Bake That, Linguist!

5 Congressmen skipped the President's jobs address...and they're all Republicans Link post

downlo:

Those members who announced that they will skip the speech are Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and Reps. Paul Broun, R-Ga., Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill. and Ron Paul, R-Texas [and Rep. Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia]…..

Unlike with Landry, who said skipping the House GOP meeting with the president was to avoid wasting his time being “lectured to by a president whose failed policies have put our children and grandchildren in a huge burden of debt, ” Vitter took a much less strident approach, referring mainly to his love for the Saints.

“As a fanatic (Saints fan), I have my priorities,” Vitter joked.

Still, Norm Ornstein, the veteran political analyst for the American Enterprise Institute, said skipping a presidential speech “is just another example of the debasement of our politics and our institutions.”

“I simply cannot recall a time in the past when lawmakers openly gave the finger to the president of the United States on a huge issue like jobs,” Ornstein said. “It is frankly depressing.”

My emphasis

Yeah it’s bullshit like this that made me happy when the President brought up “the election is 14 months away.” By not even attending to listen to what the President has to say they are stating that they do not want to get anything done until a republican is in the White House.

They do not give a fuck about your suffering for the next 14 months.

-Joe

I just have to leave this planet. I really do. Some of ya’ll humans are great, but the majority are a waste of space specifically because they habitually repeat history and then “forget” that there was ever a precedent for their stupidity. It doesn’t matter if you like the President or not, he is still the President. If you want to affect change then you need to listen to opinions that you disagree with. Not to mention that several people in Congress are walking the fine line that could be treasonous. He’s killing himself (politically) with this crap about bipartisanship, but he’s the only one playing the game. And unfortunately, no other country is in better shape, because they too, repeated the same mistakes.

I’m done being pessimistic now.

(via le-kif-kif)

Reblogged from downlo September 8th, 2011 204 notes #politics #jobs speech #barack obama #gop #priorities

Dear women of "The View": Don't pile on Chris Christie 'cuz he's fat. Link post

shortformblog:

Pile on him because you dislike his views. Pile on him because he blocked popular initiatives like a long-term commuter rail project. Pile on him because he took a state-owned helicopter to go to a high-school baseball game. Pile on him because he doesn’t like Snooki. But for the love of God, who gives a crap if he’s fat? We’ve had at least five presidents considered medically obese, one of which (Teddy Roosevelt) is considered top-tier by historians. Christie’s weight didn’t preclude him from becoming governor, ladies of “The View.” Why should it cost him a chance to become president, if that’s what he wants?

(via shortformblog)

Reblogged from mediaite.com September 27th, 2011 37 notes #the view #obesity #fat people #chris christie #teddy roosevelt #gop #new jersey #fat #weight problems

cognitivedissonance:

And BURN!

It’s sad because it’s true… I’m not so sure the social wedge issues are going to whip up the same old base as much anymore. 2012 will be interesting.

Reblogged from blog.seattlepi.com October 3rd, 2011 1,474 notes #David Horsey #Politics #cartoon #political cartoon #jobs #jobs now #Michele Bachmann #economy #same-sex marriage #social issues #wedge issues #GOP #Republican #republicans

“ House Republican leaders have tripled the amount allocated for a legal team arguing in support of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) from $500,000 to $1.5 million of taxpayer money…

“It is absolutely unconscionable that Speaker Boehner is tripling the cost for his legal boondoggle to defend the indefensible Defense of Marriage Act,” Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, said in a statement.

“At a time when Americans are hurting and job creation should be the top priority, it just shows how out of touch House Republicans have become that they would spend up to $1.5 million dollars to defend discrimination in our country.

Boehner Triples Possible DOMA Legal Tab To $1.5 Million | TPMMuckraker (via how-to-kiss-distinctly-american)

(via howto-kissdistinctly-american)

Reblogged from tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com October 4th, 2011 53 notes #Speaker Boehner #GOP #Money is a joke. #Insane

“ I am increasingly concerned about the growing mobs occupying Wall Street and other cities across our country.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, talking about Occupy Wall Street. “Believe it or not, some in this town have actually condoned the pitting of Americans against Americans,” he continued. “But you sent us here to fight for you and for all Americans. You sent us here to bring about real change in Washington, real change to your federal government. And we’re committed to do that.” Pitting of Americans against Americans? Isn&’t that what you do, Eric? Let&’s be honest with ourselves before we criticize others. (via shortformblog)

(via rewritingnow)

Reblogged from rewritingnow October 9th, 2011 163 notes #occupy wall street #eric cantor #house majority leader #responses #republicans #gop

ShortFormBlog: Why are some of the GOP candidates threatening to boycott Nevada? Link post

shortformblog:

what A number of GOP candidates — including Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich — have threatened to boycott the Nevada primary. Jon Huntsman went a step further, promising to boycott Tuesday’s Nevada-based debate.

why Nevada is attempting to gain influence on the…

The one time that I can say. “Go Nevada!”

Reblogged from shortformblog October 14th, 2011 94 notes #politics #Nevada #primaries #GOP

“ You get to ask the questions, and I get to answer how I want to.

Rick Perry, flatly refusing to answer moderator Anderson Cooper’s question, even when Cooper explicitly stressed he wanted him to respond to his question rather than go after Herman Cain. On top of his aggressive interruptions of Mitt Romney, it seems clear Perry’s strategy is to come out swinging with high-energy, but frankly, we think he’s coming off as massively rude and undisciplined. (via shortformblog)

Reblogged from shortformblog October 18th, 2011 135 notes #FOREVER REBLOG #RICK PERRY #GOP #DEBATE #NEVADA

“ (Jesus) healed the sick without a government health care system. He feed [sic] the hungry without food stamps. And everywhere He went, it turned into a rally, attracting large crowds, and giving them hope, encouragement and inspiration. For three years He was unemployed, and never collected an unemployment check. Nevertheless, he completed all the work He needed to get done…

The liberal court found Him guilty of false offenses and sentenced Him to death, all because He changed the hearts and minds of men with an army of twelve. Never before and not since has there ever been such a perfect conservative. For over 2,000 years the world has tried hard to erase the memory of the perfect conservative, and His principles of compassion, caring and common sense.

Herman Cain discussing Jesus in his article, “The Perfect Conservative,” last year.

Okay, the whole liberals killed Jesus thing - he’s pretty clear there, and it’s, uh, a little bizarre. I have a Jewish friend still trying to figure out if this is anti-semitic because, as she said, all the Jewish people she knows are fairly liberal.

That notwithstanding, didn’t Jesus supposedly perform miracles to do things like healing the sick? Isn’t that setting the bar a little high for us non-miracle performing folk who’d just like to be able to see a doctor once in awhile?

Maybe the rallies are where this gem of a sign came from:

Kidding! (Sort of)

I guess I missed the part where Galilee had socialized medicine and Jesus was all like, “Forget you, commie doctors!” and healed the lepers in defiance of their death panel’s wishes.

I must have also missed where the ancient Israelites passed out WIC cards and Jesus said, “Lo, cast away thy cards of dependence and come onto me, for I will feed you without socialism.”

I think that must have been in the Gospel of Mark or something.

h/t to Daily Kos

(via cognitivedissonance)

I feel like he’s the (cis)male version of Palin and Bachman combined. Instead of using Jesus to gain votes & re-imagining His acts, Cain needs to pray and ask for wisdom, a library card…and an edit button. (Mainly the edit button.)

Like my sister says, “crack kills.”

(via cognitivedissonance)

Reblogged from northstarnational.com October 19th, 2011 131 notes #Cain #GOP #Nonsense

Have you ever spent time around embarrassing elderly relatives who are visiting the city where you live and one of them, I don't know, points out that she's noticed a lot of Chinamen and is surprised that they're not all wearing those hats they always seem to be wearing in cartoons? That's about how embarrassing it was to watch a group of supposedly educated adult American citizens throw around the word "illegals" as a noun with impunity. Michele Bachmann accused the President's family of being "illegals," claimed that Iranian terrorists were coming into the country through Mexico, and then lamented the existence of anchor babies, which, according to her, are pretty much magnets for welfare. Rick Perry boasted about his efforts to combat "illegals" in Texas. Herman Cain chuckled at the idea of electrocuting people. Mitt Romney wants to outsource our foreign aid budget to China, because if there's one way to make sure that we remain highly regarded by the rest of the world, it's cutting the 1% of the national budget that we use on foreign aid and letting China take care of everyone so that everyone begins to like China more than us. Michele Bachmann suggested that the countries we "liberated" should be required to reimburse us for the cost of the war that we waged in their countries and that American troops in Iraq should get criminal immunity. What the everloving fuck is wrong with these people? These are adults. These are people who want to run the entire country. Link post

Reblogged from tylercoates October 21st, 2011 93 notes #crack kills #GOP #debate

shortformblog:

briancolligan:

And here’s the sadly inevitable “Blame the Victim” press release from the Herman Cain campaign, which arrived in my inbox a few hours ago.

Whenever these type of allegations emerge, it’s fairly predictable how they will play out. IMPORTANT and POWERFUL MAN is clearly being targeted by VENGEFUL woman who never ACHIEVED in life. But it is precisely the power relationship between the two that makes the allegation so believable.

In discussing the claims against Cain over the weekend, I was reminded that the restaurant/food service industry is a tangled maze of mixed messages. There is a common mix of alcohol, late nights and flirting, be it in the early morning closing of a bar or, I would expect, in situations that executives might encounter with subordinates.

Yet, one must adhere to a higher ethical standard when in a position of power, to avoid compromising situations and to set a tone for conduct that inspires employees rather than makes them feel uncomfortable or, in this most recent case, that their job depends on sexual favors.

As more women tell stories about the candidate, it becomes more difficult to believe that Cain upheld that expectation of behavior. And his case is certainly not served by attacking the character of the women speaking up.

An ugly letter, and an awful strategy. Look at yourself before you look at the accuser. Basic rule.

(via shortformblog)

Reblogged from briancolligan November 8th, 2011 546 notes #herman cain #GOP #sharon bialek #republicans #herman cain response #REBLOG THIS

“ Imagine, if you will, a man who, as Speaker of the House, orchestrates the impeachment of a President for an adulterous affair with a White House aide twenty-six years his junior while he himself is conducting an adulterous affair with a congressional aide twenty-two years his junior, having earlier left the first of his three wives while she was hospitalized with cancer. Imagine a man who attributes these behaviors to “how passionately I felt about this country.” Imagine a man who, told he can’t sit in a front section of Air Force One, shuts down the government. Imagine a man who becomes the only House Speaker ever to be disciplined for ethics violations. Imagine a man who, in a country just staggering out of the worst recession of the past fifty years and facing the threat of worldwide economic collapse, proposes to hire small children to work as janitors, mopping floors and cleaning toilets in their schools (or their orphanages, perhaps). Imagine that man as Commander-in-Chief.

Hendrik Hertzberg, The New Yorker. (via langer)

(via karnythia)

Reblogged from langer December 13th, 2011 1,663 notes #forever reblog #politics #republicans #GOP #presidency #campaign

weexist-weresist:

mohandasgandhi:

diegueno:

MMA Trainer Ed Clay Gets Waterboarded (by GamenessFightCo)

The party gets started around 3 minutes in to the video.

You’ve got to see the last 2 minutes of the video: Clay talks about things that have been waking me up in the middle of the night for decades.

For proponents of waterboarding who were not convinced it is indeed torture by this video:

Here is Christopher Hitchens being waterboarded.

Here is far-right Conservative and proponent of torture, Eric Mancow, being waterboarded and admitting it’s torture.

Here is Kaj Larsen from Current being waterboarded. (This one is especially nasty.)

Here is journalist Sheila Casey, who thinks he can withstand more than 15 seconds of being waterboarded.

Here are the guys of Mythbusters being waterboarded.

Here is former CIA agent Bob Baer discussing torture, claiming Khalid Sheikh Mohammed who was waterboarded 183 times is “almost brain dead.”

Here former FBI Interrogator Jack Cloonan talks about the techniques he used while working in the elite Bin Laden unit.

Here Jack Cloonan explains that regular interrogation tactics work well on even the worst terrorists, that there’s no such thing as a “ticking timebomb” scenario, and that waterboarding has done much more harm than good.

Here, in an IQ2US debate, Jack Cloonan argues against the notion that “tough interrogation of terror suspects is necessary”

Here General David Petraeus denounces the use of torture on Fox News

Here intelligence officials admit that torture does not work

Here Cenk Uygur explains the CIA report that concludes torture did not stop or prevent any attacks or “produce the desired results”

Here Cenky Uygur explains how and why the U.S. employed torture

Here Richard Armitage denounces torture in an interview with Al Jazeera

Here journalist Henri Alleg discusses being waterboarded by the French Army

Here Dick Cheney tells Matt Lauer it’s not okay for Americans to be waterboarded

How many more do you need?

hey we dont use the t word

sincerely,

the gop

(via le-kif-kif)

Reblogged from youtube.com December 23rd, 2011 273 notes #torture #gop #politics

masteradept:

stfuconservatives:

radioinactivity:

kiddblink:

le-me-in-a-hat:

Real

http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/12/31/396018/breaking-obama-signs-defense-authorization-bill/

TL;DR The President’s opponents played the electorate like a fiddle and will get away with it because people don’t seem to realize they’ve been tricked into being angry at the wrong person.

He signed it because if he didn’t, defense spending including benefits to veterans and their families would not have been authorized. The sections of NDAA that many people here seem to have a problem with are sections that were added into the document by primarily Republican legislators and which the President adamantly opposes but was powerless to stop. I’ll repeat that: the parts of this bill that many people here hate were included against the President’s wishes and in a way that he is powerless to stop. The only way he could have stopped these sections from being included would have been to try to veto the bill in its entirety, a move that would have been both political suicide as well as being futile, as Congress would simply have overridden him. He is explicit in his opposition to exactly the parts of the bill everyone here hates, going so far as to detail exactly which sections he opposes and why.

You’ll notice that the bill also restricts his ability to close Guantanamo Bay; this isn’t coincidence. These sections are openly hostile to the President’s stated mandate - they are effectively a giant ‘fuck you’ to the President, as well as a nasty way of eroding the President’s support with his own base. Observe:

Draft legislation that is almost guaranteed to piss of the President but more importantly piss of his base.

Attach said legislation to another piece of larger, more important legislation like, say, the Defense Spending budget for the entire year so that any attempt to dislodge the offensive legislation will result in a political shitstorm, as well as place the larger legislation in jeopardy.

Once attached, begin a PR campaign that highlights the offending legislation and brings it to the attention of as many media outlets as possible - not just the traditional media, but alternative media outlets as well (Fox news, MSNBC, Media Matters, Huff-Po, Infowars, etc.)

Here’s where it gets tricky: Simultaneously, speak to both your party’s base and the opposition’s. To your base, argue that the legislation is necessary to ‘Keep America safe’ and that the President, by opposing it, is clearly soft of terrorism and endangering the military by trying to strip the legislation out. At the same time, sit back and watch your opponent’s liberal supporters tear into the offending legislation as being dangerous, anti-democratic, and a threat to civil liberties. You know they will; that’s what they care about most. You’ve designed legislation that will make them froth at the mouth. You don’t even have to keep flogging the message; one look at the legislation will be enough to convince most people that it is anathema to everything they hold dear. Because it is.

Pass the ‘parent’ legislation. Doing so forces the President to sign it or attempt to veto it. Since the legislation in question just so happens to be the military’s operating budget, a veto is out of the question. The President must sign the bill, you get the legislation you wanted, but you also practically guarantee that your opponent’s base will be furious at him for passing a bill they see as evil. Even if he tries to explain in detail why he had to sign it and what he hates about it, it won’t matter; ignorance of the American political process, coupled with an almost militant indifference to subtle explanations will almost ensure that most people will only remember that the President passed a bill they hate.

Profit. you get the legislation you want, while the President has to contend with a furious base that feels he betrayed them - even though he agrees with their position but simply lacked the legislative tools to stop this from happening. It’s a classic piece of misdirection that needs only two things to work: A lack of principles (or a partisan ideology that is willing to say anything - do anything - to win), and an electorate that is easy to fool.

This is pretty basic political maneuvering and the biggest problem is that it almost always works because most people either don’t know or don’t care how their political system actually functions. The President was saddled with a lose-lose situation where he either seriously harmed American defense policy (political suicide), or passed offensive legislation knowing that it would cost him political capital. To all of you here lamenting that you ever voted for this ‘corporate shill’, congratulations: you are the result the Republicans were hoping for. They get the law they want, they get the weakened Presidential candidate they want. And many of you just don’t seem to see that. You don’t have to like your country’s two-party system, but it pays to be able to understand it so that you can recognize when it’s being used like this.

EDIT: thanks to Reddit user Mauve_Cubedweller for this post

Agreed, that’s the thing with this whole bill, it’s way more complicated than what the alarmists are making it out to be. The NDAA is not a singular “indefinite detainment” bill, that single article is a huge thing that the Republicans got in to put the President’s back against the wall and ensure that he could never close Guantanamo (which is its own fuck off lose-lose situation).

It’s just one of those shitty things where you ask yourself what you would do? No answer you give is free from fucking over lots and lots of people.

-Joe

People are forgetting a Presidential campaign is around the corner. The GOP is going to do and use every little trick they can.

(via karnythia)

Reblogged from jay-dot-universe January 3rd, 2012 9,922 notes #congress #games #gop #legislation #news #perspective #politics #president #obama #republicans #democrats #system

Mother Jones magazine on Tumblr: Marine Video Explainer, Update No. 8: What do the GOP candidates think? So far, not much. Link post

motherjones:

UPDATE 8: Friday, Jan. 13, 1 p.m. EST: Where do the GOP presidential hopefuls stand on the Marine video? There’s no way of knowing, because not one has released a statement on it, and no reporter has yet pressed them for an opinion.

Even though 2008 presidential nominee John McCain said the…

Reblogged from Mother Jones January 13th, 2012 28 notes #military #gop #politics #news #horrific #reprehensible