• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. don’t touch it.”

Nothing worth doing is easy.

We still have time to mess this up!

An almost top 10,000 blog!

The words do not have to be perfect.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

So many bastards, so little time.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

He really is that stupid.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Mobile Menu

  • Four Directions Montana
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2024 Elections
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Economics / Tax Policy / The Company We Keep

The Company We Keep

by John Cole|  April 5, 20118:00 pm| 53 Comments

This post is in: Tax Policy, Seriously, Teabagger Stupidity, The Decadent Left In Its Enclaves On The Coasts

FacebookTweetEmail

Looks like Sullivan isn’t the only one impressed with the “seriousness” of Ryan’s budget:

In other Palin news, it appears that Bristol Palin, who is uniquely unqualified to speak about teen pregnancy prevention issues (any one of the billion women across the planet who managed to not get pregnant as a teen would be more qualified), made a ton of money with her nonprofit. For her “labor,” she pulled in $265k, while they gave out 35k to teen pregnancy clinics. That’s probably how she was able to pay 172k in cash for a house in the Galtian paradise of Arizona. Just like average working people do every day when they buy their house with cash.

Why do I mention this? Because at $265 large, on top of all the other speakers fees and what else she “earned” last year, Bristol will be rewarded with a large tax cut under the very serious Ryan roadmap, Bristol will have a lot more money to not spend on condoms, while some poor working bastard will pay higher taxes and get kicked out of his health insurance because ACA was repealed and he has a precondition or can’t afford it on the meager vouchers he was given. The way God and serious people would want it.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « CBO refudiates glibertarian spokesmodel
Next Post: Open Thread »

Reader Interactions

53Comments

  1. 1.

    Steeplejack

    April 5, 2011 at 8:05 pm

    She makes $265K and gives out $35K to the nonprofit’s cause? That is truly disgusting.

  2. 2.

    BGinCHI

    April 5, 2011 at 8:07 pm

    The word “serious,” as you and Doug have predicted, used twice in one twit.

    Talking points well distributed.

    Prolly fucking Luntz.

  3. 3.

    OzoneR

    April 5, 2011 at 8:08 pm

    Mark Halperin’s got something to say

    If Democrats couldn’t win the fight over tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans in the lame duck session, what makes them think they can win it now? (Halperin’s guess: hope springs eternal and they apparently have never seen Charlie Brown try to kick that football.)
    How much polling is the White House doing on the optics of shutdown politics? (Halperin’s guess: a lot.)
    When will the media get to grill the 2012 candidates, including and especially Mitt Romney, on the specifics of the Ryan proposal? (Halperin’s guess: no time soon.)
    When will the media grill the White House, Nancy Pelosi, and other Democrats on how they would balance the budget, since they reject Ryan’s plan? (Halperin’s guess: even less soon.)
    How many television networks will send correspondents to report from shuttered national parks if there is a shutdown? (Halperin’s guess: all of them.)
    Will the media continue to exhibit less liberal media bias than usual in covering the debate over the CR? (Halperin’s guess: yes—a bit.)

    Read more: http://thepage.time.com/2011/04/05/we-can-only-guess/#ixzz1IhGr02Yl

    What helped Clinton enormously in 1995 was that the Daily News ran that cover liking Newt Gingrich to a cranky baby. We don’t have that luck this time around.

  4. 4.

    geg6

    April 5, 2011 at 8:09 pm

    Well, between Bristol Palin and MTV, teen pregnancy looks like a nice lucrative career path for the young girls that the Candies Foundation is reaching out to, so it looks like they’re successful in their mission. So Bristol’s salary was a good investment.

    Oh. Wait.

    Nevermind.

    /Emily Littella

  5. 5.

    General Stuck

    April 5, 2011 at 8:09 pm

    The wingnuts may be taking away about everything that people have come to expect from government services, but they have left us with enough to mock for a year, maybe two.

    If anyone needs to teach the public to stop worrying, and learn to understand and love their libtard free stuff, just call Paul Ryan and he will move that Overton Window leftward for for near nothing.

  6. 6.

    Mark S.

    April 5, 2011 at 8:10 pm

    Somebody’s not getting a good score from Charity Navigator.

    Who the hell pays her to speak about, well, any fucking thing under the sun. I think I’d rather listen to a talk from Levi.

  7. 7.

    jo6pac

    April 5, 2011 at 8:10 pm

    The best part of non-earning one is the group that give her the money only paid out under 30,000.00 to groups that do something other than steal from the poor.

  8. 8.

    JGabriel

    April 5, 2011 at 8:12 pm

    @BGinCHI:

    Prolly fucking Luntz.

    Do we know that Luntz fucks? I mean…

    On second thought, I don’t really wanna speculate about Luntz’s sex life. I just don’t wanna go … OH GOD NO I JUST GOT THE VISUAL!

    AAAAAHHHHGHGHGHG!

    .

  9. 9.

    dmsilev

    April 5, 2011 at 8:14 pm

    @OzoneR: Does Halperin always refer to Halperin in the third person?

    If so, it’s just one more entry in the long list of reasons why Halperin needs to be publicly and repeatedly slapped in the face with a large wet fish.

    dms

  10. 10.

    BGinCHI

    April 5, 2011 at 8:16 pm

    @JGabriel: Adjective, not verb.

    Jesus Christ, doesn’t anybody swear anymore?

    For fuck’s sake.

  11. 11.

    Spaghetti Lee

    April 5, 2011 at 8:17 pm

    Jesus, I’m going to lose my fucking mind. “Serious” this. “Tough-minded” that. Yeah, real tough minded to propose cuts that neither you nor anyone in your sphere of influence will ever, ever have to deal with, because you’ll be on Charlie Koch’s teats until you die, Ryan, you douche.

    His district is only R+1. Can’t we get someone to knock the sucker and his snake oil out of Washington? Tim Cullen or Robert Wirch, maybe?

  12. 12.

    El Cid

    April 5, 2011 at 8:18 pm

    If I said that ‘our nation’s future depends on our cleaning up our budget crisis, and we finally have to cross that line and admit we have to cut our entitlements that we just can’t pay for in the same way anymore, and we need to aim about $10 trillion worth of cuts in the next 6 years,’ would I suddenly become a ‘serious’ person for such trend-floaters as Sullivan?

    Even if all I presented as backup was a few X-Y charts showing the bars growing higher into the future and an average of how many dollars of the projected future national debt, which let’s say I’ll announce to be 10X that of now, each working American would owe?

    Never mind, I know the answer.

  13. 13.

    MikeJ

    April 5, 2011 at 8:21 pm

    @OzoneR: http://0.tqn.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/_/7/newt_baby.jpg

  14. 14.

    Suffern ACE

    April 5, 2011 at 8:25 pm

    Back to the crap. Who is donating money to this charity to enrich the Palin family fortune? Isn’t this a tax write-off disguised as graft (or vice versa)? Imagine how much less generous the Galtians would be if they were free from the burden of taxation. Why, they wouldn’t need lawyers to mock the idea of charity, that is for sure.

  15. 15.

    JPL

    April 5, 2011 at 8:27 pm

    I hate to say this but if Sullivan went without health insurance for one day, he would change his tune. It’s the I got mine the rest of you are lazy idiots.

  16. 16.

    MikeJ

    April 5, 2011 at 8:29 pm

    OT, but that bastion of credibility, Newsmax, Have a hed “‘Filthy, Dirty’ Tricks Alleged in Pivotal Wisconsin Election”

    Guess that means the good guys are going to win if they’re preëmptively whining.

  17. 17.

    El Cid

    April 5, 2011 at 8:30 pm

    Anyone here mention the super-reasonable David Brooks’ hard-on for the Ryan plan?

    …Over the past few weeks, a number of groups, including the ex-chairmen of the Council of Economic Advisers and 64 prominent budget experts, have issued letters arguing that the debt situation is so dire that doing nothing is not a survivable option.
    __
    What they lacked was courageous political leadership — a powerful elected official willing to issue a proposal, willing to take a stand, willing to face the political perils.
    __
    The country lacked that leadership until today.
    __
    Today, Paul Ryan, the Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee, is scheduled to release the most comprehensive and most courageous budget reform proposal any of us have seen in our lifetimes. Ryan is expected to leap into the vacuum left by the president’s passivity. The Ryan budget will not be enacted this year, but it will immediately reframe the domestic policy debate.
    __
    His proposal will set the standard of seriousness for anybody who wants to play in this discussion. It will become the 2012 Republican platform, no matter who is the nominee. Any candidate hoping to win that nomination will have to be able to talk about government programs with this degree of specificity, so it will improve the G.O.P. primary race.

    The final release:

    Paul Ryan has grasped reality with both hands. He’s forcing everybody else to do the same.

    I’m so excited for us to begin to see Medicare as the new HSA with a government grant.

    Of course, since there will be budget problems in the future, we’ll finally have the opportunity to cut out that nasty $15,000 per year dole to replace Medicare that we useless parasites are expecting the nanny-state to hand us.

    I can’t wait for the plan’s summary to be handed out at the Applebee’s salad bar.

    Via Digby. Sorry if I just missed an earlier mention. Not much internet access today, nor slower points at work.

  18. 18.

    arguingwithsignposts

    April 5, 2011 at 8:35 pm

    @El Cid:

    Paul Ryan has grasped reality with both hands. He’s forcing everybody else to do the same.

    Worst slash-fic evah!

    It seems very familiar, like some sort of mumble-mumble ramming down throats mumble-mumble thing. Anyone help me out here?

  19. 19.

    MikeBoyScout

    April 5, 2011 at 8:35 pm

    We’re very serious
    So very serious . . .

    Will someone please sponsor me as a spokes person for temperance? Am going to drink 2 serious bottles of whine wine tonight, and I’ll gladly tell you tomorrow you never should.

  20. 20.

    General Stuck

    April 5, 2011 at 8:36 pm

    Paul Ryan has grasped reality with both hands. He’s forcing everybody else to do the same.

    Maybe Ryan is embracing Obama’s package after all.

  21. 21.

    El Cid

    April 5, 2011 at 8:38 pm

    @General Stuck: He got tired of it being rammed down his throat?

  22. 22.

    MikeJ

    April 5, 2011 at 8:38 pm

    @MikeBoyScout: If you just get stinking drunk and sleep in a gutter people may think, “at least he’s a bad example.”

    Palin got knocked up, went on Dancing With the Stars and bought a house with cash. Hardly a morality tale there. “Don’t wind up like me, kids!”

  23. 23.

    JPL

    April 5, 2011 at 8:39 pm

    @General Stuck: Nah..it’s hard work coming up with all those tax cuts for the top one percent.

  24. 24.

    sherifffruitfly

    April 5, 2011 at 8:39 pm

    Clearly the only reasonable thing for us to do is blame Obama.

  25. 25.

    JPL

    April 5, 2011 at 8:42 pm

    I’m a serious, courageous, truthful person and I have a question. Can one use the voucher for a burial plot and cut out the middle man?

  26. 26.

    Elizabelle

    April 5, 2011 at 8:42 pm

    He’s grasped something with both hands.

    Biden speaking now on Obama/Biden/Messina OFA call. First up: they announced DWasserman Schultz as new DNC chair and highlighted that she’s a breast cancer survivor.

    Forgot that. She’ll be an even better first responder.

  27. 27.

    Asshole

    April 5, 2011 at 8:42 pm

    Why isn’t the IRS auditing a non-profit that pays a disqualified person 9 times what it actually provides in benefits to the community?

    Non-profit tax status has been revoked for a Hell of a lot less of an excess benefit than that.

  28. 28.

    Asshole

    April 5, 2011 at 8:42 pm

    Why isn’t the IRS auditing a non-profit that pays a disqualified person 9 times what it actually provides in benefits to the community?

    Non-profit tax status has been revoked for a Hell of a lot less of an excess benefit than that.

  29. 29.

    Jethro Troll

    April 5, 2011 at 8:42 pm

    Paul Ryan has grasped reality with both hands.

    Goatse?

  30. 30.

    Elizabelle

    April 5, 2011 at 8:43 pm

    @El Cid:

    Did they use as many rape metaphors during Clinton’s term? Maybe …

  31. 31.

    Asshole

    April 5, 2011 at 8:43 pm

    Grr, sorry for the double post. Computer hiccup.

  32. 32.

    JPL

    April 5, 2011 at 8:46 pm

    @Elizabelle: do you have a link?

  33. 33.

    Elizabelle

    April 5, 2011 at 8:48 pm

    for JPL: link to OFA call. Obama on now.

    http://www.barackobama.com/livestream/campaign-2012-kickoff-call

  34. 34.

    JPL

    April 5, 2011 at 8:50 pm

    @Elizabelle: thanks

  35. 35.

    Nylund

    April 5, 2011 at 8:50 pm

    The GOP wants to remove the government guarantee that old people will have health insurance so that people like David Brooks can keep their tax cut. Plain and simple.

  36. 36.

    JCT

    April 5, 2011 at 8:53 pm

    @El Cid: The NYT comments for that piece nearly melted the server apparently. Quite possibly one of the most inane “articles” old Bobo has ever written. Admittedly I only got halfway through before I was overwhelmed by nausea. What an asshole.

  37. 37.

    Roger Moore

    April 5, 2011 at 8:57 pm

    I wouldn’t say that Bristol is uniquely unqualified to talk about teen pregnancy; it’s not as if she’s the only girl her age to have a baby.

  38. 38.

    Elizabelle

    April 5, 2011 at 9:00 pm

    Interesting comment by Pres. Obama, winding down conf call, about working hard and:

    “If we’re doing the right thing, eventually it’s going to be good politics.”

    Sobering.

  39. 39.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 5, 2011 at 9:02 pm

    OT, but CNN is reporting that the Transocean guys who got the “safety” bonuses are donating them to a fund for the families of the 11 guys who were killed when their rig blew up. Apparently some people can still feel shame.

  40. 40.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 5, 2011 at 9:03 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Right, so there’s an open thread one fucking minute after I post this. Grrr.

  41. 41.

    darkmatter

    April 5, 2011 at 9:03 pm

    @Jethro Troll: We should only be so lucky.

  42. 42.

    OzoneR

    April 5, 2011 at 9:12 pm

    @efgoldman:

    Still, it wouldn’t hurt to get someone (Schumer? One of the RI senators?) out on the cables, 24/7, yelling about how the GOBP wants to destroy medicare and this is just like what Bush tried in 2005.

    Do the cables want him? As we’ve discussed, they’re too busy jerking off to Paul Ryan.

  43. 43.

    Duncan Dönitz (formerly Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)

    April 5, 2011 at 9:27 pm

    $265,000 to herself and $35,000 to the “non-profit”? Shit, the I.R.S. needs to get on this fast. I feel like such an idiot: I run my own little non-profit, and I don’t earn anything for myself. If only I’d known that I should be using it as a scam to fleece people and get rich, all while stiffing my purported cause.

    Fuck. How do these sleazebags live with themselves? I mean, really? How fucking psychopathic do you have to be to live this way and not feel driven to kill yourself from the shame?

  44. 44.

    Arundel

    April 5, 2011 at 9:41 pm

    Someone somewhere today said: “Who the fuck died and made Paul Ryan king again?”. It’s a very good question! Considering the overwhelming coverage and sage nodding by the media of his “serious” proposal. Because proposals like single-payer and taxing the superrich a tiny bit more is something only laughing stoned hippies in clown suits would say, amirite? Honking their silly horns! Ugh, fuck these people, hijacking the word “serious” like that, twisting it to mean something not inherent in its actual meaning.

    (And, am I the only one who confuses Paul Ryan with Rand Paul sometimes? They’re both reprehensible, I’ve just been scatterbrained about that. Not anymore.)

  45. 45.

    Dave C

    April 5, 2011 at 9:46 pm

    Apparently “fuck the disadvantaged” is now a serious and courageous fiscal plan. I am really starting to hate these fuckers.

  46. 46.

    Ruckus

    April 5, 2011 at 9:52 pm

    @Duncan Dönitz (formerly Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.):
    They are terminators conservatives, they feel no shame, no remorse, no empathy and they will not stop until they win or you are dead.

  47. 47.

    asiangrrlMN

    April 5, 2011 at 10:00 pm

    Well, I must say, I proudly take credit for costing her one speaking gig and $20,000*.

    *A mere drop in the bucket for her, of course, but still. I’m a Republican now, so I have no qualms about claiming credit where it’s not due.

  48. 48.

    Hermione Granger-Weasley

    April 5, 2011 at 10:25 pm

    Palin/Ryan 2012!

  49. 49.

    Hermione Granger-Weasley

    April 5, 2011 at 10:26 pm

    @Ruckus: dude. They are Death Eaters.

  50. 50.

    SFAW

    April 5, 2011 at 10:33 pm

    And, am I the only one who confuses Paul Ryan with Rand Paul sometimes?

    Most of us know that Paul Ryan doesn’t wear a dead muskrat for a hairpiece.

    Of course, this only applies when they have a serious picture of the serious Budget Committee Chairman who is not bound by House rules re: budget meetings etc. etc. When no picture is provided, we need to check the rhetoric to see if the speaker is whining about the payments he receives from Medicare, etc.

  51. 51.

    Comrade Mary

    April 5, 2011 at 10:50 pm

    Reading the Think Progress link, it looks as if Palin’s not running the charity. She’s just the ridiculously overpaid spokesmother, with Candie’s being the corporate entity deciding to give a piddly $35,000 to charity. So it’s not quite outright fraud on Palin’s part, just moral blindness, hypocrisy and greed.

  52. 52.

    Ash Can

    April 5, 2011 at 11:56 pm

    @Steeplejack: Hell, I’m surprised the charity got that much.

    @El Cid: NOT GAY

  53. 53.

    El Cid

    April 6, 2011 at 1:02 am

    @Elizabelle:

    Did they use as many rape metaphors during Clinton’s term? Maybe …

    Metaphors? No. They accused him of rape. They skipped right past the metaphors.

    And that was the mainstream.

    That era’s TeaTard fringe discussed the “Clinton Body Count” in which the Clinton duo had killed dozens of people somehow in their way, partly to protect their massive narco-trafficking operation.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • New Deal democrat on COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: April 17, 2024 (Apr 17, 2024 @ 7:58am)
  • Kay on Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Fading Neom Dreams (Apr 17, 2024 @ 7:56am)
  • schrodingers_cat on Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Fading Neom Dreams (Apr 17, 2024 @ 7:55am)
  • New Deal democrat on COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: April 17, 2024 (Apr 17, 2024 @ 7:54am)
  • hueyplong on Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Fading Neom Dreams (Apr 17, 2024 @ 7:53am)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Talk of Meetups – Meetup Planning
Proposed BJ meetups list from frosty

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8
Virginia House Races
Four Directions – Montana
Worker Power AZ
Four Directions – Arizona
Four Directions – Nevada

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
Positive Climate News
War in Ukraine
Cole’s “Stories from the Road”
Classified Documents Primer

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Political Action 2024

Postcard Writing Information

Balloon Juice for Four Directions AZ

Donate

Balloon Juice for Four Directions NV

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2024 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!