Headlines - Friday August 12

You are all anti-Mormon bigots for even reading this:

"Corporations are people, my friend," Romney said, when a heckler called for raising their taxes. "Of course they are. Everything corporations earn eventually go to people. Where do you think it goes? Whose pockets? Whose pockets? People's pockets. Human beings."

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"Just between you and me, Marge, she looks just like that crazy lady on the cover of Newsweek magazine."

 

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I dare you to read this and not start weeping. Nicholas Kristof (NYT link)

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79% of Americans Dissatisfied with U.S. Political System, But Are Too Busy Complaining About It to Do Anything to Change It

 

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Jill: The worldview of Michele Bachmann

 

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How to make more liberals: Tell this story.

 

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And Israeli fanatics won't be satisfied until they have every last inch of Palestine. "Eli Yishai, Israel's interior minister, has given final approval for the construction of 1,600 new settler homes in occupied East Jerusalem, his spokesperson said. The ministry is expected to approve another 2,700 homes in the coming days, Roi Lachmanovich, a spokesperson for the interior ministry, told the AFP news agency on Thursday. Yishai, a member of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, has given approval for "1,600 homes in Ramat Shlomo and will approve 2,000 more in Givat Hamatos and 700 in Pisgat Zeev," Lachmanovich said."

 

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Rick Perry Metaphor of the Day: Texans Forced to Consume Own Sewage

 

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This guy sees fit to lecture the rest of us on fiscal responsibility? Irony is in fine fettle indeed. "Tea Party aligned Georgia Rep. Tom Graves (R), who castigates Washington for fiscal irresponsibility, reached an out of court settlement Wednesday after he was sued for defaulting on a $2.2 million loan -- which his attorney argued is the bank's fault for lending him the money in the first place. ... Graves and his business partner Chip Rogers -- who is the state Senate's Republican majority leader -- took out a $2.2 million loan from the Bartow County Bank in 2007 to buy and renovate a local motel. The project soon went belly-up. ... The bank, which has since failed and had its assets taken over, sued Graves and Rogers for defaulting. The two Republicans then countersued, "accusing [the bank] of improperly declaring the loan in default after reneging on a promise to refinance it at more favorable terms," according to Jeremy Redmon and Aaron Gould Sheinin of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. ... In June, Simon Bloom, the attorney for Graves and Rogers, argued in a court filing that the default was the bank's fault because it lent the pair the money knowing full well they couldn't pay. Bloom cited a deposition in which bank officials saw Graves and Rogers' financial records, and then had them sign personal guarantees so they'd "'have some skin in the game' presumably meaning a sense of personal obligation for the debts ... even though they clearly could not fulfill the obligation." Graves and Rogers said they were unaware of that particular filing."

 

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SARAH PALIN & HER LOVE OF MONEY

Sarah Palin Resurrects Bus Tour For Fried Butter, Other Surprises

 

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Corporations hoarding cash is strangling the recovery and keeping the economy on thin ice. "The Wall Street Journal noted today that "non-financial companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index were holding $1.12 trillion in cash and short-term investments in their most recent reports, up 59% from $703 billion in the third quarter of 2008." This data seems to fly in the face of conservatives who claim that corporations need more money (in the form of new tax breaks) in order to start hiring. Earlier this month, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) inadvertently made the progressive argument about corporate taxes, when he pointed out that pocketing money from tax savings is simply "what business does." But maybe the corporations really need cash on hand to purchase necessities since, as Mitt Romney explained today, "corporations are people.""

 

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Insanity Contests

Michele Bachmann Terrorized By… What, Today… 15th Century Art

 

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Wise CEO Suggests Heavier Taxes On Poor People To Help Weary Rich People

 

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http://news.yahoo.com/congressman-feuds-administration-over-movie-070700161.html

 

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Medical science, not magic, conducted by human scientists, not an invisible sky wizard. "Around 30 genetic risk factors for developing multiple sclerosis have been discovered by a UK-led team. It brings to more than 50 the total number of genetic clues to the disease. The research, published in Nature, will help identify risk factors and perhaps future treatments or even a cure, said the MS Society. Most of the genes are linked to immunity, backing the idea that the disease is triggered when the immune system turns against itself. Genes are only part of the story, however, with other factors, such as vitamin D or a viral infection, thought to play an important role. The study, carried out by a consortium of international researchers, led by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, is the largest yet into genes and MS. It looked at DNA from almost 10,000 MS patients, and more than 15,000 healthy controls. Twenty three known genetic variations, common in the general population, that give a tiny increase in the risk of getting MS were confirmed, and 29 new ones identified. Another five are strongly suspected as being involved, bringing the total number of genetic variations associated with MS to 57. Professor Alistair Compston of the University of Cambridge told the BBC: "This is suddenly a big new number of genes to try to understand. "80% of the genes that are implicated by the 57 'hits' are immunological. This shouts out that this is an immunological disease at the beginning. This is a very important confirmation." Around 2.5 million people around the world have MS, 100,000 of them in the UK. MS is not directly inherited and there is no single gene that causes it. However, research suggests a combination of genes common in the general population make some people more susceptible to developing the neurological disorder."

 

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Remember When They Called Themselves Compassionate Conservatives?A campaign aide says Nebraska attorney general and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jon Bruning regrets comparing welfare recipients to raccoons.

 

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Ted Rall: Down and Out at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

 

*I* don't think it has failed - yet.

I think it's likely to fail, because Obama refuses to correct his course.
As long as his major goal is to trying to please the rabid dogs, he will fail.




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Hey guys! Remember that time when the GOP held the country hostage and Standard and Poors down-graded the US credit rating from AAA to AA+ and markets all over the world crashed? Me Neither! But you know what? At the same time, they were lobbying Congress for business breaks. Oh, yeah, and their lobbyists includes Tony Podesta, whose brother John ran the transition team for the Obama administration, and Douglas Nappi, who has worked for the Senate Banking Committee and the Securities and Exchange Commission. (WaPo)

 

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The state of Texas is well known for having one of the harshest justice systems in the country, but that doesn't make the precedent being set by Rick Perry any less astonishing.

Likely presidential hopeful Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) oversaw his 235th execution as governor yesterday — the most of any modern governor by far, and nearly half of those conducted in Texas since the death penalty went into effect in 1976. His predecessor, former President George W. Bush, used to hold the dubious distinction, having presided over 152 state killings during his five years in office.

235 executions? What would Jesus do?

Because God apparently told Rick Perry to run for president, can we also infer that God told him to execute 235 people?

Would Rick Perry's execution of the economy, if he became president, also surpass the gruesome record left behind by George Bush?

Rick Perry is George Bush 2.0

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Socialism Is Okay If You're A Republican

Medicare fraudster and arch-enemy of proper governance, Governor Rick Scott of Florida, has no problem with socialism as long as he is the primary beneficiary of it.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) crashed into office earlier this year on a campaign bashing President Barack Obama's health care plan and its ability to lower costs for consumers, but it turns out that he doesn't mind the governmental twist that allows him to pay a lower insurance premium himself.

Scott pays only $30 per month for taxpayer-subsidized health insurance for himself and his family, the Miami Herald reported. Meanwhile, the janitors who clean his office in the state Capitol pay six times as much out of pocket for their own health coverage. [...]

For the same family health plan that Scott pays $30 for, rank-and-file state employees pay $180 per month. Florida has one of the highest rates of uninsured people in the country.

Socialized medicine! Tax-payer subsidized healthcare! Why should I have to pay for someone else's healthcare!?

Governor Gollum, who presided over the recent privatization of Medicaid in the state of Florida, only pays $30 dollars per month for health insurance for himself and his entire family.

For comparison's sake – as a single adult male my health insurance is $90 per month. The cost of health insurance for my parents, who are in their 60s and have minor health issues, is roughly $1400 per month. In hindsight, they will be lucky if they make it to the Medicare eligibility age without going bankrupt. Many people are not so fortunate.

If we expanded Medicare to cover the entire population, or even lowered the eligibility age to 55 well, that would just be socialist! Only socialists believe healthcare should be cheaper!

Governor Smeagol has also refused to accept millions of dollars in federal funds afforded to the state under the Affordable Care Act. Ya' know, that diabolical socialist Obamacare program.

By the way, the entirety of Congress, including every single Tea Party Freshman, also benefit from socialized medicine.