E Pluribus Unum

by Mark Adams

From his lust for Kralizec to his desire to privatize Social Security, Rudy unites left and right, by his stupidity.  Seriously, the guy is absofreakinglutely bat-shit crazy.

Obama figures out he's just not that good at the 30 second sound-byte debate format -- cuts and runs from attending any more debates than those already scheduled.  I assume that means there will be a hard limit of no more than 47 more until we begin voting -- probably right after Thanksgiving.  Hopefully, there will be lots of arugula.

After watching some TPMtv, spotlighting Mitt Romney's profound ignorance of anything east of Boston Harbor, Raising Kaine concludes "Multiple-Choice Mitt" is a "Giant Foreign Policy Goofball."  News Hounds gets the hypocrisy of Romney's schpeel, but you really need to watch Josh Marshall put it all together to understand how profoundly delusional Romney is. 

Meanwhile, Eleanor Clift has a question for Mitt & Co. that might stop some of the GOP hopefuls in their tracks -- since of course, they'd have to think instead of regurgitating their 30 year-old talking points or trying to remember whether they we talking to an audience that preferred the flip to the flop.

Stop asking Romney and the other Republican front runners about abortion and start asking them where they stand on family planning.

Fred Thompson, who turns 65 today (thus eligible for all the entitlements he vows to abolish), is the only candidate who needed to have his fat, lazy ass trucked around the Iowa State Fair in a golf cart. 

Actually he looked kinda gaunt.  He'll need to scarf down a few more elephant ears to be the right's answer to Michael Moore. 

She really ought to take it easy on the old guy.  How many little blue pills can one man take?

I noted before that Mike Huckabee was kind spoken towards the Clintons, to the point where he would sound almost gushing if he weren't a Republican.  Rights Field's David Dayen thinks these remarks point to where Huckabee first got the idea that cars and buses were lame, that his super-coolness would be enshrined forever once his Harley cleared the shark tank.

This kid came from a dysfunctional family — alcoholic abusive father. And yet he didn't just aspire, he was elected president of the United States not once, but twice. That is an affirmation of the system. And it's a wonderful testament to give to every kid in America that no matter where you've come from, you've got an opportunity to do something extraordinary.

Wingnuttystan still says, "Gotcha," cuz that's all they got.  I mean, what are they gonna do?  Buy into McCain trying to be the anti-war candidate?  Puh-Leeze.

More Wingnut News...

Vice President Cheney is a dildo, what else to you call a dick substitute? (Do not Click if you are under age ... 40.)  Doctor BooMan advises us to use a condom anyway.

Speaking of nuts and other guilty pleasures of the alternate universe ... you know you just gotta click on a link that says Ron Paul teams up with Dennis Kucinich.

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Categories: 2008 Presidential Election , Ann Coulter , Barack Obama , Dick Cheney , Fred Thompson , Hillary Clinton , John Edwards , John McCain , Mitt Romney , Politics , Rudy Giuliani , Social Security , War in Iraq

FactCheck.org calls BS on Republican talking points at last Sunday's debate:

• Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney falsely claimed U.S. job growth had been nearly 17 times faster than Europe's. Actually, European Union employment grew faster than that of the U.S. last year. Romney's source for the information told FactCheck.org that he himself would no longer use the figures.
  
• Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani accused Democratic candidates of "appeasement" toward Islamic terrorists. In fact, leading Democratic candidates have spoken out strongly against terrorism.
  
• Sen. John McCain claimed American families spend $140 billion of their income preparing federal income tax returns. We find no support for that figure, which the Internal Revenue Service puts at $19 billion.
  
• Rep. Tom Tancredo claimed illegal immigrants "are taking a large part of our health care dollars." But the independent Rand Corp. estimates that undocumented immigrants account for 1.5 percent of health care spending or less.

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Categories: 2008 Presidential Election , John McCain , Mitt Romney , Republicans , Rudy Giuliani

Mitt Romney in Iowa this past weekend:

"I mean, in one week [Obama] went from saying he's going to sit down, you know, for tea, with our enemies, but then he's going to bomb our allies," Romney said. "He's gone from Jane Fonda to Dr. Strangelove in one week."

But who remembers Dr. Strangelove anymore? If anything, the name and character are more closely linked with Henry Kissinger than with Stanley Kubrick or Peter Sellars. And Jane Fonda? Have the Republicans become so ... idea-bankrupt that they're reaching back to the 1970s for iconic imagery? What's next -- calling John Edwards "Meathead?"

What that whole episode emphasizes is how old the Republican base has become. They're living in the past. The future belongs to today's young people and they aren't energized by imagery -- and issues -- from the 60s and 70s.
The last time they saw Jane Fonda was on The Colbert Report and she handled Stephen pretty well. And, more seriously, we now have full trade relations with Vietnam, right?

Lastly, how many people really believe that Pakistan and Musharref are really acting in our best interest anyway? If they're sheltering Osama bin Laden (for whatever reason), wouldn't you want to do whatever it took to catch the bastard -- whether or not that offended our "ally?"

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Categories: 2008 Presidential Election , Mitt Romney , Republicans

"I think the presidency ought to be held at a higher level than having to answer questions from a snowman."

— Mitt Romney, on why he might not participate in the CNN/YouTube Republican debate.

UPDATE: Mitt still doesn't get it, confusing YouTube with MySpace:

"YouTube is a website that allows kids to network with one another and make friends and contact each other," Romney said. "YouTube looked to see if they had any convicted sex offenders on their web site. They had 29,000."

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Categories: 2008 Presidential Election , Mitt Romney

• Karl Rove has been among a small group of Bushies visiting Presidential libraries in preparation for planning the one for his boss. When I bumped into Rove last week, the flight we were both on was going to Atlanta, which (coincidentally?) is the location for the Carter Library.

• Jane Hamsher asks the musical question, "Who Is The Scariest GOP Presidential Candidate?" Rudy's nuts so he's plenty scary. But Romney is scary because he is willing to say just about anything to get elected. [P.S. Is it just me or is Mitt Romney filling a hole left by George Allen, i.e., tall-dark-and-handsome?]

• Sen. Barack Obama's Secret Service codename is "Renegade." Hillary's is "Evergreen," left over from the Clinton White House years. The other candidates will have to wait and see if they get their own handles. This article details the codenames for past and present POTUS' and candidates for POTUS. Here's an interesting bit of trivia:

  [A]ccording to a Secret Service spokesman, all code names are chosen by military officials, suggesting that they should not be examined too closely for deeper meaning.

• NBC seems interested in Jon Stewart. Stewart's contract with Comedy Central is up in 2008.

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  Categories: 2008 Presidential Election , Barack Obama , George W. Bush , Hillary Clinton , Humor , Mitt Romney , Odds & Sods , Politics , Rudy Giuliani , Television

Forty years ago, George Romney ran for president. He was the governor of my state, Michigan, and was considered to be a moderate (translation: Rockefeller Republican). He was becoming increasingly anti-war. Back then, there wasn't much coverage of the fact that he was a Mormon, although polling was done on the question.

The Gallup Poll in April, 1967, asked, "If your party nominated a generally well qualified man for president and he happened to be a Mormon, would you vote for him?" 75 percent said yes, and 17 percent said no, while the rest either did not know or declined to answer.

That was then, this is now. Mitt Romney, his son, former governor of Massachusetts, is running for president. While he governed as a moderate, he is running as a hard-right conservative. And on the issue of his Mormonism, polling shows that things have, well, changed:

In March of this year, the CBS News/New York Times Poll asked: "Do you think most people would vote for a presidential candidate who is a Mormon, or not?" A majority of 54 percent said voters would not. FOX News in February posed the question, "Do you think the United States is ready to elect . . . a Mormon president or not?" A plurality of 48 percent said no while only 40 percent said yes.

Could it be because they don't consider Mormons to be Christians?

The Church of Latter Day Saints gives scriptural authority to the Book of Mormon, not a part of the standard Old or New Testament. Unlike most traditional Christian denominations, Mormons reject the Trinity and the belief that Jesus was the son of God. Finally, Mormons contend that God was once a man.

Sounds like Romney will have an uphill climb.

UPDATE: Speaking of Romney, Paul Krugman watched the Republican debate and has this to say:

In Tuesday’s Republican presidential debate, Mitt Romney completely misrepresented how we ended up in Iraq. Later, Mike Huckabee mistakenly claimed that it was Ronald Reagan’s birthday. Guess which remark The Washington Post identified as the 'gaffe of the night'? Folks, this is serious. If early campaign reporting is any guide, the bad media habits that helped install the worst president ever in the White House haven’t changed a bit.

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Categories: 2008 Presidential Election , Mitt Romney , Religion , Republicans

• Barack Obama criticizes (Detroit) automakers on fuel economy. I would have liked to have seen him knock the unions, too, because they bellyache as much as anyone when the topic of fuel economy comes up. Bottom line: Detroit is reaping what it sowed.

• Hey -- is everything seen through the prism of Detroit vs. Chicago? If so, the Pistons scored a big one for the Motor City, kicking the Bulls' ass again -- by over 20 points -- to go up 2-0 in the second round of the NBA Eastern Conference playoffs. Hey Obama -- can you play point guard?

• Certain Europen governments have floated the idea that they'll let the US pick the next World Bank president -- but only if Wolfie leaves right now. Congrats, Bushies: another loss of world prestige on your watch.

• $3.23: That's the highest-ever price per gallon of gas, corrected for inflation. It dates back to the oil-embargo years, the energy-shock, gas lines around the block, Carter years of the 70's. I mention it now because gas prices are higher than ever. And (coincidentally?) Bush's approval ratings are in Carter territory.

• Does Romney believe in evolution or not? Inquiring religious fundamentalist zealots want to know. The rest of us? We just want to know...

• ...Is Romney really just a science fiction fanboy with a great haircut and $2500 suit? Recently, Mitt claimed that the French engage in 7-year marriages with an option to renew or move on at the end of the contract. Turns out he read that in a science fiction novel. By a fellow Mormon. About Mormonism in space. And this, after saying his favorite book was Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard. Wonder what Ann Coulter is thinking now?

• Has the Republican caucus really given Bush a do-or-die deadline of September -- or else they walk away from Bush on Iraq? Color me skeptical.

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Categories: 2008 Presidential Election , Corruption , Energy , George W. Bush , Mitt Romney , Republicans , Sports , War in Iraq

I can't believe this guy could become the next president of the United States:

When asked his favorite novel in an interview shown yesterday on the Fox News Channel, Mitt Romney pointed to “Battlefield Earth,” a novel by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. That book was turned into a film by John Travolta, a Scientologist.

By the way, am I the only one who sees a resemblance between Romney and Kronk from The Emperor's New Groove?

(HT to Anna Marie for the title of this post)

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Categories: 2008 Presidential Election , Mitt Romney , Religion , Republicans

by Mark Adams

The Coultergeist isn't unreasonably paranoid -- because we ARE coming to get them.

SHOOTING ELEPHANTS IN A BARREL:
"Lewis Libby has now been found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice for lies that had absolutely no legal consequence."

[snip]

As a result, Libby is now a convicted felon for having a faulty memory of the person who first told him that Joe Wilson (news, bio, voting record) was a delusional boob who lied about his wife sending him to Niger.

This makes it official: It's illegal to be Republican.

Continue reading "Ann Coulter's Not Paranoid" »

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Categories: Ann Coulter , Corruption , Mitt Romney , Republicans

by Mark Adams, KOS-Posted

Contrary to the high road taken by John and Elizabeth Edwards, who display such dignity and class in their response to Ann Coulter's notorious remarks at CPAC, it has been proposed that until further notice the editorial standards of Liberal Blogtopia should maintain a conscious effort to hang the Harpy formally known as The Coultergeist around the neck of GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney, to wit:

I propose that it should henceforth be a matter of editorial policy that the names "Mitt Romney" and "Ann Coulter" always appear in the same sentence regardless of which one we're talking about it. -- Ara Rubyan

Therefore, saying, "Mit'Coultergeist hit a new low today," without further contextual clues, is considered vague and sounds far too German (unless of course the intention was that they did indeed appear "mit" each other -- then it's just plain clever). However, "Ann (Romney) Coulter is a shrew because..." is more clear as long as the She-Devil is the object of scorn.

"Mit'Coulter" and "The CoulteRomneyoid" need more references within the sentence or paragraph to enhance proper understanding, such as: "Mit'Coulter's base rejected his flip-flopping pandering today," or "After she learned of the cancellation of her syndicated column, The CoulteRomneyoid flew into a spittle-laced rage and kicked her publicist," are perfectly clear from a contextual and grammatical sense.

Parenthetical phrasing such as "Ann (I loves me some Mitt Romney) Coulter," and "Mitt (Ann Coulter is so foxy) Romney," are perfectly acceptable as long as brevity is not an issue. Likewise, hyphenation works as well, as in "Mitt undresses-Coulter-with-his-eyes Romney" or "Ann lick-my-toes-Mitt-baby Coultergeist" can be informative as well as fitting within this new editorial policy.

Unfortunately because of a tasteless and unsubstantiated rumor regarding the questionable physical attributes of Ann (I wonder what Romney looks like naked) Coulter, referring to Romney and/or Coulter as "Ann check-out-that-buldge Romney" is hopelessly ambiguous.

Please direct any questions or suggestions regarding this new policy to the comment section below. Address any private inquiries to AnnMitCoulteRomney@Albatros.org

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Categories: 2008 Presidential Election , Ann Coulter , Mitt Romney