The Benghazi Hustle

Tags

Benghazi, GOP, Libya, State Department, teabaggers

Here we go again. Everybody hold tight because this merry-go-round is speeding around the curve and headed for–well just about anything that the GOP imagination can dream up.

In a valiant attempt to turn a mole hill into a mountain, Republican Tea Snorters are busy twisting and feigning shock and awe at the shameful and deliberate attempt by the Obama Administration to get “brave Americans” murdered by, well, you know, their true friends.

If one reads the headlines of the extreme-stream media, here is what you will find:

“Benghazi Witness: First Time in my Career that a Diplomat Has more balls than somebody in the Military.”

“Benghazi revelations today could obliterate Obama’s Credibility and Sink Hillary’s 2016 ambitions.”

“Issa seeks more whistle blowers after dramatic Benghazi hearing.”

“Two key witnesses refuse to testify at Benghazi hearing.”

“Benghazi Makes Watergate look like kindergarten: The End of Obama”

“Hillary perjured herself on Benghazi?”

“Benghazi Whistleblower: You Should have Seen what Clinton Tried to do to us that night.”

And on and on it goes.

Here’s what I think we know at this point.

1. A YouTube video riled up Muslims around the world and demonstrations were being held in a variety of places, Egypt among them.
2. A demonstration occurred at Benghazi, that was violent.
3. Ambassador Stevens was fairly well known to favor less security rather than more in an attempt to be open to the residents of the country.
4. Republicans had steadfastly refused State Department requests for more money to beef up security around the world.
5. The Ambassador and three others were killed in the first attack.
6. Air support could not have reached the outpost for hours, a minimum of 5-7 according to the military.
7. There was no basis for suspecting a second attack.
8. There were no deaths or serious injuries sustained in the second attack.
9. A team of FOUR, a military security forces was located at Tripoli but they were concerned about security there, and even John Bolton admitted that they were unable to determine whether the four men should leave that facility for Benghazi when the deaths had already occurred and there was no reason to suspect a second attack.
10. Senator Tom Corker from Tennessee, sat on the Senate hearings on Benghazi and said that he read all the material and thought he knew what happened and was satisfied.
11. The President termed the attack a “terrorist attack” the day following the attack.
12. That Susan Rice delivered the cautionary remarks that we were unsure what happened based on material supplied her by others in the State Department or other agencies.
13. That Al Qaeda is not an organization so much as an idea, and many Islamic groups claim “affiliation” without benefit of any actual connection. To this day, we don’t know I don’t think who this group consisted of.
14. There was no reason to believe that naming it other than a terrorist attack was some how beneficial to the White House in the midst of an election. Most presidents, following some catastrophe or other see their polling improve as people tend to “rally round” the Administration. If the President had war mongered the event, the GOP would have been arguing just the opposite–that he was making it much worse than it was in order to gain sympathy.

The bottom line to me here is simply. The Benghazi outpost was under-secured. Certainly the GOP bears SOME responsibility for that fact as do congressional Democrats who agreed that they didn’t need additional funds. There was apparently not good plans in place for an emergency like this. There should have been.

Beyond that, it was a sad tragedy. But let us remember. Americans are dying around the world every day. They are dying in service to the country, and as employees of corporations doing business in dangerous places. These four were doing their jobs. They perhaps did not receive the full support they should have, but such is life in dangerous occupations. I don’t mean to minimize it, but it should not be overstated either.

The GOP tried to make this into some scandal during the fall of 2012 to hurt the chances of the President to be re-elected, and enhance their candidates chances. That didn’t happen. Now they see polling that suggests that Hillary Clinton, if the nominee will beat any Republican so far put forth, easily and soundly.

Is it hard to see why this is happening now? Of course not. This is just an attempt to dirty up Clinton and force her to not run.

That’s my take on it.

And what is yours?

Republicans are united in their insanity that this will lead to impeachment.

Do you?

Related articles

• Republicans continue to press for answers on Benghazi (nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com)
• Yet Another Benghazi Nothingburger Today (motherjones.com)

Okay God, Give Me the Ratio Will Ya?

Tags

GOP, John Bolton, Libya, Mitt Romney, morality, polls, religious right, teabaggers, Todd Akin

What’s wrong with the type of men that Willard “The Stench” hangs with, is that they are experts at “locker room” talk when nobody is around. You know what I mean. They are the one’s who are so politically correct in public, except when they let it slip that they are quite different with the “boys.”

You can almost hear the snickering about the “masses” that goes on in the country club over lunch as they compare the latest vacation spot in Europe and prattle about the newest investment scheme to “harvest” some profits at low risk.

John Bolton is one of the “boys” to be sure, and a snarly nasty example of neo-con war hawking manliness. You can almost hear the laughter that permeates his macho speech. These are the anti-women, anti-gay, anti-minority men who surround Willard and give him his economic and foreign policy policies. Today Bolton called the President’s Libyan policy as “limp-wristed.” How nice of him to insult a whole segment of America unnecessarily, all to make his point that the President doesn’t live in the bomb- first league with him.

•

A Manhattan storage company is having some fun with advertising boards. Apparently he’s been at it for some time.

The one about Michele “crazy eyes”  Bachmann is the best. We hear that MB is having herself some time in her re-election campaign. We can only hope that the people of Minnesota have finally come to their senses and discovered that she is insane.

But we doubt it.

We do hope though. Hope springs eternal among people my age.

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What’s going on in Republican circles these days? I mean once you ignore the silliness of Krauthammer, Dick Morris, Hannity, and the usual bilge dumpers. The question is “who decided to nominate this guy?” Yep the blame game is already starting up and it promises to be a doozy, once the election is finished and Willard starts ejaculating into the conversation how it wasn’t his fault. Hint: just remember what the other choices were (Huntsman excepted).

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Every day, if you read enough stuff in the old Google reader, you come upon the stupidest jerk on the planet, for the day. Each day, a new one. I can only figure that God has some formula for stupid. As a joke factor he slides us an idiot to keep the game interesting. Just what is the ratio?

Today the idiot meter went off and nearly woke up the house when I found out that there is a guy who is a mayor in Maine who has a lot of Somalian immigrants. Now said idiot says they have to stop living their own culture, and must leave it at the door, and adopt ours. Whatever that means.

His name is Bob McDonald and he ei-ei-ohed off some farm where he was probably sleeping with the pigs (as in sleeping, not that other thing–you potty brain!). Anyway, he is just another one of your colorful clowns who has managed to somehow pull the wool over his community who confoundedly elected him. My dog is smarter.

McDonald is a Republican. He ran against a dead guy. He only managed to win by 7 votes. Sigh. I’m signing up for the first interplanetary shuttle to NewStar when the begin the immigration. I sure hope I don’t have to leave my culture at the door.

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Nate Silver says that the convention bump of Obama did stall as predicted. But when you make God happy, good things happen! The infamous 47% story has got it moving upward again. Or, as we say, gee Mitt, you DID build that!

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This is why the Religious Right falls on deaf ears among rational people: Case in point. One pastor of a mega church in Indiana, Pastor Jack Schapp, has just pled guilty to having a sexual affair with a teen girl. The pastor had been counseling the girl, and was the author of a book for teen girls and dating. His advice? Keep your weight own. It’s not that there aren’t bad people in and out of religion, but it’s always the vocal “moralists” who are doing the most immoral things. They give all believers such a bad name. It’s a shame. They need to shut the pie hole.

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A close runner-up for idiot of the day is our favorite Todd Akin, remember the dude and his “legitimate rape” claims? Well Todd is one stupid man. After debating Senator Claire McCaskill, he called her “not at all ladylike like she was in 20o6.” Todd, shut your pie hole.

Once upon a time, Akin was supposed to finish off the Democrats and turn the Senate into a GOP love land. Well, that is not likely to happen now, and where once (was it so short a time ago?) the GOP was vilifying Akin for his anti-woman remarks, now they are sending him money again, because you know when it comes down to it, women take second place to the chance to get that seat.

There are no principles in the GOP any more are there?

Related articles

• GOP returning to Akin camp (wnd.com)
• The Anti-Woman Party”: GOP Candidates Feeling Pressure From NRSC’s Flirtation With Todd Akin (mykeystrokes.com)
• Todd Akin wishes Claire McCaskill would be more ‘ladylike’ (dailykos.com)
• Dick Morris: ‘If the Election Were Held Today Romney Would Win’ (crooksandliars.com)

The Shame We Endure

Tags

911, economy, Election 2012, Humor, Libya, Mitt Romney, right-wing teabaggers, satire

It’s been some kinda week huh?

We had a choice of how we were going to remember 9/11. Each person could observe the day in whatever manner best represented their way of dealing with national events that pain us all.

There is probably no wrong way to do this, only personal preferences and needs.

It appears there is a good chance that the attack in Benghazi may have been planned as a 9/11 event, taking advantage of the anti-Muslim video that surfaced and was shamefully promoted precisely to incite.

I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. After all the GOP has been betting and cheering against the US for nearly four years now, hoping for economic downturns, hoping for disasters of one sort or another over which they could claim that somehow they would have done a better job and the _________would never have happened.

It wasn’t just that Willard was spectacularly obvious in his smirking “take down” of the Obama administration over Libya, it was the fact that he was spectacularly insensitive, cruel, and hopelessly self-oriented.

Never has anyone so blatantly announced to the country that he neither cared about the actual victims or the circumstances of the tragedy, but found it entirely useful to land a blow against his opponent. Opportunism is the first word that one thinks of.

With one ill-worded and ill-timed press release, Willard told us a boatload of important things.

1. He is not nearly as bright as we are told he is. He signed off on this statement, never asked the right questions or demanded any confirmation. The excitement of getting in a sword thrust was too much for him.

2. He has an awful campaign staff who couldn’t lead him away from this disaster, thus we must assume he doesn’t have much talent in picking good people. Echoes of a future cabinet?

3. He has no natural empathy for other people and their pain. Common sense would suggest that remarks about the loss of life would come first, but of course, he spoke before he knew the facts.

4. He is an utter bold-faced, liar who when caught simply “doubles down” and continues lying. Where does one learn this? From his family, his church, or his business?

5. He is seriously incurious when it comes to foreign policy and apparently leaves it to others to explain things to him. The problem is again, the people he chooses–who thus far don’t seem to have a very good grip on reality.

Meanwhile Congress continues to ignore their jobs in favor of doing nothing.

Eric Cantor says the House is through after next week, taking a two month vacation.

Left undone:

1. The farm bill and the awful losses suffered by drought impacted farmers.

2. The jobs bill, now a full year old with no action by the do-nothing-GOP.

3. Violence against women bill is still waiting for passage, but the GOP reminds us that they are not against women, but they certainly won’t pass this bill.

4. Assistance for Veterans in the job market. The GOP is all for the troops, but not if it means adding one single job. That might make the president look good and we can’t have that.

5. Sequestration? Oh the new meme is that that is all the President’s fault. And exactly why did you vote for it GOP?

I’m sure there is more. That is enough to throw the bums out.

Willard claims there is still a vast sea of “undecideds” out there. There are not, but he is not courting them anyway.

No rational talk here, he says.

Instead he talks about God on our money, and embraces fools like Pat Robertson and Steve King.

He is virtually indistinguishable from the crazy Tea People who live in the deep trench at the bottom of the Pacific and surface only to murmur, “I hate Obama.”

Did you hear that Willard said that he thought the debates might be tough, because “the President has a tendency not to tell the truth.” Did you hear that? Did you ears fall off? Did you dance like a duck while you waited for your brain to catch up with your skull? Did you scream at the top of  your lungs–YOU HYPOCRITE YOU! Did ya?

Which all leads me to give the Willard a very bad D- this week.

I think he needs to go to the Principle’s office and get a paddling, and then plenty of homework to teach him some stuff he would need if here were to become President (which please LORD please don’t let happen, and I’ll never swear again, always be polite, walk every day for the rest of my life, make my husband’s favorite meal once a week, and never eat another potato chip in my life, please).

Dunce you are Willard. What in the world did your parents call “raising” that you turned out to be such a douche?

 

It’s nice to know that Willard has something in common with the extremists.

Seriously, do you want this man anywhere near the codes?

Do you want him to be all you have to turn to in times of a national disaster?

Are we so sure that the “five boys” he raised are anything more than carbon copies of their lying self-absorbed father?

This man said that the middle class are those making $200,000 a year or more. He said that two days ago. To George Stephanopoulos. He meant that.  He has no clue. The median income in America is $50,000. Jesus, man does anyone on your campaign advise of anything more than what time it is?

Have a great weekend!

I think I’ll work on my string theory thesis this afternoon after I shave

 

Where Does a Lunatic Go From Here?

Tags

editorial, Election 2012, Libya, Mitt Romney

This is the look of a defeated man. He looks old and embattled, much as Nixon looked in the last days of his presidency.

In an ironic twist, Mitt Willard Romney will know the exact moment when his tenuous hold on the possibility of winning slipped forever more from his fingertips and fell into the cesspool that he had dug for himself. Ironic because his father George Romney also know the exact moment when his White House opportunity flew away–when he uttered the famous words, “I was brainwashed.”

Saying that, the campaigns will go on, and Romney will attempt to get “beyond” this fiasco he and he alone created. He will continue to justify it, as so far he has, and make himself look more ridiculous and more unfit for ANY high office. He proves that he does not learn from his mistakes, cannot accept making one, cannot apologize. While I realize that saying that would doom his campaign, it is already doomed as far as most are concerned. All he has left is the opportunity to reclaim his dignity.

The following is not my assessment. I leave that to the smarter heads. Mr. Romney has backed himself into a corner and there are few options left. Since the campaign will continue, if he wishes to even “be in the game” he is left with these three choices:

• Do something really big. Some might argue that yesterday was that “big” thing, but all that was was a big blunder. Making outrageous statements is not what is meant here. It refers rather to announcing a major policy change. Something regarding the economy and his plan, something major regarding health care. It would be a huge risk in the hopes of attracting the middle and disaffected Democrats. It would have to be something that sounded deeply from the heart, reached after long prayer and contemplation–doing it because it is right and not popular, especially with his base.

It is unlikely that Romney can bring himself to do this. His entire history in the campaign is to refuse to back down from obvious mistakes, rather he “doubles down” as it were, and digs his hole even deeper. It should be remembered that Bain’s success was not built on taking overt risk so much as it was in hedging the bets so thoroughly that whether the “in trouble” company succeeded or fail, Bain took its profits. Risk is not something that Romney likes apparently. So expecting Willard to change his position in a dramatic way based on some “moral awakening” is unlikely. Admitting he was wrong is not in his bag of tools.

• Hope that some major event will so upset the apple cart that he wins by default. This might come in the form of a major terrorist attack on American soil. It might be a major meltdown in Europe and a collapse of the Euro. It would have to be a major turn of events that people would fairly or unfairly lay at the feet of the President and cause the middle to think that a fresh new start is appropriate.

No one of course can predict these sort of things. Even the meltdown of Wall Street banks at the end of Bush’s term should have favored the sage elder statesman, John McCain. Instead, based on his “Lehman” moment, he handed the election quite literally to Mr. Obama. It is also unclear whether America would place the “fault” at the feet of the President. Are we savvy enough to realize that America cannot control the economic policies of Greece or Spain or Ireland? I spent a few years as a child hoping every Christmas morning to find a pony in the garage. That never happened. It is obviously not to Mr. Romney’s advantage to wait for what may never happen, and frankly what is historically not likely to happen.

• Mr. Obama makes a major mistake that tips the balance in favor of Mr. Romney. This would amount to something along the lines of Mr. Romney’s major error of yesterday, suggesting that the President is so out-of-touch, so insensitive, and so basically knowledgeable about event or issue that he cannot be trusted to continue in his role as President. It would suggest that at least some of the charges against him by the Right are true.

The likelihood of this happening is nearly as bad as the second option. When the candidate finds him or herself ahead in polling that seems significant, the tendency is to “make no waves.” In other words, the President has no need to risk anything now. He is leading and needs only to hunker down, make no mistakes. His campaign will be inclined to become more conservative, not more daring. Furthermore, President Obama is not noted for ill-considered actions or remarks. He seems for all the world as a man who has thought through the implications and ramifications of his words before he utters them. He generally chooses his words most carefully.

It is based on this analysis, that I find that Mr. Romney is screwed. A screwing of his own making no doubt. Many in his party will engage in the usual “I told you so” thinking–he was never authentically conservative–they will say. And they may really be right. Mr. Romney strikes us, in the end, a man who feels entitled to be President and that is about as deep as it gets for him. Surely in the last couple of days, he has shown us that he has not thought much at all about the world. We find him strangely soulless and withdrawn from human emotion. We more than ever, simply find him shockingly unfit.

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• Mitt Romney shoots off his Foot-In-Mouth Disease… again. (warmsouthernbreeze.wordpress.com)
• Mitt’s foreign policy test (politico.com)
• Mitt Romney’s statement, translated: I’m not ready to be president (dailykos.com)
• The First Unmistakable Sign of Panic from the Romney Campaign (theamericanconservative.com)
• Romney and Foreign Policy (thepage.time.com)
• Romney: Attack first, understand later (thecriticalaye.com)
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The Stench of Impending Death

Tags

Election 2012, foreign affairs, Libya, Mitt Romney

Go outside and give a good sniff. You can detect that sick odor wafting through the air, getting stronger by the day. It’s the awful putrid smell of gangrenous flesh, dying. It’s Romney’s campaign.

It is dying. Believe me it is.

Never was a dying wound so self-inflicted. Oh, no Bruté, it is me.

Let’s face facts here. President Obama got a nice bump. He’s leading in most every one of the battleground states. If he wins either Florida or Ohio, both of which find him leading, and picks up about one other state, he wins. The race will be decided before the Mississippi is crossed.

Willard on the other hand must win either Florida or Ohio and at least four other of the swing states, only one of which is he even arguably even in. Things are in a nutshell, down the s**t hole.

Desperate times call for desperate measures they surely say, and so Willard took a chance and stuck his neck out, and of course the Sword of Damocles slices ever closer to his jugular. Let us set the stage:

Willard promised (another thing he apparently doesn’t learn at his church–to keep them that is) that there would be no political talk on 9/11. Now perhaps Willard doesn’t know that a day is 24-hours long and goes from 12:00 a.m. until the stroke of 12 a.m. the NEXT day. When you have seven people who follow you everywhere and can announce the time, I guess you can lose track of WHAT THE FUCK TIME IT IS.

During the evening, an incident happened in Libya. As I understand it, a US produced video allegedly portraying the Prophet Mohammed  in some disrespectful way. Certain elements in Libya and elsewhere became aware of it, and although most have not seen it, a good deal of non-factual information was also circulated. Based on this, a group was able to storm the embassy in Benghazi, and 4 Americans were killed, the ambassador himself included.

Now, the Cairo embassy, six hours before the violence and killing occurred, put out its own statement, which they have an absolute right to do, without State Department authorization, decrying the film and reminding everyone that all religions need to be respected. They did this hoping to temper the matter and avoid any violence.

The violence sometime afterward occurred.

Romney put out a statement last night, condemning the statement from Cairo, attributing it to the Administration, and furthermore saying he was appalled at the fact that the President was “siding with the attackers”. In full he said:

“I’m outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi. It’s disgraceful that the Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.”

Thus he violated the “cease-fire” of the campaign and then told a bold-faced lie about what happened. He was not in possession of the facts when he spoke. I understand that he urged reporters to go with his statement, and not wait until 9/12 to report it.

The President, waiting until morning, and the lifting of the no-politics agreement, condemned the violence, reminded everyone that religious freedom must be respected but that violence would not be condoned, and prayed for the families of the dead.

This is not the first time Willard has tried to interject himself into foreign affairs at difficult moments. Remember when he called Obama’s day of shame, over negotiations for the release of dissident Chen Guangcheng? That was widely condemned as interference by even such stalwart conservatives as Bill Kristol.

There are two possibilities here. Either Willard ignores advice from those surrounding him and goes his own way, or his advisers are simply incompetent. There is evidence for either. Willard is noted for keeping his own counsel, and we understand that his controversial choice of Paul (Lyin’) Ryan is just such a one. And no one can accuse him of having a brain trust when it comes to foreign policy (John Bolton is a jackass by most any assessment).

In either case, it is extraordinarily clear based on MR. ROMNEY’s own mouth, that he is unfit to conduct foreign policy for the US, and unwilling apparently to learn anything about the world he inhabits. He came to us as Mr. Fixit and one has to wonder if he level of competence in economics is similarly flawed. Given his “plans” I would argue that he is mostly facade.

Behind the scary mask, is a little petulant boy.

Tomorrow: Where Willard goes from here.

Related articles

• His True Colors (talkingpointsmemo.com)
• Romney Campaign Attacks Obama Over Mythical Apology to Embassy Attackers (motherjones.com)
• Romney Uses Death Of American Diplomat To Launch Political Attack (alan.com)
• Romney Campaign Fumbles Initial Response To Attacks In Egypt And Libya (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Clinton mourns US deaths, vows to stand by Libya (dawn.com)

It’s Monday and it’s Stoopid

Tags

GOP, John Kasich, John McCain, Libya, Michele Bachmann, minimum wage, Mitt Romney, New Hampshire, Ohio, teabaggers, unions

I fear for there will never be a day again on planet earth that is not weighed down with the collective sluggishness of the stupid element.

I still wonder at the insanity of the GOP. With the polling decidedly against them, they continue on blithely with their agenda. Case in point was John Kasich, governor of Ohio and designated spokesperson to “respond” to the President’s weekly speech.

Kasich, the second most disliked GOP governor, only silly Scott in Florida fares worse, rattled off the usual GOP talking points of “lower taxes on corporations (oops, I meant job creators) and relief from regulations” and then took to slamming the unions once more as “job killers”.

Now Kasich, faced with a landslide of anger at his attempt to Wisconsinite unions in his state, chose to do that. I mean with full knowledge that he is gonna lose in his own state on that very issue. Did the GOP hold a gun to his head? Or is he just that stoopid?

Kasich, by the way, tried to get the progressives to come in to “discuss” the union issue now that it is quite clear it will be overturned by the people. Of course the progressives smiled and said no thanks. No stoopid there.

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Meanwhile, New Hampshire’s GOP controlled legislature continues to waste its people’s time. In a worthless move, it eliminated the minimum wage in the state, saying that it was wasted on the teens who weren’t “worth” minimum wage, and besides, minimum wages are “job killers.” Yes, I agree, every corporation would love to employ people for a dollar a day if they could. And, more to the point, NH’s minimum wage is the same as the federal one, and that now simply takes over. So nothing changes morons, except you have pointed out again that you care only for the rich and their “victimization at the hands of the poor.” Stoopid here.

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Did ya hear? Mitty (I’ve been running for years”) Romney  is tearing down his 3,000 square foot beach house in La Jolla, California to make way for a new and improved $12 million dollar one that comes in with a sweet 11,000 square feet of bliss. Not in yet is whether he will insist on non-union labor. I guess he can argue that he’s just being a good job creator. Somehow I suspect this will not sit much better than Johnny “mean old man” McCain’s inability to remember exactly how many homes he owned, or should I say his trophy wife owned. Way up on the stoopid scale Mitty.

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Ricky, (aww shucks I could do the job) Perry must think we are stoopid. He wrote a book called Fed Up in which he argues that nearly all of the social programs of the last 70 or so years are actually unconstitutional. Although the book is only nine months old, his staff is already trying to claim that it reflected his views then but not now. Except that when Perry was confronted by a voter in Iowa about entitlement programs, he snapped, “read my book!” No it’s Ricky who is stoopid.

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Two relics of evolutionary failure, Johnny (I hate the world for not electing me President) McCain, and his obnoxious bunk buddy Lindsay (I dream of Johnny with the light blond hair) Graham, has the audacity to praise Europe and the Middle East for their actions against the Qaddafi regime. This while they “regret the delay caused by the insufficient air power offered by the US. Is there ANYTHING ON EARTH THAT YOU JACKASSES WOULD APPLAUD THIS PRESIDENT FOR? It would be a pleasure to strap both of you to a nice little rocket and send you both to Qaddafi with a ribbon tied to your genitals gentlemen. ( the full statement can be viewed here.) You’re both stoopid, and one of you knows it.

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Michele (aww I just hate your guts Perry) Bachmann, is excusing her multiple gaffes by a “busy schedule”. I suppose that is an answer, though what in the world does she think the President’s schedule might be like? I would put it down to that she’s just stoopid.  Bachmann is reported to have offered to show her panties if the media would stop covering Ricky Perry so much. (remember stretching the incredulity muscle!)

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 I do believe I could make this stuff up and you wouldn’t know the difference. It’s just that stoopid out there.

Nothing to See, Move Along

Tags

brain, critical thinking, Dream Act, Election 2012, global warming, GOP, illusions, immigration, Latino, Libya, Middle East, Newt Gingrich, robotics, science, Syria

You could call it a three-ringed circus, but they may need an extra ring or two. We are advised that the Newty is joining in the entertainment division of “Republicans who are in the race for President.” He joins a fine panoply of jokesters–The Hair, The Palinator, and CrazyEyes, and Step-‘n-fetchit.

I’m sure that Hollywood is in this too, for this quintrangle (wrap your head around what that might look like) of queerness deserves what any good nut job gets in the good old USA–their own reality show.

Years ago, they had a wonderful if short-lived show on PBS wherein Steve Allen, and his wife were joined by a couple of others, each impersonating famous figures from history. Imagine Newton meets Einstein, meets Socrates, meets Cleopatra. They would sit around and chat on selected topics of the day.

So, I’m thinking, our fivesome (do not let you mind even alight for a moment on sex or your brain will burn up–think eating sauerkraut, caramels and raw rhubarb at the same time to counteract the thought) could just debate things like how to secure the future for our posterity in a post-post modernist Adam Smith world. You see the possibilities? I mean they could seriously put SNL out of business.

Newty’s announcement, scheduled today, comes at just the right moment. Obama’s polls are now up to 60% saying he’s doing a good job, his highest in a very long time, and 53% say he deserves another term.

Have at it Relaughlicans, have at it.

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There is a thing called the “best illusion of the year” and you can go and see it! As I understand it (since I can’t do the video) there is a central dot that you star at. A surrounding circle of interwoven dots of different colors surround it. The dots change colors and you can see that, but as the surrounding circle begins to rotate, the colors can no longer be seen changing. For some reason the brain can’t recognize the color changes when the circle rotates. There are others to see as well. Have fun!

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While the crackdown continues in Syria, things seem to be looking up again in Libya where rebels are once again on the move. NATO forces have upped their air attacks which no doubt has helped. Qaddafi has been “absent” for several days now.

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We just got through the mother of all winters in many parts of the country. Then killer tornadoes struck the Southeast. Now the Mighty Miss is inundating the flood planes along its sojourn to the Gulf in a way not seen in most of history. And the naysayers of course say this has nada to do with global warming.

Well, scientists say otherwise. The crazies who buy the rhetoric of Corpacracy, giggle as the snows fell. “Global warming? Ya gotta be kidding.” But of course those who have bothered to actually READ something not written by those who don’t want to pay for their pollution, know that extremes in ALL weather is an expected effect of global warming.

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The Democrats are re-introducing the Dream Act we understand. This is just exactly the right thing to do on every level. First, IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO. Second, IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO. Third, its politically the perfect thing to do. The GOP seems caught in its “find ’em, arrest ’em, send ’em back strategy. And in states with burgeoning Latino populations, that is a recipe for disaster as they say.

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It used to be that the Democrats were noted for taking a good thing and screwing it up. Well, move over, there is a new bungler in town. The GOP, who promised after 2010, nothing but work on jobs, jobs, jobs, has gotten itself bogged down in the usual anti-Obama rhetoric regarding the Bin Laden business.

Instead of just saying, “good job” and keeping their eye on the economic message, the good old boys just couldn’t help it. They fell for the uber right-wing “that black guy can’t be given credit for anything” frenzy and have been, for the last several days whining about how it’s all due to them that the usurper in the White House was able to put the very last nail into the house. And it has of course backfired as Obama’s numbers just continue to rise.

In other words, the GOP would have you believe, that they built the car, filled it with gas, and put the key in the ignition. Obama just turned it. Yeah, go with that Redicklians.

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Ya know, I’ve lived most of my adult life with the “Three Laws of Robotics”. It gave me comfort on days when I fought with machines, when no amount of cajoling would get them to do their duty–operate as required. I have never feared them, because I trusted they were in the end my friend, albeit a frustrating and someone chaotic one.

Well, now it seems that I can’t rely on this safety net at all. I kinda think I’ll keep a hammer by the computer from now on. Same goes for anything else that is remotely robotically connected. I may never trust again.  [h/t to Exploring our Matrix]

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We have spoken here a lot of the nut cases on the right who fracture, torture, and otherwise twist actual facts to favor their theory of choice. This can be evolution, climate change, health care reform, you name it. Because they cater to a basically ill-educated, ill-read, and ill-minded group, they can get away with this.

This piece also comes via Exploring our Matrix and explains the tools used by the pseudo-science of the extreme right. It’s a decent piece that might enlighten you as you swim through the muck of todays internet world.