September 2011
What Was J.C. Penny Thinking?
This is what happens when the media makes little girls feel they need to wear makeup at 8, wear brand name clothing, or look up to people such as Kim Kardashian.
J.C. Penney is now selling a T-shirt for girls aged 7 to 16 that says, unabashedly, across its front: ‘I’m too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me.’” The retailer agreed to pull the shirt today, but it’s hard to...
Chuck Hagel: Republican Party Has ‘An Astounding...
Former GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel (NE) can’t muster any praise for his Republican colleagues’ behavior in Congress over the past few months. In an interview with the Financial Times, Hagel blasted GOP leadership for their “irresponsible actions” during the debt ceiling debacle, noting that “I think about some of the presidents we’ve had on my side of the aisle — Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr.,...
August 2011
The Less Than Transparent Texan
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Rick Perry is hiding more than just his travel costs as he seeks the presidency: he has worked hard to keep many parts of his record as governor of Texas a secret. “Over the past decade, the Perry administration has withheld information in response to about 100 open records requests… Most of the withheld documents involved contracts,...
Some Encouraging Economic News
“Consumer spending in the United States rebounded strongly in July to post the largest increase in five months on strong demand for motor vehicles, a government report showed on Monday, supporting views the economy was not falling back into recession.”
Before The GOP Will Help Women, Children and...
“Whereas Congress used to provide emergency funds after a disaster, without regard for budget caps or offsets, Republicans have said they will no longer accept such an approach — if Democrats want emergency assistance in the wake of a natural disaster, Republicans will insist on attaching some strings to the relief funds….
As [House Majority Leader Eric] Cantor’s...
The Word "Stolen" And "Grinch" Come To Mind
“Can you believe this? I’m the President of the whole fucking United States!”
President-Select George W. Bush, Christmas 2000, shortly after the Supreme Court finally ruled on the disputed Presidential election. Stay classy, George.
“I said to him, “Do not look at what is possible — look at what is...”
– AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, speaking about a recent meeting he had with President Obama
We all need to refocus.
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Translating Perry's Social Security Lie
While falsely claiming Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, this is what Perry really means:
“It is a monstrous lie on this generation, as long as the Republican Party continues to prevent it from getting funded and insists on eliminating it. And that’s exactly what we’re gonna do.”
Edited for accuracy.
The biggest distinction is that Social Security is built on...
Perry Calls Social Security a "Monstrous Lie"
“It is a Ponzi scheme for these young people. The idea that they’re working and paying into Social Security today, that the current program is going to be there for them, is a lie. It is a monstrous lie on this generation, and we can’t do that to them.”
- Rick Perry. Despite indications he was backing off his attacks on Social Security, the Houston Chronicle notes...
Cheney's New Book: Solidifies Dick Status
Says Bush authorized leak in Iraq. Payback for Scooter Libby?
Dick Cheney writes in his forthcoming book, In My Time, that he was surprised to learn that President George W. Bush had personally authorized a leak about Iraq strategy to a Washington Post columnist — “a disclosure that the former vice president believed could be ‘a real disservice’ to U.S. troops,”...
New Hampshire Or Bust
“I think if we bomb in New Hampshire, then we are not worth our salt.”
— Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), quoted by NBC News, highlighting the importance of the first primary state to his presidential campaign.
Relative note:
Smart Politics looks at contributions to Rep. Ron Paul’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns and finds that the same four states lead the pack in...
“To be sure, some people are never going to be readers. We used to feel sorry for...”
– Rogue Columnist (via azspot)
“The GOP needn’t hold the presidency every cycle. All they need to do is prevent...”
– Hullabaloo - No Consequence for Extremism
Some good points about playing the hand you’re dealt instead of the hand you wish you had (or, to really stretch the metaphor, trying to call “Uno” when the other guy’s playing poker.)
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Steve Jobs: A Mega, Meta Appreciation
I knew the day would come when Steve Jobs would retire… but I didn’t expect to cry. We could all see this was coming—but it is a shock. The resignation of Apple Inc.’s chief executive Steve Jobs marks the end of an era. He was that rarest of birds: a C.E.O. who actually had a huge impact on his company’s fortunes… [and] genuinely earned the label of superstar. Jobs...
Rep Hinkle [R-IN], Friend Of Dorothy
Indiana state Rep. Phil Hinkle (R) admitted to the Indianapolis Star “that he paid a young man $80 to have a good time. But Hinkle insisted he isn’t gay and doesn’t know why he did it.” “Hinkle acknowledged he picked up Kameryn Gibson and drove him to the hotel, giving him $80 in the car. But when they arrived, Hinkle said, they simply made small talk about...
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“In a statement from Sanders provided to Reuters, Sanders said he felt the data...”
– Sen. Bernie Sanders Leaks Oil Trading Data: Americans Have A Right To Know Who Drove Up Gas Prices | Crooks and Liars (via wreckandsalvage)
Kind of a BFD.
(via danielholter)
Project Vote
“President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign on Thursday announced ‘Project Vote,’ a campaign-within-a-campaign that is aimed at increasing registration and participation among Democratic base constituencies — including young voters, seniors, African Americans and Hispanics, plus Native Americans and gay and lesbian voters.”
All of those demos will...
Obama Can’t Win For Winning In Libya
You have to ask: If unemployment were at 6 percent, would President Obama be getting pummeled for not having us back to full employment already?
The question comes to mind in the wake of the Libyan rebels’ successes against Moammar Gaddafi. It’s remarkable how reluctant Obama’s opponents are to acknowledge that despite all the predictions that his policy of limited engagement could never...
“Contrary to what conservatives love to allege and big government-loving liberals...”
– Who really benefits from ‘government services’? (via azspot)
Mass Stimulus: Let Homeowners Refinance
The housing market is still a mess, and continues to serve as a drag on the economy. Addressing the problem isn’t exactly easy.
As Ezra Klein explained this morning, federal officials don’t want to simply force the banks to eat homeowners’ debts because it would undermine the industry. They also don’t want to have the government simply eat the losses, because it’d be a political problem — the...
“It is a sign of enormous, thin skin that if we speculate about her, she gets...”
– — Karl Rove, in an interview on Fox News, reacting to Sarah Palin being upset about his prediction that she’ll run for president.
Rove is a bit of a stalking horse for Mitt Romney.
“I would humbly suggest to you that being a conservative is not necessarily a bad...”
– — Jeb Bush, quoted by CNN.
The Party Of No can stick to no ideas or no help for the economy because a big part of their base vote against their self interests in their dreams of one day being rich, not realizing they will be middle class for the foreseeable future. Add a little racism and...
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“Capitalism in its raw form can’t pull us out of this hole.”
– Bill Gross, a billionaire Republican, and one of the chief investment officer of the giant bond fund Pimco.
He believes “the government needs to arrest America’s dangerous economic slide.” That sentiment is growing. Economists and the financial industry want policymakers to boost the economy.
...
Perry, The Sum Of All Fears
“Indeed, Perry is not only a presidential candidate, but also a cowboy-booted sociological experiment. It is almost as if Perry’s political persona was constructed by bundling together all the fears and phantoms in the left-wing anxiety closet.
Since the hysteria of the 1950s Red Scare, no Republican figure has matched Perry in his God-given ability to give liberals the...
The American Sociological Association Identify Tea...
The American Sociological Association identified the four primary characteristics most associated with those Americans sympathetic to the Tea Party: “Authoritarianism, ontological insecurity (fear of change), libertarianism and nativism.”
Nativism is not liking immigrants.
Try not to be surprised.
The Real As*holes Never Pay: S&P President To Step...
“The ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said late on Monday that its president, Deven Sharma, who has become the public face of the firm in the wake of its historic downgrade on the United States’ long-term debt rating, will step down and leave the company by the end of the year.
The decision by Mr. Sharma to resign comes as the ratings agency is under pressure from several fronts,...
Partisanship Won
“Today, at a time when President Obama has proved incapable of placating, cowing, or shaming Republicans… it is impossible to imagine an end — even a pause — to partisanship. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, Obama declared war on partisanship in 2008, and partisanship won.” - Jeff Shesol, The Daily Beast
Post-partisanship always assumed that we were all mature...
Perry Leads in Executions
Texas Gov. Rick Perry “brings to the presidential race a law-and-order credential that none of his competitors can match — even if they wanted to,” the Washington Post reports. “In his nearly 11 years as chief executive, Perry, now running for the GOP presidential nomination, has overseen more executions than any governor in modern history: 234 and counting....
Leading From Behind Works
“… the low-profile, inexpensive ouster of Col. Muammar Qadhafi marks an important milestone for the administration, foreign policy analysts say — perhaps the most concrete evidence that the more modest American foreign policy approach that has become Obama’s hallmark and perhaps his biggest area of contrast with his more interventionist predecessor might actually...
"Rick Perry is a dope, Michele Bachmann is a joke,...
Ben Smith notes “conservative intellectuals” are still very unhappy with the Republican presidential field. “From the Weekly Standard to the Wall Street Journal, on the pages of policy periodicals and opinion sections, the egghead right’s longing for a presidential candidate of ideas — first Mitch Daniels, then Paul Ryan — has been endless, intense, and...
Never Really On Vacation
David Frum: “Almost nothing in American politics drives more people to say more ridiculous things than the subject of presidential summer vacations… The president of the United States never gets a vacation, not really. The nuclear football follows wherever the president goes. He receives the daily intelligence briefing every morning, including Christmas. The decisions never...
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Perry’s Texas Jobs Boom: The Result of Big... →
dangerousmimes:
That awkward moment when facts refute everything you’ve said.
I love when GOP/Conservative politicians, who are on the “socialist” public payroll, who spend their waking moments trying to badmouth how bad Government is, have, in perpetiuty, zero guilt when their rhetoric rings false and the exact opposite of what they preach is the truth.