January 31, 2012

TAIBBI: How GOP race became showdown between a walking OCD diagnosis & a flatulent serial adulterer

The Odd Couple: Romney Vs. Gingrich
How the GOP race became a showdown between a walking OCD diagnosis and a flatulent serial adulterer

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.........the Republican Party is not dominated by 22-year-old college students reading The Fountainhead for the first time and finally understanding what it is they've always hated about their ex-hippie parents. No, the party is dominated by middle-aged white suburbanites who hate Mexico, John King and the Golden Rule and are willing to flock to anyone who'll serve up the Fox News culture war in big portions and without shame or hesitation. Romney might have memorized a few I-hate-Obama sound bites, but voters simply don't believe him. Gingrich alone offers GOP voters the emotional payoff they want out of an election – an impassioned fight against the conspiracy, played out in thrillingly contrary three-hour debates on health care with the liberal Satan. Gingrich lives for confrontation: He was born for this sort of insurgent primary politics.

The only problem is, he's a bloviating, egomaniacal hog clinging to a third marriage who suffers from incurable diarrhea of the mouth and, according to polls, is one of the most intensely disliked politicians in America, making him an utterly absurd choice for the general election. If Gingrich ends up winning the nomination, Obama will essentially be running against the political version of Gilbert Gottfried or raw garlic – strong tastes that some like quite a lot, but many more can't stand to even be near. If that happens, every Democratic flack from Leon Panetta to Obama himself will have to wear restraints to keep from publicly crying out in joy.

All of which makes the goofball theater surrounding the GOP primaries seem even crazier. With a weak economy and a vulnerable president in the White House, the Republican Party had a real chance to reseize power, if it could only have grasped the gravity of the situation and put forward a plausible candidate. And a plausible candidate would have been better for everyone, not just Republicans, because the nation will suffer when Obama cruises to victory next fall on a sea of open-marriage jokes, instead of having to face a cogent argument against useless bailouts, endless wars and economic mismanagement.

But the GOP chose to snub any semblance of substance, floating one candidate after another – from Donald Trump and Michele Bachmann to Herman Cain and Rick Perry – who could not hold on to the lead for more than a few hours before tripping and falling into the machinery. It now appears that whoever winds up winning the Republican nomination will be a reform-hating friend of the one percent who will happily gobble whatever hundreds of millions of dollars Wall Street has left over to donate to the GOP, after it's finished lavishing its election-year tribute on Barack Obama. The best we can hope for, it appears, is some truly high-quality reality-show drama. The campaign is a circus like we've never seen before. We may get worse candidates, but at least we're getting a better show.



Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-odd-couple-romney-vs-gingrich-20120130#ixzz1l3NmQ0tw

January 31, 2012

McConnell’s Revisionist History - Congress Gave Obama Everything He Wanted!

McConnell’s Revisionist History

Congress Gave Obama Everything He Wanted!

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has embraced the argument that President Obama was able to pass every bit of his legislative agenda in his first two years thanks to large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. It’s intended as a counterpoint to the President’s re-election strategy of attacking the congressional GOP as do-nothing obstructionists. But it’s also a revisionist history of the 111th Congress, during which McConnell more than any other Republican in Washington stood athwart Obama’s agenda to great effect.

The White House has “been trying to pretend like the President just showed up yesterday, just got sworn in and started fresh,” McConnell declared Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “In fact, he’s been in office for three years. He got everything he wanted from a completely compliant Congress for two of those three years… We are living in the Obama economy.”

This isn’t a new claim for McConnell, but it’s audacious even by Washington’s lax standards. It was McConnell, after all, who led Senate Republicans in serial filibusters — a record-setting number — successfully thwarting large chunks of Obama’s agenda.

By forcing Democrats to find 60 votes to nearly every action, McConnell and his members were able to block major initiatives including climate change and immigration reform bills, various appropriations bills, myriad presidential appointments, and arguably also a Democratic effort to let the Bush tax cuts expire for high incomes. Meanwhile, big legislative items that did pass, such as health care reform and the economic stimulus package, were notably scaled back as a result of the GOP filibusters.

MORE:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/mcconnells-revisionist-history-congress-gave-obama-everything-he-wanted.php?ref=fpa

January 31, 2012

"Dog Whistles" From TPM interviews of Newt supporters in Florida

From TPM interviews of Newt supporters in Florida:

“Everybody’s becoming dependent,” a retired manufacturing entrepreneur in Cocoa, FL told TPM
“Are the blacks going to vote for Newt or Romney? The Hispanics? The unions? The teachers? The only way to win is to get someone articulate who can turn out conservatives while the others stay home. But if everyone ends up being subsidized voters, we’re dead.

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/conversations-with-the-gingrich-base.php

January 31, 2012

Campfield Responds to TN Restaurant Controversy Via Blog

Stacey Campfield, a state senator in Tennessee, was refused restaurant service after sponsoring anti-gay legislation and spouting hateful rhetoric:
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/01/30/414125/tennessee-restaurant-throws-out-anti-gay-lawmaker/

---So, of course, he did what any white, heterosexual Christian state senator might do in his situation: he wrote a blog post discussing his treatment and comparing himself to black people who endured institutional segregation and discrimination during the Civil Rights era.

Facepalm:
http://www.nashvillescene.com/pitw/archives/2012/01/31/campfield-responds-to-controversy-via-blog

He goes on to show how multicultural he is by relating this anecdote about lunch counters:

In the '60s my grandfather sat at the lunch counters with the blacks in Knoxville to help break up the segregation of the races. I guess some people still support segregation. Just segregation of thought. Some people have told me my civil rights were violated under the 1964 civil rights act in that a person can not be denied service based on their religious beliefs. (I am catholic and the catholic church does not support the act of homosexuality) I had not thought about that much.

I just figured this is just another example of the open minded tolerant left. They claim tolerances for divergent points of view.....Until someone actually has one. Then they don't know how to handle it.

MORE:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/31/1060254/-Anti-gay-TN-Senator-compares-being-told-to-eat-at-a-different-restaurant-to-segregation?via=siderec

January 31, 2012

EXCLUSIVE: Virginia Officials Confirm Criminal Election Fraud Investigation of Gingrich Campaign

By Brad Friedman on 1/31/2012 5:35am
EXCLUSIVE: Virginia Officials Confirm Criminal Election Fraud Investigation of Gingrich Campaign
Had the same thing been carried out by a worker for the now-defunct ACORN, Republicans --- and even Newt Gingrich --- would have called it massive "voter fraud". But the 1,500 acts of fraud, by Gingrich's own admission, were carried out by a worker hired by his campaign, so it seems the media have barely noticed it.

Nonetheless, The BRAD BLOG has received confirmation from two different state agencies that the 1,500 alleged cases of ballot petition fraud said to have been carried out on behalf of the Gingrich campaign, in their unsuccessful attempt to qualify for the Republican primary ballot in Virginia, is now being carried out by the state Attorney General's office.

In late December, after Gingrich had failed to turn in enough valid signatures to qualify for the Virginia primary ballot, he was caught on video tape telling a supporter in Iowa that the reason for the failure was due to a campaign worker who created 1,500 fraudulent signatures.

"We turned in 11,100 --- we needed 10,000 --- 1,500 of them were by one guy who, frankly, committed fraud," Gingrich seen and heard saying in video originally aired by CNN.

MORE:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=9099

January 31, 2012

Assange's lawyer, meets Eric Holder at Cannes & confronts him about DOJ persecution of WikiLeaks

Julian Assange's lawyer, Jen Robinson, meets Eric Holder at Cannes & confronts him about DOJ persecution of WikiLeaks http://t.co/2uGRNZOV

TUESDAY, JAN 31, 2012 4:00 AM PACIFIC STANDARD TIME
When a WikiLeaks lawyer runs into Eric Holder
During a chance encounter at Sundance, I pressed the attorney general about his plans for Assange -- and his legacy
BY JENNIFER ROBINSON

Then I took the opportunity to ask the attorney general a few questions.

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“That’s interesting,” I responded, “because I am a lawyer for WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.” Slightly taken aback, a flicker of recognition crossed his face. “How do you think history will reflect upon your treatment of WikiLeaks and Assange?”

(GASP)

The young woman who requested the photo gasped audibly, whispering, “Whoa, this is major,” to the person next to her. Others gathered closer to listen.

“Eric” instantly becomes Holder, and responds in the professional manner of a politician. “The release of confidential information is a very serious matter, and we have to draw the line somewhere.” As he spoke, I recalled a conversation at the Manning hearing in December with a senior national security reporter who admitted he felt the news media would be at risk if Assange were prosecuted. One wonders where Holder’s line will be drawn — and what it will mean for journalism globally.

MORE:
http://www.salon.com/2012/01/31/holder_on_assange_prosecution_we_will_see/singleton/

January 31, 2012

Plaintiffs Challenging Affordable Care Act In The Supreme Court Admit That The Law IS Constitutional

Plaintiffs Challenging Affordable Care Act In The Supreme Court Admit That The Law Is Constitutional
By Ian Millhiser on Jan 30, 2012 at 1:00 pm


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In their attempt to see the entire Affordable Care Act fall, however, several of the plaintiffs challenging the law committed what should be a fatal blunder — they effectively admit that their entire constitutional challenge to the law is garbage.
http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/11-393-11-400-bsac-Am-Medical-Student-Assoc.pdf

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............consider the following passage from the private plaintiffs’ brief arguing that the entire law must fall if the insurance coverage rule goes down:

The mandate was intended to be a direct subsidy to insurance companies, as compensation for requiring them (in the guaranteed-issue provision) to insure against “risks” that have already come to pass and forbidding them (in the community-rating provision) from using actuarially sound insurance premiums. The mandate thus works to counteract the powerful inflationary impacts of these other provisions, which would otherwise make premiums in the individual insurance market prohibitively expensive, thereby frustrating Congress’ goal of affordable health insurance. And Congress further viewed the mandate as necessary to prevent “adverse selection” to “game” the new insurance rules, which proponents warned would spark a “death spiral” in insurance.

The guaranteed-issue and community-rating requirements thus cannot operate without the mandate in the manner intended by Congress. Rather, “their associated force—not one or the other but both combined—was deemed by Congress to be necessary to achieve the end sought.” To strike the mandate alone would impermissibly eliminate a central quid pro quo of the Act. If the mandate falls, the guaranteed-issue and community-rating regulations must therefore fall with it, as the Government itself has conceded.

So the plaintiffs admit that, without the insurance coverage requirement, premiums will become “prohibitively expensive” and that the ACA’s provisions protecting people with preexisting conditions or who otherwise are highly likely to need health care (what are known as “guaranteed-issue” and “community-rating” laws in the jargon of health policy) “cannot operate without the mandate in the manner intended by Congress.” This is a flat out admission that the Scalia Rule applies in this case. Guaranteed issue and community rating are regulations of interstate commerce, and thus Congress has “every power needed” to make them effective — including the power to enact the insurance coverage requirement.


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more:
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/01/30/414335/aca-opponents-give-up-the-farm/

January 31, 2012

FRANK RICH: The Molotov Party - For the new GOP, conservative isn’t nearly radical enough.

The Molotov Party
For the new GOP, conservative isn’t nearly radical enough.
By Frank Rich Published


The "Mitt Romney" we've been sold is a lazy media construct, a fictional creation, or maybe even a hoax.


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Known for being frugal to a fault, Romney does not seem to particularly relish spending his fortune. He likes data, and his piles of dollars seem to be mainly markers to keep score of his success. Though he now tries to wrap himself in Main Street brands like Staples and Domino’s Pizza that passed through Bain’s clutches, he was not intellectually or managerially engaged in the businesses that Bain bought and sold; he didn’t run any of them. He seems to have no cultural passions beyond his and his wife’s first-date movie, The Sound of Music. He is not a sportsman or conspicuous sports fan. His only real, nonnumerical passions seem to be his photogenic, intact family, which he wields like a weapon whenever an opponent with multiple marriages like John McCain or Gingrich looms into view—and, of course, his faith.


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In the current campaign, Romney makes frequent reference to faith, God, and his fierce loyalty to “the same church.” But whether in debates, or in the acres of official material on his campaign website, or in a flyer pitched at religious voters in South Carolina, he never names what that faith or church is. In Romneyland, Mormonism is the religion that dare not speak its name. Which leaves him unable to talk about the very subject he seems to care about most, a lifelong source of spiritual, familial, and intellectual sustenance. We’re used to politicians who camouflage their real views about issues, or who practice fraud in their backroom financial and political deal-making, but this is something else. Romney’s very public persona feels like a hoax because it has been so elaborately contrived to keep his core identity under wraps.

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In the current campaign, Romney makes frequent reference to faith, God, and his fierce loyalty to “the same church.” But whether in debates, or in the acres of official material on his campaign website, or in a flyer pitched at religious voters in South Carolina, he never names what that faith or church is. In Romneyland, Mormonism is the religion that dare not speak its name. Which leaves him unable to talk about the very subject he seems to care about most, a lifelong source of spiritual, familial, and intellectual sustenance. We’re used to politicians who camouflage their real views about issues, or who practice fraud in their backroom financial and political deal-making, but this is something else. Romney’s very public persona feels like a hoax because it has been so elaborately contrived to keep his core identity under wraps.

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Even as the Republican Establishment continues to prop up Mitt, it remains in denial about his long-term prospects. Romney rationalizers argue that Gingrich’s blunderbuss assault on Bain was a blessing in disguise, for it will force Romney to come up with an airtight defense before the fall. But Romney has been trying since 1994 to formulate answers to questions about his Bain career, his vast wealth, and his leadership role in his church. If he hasn’t found them by now, it’s because he doesn’t have them. And so his preferred route has been just to avoid tough questions altogether—and confrontation in general—by sticking to manicured campaign events as immaculate as his Brooks Brothers shirts. He tries to shun mainstream-news-organization interviews, and dropped the “Ask Mitt Anything” sessions with voters that were a staple of his 2008 campaign. Even straightforward interviews with sympathetic interlocutors like Fox News’s Bret Baier and the radio talk-show host Laura Ingraham throw him into a tizzy, if not a hissy fit. Remarkably, he received high marks for months for his steady demeanor and discipline in the Republican debates, but as we now know, all it takes is a tough question about his own biography to prompt a stammering answer and robotic herky-jerky head movements suggestive of a human-size Pez dispenser. His belated efforts to go on the attack against Gingrich often make him sound like an adolescent tattletale. In Romney’s best debate, last Thursday, he was still outshone by the also-ran Rick Santorum.

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all of it (FANTASTIC with very interesting new tidbits):
http://nymag.com/news/frank-rich/gop-2012-1/

January 31, 2012

The Sex-Blind Delusions of a Contraception Fight - By Charles P. Pierce

The Sex-Blind Delusions of a Contraception Fight
By Charles P. Pierce
at 6:43PM


Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/contraception-controversy-6648708#ixzz1l0c7hddU

Why just today, Newt Gingrich, a recent convert toward Catholicism and away from wife-dumping and staff-banging, brought his own judicious historian's perspective to the controversy, declaring the administration to be at war with religion. And a while back, of course, the administration's Health and Human Services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, announced that, why, yes, contraception would be covered under the Affordable Care Act — why do you ask? This occasioned some outraged squealing from the usual quarters, most notably from the institutional Roman Catholic Church which, in matters of human sexuality, at the moment enjoys the same moral credibility as a goat.

January 31, 2012

HAHAHAHA FUNNY HE USES TELEPROMPTER LIKE RONNIE

Rick Warren, mega-church grifter, uses some of his tax-exempt time to promote the asinine Republican attack on President Obama's use of the teleprompter:

@RickWarren
Rick Warren
Leaders speak from conviction. Actors speak from telepromters.
27 Jan via web
Retweeted by michealpardue and 100+ others

Of course Warren is right. Actors do use teleprompters:
http://www.eschatonblog.com/2012/01/that-inaugural-spot-was-great-idea.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FbRuz+%28Eschaton%29
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/30/1059427/-Rick-Warren-is-an-ass,-but-hes-right?via=blog_1