Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Headlines - Tuesday February 28

 
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You could say Santorum is Old Fashioned. But it might be more precise to say he's Old Testament. Women don't have rights, they're baby tunnels for Christ. Birth control is immoral, prenatal testing is depraved and gay marriage is an abomination. And anybody who campaigns in a sweater vest obviously knows a thing or two about abominations. The Ayatollah of Pennsylvania is on a mission to drag this country kicking and screaming back into the 50s. The 1850s. – Will Durst
 
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The Telegraph: According to one of the e-mails, the firm was shown the information papers collected from bin Laden's Abbotabad compound after the US special forces attack last May that resulted in his death. The e-mail, from a Stratfor analyst, suggested that up to 12 officials in Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency knew of the al-Qaeda leader's safe house. The internal email did not name the Pakistani officials involved but said the US could use the information as a bargaining chip in post raid negotiations with Islamabad.
 
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Paul Babeu allegedly slept with student at reeducation camp he ran

Thanks for the visual, CNN.

Every inhabitant in the entire solar system and possibly as far away as the alternate universe where Rick Santorum becomes the American president has now heard the story about wingnut Arizona sheriff Paul Babeu trying to deport his secret illegal Mexican gay lover, but did you know that this was only one of two insane stories about Babeu's serially creepy, unethical behavior that reporters were learning about at the time? ABC15 in Arizona was also about to out Babeu after they spent five months digging up dirt from court documents in Massachusetts alleging that Paul Babeu's 1999-2001 tenure as the evil headmaster of an unlicensed private reeducation camp gulag for troubled teens included the use of punishments that amounted to physical abuse and that oh yeah, his sister says he was shacked up with one of his male students. Paul Babeu sure does seem to enjoy the secretive sexytime with members of vulnerable groups that he treats like shit in his official capacities! Where else has Paul Babeu worked? Nevermind, we don't actually want to know. READ MORE »

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"I like those fancy raincoats you bought" [...] "Really sprung for the big bucks." -Mitt Romney mocking ponchos

Because mocking NASCAR fans for being unable to afford Armani raincoats is exactly what you want to do in the middle of the Republican primary.

Fun fact: A pizza would have to cost U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney $3,339.04 for him to understand how average people live.
 
..... $662.62 for a dozen eggs and $1,187.05 for a gallon of gas to know what that feels like.
 
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Jobs, jobs, jobs - Speaking of Willard who brags he has created more middle class jobs that President Carebear, some journalist (do we still have these people?) looked into the claim. Guess what? Staples and the Sports Authority are not paying a salary that a family can live on. Staples, based in Framingham, Massachusetts, and Sports Authority (TSA) of Englewood, Colorado, pay sales associates almost $3 an hour below the retail industry average of $11.92, excluding benefits.(Bloomberg)
 
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Santorum needs a lesson on understanding carbon emissions
 
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Bill would let Utah cities, counties claim federal land
 
I say my town should snag the national park right next door.
 
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Turley: Utah Legislator Proposes Drinkers-Only State Positions
 
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Cardinal George: We'll Close Every Catholic Hospital Rather Than Provide Birth Control

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
"What will happen if the HHS regulations are not rescinded? A Catholic institution, so far as I can see right now, will have one of four choices: 1) secularize itself, breaking its connection to the church, her moral and social teachings and the oversight of its ministry by the local bishop. This is a form of theft. It means the church will not be permitted to have an institutional voice in public life. 2) Pay exorbitant annual fines to avoid paying for insurance policies that cover abortifacient drugs, artificial contraception and sterilization. This is not economically sustainable. 3) Sell the institution to a non-Catholic group or to a local government. 4) Close down." - Cardinal Francis George, in a lengthy diatribe posted on the Archdiocese of Chicago website.
 
Actually, I quite like option #3. Sell it to a non-Catholic group, and use the proceeds to pay back the thousands upon thousands of the Church's sexual abuse victims around the world.
 
RELATED: Cardinal George was last in the news when he compared gay activists to Nazis. He later offered a limp apology.
 
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It is beyond batshittery that this is even up for discussion. 
 

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Mitt Romney loves tall trees, among other things. Apparently he also loves tall tales about his childhood that didn't actually happen.

DETROIT—When Mitt Romney regaled a Michigan audience this week with childhood memories of a landmark moment in Detroit history, it was a rare instance of emotional candour.

And, perhaps, an even rarer example of time travel.

Romney recalled he was "probably 4 or something like that" the day of the Golden Jubilee, when three-quarters of a million people gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the American automobile. [...]

The Golden Jubilee described so vividly by Romney was indeed an epic moment in automotive lore. The parade included one of the last public appearances by an elderly Henry Ford.

And it took place June 1, 1946 — fully nine months before Romney was born.

Very serious question – can Mitt Romney publicly speak without lying? Is it even possible? From what I have witnessed, his speeches contain more lies than facts.

Perhaps the better question would be — do his speeches contain any facts?

He lies about his taxes, his legislative record, his business record, the president's record, and apparently his personal experiences.

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According to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, the roughly $9 million being spent on his recall election is going to cost the state dearly and will lead to children and seniors going without help. A claim which would be more credible if Walker had not done more damage to children and seniors than most governors would dare.

"Well, we're focused," Walker responded, "but it's a huge distraction, not just for me, for the legislature. I mean, it's $9 million of taxpayers' money just to run this. Think about the number of kids we could help, think of the number of seniors we could help in our state with $9 million that we didn't have to waste on this — this frivolous recall election.

"But really, I mean, in the end, I think it's amazing, after a year of being attacked by out of state special interests, the tens of millions of dollars that were poured in, the fact that we're ahead of any of the Democrats in the race I think bodes well for the election.

Yeah! Will someone please think of the children!?

Was Scott Walker thinking about the children when he decided to cut $834 million in education funding from the state's budget? Nearly a billion dollars over two years. A reduction of $635 per student.

Think about the number of kids we could help with $834 million that we didn't have to waste on passing new tax cuts for corporations. Those frivolous tax cuts. Tax cuts which have not lead to job creation.

And will someone think of the seniors!?

Was Scott Walker thinking of the seniors when he cut $554 million in Medicaid spending? Cuts that would result in the loss of over 500 million in federal matching funds for a grand total of over $1 billion less for Medicaid?

Perhaps the governor and his henchmen in the state legislature would be less "distracted" had they not chosen to sell their souls to the Koch Brothers. And maybe Scott Walker would be less distracted if he weren't within a hair of being indicted for illegal campaign activity during his time as Milwaukee County Executive.

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TP: Analysis: Stock Returns Are Significantly Higher When A Democrat Is President

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Science Proves Rich People Are Generally Evil

'We took a perfectly useless psychopath like Valentine, and turned him into a successful executive. And during the same time, we turned an honest, hard-working man into a violently, deranged, would-be killer! '

Extremely wealthy people discard their own spouses and children as easily as they discard thousands of factory workers. They feel absolutely no guilt as they scheme and connive, and they will rip off other rich people in massive Ponzi schemes with as little feeling as they'll rape their housekeepers. The rich strap their supposedly beloved family pets to the top of their expensive cars for days at a time, and find the animal's resulting terror and diarrhea funny. The rich are different, that's for sure — they lack morals. This is the not-so-surprising result of a study by scientific academic people at a university somewhere.

ABC News reports:

Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley analyzed a person's rank in society (measured by wealth, occupational prestige and education) and found that those who were richer were more likely to cheat, lie and break the law than those who were poorer.

"We found that it is much more prevalent for people in the higher ranks of society to see greed and self-interest … as good pursuits," said Paul Piff, lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate at Berkeley. "This resonates with a lot of current events these days."

Oh, Berkeley. Whatever, hippies. Rich people get everything because American Jesus-God only loves the 1%. The rest of you can rot in Hell (America 2012). [ABC News]

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"Our corporate tax rate last year, effectively, in terms of taxes paid for the United States, was around 12 percent, which is well below those existing in most of the industrialized countries around the world. So it is a myth that American corporations are paying 35 percent or anything like it…Corporate taxes are not strangling American competitiveness" —Warren Buffet
 
 
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Tastes like asshole.

santorum vomit.jpg 
I mean, I'm all for party loyalty, but if Santorum wants the public to think "orgy" when voting for any Democrat currently holding office, he needs mental help.
 
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I don't drink beer, but some of my friends own breweries
 
Mitt Romney has to be winning the title of "King of Unforced Errors." Between that one and his "my wife has two Cadillacs" comment, ol' Rmoney is demonstrating that the nameless programmers in Mumbai who wrote Cylon Mitt's operating system forgot to include a self-censorship subroutine.

None of his recent gaffes, to my mind, come close to the "I've been unemployed since 2006 (although I'm worth $250 million and I get paid $20 million a year in investment income[and pay less than 15% in taxes])" whopper. But between the gaffes and the outright lies, almost to the point that his epitaph will read "here lies Mitt Romney, as usual", there has to be hundreds of hours of anti-Romney attack video that he himself has provided.

Meanwhile, the GOP party elites are close to
shitting their pants at the idea of Santorum winning the nomination. I fear it, as well. Not because I give a shit what happens to the GOP, for on the contrary, the sooner that collection of cranks is consigned to the trash and a genuine center-right party arises cannot happen too soon for my taste.

No, I fear it because there is always a possibility that Frothy might win. And then we'd have a president who will make every effort to drag this country back to the 15th Century. Santorum has made it
clear as glass that his presidency would be guided by the tenets of his religion, not by the Constitution or the laws of the land.

And that, I submit, is ultimately very bad for anyone who does not adhere to
Ayatollah Rick's exact views. We went down that road in some of the American colonies in the 17th Century; the Founding Fathers were well aware of the dangers inherent in a faith-based government. The "no established religion" clause of the First Amendment wasn't put in there for giggles.

Finally, could someone enlighten me as to why the Southern Evangelicals like Santorum? I didn't grow up in the South, but I have friends who did, and they told me that the Southern Evangelicals regarded Catholics as idolators and not true Christians. Catholics there were regarded by the Evangelicals as almost being as outside of Christianity as Jews and Mormons. Catholic and Jewish kids stuck together for mutual protection (and there was a lot of intermarriage as a result).

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