Republican Senatorial candidate in Missouri sez that "free enterprise" means it's perfectly all right to deny equal pay to women. Seriously.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Two "Yeah, Right!" Moments from the Morning's Papers
Full steam ahead with fracking in North Carolina. The new Mining & Energy Commission, which is supposed to oversee the controversial practice (and protect NC's water?), elected its own chair, the most unabashedly pro-fracking person on the new commission. Protect NC's water? Uh-huh.
Meanwhile, Big Pharma Dude Fred Eshelman, a principal funder of RightChange which smeared dozens of good men and women running for the NC General Assembly in 2010 (including our own Cullie Tarleton and Steve Goss), tells the Wilmington Star-News that politics will have no place in his deliberations on two key University of North Carolina system committees. Uh-huh.
Meanwhile, Big Pharma Dude Fred Eshelman, a principal funder of RightChange which smeared dozens of good men and women running for the NC General Assembly in 2010 (including our own Cullie Tarleton and Steve Goss), tells the Wilmington Star-News that politics will have no place in his deliberations on two key University of North Carolina system committees. Uh-huh.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
The Worms in the NC Higher Education Apple
Chris Fitzsimon actually attended the first meeting of the UNC Advisory Committee on Strategic Directions and wrote this report.
Nothing much happened yesterday, but I'm so glad that Chris Fitzsimon is on the case and will presumably be watch-dogging this particular bunch.
Q: Where Is Mitt Romney?
In Ohio, he muddles his tax message.
And now he's bragging about bringing socialized medicine to Massachusetts.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Joe Scarbrough: "O Sweet Jesus!"
I witnessed this moment on "Morning Joe" this a.m. and found Joe Scarbrough amazingly appropriate in his response.
The Outlook for Higher Education in NC
The protesting student group, calling itself N.C. Student Power Union, is upset about the old, rich, white man lack of diversity on the committee. There's only one student representative. There's only one faculty member representative. There's only one staff employee representative.
The N.C. Student Power Union didn't tell the half of what's wrong with that committee, seeing as how it also includes the power base of the NC Republican Party, particularly the ultra-right, Tea Party wing, the very people primarily responsible for the major, crippling budget cuts to the university system in the last two state budgets (both vetoed by Gov. Perdue, whose vetoes were overridden) and for the general weakening of all public education in the state.
Thom Tillis, Republican Speaker of the NC House, is on the committee.
Phil Berger, Republican NC Senate President Pro Tem, is on the committee.
Lew Ebert, President of the NC Chamber of Commerce, who is very actively supporting Tea Party darling Paul Newby for the NC Supreme Court, is on the committee.
Robert Ingram, former president & chief operating officer of GlaxoSmithKline, who according to OpenSecrets has given some $96,000 to Republican causes, is on the committee.
Fred Eshelman, a Big Pharma mogul who principally funded RightChange in 2010 and who was therefore directly responsible for much of the sleaze that was directed at Cullie Tarleton and Steve Goss, is on the committee.
Art Pope, the prelate of predatory conservatism, the Death Star of the NC political universe, the Big Boss who bosses around Tillis and Berger (see above) and got his own puppets on the Tillis and Berger payroll, is on the committee.
The very people who have been most consistently and tenaciously critical of a Liberal Arts education in North Carolina are going to be setting priorities for our best institutions of higher education. Students ought to be organizing to call attention to the radical tilt of this crucial advisory committee.
And incidentally, ASU Chancellor Ken Peacock is also on the committee.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Wake County Schools Fires Its Superintendent
Remember this guy?
He ain't there no more.
Fired this afternoon by the new majority on the Wake County School Board.
He ain't there no more.
Fired this afternoon by the new majority on the Wake County School Board.
Is This What REALLY Made Limbaugh's Penis Shrink?
But this Duke study found that the election of Barack Obama had a decided testosterone-lowering impact on Republican men.
Really.
On election night in 2008, a Duke University neuroscientist took saliva samples from both men and women both before the declaration of Obama as the winner and at 20-minute intervals afterward. Participants in the study also filled out a questionnaire about political beliefs and about whom they had voted for in the election.
Dum dum dum!
"The results were clear-cut. Men who had voted for McCain -- or the libertarian candidate Robert Barr -- experienced a 28 per cent loss of testosterone almost as soon as the contest was over."
"The results were clear-cut. Men who had voted for McCain -- or the libertarian candidate Robert Barr -- experienced a 28 per cent loss of testosterone almost as soon as the contest was over."
Oh my good Lord! Are Republican men tender wilting flowers, or what?
Civitas Poll Puts Obama Ahead in NC
In related news, it seems crystal clear that Mr. Romney manipulated his 2011 taxes, declining to take all the deductions he could have under the George W. Bush tax cuts for the filthy rich, so that he could show he paid 14%, rather than an incendiary 9%. Uh, 14% is incendiary enough, especially when Mr. Romney insists that it's perfectly fair for him to pay such a low rate on $20 million in income, while someone making $55,000 pays twice the rate.
Plus Mr. Romney wants roll-down windows on jet planes.
Perhaps the voters of North Carolina are catching on that in Mr. Romney's case, wealth breeds cluelessness. He's not just a rich jerk. He's a rich doofus.
More Proof (Once Again) That Photo ID Laws Are a Ploy To Disenfranchise Legitimate Voters
Associated Press reporting.
"Republican election officials who promised to root out voter fraud so far are finding little evidence of a widespread problem."
"State officials in presidential battleground states have found only a tiny fraction of the illegal voters they initially suspected existed. Searches in Colorado and Florida have yielded numbers that amount to less than 0.1 of 1 percent of all registered voters in either state."
"In North Carolina, the nonpartisan State Board of Elections .... did not find evidence of widespread fraud, noting there were only 12 instances in which a noncitizen had voted. North Carolina has 6.4 million voters."
"Republican election officials who promised to root out voter fraud so far are finding little evidence of a widespread problem."
"State officials in presidential battleground states have found only a tiny fraction of the illegal voters they initially suspected existed. Searches in Colorado and Florida have yielded numbers that amount to less than 0.1 of 1 percent of all registered voters in either state."
"In North Carolina, the nonpartisan State Board of Elections .... did not find evidence of widespread fraud, noting there were only 12 instances in which a noncitizen had voted. North Carolina has 6.4 million voters."
Monday, September 24, 2012
First We Get Your Money, Then We Pray for Your Soul
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| Martin Luther |
Can you imagine what would happen in this country if the Cardinal of Philadelphia, say, proposed that the IRS collect tithes for his church?
But get this: some German Catholics, unhappy over the policies of their hierarchy, are withholding their church tax assessments. The German bishops pitched a sizable fit over that and decided that "believers who refuse to pay religious taxes won't be able to receive the sacrament, become godparents, or work in church institutions."
Well, thanks for making the nexus between salvation and profits for the church quite, quite explicit! Institutional avarice like this led another German several years ago to cause a bit of a break with the Catholic Church. (He also put a nail hole in a church door, we hear.)
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Flushing the Tea?
A Republican Party purge of Teapublicans coming if Obama wins? Personally, we doubt it. Wouldn't leave enough of a party to keep the lights on.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
A Famous Conservative Edits Romney's "Inelegance"
The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
It's Coming ... From the Black (Pope) Lagoon
And why not? The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that billionaires have the inalienable right to buy any legislature that they can personally afford. And the Real Jobs NC slimeballs of 2010 worked so well to turn the NC General Assembly over to Dan Soucek, Jonathan Jordan, and other Tea Party types.
Remember what they did to Cullie Tarleton and Steve Goss in 2010, the mailers the put Mexican sombreros on those gentlemen's heads and warned about rapists moving in next door to your granny.
The Real Romney Stepped On His Weenie
Apparently, when Mitt Romney speaks to his peeps, the 1%, he finally gets authentic. "My job is not to worry about those people," he sez, by which he means the other people not invited to $50,000-a-plate fundraisers at the posh homes of hedge-fund managers.
"My job is not to worry about those people." (Incidentally, we already knew that about you, Mitt, but we appreciate the confirmation.).
Mitt told his filthy rich that some 47% of the American electorate -- is that roughly half? -- are just freeloaders anyway, including, we assume, all those elderly people riding on Medicare-funded scooters who are probably planning to vote for this man anyway, since the news won't penetrate as far as Fox.
Then last night, at "a hastily arranged press conference," Mitt sez he ain't sorry for the sentiments, only the "inelegantly" chosen words. Hell, we thought the words were ever bit as elegant as the setting.
"My job is not to worry about those people." (Incidentally, we already knew that about you, Mitt, but we appreciate the confirmation.).
Mitt told his filthy rich that some 47% of the American electorate -- is that roughly half? -- are just freeloaders anyway, including, we assume, all those elderly people riding on Medicare-funded scooters who are probably planning to vote for this man anyway, since the news won't penetrate as far as Fox.
Then last night, at "a hastily arranged press conference," Mitt sez he ain't sorry for the sentiments, only the "inelegantly" chosen words. Hell, we thought the words were ever bit as elegant as the setting.
Monday, September 17, 2012
When There's a Pattern, Sometimes It's a Sign
Ryan's last one, about having 6% body fat, was a new one on me. Amazing what seems to matter to the guy.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Interesting
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Inartful Dodger
Don't know which is more interesting ... that Republican candidate for governor Pat McCrory is sending memos to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie about how to dodge questions about McCrory's tax returns or the fact that the memo was leaked, presumably by someone on the inside of the McCrory campaign.
Saturday, September 08, 2012
Friday, September 07, 2012
Closet Case
Sometimes Republican candidate for governor Pat McCrory just can't conceal his "statist" impulses, the belief that government can -- and SHOULD -- make big investments in infrastructure, etc.
McCrory, 55, spent his time as mayor [of Charlotte] urging public investment in infrastructure, especially in the urban core locals call uptown Charlotte that is the center of convention activity. Companies with headquarters in the city, including Bank of America Corp. and Duke Energy Corp. (DUK), supported the city’s efforts, which occurred as the population grew by 48 percent to more than 711,000 during McCrory’s tenure, according to the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce.
McCrory’s willingness to spend public money on major construction projects runs counter to the rhetoric from national Republicans, who say government needs to be smaller and spend less money.
“We ignore one of our best presidents ever, and that’s Eisenhower,” he said, referring to Dwight Eisenhower’s creation of the interstate highway system. “Obama had a chance to be a Roosevelt-type figure with infrastructure, but he failed miserably.”
Eisenhower, not Reagan? Obama should have spent more stimulus money?? Getting pretty far off the Tea Party reservation, aren't you, Mr. McCrory?
Two Paths Diverged in a Yellow Wood
"The two sides of those decisions couldn’t be clearer....
“On every issue, the choice you face won’t be just between two candidates or two parties. It will be a choice between two different paths for America....
“Unlike my opponent, I will not let oil companies write this country’s energy plan, or endanger our coastlines, or collect another $4 billion in corporate welfare from our taxpayers.
“When Gov. Romney and his allies in Congress tell us we can somehow lower our deficit by spending trillions more on new tax breaks for the wealthy — well, how did President Clinton put it? You do the arithmetic. I refuse to go along with that. And as long as I’m president, I never will....
“I will never turn Medicare into a voucher. No American should ever have to spend their golden years at the mercy of insurance companies....”
Thursday, September 06, 2012
Wednesday, September 05, 2012
Saturday, September 01, 2012
Fistful of Awesome
Unexpected support for Clint Eastwood, from a surprising source. Defense of Eastwood begins about 45 seconds into this.