I've already mentioned 2 prominent Mormons who are rightwing wckos (Cleon and Mark Skousen) and thanx to Rick Perlstein, I just found out that Orson Scott Card is another Mormon who embraces the Krazy.
According to Pew, 81% of male Mormons identify as GOP or lean GOP and overall, 74% do. The latter percentage is the highest of any religious group.
Saturday, November 03, 2012
VERY GOOD ARTICLE BY RICK PERLSTEIN
In "The Long Con: Mail-order conservatism," Perlstein lays out the history of the grifter part of the GOP Noise Machine and provides some information a person I've been recently wondering about:
Mark Skousen, a Mormon, is the nephew of W. Cleon Skousen, author of the legendarily bizarre Birchite tract The Naked Communist, which claimed to have exposed the secret forty-five-point plan by which the Soviet Union hoped to take over the United States government.
Mark Skousen is also author of a book called Investing in One Lesson, which cribs its title from the libertarian tract Economics in One Lesson, distributed free by conservative organizations in the millions in the fifties, sixties, and seventies (Reagan was a fan). He founded an annual Las Vegas convention called “FreedomFest”—2012 keynoters: Steve Forbes, Grover Norquist, Charles Murray, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey—which advertises itself as “the world’s largest gathering of right-wing minds.”
MITTEN$ ♥ GLENDA
I didn't know that Romney and Beck were pals well before the current election:
Beck Acts as a Bridge Between Romney and Evangelical ChristiansHad I known this and Mitten% infatuation with W. Cleon Skousen, I would have been much more diligent about exposing Skousen.
By AMY CHOZICK
Published: November 3, 2012
NY Times
In 2009, Mr. Romney called Mr. Beck “my friend and a statesman in his own right” when he announced Mr. Beck via video at a fund-raiser for George Wythe University.
I'M NOT SURE WHAT THIS MEANS
But Matthew O'Brien at The Atlantic provides two graphs. One covers all post-WWII recessions and the other just those of 1990, 2001 and 2007. Here's the latter:
Just going by eye, the slopes of all three lines seem pretty close and I'm wondering if there's a substantial economic reason for that.
Just going by eye, the slopes of all three lines seem pretty close and I'm wondering if there's a substantial economic reason for that.
TWO TUCSON AZ RADIO ADS
One is straight out of the "drill, baby, drill" BS with this bit of wingnut spice:"Liberals hate American energy." The other is a standard pro-blastocyte ad that encourages listeners to vote for 2 GOP candidates, Flake and McSally.
Friday, November 02, 2012
OK, WE NEED A NEW TERM
After watching this video, I suggest we replace "low-information voter" with "high-entropy voter".
IF PRES. OBAMA WINS, AS SEEMS LIKELY...
I hope some media outlet keeps track of all the dire predictions of the gasbags and does a monthly update so we can all get a better idea of how wrong they are. For example, I think Glenda Beck just said he would give up if Pres. Obama was re-elected but I don't have access to the transcript to make sure. If he did, someone should remind him on at least a monthly basis.
THE WINGNUTS MADE A FUSS ABOUT THIS IN 2010
They wondered why the Jones Act hadn't been suspended after the BP Gulf Oil spill:
U.S. waives Jones Act to help get fuel to Northeast
By Timothy Gardner and Ayesha Rascoe | Reuters – 26 mins ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government issued a rare waiver on Friday allowing foreign tankers from the Gulf of Mexico to supply the Northeast with fuel after Hurricane Sandy, but the extent of relief was uncertain since some ports in the region still lack power.
The Department of Homeland Security's waiver of the Jones Act allows foreign vessels to begin shipping petroleum products, such as gasoline and diesel, from the Gulf of Mexico to Northeastern ports effective immediately and running through November 13.
Thursday, November 01, 2012
AND ANOTHER GOOD SIGN
Today, Mark Levin has told his listeners to ignore the polls and just vote. This almost certainly means that the polls are badly against Romney.
ROMNEY IS AS CRAZY AS GLENN BECK
(h/t Digby)
You may not know that Glenn Beck used to promote the wacky books of Cleon Skousen and back in 2008, Mitten$ had almost the same level of praise:
You may not know that Glenn Beck used to promote the wacky books of Cleon Skousen and back in 2008, Mitten$ had almost the same level of praise:
But Romney did recommend a Skousen book later in the discussion, when the subject turned to Mormon eschatology. "Cleon Skousen has a book called The Thousand Years," Romney told Mickelson. The Thousand Years is actually a trilogy that details the 4,000 years that elapsed between the creation of the earth and the birth of Christ. The book, Romney said, could set Mickelson straight on what he actually believes. "It's throughout the Bible. Christ appears in Jerusalem, splits the Mount of Olives to stop the war that's coming in to kill all the Jews…That's when the coming and glory of Christ occurs."UPDATE: 11-5-2012 POLITICO reports that this video did go viral.
ANOTHER GOOD SIGN
(h/t Mark Thoma)
The NY Times discusses a new paper, so far unpublished, that provides evidence that asking people about who they expect to win a Presidential election is a better predictor of the outcome than asking them who they will vote for.
Here's why this is good news:
The NY Times discusses a new paper, so far unpublished, that provides evidence that asking people about who they expect to win a Presidential election is a better predictor of the outcome than asking them who they will vote for.
Here's why this is good news:
In the last three weeks, polls — including by ABC/Washington Post, Gallup, Politico/George Washington University and Quinnipiac University/New York Times/CBS — have consistently found that more Americans expect President Obama to win than expect Mr. Romney to win.
THE GOP's FIVE Rs
This McClatchy opinion piece divvies up the GOP base into 5 components:
1) The Rich
2) The Rural
3) The Rabid
4) The Religious
5) The Racists
WHY AMERICA MAY REALLY BE ON THE DECLINE
Clowns like this guy are being aided & abetted by conservative media:
The Tea Party gets a news site
POLITICO
By DYLAN BYERS |
10/31/12 3:38 PM EDT
Gregg Anderson · Top Commenter · Mankato, Minnesota
ONLY ONE OF THESE ENDORSEMENTS REALLY MATTERS
The Baggers will dismiss Mayor Bloomberg's endorsement of Pres. Obama because they know Bloomber is just another stinking RINO but I don't think they will be able to ignore an endorsement from one of the leading Free Market Fairy publications:
Which one?
America could do better than Barack Obama; sadly, Mitt Romney does not fit the bill
Nov 3rd 2012 | from the print edition
THE ECONOMIST
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
JUDGING FROM WHAT BECK, LEVIN AND THE MITTEN$ CREW SAID RECENTLY...
I'd say Romney's chances are slim at best. Glenda Beck tried to convince his radio audience that the REAL polling numbers are Rasmussen's PLUS 6 POINTS!!! Mark Levin is outraged that Gov. Chris Christie has spoken well of Pres. Obama, so you can infer that that is hurting Mitten$. The Romney campaign denounced a poll that showed Obama up by 5 in Ohio (NO GOP candidate has won the Presidency w/o Ohio) but another poll shows that same dam thing!
MITTMENTUM IS NOW TALK RADIO FICTION
(h/t Kevin Drum)
Mitten$ did make some gains after the 1st debate but it's over according to 4 different analyses:
Clockwise from top left: Drew Linzer, Nate Silver, Pollster, Sam Wang
Mitten$ did make some gains after the 1st debate but it's over according to 4 different analyses:
Clockwise from top left: Drew Linzer, Nate Silver, Pollster, Sam Wang
AZ STUFF
This is on the Arizona Attorney website, so it may not be up much longer:
Now, one would think Mr. Horne totally supports "family values" and the Rule of Law BUT you would be wrong:
Biography
Tom Horne was elected Arizona Attorney General in 2010. Prior to that, he served as Arizona State Superintendent of Public Instruction from 2003-2011. Horne was a member of the Arizona legislature from 1997-2001, serving as a member of the House Judiciary Committee.
In addition to his public service, Mr. Horne was an attorney in private practice for more than 30 years. During that time he also served as a Special Assistant Attorney General, Superior Court Judge Pro Tem and as Judge Pro Tem on the Arizona Court of Appeals. He is the author of a legal text published by the State Bar of Arizona.
He received his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Harvard College and his J.D. with honors from the Harvard Law School.
Now, one would think Mr. Horne totally supports "family values" and the Rule of Law BUT you would be wrong:
Horne hit-and-run caused more than $1,000 in damage, records show
AG received misdemeanor citation last week
By Yvonne Wingett Sanchez
The Republic | azcentral.com
Tue Oct 30, 2012 10:51 PM
Horne last week received a misdemeanor citation alleging that he caused paint damage to the bumper of a parked vehicle during a March 27 fender bender that he did not report. The citation was for one count of leaving the scene of a collision with an unattended vehicle, a Class 3 misdemeanor. Police have said the ticket includes a Nov. 2 court date and refers Horne to Phoenix Municipal Court.
An FBI report released by Phoenix police Tuesday states, “It should be noted that through the course of the investigation, SA (Special Agent) Grehoski and SA Mason learned that Horne is having an extramarital affair with Chenal and that they utilize Chenal’s apartment in furtherance of that affair. Though motive is not an element of the criminal statute listed above, it stands to reason that Horne did not want any record of his presence in the parking garage of Chenal’s apartment complex, thus he did not leave a note.”
Horne did not respond to requests for comment about the allegation. Chenal declined to comment.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
WTF?
I'm listening to Mark "Foamer" Levin go on and on about the greatness of Ronald Reagan and I can't help wondering who the fuck cares today about Reagan except for conservative extremists?
MITTEN$ IS NO BETTER THAN PAUL RYAN
He tells lies about Chrysler and GM and still hopes to win Ohio??? Maybe he's starting to live in Faux News World...
THIS NEEDS TO GO VIRAL
Michele "The Eyes" Bachmann was almost laughed off the stage for claiming that she doesn't indulge in "political speak."
Audience laughs at Bachmann during Minnesota debate
By Eric W. Dolan
Tuesday, October 30, 2012 22:23 EDT
The RAW STORY
Bachmann responded by saying she had a “very significant investment in the future” because of her five biological children and 23 foster children. The congresswoman described the federal debt as a “moral problem” that she was fighting against.
“I have very much been part of the solution and it’s insulting to say it’s political speak. That’s one thing I do not do, is political speak,” Bachmann added.
Her comment drew loud laughter from the audience.
IS PAUL RYAN LEARNING DISABLED?
I ask because he doesn't seem to have learned that badly faked photo-ops, like the one he staged in the soup kitchen, make him look bad. Here's his latest blunder:
William Rivers Pitt also points out that other have noticed that the Romney/Ryan campaign is very conveniently staging relief efforts only in swing states.
Ryan 'Packs' Hurricane Relief Donations In During Wisconsin Photo-Op
Campaign operatives slowed down the packing to leave some for Republican Vice Presidential candidate to pose with.
William Rivers Pitt also points out that other have noticed that the Romney/Ryan campaign is very conveniently staging relief efforts only in swing states.
Monday, October 29, 2012
THE "STAND DOWN" LIE
One of the many smears about Benghazi is that the CIA told Tyrone Powers to "stand down" and NOT give any assistance to Ambassador Stevens. Below I noted that Jake Tapper tweeted otherwise and now I have the full quote:
President Obama Begs Off Answering Whether Americans in Benghazi Were Denied Requests for Help
Oct 26, 2012 6:31pm
By Jake Tapper
In response, CIA spokesperson Jennifer Youngblood said, “We can say with confidence that the Agency reacted quickly to aid our colleagues during that terrible evening in Benghazi. Moreover, no one at any level in the CIA told anybody not to help those in need; claims to the contrary are simply inaccurate. In fact, it is important to remember how many lives were saved by courageous Americans who put their own safety at risk that night-and that some of those selfless Americans gave their lives in the effort to rescue their comrades.”
THEY REALLY DO HAVE SEX "ISSUES"
Nate Silver is being attacked by wingnuts for not being sufficiently "flexible" in his poll analyses to predict a win for Mitten$. As happens so often in these cases, a wingnut attacked Mr. Silver's sexuality:
Conservative pollster: Nate Silver is wrong because he is ‘thin and effeminate’
By Jonathan Terbush
Saturday, October 27, 2012 21:51 EDT
The RAW STORY
Conservative darling Dean Chambers, founder of the website unskewedpolls.com that purports to recalibrate political surveys to rid them of liberal bias, argued that New York Times polling guru Nate Silver cannot be trusted because he is a weak, little girly-man.
“Nate Silver is a man of very small stature, a thin and effeminate man with a soft-sounding voice that sounds almost exactly like the ‘Mr. New Castrati’ voice used by Rush Limbaugh on his program,” Chambers wrote. “In fact, Silver could easily be the poster child for the New Castrati in both image and sound.”
THE BENGHAZI SMEARING CONTINUES
Hannity had death whore Charles Woods on his radio show today and will also have Woods on his TV show. Woods has been making the rounds of conservative media outlets* such as the Lars Larson Show and is doing his best to portray Pres. Obama as a murderer.
On this Yahoo News thread, the Freepers are out in full force:
* David Weigel provides a list of additional outlets: Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham and Jeanine Pirro.
On this Yahoo News thread, the Freepers are out in full force:
* David Weigel provides a list of additional outlets: Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham and Jeanine Pirro.
MITTEN$ AS BUSINESS GENIUS?
Not so much, really, as Beverly Mann of Angry Bear brought to my attention:
IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.It's almost 4 years later and somehow the Big 3 are still around.
-- Mitt Romney, Let Detroit Go Bankrupt, New York Times, Nov. 18, 2008
Sunday, October 28, 2012
MORE THAN LIBOR...
Bloomberg News reports that other benchmarks in addition to LIBOR are being investigated for bankster fraud, including NDFs or non-deliverable forwards:
UBS, RBS Traders Suspended as Rates Probe Goes Beyond Libor
By Liam Vaughan and Sanat Vallikappen - Oct 28, 2012 6:07 PM MT
Bloomberg News
UBS AG (UBSN) and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc suspended more than three traders in Singapore as regulators investigating Libor-rigging turn their attention to the rates used to set prices on foreign exchange derivatives.
At least two foreign-exchange traders at UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, have been put on leave as part of an internal probe into the manipulation of non-deliverable forwards [NDFs], a derivative traders use to speculate on the movement of currencies that are subject to domestic foreign exchange restrictions, according to a person with direct knowledge of the operation.
Unlike foreign exchange forward contracts, where two parties agree to physically exchange currencies at a set rate at a specific date in the future, NDF traders settle the net position in U.S. dollars. Who pays and how much at the end of the contract is determined by reference to a fixing rate which in some jurisdictions is set, like Libor, by a survey of banks.
MITTEN$ THE MODERATE???
During the primary debates, Romney once described himself as a "severely conservative" governor of Massachusetts and that makes some sense considering he vetoed over 800 bills as governor. Now Mitten$ is trying to portray himself as a moderate and I can't see how he can hope to make that stick.
FEAR, ANGER & BENGHAZI
Radio Lab had an interesting show about how basically re-plays of Orson Welles' "War of Worlds" managed to fool enough people to cause disruption and even death and as I was listening, I thought that the Benghazi Gasbags are trying to do the same thing because they also rely on fear of the Other, specifically fear of Islamic extremists.
UPDATE: Ignorance of the facts also plays a major role in rightwing agit-prop, so Benghazi is a perfect vehicle for the gasbags:
UPDATE: Ignorance of the facts also plays a major role in rightwing agit-prop, so Benghazi is a perfect vehicle for the gasbags:
Was Benghazi Attack on U.S. Consulate an Inside Job?
Oct 29, 2012 1:00 AM EDT
One man gives his harrowing account of the attack on the U.S. Ambassador.
Jamie Dettmer
The Daily Beast
The story of the night America lost its first ambassador since 1979 to violence is like a jigsaw puzzle—the pieces are fitting together slowly and the picture is emerging but is still not complete and might not be for months. In trying to figure out the puzzle, U.S. investigators are not being helped by the lack of reliable information coming from Tripoli. The inquiry that Libyan leaders promised the day after the attack has stalled. Who’s in charge? No one really knows. “That’s a million-dollar question,” admits an adviser to Deputy Prime Minister Mustafa Abushugar.
When one tries to piece together the story of what happened in Benghazi, discrepancies stand out. For one thing, the timing of events given by officials in Washington, Tripoli, and Benghazi don’t quite match.
Who were these attackers? In the immediate aftermath of the assault, Libyan leaders produced startlingly conflicting statements. They blamed the “men of the Gaddafi regime” and al Qaeda in quick succession. Then, after eyewitnesses fingered local extremists, they focused on a Benghazi-based Salafist militia called Ansar al-Sharia, which had been founded after the toppling of Gaddafi.
An email sent on the night of the attack by the State Department to the White House noted that American diplomats in the Libyan capital reported that the militia had “claimed responsibility on Facebook and Twitter and has called for an attack on Embassy Tripoli.”
Days later, Ansar al-Sharia disavowed responsibility for the attack.
NOT EVEN PARTIAL CREDIT
Tommy "The Mustache of Wisdom" Friedman's column for today states that he is "pro-life" so I would like to have him explain his war-mongering remarks about the Middle East.
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