A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man. http://t.co/cNPRL2mkeU
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) November 18, 2014
… although the stuff now coming out of Mike Pence’s piehole would probably kill the poor man all over again. From the Crooks & Liars post:
… The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration announced last month that beginning in 2015, it would no longer request a waiver to the federal work requirement for certain people who use the SNAP program. Up to 65,000 single Hoosiers could lose food stamp benefits unless they are working 20 hours a week or attending job training.
Speaking to Fox News on Tuesday, Pence argued that 50,000 people had joined the Indiana workforce since 2008 so it was time to return to a “core principle” of welfare reform.
“How do you feel about people who say you are targeting poor people?” Fox News host Brian Kilmeade asked the governor.
“I’m someone that believes there’s nothing more ennobling to a person than a job,” Pence insisted. “And to make sure that able-bodied adults without dependants at home know that here in the state of Indiana, we want to partner with them in their success.”…
Think Progress pointed out last month that there were 2 million people in the Midwest seeking jobs, but only about a million jobs available. And that’s not counting the thousands of people who are no longer counted as unemployed because they gave up looking for a job…
Video at the link, if you want to watch the Fauxbot tonguebathe Pence about how his command of all the GOP buzzwords might inspire “people” to encourage a presidential run. If you’ve been trying to lose weight, it will definitely put you off your dinner.
BGinCHI
As a recovering Hoosier I don’t think I can express in strong enough terms just how much I hate that motherfucking Pence.
He is exactly what that state produces when it is allowed to foster its worser angel.
Until we can more collectively see through this mean-spirited inhumane treatment of our fellow citizens we have less hope of peace and happiness.
I wish I believed in an angry, angerable God.
Baud
That’s a lot of people blaming Obama.
Baud
@BGinCHI:
You do realize that such a god would support Pence, right?
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Not if that god was angered by stupidity above all else. The smiting of Pence would come only slightly after the smiting of Gohmert.
Linnaeus
How about ennobling people by giving them jobs building tumbrels?
The Dangerman
I think Rich People paying higher taxes would be ennobling, too.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: I am willing to be deputized.
BGinCHI
@Baud: No, Pence’s version of God would support him.
But maybe that’s why Jesus was a rebel. Maybe his old man was that mean and stupid.
Davis X. Machina
Welcome to the age of “If you can’t make my life better, can you at least let me watch you make someone else’s worse?”
The devil offers to grant one wish to a peasant. The peasant can have anything he wants. The only catch is that his neighbor will be given twice as much of it. The peasant thinks and thinks, and then smiles as he says, “I would like you to blind me in one eye!”
Old Russian folktale.
Keith G
And so it goes. Some have worked very hard to keep our society out of the ditch. Sometimes it seems that we need to plop deeply into said stagnant and murky ditch and embrace the suck which will surely follow. Then maybe more will recognize the wickedness of this ideration of conservatism.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
And the Lord thus spake to Omnes, Go forth and smite the imbeciles. And He saw that it was good.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: The problem is that one of the more famous people to claim that had happened to him was David Berkowitz. Not a good precedent.
Deecarda
@Omnes Omnibus:
Screw deputized, I dub thee knight! Now, on with the smiting.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
Didn’t he get a book deal out if it? That’s something.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: And a law. That’s something else.
Morzer
Dunno about the god/non-god evidentiary value of this, but:
http://fortressamerica.gawker.com/is-ron-paul-in-big-big-legal-trouble-1660323449/+laceydonohue
To think that saintly “Freedom’s Last Champion” Ron Paul might turn out to be a corrupt old fraud after all. I am shocked, I tell you, shocked.
Brian R.
Mike Pence, the Dumbest Man Alive.
JPL
@Morzer: Sounds like a normal iokiyr just sayin
Morzer
More women are coming forward to denounce Bill Cosby:
http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2014/11/bill-cosby-rape-claims-lachele-covington-police-report/
Enhanced Voting Techniques
and unemployment is at 4.9% in my Liberal Hell Hole of a California city.
You think Pence might grok to the fact that this is 2014 and not 1980.We live in a global economy now and companies doing business in the US are here for the 1st World Socialisms, not to save a buck. But, living in the past is the definition of a conservative.
Morzer
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Conservatives: people who are undead before and after their time.
lamh36
Tonight, I totally agree with Maddow. WTF isn’t Harry Reid and the Dem Senate pushing forward with the Loretta Lynch confirmation hearing while they still have majority and before the damn holidays and the GOP gets back the majority.
instead they decide to do a Keystone vote. Maddow reported it saying the WH and Dem leaders agree to hold off on the vote. so either they are just dumb or they think “strategically” that the GOP will be completely stupid and reckless as usual and be totally ugly during the confirmation hearing and therefore showing their “true colors” to the American people, what da fuq ever. the American people voted or didn’t vote allowing these fuckers to win majority and the people who actually go out and vote consistently are perfectly fine with the GOPs ugliness towards Black and women.
stupid, stupid decision by the Dems. Unless it’s all just a front so that Eric Holder can stay on the job until until/if she is confirmed?
ugh.
Morzer
Also, something absolutely fabulously brilliant:
http://gawker.com/genius-activists-trick-neo-nazi-parade-into-raising-12-1660134062
raven
@lamh36: twelve dimensional chess
raven
We’re hitting it in the morning and I recently learned that my good friend and his bride are visiting their son nearby. I moved here when the young man was born and actually was his first baby sitter. We had lost touch for years and were reunited when my pal moved back to Georgia. His son graduated from Minnesota and then joined the Army. He wanted airborne but something happened and he ended up a grunt in Iraq. I sent him a bunch of care packages while he was there and never heard from him. I had no problem with that, the dude really didn’t know me and I sent the stuff for him not for thanks. We’re invited to his house for Thanksgiving and we’re going to go. It’s funny because the dad and I met at the U of I and were rock and roll anti-war hell raiders. By all accounts the son is pretty conservative and I’m going to be on my best behavior and just enjoy.
Valdivia
ugh. Pence. Wasn’t he a total idiot when he was in Congress?
kind of OT–usually enjoy seeing what Weigel has to say but he ahs been leading the Gruber frenzy since last week. In the end they are all partisan to the last.
Morzer
@raven:
So, no limits then?
raven
@efgoldman: I haven’t really spent much time around young vets. I know he worked for Wounded Warrior for a while when he got out of law school. I gave his dad my perspective on that outfit and was glad to learn that he left the outfit with some serious questions about WW. I think I’ll probably lean toward talking about fishing.
Valdivia
@lamh36:
completely agree. I don’t get it at all.
raven
@Morzer: Anybody that signed up for that shit, especially someone who had completed college and still became enlisted has a head start in my respect book.
lamh36
ok. for all the movie people on BJ, I challenge you to expand your movie selections and go see Beyond The Lights.
I really enjoyed it. it starred the young lady from “Belle” and the young man from “The Great Debaters”. It also stars Danny Glover and Minnie Driver.
I’ve kinda had to broaden my horizons when it comes to cinemas. There is just not that many films that involves diverse casts or predominantly Black casts that come out nowadays that are of good quality. I think this one fits the mold.
So if you need a diversion and just want to see something different, check it out. it’s an independent film and it could use all the money it can get.
It is a romantic drama set in the world of R&B/popular music, but the acting, particularly that of Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Nate Parker is really great and in case you care about reviews, it’s gotten really good ones.
so if you are so inclined…check it out. I think ya might like it.
I mean ya gotta see something when since Hunger Games will be all sold out…LOL.
Suffern ACE
Wow. 50,000 jobs since the depths of the recession. That’s a real winner economy you’ve got.
Bob Munck
I’m sure a fine, upstanding Republican like Mike Pence would never want government bureaucrats to force people to be noble. So giving up food stamps must be voluntary, right?
I wonder how many will volunteer…
El Cid
The more desperate the poor person, the more noble. We need to help them ennoble themselves away into the next world.
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh36: I’ve been seeing a lot of trailers for it so it seems to be getting a big push by its studio.
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh36: @Valdivia: As noted above, Reid just pushed through four ambassadorships. I think he is saving the big fight for later and trying to get the lower profile ones through quietly. I would also guess that it has been coordinated with the White House.
ETA: Or it could a “Fuck it, if you hate Holder so damned much, then confirm his successor. Or he stays, assholes,” type of move.
Edited again to remove sexist term.
JPL
@Valdivia: IMO, there is no reason not to confirm her so the idea is to show what whackos are in charge. Unfortunately, msm will say the opposite
.
JPL
So I just took the dog out and it’s 24. wtf.. I hate climate change.
lamh36
@Omnes Omnibus: it’s in a tough spot. The cast is predominantly Black and based in the R&B/HipHop/Pop music world, so certain movie goers probably think of it as an “urban film”. The 2 leads are pretty unknown except to people like me who watch a lot of movies and keeps abreast of movies that I don’t even watch, so no big name attached to it like Oprah, or Spielberg or even Tyler Perry. Although the director is probably more known in the indie film scene, she’s def NOT A-list, but she does consistently make great films, and she has a really great way of telling a story from a woman’s point of view, that’s both sensitive and believable.
So yeah, it’s getting a big push. It also has the disadvantage of being release during the Holiday season, which includes so big holiday “blockbusters”…it was #4 this past wknd, but top 2 earned more than 3-5 combined. I’m thinking they see it as “counter programming” to the bigger budget movies.
Woodrowfan
I went to college with him, He’s ALWAYS been a sanctimonious prick. Dumb as a box of mentally-challenged rocks, but thinks he brilliant. Happy to denounce the mote in your eye, but ignores the redwood in his own. He’s the type that will happily shove ‘those people” into ovens and think he’s doing God’s work. He’d be a very dangerous man with any real power.
Mike in NC
Pence’s head on a pike would be a thing of beauty.
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh36: It isn’t the kind of film (romantic drama) that I go to a theater to see. I’ll probably catch it when I can see it without others knowing.
@Woodrowfan: I feel your pain.
lamh36
@Omnes Omnibus: I admit I wasn’t aware of the ambassadorships, but I still think the Dems are being too cute by half. I mean sure it may show the GOP whackados, but the GOP voters who consistently vote, do so knowing the bigots and chauvinist they vote for, and let’s face it, after the crazy show and they finally confirm her, the voters that will be turned off by the crazy are aren’t gonna give 2 shits about the hearings.
so I guess the Dems win a news cycle and increases fundraising I guess?
Joseph Nobles
@efgoldman: Yes, if anyone can manage to get throughask the righteous indignation at Somerby’s site, that is the point he makes. Reid is working on a lot of smaller nominations now. Holder is going to stay until his successor is confirmed, anyway. This is a chosen battle for the next Congress. It works for me.
JPL
@Woodrowfan: The Charles Lindbergh of today without the pilots license. am I right.
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh36: I just doubt that this wasn’t coordinated with the White House. Also, as far as the Keystone vote goes, I think it was a thank you to Mary Landrieu for have backed the party in some tough votes. She really seemed to want it, so my guess is that Reid scheduled it but didn’t whip the vote for her.
lamh36
@Omnes Omnibus: I completely figured this vote was to say thx Mary, but the bill was sponsored by Bill Cassidy, her opponents and Keystone has not one damn thing to do with Louisiana. So Mary Landrieu figured this was the vote she wanted to end her Senatorship career? Really Mary, really
Bubblegum Tate
Christ. It’s the exact same language MBA assholes like Mitt Romney use to spin laying you off as doing you a favor.
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh36: As a native, do you think she has any ambitions for or chance at a statewide office in the future? What about her brother in NOLA?
lamh36
Saw this in FB. and wanted to share it, no my friends and I all concur on the video scenarios.
10 Moments Black People In The Workplace Know Too Well http://www.buzzfeed.com/dayshavedewi/10-moments-black-people-in-the-workplace-know-too-well via @DayshaVeronica @buzzfeed
I wear my hair natural, and the number of white women coworkers who commented on my hair when I change it or when it’s in it’s natural state, and you can just tell they want to touch it (so far no one has ever asked as I recall). Also too, I have been in lab where there was maybe only 1 or 2 other younger Black female technologist (not lower positioned assistant) and for a while the a few of my white coworkers would interchangeably use the wrong name for the wrong person.
Also too, the MLK thing, Nov 2008, our lab was having cake and food for November birthdays, one coworker comes in and asks “so are you guys celebrating Obama’s election” (wink, wink). we looked at her like, naw bish, it’s for November birthdays. We gave her sooo much stink eye ever since, until the day I left and they probably still do.
Bubblegum Tate
@El Cid:
“Suffering brings you closer to God. Brings you closer to God. I’m good right here, thanks.”
lamh36
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m not sure state wide. Mitch was Lt Gov and yet decided to run for NOLA Mayor instead of tossing in hat for Governor at the end of his term, so I’m thinking he’s going stay in NOLA as long as possible and then if climate changes maybe run statewide.
As for Mary, IDK, she could maybe try to become only the 2nd ever female governor of Louisiana, but some people do remember Blanco who was also a Dem and was Katrina Governor so I don’t know?
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus: the thank you to Landrieu makes some sense to me.
There are other important nominations though—Surgeon General? why not push for that confirmation?
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh36: My stomach knotted up watching that. Just uncomfortable as hell.
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia: Again, I am just speculating that they pushing the low profile ones through first and then they will gear up for a fight.
pseudonymous in nc
Whatever you think about Matt Yglesias, he called out Mike Pence as “a very stupid man” early and often.
(He now thinks Pence will be the GOP nominee in 2016. Of that, I’m not so sure.)
Omnes Omnibus
@pseudonymous in nc:
Matt has been twirling toward freedom for so long that I think he may be a bit dizzy.
pseudonymous in nc
Yglesias, 2009:
Omnes Omnibus
We should also note that the bill to limit NSA surveillance didn’t pass a cloture vote.
ETA: All Dems except Nelson voted for it. On the R side, Ted Cruz voted for and Rand Paul against.
The Pale Scot
I just watched the HESS xmas truck commercial, space shuttle launches off trailer truck then deploys “scout ship”
I think I want one.
Omnes Omnibus
@The Pale Scot: I am sure it gets terrible gas mileage.
Mnemosyne
@pseudonymous in nc:
It’s not necessarily contradictory to think that Pence is a moron and also that he could be the 2016 nominee. Republicans like morons.
srv
With all these unemployed slackers, I think they just need to find that old Indiana K-Car factory and re-open it.
Then market the cars to cheap hipsters. Landau tops, flannel seats, maybe with matching Polaroid cameras. 90 day warranty, tops. Just need a few OSHA and NHTSA waivers. Surely liberals could see the big picture here.
Mike in NC
@pseudonymous in nc: Cruz / Pence 2016 would be the logical Republican descent into madness. They would easily capture 45% of the vote, being fucked-up white dudes.
mai naem
@pseudonymous in nc: Pence as the 2016 nominee? Seriously? I hope his words reach the FSM for our sakes because the guy is a full blown idiot with the brains of an immature gnat. I think he even won Washingtonian’s Dumbest Member of Congress award at some point. He may not be as dumb as Princess Sarah of the Northwood Snowbillies but that’s a low bar.
pseudonymous in nc
@Mnemosyne:
This is true. However, I think 2016 will present GOP primary voters with such a rich spread of stupidity that being a plain ol’ moron will be insufficient.
Mike J
@pseudonymous in nc: The Republican base will vote for the dumbest white guy on offer. The majority of voters in the Republican primaries will vote for the dullest white guy.
Anne Laurie
@pseudonymous in nc: Pence is the political version of the businessman’s son-in-law who gets moved to a corner office where he can’t do much harm. He’s what passes among the GOP as a good mouthpiece for all the dumbest talking points, so he gets “leadership” positions where he’ll stand in front of the cameras and spout garbage like in the linked video.
Getting the Presidential nomination is quite a different role — one that much smarter & even meaner candidates have no intention of letting Pence waste. He might get offered a vp slot, by one of the outlier candidates, especially if that candidate needs a lovely head of silver hair to mouth inanities for the media. Maybe Sanctorum, except I think Rick considers himself a much better TV presence than the normal people do. If all the front-tier candidates die in a bus accident or of food poisoning after an Iowa pig dinner, then Pence would make a perfect foil for Ben Carson… but that’s the closest I think Mike’ll get to the Oval Office, except in his daydreams & Yglesias’ nightmares.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anne Laurie: They will come up with a candidate eventually The person they choose will be a freak and a monster.
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus: Republicans always talk about how the Dem candidate is the worst one in the history of ever. I can’t tell you of any difference between any Republican candidates going back to Bush the smarter.
Morzer
@Anne Laurie:
Speaking of Rick Santorum:
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rick-santorum-wishes-obama-would-be-racial-uniter-segregationists-jerry-falwell-and-jesse-he
Santorum has clearly moved beyond the crass, vile bigot stage into full-blown delusionality.
dance around in your bones
I know I always feel ennobled WHEN I’m fucking starving..
Maybe I could get Inspector Javert to pursue me through decades for stealing a loaf of bread to feed my child…..wonder if Gov whoever has ever been hungry in his life. It gives you a different perspective.
Anyway, I watched Django Unchained on Netflix tonight AND thoroughly enjoyed It, even though made me made me me cry a lot. – I l0ve the way Quentin takes history and twists it around to a better outcome!!!
Morzer
@dance around in your bones:
There’s got to be a wingnut market for The Mike Pence Nobilizing Zero-Calorie Diet book (bonus free recipe on page 13!).
Kathleen
@lamh36: I plan on seeing this. I really enjoyed her film Love and Basketball.(
SRW1
@Mnemosyne:
DubbleYou!!!
raven
@efgoldman: Yes, but he didn’t know it at the time he took the gig.
dance around in your bones
@Morzer: Wow, – GREAT fucking idea!!??
Can we go in halfsies on it? (Ok, I guess that wouldn’t be fair, seeing as YOU thought of it.)
I lost my Internet connection for a while (prolly fat-fingered the wireless key up top of the keyboard) or would have replied top this some hours ago.
STILL CAN’T FUCKING SLEEP! I gotta try some of that Kalmsies or whatever……..(goigng to go look it up on Amazon now, because – what the hell else am I going to do??!!) Hunh?!
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus: I crashed yesterday so maybe you won’t see this but I am very much hoping you’re right.
@pseudonymous in nc: I knew I had read he was stupid somewhere and it wasn’t just the usual Republican stupid man on tv impression I had of him!
Matt
You know what *else* is “ennobling”, Mikey mah boy? A haircut from the National Razor. This is some straight-up “let them eat cake” shit…
rikyrah
What an evil sociopath this Governor is.
Buddy H
Wow! Weird coincidence… the wife and I walked to our local movie house to watch a special Saturday morning screening of “The Big Sleep” (Bogart/Bacall) and Bogart introduces himself to a young socialite as “Reilly. Doghouse Reilly.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phkCtrYfnGo
“That’s a funny sort of name,” she replies, and falls into his arms.
dance around in your bones
@lamh36: I still remember when that little dude wanted to touch Obama’s hair…….made me kinda weepy.in a good way :)
jake the antisoshul soshulist
This is what the base wants. From a politics forum on a sports board I frequent.
Larkspur
@raven: Well, according to Charity Navigator, Wounded Warrior Project is not the worst. I mean, I don’t think I’d donate to it, based on the high fundraising expense report, but I’m not sure it’s a scam. It should be doing a better job. They give it an overall 3 star rating, or 84.39 out of 100. (PS: Charity Navigator says this financial information is as of 9-20-12.)
ETA: Oh dear lord yes, I miss Doghouse Riley. Damn. I wish I believed in heaven, cause then I could imagine him hanging out with Molly Ivins and a number of other sorely missed folks.
The Other Chuck
@Omnes Omnibus: I thought Berkowitz claimed to speak to Dog?
grandpa john
@Matt: Preceded by a nice tumbrel ride tour of the city