Headlines - Monday October 31

Anonymous: A Storm is Coming

 

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This is 'coming home'?: U.S. Planning Troop Buildup in Gulf After Exit From Iraq

 

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New York Times' Charlie Savage:

The office of the Justice Department inspector general on Friday retracted its much publicized claim that the agency had spent $16 per breakfast muffin at a conference. And it expressed regret for the "significant negative publicity" for the department and for the hotel that hosted the meeting that resulted from the erroneous finding in a report last month. [...]

[T]he department and the hotel, the Capital Hilton, said the cost of the breakfast had included not only muffins but also fruit, coffee, juice, taxes and a gratuity for the servers. It was also part of a package with the hotel that included "free" use of a ballroom and a dozen meeting rooms during the five-day conference.

In a new introduction to a revised report issued on Friday, the Office of the Inspector General said it had reviewed additional paperwork and now agreed that its conclusions "were incorrect and that the Department did not pay $16 per muffin."

How did we get a more thorough investigation of the $16 muffins that never were than we did of the $9 billion in cash that went "missing" in Iraq?

Full accounting for the muffins. Still don't know where the billions of dollars in shrink wrapped $100 bills went.

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Troops supplementing pay

 

Afghanistan, Iraq Crime (committed by US military) Increasing, According To New Report

 

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Sounds like another police riot last night, this time against Occupy Denver. Twenty were arrested, with "several protesters" making trips to the hospital and one "shot in the face with pepper bullets." "During a particularly poignant moment of the evening, Occupy Denver was separated by a police barricade from the Bill of Rights, which was printed on a poster and attached to a wooden stand as a symbol for the camp," the report relates. You couldn't come up with a more symbolic moment if you'd planned it.

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Al Jazeera does what the American press will not; take a real long look at the corrupting influence of money in American politics -- with special attention to the Koch brothers.

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Kristoffer Domeij was one of the Army Rangers who rescued Jessica Lynch. He was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan a week ago Saturday. On his fourteenth deployment.

 

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Tax The Poor: Forget Occupy Wall Street, Conservatives Have A Different Idea

 

 

 

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It was reported the other day that the Dems on the Super-Committee are now proposing even bigger cuts in Medicare and cut Social Security. The total cuts now stand at $3 Trillion.

Yes, we get the fact that the GOP is not going to accept any deal that includes any tax rises for the 1%. So Democrats can appear to be reasonable by making offers they know the GOP will refuse. But offering to give away the store is still a boneheaded strategy. It moves the terms of debate from 'what caused the deficit' to 'what are we going to cut to pay for it'.

Per capita, the US is one of the richest countries in the world. It should be able to easily afford the welfare and universal healthcare systems that every other major industrial power provides. The only reason that there is any deficit issue is that the 1% don't pay their fair share and the US spends as much on militarism as the rest of the planet combined.

The US does not have a 'defense' budget. There was nothing defensive about the Iraq war. There is nothing defensive about attempting global hegemony. Bush sent the country to war in Iraq because he thought the US military so strong that the invasion would be a 'cake walk'. Having a military that is too strong makes the US less safe: The US has to join in every war that comes along.

Letting the automatic cuts in the military budget kick in is probably the best chance we have for achieving a modest reduction in military spending and thus making the country safer.

The deficit was caused by tax cuts for the 1% and the invasion of Iraq.

 

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Taibbi: Wall Street Isn't Winning – It's Cheating

 

(Other ways the one percenters cheat are inheriting money, exploiting labor, stealing natural resources, hiding profits overseas to avoid taxes, buying tax breaks and subsidies from Congress, grabbing windfalls from IPOs and golden parachutes, and generally acting as if they are above the law.

I'd say less than one percent of the one percenters got there by dint of their own effort. It's interesting that many of those who did - Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, George Soros - are conspicuously generous with their money in donating substantial sums to charitable causes.

The rest of the rich are cheaters.)

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You don't often hear about the showering habits of congressmen, let alone ones that violate the law, but that exactly what Rep. Steve King (R-IA) told a committee hearing and the world. "I don't want a nanny state," King said, referring to rules limiting shower head output. "I drilled my showerhead out with an 8-inch bit," he continued. "I encourage any American that finds himself wasting too much time waiting for their feet to get wet to drill out their Al Gore water-saver showerhead and go ahead and commit an act of civil disobedience."

 

 

Headlines - Sunday October 30

Pentagon: Afghanistan Strategy Remains 'Risky'

 

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For instance, a key U.S. objective has been to protect ordinary Afghan civilians from the Taliban. To that end, the U.S. and its allies have poured $29 billion and years of effort into building the Afghan army and police forces. Under the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy, American troops have pursued the same goal by walking foot patrols in villages, meeting with village elders and trying to foster cooperation on development projects.

But Afghan civilians are dying in record numbers, according to the report. Civilian casualties -- most caused by the Taliban -- reached an all-time high this summer with approximately 450 civilians killed in July. Attacks using homemade bombs, or IEDs, also reached an all-time high this past summer, with about 750 IED detonations recorded in July.

Keep reading here.

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Employees of foreclosure firm  mock homeless and foreclosed-upon people at annual Halloween party.

"Other than voter suppression, home foreclosure, IRS tax warrant, suit for unpaid bills, and two DUI's, what other qualifications do you have, Mr. Block, to be chief of staff for Herman Cain's presidential campaign?"

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This is exactly why gays should not be allowed to marry - they would make a mockery of sacred vows.

 

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The 10 Commandments for Christians to reject robotic hair helmet sent from the future to destroy us all Mitt Romney - The insane clown posse of World Nut Daily lays out their case that Willard is the anti-Christ. (World Nut Daily via Right Wing Watch)

 

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73 million sharks a year are killed so people can eat shark fin soup. Which reminds me, everyone should watch this.

 

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This should be mandatory for all members of Congress.

 

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No, we didn't think the prisoner exchange would make a difference either. "Israeli airstrikes have killed seven Islamic Jihad fighters in the Gaza Strip, prompting a massive barrage of retaliatory rocket fire, officials have said. Adham Abu Selmiya, a spokesman for Gaza's emergency services, said on Saturday that five members of the Al-Quds Brigades, Islamic Jihad's armed wing, were killed and three wounded in a first Israeli attack on their camp. As fighting continued into the night, Israeli aircraft struck four more targets in Gaza, witnesses and Palestinian officials said, killing two fighters and wounding two others allegedly preparing to fire a missile near Rafah, in the south of the strip."

 

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Here's my rule of thumb: If His Popey Rapeyness likes it, I hate it. Celibacy, forced childbirth, child rape, banning condoms, blaming everything bad on an invisible sky wizard ... hate it, hate it, hate it.

But the worst thing the freakazoid motherfuckers do is attract support from leftists by pretending to give a flying fuck about the non-rich. Because if you're gay or want an abortion or need birth control or want your local priest to stop raping you, tough shit - the Catholic Church hates you and will attack and abuse you.  

Don't be fooled. The Vatican is the single richest entity on the planet. It got that way by stripping poor people of their last dime with promises of heaven and threats of hell. It supports the most viciously anti-democratic, un-American repug officials in this country. It loves Rick Santorum. It hates Bernie Sanders. It pours millions into campaigns of hatred against women and gays. It is the epitome of authoritarian male privilege. It invented religious war.

Reject it. Reject it and all its works.

From Think Progress:

With protesters taking to the streets around the world to fight for better income equality and economic opportunities for the poor and middle classes, the Vatican called Monday for an overhaul of world's financial systems and a return to a global economy based on ethical behavior and "achievement of a universal common good," the AP reports. While the Vatican has, in the past, criticized uncontrolled capitalism, the new call goes further, decrying "an economic liberalism that spurns all rules and controls."

The call for greater control and equality in financial markets comes at a time when Republican presidential candidates - many of whom tout their religious credentials on the campaign trail - have called for the repeal of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law aimed at preventing a crisis similar to that of 2008, and as Republicans in both Congress and on the campaign trail continue to back budget cuts that would eviscerate programs that help the poor. At the same time, protesters spurred by the original Occupy Wall Street demonstrations have brought increasing attention rising income inequality, corporate greed, and tax breaks for corporations and the wealthiest Americans.

The Vatican release is a clear sign that it supports the message of the Occupy Wall Street protests, Vincent J. Miller, the Gudorf Chair in Catholic Theology and Culture at the University of Dayton, said in a press release:

"While conservative leaders and several presidential candidates want to eviscerate financial reform, the Vatican has sent a powerful message that prudent regulation of our financial system is a moral priority. I expect Catholic neo-cons who usually present themselves as the defenders of orthodoxy will ignore or scramble to defuse this timely teaching. It's clear the Vatican stands with the Occupy Wall Street protesters and others struggling to return ethics and good governance to a financial sector grown out of control after 30 years of deregulation."

This isn't the first time faith leaders have spoken out against so-called religious conservatives who have prioritized tax cuts for the wealthy and repealing financial regulations over helping low-income Americans. A group of Catholic bishops signed a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI) - both practicing Catholics - during the debt limit fight, denouncing budget cuts that disproportionately hurt the poor. Other religious leaders made similar calls, with Rev. Jim Wallis telling Republicans, "We did not get into fiscal trouble because of poor people. ... The poor didn't cause this. Let's not make them pay for it."

UpdateFather Thomas Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, wrote in a column today that the Vatican's statement is "to the left of" every member of Congress and perhaps even the Occupy Wall Street protesters.

No, Mr. Reese: the vatican's statement is not even close to being to the left of members of Congress like Bernie Sanders, Peter DeFazio, Raul Grijalva or Al Franken.

As for the Occupy Wall Street protesters, I am begging them to do something - non-violent but atheistic - to force the vatican to condemn them.

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Obama Administration Escalates Confrontation With Iran: Why?

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United States: Bottom Of The Heap

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The Republican Addiction to Attack Politics Has Backfired

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Headlines - Saturday October 29

Jesusweeners

Okay you Whopper-and-Almond-Joy-loving heathens: Time to give it up for Jesus. Citing Halloween's "ungodly images," Pastor Paul Ade has created JesusWeen, "a God-given vision born as an answer to the cry of many." The cry is for Bibles, which JesusWeen followers will be giving out on a day it's "widely acceptable to solicit," thus forging "the most effective Christian outreach day ever." Get ready children - Jewish, Muslim, atheist, agnostic and other pagan types - it's Bibles for you. Yum.

Can't they just let us heathens have ONE holiday that doesn't focus on Jeebus?

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The same assholes who put the "We Are the 1%" signs in the windows of the Chicago Board of Trade, no doubt:

Someone in the Chicago Board of Trade dropped leaflets on top of "Occupy Chicago" protesters Wednesday afternoon as they rallied alongside unions in the city's financial district.

"We are Wall Street," the leaflet said. "It is our job to make money."

"Go ahead and continue to take us down, but you're only going to hurt yourselves," it continued. "What's going to happen when we can't find jobs on the Street anymore? Guess what: We're going to take yours."

"Do you really think we are incapable of teaching 3rd graders and doing landscaping?" the leaflet asked. "We aren't dinosaurs. We are smarter and more vicious than that, and we are going to survive."

You really think that you'll get hired to clip hedges instead of someone used to getting paid minimum wage? I don't think so, jackass.

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Blue-eyed Snidely Whiplash wannabee Paul Ryan was awarded three Pinocchio's for his claim that Kenyan Usurper Hawaiian Devil Baby President Obama has "219 new regulations coming out, costing over $100 million each." (Fact Checker)

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Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- New York police and fire personnel removed gasoline cans and generators this morning from Zuccotti Park, where Occupy Wall Street protesters have been camping out for almost six weeks, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. The equipment, which has helped the protesters power computers and mobile phones and keep warm as temperatures dipped to near freezing, are safety hazards and unlawful, Bloomberg said today on his weekly radio show on WOR.

"We'll just freeze them out."

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What the fuck kind of sense does it make to give any credence at all to what a bunch of old, celibate, never-been-married men say about marriage, anyway? "Bishop William Lori of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops testified before a House Judiciary subcommittee on Oct. 26 about the "grave threats to religious liberty that have emerged even since June." Lori specifically singled out the administration's refusal to defend the constitutionality of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and state efforts to expand marriage equality to gays and lesbians. ... The Catholic Church has led the opposition to same-sex marriage across the country (including fights in California, Maine, New York, and now Minnesota), despite limited support from American Catholics. A recent poll found that just 35 percent of Catholics oppose same-sex marriage and only 16 percent of Catholics say church leaders have "the final say" on homosexuality, down from 32 percent over the past 25 years."

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Boehner rejects Democrats' $3 trillion deficit reduction proposal to 'supercommittee'

The asshole republicans in Congress are the ones who aren't interested in governing, so the President is taking his case to the American people -- the same people who give him a 46% approval rating while Congress is thoroughly hated by everyone and comes in at an "only plague-carrying rats are less popular" 9%.

The same people who want the rich to pay their fair share, who are waking up to the fact that the hippies were right all along and the trickle-down of Reaganomics really did piss on 99% of us...after they beat us up and took our lunch money.

They keep yammering about "job creators" but they don't say the part that we all know -- those "job creators" created their jobs in India and China and other emerging economies with too many people and too few resources.

And by the way -- the delusional drunk SOB who put out this work calendar for 2012 doesn't get to whine about a President who is trying to do something, with the support of the American people behind his agenda, of "giving up on government." Reality -- and the well-known accompanying liberal bias -- says he's a lying sack of shit.

I swear to a god I don't believe in, Barack Obama's campaign couldn't have put together a work schedule that makes the "do-nothing Congress" meme any more literally true.

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Remember back in February? When Egyptian protesters in Tahrir Square carried signs reading: "Egypt Supports Wisconsin Workers. One World, One People."

Egyptians know from police brutality, so they're supporting Occupy Oakland.

As they vowed earlier this week to do, Egyptian pro-democracy protesters marched from Tahrir square to the U.S. Embassy today to march in support of Occupy Oakland-and against the type of police brutality witnessed in Oakland on Tuesday night, and commonly experienced in Egypt.

In this post, photos from Egyptian blogger Mohammed Maree, who is there at the march live-tweeting these snapshots. He is a journalist with Egytimes.org, a human rights activist, and a veterinarian; all photos are his.

Click here to see the photos. 

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'StudentsFirst' Spending $70,000 To Support MI GOP Rep. Who Backed Huge Education Cuts

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Now it seems that a President Romney will allow the Israeli government to decide American policy toward that country. The free daily newspaper Israel Hayom — a media outlet closely associated with right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — asked Romney if, as president, he would ever consider moving the American Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In his answer, Romney made some astonishing claims. First, that his policy toward Israel will be guided by Israeli leaders; second, on the Jerusalem issue, he'd do whatever Israel tells him to do; and third, he does not think the United States should take a leadership role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

ROMNEY: The actions that I will take will be actions recommended and supported by Israeli leaders. I don't seek to take actions independent of what our allies think is best, and if Israel's leaders thought that a move of that nature would be helpful to their efforts, then that's something I'll be inclined to do. But again, that's a decision which I would look to the Israeli leadership to help guide. I don't think America should play the role of the leader of the peace process, instead we should stand by our ally. Again, my inclination is to follow the guidance of our ally Israel, as to where our facilities and embassies would exist.

The policy that the American Embassy reside in Tel Aviv and not Jerusalem pre-dates the current administration. In fact, as Lara Friedman notes at Americans for Peace Now, the U.S. "does not recognize the sovereignty of any party in any part of Jerusalem (East or West)" and it's "a policy that dates back to pre-1948, and has been followed by every U.S. Administration since, regardless of the President or party in the White House."

In 1995, Congress passed a law allowing funding for the relocation of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, but the law includes an executive waiver allowing the president to invoke national security interests to block such a move. Every U.S. president since the law passed, Clinton, Obama and Bush, has invoked that waiver.

In an email to ThinkProgress, Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann laid out the consequences should Romney follow through on his pledge:

Were an American President be actually so irresponsible as to move the US embassy to Jerusalem outside of the context of a comprehensive permanent status agreement, such a President would contribute nothing to legitimizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Instead he would be following Israel into abject isolation, and the United States into an weakened and marginal regional and global role.

Mitt Romney the candidate falls short of making that irresponsible undertaking, and one would hope that if elected President he would find less devastating ways of protecting the US interest and aiding Israel to arrive at a conflict-ending agreement.

But it might also come as a surprise to some that Romney not only wants Israel to dictate U.S. policy, but that he does not want the United States to lead the peace process. Out on the campaign trail, Romney regularly says Obama "has thrown Israel under the bus." But perhaps now we know who Romney thinks should be driving it.

Meanwhile, Herman Cain denies that Palestinian people exist.

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Report: Democrats' Super Committee Proposal Is Far To The Right Of All Other 'Bipartisan' Compromises

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Jackass Trader Expands On Crazy Leaflets With Insane Manifesto

Last week the smug oddballs at the Chicago Board of Trade were dumping cryptic leaflets on the Occupy Chicago protesters mysteriously proclaiming with all the rhetorical precision of Chuck Grassley's Twitter feed to be the "1% paying for this." But one turd floating in the swimming pool is never enough, right?, so our anonymous chicken shit trader is back loosing a whole stream of word-diarrhea. 

You do not actually need to understand economics to be a trader, which is presumably with this nervous little feces-flinger's limited imagination of all the other employees in America consists of workers who mow his lawn and wash his fancy car, and, apparently, evil teachers snuck in there somehow (thanks, Wisconsin!).

Back in "reality," the relentless march of income inequality fueled by decades of increasingly shitty wages, the breakdown of unions, decimated retirement funds, rising health care costs, blah blah blah have forced all-time high numbers of people to seek public assistance in spite of spending entire lifetimes working the same grueling long hours — Americans lead the world in labor productivity — that this douche bag trader believes he and he alone works for all his precious monies.

From Bloomberg:

A record 49 percent of Americans live in a household where someone receives at least one type of government benefit, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And 63 percent of all federal spending this year will consist of checks written to individuals for which the government receives currently no services, the White House budget office estimates. That's up from 46 percent in 1975 and 18 percent in 1940.

Right. NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG. [Raw Story/ Bloomberg]

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What the frack? Julianna Forlano from Ironic News explains fracking.

Headlines - Friday October 28

Cesca: Occupy Wall Street Isn't Anti-Corporation, It's Anti-Corporate Crime

 

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CHART: Typical Hourly Wage Went Up Just $1.23 In The Last 36 Years

 

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Marc Perkel: "It would be interesting to see a flat tax proposal that was really flat. The taxes the Republican candidates are not really flat. All their proposals exempt the capital gains tax setting it to 0. Capital gains is how the rich make most of their money. Payroll tax is also capped at incomes just over $100,000. It would be interesting to see a true flat tax that includes all income and where social security and medicare taxes aren't capped for the rich. That would indeed be a flat tax – but the Republicans would never support that."

 

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Key Patriot Act Provisions Used To Target Ordinary Crime, Not Terrorism | In honor of the Patriot Act's 10th birthday, the ACLU has an infographic demonstrating that key provisions of the supposedly anti-terrorist law are rarely used to investigate terrorism, and much more often used in routine criminal investigations. Here's a taste:

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Four Detainees Sue George Bush in Canada

 

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Something We Should Be Worried About, but Aren't: Water.

 

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My town's very own Chip Ward:

Occupy Earth: Nature Is the 99%, Too

Someone Got Rich and Someone Got Sick

 

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You know how the politicians are always saying we need to be competitive with China? Well, we are about to get super competitive when it comes to internal censorship of the global Internet. Everybody except for a handful of malcontent "privacy activists" is behind the bold new plan to make all Internet service providers in the United States turn off any domain within five days, if Washington says "turn it off." As usual, this new legislation is cloaked in bullshit terminology about copyright and lost profits for media conglomerates, but the result is exactly the same as China's "great firewall" — except, this being the land of "corporations are people, my friends," the ISPs will be responsible for the dirty work instead of some top-level government technological agency. READ MORE »

 

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Wisco: Fox News to GOP Candidates: 'No More Anti-Bailout Talk'

 

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Wonkette: Ex-Gay Candidate So Christian Now That Sex With Teen Doesn't Count

 

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Brought to you by the most pro-life candidate in the business of pretending to run for president, Rick "The Frothy" Santorum.

The Republican presidential candidate told supporters in Greenville, South Carolina that it was a "wonderful thing" when scientists in Iran lose their lives.

"On occasion, scientists working on the nuclear program in Iran turn up dead," he explained. "I think that's a wonderful thing, candidly." [...]

"I think we should send a very clear message that if you are scientist from Russia or North Korea or from Iran, and you are going to work on a nuclear program to develop a nuclear bomb for Iran, you are not safe."

What happened to "every life is sacred?" Isn't human life a wonderful thing?

Does an unborn fetus have greater rights than a scientist doing work for his country? Those scientists may even have families and children. Who knows?

I'm sure the average conservative agrees with him. Maybe they can send him their praises after their protest outside the abortion clinic is over and before they attend the next GOP debate to cheer for record numbers of executions.

Pro-life my ass.

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America's Wealthiest Are Actually Destructive Economic Parasites -- See for Yourself

 

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It must have pained the Wall Street Journal to report:

Warren Buffett isn't the only rich guy who wants to higher taxes on the rich.

A new survey from Spectrem Group found that 68% of millionaires (those with investments of $1 million or more) support raising taxes on those with $1 million or more in income. Fully 61% of those with net worths of $5 million or more support the tax on million-plus earners.

Buffett, as you might recall, has proposed raising taxes on million-plus earners, saying the ultra-rich pay lower rates than everyday workers.

Rich people's opinions of Buffett remain fairly positive in the wake of his tax-me-more crusade. More than a third of millionaires and ultra-high-net-worths said they have a more positive opinion of Buffett after his tax proposal. Only 19% of millionaires and 22% of the $5 million -plus group said they had a more negative opinion of him after the proposal.

More than 40% of both groups said their opinion hadn't changed.

In other words, Buffett's proposal had more supporters than detractors among the rich — though that support declines slightly as you move up the wealth ladder.

The GOP just doesn't give a f*** what you think because they signed a tax pledge with Grover Norquist, and tax pledges are forever.

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Woot-woot! At last a GOP Candidate has entered the 2012 Goat Rodeo, one who will unite all the factions and march triumphantly into the

White House! Please welcome our next preznint:

Terry "Quran Burner" Jones

Here's his platform: deport all "illegals", bring all military back on American soil, get America's finances in order, and reduce corporate taxes.

Oh, and probably burn more Qurons, for Jeebus.

I think he's got the US South locked in, and Arizona is smiling at him.

(ABC)

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Great news! Now we're flying drones out of Ethiopia!

 

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Republicans Grow Desperate Protecting Wealthy's Ill-gotten Gain

 

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House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) rejected "a Democratic offer to slash $3 trillion from future

debts because it contained significant tax increases." The offer, made by Democrats on the super committee,

also included sizable regressive cuts to social insurance programs like Medicare.

 

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From Fox news:

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Top 1% = 3 Million People

Next 9% = 27 Million People

Bottom 90% = 278 Million People

 

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Senile media mogul and noted eaves-dropper Rupert Murdoch had a secret phone that

was used over 1,500 times to listen in on politicians and celebrities. Unka Rupie and Friends called it The Hub.

Isn't that cute? (The UK Independent)

 

 

Headlines - Thursday October 27

From Daily Kos' David Waldman via Twitter:

Next time I hear about how vets fight to protect our rights, I'll remember the one they shot in the head for actually exercising them.

The Oakland Police are reportedly doing a preliminary review of whether it was appropriate to shoot an Iraq war vet in the head with "non lethal" ammunition that has him in critical condition. I hope they also explain why it was necessary for one particular officer to throw an explosive device at a small crowd of protesters trying to administer first aid to the wounded vet.  Absolutely sickening what the city of Oakland has done.

 

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Democrats propose $3 trillion in budget cuts - including cuts to Medicare

 

Any budget plan that does not start with ending the war spending and significantly increasing taxes on the richest should be DOA. In case the political class missed it, a few people around the country are upset with the extreme class warfare waged against the middle and lower classes. Americans can be fair with cuts but there's been nothing fair about the handouts to the rich and cuts for everyone else that we've experienced since the Reagan years.

 

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You know the right wing is painfully desperate and terrified right now when they play the ACORN card on Occupy Wall Street.  Steve Benen:

About a year ago, there was an unintentionally amusing survey from Public Policy Polling that found 23% of Republicans nationwide feared ACORN may help Democrats steal the election.

ACORN, of course, permanently closed its doors in March 2010, six months before the poll was taken. Groups can't steal elections if they don't exist.

Here we are now, more than a year and a half later, and ACORN is but a memory. But Fox News would have its audience believe the non-existent group is still up to no good. Today's Fox News headline reads: "EXCLUSIVE: ACORN Playing Behind Scenes Role in 'Occupy' Movement."

I hereby propose Zandar's Law:  whenever the right pulls out ACORN to try to discredit anything, they have automatically lost the argument.  It's literally all they've got left at this point, after calling OWS supporters racists, bigots, anti-semites, soshulists, parasites, anarchists, criminals, mobsters, thugs, terrorist sympathizers, potheads, Soros puppets and welfare queens for the last month and some change and Americans still support the movement, we've finally arrived at minions of Sauron ACORN.

Awesome.  You lose, Entire Right Wing Full Of Douchebags. 

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Can we please stop this talk about how rich people are rich people because they work harder than the rest of us? Seriously...who is the last person, other than Steve Jobs, that you can think of who started out in a working class family and through smarts and hard work became part of the 1%? Most small businesses limp along, one bad year away from folding. (Link is to NYT)

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Biggest. Scam. Going. This is already happening in Illinois, and if we don't raise hell about it now, before it's too late, it will happen everywhere. Big companies in Illinois are pocketing the portion of taxes that they withhold from employees paychecks that should be going to the state to build roads and bridges and schools and employ teachers and cops and firefighters. And it's all perfectly legal because the companies extorted the state into letting them legally rob the accounts the fund the public safety operations that allow their companies to operate in a safe and secure environment. What the fuck?

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We warned you that infiltrators would try to embarrass Occupiers. "James O'Keefe would be proud. ... A conservative blogger has been accused of trying to give out marijuana bongs and Che Guevara rolling papers in Zuccotti Park in order to make Occupy Wall Street protesters look criminal. ... New York City resident Joey Boots captured video of Evan Coyne Maloney being confronted by protesters after he allegedly tried to pass out the paraphernalia. At one point, Maloney is seen trying to hand a protester a pack of rolling papers with the image of Che Guevara. ... "You're a Fox News guy trying to make us all look bad with your anti-liberal -- He just gave out -- He's trying to give people bongs to make us look bad!" the protester shouted. "Over there they gave out bongs. He's like, 'You answer, here's a bong.' Trying to get that one shot... All [Maloney's assistant] had was bongs, peace signs with marijuana and Che Guevara rolling papers. Three things when Fox News gets it, they'll just clip that then it's just like protesters accept it." ... "Do you have bongs and marijuana leaf pictures and stickers and Che Guevara?" Boots asked. "Are you giving it out? Do you have it in that backpack?" ... "We got ourselves some Che Guevara rolling papers," Maloney admitted as he tried to hand a pack to a protester. "We're giving these away." ... "Are we going to expect to see those pictures on Fox News?" Boots wondered. ... "I don't know if they'll pick it up," Maloney replied. "Maybe you'll see it on CNN.""

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The OWS protests are primed to become one of the the biggest and most widespread social movements of all time and there's nothing I like better than to see people coming together in the faces of the nonproductive bloodsucking vampires who are intent on sucking this country and the world dry.

But let's face it people... nothing is going to work until WE. STOP. BUYING. THEIR. CRAP!

I've said it before and yes, I'm going to say it again.  We buy far too much junk we don't NEED and go we go far too many places we don't NEED to go.  We're a nation of mindless fricking consumer bots who have been programmed since birth to put all our money in the pockets of... and get our asses kicked by... pampered lameassed parasites who wouldn't last two minutes on a level playing field.

You'll notice that not a goddamned one of the snickering motherhumpers standing on those balconies, sipping expensive wine and sneering down at the crowds under those windows has dared to come down and meet with any of the ordinary citizens who are... by their mere presence underneath those balconies... standing for all of us.

The one percent doesn't understand anything that does not impact their cash flow.  Unless it makes or loses them a buck or two, it doesn't even register.  And the only way were going to have any kind of impact at all is if we simply stop buying their cheap crap and start using our money for they things we and our families NEED and not what the trillion fricking dollar advertising industry tells us we need.

You've got to stop worrying about keeping up with the fricking Jones  family and start taking care of YOUR family.  Sooner or later old Jones will come to that conclusion himself but right now, he's not your worry.

You start buying only what you need, traveling only where you need to go, maybe skipping a ball game of a car race or two... that's when the penthouse bastards will realize you mean business.  Until then, as long as you keep dumping money in their pockets by the shovelful they aren't going to give a rat's ass what you think no matter how many online petitions you sign or how many letters you write your probably corrupt whore in Congress who measures who he or she is responsible to by the amount of money they can generate.

Time to put your money where your mouth is.  Or at least somewhere besides in the bank accounts of the bloodsucking one percent.  Start making a list of things you could probably do without... at least for a while... and start doing without them.  You WILL get their attention.  

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Dim-bulb weirdo Orly Taitz has done it! She (barely?) managed to fill in most of the spaces on one of those U.S. Senator job application forms with a few hard-won manual scribbles and then decided to add "Dr." before her name in the top left margin space, to make it seem serious. Comedy thanks you, Orly! READ MORE » 

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Wisco: When Republicans Say They Can't Create Jobs, Maybe We Should Believe Them

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"If you want education you better include the fear of God, if you want to be a good scientist you better include the fear of God, if you want to be a good musician—1962, '63, the U.S. Supreme Court in three decisions said no more fear of God in education, we want education to be secular. All right, that's a theological issue. How's that working out? In 1962, '63, America was number one in the world in literacy, we are now number sixty-five in the world in literacy. We don't have the fear of the Lord, because guess what, we don't have knowledge, it goes down." - "Historian" and dominionist David Barton, who says the Bible should be the basis of all school courses.

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Woops! Here's another Republican excuse for why the Job Creators aren't creating, ya' know, jobs, that completely falls apart after close scrutiny.

Obama's White House approved 613 federal rules during the first 33 months of his term, 4.7 percent fewer than the 643 cleared by President George W. Bush's administration in the same time frame, according to an Office of Management and Budget statistical database reviewed by Bloomberg. [...]

In the last 12 months through the end of September, the cost range of new regulations is estimated to be $8 billion to $9 billion, a decrease from 2010, according to non-partisan Government Accountability Office reports analyzed by Bloomberg[…]

The record [cost of regulations] came in 1992 under George H.W. Bush when that total hit $20.9 billion in current dollars. In the last year of Ronald Reagan's term it was $16 billion in today's dollars.

So much for those "job-killing" regulations snuffing out the life of the Job Creators.

The Obama Administration has implemented fewer regulations than the Bush Administration did at this point, and the cost of those regulation has been far lower than any previous administration dating back to the presidency of Saint Reagan.

Was Ronald Reagan a job-killing regulator?

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One of the funniest Colbert segmets in recent memory.

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25 reasons why police never showed up to tea party rallies.

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Bob Cesca: The fruits of the trickle down tree.

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GRAPHIC: A Timeline Of GOP Economic Sabotage

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Missouri Public School Teacher: We Need More Gay Kids To Kill Themselves

Yet another teacher is in trouble for posting viciously anti-gay comments to Facebook. The school board is investigating, but Family Research Council head Tony Perkins says this is just another witchhunt by intolerant radical homofascists. First Amendment! More dead gay kids! Praise! Glory!

Headlines - Wednesday October 26

 

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The teacher who heads up New Smyrna Beach High School's student government association could face thousands of dollars in fines. Her transgression? Helping students register to vote. 

 

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Israel is holding Egyptian prisoners? We thought they were at peace. "Israel's cabinet has approved the release of 25 Egyptian prisoners in exchange for a man with dual US-Israeli nationality who has been held in Egypt on espionage suspicions since June. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's special security cabinet approved the swap on Tuesday afternoon. Egyptian state television previously said the exchange would be carried out on Thursday. Ilan Grapel was arrested in Cairo on June 12 and has been held without charge since. Grapel, 27, was suspected by Egyptian officials of spying for Israel during the height of Egypt's uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's presidency earlier this year."

 

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Awwww. It's so nice when Democrats and Republicans in Congress can work together on issues that really matter:

 

House Republicans and Democrats on Tuesday managed to enjoy a rare moment of bipartisanship, but on a bill far less controversial that what usually gets them fighting — one that calls for a commemorative coin marking the upcoming 75th anniversary of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

 

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Tell MSNBC: Fire Pat Buchanan here.

 

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Obama Raises Money In San Francisco As Cops Gas Oakland Protesters

 

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The numbers are on her side:

Wow, this is going to be good: Occupy Wall Street is now officially an issue in what may be the highest-profile and most polarizing Senate race in the country.

National Republicans are now attacking Elizabeth Warren for embracing the protests, seeking to make a liability out of the fact that Warren, a longtime critic of Wall Street excess, has now aligned herself with the movement's intellectual underpinnings. What this means: The conservative effort to turn blue collar whites and independents against the protesters and their broader populist message — exploiting a traditional cultural fault line in our politics — will now unfold in the context of a high profile political campaign.

Warren was asked by the Daily Beast for a comment on the protests. She said: "I created much of the intellectual foundation for what they do. I support what they do."

Now the NRSC has opened fire on Warren for the comments, blasting out an email containing links to stories about protesters in Massachusetts battling with cops. Said NRSC spokesman Brian Walsh: "Warren's decision to not only embrace, but take credit for this movement is notable considering the Boston Police Department was recently forced to arrest at least 141 of her Occupy acolytes in Boston the other day after they threatened to tie up traffic downtown and refused to abide by their protest permit limits."

I can't wait for this woman to be a Senator.

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Jill: It's a big club...and you ain't in it.

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Michele Bachmann is miffed that the Iraqis don't love us after over a million of them have died, a few million more were displaced, a civil war was sparked and the ever-living fuck was bombed out of their country over non-existent WMDs. "The Republicans' incoherence on foreign policy was on full display during yesterday's political talk shows. Trying to attack President Obama on Libya, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), on Fox News Sunday, actually ended up admitting that Muammar Qaddafi would still be in power today if she was president. ... On Face The Nation, Bachmann took a swing at Obama for announcing that the U.S. would withdrawal all troops from Iraq by the end of the year, as scheduled. But in this case, she also had some words for the Iraqis for wanting the Americans to leave: BACHMANN: And here the United States has expended forty-four hundred lives, over eight hundred billion dollars in toil and blood and treasure. And while we're on the way out, we're being kicked out by the very people that we liberated. ... And to think that we are so disrespected and they -- they have so little fear of the United States that there would be nothing that we would gain from this.""

 

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Right-Wing Extremist Pat Robertson Calls For Less Extremism In GOP

 

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Here's some homework for right-wing nut-jobs: look up the "Law of Unintended Conseuences" and give us 350 words, double-spaced, 12-point font, 1" margins all around..."ThinkProgress has been reporting on the disturbing campaign by radical anti-abortion groups to pass "personhood" amendments to state constitutions that would define life as beginning the moment an egg is fertilized. These laws would not only criminalize abortion, but outlaw common forms of contraception as well. ... Now the Daily Beast's Michelle Goldberg reports on another consequence of this supposedly "pro-life" measure: it could ban couples from conceiving children through in vitro fertilization (IVF)."

 

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Video: the 9 craziest things Herman Cain has ever said.

 

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Georgia birther and Oathkeeper Darren Huff was convicted Tuesday of using an AK-47 to take over a Tennessee courthouse and conduct citizen's arrests on officials because of their acquiescence in President Obama's fraudulent birth certificate / citizenship / presidency.

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Obama signs a Bush negotiated Panama trade deal

Is this for creating jobs? For creating free trade? Nah...don't think so. It's more of a free trade tax haven creating scenario.

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Nearly 100,000 millionaires pay a lower tax rate than the middle class

 

Headlines - Tuesday October 25

 

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Bachmann: Uninsured Americans Can Rely On 'Charitable Organizations' For Health Care

Of course, the "charitable" US tax payers will continue to pay for hers.

 

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I met a fairy today who said she would grant me one wish.  

"I want to live forever," I said. 

"Sorry" said the fairy, "I'm not allowed to grant wishes like that!"  

"Fine," I said, "I want to die after the Republicans get their heads out of their asses!"  

"You crafty bastard," said the fairy. 

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Protecting America, one vibrator at a time.

"Just unpacked my suitcase and found this note from TSA," tweets writer and attorney Jill Filipovic of Feministe. "Guess they discovered a 'personal item' in my bag. Wow."

It was a standard-issue we got all up in your baggagebusiness Transportation Security Administration Notice of Inspection (NOI), but with these handwritten words in pen, overlaid: "GET YOUR FREAK ON GIRL."

Of course, finding a gun is much too difficult to locate, once again.

 

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Charles Pierce - 'The Ranks of the Poor' Are Not to Blame

Sooner or later, the bell tolls for us all.

None of these people did anything wrong. None of these people as nearly as we can tell broke any rules. None of these people necessarily believed that things would always get better for them, but none of them believed that things could get this bad. The great vacancy at the heart of the sales pitch for the American Dream is not that, as it turns out, we won't all be millionaires; it is that there is so much opportunity to be had that none of will be — or should be — paupers. That's the sharp edge of the blade — that if, in this land of opportunity and plenty, if you end up in the shelter, you did something wrong. You betrayed your birthright. You let all the rest of us down, even those trust-fund strivers and the casino sharpers on Wall Street. This is America, dammit. What's wrong with you?

This particular barefaced non-fact was the basis for the pitch for the golden era of globalization. Yes, you might have two or three jobs in the course of your life but, what the hell, life is for experimentation and growth. You should be able to build Cadillacs and stock the produce aisle. A multiplicity of skills is important in the new economy.

It was all a shuck, and now we're seeing the results. How you read this story determines who you are. If you are disgusted that situations like this occur in the richest country in the world (TM Bank Of America), then you're probably sleeping in a bag in a park right now. If you're impressed by the number of church-based charitable services that are available to the people here, then you're probably running for president as a Republican. And, of course, if you're impressed by the moral witness provided by people waiting in line for soup, you're David Fking Brooks.

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The attacks against #OWS protesters have started, and as per usual the violence is coming from the right "Occupy Maine protesters say Sunday morning's attack with a chemical explosive has left them with a mixture of anxiety and resolve. ... "We are more motivated to keep doing what we're doing," said Stephanie Wilburn, of Portland, who was sitting near where the chemical mixture in a Gatorade bottle was tossed at 4 a.m. Sunday. "They have heard us and we're making a difference." ... Wilburn said she was startled and briefly lost hearing in her left ear when the device exploded beneath a table about 10 feet away. Wilburn's hearing returned and police said no injuries were reported. ... Portland police Sgt. Glen McGary said the bomb was thrown into the camp's kitchen, a tarped area where food is cooked and served. Protest organizers said the explosion lifted a large table about a foot off the ground." (It's worth remembering here that Larry Kudlow an his know-nothing Greek Chorus of ideoligical nincompoopery have been projecting like mad and sporting tremendous woodies at the thought of violence from the protesters so they could unleash their hatred and wrath as they openly pine for a bloodbath.)

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BP PLC profits more than doubled in a year, raking in a total of $97.59 billion. The sharp increase is due to the $7.66 pre-tax charge BP paid for the Gulf spill in the third quarter of 2010, and BP has made "regulatory progress in resuming drilling in the Gulf of Mexico."

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Taxpayer-Funded 'Crisis Pregnancy Centers' Tell Jewish Woman To Convert To Christianity Or Go To Hell

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Police arrest protesters, tear down Occupy Oakland tent city

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

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