My God Can Do Anything

Could it have been anymore lopsided?

First to mind, how do you think The Commander Guy would have fared in something like what went down today?

It would have crashed YouTube, for days, weeks.

Maybe, Wilt Chamberlain, one-on-one, against Willie Shoemaker?



A Mantle-Maris Yankee team, versus the Bad News Bears?

We talk, of course, about THE EVENT, today, in Baltimore, with President Barack Obama taking on the PartyofNoicans, at the GOP House Issues Conference.

Unprecedented, in this country (and how many time did we have to hear about the free-for-alls they have over in England), for a President, to take on the opposition party, in public, on television (which the PartyofNoicans are surely flagellating themselves, like the Pope, for that one), freestyle, question-and-answers, no holds barred.

It's virtually unanimous that Obama cleaned their clocks, holding court, taking their PartyofNoican talking-point-barbs-and-smears-questions and swatting them away, as easily as he would shoo a fly.

Afterall, he was dealing with the dwarfs, finks, phonies and frauds that don't know whether to piss, or wind their watches.



We'll have links below, in case you missed it.

But one thing.

There are calls, all over the board, for this to be done again, make it a regular thing.

Fat Chance.

For, one, Obama put the PartyofNoicans in a box, in the spotlight, called them out, on national television, for their morphing into the PartyofNoicans, so that is going to make things very uncomfortable, moving forward, remaining the obstructionists.

The emperor has no clothes thing.

But, it's an election year, so they will adhere to being the PartyofNoicans, lest they do anything to endanger their thin hopes of vaunting back to their Permanent Majority fantasy.

While it was great theatre today, the PartyofNoicans, egged on by the Flying Monkeys of the Right Wing Freak Show, and growing army of Teabaggers, have a firm, four-year plan to do anything, and everything, to tear down Obama, and the Democrats.

They'll take up Obama, on his Bipartisanship Love-In, but will remain the PartyofNoicans, insisting Obama, and the Dems, accept any and all PartyofNocian proposals, no matter how poorly written, how cheap and ridiculous they may be, and, when Obama and the Dems balk, push back, it's back to the lies and smears on how they want to destroy the country, having the government enslave the planet.

So enjoy the buzz for a day, or two, and then it's back to the SOS.

In the meantime, we'll let Luther Barnes, and the Red Budd Gospel Choir (and, yes, we've used this tune before), sum up the day;

My God Can Do Anything

Bonus Obama Clock-Cleaning Links

Marc Ambinder: Obama's Question Time: An Amazing Moment

Sam Stein: Obama Goes To GOP Lions' Den -- And Mauls The Lions

Steve Benen: MUST SEE TV...

David Corn: Obama and House GOP Bring Question Time to US

Steve M: TIMELY AS YESTERDAY'S HEADLINES

Amanda Terkel: Republicans dismayed by Obama’s strong performance, say it was a ‘mistake’ to let cameras roll

New Math

A bit of a cumbersome day on the homefront (and perhaps, with the excitement of last weekend, a wee bit tired).

So, we're going to throw one out to those hardy, game nitwits in the PartyofNoicans.

After the ridicule they received last week, for there infamous "Budget with No Numbers", they had another bell-ringing today, calling attention to their new budget, which, well, it's barely an improvement of what they offered last week

Still few numbers, lots of tax cuts, a bigger deficit, and even more unanswered questions.

They are pathetic.

Here's a sampling you can wade through.

Steve Benen: A BUDGET PERFECT FOR APRIL FOOLS' DAY...

Josh Marshall: Reassuringly the Same

Bob Cesca: $4 Trillion

D-Day: New And Improved, With Numbers!

So, with the PartyofNoicans deft mathematics skills in mind, what better salute can we give them, but the classic Tom Lehrer tune, "New Math" (the audio is Lehrer, the visual, an actor).

Somebody, please, send the PartyofNoicans a copy of "Writing A Budget for Dummies", though, we realize, even with that, it also, may be above their capabilities.

Tom Lehrer: New Math

Martha Chokely

Oh My!

It really hasn't been, oh, that long ago, that fervent, boiling, in-your-face expectations have been thoroughly crushed, decimated, blown to smithereens.

Just two years ago, when local icons Tom Brady, and Bill Belichick, walked off the Super Bowl field, 18-1, as opposed to the expected 19-0.

Paging Martha Chokely!

Oh boy, did she blow it ... big time!

She took a Ned Lamont-siesta, after winning the primary, and never got into the game.

State Senator Scott Brown is now U.S. Senator Scott Brown, and the first thing he should do, in the morning, with a bouquet of flowers, send a "Thank You" note to Martha Chokely.

• He needs to thank her, for being such a enormously pathetic candidate
• Thank her for settling into the mindset of entitlement, that winning the primary was, essentially, all she had to do
• Thank her for not driving a pick-up truck
• Thank her for not knowing about sports

While The Village, and all the Cable Talking Heads, will be pontificating, like an "All You Can Eat" at the Country Buffet, that "Healthcare Reform Is Dead" and "Obama's Agenda is in trouble", stopping short (maybe) of calling him a Lame Duck President, the Dems will, if they stay to form, cower at this fusillade, offer no rebuttal and beat Martha Chokely like a pinata.

It will be like a Looney Tunes, with Chokely being punched, kicked, anvil-hit-over-the-head, shot, thrown off a cliff, before crawling to her feet, and being plowed over by the speeding truck.



Most of it, deserved.

However, as to the bigger picture, unless something remarkably uncanny happened, and all kinds of state and federal laws were, suddenly, abrogated, and changed, today, newly-elected Teabagger Senator Scott Brown only won one Senatorial seat, not 18-20, and, unless something else has changed, Brown will come to a dead stop, after he runs-like-the-wind, to get to DC, and join the rest of the PartyofNoicans, in doing nothing.

Amazingly, some three-+ hours ago, Tweety was showering the crowd at Doyles with spittle, foaming over Brown, and all but coronating him the Presidential winner in 2012.

And, that was before the polls closed.

You can expect more of that, when the Flying Monkeys of the Right Wing Freak Show pick up on it, soon followed by the projected pairing of Teabagger Senator Brown with Teabagger MoneyRaker Mommy Moose, the former half-term governor of Alaska.

There'll be endless blabbering about "recalibration", with all the discussion about how the Democrats, for losing one Senate seat, will have to "change" and the calls will grow for them to bend over, and give the PartyofNoicans whatever they want.

What the Dems need to do is, along with growing a few pairs, start governing, start using their majority in Congress, to govern, much as the PartyofNoicans did (when they were known as "Republicans"), during the The Bush Grindhouse years, where they, without a majority, handed The Commander Guy everything he wanted.

As far as governing, drafting up, and passing new laws, polices, etc, Brown's election is but a blip.

The PartyofNoican Leadership (yeah, we know, an oxymoron) will exploit Brown, new red meat to throw out there, and recycle the Obama slurs and distortions, generate headlines on the house rag, The Politico, Matt Sludge, etc. and become the new darling guest Talking Points stand-in, over on Faux News.

So, in sum, more of the same.

No game changer here.

Balls in your court, Obama, Reid, and Pelosi.

Just remember, in any interviews you do in the next few days, Curt Schilling is not a Yankee fan.

Compared To What

Another rough day on the homefront, and any iota of creativity long left me, well before the noon hour.

Ahhh, but there is much percolating ...

The Cheeseburger That Sweats (or, as he decribes himself, a "harmless, lovable little fuzzball" - he must have shopped himself one helluva doctor to come up with that) has raised the stakes in his stunt, today "challenging" the President of the United States to come down to his radio studio and debate him on "the issues of the day".

Yeah, right ...

Can you imagine the cacophany, the deafening roar, say, if someone from Air America, or, better yet, Keith Olbermann "challenged" The Commander Guy to come of their program for such a thing?

Sorry, there, El Dittohead Grande, you'll just have to be satisfied with being ridiculed, sans the POTUS giving you a gigantic ratings bonanza.

And speaking of ridiculing, the The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee threw up a website today - I'm Sorry Rush - that is hysterical, giving the PartyofNoicans a point-and-click template to send their apologies in to the "harmless, lovable little fuzzball" (Greg Sargent reported, earlier today, and before the DCCC sent out their email announcing it, that the site ("We uncovered the secret Republican Apology Machine"), had already "nearly 150,000 visits, to which Sargent marvels, tongue firmly planted in cheek, "Amazingly, the site has gotten this number of visits despite the fact that it isn’t linked on Drudge!").

And, MediaMatters put up today their "Limbaugh Wire", where you can check for yourselves, the delusional rantings of that "harmless, lovable little fuzzbal, cheeseburger that sweats".

In other follys, Karl Rove and Harriet Miers will, finally, appear before Congress, in the matter of the firing of the U.S. Attorneys.

Yawn ...

Not that I don't want to see Rove (and Miers, and any-and-all other Bush Grindhouse cronies in cuffs and a perp walk), but I don't believe, after all this time, all this tap dancing, that either will offer anything newsworthy - nor will they be humbled and apologize for their insulting treatment of the Congress, in their longstanding refusal to comply to subpoenas.

If they need any help, or tips in how to apologize, they can ask this guy ...



Michael "Off The Hook" Steele.

All his theatrics the past few days (and month), will, probably, make a nice Wikipedia entry, one of the sub-categories detailing his short tenure as Big Cheese of the PartyofNoicans.

The Jeopardy theme music is blaring, based on numerous reports today of other, unnamed PartyofNoicans pretty pissed off with him, dissing that he's done jackshit, so far, for the party, that is, other then embarrass them.

This includes a post from Bryon York, whose cheeks still haven't come back to form, after eigth-years of sucking up to The Bush Grindhouse.

Josh Marshall was the only one to directly ask "How Long Does This Guy Last?"

Add in the tanking stock market, Jim Cramer adding his dementia, to compete with Rick Santelli, the corporate pigs at AIG, and you get a sense of something is in the air ...

Here's a classic you can use to help blow off the steam ... 

Compared To What Les McCann and Eddie Harris

Compared To What (LP Version II) - Les McCann & Eddie Harris

Thank God It's Friday

There an old Oscar Brown Jr. tune, 'Hymn To Friday' (from his 'Between Heaven and Hell' album), a calypso-beat number;

"It's the eagle fly day ... It's my day to get high day ... If you see what I say ... Thank God it's Friday ..."

It may (or may not) have become a bit clearer, why President Obama so eagerly wiped the floor with the PartyofNoicans last Friday, and, perhaps, left Baltimore singing "Hymn to Friday".

It was their GOP House Issues Conference, they extended the invitation to the President, but did not, initially, agree to have it televised.

This, from Steve M, on No More Mister Nice Blog, quoting an NYT article;

Although he and other presidents have addressed opposition caucuses before, they usually close the doors for questions, but this time the White House insisted on letting the news media record the give and take.

Hmmm .. Why would they insist? .. Let's see if we can come up with a reason ...

Ahh! ... It would dominate the news cycle for the rest of the day, perhaps two, or three?

Bingo!

It did, including MSNBC, who preempted Olbermann and Maddow on Friday night, to have them, with Tweety, rerun the event, adding their commentary.

And, what was thrown out on the Friday Night Trash Dump?



Obama's DOJ Clears Torture Memo Authors John Yoo, Jay Bybee of Professional Misconduct

The Truthout post culls from a report in Newsweek, "Holder Under Fire";

try the alleged 9/11 conspirators in New York City and his handling of the Christmas bombing plot suspect. Now the left is going to be upset: an upcoming Justice Department report from its ethics-watchdog unit, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), clears the Bush administration lawyers who authored the “torture” memos of professional-misconduct allegations.

While the probe is sharply critical of the legal reasoning used to justify waterboarding and other “enhanced” interrogation techniques, NEWSWEEK has learned that a senior Justice official who did the final review of the report softened an earlier OPR finding. Previously, the report concluded that two key authors—Jay Bybee, now a federal appellate court judge, and John Yoo, now a law professor—violated their professional obligations as lawyers when they crafted a crucial 2002 memo approving the use of harsh tactics, say two Justice sources who asked for anonymity discussing an internal matter. But the reviewer, career veteran David Margolis, downgraded that assessment to say they showed “poor judgment,” say the sources. (Under department rules, poor judgment does not constitute professional misconduct.) The shift is significant: the original finding would have triggered a referral to state bar associations for potential disciplinary action—which, in Bybee’s case, could have led to an impeachment inquiry.

Jack Balkin cuts through the crap;

That is, the torture memos were written not to define "torture" with respect to new situations where the statute was unclear; rather they were written to allow the CIA to get around the legal ban on torture, even to the point of arguing that the torture statute would be unconstitutional if applied to persons acting under the direction of the President as commander-in-chief. The torture memos were not a hypothetical lawyer's exercise to guide future conduct. They were written in order to ensure that members of the CIA would never be prosecuted for torture.

Obama can end the recession, personally find every unemployed person a job, perform, himself, medical operations that save lives, but letting the Bush Grindhouse, and their cronies, get off scott free, from their illegal actions and war crimes, he will be wearing that failure, that "not looking in the rearview mirror" like a scarlet letter.

And it doesn't help his obtuseness, when other countries take action, that he doesn't;

International Arrest Warrants Requested

Professor Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, U.S.A. has filed a Complaint with the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.) in The Hague against U.S. citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice, and Alberto Gonzales (the “Accused”) for their criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” perpetrated upon about 100 human beings. This term is really their euphemism for the enforced disappearance of persons and their consequent torture. This criminal policy and practice by the Accused constitute Crimes against Humanity in violation of the Rome Statute establishing the I.C.C.

This might mean that these dwarfs, finks, phonies and fraud can't summer in Europe, or attend the Cannes Film Festival, but they are free to roam this country, weigh in on current events, continue their lying, smear the President and, otherwise, enjoy their lives, unfettered with any annoyances, any accountability, for their heinous crimes.

Now, during the State of the Union Address, again in his emasculation of the PartyofNoicans, Obama, as the suddenly naked GOP and Right Wing Freak Show, pointed out, Obama did quite a bit of "Bush Bashing".

He inherited the financial shit train from The Bush Grindhouse.

The Commander Guy, and his cronies, took us from surplus, to trillions-of-dollar in debt.

Obama hasn't been shy of falling back on that, and it surely, pisses off the PartyofNoicans, because it is true, it is fact.

Also, true, and also anchored in a boatload of facts, is the illegal activities, and war crimes, of the previous administration.

Mr. President, you are becoming hypocritical, to single-out the financial mess, but, when it comes to holding your predecessor, his Shadow President, Rumsfield, the two former Crony Generals, Condi Rice, Addington, Libby, Yoo, et all. accountable for the laws they violated, you, suddenly, can only look forward, you can't turn your neck, to look in the rearview mirror.



Glenn Greenwald tackled this, earlier this month, in his "The crime of not "Looking Backward";

Every Obama-justifying excuse for Looking Forward, Not Backwards has been exposed as a sham (recall, for instance, the claim that we couldn't prosecute Bush war crimes because it would ruin bipartisanship and Republicans wouldn't support health care reform). But even if those excuses had been factually accurate, it wouldn't have mattered. There are no legitimate excuses for averting one's eyes from crimes of this magnitude and permitting them to go unexamined and unpunished. The real reason why "Looking Forward, Not Backwards" is so attractive to our political and media elites is precisely because they don't want to face what they enabled and supported. They want to continue to believe that it just involved the quick and necessary waterboarding of three detainees and a few slaps to a handful of the Worst of the Worst. Only a refusal to "Look Backwards" will enable the lies they have been telling (to the world and to themselves) to be sustained. But as Horton's story illustrates, there are real victims and genuine American criminals -- many of them -- and anyone who wants to keep that concealed and protected is, by definition, complicit in those crimes, not only the ones that were committed in the past, but similar ones that almost certainly, as a result of Not Looking Backwards, will be committed in the future.

Yeah, we have a recession, astronomical unemployment, you're on the verge of blowing Healthcare Reform, so many things, all so much piled on the plate.

Ahhh, you probably think that we're going to tell you to get off your ass, and start rounding up these creeps, hauling their "no-bid-contract" asses into court and getting it on with them, right?

Wrong.

Since your so busy, since you have so much on your plate, we have an easier solution.

Let The Hague indict them, and all you have to do is not stand in the way of extraditing over there for trial, say the United States will cooperate, and stand behind whatever decision comes from The Hague.

All in the name of justice, and the rule of law.

Heck, you'll even authorize a gang of U.S. Marshals go out and get them, and, in a rather ironic twist, you can use one of those CIA "Extraordinary Rendition" airplanes, to get them over there.

If you want to put a little lead in the "Hope You Can Believe In' pencil, you'll be able to write your own ticket, as the person that didn't let them get away with it.

Whaddya say, there, Mr. President?

Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain Lays Odds He'll Suspend His Campaign Again

Maybe he shook hands with Ms. Ya'Bet'cha last week, and hasn't washed since, the ink from her hand causing some level of brain-swelling.

Or maybe, he's just hitting the Stupid Juice again (as he must have done, two-years ago, when he chose The Wasilla Whiz Kid as his running mate).



The Hill has a report today, that Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain "can draw a scenario" that President Obama is going to fall on his knees, beg the PartyofNoicans for forgiveness, and completely repeal, and rewrite, the Healthcare Reform bill to their liking.

"If the intensity level is as high as it is, I can draw you a scenario where the president would be forced to repeal or really replace it with the provisions [Republicans] wanted," McCain said in an interview with KFYI 550.

At the very least, Republicans could refuse to fund healthcare, the Arizona Republican added.

"You could basically repeal major provisions of it" by refusing to fund them, McCain said.

By the time the Midterms roll around, the only one's carping about the Healthcare Reform Bill will be the PartyofNoicans, and their army of Teabagger puppets.

And, besides, McCain will break his own pledge, of doing nothing for the rest of the year.

I don't know, if he starts dropping in the polls, I smell a "crises" brewing, and that means McCain may have to suspend his campaign, again.


Bonus Stumblin' Bumblin' McCain Riffs

The Bob Dole For The New Millennium

"The insinuation, that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, doesn't know how many houses he has, is outrageous!"

Everything He Learned?

Slow Go For Bookwriting Joe

In his especially long, dragged-out 16th minute, Joe The Book Writer (formerly, Joe The Plumber) is finding that once glowing spotlight, dimming into the horizon.



Joe the Author, Plumbing New Lows in Interest

About 11 people wandered into the rows of seats set up hopefully in the basement of a downtown Border's bookstore to hear Joe speak. Joe addressed them from behind a lectern and with a microphone, but that seemed unnecessarily formal.

[Snip]

It's fair to say Joe's appearance at Borders at 18th and L streets wasn't eagerly anticipated. People just kind of shuffled over when Joe strode in with Thomas N. Tabback, the co-author of "Joe the Plumber: Fighting for the American Dream." Annie Hickman, a young woman whom Wurzelbacher called "sweetie" during a brief Q&A, was browsing when the PA announced that Joe was in the house. "I'm missing pottery class for this," she said.

Lawyer Alana Hecht was curious. "I was upstairs reading 'Dreams From My Father,' " Obama's memoir. "It's just fate. Who could leave when this is happening?" She and Hickman laughed. Washington, such a weird town.

[Snip]

Wurzelbacher says he's still no fan of Obama, but confessed that he never liked McCain all that much, either. Nor has he cared for the politicians he's met on Capitol Hill. "Liars and thieves," he called them.

[Snip]

Wurzelbacher was scheduled to speak and sign books for three hours, but the Joe Show was over in 55 minutes. Total copies of "Joe the Plumber" sold: five.

Not exactly "Walking the Talk", is it?

To bad he can't walk back laughing at Obama's speech, as he did.

Steve Benen asked, in his "JOE THE AFTERTHOUGHT" "So, why is his take on a presidential address worthy of a piece at the Politico? Your guess is as good as mine."

At least one of the flying monkeys is calling for the PartyofNoicans to lose this Joe Schmoe, that he's dragging down the party, blurring their true identity, you know, as humble, middle-class worker bees;

From Patrick Ruffini's "The Joe-the-Plumberization of the GOP"

Conservatives should not need Joe the Plumber to prove their middle class bona fides. We are naturally the party of the middle, and we don't need gimmicks to prove it. Demographically, Democrats rely on being the party of the upper sixth and the lower third, while Republicans tend to do better with everyone in between. When we start losing the middle class and the suburbs, we lose big like we did in 2008.

Put another way, Republicans thrive as the party of normal Americans -- the people in the middle culturally and economically. This is true of our leadership as well -- we have a history of nominating figures who came first from outside politics. Our base is the common-sense voter in the middle who bought a house she could afford and didn't lavishly overspend in good times and who is now subsidizing the person who didn't.

WTF?

Thankfully, Steve M, over on No More Mister Nice Blog, dispatches that claim.

DON'T BLAME THIS ON US, PATRICK

That's a load of crap. Right-wingers embraced Joe not because we made them feel defensive but because they've deluded themselves into believing that they're the natural champions of (cue Sarah Palin) wearers of "the Carhartts and the steel-toed boots," of country-music fans and NASCAR fans and huntin', fishin', good ol' boys ...

[Snip]

Ruffini even expresses this nonsense himself, declaring that "Republicans thrive as the party of normal Americans -- the people in the middle culturally and economically." (Even though the last three Republican presidents were a Hollywood millionaire and two zillionth-generation Connecticut-born preppies, Patrick?)

Unfortuantely, for the PartyofNoicans, Bobby Jindal's crash-and-burn the other evening benefits Joe The Book Writer.

Like they say in boxing, you gotta knock out the champ, and Jindal didn't even get out of the first round.

And with CPAC setting up it's toxic tent this weekend, there's bound to be someone there to offer Joe The Book Writer a 17th minute.


Bonus Joe Schmoe Riffs

Libby Spencer: Joe the Whatever

Melissa McEwan: Poor Joe

Scott Whitlock: Washington Post Dismisses Joe the Plumber as 'Leftover Artifact' From 2008

For Joe The Plumber

Reconciliation, For Dummies

That be you, President Obama, and the entire Democrat Caucus!

You guys have been acting like old ladies, standing on a chair, because a mouse came into the room, all because some bozo PartyofNoican won an election nobody thought he would (and, in fairness, he campaigned, and took victory, without mentioning he was a PartyofNoican), and, suddenly, the sky is falling.



This is what we wrote last week;

However, as to the bigger picture, unless something remarkably uncanny happened, and all kinds of state and federal laws were, suddenly, abrogated, and changed, today, newly-elected Teabagger Senator Scott Brown only won one Senatorial seat, not 18-20, and, unless something else has changed, Brown will come to a dead stop, after he runs-like-the-wind, to get to DC, and join the rest of the PartyofNoicans, in doing nothing

[snip]

What the Dems need to do is, along with growing a few pairs, start governing, start using their majority in Congress, to govern, much as the PartyofNoicans did (when they were known as "Republicans"), during the The Bush Grindhouse years, where they, without a majority, handed The Commander Guy everything he wanted.

Since you seem to be having trouble growing a pair, Paul N. Van de Water and James R. Horney have handed you some, and laid it all out for you today;

Using Reconciliation Process to Enact Health Reform Would Be Fully Consistent With Past Practice

Conclusion

Because rising health care costs represent the single largest cause of the federal government’s long-term budget problems, fundamental health care reform must be part of any budget solution.[15] The foregoing examples indicate that using the budget reconciliation process to enact health reform in 2010 would be consistent with the ways in which Congress has used reconciliation in the past. Many major policy changes, including welfare reform, large tax cuts, and new health programs, have been included in past reconciliation bills. Moreover, if health reform is pursued through the reconciliation process this year, the resulting legislation — unlike the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 — will need to be designed so it does not add to the deficit. Any legislation also is likely to include provisions, such as an independent Medicare Commission and demonstration projects to identify ways to deliver health care more efficiently, that could lead to further reforms that slow the growth of health-care costs and contribute to longer-term deficit reduction.

Back in the old days (early 70's) on the "Point-Counter" of '60-Minutes', Nicholas von Hoffman called disgraced President Richard Nixon a "dead mouse on America's kitchen floor ... And it was time for Congress to come in and sweep it up ..."

This is your moment, this is what you are there for.

So, climb down off your chairs, grab a broom, sweep away those pesky, minority PartyofNoican mice, and get to work passing legitimate, benefiting-the-citizens-not-the-corporations, Healthcare Reform (and, with a Public Option, or Single-Payer, thank you, very much).

NYT Editorial Endorses The Garlic!

This happened a few days ago, and, as always, it's nice when some giant of the MSM gives a nod to The Garlic.

That being, since early last year, we took to referring to the former Republican Party, as the "PartyofNoicans".



Ah, New York Times Editorial, you want to step up front here;

The Party of Nope

Unabashedly feckless, the Republican Party aims to rise from the Congressional minority by brandishing a political agenda of just saying no. As in no to health care reform. (Their new senator-elect from Massachusetts, Scott Brown, ran outright on a promise to be the latest to shoot down health care.) No to global warming repairs; no to real reform of Wall Street; no, in fact, to any act of creative opposition.

[snip]

Sooner or later constituents must wonder how far Republicans can take pure opposition as a political philosophy without offering believable program alternatives. The party should remember how Speaker Newt Gingrich got into a fight with the Clinton White House over the budget and debt limit, and then played a game of political chicken in which he precipitated a government shutdown in 1995. He did not fare well.

Speaking of Newt Gingrich, he's trying to assault the country - again - his big plans, a "new contract", unveiled on the lowly, feces-covered Right Wing Freak Show perch of NewsMax.

And, for all their crowing, about how "we're back", following the election last week, of a man who went to great pains not to identify himself, during the campaign, and his victory speech, as a "Republican", the PartyofNoicans have a long, long way to go;

Only 19% Of Americans Are Happy With The Direction Of The GOP

This, in the vernacular, would be classified, as a "Gimme", or more commonly, a "No-Brainer".

If the Democrats can't capitalize on this, exercise their power, as the majority, and do the right thing, heaven help us.

We've called on him often, Mister Wizard, but we will refrain ...

For now.

La Nevada

Well, another day not going as planned, a continuation of our situation from yesterday.

And with so many goodies to choose from ...

Paul Harvey dying ("And that's the rest in peace of the story!" - Barry Crimmins)

The rabid wing of the PartyofNoicans annual meeting (aka CPAC)

A great Frank Rich today, offering that the Train Obama is humming along nicely, but beware of the PartyofNoicans doing all they can to derail it.

It's going to a busy week

And, adding to that, what started an hour, or so, ago here in the Northeast (having blanketed the South, and climbed up the Eastern Seaboard), is a major snowstorm, which will have The Garlic, at some point tomorrow, having to shovel out a foot, or more, snow.

What better time than to give you this gem, from the Gil Evans Orchestra ... 

So appropriate for the day ... 

La Nevada - Gil Evans Orchestra

La Nevada - The Gil Evans Orchestra

Drippings From The Drool Cup

Last night, the PartyofNoicans parked their clown car in the Ronald Reagan Drool Cup Shrine, and more than a few of the candidates channeled the former Union-busting President, rather awkwardly.

But the #GOPDebate, despite the calls to do so, didn't wipe the grease paint of Numero Uno clown, Donald Chump.

He's still standing, and holding down the three-rings, waiting to crack his whip at the next pail of confetti thrown at him.

Rather than wade into the nauseating details, we'll just offer some observational riffs.

Somebody in the Jeb! Bush! crew needs to sit the boy down and advise him to get as far away from his War Criminal brother as possible, rather then continuing to embrace and defend him.

In the back-and-forth over the Middle East, going into Iraq, Jeb! strenuously and vehemently shot back at The Donald, who was dissing his War Criminal brother that "He kept us safe ..."

Really?

Anyone can go to the Internets and find the War Criminal Brother ignoring the PDB about possible attacks, and on the day of attack, he was giving the most famous reading of "My Pet Goat".

But Jeb! wasn't the only one trying to milk Sept. 11th, Portly Chris Christie continued his exploitation of it, in a fighting-stance reply that he was a "tough Federal Prosecutor".

And Dr. Ben didn't do himself any favors by (rightly) defending the practice of Vaccines, and that they don't cause Autism, since the red-meat-eating, teabagging wing of the PartyofNoicans (who Dr. Ben ordinarily plays to) have that misfact carved in stone.

Ted Cruz should be disqualified from both the debates, and public office in general, just for the fact that he too-eerily resembles former pig-headed Senator Joe McCarthy, in looks and in policies.

Aside from Donald Chump, I suspect, as the day wears on, the ink barrels will be drained, declaring Carly Fiorina and Marco Rubio as gaining points last evening.

Carly, to be fair, likely got off the best single line of the night, taking a swipe at The Donald's riff about her falling off the Ugly Tree and hitting every branch, but, she's pissing up a rope if she's going to try to counter her business experience is better than his.

During her tenure, HP stood for "Help, Please", and the only one who got rich during that time was herself - for getting fired.

And Marco Rubio's family immigration story is beginning to resemble TBS on Christmas Day, and, if he happens to be the last clown in the car, and actually gets elected, he'll make Keyser Sozo look like a piker.

Winners of the Thanks For Coming/Bronzed Reagan Drool Cup go to Mike Huckabee (Onward Christian Soldiers, where do we sign up for the Crusades, Mike?), Scott Walker (the loser asshole Frat President who thinks everyone thinks he's cool and smart), Rand Paul ("Hey, over here ... Me. Me, ... I had my hand raised!") and John Kasich ("Can't we all just get along?")

The PartyofNoican Clown Car now heads to Colorado, three days before Halloween, and, about the only way it could be more fun, is if the candidates indulge themselves in some of that legal Colorado marijuana.

New Ignorant Dolt: Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins

Or, better yet, Congress's "Great White Dope".

That being Kansas Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins, for bursting through to grab the Ignorant Dolt Crown and Sceptre.



We go to the local Kansas paper for the call;

Jenkins' remark raises eyebrows

"Republicans are struggling right now to find the great white hope," Jenkins said to the crowd. "I suggest to any of you who are concerned about that, who are Republican, there are some great young Republican minds in Washington."

[snip]

The phrase "great white hope" is frequently tied to racist attitudes permeating the United States when heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson fought in the early 1900s. Reaction to the first black man to reign as champion was intense enough to build support for a campaign to find a white fighter capable of reclaiming the title from Johnson.

[snip]

Mary Geiger, a spokeswoman for Jenkins, said the reference to a great white hope wasn't meant to denote a preference by Jenkins for politicians of a particular "race, creed or any background." Jenkins was expressing faith fellow GOP representatives in the House would be key players in returning Republicans to a leadership role in Washington, Geiger said.

"There may be some misunderstanding there when she talked about the great white hope," Geiger said. "What she meant by it is they have a bright future. They're bright lights within the party."

Sorry, there Representative Jenkins (and Mary Geiger).

If you meant to reference the young, "bright lights" PartyofNoicans, then you would have said something like "we have some young bright lights in the PartyofNoicans"

There is no other context to "Great White Hope";

The phrase "great white hope" is frequently tied to racist attitudes permeating the United States when heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson fought in the early 1900s. Reaction to the first black man to reign as champion was intense enough to build support for a campaign to find a white fighter capable of reclaiming the title from Johnson.

If you don't want to go back to Jack Johnson, just go back to the early 1980's, and the Larry Holmes - Gerry Cooney fight;

Holmes successfully defended the WBC belt 17 times until December 11, 1983, when he voluntarily relinquished that title for the championship of the new International Boxing Federation. In 1982, Holmes gained some measure of notoriety when he fought Gerry Cooney, a white boxer who many thought had a chance to unseat Holmes. A lot of racial tension was involved with this fight, with Cooney considered "the great white hope" and the best white heavyweight since Rocky Marciano. During the prefight introductions, Holmes was announced first and Cooney second. Although champions are traditionally announced second Holmes himself had been introduced second when he won the title from Ken Norton. Despite bitterness and racial tension among fans of both fighters, the two became friends. In the 1990s, a movie called The Great White Hype starring Damon Wayans and Peter Berg was loosely based on the Holmes-Cooney fight. Holmes defeated Cooney by TKO in the 13th round.

We're fairly confident, that in referring to Gerry Cooney as the "great white hope", the boxing world wasn't articulating they thought Cooney was one of boxing's "young bright lights".

Ignorant Doltness of this level, the stupidity to say it, and then, the extra dollop of stupidity, to try to spin a different meaning on it ...

This should disqualify Jenkins for any elected office, at any level, including grade school government.

Let it be known, with our growing roster of Ignorant Dolts, Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins is one of our young, bright lights of Ignorant Dolts.

We can only look forward to more incredible denseness coming from her.



Bonus Ignorant Dolt Lynn Jenkins Riffs

Logan Murphy: KS Republican Lynn Jenkins Says GOP Struggling To Find "Great White Hope" To Take On Obama

Ta-Nehisi Coates: GOP In Search Of A "Great White Hope"

Colby Hall: Health Care Debate Gets Racial With “Great White Hope” Comment

Matthew Yglesias: GOP Member of Congress Looking for “Great White Hope” to Tackle Obama


Bonus Bonus

Hmmm ...

Wonder if Ignorant Dolt Jenkins will be putting this on her iPod?

Miles Davis - A Tribute to Jack Johnson(Remix)

Is This What Jim DeMint Thinks Will Break Obama?

If we’re able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.”

Man, if Jim DeMint, and the PartyofNoicans, have to turn to Abba, they have surely gone beyond being irrelevant.

Abba - Waterloo



A 35+ year-old song?

Yeah, Abba was good, probably the best of danceable, bubble gum music

Oh ... Wait a minute ...

This is about all that Healthcare fussin' ... You know, what the PartyofNoicans are saying, let's slow down, talk about it more, as if about 50-years of talking about it hasn’t been enough.

Newt Gingrich is singing the song also?

And, Little Billy Kristol wants to apply his debunked PNAC plan to healthcare?

Well, if Gingrich and Kristol are leading the opposition (DeMint is just a understudy lunatic), as Victor Laszlo said in 'Casablanca';

"This time I know our side will win"...

More Links

Steve Benen: WHOSE WATERLOO?....

David Weigel: GOP Health Care Plan: Stall - 'If They Don't Get it Done by October, It's Not Going to Get Done.'

Ezra Klein: A Reality Check on Health-Care Reform

John Amato: President Obama's Conference Call with Liberal Bloggers: John Amato asks Congress to work through the August recess

Robert Reich: Tax the wealthy to keep everyone healthy ...It's what the House of Representatives wants to do to pay for healthcare. It's a good idea, and a great slogan

Paul Krugman: Not Enough Audacity

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Power comes from lying ... Lying big and getting the whole damn world to play along with you ... Once you got everybody agreeing with what they know in their hearts ain't true, you get them by the balls

Senator Roark, from “Sin City - That Yellow Bastard”

Well, the Oxymoronpalooza ended this weekend, otherwise referred to by the MSM as the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, and, not to anyone's surprise, there was more red meat tossed about then at a month full of Texas barbecues.

That would the Texas that hasn't - yet - seceded from the Union.

They forgathered in New Orleans, and true to the PartyofNoican coda, they managed to completely avoid making any mention, not just something compassionate, or heartfelt, none-zero-zilch, comments about the city The Bush Grindhouse let drown.

No doubt, the Café du Monde must have been off-limits, lest any of the slimebags be caught being "French" by some tourist Teabagger, surely creating a litmus test, and, likely, a career-killer.



You had the volcano-denier, the only open-publically-elected exorcist, Governor Bobby Jindal, whining about the PartyofNoicans feelings being hurt, because people call them names.

And, there was Diaper-Boy, Senator David Vitter, pumping up Mommy Moose, and the Teabaggers, urging the PartyofNoicans to walk hand-in-hand with, that they're getting a bad rap too, while whipping up a little smear against the President.



Of course, a red-meat-mashing wouldn't be complete without the Village-of-the-Damned Cheney daughter, Liz, doing her part to "Keep America Safe", much in the manner of her father, delivering, essentially, an off-the-shelf NeoNitWit speech;

Below the fold, more excerpts from Cheney's speech.

When it comes to foreign policy, it looks increasingly like there are three pillars to the “Obama Doctrine” – (1)Apologize for America, (2)Abandon our allies, and (3)Appease our enemies.

I think she stopped short of advocating the building of those 1950's "Fallout Shelters".

Mommy Moose was there, fresh off her Bachmann-Palin Overdrive (and her little joust with the President), perhaps, using the event as an early dry run at her candidacy in 2012.

Or not;

There was nothing about the speech that necessarily indicated one way or another whether Palin would run for president in 2012. She's not doing anything that looks like preparing a national organization, but she's so well-known that she wouldn't have to. Her political outfit, SarahPAC, did hand out little packets of Alaska-made caribou and reindeer jerky to every delegate ("An Alaskan Snack from SarahPAC!" the label read, along with invitations to follow her on Twitter and Facebook). And there were a few Palin buttons around the room.

But it's not entirely clear she'd have the whole thing sewn up. As the delegates filtered out of the hall afterwards, I stopped one woman randomly, figuring her own Palin button meant she was a big fan. True enough, she was. "It was awesome," she said, identifying herself only as Loretta from east Tennessee. "She's wonderful. She thinks the way America thinks, she knows what we want, and she's not afraid to voice it... We need change, but we can't afford Obama's change -- he's killing us." Palin, she told me, would bring the right kind of changes -- jobs, prosperity, God back in our country. "This is a Christian country, it's not a Muslim country," she said. "We have Muslims here, and they are welcome here. But we as Christians have rights, too." Obama, she insisted, is a Muslim (which is why she wouldn't tell me her last name or exactly where she lives). So surely, Loretta would be voting for Palin if she ran in two years? "I don't think she's ready," she said. "I love her. I don't think we're ready for her as president yet... I think she still needs to educate herself a little more on foreign policy."

Well, she got to do a lot of bad jokes, bash the President, and it doesn't matter if she just took the stage and started reading the Louisiana phone book, the Teabaggers love her - emphatic period.

Last, but not, least, we saved the best for last.

This was, truly, almost, breathtaking.

The former Speaker of the House, the man who put out a "Contract On America", Newt Gingrich actually used the gathering to display that Einstein's theory on insanity, was accurate.



Steve Benen was in awe, describing it as "PARTY LIKE IT'S 1995", while Al Giordano billed it as "Supervillain Newt Reveals His Plan for World Domination!".

See, Newt wants to bend the river, turn around this nonsense of being "the Party of No", to becoming the the "Party of Yes".

Yes, that is, to shutting down the government (again);

But the plan that Gingrich got the most applause from, as he tried to rally a few thousand GOP activists to say "yes," involved... just saying no in a different way. "When we win control of the House and Senate this fall, stage one of the end of Obamaism will be a new Republican Congress in January that simply refuses to fund any more," he said. "The Congress doesn't have to pass the money. If EPA gets no money, it can't enforce cap and trade."

[snip]

In other words, shut down the government. Which, of course, worked out very well for Gingrich the last time he tried it.

[snip]

If that sounds familiar, it's probably because that was the agenda Gingrich carried into power after the 1994 election. It turns out the "party of yes" concept isn't actually about working with the White House to get anything done; it's about finding new ways to sell the same old GOP policies without looking stubborn in the process.

While the crowd lapped it up like happy soup, Jed Lewison, over on the Daily Kos, stuck a pin in Newt's balloon;

Teabaggers of the world: Newt is lying to you

Moreover, if Gingrich were serious, the GOP would be shutting down the Federal government now. Whether or not we like it, the fact remains that Republicans in the Senate could filibuster appropriations bills today. They don't need to win the fall elections to stop appropriations bills. Yet they are not following Gingrich's strategy because they know -- as Gingrich proved in 1995 -- that it is political suicide.

[snip]

I suppose if the GOP were to essentially dismantle the Federal government, stopping the Social Security Administration from sending out checks and blocking Medicare from paying claims that they could also stop the subsidies. But if you believe the GOP will actually go that far, I've got a state in Bob McDonnell's Confederacy to sell you.

Newt's pledge may sound good to the teabagging Republicans. But they should also know this: They. Will. Never. Do. It. Didn't do it in 1995. Won't do it in 2011.

To add some more spice, Make-Up Mitt Romney won the Straw Pole (by one vote, over Ron Paul), and he wasn't even in attendance.

With this level of idiocracy being bandied about, the Midterms are sure gonna be fun.

Newt, Romney, The Wasilla Whiz Kid...

It's going to be like the blogosphere having an intravenous feed of shit you just can't make up.

Somewhere over the rainbow
skies are blue
and the dreams...that you dare to dream
really do come true

Take it away, Eva Cassidy!

Eva Cassidy - Somewhere Over the Rainbow