing a wad of cash I don't think I'll have in my lifetime.

But...six? Supposedly he has two homes in Boston. Two? Did either Mitt or Ann, or both, not want to bruise their exquisite manicures by driving so far one day, and just decide to buy another house?

Two vacation homes on New Hampshire lakes? Did they ever hear of the old-fashioned concept called "motel rooms?" Or even "vacation rentals?" But of course, the yacht would have been missing its separate gold-plated residence, and maybe Rafalca would have been kicking down the walls of her too-small (normal-sized) stall. Those are adequate reasons to buy another half-million-dollar lakeside vacation home, I'm sure.

Furthermore, how do you plan for the logistics of moving between six houses? Do you wake up in the morning and say, "My tummy hurts, so we need to go to the house in La Jolla?" Or do you notice that a flake of snow might've fallen in Utah, and take off for the ski lodge? (Which might be a pretty rare thing, once climate change really takes hold.) Do you own six separate sets of clothes, bedding, towels, and cookware, so each house is furnished identically to the one you just left, and you don't have to worry about finding your favorite tea mug, and can slide right into your best suit? Do you have six sets of books, CDs, DVDs and Netflix subscriptions, so you can have your favorite music and comfort reads, and don't miss your favorite TV programs? Do you have six iPhones and six iPods, and six laptops, one for each house, with identical programs, and music and documents all linked through the cloud? Also, what happens to the food in each refrigerator? Do you pack it up and take it along (although that sounds horribly common, moving your food along with you when you can just buy more). If not, who cleans out each refrigerator after you leave? For that matter, who scrubs the toilets, winterizes the homes if you're not there, waters the plants, washes the windows, maintains the landscaping, locks the doors at night, and leaves the houses in perfect pristine condition so you can come through on your brief sojourns, take a deep breath and look around, and say with a sigh of satisfaction, "This is my home?"

I'll tell you who. Those invisible underpaid servants you never see (also known as "ordinary people"), because you're running for office, for Pete's sake.

I have as much in common with Mitt Romney and his merry clan of arrogant moneybots as I do an alien species. Maybe less.

Asshat of the Day

This woman.


As protesters assembled on a beach in advance of Mitt Romney's evening event at the home of conservative billionaire David Koch, the candidate slipped to East Hampton for his first of three fundraisers on this tony stretch of Long Island. 


The line of Range Rovers, BMWs, Porsche roadsters and one gleaming cherry red Ferrari began queuing outside of Revlon Chairman Ronald Perelman's estate off Montauk Highway long before Romney arrived, as campaign aides and staffers in white polo shirts emblazoned with the logo of Perelman's property -- the Creeks -- checked off names under tight security. 


A New York City donor a few cars back, who also would not give her name, said Romney needed to do a better job connecting. "I don't think the common person is getting it," she said from the passenger seat of a Range Rover stamped with East Hampton beach permits. "Nobody understands why Obama is hurting them.


"We've got the message," she added. "But my college kid, the baby sitters, the nails ladies -- everybody who's got the right to vote -- they don't understand what's going on. I just think if you're lower income -- one, you're not as educated, two, they don't understand how it works, they don't understand how the systems work, they don't understand the impact."


Ma'am, I'll tell you what.

If you think there's something about this election I don't understand, then I challenge you to explain it to me.

I challenge you to get in your Range Rover and drive across the country to my house (oh, pardon me, my manufactured home)--yes, drive, not fly, because I really think you need to get your head out of your ass and see how the "common people" live (and you're not allowed to whine about gas prices in your 14 mpg, $80,000 vehicle along the way)--and explain to me just how you think President Obama is hurting me.

I'd like for you to explain to me how it hurts me for the President to have saved the auto industry.

I'd like for you to explain to me how it hurts me for the President to have ended the war in Iraq.

I'd like for you to explain to me how it hurts me for the President to have ended "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

I'd like for you to explain to me how it hurts me for President Obama to have signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

I'd like for you to explain to me how it hurts me for President Obama to have killed Osama bin Laden.

Finally, I'd like for you to explain to me just why it's oh so sad that you, as a millionaire, pay one of the lowest tax rates in history.

Since you have such a high opinion of my intelligence, I'll even let you use words of one syllable.

And when you're done with all that, I'd really like for you to explain to me why you're such a stupid, clueless, arrogant, condescending jackass.

Thank you.

What'd You Say?

This article is sexist, stupid, a poor attempt at humor, and does not make the least bit of sense.

That is all.

Mittsey's Merry-Go-Round

The theme of Mitt Romney's life:

"I'm not familiar precisely with what I said, but I'll stand by what I said, whatever it was."

A spinning top has nothing on this guy.

The Purity Brigade

In my neck of the woods, this is called "cutting off one's nose to spite one's face."

Centrist Women Tell of Disenchantment With Republicans

You can't insult, belittle, demean and threaten 50% of the population and expect their support.

What's hilarious about this is that President Obama doesn't have to say a word. He's just standing back and watching the Republicans guarantee his re-election. The level of cluelessness on their part is just astonishing.

But I suppose that's what happens when you put purity and ideology (and religious precepts that absolutely do not belong in government) ahead of actually governing.

Show Me, Suckazz!

Since we're, you know, ruled by the Constitution and all, and aren't a theocracy (yet).

Seriously, I live across the street from a lesbian couple. If they could get married in my state, their marriage would have nothing to do with me, my values, my life, my decisions, and my ability and/or willingness to get married myself, no more than my marrying a man would affect them.

You'd think Republicans would understand that, being such advocates of freedom, small government, less governmental intrusion, and so on.

"Instant Karma's gonna get you"

"Karma isn't fate. Nor is it a punishment imposed on us by some external agent. We create our own karma. Karma is the result of the choices that we make every moment of every day."  ~Tulku Thondup

Looks like Newtie's chickens are coming home to roost.

What Freddie Mac Was Paying For

Karma is a bitch, isn't it?

(By the way, if you haven't bookmarked The Politics Blog With Charles B. Pierce, you need to do so immediately.)

"I have no spur, but only vaulting ambition"

"That's a hubris that, if he had paid attention to what happened to himself and other presidents, he wouldn't have made that mistake. It was a very predictable mistake."  ~George Edwards

This is one strange dude.

And then there was that e-mail to the staff about traveling in a car with Mr. Cain: “Do not speak to him unless you are spoken to,” the memo said.


"I found it odd,” said a former staff member who liked to prep Mr. Cain for appearances while driving. The aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, quit not long afterward, citing the e-mail as one of the deciding factors.

I suppose if he gets elected his constituents (meaning you and me) will have to start referring to him as "Your Royal Hermanator." 

Pizza, anyone?

"O shame, where is thy blush?"

Mother Jones has an article detailing how Herman Cain managed to survive Stage Four colon and liver cancer.


Cain devotes a whole chapter of his new book to his battle with cancer. He never once mentions insurance companies not paying for treatment, skimping on reimbursement, or disqualifying his claims. He never mentions having to fend off threats that his coverage will be revoked. He never has trouble paying the bills or getting to the hospital or into the best treatment programs. Instead, Cain's health care story is a happy tale of selfless doctors and the brilliance of the private sector.


Instead, in his book, he lays out all the ways his privileged status impacted his care. For instance, when Cain was first diagnosed with cancer of the colon and liver and a 30 percent chance of survival, he was told that he should go to a specialized cancer center rather than a hospital, namely the M.D. Anderson cancer center in Houston. Not everyone who wants to go to such a top-flight facility gets to go there, however. Plenty of people with private insurance have died waiting for an insurance company functionary to approve such treatment. It can take weeks to get into Anderson, and it requires traveling at short notice, which can only add to the costs. So Cain called his friend T. Boone Pickens, the oil magnate, who used to be on the board of the center and was a big donor to the cancer center. Pickens made a call, and Cain was in.

Poor people without health insurance have a hard time getting doctors and hospitals to treat them at reduced costs, much less for free. But when Cain, a multimillionaire, needed a second opinion about his cancer surgery, he went to see a doctor in Savannah, Georgia. After giving him a full workup, Cain writes, the doctor "didn't charge me a dime—and he supported me in my Senate campaign. He said, 'There's something greater that you're supposed to do for this country and this is my contribution.'"

After Cain had his surgery in Houston to resection his colon and remove most of his liver, he spent a couple of weeks in the hospital recuperating. He was able to go home a week early because, although he was still weak, one of the companies on whose board he sits dispatched its private plane to fly him back to Atlanta so "we did not have to endure the stress of commercial travel." (Cain notes that he doesn't ID the company because "some jackass might want to make an issue out of it.")

Well, rightfully so, don't you think?

Frankly, I would be ashamed to tell that story. I would be ashamed to boast of how my wealth and privilege allowed me to survive something that so many other Americans, with their lack of insurance and access to specialized clinics and friendly, payment-deferring doctors, would have died from.

That Herman Cain boasts about something like this tells me how he views ordinary people, and how he would treat them if (God forbid) he ever got in the White House.

"Poverty is the worst form of violence"

“In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of." ~Confucius 

Rand Paul continues with his sadistic libertarian streak. Of course, we know he will; he can't help himself. (Or rather, he could, if he'd look at the facts, take a step back, and ask himself one simple question: "What would Jesus cut?")

I think, though, that he's reached a new low, going after elderly people who don't have enough money to feed themselves.

From The Notion: 

Rand Paul To America's Hungry Seniors: Let Them Eat Private Charity

Sen. Paul, however, explicitly rejected this logic. “It’s curious that only in Washington can you spend $2 billion and claim that you’re saving money,” he said. “The idea or notion that spending money in Washington somehow is saving money really flies past most of the taxpayers.”  Instead, Paul touted the “nobility of private charity” as opposed to government-funded “transfer programs.” He suggested privatizing Meals on Wheels and other government assistance for hungry seniors.

Jeez Louise, what a twit. When the "nobility of private charity" can't cover all the people who need help, that's what the government is for, you clown. That's also why this little program called Social Security was created in the first place--to reduce the poverty of elderly people. 

I dunno, maybe Rand thinks he's never going to get old. 

Al Franken did have the last word, however. 

Nevertheless, Paul—who’s home state of Kentucky is ranked 20th in the nation in senior citizen food insecurity, with over 5 percent of seniors there facing hunger—pressed on. Addressing Greenlee, he asked: “If we are saving money with the two billion we spend, perhaps we should give you 20 billion. Is there a limit? How much money should we give you in order to save money? If we spend federal money to save money, where is the limit? I think we could reach a point of absurdity.”

Sen. Al Franken turned on his microphone and offered a quick reply: “I think you just did.” 

For the win!

Insults and Injuries

Romney: I'm Also Unemployed

Dude, you're a multimillionaire. You could be unemployed the rest of your frakking life and never have a clue what real unemployed people go through.

What a jackass.