Last Call

Any media outlet that lets Mitt Romney get away with this is outright working for his re-election.

During an interview yesterday with WEWS-TV in Cleveland, Mitt Romney continued his contortionist’s act regarding the Obama administration’s rescue of the auto industry, saying that he deserves a lot of credit for the industry’s turnaround. “I’ll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry’s come back,” he said:

Say what?

My own view, by the way, was that the auto companies needed to go through bankruptcy before government help. And frankly, that’s finally what the president did. He finally took them through bankruptcy. That was the right course I argued for from the very beginning. It was the UAW and the president that delayed the idea of bankruptcy. I pushed the idea of a managed bankruptcy and finally when that was done, and help was given, the companies got back on their feet. So I’ll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry’s come back.

The guy who wrote "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" is now taking credit for the auto industry's return and in fact is blaming the UAW and President Obama saying they stalled what would have been an even bigger comeback.

Glenn Kessler will of course award no Pinocchios because Romney is telling the 100% truth, right?

If There's Never Any Negative Reinforcement...

...then Rep. Allen West will continue to say awful things about this President without anyone thinking maybe that he's unfit to serve in Congress.

Rep. Allen West, a tea party Republican from Florida, on Monday compared the draw down of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to the appeasement of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, according to Right Wing Watch.

On May 1, President Barack Obama signed a ten-year security agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Under the agreement, the majority of U.S. troops will be withdrawn by 2014 but the U.S. will continue to have a role in Afghanistan for a decade.

“I look at what happened between President Obama and President Karzai as a 1930s, Chamberlain, Hitler moment,” West told radio host Frank Gaffney. “There is not going to be peace in our time.”

I mean at this point what does Allen West have to say in order to be admonished by anyone in the GOP, or to be thrown out on his ass by Florida voters?  He's a joke, and nobody's laughing anymore.  Furthermore, the joke's on us.

Luckily West's opponent is Patrick Murphy, a businessman (and thankfully NOT a current member of Congress) who is running to take back Florida's 18th for the blue team.  Here he is in a June interview with Think Progress:




 Seems a bit less insane than West, yes?

It Makes My Brain Hurt

The irony of this could power suns for aeons.

Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, a Fox News contributor, tea party activist and personal friend of Sean Hannity’s said in a sermon recently published to YouTube that America’s greatest mistake was allowing women the right to vote, adding that back in “the good old days, men knew that women are crazy and they knew how to deal with them.”

In the video, published to YouTube in March, Peterson explains that he believes women simply can’t handle “anything,” and that in his experience, “You walk up to them with a issue, they freak out right away. They go nuts. They get mad. They get upset, just like that. They have no patience because it’s not in their nature. They don’t have love. They don’t have love.”

Reverend Patterson, like myself, is an African-American.  The irony of any African-American saying other groups shouldn't be allowed to vote while on a cable "news" network dedicated to pushing the notion that African-Americans shouldn't be allowed to vote because they're all criminals and fraudsters actually caused me to slam my head on my desk when I first read the article. 

I just can't fathom it.  It's insane.  It makes me despair for humanity.

Say It Ain't So

Earlier this week, a story about a young boy dying hit the headlines, but the perpetrator may have only been fourteen years old, and his cousin to boot.  Losing a child is tragic and senseless enough without this to further muddy the waters.

INDIANAPOLIS –  Indianapolis say they are questioning a 14-year-old girl after her 4-year-old cousin was apparently stabbed to death in their grandparent's apartment, Fox 59 reports.

Police spokesman Kendale Adams told The Associated Press officers were called about 11 p.m. Saturday to an apartment, where they found the bleeding boy. He was rushed to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

Fox 59 reports his cousin, a 14-year-old girl, fled the scene but was quickly found by police. The girl was covered in blood, and was taken to the police station for questioning. No arrests have yet been made.

That poor family.  There may be more loss than they are prepared for.  My heart goes out to them, as I know a thing or two about tragedies that you can't speak about that still tear up your world.

Why We Need Sex Education

Without science to cloud our minds with those pesky facts, Republicans can then lie and the uneducated masses won't be able to spot the deception.  Blaming the victim has been a long-standing practice, as has denying women a choice to carry a child conceived by rape.  Despite the claims that women are just wanting to get rid of babies everywhere, a surprising number of women do continue the pregnancy.  The important thing to me is that they have a choice.  Being forced to have sex against your will, then forced to carry and nurture the product of that act is a double assault.

BuzzFeed brings us an interesting array of comments that show us what is going on.

I'm sorry if I am a bit slow, but I just stumbled across the statement made in 1988 about how women can't get pregnant from rape:

The odds that a woman who is raped will get pregnant are "one in millions and millions and millions," said state Rep. Stephen Freind, R-Delaware County, the Legislature's leading abortion foe.

The reason, Freind said, is that the traumatic experience of rape causes a woman to "secrete a certain secretion" that tends to kill sperm.

"Secrete a certain secretion"... that's very scientific, yo.  I'm glad you enlightened me with not just a lie, but one so vague and useless that it not only can damage women, but did it ever occur to this jackass that it might also encourage rape?

But in case that is too far back in the past for you, here is a snippet from 2006:

"I think that life begins when the chromosomes of the sperm and egg line up," said Dr. Richard Dobbins, who works in the emergency department at Hardin Memorial Hospital in Kenton.

Dobbins also questioned the need for emergency contraception in rape cases, saying that most women either are not fertile during assault or do not become pregnant because the trauma prompts a hormonal response that prevents ovulation.

"So if they do get pregnant, they wanted it, is that it?" a reproductive-rights advocate in the audience asked.

Of course it is.  Women want to be forced to carry and raise a child they never asked for, and nurture the product of an unspeakable violence performed against them. But thanks for asking.

Then, in the midst of all the stupidity, we have a quote from Planned Parenthood.  The only quote that shows caring and understanding for women who have been violated.  Based on actual numbers, compassion and knowledge, our beacon of truth the that has had its funding slashed ever since:

I heard that a woman can't get pregnant from being raped. Is that true?

No, it is not true. Women can and do get pregnant from rape. In fact, more than five percent of all rapes result in pregnancy. That is one reason why Planned Parenthood is fighting so hard to make it mandatory for emergency rooms across the country to offer emergency contraception to women who have been raped.

Emergency contraception can reduce the risk of pregnancy by 75 to 89 percent. More than 22,000 unwanted pregnancies a year could be prevented if all U.S. women who were raped were provided with emergency contraception.

Now seriously, who should I believe is Public Enemy #1 here, the ones who lie and demean women, or the ones who try to help?

Sins Of Omission

Mitt Romney standing idly by as a woman at his campaign rally Monday accuses the President of treason?  Anyone surprised by either of those two occurrences? 

A woman in the audience expressed dismay that Obama was "operating outside the Constitution," then said Obama should be tried for treason for violating separation of powers.

"I do believe he should be tried for treason," she said to applause from the audience.

Romney replied that "I happen to believe that the Constitution was not just brilliant, but that it was inspired, and so was the Declaration of Independence," avoiding the woman's comment.

If you've been paying even one iota of attention to the modern GOP, you shouldn't be.  Steve M.:

The notion that his presidency flagrantly violates legal and constitutional restraints is articulated day in and day out by Republicans and rightists of all degrees of prominence. It's not considered controversial. Whether it's the use of so-called czars, the inclusion of an individual mandate in the health care law, or merely the collecting and distribution of tax money for any social program at all, mainstream rightists and Republicans now deem it a violation of the Constitution and an example of full-blown, undiluted socialism.

This, of course, is nuts. It's nutty, conspiratorial, fringe thinking -- it's not birtherism, but it's exactly as crazy as birtherism. Taken to its logical conclusion, it would define just about every president of the past century as a traitor to the Constitution.

But it's simply what Republicans believe now. It's mainstream GOP thinking.

So you can't really blame Mitt Romney for failing to criticize that woman, can you? It's not his fault -- the fault lies with the degeneracy of his party's philosophy. 

I'll go one step further.

You didn't actually expect Mitt Romney to develop a spine and to challenge the Tea Party lunatics that he must have 100% support from in order to win, did you?  If so, you need to pay a few more of those iota things in attention.

The audience applauding the woman accusing the President of treason and Romney dodging the unpleasantness?  Republicans never thought Barack Obama was actually President anyway.  And don't expect the "reasonable, moderate" right to defend the President here either.  They don't exist.

Republicans own this hate monster 100%.

Pretty Sure The Sequel Is Being Greenlighted As We Speak

Hulk SMASH puny domestic box office records.

"The Avengers" have conquered America -- for one weekend, at least.

The superhero smorgasbord featuring Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and The Hulk brought in $200.3 million its opening weekend in 4,300 U.S. theaters, smashing the previous domestic record for any movie's first three days, Walt Disney Studios said Sunday in a news release.

While "The Avengers" was predicted to be a hit, the performance outpaced expectations. Box Office Mojo, for instance, had projected the film would pull in $172.5 million on its opening weekend.

Its ultimate domestic haul is well ahead of the $168 million "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2" conjured up in its opening weekend domestically in July.

Both Bon and I saw this one over the weekend, and I can say without a doubt it's the best of the Marvel films so far.  Bon loved it too, her nephew went nuts.  Smartly written, expertly paced, sufficiently epic and Joss Whedon runs the show like a well-oiled machine.  Iron Man gets the best lines, but Hulk steals the movie.  Thor has his moments too, and amazingly enough we even get to see Captain America's human side on more than one occasion.  The crowd cheered several scenes...especially the one between Loki and Hulk in Stark Tower, and that's all I'm going to say.  I may even catch it again, it's that good of a time.  It's everything we expected from a Joss Whedon helmed Avengers flick, and those expectations were met, even as high as they were.

After the disappointing John Carter (which bombed so badly it cost Disney studio chief Rich Ross to fall on his plasma sword) it's good to see that the box office is back, and it's back BIG TIME.  

Oh, and stick around for the credits.  All of them.  Trust me on this.

StupidiNews!

• The CIA has foiled another Al Qaeda underwear bomb plot, this one designed to get around metal detectors to destroy a jetliner.
• Drugmaker Abbot Laboratories has been fined a record $1.6 billion for illegally marketing the anti-seizure drug Depakote for a variety of unintended purposes.
• Greece's far-right neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party has won enough votes to gain 21 seats in the 300 seat parliament, but new elections may be coming if no party can form a coalition.
• Rick Santorum has finally endorsed Mitt Romney as the Republican presidential nominee...by e-mail.
• Google's self-driving car got its special license plates from Nevada officials as the state becomes the first to pass laws dealing with driverless car testing.