Category: Politics

Rahm Emanuel is a Such a Pissant

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So, after Barack Obama went full throttle in supporting Former Goldman Sachs CEO Senior Partner John Corzine, who got beaten handily, Anthony Weiner (D-NY-9) suggested, given the unexpected closeness of the NY Mayor’s race that, “Maybe one of those Corzine trips could have been better spent in New York. Who knows?”

The response, from a anonymous White House source responded, “Maybe Anthony Weiner should have manned-up and run against Michael Bloomberg.

That would be Rahm, or someone who speaks just like him, and he is being such a bitch.

Southerners: A Majority of them are Not Stupid

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The folks at the Plum Line look at a CNN article on their CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, and tease out this bit of information:

Another factor that may be boosting Obama’s overall rating is the inevitable comparison with the man he replaced in the Oval Office. Fifty-seven percent say Obama has been a better president than George W. Bush; only a third say Bush’s track record was better.

“Compared to Obama, Bush does fairly well among southerners and rural voters. But even in those categories, a majority still says Obama has done a better job than Bush,” says Holland.

On the depressing side, however is the knowledge that 1/3 of the country are either complete morons, completely insane, or both.

Wanker of the Day

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Blue Dog Jason Altmire, who is wishing for Democratic defeats in the elections:

Centrist Blue Dog Democrats might see their position strengthened if Democrats suffer broader losses Tuesday, one Blue Dog member suggested.

Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.) argued that an election night rebuke for Democratic candidates across the nation could lead some in the party to rethink their plans on healthcare reform and other issues.

Seriously, he needs to be primaried, and possibly needs a Green Party challenger in the general.

Those Stupid Bastards Took the “Teabagger” Sexual Innuendo, and Set the Dial to 11

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Ooh, baby, you are so talented! And they are so dumb!

Yep, a group of wing-nuts* have created a website dedicated to fighting Acorn and the Working Families Party up in New York State.

So he/they got a domain, and chose a name for the movement:

Great googly moogly, this is stupid.

H/t Some Guy With a Website

*Or maybe just 1, there isn’t a whole bunch of traffic or posts there, it just consists of reposts of New York Post articles.

The Mask Falls

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Orrin Hatch admits that the real reason that Republicans oppose healthcare reform is because it would benefit Democrats:

Hatch asserted that the health bills, which he believes represent a “step-by-step approach to socialized medicine,” will lead to Americans’ dependence on Democrats for their health and other issues.

“And if they get there, of course, you’re going to have a very rough time having a two-party system in this country, because almost everybody’s going to say, ‘All we ever were, all we ever are, all we ever hope to be depends on the Democratic Party,’ ” Hatch said during an interview with the conservative CNSNews.com.

“That’s their goal,” Hatch added. “That’s what keeps Democrats in power.”

What it is all about is that they are afraid that, like the New Deal, the passage of successful programs will give the Democrats a generation in power.

It’s not about what is right for the country, it’s about power.

NY-23 is Getting Jiggy

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So, I told you about how the the national wingnuts had driven the Republican candidate, Dierdre “Dede” Scozzafava, who was among the more conservative members of their caucus in the New York State Assembly, out of the special election in New York’s 23rd Congressional district in favor of Conservative Party (it’s a New York thing) candidate, heavy duty wingnut Doug Hoffman..

She suspended her campaign, and now she has officially endorsed Democratic candidate Bill Owens:

I want to thank you for your support and friendship. Over the past 24 hours, I have had encouraging words sent to my family and me. Many of you have asked me whom you should support on Tuesday.

Since announcing the suspension of my campaign, I have thought long and hard about what is best for the people of this District, and how to answer your questions. This is not a decision that I have made lightly.

You know me, and throughout my career, I have been always been an independent voice for the people I represent. I have stood for our honest principles, and a truthful discussion of the issues, even when it cost me personally and politically. Since beginning my campaign, I have told you that this election is not about me; it’s about the people of this District.

It is in this spirit that I am writing to let you know I am supporting Bill Owens for Congress and urge you to do the same.

It’s not in the cards for me to be your representative, but I strongly believe Bill is the only candidate who can build upon John McHugh’s lasting legacy in the U.S. Congress. John and I worked together on the expansion of Fort Drum and I know how important that base is to the economy of this region. I am confident that Bill will be able to provide the leadership and continuity of support to Drum Country just as John did during his tenure in Congress.

In Bill Owens, I see a sense of duty and integrity that will guide him beyond political partisanship. He will be an independent voice devoted to doing what is right for New York. Bill understands this district and its people, and when he represents us in Congress he will put our interests first.

Please join me in voting for Bill Owens on Tuesday. To address the tough challenges ahead, we must rise above partisanship and politics and work together. There’s too much at stake in this election to do otherwise.

Dede

I have no clue how this will effect the race, and I agree with people who say that Owens is, at best, a Liebercrat.

I’m not that concerned about the effect of changing the party what would of the least senior congressman for the next year and a half, but the sound of wing-nut heads exploding is sweet.

(On edit)

Frank Rich wrote about it, and it’s titled, “The G.O.P. Stalinists Invade Upstate New York.”

Heh.

This Actually Reveals a Deeper Truth

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There is a distinctly Randroid branch of the Republican party, who follows Alisa Zinov’yevna Rosenbaum’s (Ayn Rand) philosophy of Objectivism, and as such, see activities like giving candies to trick or treaters as actually being evil, because any sort of activity which benefits the community is evil.

To their mind, the only good is self interest, hence the title of the only Ayn Rand book that I have ever read, The Virtue of Selfishness, which I found juvenile, as well as horribly written,* when I reviewed it as an extra credit assignment in my Philosophy of Literature class in high school.

It must be remembered that a significant portion of Republicans are actually philosophically opposed to the very idea of community.

H/t Cthulhu† for the cartoon.

*Seriously, really badly written. It was worse than reading Immanuel Kant, and that sh%$ was painful to read.
†No, not the unspeakably malevolent super-being, the contributor to the Shortskoolbus BBS.‡
‡OK, I’ve never seen the two of them together, so Cthulhu might actually be the Cthulhu, but the mere fact that he is on a BBS, interacting with humans§ would seem to mitigate against this.
§Yes, I know, this is the internet, where no one knows if you are a dog.

Evil: A Cheney Family Traditon

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Yesterday, I mentioned Obama’s trip to Dover to pay his respects to the dead whose caskets were coming back that day.

I figured that at some point, some prominent Republican would try to cast it ad evil and sinister, and out of the gate comes Liz Cheney, on the John Gibson Show:

“I think that what President Bush used to do is do it without the cameras. And I don’t understand sort of showing up with the White House Press Pool with photographers and asking family members if you can take pictures. That’s really hard for me to get my head around…It was a surprising way for the president to choose to do this.”

Only, neither George W. Bush or…You know….Her Father ever went to pay their respects to the dead.

In fact, they were they supporessed any and all photographs, whether the family assented or not.

This is Not a Business Lunch

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So, after Mark Sanford “hiking the Appalachian Trail,” Joe Wilson heckling a presidential speech, and those Republican County Chairman going on about how good Jews are with watching their money, one wonders what other shoe will drop from the South Carolina Republican party to as they continue the program to help employment by making Stewart’s, Colbert’s, O’Brien’s, Letterman’s, and Leno’s Job easier.

Well, wait no more. There is Assistant Attorney General Roland Corning, who wages a war on the business lunch that makes the fictional “war on Christman” look like an arcade game.

It appears that Corning, age 66, was hanging out in his car at a graveyard with an 18 year old stripper, along with Viagra and sex toys, and when police officer Michael Wines showed up in a marked car, Corning, “attempted to make a hasty retreat, spinning the tires in the driveway and accelerating rapidly.”

It gets better. When finally apprehended, the police verify who he is by calling the Attorney General’s office, where his wife answers the phone, and then rats him out to the notifies Attorney General, who fires his flabby white ass.

The high point of the police report:

The search revealed a sex enhancement drug and some sex toys. According to the report, Corning told Wines he had a prescription for the medication and the other items were always in the car “just in case.“

(emphasis mine)

Just in case….Yeah sure….I always carry sex toys and Viagra in my car….Why do you think that they call them “Jumper Cables.”

Elections Make a Difference: Labor Regulations

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It appears that people who want to treat their employees like so much excrement are distressed that Barack Obama is not vociferously anti union, and that under his watch union leaders have access to, and information from, the White House, and that sensible rules have been established:

Delta Air Lines, the world’s largest carrier, would be more likely to lose union elections sought by flight attendants and machinists if a proposal by the AFL-CIO is approved.

The workers asked the National Mediation Board in July and August to clear the way for an election. Last month, the AFL-CIO petitioned the board to revise procedures and allow a union if most of those voting approve, instead of a majority of all workers in the class.

The board plans to announce a proposal in coming days to advance the union request on voting rules, people familiar with the matter said. Seven Republican senators said in a Sept. 30 letter that the board was delaying a decision on the union election while it considers the new vote-counting method.

Yes, under the old system, a non-vote was counted as a no vote, so you could lose because someone got the sniffles, or just didn’t want to be bothered to vote.

What’s more, they are appointing people who are not management toadies to boards. In the case of the National mediation board, you have a former flight attendent union official replacing a former lobbyist for Northwest (now a part of Delta), and the President of Delta Airlines is pissed about it:

“You have two former heads of AFL-CIO unions at the NMB and they really are politicizing the process,” Delta CEO Richard Anderson said on a conference call with investors last week.

My heart bleeds borscht for you sadistic equestrian necrophiliac…But that’s beating a dead horse.

Even more shocking, the head of OSHA decided to, “replace pictures of OSHA managers displayed in a conference room with photos of workers who had been killed on the job.”

It gives one the vapors.

I’m not sure how deep the support for labor is in the Obama White House, but what is going is a welcome change form the vociferous hostility exhibited by Bush and His Evil Minions&trade.

D’oh!!!!

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You know, when you are an insurance company, like Blue Cross/Blue Shield, it is not a good idea for you to include a request for your customers to contact their Congressman to oppose the public option along with a notice of a rate increase:

First, they learned their rates will rise by an average of 11 percent next year.

Next, they opened a slick flier from the insurer urging them to send an enclosed pre-printed, postage-paid note to Sen. Kay Hagan denouncing what the company says is unfair competition that would be imposed by a government-backed insurance plan. The so-called public option is likely to be considered by Congress in the health-care overhaul debate.

“No matter what you call it, if the federal government intervenes in the private health insurance market, it’s a slippery slope to a single-payer system,” the BCBS flier read. “Who wants that?”

Plenty of people, it turns out.

Indignant Blue Cross customers have rebelled against the insurer’s message, complaining that their premium dollars have funded such a campaign.

They’ve hit the Internet in a flurry of e-mails to friends and neighbors throughout the state. They’ve called Hagan’s office to voice support for a public option. They’ve marked through the Blue Cross message on their postcards to instead vouch support, then dropped them in the mail — in at least one case taped to a brick — to be paid on Blue Cross’ dime. Or dimes.

(emphasis mine)

As the saying goes, “ない愚かさはない薬です”.*

*Pronounced in Japanese, “baka ni tsukeru kusuri wanai”, which means, “There is no medicine for stupidity.”

Your Moment of Schadenfreude

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!So, it looks like yet another organization has had to downsize. It’s moving out of its headquarters, in the heart of Washington, DC, which they moved into about a year ago, because it’s too expensive for them now.

Who is this organization? Why it’s the Mortgage Bankers Association, of course, who have discovered that their new $76 million dollar digs are no longer affordable:

Since the purchase in May 2008, the U.S. economy has suffered one of the most severe recessions in a century, and the residential and commercial real estate markets have materially deteriorated. These factors, coupled with a challenging leasing environment, led the MBA Board to conclude that continued ownership of 1331 L Street was economically imprudent, and over the long term would impair MBA’s ability to continue providing our members with MBA’s full range of services.

My guess? That they got f$#@ed over by the fine print in their mortgage.

Look for the Union Label

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Here is an interesting fact: If you retired from Delphi, the bankrupt GM parts supplier, and you are a member of the UAW, your pension is safe, because the Union fought for contractual assurances that it would be safe, but for non-union middle management? Not so much:

But four months later, Mr. Gump finds himself in a far more perilous condition than his neighbors.

On his street, he is the only Delphi worker whose pension benefits may be cut. His neighbors all belong to unions and have received a lifeline in an unprecedented deal related to the government-supervised bankruptcy of General Motors, the onetime parent of Delphi. (G.M. spun off the parts division as a separate company 10 years ago.)

Mr. Gump and some 21,000 other salaried workers and retirees are furious that their roughly 46,000 union co-workers at Delphi have had their benefits restored, apparently with government largesse, and they have not.

This is not “government largesse”, of course, it’s because the Union used its clout to protect its people, and got agreements and guarantees from GM as a result.

Mr. Gump, like myself, is an engineer, who as a group are tremendously resistant to the idea of unionizing, and this cost him, and thousands like him at Delphi.

Signs of the Apocalypse: George F. Will Calls Out Dick Cheney

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On ABC’s This Week (Stephanopoulos), they have a discussion of Dick Cheney’s speech, where he says that Obama is taking too long to make up his mind.

George F. Will, yes that George F. Will, takes takes Cheney to task:

“A bit of dithering might have been in order before we went into Iraq in pursuit of non-existent weapons of mass destruction,” Will said on ABC’s “This Week. “For a representative of the Bush administration to accuse someone of taking too much time is missing the point. We have much more to fear in this town from hasty than from slow government action.”

When you have lost the guy who drilled Ronald Reagan for his debates with Jimmy Carter while using Carter’s stolen briefing books, you’ve lost everyone.

Start watching at about -11:10. (the timer on the clip counts down, not up)

And Speaking of Stupid

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Yes, it appears that the US Chamber of Commerce, in a desperate bid for wankitude, had decided to sue the Yes Menfor their phony press release and press conference where they announced that the Chamber would support global warming legislation.

Here is a video of the press conference, complete with a real CoC representative bursting in and calling them out.

With the lawsuit, it will go viral:

Because Republicans are the Grown-Ups, Right

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Click for full size

Are you missing the message?


Does that make it clearer?

It appears that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger does not like California State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, and vetoed a rather ordinary bill regarding how the Port of San Francisco is funded as a result.

The bill was about allowing San Francisco to use certain sorts of public financing with regard to their waterfront.

It appears that Ahnuld unexpectedly showed up to the Democratic Party gala, and while the reception was hostile, Ammiano’s was significantly more hostile than most of the rest of the people in the room.

He shouted, “You Lie,” and then walked out of the Governor’s speech saying that he should, “kiss my gay ass” which is an understandable reaction to a guy who vetoed Harvey Milk day.

Totally immature and classless, and so not surprising from a man who suggested that he wanted to flush Arianna Huffington’s head down the toilet in the gubernatorial debates.

You can see the letter, at least for now in all its glory straight from the Governor’s web page, (PDF), but in case you can’t I have a copy of the PDF below thanks to the magic of ScribD.

AB1176 Ammiano Veto Message

Jon Stewart is a F%$#ing Genius, He Should Get a Peabody Edition

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I have a call into Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye’s office regarding reports that there may be changes to Al Franken’s amendment prohibiting the writing of new contracts to contractors who use binding arbitration in discrimination cases, including, “any tort related to or arising out of sexual assault or harassment, including assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment, or negligent hiring, supervision, or retention.”

While I am waiting for his office’s response, let’s have Jon Stewart put it all in perspective:

Heh

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Mount Vernon, Washington decided to hold a Glenn Beck day, because he is a native son of that town.

May be this was a really stupid idea:

Glenn Beck Day in Mount Vernon was an expensive lesson for this small town, as it found out the cost of hosting a controversial celebrity.

It’s on the hook for $17,748.85, mostly for 239 hours of police overtime.

….

Well, says Ken Bergsma, the town’s police chief, better to be prepared than not.

The chief says the crowd of 800 to 1,000 demonstrators that greeted Beck for his early-evening appearance on Sept. 26 was the biggest protest he’s seen in his 32 years as a Mount Vernon police officer.

The city council officially distanced themselves from the Mayor’s decision when he made it, and it turns out that they were right, to the tune of almost 18 grand, which is not a small amount of change when the town has a population of 26,232.

There is, and should be, a cost to honoring people whose raison d’être simply self promotion and ego.