Speechless

Well done Rep. Crowley.

This is Truly One of the Saddest Things I've Ever Seen

(via videogum)

Nuthin' in the news (um right*) so here's Charlie, metalcore drummer extraordinaire:

(via The Daily What)

As a "dog person" part of me was tempted to think "animal cruelty" while watching this but the other, less self-righteous part of me couldn't stop laughing. Actual tears during certain parts. Worth watching all the way through.

*News you can use

I would love to see these two in a street fight

You can just tell Obama wants to kill this douchebag but he can't 'cause he's on TV. And he's the President. And it's illegal. But, you know...

"It's Not a Show!!!"

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Thanks Jon.

Great Speech (2019 Perspective: Back When We Had A Real President)

Presented without further comment:

Indie Nerd Comedy Gold

I was going to post a huge rant about many of the media reactions to last weekend's horrible assassination attempt and murders but I've been too busy -- plus I'm not quite ready to allow my eyes and ears to be exposed to Sarah Palin's selfish, vain and defensive Facebook video response (I'm not sure what I'm going to be able to do about all of the blood that will inevitably gush out of those orifices). So instead, here's something that made me happy:

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WTF of the Week

(via The Daily What; more here)

What a Sad, Pathetic Man

Can you imagine if this flip-flopping douchebag had become President?

Rich White Republicans Hate You

Unless, of course, you're a rich, white Republican:

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Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Hey! It's the 10th anniversary of "a classic example of judicial activism, not judicial restraint"

Motherfuck. It's been 10 years since Bush v. Gore. You remember good ol' Bush v. Gore, don't you? That was the decision that broke America. It gave us 8 years of Bush/Cheney. It gave us the illegal war in Iraq. It gave us the Patriot Act. It gave us torture. It gave us the disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina. It gave us the Justice Roberts' activist Supreme Court. It gave us a housing bubble. It gave us a recession. And it fucked Democracy in the ass.

Good times.

((°J°))

Excerpts from John Lennon's last print interview conducted three days before he was shot to death on this day, 30 years ago, can be heard here. Sometimes I still can't believe he's dead. Same with Joe Strummer. Life is crazy.

This is Funny, You Should Read the Whole Thing:

Sorkin the former Cokehead vs. Palin the once and always Snowbilly:

"Unless you've never worn leather shoes, sat upon a leather chair or eaten meat, save your condemnation."

You're right, Sarah, we'll all just go fuck ourselves now.

The snotty quote was posted by Sarah Palin on (like all the great frontier women who've come before her) her Facebook page to respond to the criticism she knew and hoped would be coming after she hunted, killed and carved up a Caribou during a segment of her truly awful reality show, Sarah Palin's Alaska, broadcast on The-Now-Hilariously-Titled Learning Channel.

(snip)

I'm able to make a distinction between you and me without feeling the least bit hypocritical. I don't watch snuff films and you make them. You weren't killing that animal for food or shelter or even fashion, you were killing it for fun. You enjoy killing animals. I can make the distinction between the two of us but I've tried and tried and for the life of me, I can't make a distinction between what you get paid to do and what Michael Vick went to prison for doing. I'm able to make the distinction with no pangs of hypocrisy even though I get happy every time one of you faux-macho shitheads accidentally shoots another one of you in the face.

So I don't think I will save my condemnation, you phony pioneer girl. (I'm in film and television, Cruella, and there was an insert close-up of your manicure while you were roughing it in God's country. I know exactly how many feet off camera your hair and make-up trailer was.)

You can read the rest here.

What Else Would $60 Billion Buy?

By DAVID LEONHARDT
(in today's New York Times)

$60 Billion: The approximate amount that extending the Bush tax cuts on income above $250,000 a year — which Congress seems on the verge of doing — will cost a year, in inflation-adjusted terms. On average, the affluent households that benefit from these cuts will save $25,000 annually. What else might that $60 billion a year buy?

•As much deficit reduction as the elimination of earmarks, President Obama’s proposed federal pay freeze, a 10 percent cut in the federal work force and a 50 percent cut in foreign aid — combined.

•A tripling of federal funding for medical research.

•Universal preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds, with relatively small class sizes.

•A much larger troop surge in Afghanistan, raising spending by 60 percent from current levels.

•A national infrastructure program to repair and upgrade roads, bridges, mass transit, water systems and levees.

•A 15 percent cut in corporate taxes.

•Twice as much money for clean-energy research as suggested by a recent bipartisan plan.

•Free college, including room and board, for about half of all full-time students, at both four- and two-year colleges.

•A $500 tax cut for all households.

(What to do about the Bust tax cuts should be a no-brainer for both the Democrats and the American people but unfortunately the Democrats' and my beloved Obama's lack of spine and leadership seems to be more potent than whatever brain power they may have locked away in their little heads. If the Republicans (and their millionaire/billionaire friends) win this battle, it's official: Americans prefer to be bullied and treated like idiotic children rather than be talked to and treated like adults.)

Apparently It's Jimmy McMillan's World...

...we just live in it (and we're paying rent that is too damn high):

Move Over OK Go

Canadian band Hollerado sings a song about Philadelphia (?) and other U.S. cities in this one-take, stop motion video which took "lots of practice":

She's Not A Witch, She's You?!?!

Is this, A) a campaign ad, B) a weight loss ad or C) an anti-depressant ad?



Well, it made me depressed and I threw up a little in my mouth so I'm going to go with B.

BTW: If she's you and not her that might very well make her a witch. Or perhaps a shape shifter.

Blog Post of the Week

From Wonkette:

Who knew that inside the mashed-potato brains of Rick Sanchez there was all this simmering, misplaced racial fury? If we were forced to guess, we would’ve said the main thoughts inside Rick’s brain were “time to poop!” and “don’t need to poop yet.”

Words of Wisdom from The Rude Pundit, Regarding the Republicants Newest Publicity Stunt: "A Pledge to America"

"Could everyone just stop talking about the current crises in America as being caused by Barack Obama's agenda? Seriously, the right-wing drama queens act as if they've been living under years of oppression and hunger in a Soviet-era dictatorship instead of 19 months under a politically moderate, legally-elected president. We did live under eight years of Bush, though. Speaking of Americans "yearning to be free" and to self-determine shit, the Pledge says, "Whenever the agenda of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to institute a new governing agenda and set a different course." Hey, you know what, Mike Pence and the rest? We did vote to institute a new governing agenda, Obama's. Senate Republicans have prevented its passage. Maybe you could complain if we were, you know, being governed by it. But, fuck it. Why bother to really try Obama's agenda when we can just go back to the one that ass-fucked us in the first place? Kudos, Tea Party."

You can read the rest here.

Fun Fact: The Rude One's last comment is about the GOP cancelling George W. Bush's TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) even though House leaders John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Pete Sessions all voted for it. What he doesn't mention is that the majority of the TARP funds have been paid back:

Originally expected to cost the U.S. Government $356 billion, the most recent estimates of the cost, as of April 12, 2010, is down to $89 billion, which is 42% less than the taxpayers' cost of the Savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s...Of the $245 billion invested in U.S. banks, over $169 billion has been paid back, including $13.7 billion in dividends, interest and other income, along with $4 billion in warrant proceeds as of April 2010. AIG is considered "on track" to pay back $51 billion from divestitures of two units and another $32 billion in securities.

Now, obviously $89 billion is a lot of dough, but what would have happened had we not bailed out the banks? I'll defer to an expert since I know shit about our crazy financial system:

There is no question that something substantial had to be done when the bottom fell out of the asset-backed securities (ABS) market. It had to be done because the crisis put the safety of deposits at risk. Why? Because Glass-Steagall had been overturned and banks had become traders. Who cares if investment banks, private equity firms, and hedge funds trade and fail? I don’t – caveat emptor – unless bank deposits are put at risk and they were.So protecting depository institutions required propping up AIG and a number of financial institutions because banks trading activities had made these institutions interdependent.

What he said. Sometimes government has to govern.