Gryphen's Sarah Palin checklist. A work in progress.

When Sarah Palin burst on the scene as John McCain's VP candidate and started fanning the flames of racism against Barack Obama, as well as making incredibly dangerous and fraudulent claims against our future President, I made a mental list of priorities that I wanted to help accomplish. (By the way this list evolved over time and now includes subjects that I was not even aware were coming down the pike in 2008.)

1) Stop John McCain and Sarah Palin from making it to the White House.

2) Reveal the truth behind the fantasy that Sarah Palin is a good and effective Governor.

3) Get her out of office!

4) Reveal the pathetic and controversial truth about Sarah Palin's personal mythology.

5) Provide a platform for those who know truthful stories about Palin, yet are afraid to report them to the press.

6) Direct focus on Palin, and her family's, attempts to grift money from her ignorant supporters, and report on how frivolously she spends that money.

7) Help journalists, authors, documentary makers, and anybody willing to tell the truth about Sarah Palin, make contact with sources willing to tell of their experiences with the Grizzled Mama.

8) Reveal to the widest segment of the American public possible, one of the BIGGEST, and most egregious, hoaxes ever perpetrated on them by a politician in our country's history. Babygate!

9) Draw back the cloak of secrecy that shields those that supported, and used Sarah Palin for their own nefarious reasons, to reveal them to the American public.

10) Help to make sure that another potentially dangerous politician, like Sarah Palin, George Bush, or John Edwards never gets close to the White House again. (I only include Edwards because his adultery could have made him a very easy person to blackmail into supporting policies that could have done our country great harm.)

So let's see how I've done.

1) After her defeat I received a lot of heartfelt thanks from many of the visitors here.

But in my opinion it was mostly undeserved.

I did only a small part in getting the truth out about Sarah Palin, John McCain, and the Republican party.

Others like Katie Couric, Keith Olbermann, Charlie Gibson, and even Tine Fey deserve FAR more credit than I do.  Of course ultimately the real thanks should go to Sarah Palin herself for being such an incredibly unqualified, and gaffe prone candidate.

(Half-check mark for me.)

2) I helped to found the Alaskans for Truth, and used my blog and networking, to get the truth out about Troopergate, the per-diems she paid herself to stay in her own house, the free travel vouchers she got on behalf of family members, the cronyism that riddled her administration, etc., etc., etc., to my fellow Alaskans.

(Check mark!)

3) I don't actually know how much I helped to accomplish this, but she's out! (Check mark!)

4) I don't believe there are too many people who are now unaware that the idyllic life that the Palins paint for themselves is pure mooseshit. Check mark!

5) I helped Mercede start her blog, wrote posts containing information from anonymous sources about the Palins that they could not get published in other places, helped Shailey get her story out in the National Enquirer, on this blog, and later on her own blog, tried to help Levi get his book written two years ago when it would have made a huge impact, and have maintained a blogroll linking to blogs ("Sarah Palin's Least Favorite Blogs") that have done some truly ground breaking work on getting the truth out about Klondike Kardashian. (Check mark!)

6) From SarahPAC, to "Sarah Palin's Alaska", to Dancing with the Stars, and even to Palin's 2012 Political Prick Tease, I have tried to rake away the Palin bullshit to lay bare what is REALLY taking place as often as possible.

(Half check mark. I could have done better.)

7) I have provided support to Geoffrey Dunn, Nick Broomfield, Joe McGinniss,  as well as others, and I have helped them as much as I could to make contact with people living in Wasilla, and around Alaska, that have stories to tell about the REAL Sarah Palin. I have certainly not provided ALL of their sources, and in fact all of them have made very impressive contacts of their own, but I did what I could. Some truths remain unrevealed.

(Half check mark.)


8) Most of this work has taken place right here on this blog, or on one of the blogs in the IM blogroll, but with Joe's book we are finally seeing the bizarre story reaching a much larger audience, and hopefully with the release of Fred's book , a much larger audience still.

(Pending check mark I hope to give myself soon.)

9) The Koch brothers, Fox News, the Dominionists, and the Republican party have all had their hands up the back of Sarah Palins blouse working her like a ventriloquist dummy voicing on their behalf crazy inflammatory things like "death panels," or "palling around with terrorists.'" Or ginning up racial hatred toward Barack Obama or the Muslim community.  This is clearly a work in progress, but I believe that we have made some significant connections between Palin and her puppeteers that have caused them some serious blowback and have forced them to abandon her in order to move on to less controversial marionettes.  However now that we know how they operate we can remain vigilant and help to identify the NEXT empty vessel that they fill up with their rhetorical poison.

Looking at you Rick Perry!

(Half check mark.)

10) This has ALWAYS been my ultimate goal, even while I am recognizing the possible futility of ever making it a reality.

Sarah Palin was chosen to be McCain's VP for the most superficial reasons imaginable.  She was attractive, she had faked having a Down Syndrome child to cement her pro-life position, she had hacked various polls to make herself seem popular in Alaska, and she was considered a Christian.

And that my friends was the whole package.

The fact that this occurred should have sent an electric shock of realization to the American population that candidates for the most important political positions in our country were being selected by shadowy figures who have determined that we are so simple minded that we could be seduced by a horribly unqualified pretty face, trained to read talking points off of cue cards.

If this had worked, and it came much closer to working than I think most of us want to admit, it would have furthered a continuing change in the political realities of our country that could have proved devastating.

This change has been orchestrated by the Republican party and started with Ronald Reagan, an actor who played the President, to George W. Bush, a simpleton who played a cowboy playing a President, to a Sarah Palin, a telegenic spokes model who played a Governor, who could have been groomed to play the President, once John McCain kicked the bucket served out his term and she ran in 2012. (Insert scream of horror here.)

Ultimately THIS is what the American voting population needs to be educated about, and Sarah Palin is the perfect example to illustrate that lesson. After reading what Frank Bailey, Geoffrey Dunn, and Joe McGinniss have written, it is clear that the information is now available for any of those who want to really understand how completely broken the political system is in this country.

Now all we have to do is help to encourage people to read the information that is now available, and the information that is still coming, about Sarah Palin, and then use that to vet the shiny new politicians that are just over the next horizon.

That sounds simple, right?  Yeah right.

Well I am not giving up.  After coming this far, there is NO WAY I am just walking away now.

Are you with me?

If you are then I perhaps someday this item will have a check mark as well. But not yet.

Obamacare is working. Shh, don't tell the Republicans, it will just make their heads explode.

Courtesy of The New Republic:

Republicans made a lot of arguments against the Affordable Care Act. But perhaps none were as effective, or as seemingly plausible, as their contention that their new law would cripple Medicare Advantage. 

New evidence suggests -- surprise! -- that the argument was wrong.

Medicare Advantage is the program that gives seniors the option of enrolling in private insurance rather than the traditional, government-run program. The government pays the insurers a flat fee, per enrollee; in return, the insurers provide coverage, sometimes including benefits that traditional Medicare does not. Overall, about one in four seniors belongs to such plans. 

The policy rationale for Medicare Advantage is two-fold: To give seniors more options and to introduce some private-sector competition. The idea is that private insurers might be able to be more innovative or offer certain combinations of services that some seniors would prefer. But, for much of its history, the program (formerly known as Medicare-plus-choice) was also a form of corporate welfare.

Non-partisan studies, by the likes of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, suggested that the government was paying the insurers too much. 

The architects of the Affordable Care Act decided, quite sensibly, to reduce those extra subsidies and use the money to offset part of the law’s cost. That’s when the Republicans, and their allies, pounced. Taking money away from the insurers, they claimed, would force insurers to charge more, limit their offerings, or pull out of the market altogether. 

It was a reasonable proposition; that’s more or less what happened back in the late 1990s, the first time government reduced the overpayments. (I argued, and still believe, such a trade-off would be worthwhile.) But new information, just released from the administration, suggests those predictions haven’t come true. 

On the contrary, the Department of Health and Human Services announced on Thursday that premiums for the plans are down and enrollment is up, well above the official projections. As the Kaiser Family Foundation has reported, this is actually the second year in a row premiums have declined. (According to HHS, premiums in 2012 will be 11.5 percent below what they were in 2010.) Meanwhile, all Medicare beneficiaries can now get preventative care without co-payments. And their exposure to prescription drug bills have declined, because the new health law is closing the infamous “donut hole” in coverage. 

So, in short, Medicare Advantage plans are becoming cheaper, slightly more people are enrolling in them, and everybody on Medicare -- even seniors in the traditional government-run program -- has better coverage than they did before.

And don't forget that the many of the most important, and positive changes, have not even taken place yet.

For instance check out what is in store in 2014:

NEW CONSUMER PROTECTIONS 

Prohibiting Discrimination Due to Pre-Existing Conditions or Gender. The law implements strong reforms that prohibit insurance companies from refusing to sell coverage or renew policies because of an individual’s pre-existing conditions. Also, in the individual and small group market, the law eliminates the ability of insurance companies to charge higher rates due to gender or health status. Effective January 1, 2014. Learn more about protecting Americans with pre-existing conditions. 

Eliminating Annual Limits on Insurance Coverage. The law prohibits new plans and existing group plans from imposing annual dollar limits on the amount of coverage an individual may receive. Effective January 1, 2014. Learn how the law will phase out annual limits by 2014. 

Ensuring Coverage for Individuals Participating in Clinical Trials. Insurers will be prohibited from dropping or limiting coverage because an individual chooses to participate in a clinical trial. Applies to all clinical trials that treat cancer or other life-threatening diseases. Effective January 1, 2014. 

You keep this in mind at all times. The Republicans do not attack "Obamacare" because it will NOT work.  They attack it because they are terrified that it WILL work.

If you always remember that it will give you the tools you will need to out argue any neo-con piece of garbage that tries to convince you that your President is not working to BETTER the lives of Americans.

And if you are unconvinced of that yourself then perhaps you need to read about this Des Moines couple's experience.

Before I close this post let me leave with a portion lifted from the last eye opening paragraph from the article cited above:

But by the time the next president is sworn in, enough people will have experienced the protections and benefits it offers that no elected official would risk his or her standing by rescinding it.

It looks like Rick Perry has decided to change his image and taken a page right out of the Sarah Palin playbook.

Image courtesy of DC Decoder.

Well I guess he knows he has the batshit necessary to attract the Teabaggers down pat, so all he felt he needed was a little of that Michele Bachmann good hair mojo.

He is not the first to realize that ole crazy eyes might possibly have Bagger attracting follicles.

Lawrence O'Donnell reports on the Republican debate that devolved into a circular firing squad, with Rick Perry right in the middle.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Can I just mention how much good it does my heart to watch the Republicans beating each other up?

I wish I could start EVERY morning with something like this.

Sarah Palin trots out new serious political pundit image, as illustated by her new serious political pundit wig.

To watch the video just click the picture. Warning, it does take you to a Fox News site so take your Maalox first.

According to Klondike Kardashian now that CNN has hosted this "Tea Party" debate they have moved from "Lamestream" media to the Teabagger ass kissing media, which greatly pleases this insignificant political prick teaser. Good job CNN!

Palin has a favorite new term that she just learned, "Crony Capatalism," which she uses repeatedly during this interview to essentially smear the whole group of GOP candidates at one time or another.

However she really brings out the long knives when Greta mentions Rick Perry, the HPV vaccine, and the suggestion that the reason he went with the program was due to possible payoff from the manufacturer of the drug. Here Palin goes for the jugular and starts throwing charges of, her new favorite term that she just learned about, "Crony Capitalism" all over the place like a Ninja star.

She even compares Perry's decision to make the vaccination semi-mandatory to HER decision, around the same time, to NOT go with the program.  Essentially creating as much space between Rick Perry's policies and hers as possible, which is a complete turnaround to how she described "Governor Good Hair" only  few short months ago. You know BEFORE he threw his Texas sized hat into the ring and rustled all of her Teabagger support away from her.

At the end of this interview Greta asks the question that she is apparently contractually obligated to ask concerning whether or not Palin is still considering throwing her wig hat into the ring to run for President? I almost feel sorry for Greta who appears to be very tired of this dog and pony show, but Palin leaps on the question like a feral Wasillian and implies that she LOVES the fact that by staying out she can still influence the subjects that the OTHER candidates take on, including her favorite new term she just learned about, "Crony Capitalism."

This interview was just as bizarre and full of misinformation, attacks on our President, and barbs thrown at her own party as usual, the only REAL news seems to be that she is now blatantly, and aggressively, attacking Rick Perry, which seems to suggest that the sources who have said she is angry with him for very personal reasons are probably dead on.

Oh and of course the OTHER news from this interview is that whatever was on Palin's head from her LAST interview has clearly escaped and is undoubtedly still at large in the greater Wasilla area.

Residents should remain vigilant!

Beige meets Off White as Tim Pawlenty injects a little...a little...well whatever is the opposite of "excitement" into the Mitt Romney campaign.

"You're just kidding that I have to wear the magic underwear right Mitt?"

Courtesy of The New York Times:

Mr. Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota who ended his quest for the Republican nomination last month, chose Mr. Romney over Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, whom he was close to from their years serving on the Republican Governors Association. 

Many of Mr. Pawlenty’s contributors and supporters had been waiting for a signal from him in the escalating contest between Mr. Romney and Mr. Perry. And Mr. Pawlenty had been looking for help in retiring a campaign debt of at least $500,000. 

In a statement announcing Mr. Pawlenty as a national co-chairman of his campaign, Mr. Romney said: “Tim will be a trusted adviser as I move forward with my campaign. Tim has always been an advocate for lower taxes, reduced spending and an environment where jobs can be created. It is an honor to have him serve as co-chair to my campaign for the presidency.” 

Mr. Pawlenty, in an interview Monday morning on “Fox and Friends,” said of Mr. Romney, “I believe he’s going to be our party’s nominee.”

Oh yeah, THIS is what a campaign that has a mild mannered sofa cushion for a candidate does to reinvigorate their message.  Add the guy that restless sheep count jumping into a campaign at night to help them fall asleep.

The only way that Pawlenty could possibly make the Romney campaign more interesting is if Mitt lit him on fire and pushed him into a crowd of kerosene soaked Teabaggers. (I have to admit I would probably tune in for that.)

Of course now that Tim "Micheal Bay" Pawlenty is on board, he MIGHT be able to jazz up Romney's campaign commercials, and take them from this:

To this:

After all we know how much these advertisements helped Tim Pawlenty.

Wait that didn't come out right.

Rick Perry meets his biggest fan and living embodiment of the Tea Party movement, Orly Taitz. Oh THIS ought to be good!

Courtesy of Think Progress:

Taitz also told ThinkProgress that she’s “pretty sure [the Perry campaign] will” bring up the birth certificate issue, but she said their strategy “will be to wait and use it at the last possible moment to make sure that there is no primary challenger in the Democrat Party.” 

KEYES: I saw you were able to get a bit of face time with Governor Perry on the line. What did you talk with him about? 

TAITZ: [...] From what I understood, he knew who I was and what I was talking about. [...] I told him that you will get Obama, you will have him in prison for Social Security fraud. [...] 

KEYES: Did Governor Perry seem very receptive to your messages? 

TAITZ: Yes. 

KEYES: Do you think he’ll be taking that message forward, particularly with the birth certificate issue? Are you hopeful that he will? 

TAITZ: I’m pretty sure they will, but I’m also sure that their strategy will be to wait and use it at the last possible moment to make sure that there is no primary challenger in the Democrat Party.

So is Rick Perry just schmoozing Taitz, or does he really intend to pursue the birth certificate matter if he is chosen as the GOP candidate?  Well from what I know of Perry, I tend to lean toward the latter.

Yes he is that much of an idiot.

By the way there are mumblings from various sources that Sarah Palin, might be VERY unhappy with a certain Governor of Texas.

She fertilized the crazy ass ground where Perry has now planted the seeds of his candidacy with her truckloads of mooseshit, and it looks more and more like he will be the one to reap the benefits of all of her hard work. After all she brought the paint chip eaters out of the darkness with her screechy siren song of anti-government rhetoric and "adjustable for the venue" boobies, and now here they are smearing their batshit of acceptance all over Rick "Sarah Palin with a tinier penis" Perry.

And HOW is she supposed to launch a third party candidacy if everybody ignorant enough to go for such a foolhardy idea is already stealing their children's lunch money to send it to Perry?

yeah I would bet big money that Sarah Palin absolutely HATES Rick Perry right about now.

But that is okay because Orly Taitz just loves his bony Texas ass!

Map of Voter Suppression Legislation state by state.

Courtesy of Mother Jones:

What the map doesn't show is that five states, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio, and West Virginia, have actually curtailed early voting as well. As Ari Berman reported, some of these ban voting on "the Sunday before the election—a day when black churches historically mobilize their constituents." 

"Americans are killed by lightning more often than they are victimized by fraud that voter ID would do something to stop," said Justin Levitt, a professor of law at Loyola Law School. "We've amputated a foot to stop a potential hangnail." The Brennan Center for Justice estimates that nearly ten percent of eligible voters lack the kind of photo ID required by these voter ID laws. 

Republican defenders of voter ID laws claim that higher black turnout in Georgia during the 2006 and 2010 elections proves that voter ID laws don't suppress the minority vote—an argument repeated by minority witness Hans von Spakovsky in his Senate testimony Thursday. But in states without such restrictions, the increase in black turnout was actually much larger. Von Spakovsky's analyses would "fail statistics 101 at just about any college in the country," Levitt said.

Before we all get too cocky about the embarrassingly inept pack of Republican candidates fighting over who will suffer a crushing defeat at the hands of our President, don't forget that the Republicans are essentially cowards who are terrified of a fair fight.

They will pull every trick in the book to level the playing field, and WE have to remain vigilant to call them out on these tactics and hopefully find ways to render them ineffective.

And if any of you have doubts that the GOP can steal a national election, than either you must be new to this country, or you were born AFTER the election of 2000.

Just for laughs. The Republican candidate flow chart.

Sometimes you have to just laugh at the GOP circus as it rolls into town.

Of course later there will be those huge piles of elephant shit that somebody needs to shovel off of the streets, but for right now we can just enjoy the show.

President Obama introduces "The American Jobs Act".

I thought the speech was very good, and I also thought the President demonstrated great passion as well as great exasperation that he has so little support to do the things for this country that MUST be done.

Here are the highlights courtesy of The Monitor:

Nearly $250 billion in tax relief for individuals and businesses through tax credits and a variety of tax cuts. 

140 billion to upgrade roads, bridges and schools. 

35 billion to help keep teachers, police and firefighters on the job. 

Extending and expanding a payroll tax cut that would save the typical American family $1,500 in taxes in 2012. 

A payroll tax "holiday" for employers on any new hires or wages. All companies would be eligible for the break, which would apply to up to $50 million in new payroll spending. 

Cut the payroll tax in half for businesses with payrolls of less than $5 million.

The President bent over backwards to find programs and tax cuts that the Republicans should NOT be able to vote against. But sadly for the American people that will only work if the Republicans are not actually willing to let this country crumble into disrepair for short term political gain. I have to say that I do not have much confidence that such an obvious act of treason is not exactly what the Republicans have decided to do.

Rick Perry shows what a man he is by bullying 76 year old Ron Paul!

These are pictures taken during a commercial break in the Republican debate.

Notice that he has grabbed hold of Paul's wrist.

What do you think he needed to lean in so close to say? I doubt it was reasonable.

Jon Huntsman decides to step in between them to protect Ron Paul.

I fucking hate bullies!  And though I am not sure what was said here, I can certainly tell from Perry's body language that he was trying to intimidate Ron Paul, who might be a nut, but he is a harmless nut, and does NOT deserve to be disrespected in this manner!

(Big Hat tip to Market Ticker Forum.)

Update: I have no idea if this means I have slipped into an alternate universe or just eaten a batch of bad mushrooms, but somehow I found myself in agreement with the Sea O'Pee on Rick Perry and his bullying techniques.  I will try to make sure that NEVER happens again.

I mean talk about "jumping the shark!"

Sarah Palin has been demoted from Tea Party icon, to moldy candy-less pinata. "Here's your stick, step right up and take a swing!"

First up we have Ann "Crypt Keepers daughter" Coulter, speaking to Laura Ingraham filling in for Bill O'Reilly, who said of Sarah Palin:

You know, we used to all love Sarah Palin, conservatives like me, for her enemies. I'm starting to dislike her because of her fans. And she does get things wrong. She wouldn't have to. I think she's bright, but she doesn't -- her good points do not seem to be in the direction of running for president. Just like Newt Gingrich, you just go ahead and run so we can get this over with.

You can see the interview for yourself directly below.

However Coulter is certainly not the ONLY conservative pundit taking a swing at Palin these days, check out the scathing evisceration of Palin's political prick tease from RedState.com:

When people (including her own supporters) began to (reasonably) speculate that this would be the date and place of her announcement (as she no doubt intended for them to do), she issued one of the most ridiculous, delusions-of-persecution laden statements in the history of politics, declaring herself the victim of “establishment political games” and declaring that such speculation was “more of the ‘politics-as-usual’ that Sarah Palin has fought against throughout her career.” 

Perhaps never before has a politician had the chutzpah to claim that excited speculation about her running for President was part of a conspiracy against her that she needed to thwart. Likewise never before have so many of a politician’s followers so eagerly lapped up something so transparently moronic. 

Palin’s ridiculous act has worn so thin with the GOP electorate that she now polls roughly equivalent with Ron Paul. Whereas three months ago she would have been in an ideal position to be kingmaker in the Republican primary, given that 71% of Republicans don’t want her to run for President, she might well be in a position that the first person she calls to offer an endorsement will politely turn it down. And nevermind actually running a campaign that could win – in addition to her substantial polling woes, Palin has no national campaign staff, no local staff in any early primary states, no big-donor fundraising network that can match either Perry or Romney, and if her September 3rd speech is any indication, no cohesive and defining issues or policies to run on. The primary calendar has moved earlier and is more heavily frontloaded with major states than ever; a candidate without any of the attributes listed above has never been so far behind the 8-ball as Sarah Palin would be now if she announced tomorrow.

Oh yeah, that's the stuff!

You know I offered numerous times in the past to have these conservatives come over and visit my blog to receive an education on Sarah Louise Palin and to learn what her game plan was for coyly acting the part of the political dilettante, while milking her supporters of every last red cent, before abruptly leaving them in the dust as she roars off in her private jet to live in the luxury that their ignorance and desperation provided for her.

If they had only taken me up on that offer, we could have been reading this postmortem on Palin a year ago.

Just in case you missed it, here is the ENTIRE Republican debate from earlier tonight. With a side order of tweets!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I have to say that I actually had fun watching this.

I really like watching Republicans go for each others jugular.

I tweeted my fingers to the bone during this debate, so rather than write up a whole long post concerning my opinion about who won, who lost, and who said the stupidest thing, I will just let you read my highly informative, truly inspired, and potentially libelous tweets. (And remember, I MAY have been drinking during the debate.)

Perry is talking. I am pinching myself to remind me I am not having a nightmare about George W. Bush. 

Matthews should be happy. Romney is trying to kick Perry in the balls. He is missing, but he is trying. 

Okay Romney landed one. Does Perry believe he is responsible for the oil in the ground in Texas?

Wait is that Santorum? Here let me Google him to make sure. 

Herman Cain is going for the applause lines. Why do I crave deep dish pizza all of the sudden? 

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! It is "Crazy time with Bachmann!" I LOVE this show! 

Is she blaming the economy on "Obamacare?" Uh seriously?(Which by the way does not even start to kick in until 2013.)

Well who could possibly out crazy Bachmann? Mr. Paul, you are up. 

Oh Brian Williams is going to get some nasty e-mails tonight! How dare he confront the leprechaun of Libertarianism. 

Uh oh, I think Newt is working for the Perry campaign! 

Perry smells Romney blood in the water. "Did somebody say healthcare?" he drawls. 

Let's sum up Romney's defense. "MY healthcare plan good. Obama healthcare plan bad!" 

"Why are people uninsured in Texas?" Perry "Federal government." WTF? 

I think Bachamnn just said something smart. I am looking out of the window for locusts and fiery rain. 

Newt is attacking the moderators! Quick load up the tranquilizer guns! (Yelled at Brain Williams and that Politco guy to not attempt to make Republicans disagree with each other. I am not sure that Newt understands the concept of a "debate.")

The journalists are "protecting" Barack Obama? When did that happen? 

Santorum is speaking in the third person again. 

Holy crap! Rick Perry just looked through my television at me. Yeah, I don't like that! 

Romney will not say that Bachmann crazy. Pansy! 

Paul just kicked Perry in his "Hillarycare" supporting balls. 

Ron Paul just jumped the shark with his condemnation of Reagan policies in the eighties. I guess he was ALWAYS on that side of the shark. 

Yeah Rick Perry, why do you hate old people? (Called Social Security a "Ponzi scheme.")

Perry attacks Karl Rove? Ooh that is going to leave a mark! 

Romney found chink in the Perry armor. 

Oh NOW Perry does not want to fight. Yeah, that is how bullies ALWAYS respond. 

Herman Cain is talking about the Chile model. Why is that man always making me hungry? 

Funniest line thus far. Ron Paul saying "I as President." 

I think I have to agree with Perry about the HPV vaccine. I hate myself for it, but I do. 

Romney is supporting Perry on the HPV vaccine. Crap I hate it when they stop fighting! 

Why is Newt talking about WMDs again? Somebody get the man a calendar. 

Paul hates people affected by natural disasters. What did people do before FEMA? They died. 

Huntsman wants to talk about something important. And his tan is VERY Presidential. He wins points with me. 

Newt offers solution to education. "Get rid of public education!" So simple, why didn't anybody else think of that? 

Hey! How come the Hispanic moderator does not get a chair? 

Romney wants a border fence. That is just for YOU Teabaggers. Romney loves you, don't forget. 

Wow, Romney just went full Teabagger! 

Santorum punts the immigration issue concerning the illegals already in the country. 

Hispanics wants us to stop helping illegal aliens? "Screw you Uncle Jesus, get your green card!" (Bachmann claimed to have spoken to Hispanics who did not want Federal dollars spent on illegal immigrants in this country.)

Wow everything is so simple for Herman Cain. He is either a genius, or Herman Cain. 

Paul going after the drug laws. The stoner voting block is his for the asking. 

Ron Paul said that those border fences might keep us from vacationing in Peurto Vallarta. I KNEW those fences weren't for the Mexicans! (Ron Paul had said the border fences are to keep Americans in.)

Romney says he IS member of Tea Party. Baggers say "Nuh uh!" 

Bachmann is trying to channel Reagan. Nancy looks doubtful. 

Huntsman says no to pledges and immediately starts to lose his voice. Somewhere Grover Nordquist is choking a voodoo doll. 

Bachmann: "Obama is weakening our military." Yes because killing terrorists makes the rest of the world think we are push overs. 

Huntsman defends science? I thought he was a Republican? 

Perry grabbed the scientists by the scruff of the neck and throws them under his big ole Texas bus. Now that is a Republican!  (In response to Perry saying that the findings on climate science are not agreed to by most scientists.)


(I did correct a few spelling mistakes, but for the most part those are my tweets as tweeted in the heat of the moment.)

James Murdoch expected to be called back before the House of Commons after evidence reveals he may have lied in earlier testimony. A Murdoch lying? Oh the humanity!

Courtesy of the Daily Mail:

Yesterday it was suggested that James Murdoch must have known as long ago as 2008 that phone hacking was widespread at the News of the World, MPs were told. 

The News International chief executive had informed the Commons Culture, Media and Sport select committee in July that as far as he knew, voicemail interception had been limited to one ‘rogue’ reporter. 

But devastating evidence yesterday from two of his most senior managers alleged that he was alerted three years ago to the existence of an e-mail indicating that journalists other than Clive Goodman, who was jailed in 2007, had been engaging in illegal hacking. 

Former News of the World editor Colin Myler and ex-legal manager Tom Crone told the committee the e-mail strongly implied that others at the paper were deeply involved. 

Mr Crone said it was ‘absolutely inconceivable’ that the full significance of the e-mail had not been explained to Mr Murdoch who is now expected to be recalled to give evidence to MPs. He said last night that he stands by his testimony. 

Less than 24 hours after the pair delivered their powerful testimony before MPs, police this morning arrest a 16th suspect in their investigation of phone hacking at the News of the World.The 35-year-old man was arrested at his north London home in a dawn raid and has not been named.

Yes I am still paying attention to this case, and I still am of the opinion that it might very well eventually have a damaging effect on Fox News, and by association the Republican party. Well at least that is my hope.

I believe that the investigation on this side of the pond is just now getting started, however the recent revelations of just how chummy Murdoch was with Tony Blair should make investigators salivate at the possibility of finding some very high placed politicians with some very difficult to explain connections to the media mogul.

Did you know that Tony Blair was the godfather of Murdoch's daughter?

Oh yes, this could get very juicy indeed!

Lawrence O'Donnell responds to e-mail from Republican chairman in Iowa asking if he would apologize for repeatedly saying that Sarah Palin will not run for President after she announces. An announcement that he expected to take place on September 3rd.

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If only the Teabaggers watched Lawrence O'Donnell instead of Fox News, just imagine how much grief and disappointment they could have avoided.

Reminding the Progressives what their President accomplished when the Democrats had the majority in Congress. And the potential of what we can do in the future.

Surely they all realize that I can't do this alone.

 This is a summation of the first two years of the Obama Administration's accomplishments to remind us all about what it means to have the majority in Congress that can actually pass legislation and effect the kind of change that guided the State of our country's affair in the right path. Whether we like what the Obama Administration accomplished or not is beside the point but it takes a majority to push for something as we had witnessed during the first two years of the Obama Administration. 

This is also a reminder about why we need to reverse the power structure in 2011 by electing more and better Democrats to achieve more of what we had started in the first two years of this Administration. I understand some folks will try to undermine the progress we have made but we must highlight them so that the false narrative of some does not feel like the reality. 

To remind yourself of just how productive this President was before Democrats were caught flat footed and the Republicans captured the House, just click on this link courtesy of the Daily Kos.

If we continue to allow the Republicans to set the agenda and lose our passion for the fight, there is NO doubt that things in this country will get even worse.

Imagine what it would be like if the GOP captures the Senate AND the Presidency? 

Oh I almost forgot you don't HAVE TO imagine that, we just finished living it from 2000 to 2008. Remember?

So stand your Zumba toned ass up, dust off your khakis, put on your Birkenstocks, grab a skinny Latte from Starbucks, climb into your Prius, and get involved! Because our President and our country need you!

Teabaggers FINALLY realize that Sarah Palin has just been using them. Everybody else on the planet goes "Duh!"

From The Hill:

Wary that some are joining the grassroots conservative movement merely to sell books and enhance their celebrity status, a Tea Party group is putting the heat on former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to make her presidential plans clear.In a Tuesday statement, Armed Forces Tea Party Patriots paints former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin as the prime example of that kind of behavior. 

The group, which consists of former military members, wants Palin to announce whether she will seek the White House or sit out the 2012 race. 

“If not we are at risk of having major Tea Party speeches and events used as political rallies for a selected candidate [versus] a citizen based movement that forces the legislative agenda and serves as a fundamental check to the current corrupt culture in Washington, D.C.,” the group said in the statement. 

In other news Teabaggers also just realized that the sky is blue, water is wet, and that people they see on television are NOT actually living inside of their television.

The bad news for the Teabaggers is that EVERYBODY has been using them all along, including the Koch brothers, Fox News, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Jim Demint, and probably every person whoever realized that they might be a group consisting of possibly most gullible people on the planet.

I don't expect much to come from this epiphany.  All Palin has to do is strap on the "Belmont boobs" and these morons will start throwing dollar bills at her feet like drunk horny members of a bachelor party hoping against hope that THIS time she will take them into the champagne room, and make all of their dreams come true...which in this case means announcing she will run for President.

Everything you need to know about the Teabaggers is represented by this pathetic excuse for a human being, Tony Katz. Update.

There was an exchange on MSNBC earlier today between this bloated piece of shit and Jamal Simmons in response to these statements by Teamster President James Hoffa directed toward the Tea Party:

“President Obama, this is your army,” Hoffa concluded to applause, his voice raising to a shout. “We are ready to march. Let’s take these sons of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong,” he said, stepping back from the lectern where President Obama would speak less than an hour later. 

“There’s a war on working Americans and we are getting sick and tired of it,” Hoffa told ABC News Tuesday morning. “It’s absolutely a war. They declared war on us. We didn’t declare war on them. They’re the ones that introduced right to work in 14 states, and went after public employee bargaining rights in both Wisconsin and Ohio. We’re fighting them across the board. They want to roll the clock back to about 1900.” 

Now this is video of what Katz said about Hoffa, the Democrats, and President Obama. I am going to warn you ahead of time that he is an especially nasty piece of work, and what he said literally had me shouting at the television and wanting DESPERATELY to be in the same room with him for just five uninterrupted minutes.

That, my friends, is the face of the Tea Party in this country. THAT is the kind of sloppy, porcine piece of human excrement that is given a platform on our airwaves to attack our President.

I mean for God's sake Gandhi himself would have punched that guy in the throat!

Update: Here is Hoffa's FULL quote:

President Obama this is your army. We are ready to march. And president Obama we want one thing: Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. That's what we’re going to tell him. He’s going to be - and when he sees what we’re doing here he will be inspired. But he needs help and you know what? Everybody here's got to vote. If we go back and keep the eye on the prize, let's take these sons of a bitches out and give America back to America where we belong! Thank you very much!

I am sorry, I thought everybody knew that Hoffa was talking about voting the Teabaggers out. I will make sure to be more clear in the future. 

Good news for the millions of disenfranchised Republicans, feeling trapped in their party. Apparently you can leave.

Courtesy of Truthout:

To those millions of Americans who have finally begun paying attention to politics and watched with exasperation the tragicomedy of the debt ceiling extension, it may have come as a shock that the Republican Party is so full of lunatics. To be sure, the party, like any political party on earth, has always had its share of crackpots, like Robert K. Dornan or William E. Dannemeyer. But the crackpot outliers of two decades ago have become the vital center today: Steve King, Michele Bachman (now a leading presidential candidate as well), Paul Broun, Patrick McHenry, Virginia Foxx, Louie Gohmert, Allen West. The Congressional directory now reads like a casebook of lunacy. 

It was this cast of characters and the pernicious ideas they represent that impelled me to end a nearly 30-year career as a professional staff member on Capitol Hill. A couple of months ago, I retired; but I could see as early as last November that the Republican Party would use the debt limit vote, an otherwise routine legislative procedure that has been used 87 times since the end of World War II, in order to concoct an entirely artificial fiscal crisis. Then, they would use that fiscal crisis to get what they wanted, by literally holding the US and global economies as hostages. 

The debt ceiling extension is not the only example of this sort of political terrorism. Republicans were willing to lay off 4,000 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees, 70,000 private construction workers and let FAA safety inspectors work without pay, in fact, forcing them to pay for their own work-related travel - how prudent is that? - in order to strong arm some union-busting provisions into the FAA reauthorization. 

Everyone knows that in a hostage situation, the reckless and amoral actor has the negotiating upper hand over the cautious and responsible actor because the latter is actually concerned about the life of the hostage, while the former does not care. This fact, which ought to be obvious, has nevertheless caused confusion among the professional pundit class, which is mostly still stuck in the Bob Dole era in terms of its orientation. For instance, Ezra Klein wrote of his puzzlement over the fact that while House Republicans essentially won the debt ceiling fight, enough of them were sufficiently dissatisfied that they might still scuttle the deal. Of course they might - the attitude of many freshman Republicans to national default was "bring it on!" 

It should have been evident to clear-eyed observers that the Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe. This trend has several implications, none of them pleasant.

I imagine that for many old school Republicans they must feel as if the inmates have taken over the asylum, and are just hoping this is a passing fad, and that somebody will restore order.

Personally I have been watching things headed this direction for quite some time, though admittedly when I saw how horribly the Bush administration failed at running the country, I thought the GOP might be a little less cocky and more likely to work WITH Democrats in order to get our country back on track.

Why yes I DO still believe in the Tooth Fairy, why do you ask?

These days I can only predict that things are going to continue to erode until something really HUGE happens that will bring us all together. (And NO I am not suggesting that the Obama administration conduct a False Flag operation. Democrats don't do that.) Or the Teabaggers actually convince enough people to take up arms against the Federal government and we have our second Civil War.

That last option might seem a little crazy, and at one time it did to me as well.  At one time.

Rick Perry to skip Freedom Forum in order to tell those damn forest fires to stop burning down Texas!

Courtesy of CNN:

Republican presidential candidate and Texas Gov. Rick Perry will not attend the Palmetto Freedom Forum of GOP candidates Monday night, sponsored by Sen. Jim DeMint, and will instead return to Texas to deal with the wildfires in the state, DeMint and the Perry campaign told CNN. 

The South Carolina senator's office said they learned of Perry's plans not to attend the Columbia, South Carolina event Monday morning. 

"The Governor is in close contact with emergency operations officials regarding fires in Texas, including calls with his emergency management chief this morning," Perry's campaign communications secretary Ray Sullivan told CNN. "Governor Perry is cancelling the remainder of his South Carolina schedule today (including DeMint Fourm) and his California schedule tomorrow in order to return to Texas ASAP."

I'm confused. Can't Rick Perry pray for God to solve the forest fire issue for him from South Carolina? Or does God only hear prayers that originate from Texas?

Or perhaps Perry is going to be more proactive this time and walk right up to them thar forest fires and saturate them with good ole Texas, 200 proof urine until they are drowned plum out of existence? (Of course he may be in direct competition with this guy if he is.)

I don't know about the rest of you but I am getting a flashback to the John McCain campaign and a certain somebody who suspended his campaign, and postpone having to debate Barack Obama, in order to fix the economy."

You know I would hate to suggest that Rick Perry is a coward or anything. I mean don't get me wrong, I WILL suggest it, I just hate to.

By the way, and don't quote me on this, I hear a rumor that Smokey the Bear will be filling in for Perry at the conference. Some sort of job swap thing.

His message will be "Only YOU can prevent moronic Texans from ending up in the White House."