Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

“They all knew.”

One way or another, he’s a liar.

I really should read my own blog.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

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

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

Stand up, dammit!

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

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Zandar wrote at Balloon Juice from 2011-16. (1975-2023)

RIP Zandar, We are still here fighting the stupid, now in your honor.

blog Zandar Versus The Stupid.

Twitter: @ZandarVTS

Zandar's Obituary

Zandar

Red, White, And Pink-Slip Blues

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Looks like Hank Williams Jr.’s job at Monday Night Football is long gone lonesome on a permanent basis after he compared President Obama’s Israel policy to Hitler.

On Thursday morning, ESPN said it had made the decision to bench Williams for good.

“We have decided to part ways with Hank Williams, Jr,” a statement on the network’s website announced. “We appreciate his contributions over the past years. The success of Monday Night Football has always been about the games and that will continue.”

On his website, Williams claimed the decision had been his idea.

So Herman Cain will be the first person to say that Bocephus being unemployed by ESPN is his own fault, right?

If you’re dissatisfied with the economy, or unemployed, Herman Cain thinks you should take a long, hard look in the mirror.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal posted Wednesday, the up-and-coming GOP 2012 contender and former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza summed up his bewilderment about recent demonstrations on Wall Street.

“Don’t blame Wall Street,” Cain said. “Don’t blame the big banks. If you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself.”

I’m sure Herm will get right on that phone call to Hank.

Maybe they should start a band or something.  They’d need a name.  Cow Pies? Insane Clown Pizza?  Delivery and Deliverance?  Death Panel For Cutie? Arcade Fired? An Offer You Can Refuse? They Might Be Employable? The Herman Cain Experience Featuring Bocephus?  9-9-9 Doors Down? C’mon, this is fun.

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Sully’s Moose-ion Improbable

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One more thing about the Griftzilla From Wasilla yesterday:  there’s Sully’s now legendary take on Sarah Palin getting into the race as an independent Wednesday afternoon:

The obvious problem is that she would all but guarantee the re-election of Barack Obama. Is she delusional and narcissistic enough to plow onward regardless?

You betcha!

Yeah, oops.

One, Sully’s not exactly the most objective observer of all things Trig Sarah Palin.  Two, running as an independent would be way too much work.  If you ever thought Half Term here was going to put in the long hours needed to do that, you’re nuts and still are.  Three, Sully’s right about her guaranteeing an Obama win, meaning the Powers That Be in the GOP money pit must have already made it clear to her that they would have spent tens of millions to crush her like a tin can at the bottom of the Marianas Trench.  Four, she’s still playing this grift as long as she can.  It required her to actually do a grand total of nothing and she gets attention.  That’s all she ever needed.  (Well, that and the money from the rubes.) And five, even Republicans don’t want her to run.

Sarah Palin is egomaniacal and bull-headed.  But she’s not stupid.  She’s stayed out this long as I said she would…but hey, the veep slot will be open in 2012 again.

Voila.  Grift 2.0.  Be interesting to see who else comes out and says “Oh yeah I never thought she was running and never thought she had a chance to win.”

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Basement Of The Division

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Congress has hit a new low in the latest WaPo/ABC poll, and there’s still 13 months for them to find new and awesome mathematical ways to get worse.

Whether Republican, Democrat or independent, more Americans disapprove of Congress than at any point in more than two decades of Washington Post-ABC News polling.

Just 14 percent of the public approves of the job Congress is doing, according to the latest poll. That is lower than just before the 1994, 2006 and 2010 elections, when the majority party was on the verge of losing power in the House.

For most it’s not just a casual dislike of Congress: Sixty-two percent say they “strongly disapprove” of congressional job performance. An additional 20 percent “somewhat” disapprove.

Only 3 percent of Americans said they “strongly approve” of the performance of lawmakers on Capitol Hill — essentially as low as possible, given the poll’s margin of error of four percentage points.

With Democrats running the Senate and Republicans in charge of the House, no group of voters is pleased. Just 18 percent of Democrats, 13 percent of independents and 13 percent of Republicans approve of Congress.

Looking at the crosstabs is a bit more revealing than “People hate Congress” (although that’s apparently completely true.)   Republicans in Congress get a 20% approval rating on the economy, 15 points under President Obama, and the President is more trusted on job creation, 49-34%.  When asked if POTUS and the GOP care more protecting the economic interests of middle-class Americans or wealthy Americans, 52% say the President cares more about the middle class to the GOP’s 32%.  Meanwhile, a whopping 70% think the GOP cares more about protecting the wealthy to Obama’s 17%.

Of the 79% of Americans unhappy with our political system, 39% blame the GOP, 25% President Obama, and 27% blame both.

On the President’s jobs plan, 52% approve of it, 58% believe it will improve the jobs situation in the US if it passes.

As far as the Clown Car goes, the interesting stuff is near the bottom: Republican voters say they would be more likely to vote for a candidate if they thought schools should teach creationism/intelligent design (34-31%), wanted to repeal the health care law (67-15%),  and supported banning same-sex marriage (38-27%).  They would be less likely to vote for a candidate that sees global warming as an issue (27-36%) but the real shocker is that they’d be far less likely to vote for a candidate that wanted to extend unemployment benefits right now (25-46%).

So yes, Americans want to see the American Jobs Act passed. but Republican voters will punish any Republican that extends unemployment benefits right now (which the AJA would do.)

Until they’re convinced that they will be punished more for not supporting the jobs bill, I doubt they will budge an inch. You can give Republicans where you live a Twitter nudge with the Tweet For Jobs page on the Obama ’12 site.

Unless you think doing nothing about the jobs situation in this country is okay, that is.

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Witless For The Defense, Your Honor

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New guy gets to handle the “I Read These Morons So You Don’t Have To” category, right? And hey, this time it’s easy, it’s really pretty much all there in Bobo’s article title:

In Defense of Romney

And it goes precisely as you expect it would.

The central problem is that Mitt Romney doesn’t fit the mold of what many Republicans want in a presidential candidate. They don’t want a technocratic manager. They want a bold, blunt radical outsider who will take on the establishment, speak truth to power and offend the liberal news media.

They don’t want Organization Man. They want Braveheart.

The question is: Are they right to want this? Well, if they want an in-your-face media campaign that will produce delicious thrills for the true believers, they are absolutely right. But if they actually want to elect an effective executive who is right for this moment, they are probably not right.

If that sounds familiar, it should.  Please notice that Bobo’s recycling his own argument as to why he liked candidate Obama in 2008.

And the other thing that does separate Obama from just a pure intellectual: he has tremendous powers of social perception. And this is why he’s a politician, not an academic. A couple of years ago, I was writing columns attacking the Republican congress for spending too much money. And I throw in a few sentences attacking the Democrats to make myself feel better. And one morning I get an email from Obama saying, ‘David, if you wanna attack us, fine, but you’re only throwing in those sentences to make yourself feel better.’ And it was a perfect description of what was going through my mind. And everybody who knows Obama all have these stories to tell about his capacity for social perception.

He then goes on to praise Romney for just how much like President Obama he is: perceptive, organized, intelligent, possessed of political expertise, surrounded by competent people and adaptable to a changing political situation.  The funny thing is President Obama is still all of those things, still has gotten a hell of a lot done, still has a lot that he can do, but Bobo here seems to think that Romney’s good for America in the end because he’s dull (and of course the Tea Party would magically go away if President Obama weren’t around.)

It’s like watching paint dry.  Unexciting, nondescript, especially boring paint.

<object style=”height: 390px; width: 640px”><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/ussCHoQttyQ?version=3″><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”><param name=”allowScriptAccess” value=”always”><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/ussCHoQttyQ?version=3″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” allowScriptAccess=”always” width=”640″ height=”360″></object>

Now that I think about it, if there’s anyone in DC that will relentless push the idea of “Mitt Romney means we get to have a grown-up in the White House and no Tea Party!” fallacy for the next 13 months, it’s going to be Brooks.

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The “Worst Governor In America” Contest Rolls On

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Looks like Ohio Republican John Kasich is not only the new most hated governor in the land (surpassing Florida’s odious GOP Jackass-in-Chief, Rick Scott) but he’s now giving Scott a solid run for his money in the outright worst in the nation category.  MoJo’s excellent Mac McClelland:

While we’re all at being (rightfully) mad at some really rich people, let’s splash some more fuel onto the class-warfare fire. Think tank Innovation Ohio has released some stats about that state’s governor, John Kasich, who is trying to kill collective bargaining with a bill called SB 5 and who recently slashed funding to services people sort of need, like schools and firefighting.

But the Ohio legislature isn’t spreading the pain equally—namely, not among themselves. According to IO’s most recent report, Kasich took a raise of more than $10,000 over the last governor’s salary, bringing his pay to $148,165. And exempted the salary from the SB 5 provision that cuts automatic annual raises for other public employees. And lied about how much he pays his staff, whose senior members make $110,000. Also unaffected by the recent massive budget cuts is the Ohio General Assembly’s minimum salary of $60K—for a part-time job in a state where the average worker makes $40K. Of course, 62 of the 70 legislators who voted for SB 5 make more than that minimum. Those 62 receive annual bonuses up to $34k. No wonder there was so much protesting going on when I was there.

So yeah, with all the howling from Ohio Republicans that the Buckeye State had to end collective bargaining rights for those awful, greedy state employees so that Ohio counties and municipalities could make “painful but necessary” budget cuts, not only did they lock down salaries for other government employees in the state, Kasich then went and gave himself a big fat ol’ raise on the taxpayer dime.  Awesome.

Anyone surprised by this, please email me your bank account info, I need to get a couple billion dollars out of a Nigerian prince or two.  Seriously, exciting new branches of theoretical mathematics have yet to be discovered that can sufficiently quantify how much of a complete asshole John Kasich is.

But hey, Republicans given power?  Surprise!  They abuse it.

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Perry-lized With Fear And Doubt

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It seems Governor Goodhair is no longer the Shiny New Tea Party Savior anymore as his poll numbers have dropped like large painted-over rock.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way for Rick Perry.

A hard-talking embodiment of the conservative id, the Texas Governor entered the race in August and quickly shot to the front of the pack on broad appeal to the Tea Party base, and his message on job creation.

But something funny’s happening to Rick Perry on the way to what many expected to be a charge to the nomination: Namely, Rick Perry.

After a series of missteps and stumbles, most of his own making, the latest Washington Post / ABC News poll shows Perry having lost about half of his national support in the last month. The former frontrunner is now staring back up at his chief rival, former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, and running neck-and-neck with the surging Herman Cain.

Now let’s keep in mind that these numbers were taken mostly before this weekend’s revelations about the name of Perry’s hunting camp in Texas.  The same caveat applies to Herman Cain’s numbers too.  Cain attacked Perry over the weekend, by Monday he was running away from his own statements because King Rush told him to know his role and shut his mouth.  Everything you need to know about Cain there is that he complied with near neutrino-level speed.

It’s arguable that Perry’s numbers may actually improve slightly thanks to this weekend’s events.  As for Cain, I expect we’ll see him back down among the also rans as soon as Chris Christie makes his announcement and becomes the next Shiny New Thing.

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Voter Suppression Depression? Time To Fight Back

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I said in my introduction that Republican voter suppression efforts are the major issue facing this country right now, and if this study is anywhere close to accurate the time to start pushing voter registration and education efforts is now.

Restrictive voting laws in states across the country could affect up to five million voters from traditionally Democratic demographics in 2012, according to a new report by the Brennan Center. That’s a number larger than the margin of victory in two of the last three presidential elections.

The new restrictions, the study found, “fall most heavily on young, minority, and low-income voters, as well as on voters with disabilities. This wave of changes may sharply tilt the political terrain for the 2012 election.”

The GOP takeover at the state level over the last several years has led directly to voter ID laws designed to disenfranchise millions of traditionally Democratic voters.  2010 proved that when turnout is low, Republicans run rampant.  In a presidential election year next year, that could very well prove to be fatal to the country.  If your cynical, jaded self recognizes only one difference between the GOP and the Democrats, it’s that the GOP wants to make voting as difficult and as exclusive as possible.  Where they have gained power, they turn to voter ID efforts to limit turnout in order to maintain power.  Even if you dispute the numbers in the study, the GOP intent is clear.

Here’s the real kicker:

Of the 12 likely battleground states, as assessed by an August Los Angeles Times analysis of Gallup polling, five have already cut back on voting rights (and may pass additional restrictive legislation), and two more are currently considering new restrictions.

One of those states is Ohio, and as Kay across the river from me can attest to, Ohio’s battle to stop John Kasich and the GOP from disenfranchising tens of thousands of Ohio voters is just beginning.  So far opponents of Ohio’s measure have collected more than enough signatures to put the law to a referendum in 2012, meaning that as soon as the petitions are validated, Ohio will operate under the same voting laws as the 2010 election both this year and next.

But that’s only one state.  The efforts to reduce turnout are national, well-funded, and well-coordinated.  Ohio proved that efforts to fight these restriction can work, but the bottom line is turnout and GOTV efforts in 2011 and especially 2012 are vital to preventing a complete Republican takeover.  It’s past time to examine what you can do where you live to help locally with these efforts.  No matter what the GOP does, we have to get people out there to vote, period.

It’s astonishing to think that in 2011, a major US political party is running on a platform to limit voting as much as possible.  So far they haven’t paid a political price for doing so.

That needs to change.

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