Random (Moving) Picture Of The Day

Rick Perry's never been the sharpest tool in the box. But this Freudian slip? Ha!

Fiscal Responsibility

From OMB Watch:

"Permanently extending all of the Bush tax cuts to $5.048 trillion over the next ten years."

From "Fiscal Conservative" and Bush tax-cut fan Mike Pence:

"We must never compromise on our commitment to end this era of runaway federal spending, borrowing, bailouts, deficits and debt."

Is anyone even paying attention to this crap anymore?

Whatever Happened to 2008?

Oh Jeez... Olbermann fired? Obama a Republican? A GOP House majority? I'm surprised the streets aren't awash with conservative splooge and liberal tears. Remember 2008 when Obama won, the Republicans were 'an endangered species' and Sarah Palin was just a just a Tina Fey comedy character? WTF happened???

Everyone Screwed: Business As Usual

Hope, change... ah, f*ck it.

I'm having a rare moment of empathy with the Tea Partiers. Just as those hapless rubes feel they're finally getting somewhere, Jim DeMint says "screw the deficit" and, thus, commits the highest form of betrayal possible to his useful idiots. They've been played like Bush-era evangelicals... thanks guys for helping me keep my job. Now f*ck off back to your hovels.

But suck it up jilted 'Baggers. At least you're not a liberal stuck with a president who's acting like he's done with liberalism and signed on as a Republican. At least Jim DeMint is still a wingnut - even if he is expressing more of a laissez faire attitude to running up debt than you might prefer. Sure, DeMint's deficit betrayal might twist your panties, but how the f*ck do you think progressives like me feel now Obama's caved on climate change and tax cuts for the rich? Obama is a functioning Republican. We got it way worse.

So for once, tricornered fascists, feel my pain too. Join my pity party because it's the only party that now speaks for any of us. We've been had. We've been bamboozled... We were just rubes for whichever pol breached our firewalls of suspicion and fooled our votes out of us. "Yes We Can?" "Slash The Deficit?" "Small Government?" It's all the same... and it doesn't matter whether you're a wingnut or a progressive, it doesn't matter whether you were cheated by DeMint or Obama... Washington only represents Washington as it always has and we're just left with lists of unfulfilled promises and sore a**holes once the votes are counted.

All Hail The Koch Brothers! All Hail Dumb!

How could Republicans possibly bend over any further for the corporations and make America look more neanderthal to the rest of the world? Hmm... They figured it out!

"The Republican Party intends to hold major hearings probing the supposed "scientific fraud" behind global warming."

You go, corporate monkey boys! Who needs a planet anyway?

Random Picture of The Day

WTF?! Much as I'm trying to leave the midterms behind, I couldn't help thinking this was a good metaphor for what happened on Tuesday.

Impeachment in the Name of Bipartisan Cooperation?

OK, maybe I'm stupid but... how the f*ck do the Republicans get away with their "bipartisan, reach across the aisle" post-victory shtick when assclowns like Darryl Issa are still blustering about subpoenas and impeachment? Any half-awake journalist or Democrat pol should be able to shoot this giant self-contradiction down easier than a day-glo zeppelin. You might think.

And what exactly do these goons think they could impeach Obama for anyway? As far as I know, the only thing he could be impeached for is letting the Bush misadministration off the hook for torture and war crimes thereby making himself party to the same high crimes and misdemeanors. I'm guessing Darryl Issa ain't focused on that though...

Dead Candidates Did Better Than Tea Party Candidates in Midterms

After her trouncing in the midterms, O'Donnell might consider boosting her chances by being dead next time. (And how long do you think La Dumbass would actually ponder that strategy before discounting it? Place your bets ladies and gentlemen...)

Given that tired media cliché about voters demanding action and accountability from Washington, it made me laugh a little that a grand total of 6 dead people ran on Tuesday. And most of them won.

State Sen. Jenny Oropeza (D CA) won with 59% of the vote. She'd been dead two weeks.

Keith Crass, Republican candidate for the Arkansas legislature, won with 56% of the vote. He'd been dead a little shy of a fortnight.

Keith Austin (D) won in Worth County, Missouri beating two write-in candidates. He'd been dead for two weeks also.

James H.C. Thomas (R) scored a judge gig in Mississippi. He'd been pushing up daisies a full month.

The bad news for the dead demographic? Jorge Luis Garcia lost in Arizona and Dennis Glotfelty lost in Maryland. But dead folks with political aspirations should take note: dead candidates are more likely to win than Tea Party candidates. A full 63% of those a-holes crashed and burned on Tuesday while two-thirds of dead candidates won their races.

Random Picture of The Day

The Aftermath

Good riddance to bad trash: Angle out.

It happened. Oh well... For me, the worst of it is that Rand Paul won. That's a f*cking nadir in judgment if ever there was one - even for Kentucky. And Alan Grayson struck down in his prime? Interesting...

I heard Laurence O'Donnell explain last night how Grayson losing was evidence that the American people were rejecting progressives and that it gave the lie to the case that Obama is floundering because he's not being progressive enough. I'd say no. I'd say O'Donnell is wrong. Grayson lost precisely because his progressive base stayed home. And if we're on such an anti-progressive swing, how come half of the Blue Dog caucus got sh*t canned as well?

Again, the arguments will rattle on... did those Blue Dogs get dumped because they voted yes on Obamacare and the angry wingnuts mobilized to get them out? Or did they fail to get enough votes because the progressives were angry that Obamacare didn't go far enough, thanks to their efforts, and they staid home? Who knows. I sure as hell can't be bothered to start Googling voter stats and comparing 2008 turnouts with 2010.

But if there is one thing we liberals can celebrate, at least Harry Reid hung on in Nevada. I'm sure something fundemental would have busted in the time-space continuum if Sharron Angle and Rand Paul had got in.

Oh, and Barney Frank gets a 16th go around the block. That's gotta sting for the wingnuts!

That's House Speaker Asshat To You

Words. Fail. Me.

I'm trying to remain calm.

I'm trying to instill in myself some of that Zen-like pragmatism that must be governing the thinking of the DNC.

Yup. I'd still say they're calling "put up or shut up" on the GOP today and basically taking a dive in the election. Why? Because they know a Rethug majority will guarantee a win for Obama in 2012. How so? Give these idiots a working majority and they'll either screw up so royally no-one but the headbangers will vote for them in 2012. Or, if by some fluke they choose to participate in the legislative process like adults and stuff actually gets done during the lame duck, they'll lose anyway because Obama will scoop up the credit as president. It's what you call a win-win situation. And it doesn't happen to Dems that often. I can't really see any other scientific explanation for what's been going on recently, why the Dems would choose not to go down with all guns blazing. (And I've shared my theory with conservatives: they accused me of pulling this out of my "liberal a**". So I'm taking that as validation.)

But with all the big, seismic stuff going on today, I'm going to focus instead on the heart-warming story of Johnny Cash's daughter calling John Boehner an asshat. Because that makes me happy.

See, Boehner's speech writers have been sending him out spouting this cringeworthy crap on the campaign trail:

Remember when Ronald Reagan was president? We had Bob Hope. We had Johnny Cash. Think about where we are today. We have got President Obama. But we have no hope and we have no cash.

How they must have thought that double lame pun was the epitome of clever. And how name-dropping the great Johnny Cash would buy them a little populist cred. But Roseanne Cash heard and Tweeted:

John Boehner: Stop using my dad's name as a punchline, you asshat.

Sweet.