Everyone join together for a hearty Nelson Muntz laugh:
About one million people changed the channel when "Bristol Palin: Life's A Tripp" premiered on Lifetime on Tues., June 19. According to EW, Palin's reality series had an audience of 726,000 total viewers and a 0.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic. Its lead-in, "Dance Moms," had a viewership of 1.8 million viewers, according to TVByTheNumbers.
Tsk, tsk, tsk. All that plastic surgery and nothing to show for it except an exceedingly pointy chin.
This bodes well for Taaaaaahd's reality show career...
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The hobbity-named wingnut Richard Mourdock who is running for the ancient Ent Dick Lugar's seat accidentally released a series of videos covering all possibilities for the SCOTUS ruling on Obamacare, and immediately took them down. But not before TPM got them! Anyway, fun for the entire family to see the Frank Luntz talking points in action ahead of the game. Any strategists out there?
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Mitt Romney doesn't want people to know the economy is improving.
Mitt Romney's campaign asked Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) to downplay his state's job growth after several press releases from the governor's campaign and messages from the Florida Chamber of Commerce trumpeted gains for the month of May, according to Bloomberg News.
The worse the economy is, the better Romney will do. He's betting on it while making sure real news about the recovery isn't escaping to voters.
I keep thinking about the double standard between the parties. If any congressional Democratic leader had accused President Bush of an impeachable offense, they would've been destroyed in the press. If something like Romney's Florida jobs news blackout had come from John Kerry in 2004, he would've been hectored out of politics.
Liberal media indeed.
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Ezra Klein:
While I was reporting out my New Yorker piece, I spoke with Akhil Reid Amar, a leading constitutional law scholar at Yale, who thinks that a 5-4 party-line vote against the mandate would be shattering to the court's reputation for being above politics. "I've only mispredicted one big Supreme Court case in the last 20 years," he told me. "That was Bush v. Gore. And I was able to internalize that by saying they only had a few minutes to think about it and they leapt to the wrong conclusion. If they decide this by 5-4, then yes, it's disheartening to me, because my life was a fraud. Here I was, in my silly little office, thinking law mattered, and it really didn't. What mattered was politics, money, party, and party loyalty."
Sad, for Amar, but so honest of him to admit it. I'm genuinely sympathetic, because that is hard, devoting your working life to an idea and then having to grapple with the truth of the thing. I'm to the point on the health care law and the Supreme Court where I'm just enormously, ridiculously grateful to read something sincere. Keep reading here.
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Because let's face it, we can't destroy this country with just Supreme Court rulings:
The Senate on Thursday rejected an amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders to let states require clear labels on any food or beverage containing genetically engineered ingredients. The vote on the amendment to the farm bill was 26 to 73. "This is the very first time a bill on labeling genetically engineered food has been brought before the Senate. It was opposed by virtually every major food corporation in the country. While we wish we could have gotten more votes, this is a good step forward and something we are going to continue to work on. The people of Vermont and the people of America have a right to know what's in the food that they eat."
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An underpaid janitor has the balls to do what our overpaid underworked senators won't: confront congenital thief Jaime fucking Dimon. david at Crooks and Liars:
... The contrast of Jamie Dimon - one the richest men in the United States and the 12th highest paid CEO in the country - and the janitors who clean his building - many make as little as $10,000 a year- poignantly illustrates both what's wrong with the economy and the growing gap between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of us.
A Houston janitor would have to work more than 2,500 years in order to earn JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon earned last year.
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IRS refuses to bite. We happen to think that churches should all be taxed, and allowed to deduct the expenses they incur as a result of their work with the poor. That said, we know that as much as we would like to see activist churches get slapped with huge tax bills, it would just make martyrs of them and catapult their vile propaganda.
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Does anyone really want to hear Ann-fucking-Romney chirp happily about how avoiding stress and staying upbeat is the best way to prevail over illness. Of course staying stress-free during an illness is much easier when copays and 20% responsibility won't cost you the only home you'll ever own and cost your children their college education.
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They're just getting what they pay for, that's all. On Thursday the House of Representatives passed a massive oil-industry giveaway. HR 4480 passed with the support of 229 republicans and 19 Democrats, and between them they have taken $38.4 million in big-oil dollars.
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Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) yesterday called House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi "mind-numbingly stupid" and said that there is something medically wrong with her brain because she believes Republicans are unfairly targeting Attorney General Eric Holder.
On FOX News, Gowdy ranted about Pelosi's suggestion that the witch hunt against Attorney General Eric Holder might have to do with his attempts to get rid of Republican's voter suppression efforts:
But keep in mind, Greta, this is the same woman who said that she would have arrested Karl Rove any day she wanted. So I don't know what was wrong with her yesterday or today or whenever she said that, but I would schedule an appointment with my doctor if she thinks that we are doing this to suppress votes this fall. That is mind-numbingly stupid.
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Deadbeat Dad Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) has some advice for Mitt Romney as he campaigns for the presidency: start bragging about your wealth.
During a town hall meeting in Elmhurst this past weekend, Walsh told constituents that because making money is a good thing, Romney's key to success is to tout his wealth. He advised Romney to start telling voters, "Hey you know what America? I'm a rich guy!" Walsh concluded that Romney should not be humble about his extraordinary wealth if he wants to succeed — "Don't shy away from that! Rejoice in that!"
WALSH: It's a good thing in this country, Tammy Duckworth, to make money. That is a good thing. I wish Mitt Romney would be proud of that. I wish Romney walked around every day in this campaign and said, "you know what? I'm real successful. Hey you know what America? I'm a rich guy! In fact, you might call me wealthy. That's me, Mitt Romney. You know what? I worked my butt off to get this way. And you know what? I want you to be rich like me." Don't shy away from that! Rejoice in that!
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Wonkette: Yesterday, we learned that noted constitutional scholar Ron Paul accepts and cashes his Social Security check even though it is "unconstitutional." He did not say why, exactly, Social Security is unconstitutional (although Your Wonkette suspects it has something to do with his poor grasp of a common law system), and so it remains one in a long list of items that Ron Paul thinks is unconstitutional absent any discussion of relevant jurisprudence. Of course, as we all know, ThinkProgress released a 2011 video listing all the things that Ron Paul finds unconstitutional but since then, there have been more! And there are some that ThinkProgress missed! For example, did you know that sexual harassment is TOTALLY CONSTITUTIONAL but abortion is not? YES. It's TRUE. So please behold an updated list of the things that would be unconstitutional in a Ron Paul presidency, as well as a list of things that are in fact Constitutional, which will allow for more substantive critical analysis.
Things that are unconstitutional:
- The Civil Rights Act, but ONLY because it destroyed privacy, not because Ron Paul is racist.
- Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the Fed, and paper money, but we knew that already.
- Use of executive branch powers to create jobs for struggling Americans absent Congressional action.
- The federal debt ceiling limit because it leads Congress to take on functions outside its constitutionally mandated purview.
- The Affordable Care Act (that's "Obamacare" in GOPspeak).
- Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank because they over-regulate, which is unconstitutional. Regulate women, not markets, amiright bros? Which brings us to…
- Roe vs Wade, except possibly for raped and sodomized virgins who can mercifully be given a "shot of estrogen" if they come to the emergency room on time, are insured, and are lucky enough to have a presiding physician who isn't rabidly pro-life.
- The Federal Marriage Amendment because these things should be left up to the states.
- Regulation of sexual and reproductive practices on a Federal level as described in his "We the People Act." How does this articulate with his introduction of the Sanctity of Life Act, which defines life as beginning at conception and would have outlawed hormonal birth control if passed? This, like so many things in Ron Paul's mind, remains a mystery.
- Funding Family Planning (on the Federal level, of course); Paul introduced the "Freedom of Conscience Act" to protect us from this particular ill.
- Public school, because the federal government has no business promoting education.
- Federally funded loans and scholarships for college because "education is not a right."
- National Parks, which should be sold to private investors, because camping is not a right either.
- The VA because Veterans should be served by private hospitals, which will "honor" them better.
Things that Are Constitutional
- Biblical law. Yes. Biblical law, which articulates nicely with
- Letting poor people die of being poor (video at link).
- The Defense of Marriage Act, and yes, DOMA is constitutional even though the Federal Marriage Amendment is unconstitutional.
- A patriarchal society wherein the church appoints judges to solve all of our problems.
- The Sanctity of Life Act, an Act introduced by Ron Paul himself, and which would have defined life as beginning at conception.
- Funding stem cell research using federal tax credits, even though life begins at conception.
- Sexual Harassment, which is probably the fault of the woman anyway.
Who can make sense of this for Your Wonkette? Anyone? Can anyone explain why DOMA is constitutional but the Federal Marriage Amendment is unconstitutional? Or perhaps why public school is unconstitutional but church-appointed judges and Patriarchal Law makes the cut? Have at it and get back to us when you have figured it out.
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First Draft: The Country We Deserve
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