Headlines - Thursday December 8

The Republican Brand Is Dead

 

The Republican brand is truly unrecognizable, it is definitely gone…dead. It can never come back. It used to be a party that had meaning to the American people, to the American landscape and to the American future. This party has been changed, undermined from within–allowed to surf the wave of its own greed, arrogance and hatred of anything that is not of its own making.

We can look at the party from many different angles to see what it has become. Through the eyes of God, the Republican Party is not something he will be proud of. God stands for loving thy neighbor, helping the poor, telling the truth, not facilitating stealing, cheating and robbing the American people. The party is now defined by these ugly and evil traits. Keep reading here.

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The fallout from "Obamacare" is just devastating....

Health-Care Reform Returns Surprising $1.5 Billion Medicare Savings

Medicare, the government program infamous for its waste and abuse, provided some unexpected news on Tuesday: $1.5 billion in savings on prescription drugs. Daniel Stone reports.

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This is what a "fair and balanced" news headline looks like...

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America's 5 Favorite Ways to Ignore Jesus

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Just how stupid is the candidate for the Frothy Fecal Matter and Ejaculate Party? THIS stupid:

Santorum told the group he would cut the food stamp program, describing it as one of the fastest growing programs in Washington, D.C.

Forty-eight million people are on food stamps in a country with 300-million people, said Santorum.

"If hunger is a problem in America, then why do we have an obesity problem among the people who we say have a hunger program?" Santorum asked.

And this jackwagon shitwhistle spawned. Just sayin' that we're DOOMED.

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Buh bye, Blago! You're fired!

Rod Blagojevich, the ousted Illinois governor whose three-year battle against criminal charges became a national spectacle, was sentenced to 14 years in prison Wednesday, one of the stiffest penalties imposed for corruption in a state with a history of crooked politics.

Blagojevich's 18 convictions included allegations of trying to leverage his power to appoint someone to President Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat to raise campaign cash or land a high-paying job.

Now if we could only do the same to the banksters...

I will say that I think 14 years is a bit excessive. People get out of prison for rape and murder sooner than that sometimes.

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Hey guys, remember when Alabama destroyed its agricultural economy by enacting the toughest anti-immigration laws in the country and every hispanic person (living there legally or otherwise) fled and no unemployed white slobs wanted the back-breaking and dangerous crop-picking jobs and everything rotted? Me Neither!, but guess what they are thinking of doing to solve the problem? Forced Prison Labor. Say, maybe Newticles can get some of those shiftless kids a job! (Think Progress)

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Wisco: Recognizing the Failures of Reganomics

 

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Igor Volsky notes that the major news networks made no mention of yesterday's landmark announcement by the Obama administration.

 

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Now this is funny...

Daily Show correspondent Aasif Mandvi interrupted a press conference by Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) to ask him to prove to the state taxpayers that he's not on drugs by peeing in a cup.

"You benefit from hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars every year, so would you be willing to pee into this cup to prove to Florida taxpayers that you're not on drugs, that you're not using that money for drugs?" Mandvi asked.

Scott replied that he's "done it plenty of times."

Mandvi then tried to pass a cup forward: "Would you pass this forward to the governor? We can all turn around, it's fine."

Brilliant.

Rick Scott's failed drug-testing-for-welfare program, which was recently ruled unconstitutional, ended up costing the state money because only 2 percent of those tested returned positive results. And for some reason, other states are looking at Scott's failed, unconstitutional program with envy and considering adopting similar plans.

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Raw Story: A Kansas birther, who publicly announced that he was planning a citizen's arrest of President Barack Obama, was told Monday by the Secret Service that he would be arrested if he came near the president.

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Palin Guilty of Major Ethics Act Violation: Must Return $386,000 in Contributions

Nearly a year after she quit her governorship of Alaska, Sarah Palin was found guilty today of another breach of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act involving her so-called Alaska Fund Trust.

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From AP: Judge rules that a blogger is not a journalist.

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Charles Pierce: In today's episode of Guess Who's Running For Re-Election?, the administration throws beneath a bus the 51 percent of the population that would like to control its own damn reproductive systems without having to ask permission of The Voice of Rick Santorum's Penis.

This is all on Sebelius — and on the president for whom she works — because she overruled her own panel of experts, which those of us who know a little of the history of Holy Mother Church in this area know is never a good idea. In 1968, Pope Paul VI was handed a report from his Pontifical Commission on Birth Control that explained, in detail, why HMC should change its position on artificial birth control. The pope threw out his commission's recommendations and issued Humanae Vitae, an encyclical that banned all artificial birth control and, as an added bonus, pretty much guaranteed that millions of American Catholics would never listen seriously to what any pope said about anything, but especially about what they did during sexy time. The subsequent revelation hat HMC had been functioning as an international conspiracy to obstruct justice in regards to what its clergy were doing during sexy-time also did not help.

Stupid, Kathleen. And pointless. They're going to hate you anyway.

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Libby Spencer tags an amazing stat (from):

Among Republican voters in Iowa, nearly 40 percent say they get most of their news from the network (Fox) and its many conservative hosts, according to the most recent New York Times/CBS News poll. And among those viewers, Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, is trouncing Mr. Romney.

I'd be curious to know if you ask "do you get most of your news from either Fox or right-wing radio", if that figure would go over 50% (Rush isn't on Fox and his audience is at least as large as Fox).

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"I'm like Nancy Reagan, always protective of my husband. I'm like Laura Bush, a very loving mother and wife. I'm like Jacqueline Kennedy, incredibly graceful and stylish, focused on the arts and music. And I'm like Rielle Hunter, who had a long-term adulterous affair with a member of Congress."

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The #KochBrothers are truly evil and misanthropic,and auto da fe in the public square would be too good an exit from this mortal coil for two such vile creatures as they. "In its cover story this week, the National Journal explores a curious phenomenon: while the science supporting climate change has only gotten stronger, the onetime Republican consensus on the issue has fallen apart. The reason, quite simply, is the right-wing polluter Koch Industries and its political front group Americans for Prosperity. ... As Political Correction notes, just three years ago, Republicans including Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) all expressed a belief in human-caused climate change. Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) even supported legislation to reduce carbon pollution. But all of these prominent leaders have since joined the rest of the Republican party "in a sudden and near-unified retreat to silence or denial." ... What's changed for Republican politicians is "the influx into electoral politics of vast sums of money from energy companies and sympathetic interest groups." ... AFP President Tim Phillips proudly takes credit for the GOP's turnaround and readily admits that his group threatened politicians with "political peril" if they "played footsie" with green solutions. ... Thanks to AFP "science has become political," Phillips says, and "most of these candidates have figured" that out. AFP used to claim, "We're not arguing the science of climate change," but got bolder as it gained more influence, boasting, "if we win the science argument it's game, set, and match." With AFP menacing lawmakers in the background, threatening to choke off campaign money and dangling their political careers in front of them, it's no wonder so many Republicans have willfully ignored the indisputable truth of climate change."

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Newt 'n John: when being spectacularly wrong is seen by the base as a qualification.

 

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Airforce dumped remains of 274 troops in Virginia landfill between 2004 and 2008.

 

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Because he's an adult, President Obama will forego his vacation in Hawaii "to stay in town until Congress finishes work on the payroll tax holiday" and extension of unemployment benefits. He told Democratic leaders, "Michelle and the girls are going to have a great time in Hawaii, they don't need me there."

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From TP: Newt Gingrich is only GOP candidate so far who has signed up for Donald Trump's debate, but it's unclear if the room will be largest enough to fit both of their heads. Appearing on CNN last night, the real estate mogul said of his competition, "I know a lot of the moderators and some are wonderful, and some aren't, but I know the issues better than the moderators."

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Corporate tax dodging has cost states more than $42 billion in revenue over the last three years.

Which is why the working class can't have a payroll tax cut.

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Wisconsin form asks residents for photo ID to get a birth certificate, which is needed to get a photo ID.