Break Out the Champagne: Michele Bachmann Won't Seek Re-election Next Year!

Michele Bachmann pulls a Ravenstahl and announces she will not seek re-election next year. And, just like Lil Mayor Luke, she says it's in no way due to any pending investigations or because she can't win another term. Uh-uh, nope, not at all.

 

You can take a trip down memory lane of 2pj posts about Ms. Bachmann here.

Tweet of the Day

In 5yrs when you can't buy a gun b/c a doctor says ur crazy for believing in a resurrected Jesus, thank @sentoomey
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) April 11, 2013

(h/t to Spork)

Get Well Soon, Hillary

While Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to make a full recovery from the blood clot in her skull, here's a big FU to all the wingnuts who claimed she's been faking illness.

(h/t to Spork)

Lil Ricky finds a new home!

Via Think Progress:

Rick Santorum has joined WorldNetDaily, a conspiracy theory blog best known for its indefatigable work advancing the birther movement, as an exclusive columnist.

Here's a sample of headlines from WorldNetDaily taken off the intertoobs:

 

 

 

 

 

Sweet Jesus, Why Does He Have To Come From PA?

Via Crooks and Liars, I found this drivel:

God is systematically destroying America. Just look at what has happened this year.

And then:

Just last August, Hurricane Isaac hit New Orleans seven years later, on the exact day of Hurricane Katrina. Both hit during the week of the homosexual event called Southern Decadence in New Orleans!

Hurricane Sandy is hitting 21 years to the day of the Perfect Storm of October 20, 1991. I write about this in my book as America Has Done to Israel. This was the day that President George Bush Sr. initiated the Madrid Peace Process to divide the land of Israel, including Jerusalem. America has been under God’s judgment since this event. Both of these hurricanes were cause by freakish weather patterns that came together to create

AND THEN:

Twenty-one years breaks down to 7 x 3, which is a significant number with God. Three is perfection as the Godhead is three in one while seven is perfection.

It appears that God gave America 21 years to repent of interfering with His prophetic plan for Israel; however, it has gotten worse under all the presidents and especially Obama. Obama is 100 percent behind the Muslim Brotherhood which has vowed to destroy Israel and take Jerusalem. Both candidates are pro-homosexual and are behind the homosexual agenda. America is under political judgment and the church does not know it!

From his "About Us" page we read:

John McTernan, founder of Defend and Proclaim the Faith ministries, has spent thousands of hours with Jews and Muslims debating and corresponding in defense of the Gospel. During numerous appearances on television, radio and in seminars, he has publicly defended Israel in light of Biblical prophecy. His current best selling book is As America Has Done To Israel.

During numerous appearances on television, radio and in seminars, he has publicly defended Israel in light of Biblical prophecy. His current best selling book is As America Has Done To Israel.

Since 1975, he has been involved with the Pro-Life movement and is currently a Pro-Life leader in central Pennsylvania. And, in the early 1980's, he co-founded International Cops for Christ where he serves as an ordained chaplain and evangelist.

Oh Lord, there are nutcases more or less evenly distributed across the country, for that is evidently thy divine plan. But did the first nutjob to link Hurricane Sandy to teh gays HAVE to come from my home state?

Rick Santorum: "The Believer" says President has a "phony theology"

Back in 2005, the New York Times Magazine did a cover story on then Senator Santorum titled "The Believer." From that article:

Sean Reilly, a former aide to Santorum in the Senate and now a political consultant in Philadelphia, said that he has come to view his former boss in other than political terms. ''Rick Santorum is a Catholic missionary,'' he said. ''That's what he is. He's a Catholic missionary who happens to be in the Senate.''

[snip]

Santorum is not a reader of Scripture -- ''I've never read the Bible cover to cover; maybe I should have'' -- and has no passages he clings to when seeking spiritual guidance. ''I'm a Catholic, so I'm not a biblical scholar. I'm not someone who has verses he can pop out. That's not how I interact with the faith.''

However, despite his lack of Bible training, Lil Ricky feels perfectly comfortable in criticizing President Obama's understanding of scripture and theology:

The “president’s agenda” is “not about you,” he said. “It’s not about you. It’s not about your quality of life. It’s not about your job.

“It’s about some phony ideal, some phony theology,” Santorum said to applause from the crowd. “Oh, not a theology based on the Bible, a different theology, but no less a theology.” [...]

Although Santorum criticizes the president daily on the campaign trail, this is the first time he has used this rhetoric or said the president has a “different theology.”

And, Uber Catholic Santorum doesn't just question Obama on theology, he questions all mainline Protestants. Here's Santorum in 2008:

We all know that this country was founded on a Judeo-Christian ethic but the Judeo-Christian ethic was a Protestant Judeo-Christian ethic, sure the Catholics had some influence, but this was a Protestant country and the Protestant ethic, mainstream, mainline Protestantism, and of course we look at the shape of mainline Protestantism in this country and it is in shambles, it is gone from the world of Christianity as I see it. [...]

Whether its sensuality of vanity of the famous in America, they are peacocks on display and they have taken their poor behavior and made it fashionable. The corruption of culture, the corruption of manners, the corruption of decency is now on display whether it’s the NBA or whether it’s a rock concert or whether it’s on a movie set.

Santorum has since defended his remarks on Obama and claimed that he was not questioning Obama's faith or the legitimacy of his Christianity (unlike the Christianity of all mainline Protestants?). Meanwhile, Robert Gibbs, Obama campaign strategist and former White House press secretary, rightfully called Santorum's comments “well over the line.”

Perhaps it's time for Someone to remind Lil Ricky that this election will not be decided with a puff of white smoke and that he's running for President and not Pope.


Looks like it's time for me to update this graphic I made when he was running for the Senate:

Anita Perry climbs up on the cross

"We are fighting for the soul of our country."
According to Anita Perry, Governor Goodhair is 'being "brutalized" by fellow conservatives for his Christian faith and his slide in the polls is not because of his extreme vacuousness during the debates, his N-word problem, his supporters demonizing Romney's own faith, or just being the latest Tea Party flavor-of-the-month candidate to fall out of favor (or "number three guy at al-Qaeda" as Joe Scarborough put it this morning).

Via CNN:

(CNN) – Anita Perry stuck up for her husband Thursday, saying Texas Gov. Rick Perry was being "brutalized" by fellow conservatives for his Christian faith.

"It's been a rough month," Perry said in an emotional speech to voters in South Carolina Thursday. The speech was recorded by NBC News. "We have been brutalized and beaten up and chewed up in the press to where I need this today."

[snip]

"We are being brutalized by our opponents, and our own party," Perry said. "So much of that is, I think they look at him, because of his faith. He is the only true conservative – well, there are some conservatives. And they're there for good reasons. And they may feel like God called them too. But I truly feel like we are here for that purpose."

[snip]

She said Perry relied on prayer when deciding whether or not to enter the GOP race.

"He felt like he needed to see that burning bush," Perry said. "I said he may not see that burning bush but other people are seeing it for you."

And, Gov. Perry agrees with her. Via Talking Points Memo:

“We still feel called to do this,” Anita Perry said. “We didn’t have to do this. We are doing this because we want to do this. Because we want to save our children…we are fighting for the soul of our country.”

Speaking on Friday to ABC News, Perry said, “I stand by my wife.”

“My understanding is that she said I’m the most conservative candidate in the race and ‘he’s a Christian.’ So I haven’t got anything I can add to that and she’s hit me on my mark both times there,” the candidate told Good Morning America.

Positively delusional.

Here's the video of her full remarks:

Don't know much about history

Lil Ricky Santorum tries to one-up Michele Bachmann in the stupidity sweepstakes and succeeds.
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The New Civility

GOP Rep. Rehberg: Federal Judges Should Be ‘On The Endangered Species List’

Alabama State Senator Advises Politicians To ‘Empty The Clip’ To Stop Undocumented Immigrants

Of course none of this matters because words don't matter and even if they did matter, there are no right wing domestic terrorists -- only "crazies" -- and those crazies don't listen to violent right wing rhetoric and even if they do, it just doesn't matter because words don't matter.

Glad that I cleared that up for everyone!

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STFU with the eliminationist rhetoric

"Don't Retreat, Instead - RELOAD!"
- VP Candidate & Gov. Sarah Palin, Republican

"I hope that's not where we're going, but, you know, if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around? I'll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out."
- Senate Candidate Sharron Angle, Republican

“We have become, or are becoming, enslaved by the government ... I dare ‘em to try to come throw me in jail. I dare ‘em to. [I’ll] pull out my wife’s shotgun and see how that little ACS twerp likes being scared at the door. They’re not going on my property.”
- CNN Commentator Erick Erickson, Republican

"I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax, because we need to fight back."
- US Rep. Michele Bachmann, Republican

"Our nation was founded on violence. I don't think that we should ever remove anything from the table as it relates to our liberties and our freedoms."
- Texas Candidate for U.S. Rep. Stephen Broden, Republican

"We are aware that stepping off into secession may in fact be a bloody war. We are aware. We understand that the tree of freedom is occasionally watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots.”
- Texas Gubernatorial Candidate Debra Medina, Republican

"Does sharia law say we can behead Dana Milbank?...I think you and I should go and beat him up."
- Fox News Host Bill O'Reilly, Republican

"Put anything in my scope and I will shoot it."
- U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, Republican

"Meet Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson."
- Conservative Radio Show Host Glenn Beck, Republican

(More here)

While most Republicans seem to take their cue from their patron saint Ronald Reagan that government is the problem, a current segment of that party takes it one step further by not just constantly disparaging government, but calling for its violent overthrow -- or at the very least using eliminationist rhetoric against Democrats.

And, I'm calling BULLSHIT right now on anyone who tries to paint some false equivalency. There simply isn't this level of violent language by politicians, political candidates and cable hosts coming from the Democratic side.

I'm also calling BULLSHIT on anyone who would try to say that when Jared Lee Loughner killed six people and wounded 13 others yesterday including Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords at her own event that this was just some "crazy person" acting out and that it was not a political act. Loughner could have just as easily gone to a mall or a McDonald's or a school. But he didn't. He targeted a politician -- and a Democratic politician. He clearly had problems with the government as seen by his now deleted MySpace page:

He was anti-government, anti-federalist, pro gold standard, and he compared a young woman to a “terrorist for killing the baby” so he sure as hell wasn't a liberal.

What he seems to be is a mentally disturbed individual living in a time of historic vitriolic rhetoric and in a place where threats and violence had already been directed towards Giffords as noted by Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik:


What had been aimed already at Giffords? Sarah Palin had her in her crosshairs:


We have this from her Tea Party opponent:


And, we have the Congresswoman's own words on the issue:


We also have six dead and 13 wounded, including:

A Congresswoman fighting for her life:

Gabrielle Giffords

A slain chief judge for the United States District Court:

John M. Roll

And, a little girl cut down in her ninth year of life:

Christina Taylor Greene
Christina was born on 9/11. She was a member of her student council who was brought to the event to meet a role model.

Shortly after the massacre, Sarah Palin deleted the "crosshairs" from the web. Would that she and her ilk delete any more violent garbage from coming out of their mouths.
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House Republicans Vote for the Rape of Little Girls

House Republicans help walk this child down the aisle
Via Talking Points Memo:

On Thursday night, hours before passing the tax cut compromise, House Republicans thwarted a bill that aimed to protect girls around the world from being coerced into child marriage. They opposed it because, they claimed, it might fund abortions.

[snip]

The text of the bill does not mention abortion, contraception or family planning. Instead, it directs the president to make preventing child marriage a priority, especially in countries where more than 40 percent of girls under the age of 18 are married. The ways to do that, according to the bill: support educating communities on the dangers and health effects of child marriage, keep young girls in school, support female mentoring programs and make sure girls have access to health care services.

Apparently, they equate "health care services" with abortion which is why the party of "family values" voted for the rape of little girls. It doesn't matter to them that the countries that are pro child marriage are the same countries where legal abortions are nearly impossible to obtain. The anti abortion lobby must be bowed down to at all costs -- even for imaginary threats of abortion.
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Please just go away

Via Shakesville:

“Today marks a lot of tragedy. … Tragedy comes in threes... Pearl Harbor, Elizabeth Edwards’s passing and Barack Obama’s announcement of extending the tax cuts, which is good, but also extending the unemployment benefits.”- Christine O'Donnell, speaking at the launching for her new political action committee, "ChristinePAC."

Shake a tail feather

While the Right Wing media and its followers went bananas over a ridiculously false story that the President's trip to India was going to cost $200 million per day, there is some real and very cute video of the First Lady and the President dancing with some children in India (here and here).

That said, if Obama were to ever actually drop $200 million a day in India, we'd approve, but only if he dropped a large chunk of that at the Silver Jubilee club:


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Fear of a Black Planet

Eventually the wingnuts are going to run out of euphemisms for the n-word.

Newt Gingrich waxes philosophical to the National Review:

Citing a recent Forbes article by Dinesh D’Souza, former House speaker Newt Gingrich tells National Review Online that President Obama may follow a “Kenyan, anti-colonial” worldview.

[snip]

“What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]?” Gingrich asks. “That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior.”

“This is a person who is fundamentally out of touch with how the world works, who happened to have played a wonderful con, as a result of which he is now president,” Gingrich tells us.

This guy was once considered as some sort of intellectual, right?

[sigh]

By the way, Jake Tapper and Dana Hughes at ABC News shoot down D’Souza's theory here.

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Scott Baker (formerly of WTAE) is now working for Glenn Beck

Beck and Baker from some or other wingnut broadcast.

First, credit where credit is due: I heard this story today on Lynn Cullen's City Paper broadcast.

It looks like former WTAE Pittsburgh news anchor Scott Baker is descending further down the rat hole of wingnut "journalism."

First some background.

If you recall, back in 2005 while Baker was still an anchor of the 5:00 PM news at WTAE, he credited himself as being one of Jeff Gannon journalism teachers. Gannon (James Dale Guckert) became controversial for being a "reporter" with White House press credentials who asked President Bush such an excessively deferential and factually inaccurate question that he was dubbed by Jon Stewart as "Chip Rightwingenstein of the Bush Agenda Gazette." It later turned out that Gannon had scores of nude photos on the Internet on gay escort sites.

Next, in 2007 Baker signed up to help launch BreitbartTV. Yes, that would be with conservative hack and serial liar Andrew Breitbart of the manufactured ACORN and Shirley Sherrod controversies.

Apparently not satisfied that he had fully plumbed the depths of wingnut "journalism" Baker has now signed on to help Glenn Beck start up his "news and opinion" website called The Blaze (Here's Baker interviewing for a job with Beck interviewing Glenn Beck.)

According to The Huffington Post:

Beck said he was frustrated with the way the media covered his "Restoring Honor" rally this weekend.

"Too many times we see mainstream media outlets distorting facts to fit rigid agendas," he wrote on The Blaze. "Not that you've ever heard me complain about the media before. Okay, maybe once or twice. But there comes a time when you have to stop complaining and do something. And so we decided to hire some actual journalists to launch a new website."

So, Glenn Beck and Scott Baker are are setting themselves up as the saviors of journalism.

I can't stop laughing crying laughing.

NOTE to City Paper's Chris Potter: Yes, I beat you at blogging on this story -- consequences be damned (but seriously, thanks for the mention on Lynn's show).
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It's a joke

That would be much of public discourse now (and some of the policy proposals out there).

The War Against the Poor
It's not enough to give the ultra rich huge tax breaks, you must actively punish the poor:

Carl Paladino, Tea-Party-backed Republican candidate for governor of New York (who has showed up on these pages before for is racist and hardcore porn emails), advocates for the creation of prison dorms for welfare recipients where they can receive training including lessons in "personal hygiene" (because everyone knows that the poor are stinky).

Utah state Sen. Dan Liljenquist wants to cut all elective epidurals and elective C-sections for women on Medicaid (I'm going to take a wild guess here that he's also "pro life" in addition to being pro pain).

The War Against US Muslims

What does it say when the voice of sanity in the Republican party on the Ground Zero Mosque Burlington Coat Factory Non-Mosque is Ron Paul? '...Paul argues that the opposition to the mosque “is all about hate and Islamaphobia,” stoked by “neo-conservatives” who “never miss a chance to use hatred toward Muslims to rally support for the ill conceived preventative wars."'

And, just in case you think it isn't all about "hate and Islamaphobia," you can view a video here of "a person of color wearing a skull cap and wandering through the crowd was targeted with insults and nearly attacked by protesters for the offense of looking vaguely Muslim" at an anti Burlington Coat Factory Non-Mosque protest. You can also hear a person chanting "Mohammad is a pig."

The War Against President Obama
Last week I spent some time in my old stomping grounds (Jeannette, Hempfield, Greensburg -- or as I like to refer to it -- The Heart of Darkness). While there, the following marred the lovely landscape:

A group of four billboards. One said "Obama Care Shovel Ready" over a picture of a cemetery. Another announced a 9/11 T.E.A. Party at Bushy Run Battlefield. Right under that, was one with a graphic of the US Capitol dome with the words "Throw the bums out" (I'm guessing based on the other two signs that "bums" referred to Dems). A little further down Route 30 was a billboard which proclaimed "Marriage...God's plan for Safe Sex" (you can be sure that the picture was of one man and one woman). There were also more yard-size T.E.A. Party signs on the back roads of Greensburg than I cared to count.

A man I met who, while telling me that he didn't follow politics, was absolutely certain that Obama didn't have a US birth certificate. When I told him that a copy has been available online for two years, he looked like I told him his parents were really Santa Claus.

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Breitbart admits lying; being insufferable asshole

In yet another twist in the Breitbart/Sherrod story, Andrew Breitbart admitted on his BigGovernment blog yesterday to lying and being an "insufferable asshole."

He further confessed to believing that "the ends justify the means" and to engaging in "open political warfare."

NOTE: No Breitbart-style journalistic ethics and standards were harmed in the making of this post.
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New Tom Corbett Video (Sashay Shante)

Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Corbett -- refusing to back down on his claim that the jobless in Pennsylvania are having too good a time living the high life on unemployment to get up off their lazy butts and get one of the jobs that "are there" -- upped the ante today releasing the following web-only video to PA residents:



You better work, PA bitchez !
(Now, turn to the Right.)
Capitol Ideas looks deeper into Corbett's remarks here.
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Rick Barber: Taxation Equals Slavery & The Holocaust

Alabama Congressional candidate Rick Barber is at it again.

This time he drags in "Abe" (That's "President Lincoln" to you, Rick) to make his point that taxation equals slavery and includes images from The Holocaust.

What a sick, twisted, little fuck.

Here's the ad:


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Whiskey Rebellion

Set aside for a moment the call for President Obama's impeachment which starts the ad and the call to insurrection which ends it and focus for a minute on the middle wherein Alabama Congressional candidate Rick Barber seems to have never to have heard of the Whiskey Rebellion:


You'd think as he had George Washington right there, our first president could have updated him on it.

I wonder if a tea-bagger candidate here in the home of that rebellion could have gotten away with such an ad?

UPDATE: See The Bread Line Blog. Great minds think alike. :-D
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