The Republican Super Hero

Able to destroy tall buildings by killing all of the American companies therein with a single hedgefund transaction….

Corporate Nooz

(The top portion of) today’s front page of the website of the Houston Chronicle, the corporatist slagheap of anti-news in the fourth largest city in the country:

Now, to be fair, the comicapalooza image rotates with the others underneath it – so, it is possible that someone could go to chron.com and find that the top story is the presidential-year – and, of course, U.S. House and Senate (tea-party-bot Ted Cruz, anyone?  Status-quo-Republican-oid David Dewhurst, anyone?) – primary being held today.

But with the state’s primary being held today – and the ongoing efforts by corporast christianists to buy the presidency via a combination of lying about Mitt the Flip’s record of ‘job creation and bullying people into not questioning those lies – why would an organ of actual ‘journalism’ have a front page filled with stories focusing on (by my count) nine celebrities (more if you count the reference to the ‘Talent’ crapapalooza; still more if you count ‘Wonder Woman’; perhaps even more than that depending on how many people are in the group Sugarland.)

Sure, some of the items are actual news – but do any of those deserve to be of lower significance than a comic book convention (and, bear in mind that I went to plenty of them in Houston when I was a kid – a couple of those even featuring George Takei as a guest)?  And is some clown’s effort to make a “practical iPad nightstand’ even news?  Or just a commercial?

Meanwhile, in actual news…

More Americans died in Afghanistan today because George W. Bush was too connected to the Bin Laden family to go after Osama in 2001.  More Americans committed suicide today because of the mental abuse inflicted on them by two wars that Republicans lied us into.  More working-class Americans were conned by corporate media into believing that millionaire-who-has-never-worked-a-day-in-his-life-son-of-a-millionaire Mitt Romney actually gives a shit about whether they live or die.

Cory’s Attempted Snooker

Vulture capitalism poisons everything it touches.

It’s no secret in my part of the world that Cory Booker is a very ambitious man, whose horizons stretch far beyond New Jersey. (Until the election of Barack Obama, many observers thought he would be the first black president.)

This might explain his fondness for Bain Capital – their employees were among his earliest financial backers:

A ThinkProgress examination of New Jersey campaign finance records for Booker’s first run for Mayor — back in 2002 — suggests a possible reason for his unease with attacks on Bain Capital and venture capital. They were among his earliest and most generous backers.

Nauseating.

Totally nauseating.

Job Killers of a Feather Destroy America’s Working Class Together

You’d figure that if Mitt the Crip (Blood?) is even remotely as close to being as intelligent as he wants Snookified America to believe, he’d stay the hell away from someone who publicly gushed over the California of thirty years prior whilst apparently thinking that no one would notice that the person she was running against for the California governorship in 2010 was California’s governor thirty years earlier.

Mitt Romney, despite the massive job losses Bain Capital caused when he was running it, calls himself a job creator. But that title is hard to believe, especially since Romney is gushing about Hewlet-Packard CEO and former California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman on the same day it is discovered that her company is killing American jobs.

In an interview with the National Review published on Thursday, Mitt Romney said he wished Whitman were the Governor of California instead of Jerry Brown, whom Romney insisted was doing things wrong. Romney praised Whitman as an economic guru, telling the Review,

“I wish Californians had elected Meg Whitman. She would have been more successful and explained to Californians the need to cut back on spending and eliminate unnecessary programs.”

Romney’s praise for Whitman couldn’t have come at more inopportune time, as The New York Times reported  on the same day that Whitman intends to eliminate 30,000 American jobs mostly through layoffs and forcing workers into early retirement. Even though Hewlett-Packard made a staggering $7.1 billion profit in 2011, Whitman is cutting these jobs in America while leaving Hewlett-Packard jobs intact in China and elsewhere.

Apparently not.

Perhaps Tim Curry Can Star in This One As Well

Virginia is for Theocrats

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
            – U.S. Constitution, Article VI, Paragraphs 2 & 3

But, as always, christianist theocrats want special rights:

A Virginia lawmaker who recently led the fight to block an openly gay man from becoming a judge General District Court judge in Richmond insisted on Thursday that the move had nothing to do with nominee’s sexual orientation, but he was concerned about “bias” in cases between “a homosexual and heterosexual.”

During an interview on CNN with Republican Virginia state delegate Robert Marshall, host Brooke Baldwin compared the struggle for LGBT rights to discrimination against African Americans and asked the lawmaker why he voted to block Richmond prosecutor Tracy Thorne-Begland from becoming a judge in a misdemeanor court.

…

“We don’t accept everybody who is nominated. Moreover, he would preside — he could preside as a district judge for a marriage of two guys if he wanted to, in violation of the law,” Marshall opined. “Moreover, if you have a bar-room fight between a homosexual and heterosexual, I’m concerned about possible bias.”

“Why would a homosexual – why would a gay person be more likely to be biased in the bar room example than say, you would?” CNN contributor Marc Lamont Hill wondered. “I mean, to be quite frank, I would be more concerned you would be biased against the gay or lesbian person in that case.”

“I wouldn’t apply to be a judge,” Marshall explained. “I am an advocate.”

Well, I agree that a word that begins with “a” and ends with “e” is a proper description of Marshall – though I think it is actually a word  with one fewer letter than “advocate.”

“When I was in public school … we all said, ‘Keep us from temptation.’ This was because we said the Lord’s Prayer. Nobody, nobody — should go where they’ll be tempted. That includes me, that includes you, that includes you, that includes a prospective judge.”

Tough shit if the prospective judge – you know, someone who is supposed to apply the law – recognizes the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Lawrence v. Texas as having decided that you, the CNN-oid and any and all prospective judges in any state can indeed engage in – what a cute euphemism – “temptation,” eh?

Hey Bob!

Would you like Paul Cameron’s phone number? 

We all know what the study said (actually, anyone with a brain knew it loooooooooong before the study) about who ferocious homophobes are really attracted to – and Cameron just admitted it.  Why don’t the two of you just shut up and shack up?

And be sure to send pictures to Bob McDonnell.

Sodium and THC…Inversely Proportional?

I’m just wonderin’….

Memo to Eduardo Saverin

Why is it that you actually have any of the Facebook millions that you don’t want to pay taxes on? The court system of – drumroll – the United States.

You know…

The court system that you used to force The Green Hoodie into paying up over what he stole from you?

You should be willing to pay $67 million to the U.S. on principle – not for something as silly as giving your family political asylum, but for being the situs of the filming of a movie that not only made you out to be something better than the turd you are proving yourself to be (shit, I thought it was bad that The Green Hoodie could create a situation so fucked up that 99%-ers could view the Romney-esque Winkelvosses as aggrieved parties and be justified in doing so)  but also had an actor portray you who is far better looking than you are.

Pay up or shut up.

Actually, here’s a better idea: Pay up AND shut up.

Well, If You’re Looking for a Reason to Hate on the Chicago Cubs….

Look no further than Joe Ricketts, the patriarch of the clan (klan?) that owns one of the few major league teams with a worse track record of World Series futility than the Houston Astros:

Tom Ricketts is the name most associated with the current ownership of the Cubs.  However, it is a family affair – and apparently, the Cubs should consider changing their mascot from a bear to a one-percenter.

In 2010, Ricketts led a campaign against special-interest earmarks and wasteful spending in the federal government. Ricketts founded an organization called Taxpayers Against Earmarks and classified every Member of Congress as either a spending “hero” or “hooligan.” Ricketts has been credited with convincing Members of Congress to adopt a moratorium on earmarks. Taxpayers Against Earmarks changed its name to Ending Spending in 2011.

Ricketts established and funded The Ending Spending Fund, a political action committee, in 2010. The Ending Spending Fund spent over $1 million sponsoring independent advertisements in several Congressional races. The goal of the advertising expenditure was to highlight incumbents’ earmark-related policies. The Ending Spending Fund spent the largest amount of its money on the United States Senate election in Nevada, 2010 in an effort to defeat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid….

Ricketts served on the board of trustees of the American Enterprise Institute from 1999-2007

On a clear day, you can see that plutocracy is on the verge of becoming forever.

Is Anyone in the United States OTHER Than James O’Keefe ACTUALLY Committing Voter Fraud?

The answer, of course, is no. 

In his newest video, conservative videographer James O’Keefe claims that during his organization’s latest inept voter fraud sting in North Carolina, “we found ballots being offered out in the name of the dead.” Unfortunately for O’Keefe, the person whose ballot his operative sought is actually alive, as is indicated by the raw video his organization posted online.

Yet, O’Keefe actually commits voter fraud (or, perhaps, conspiracy to commit voter fraud – but some criminal act nevertheless) by providing false information in the obtaining of a ballot.

If white, christianist, Republican-controlled legislatures were actually concerned about voter fraud, why wouldn’t they simply enact bills of attainder against Jame O’Keefe (and the ghost of Andrew Breitbart, should it ever appear)?

Yes, bills of attainder are facially unconstiutional.

But since when has that curtailed the political bloodlust of a white, christianist, Republican-controlled legislature?  It certainly hasn’t with all of the vote-suppression laws that they’ve concocted.