Tell me it would be sad if a meteor eradicated all these sociopaths.
Update. Various winger agreement.
Burn Kaplan the fuck down. Kay Graham would have wanted it that way, that’s for sure.
by DougJ| 61 Comments
This post is in: Election 2012, We Are All Mayans Now
Tell me it would be sad if a meteor eradicated all these sociopaths.
Update. Various winger agreement.
Burn Kaplan the fuck down. Kay Graham would have wanted it that way, that’s for sure.
by DougJ| 189 Comments
This post is in: David Brooks Giving A Seminar At The Aspen Institute
What do I know, I’m just a hack blogger who drinks too much and falls in love with girls? But I’m not feeling the unstoppable Halperinian force of Ann Romney’s appeal to undecided women voters.
Update. Give it up for Metrosexual Black Abe Lincoln.
This post is in: Open Threads, Romney of the Uncanny Valley
Is it just me, or does anyone else here watch Ann Romney and think that maybe Mitt’s the expressive one?
I’m not sure the delivery could be any flatter. And notice the cadence–it’s the “I’ve reached the end of the line on the teleprompter (move eyes back to the left) and now tell humorous story (move eyes back to the left) LAUGH at punchline (move eyes back to the left)…
Open thread.
Per usual, Tbogg nails it.
UPDATE: Oh, look. Color me unsurprised.
RNC Attendee Allegedly Threw Nuts At Black CNN Camerawoman, said “this is how we feed animals.”
Ni(CLANG) is any moment now.
I wish I could just turn you on; Put a battery in and make you talkPost + Comments (73)
This post is in: Election 2012, Post-racial America, Our Failed Media Experiment, Romney of the Uncanny Valley
During the Bush years Ron Fournier was an editor at AP. He was a classic example of a reporter in the GOP tank. There were many examples (like here, here, and here for starters). From 2004 to 2009, I helped quite a number of AP reporters working on the Abramoff scandal. After the initial media scandal news burst, these reporters had lots of problems getting stories about deeper Republican involvement in the scandal published. Some stories made it in, but after spring of 2006 many, many more stories were spiked by AP editors–like Ron. Some of these stories where later published by other outlets. It was then I started paying attention to Fournier and it did not take much observation to see that he was a GOP stenographer–especially for John McCain. In 2006 he almost went to work for McCain and during the 2008 campaign he used his position as an AP editor to place a pretty heavy pro-McCain thumb on the coverage. Fournier’s and the AP’s actions at their 2008 annual luncheon for newspaper editors was especially shameful.
These days Fournier is an Editor at the National Journal and today he did something surprising: he called out the Romney campaign on their Welfare Ad Lie. I was looking at some news this evening and I read this story. Good thing I was turned away from computer otherwise my spit take would have sprayed it with a recent sip of Brew Free or Die IPA.
As part of National Journal and Atlantic Magazine coverage of the conventions, Fournier was on a panel today with senior Romney campaign adviser spin master Ron Kaufman. It was a typicle wank fest until Fournier challenged Kaufman on the Welfare Ad Lie:
Though the first few minutes were spent on niceties, Fournier soon brought the conversation around to a hot-button topic: the Romney campaign’s new series of welfare ads. [snip]
Fact checkers have largely debunked the premise of the ad, pointing out that the work requirements in fact have not been ended.
But Fournier did not just tell Kaufman the ad was wrong, he also accused the Romney campaign of “playing the race card.” Fournier, who is from Detroit, Mich., said that welfare is a hot button issue in his hometown, and that this ad was “pushing that button … playing to that racial prejudice. And I’m wondering: are you guys doing that on purpose?”
The full 40 minute event can be seen on C-Span here and the National Journal has put up a shorter version of the Welfare Lie Ad back and forth. It can be viewed here. [I would embed these video links, but because of some longstanding FYWP interface problems. I’m not able to do that–so you’ll just have to click on through].
This is a pretty stunning turn of events. When Ron Fournier is straight out asking Team Romney if they’re running the Welfare Lie Ad because President Obama is black and then pushes back on their denials–well, something odd is in the air. Perhaps the Romney campaign’s message that the press can go fuck themselves is opening the eyes of even the most dedicated GOP stenographers. Or perhaps like his pal McCain, Fournier just hates Mitt. Or perhaps he was visited by the ghost of Lincoln Steffens and remembered that journalism was supposed to be about the truth or something.
Whatever the reason, I never thought that I would live to see Fournier ask any Republican a hard question, let alone push back on their nonanswer.
I need to get a drink.
Cheers.
This post is in: Don't Mourn, Organize, Election 2012, Republican Venality, Decline and Fall, Romney of the Uncanny Valley
Hundreds of coal miners and their families wait in line to attend a rally Aug. 14 at the Century Mine near Beallsville, Ohio. (Associated Press)
__
Remember John Cole’s post about “Mitt Romney’s Post-Truth Campaign” dropping in on those coal miners in Ohio for the benefit of Fox News? Details have since leaked out about the real cost of R-money’s photo shoot:
When GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney visited an Ohio coal mine this month to promote jobs in the coal industry, workers who appeared with him at the rally lost pay because their mine was shut down.
The Pepper Pike company that owns the Century Mine told workers that attending the Aug. 14 Romney event would be both mandatory and unpaid, a top company official said Monday morning in a West Virginia radio interview.
A group of employees who feared they’d be fired if they didn’t attend the campaign rally in Beallsville, Ohio, complained about it to WWVA radio station talk show host David Blomquist. Blomquist discussed their beefs on the air Monday with Murray Energy Chief Financial Officer Rob Moore.
Moore told Blomquist that managers “communicated to our workforce that the attendance at the Romney event was mandatory, but no one was forced to attend.” He said the company did not penalize no-shows.
Because the company’s mine had to be shut down for “safety and security” reasons during Romney’s visit, Moore confirmed workers were not paid that day. He said miners also lose pay when weather or power outages shut down the mine, and noted that federal election law doesn’t let companies pay workers to attend political events.
Moore said he didn’t see anything negative in attending Romney’s campaign appearance with U.S. Sen. Rob Portman and Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel.
“We are talking about an event that was in the best interest of anyone that’s related to the coal industry in this area or the entire country,” Moore said in the radio interview…
Shorter CFO Moore: When Crown Prince Romney chooses to survey our humble barony, you serfs will be standing in neat rows to greet him with the panoply he expects. And don’t expect us to pay you for the honor of witnessing his cortege, either.
Weather disasters, power outages, Romney visits — all acts of God, in the eyes of the Pepper Pike mining company. This is why we have to keep fighting.
“If You Don’t Come in Sunday, Don’t Come in Monday” (Coal Country Edition)Post + Comments (58)
This post is in: Election 2012, Blatant Liars and the Lies They Tell, DC Press Corpse, Our Failed Media Experiment
Tonight is a major test for our national media. The Republicans are going to go on stage and lie their collective asses off about Welfare, a not so subtle dog whistle pulling from their tradition of talking about welfare queens and big screen televisions and young strapping bucks buying t-bone steaks with food stamps, and I don’t think they are up to the challenge. Do you? I doubt anyone other than Chris Matthews and Rachel Maddow will even notice.
Not to mention, the entire “We Built It” premise is based on utter bullshit. Not only did Obama not say what they are claiming he said, but when they say “We Built It,” they mean private industry, and they are lying. Yes, “We Built It,” but the we is the American people, not a few Galtian overlords:
Despite the fact that the Republican National Convention is held in a stadium that was financed with $86 million in public funds, the theme this year is “We built this!”
The theme is designed to be an affront to President Barack Obama’s supposed claim that those with successful businesses don’t deserve credit. The Romney campaign has dug in with an attack ad that says Obama’s message to business owners is “you didn’t build that,” despite the full context of the quote, which he used in a Virginia speech in July.
“If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help,” Obama explained. “There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
And the theme has been taken to heart by numerous candidates and delegates invited to speak at the convention. Looking at the prepared remarks for Tuesday alone, a number of speakers skipped over ways that their accomplishments had been supported by the government.
They are shameless liars, all of them, and our media is failing us. I don’t have the strength to watch, and instead will sit on the back porch and watch the hummingbirds at the feeder, enjoy my beautiful sunflowers, and wait for the geese to do their nightly migratory fly-by (they fly directly over my house on a SW route every night for about a month and a half this time of year). I’ve got better things to do than raise my blood pressure listening to the same old lies over and over and then listening to Halperin and the rest of the hacks justify them or just display gross indifference. Because, you know, both sides do it.
This post is in: Election 2012, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, Assholes
Gabriel Sherman NYMag interviews foundational GOP ratfcvker Roger Stone:
Roger Stone, the veteran Republican political consultant, has been to every GOP convention since Nelson Rockefeller was booed down in 1964….
Officially, Stone was in town for work. This winter, he publicly announced he was quitting the GOP to become a libertarian and signed up to manage former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson’s quixotic White House bid. He was still mad that Ron Paul did not encourage his followers to back Johnson. “I find it interesting,” he said, “Ron Paul, who himself ran as a libertarian candidate in 1988, who only four years ago endorsed the Constitution candidate over John McCain, now says the liberty movement must stay within the Republican party. Why? For his idiot son? That makes no sense. To keep Rand Paul’s fund-raising list producing? So his son can now profiteer the way his father has? Ron Paul, the guy who talks constantly for principle, demonstrates he has none. If he did, he’d be for Gary Johnson.”…
Rick Santorum, he says, “is a religious fanatic and a state-ist. He wants the state to decide for the individual. He is about as far from Barry Goldwater as you can get.” Mitt Romney has no core. Paul Ryan talks a big game but is a product of the establishment. On August 17, Stone published a much-discussed piece of gossip on his website The Stone Zone claiming the Koch Brothers had handpicked Ryan. “The selection was cemented at the July 22nd fundraiser Koch held for Romney at the former’s sumptuous Hamptons estate,” Stone wrote. “Koch pledged $100 million more to C-4 and Super PAC efforts for Romney for Ryan’s selection.” Ryan’s voting record to Stone indicated he was someone who would help businessmen like the Kochs rather than stick to his small-government principles….
I asked him how the convention was shaping up. “Too early to say,” he replied. Romney, in Stone’s view, is a weak candidate. “He just was stronger and had more staying power than anyone else. He had to the good fortune to run against Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Herman Cain. None of those guys were viable.” He said he was not at all impressed with the Romney campaign organization. “I see Fat John Sununu is back in the hierarchy. That’s a bad sign.”…
Speaking of whom, Erick “Redstate Strike Farce” Erickson has a theory, which is his:
…Back in 1992, John Sununu had been pushed out of the White House as Chief of Staff, but was still a committed partisan for George H. W. Bush. Ben Ginsberg was a lawyer with the Republican Party.
In 1992, Pat Buchanan challenged George H. W. Bush, forced his way into the convention as a speaker, and lots of conservatives rallied to him. It was a very bad year for Team George H. W. Bush and to this day social conservatives and Pat Buchanan get blamed.
This year, John Sununu and Ben Ginsberg are with Mitt Romney. They saw an upstart campaign from Rick Santorum, who rallied social conservatives like Pat Buchanan did in 1992. He got himself onto the convention stage with a speech, tonight, on welfare that a number of prominent Republicans are worried about.
The guys who’ve been old hands at this for a long time have gotten it in their heads that these rule changes Team Romney keeps coming up with is payback from Ginsberg and Sununu going back to 1992. It doesn’t matter whether it is true or not, they are muttering about it in the halls and it fits as the only rational explanation to a number of these guys.
The GOP has all but publicly announced that they’re depending on the Angry Old Bigot turnout, but they don’t seem to be capable of pleasing the Angry Old Bigot representatives.
As an aside, when John Sununu first appeared on the national stage, part of my job involved photocopying research articles at a midwestern university library. I first saw Sununu on tv right after copying a series of photos on the veterinary repair of prolapsed pig rectums. The resemblance — vast rolls of sweaty flesh never meant to see daylight, centered with a nasty little red wound — was unforgettable.