Last Call

Here's hoping House Republican Ways and Means Committee chair Dave Camp of Michigan recovers fully from his recent diagnosis of treatable cancer, he has non-Hodgkins lymphoma and will be undergoing chemo treatment.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp has been diagnosed with a "very early, highly treatable and curable" type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and will undergo chemotherapy during the next few months, his office announced Saturday.

As chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, Camp heads one of the most powerful panels on Capitol Hill. The news comes as the House is set to vote on an extension of all the Bush-era tax rates for one additional year, with guidelines for enacting comprehensive tax reform in 2013.

Per the statement from Camp's office:

“After a recent routine yearly physical, it was discovered that I have a very early, highly treatable and curable type of non-Hodgkins lymphoma – large B-cell lymphoma. My treatment will take place every three weeks over the next few months. It will consist of a series of chemotherapy sessions. In between treatments I will continue my work as a United States Representative for Michigan’s Fourth District and as Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. Thankfully my health is otherwise excellent and my doctors and I expect a full recovery and cure. My family and I appreciate the support, good wishes and understanding we have received.”

That's good to hear, all politics aside, cancer is something I would never want to see anyone suffering from.

Having said that, as a member of Congress, Dave Camp has no worries about medical bankruptcy or being able to pay his medical bills, and he'll get the best treatment available, even if he wasn't a multimillionaire.

And Dave Camp has a serious problem it seems with people getting health insurance assistance from the government.  Oh, not seniors on Medicare, no.  Just poor people who probably vote Democrat if they vote at all.  He says he wants to craft "common-sense solutions" but of course he has no actual plan.  None of them do.

But he has no problem with you going bankrupt trying to treat your cancer, our Dave.

It's nice to be one of the one percent, isn't it?  Now shut up and get back to work.

Re-Birther Of The Uncool, Part 5

The racist birther assholes will never accept a black President, so they will keep up with the BLACKITY BLACK BLACK birther nonsense for the rest of eternity.



This is what we're up against, folks. This is how Mitt Romney will be your next President unless you give enough of a damn to vote.

Game On In London

Going to have a series of updates of Olympic action daily, so if you're trying to avoid results until NBC's tape delayed nonsense...why are you on the internet in 2012?  Seriously, adapt.

Anyway, I have to lead off with JM Ashby's epic rant against NBC's awful plan last night to A) not livestream the opening ceremonies live and B) turn the 3 hour proceedings into nearly 5 hours of commercials interspersed with Matt Lauer refusing to shut the hell up.

Co-anchors Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira spent the next several hours cracking the Macy’s Day Parade equivalent of fart jokes concerning everything from the dramatic opening ceremony, to the names of some the nations in attendance, to the uniforms worn by some of the athletes, to the demeanor of Queen Elizabeth. And that was between the more than a dozen commercial breaks to sell us boner bills, luxury cars, and anti-Obama attack ads.

Professional pontificator and obvious Romney fanboy Bob Costas also chimed in to say that no matter what your political ideology is, you “have to admit Romney saved the Olympics.”

No, Bob. No we do not. Although if you want to discuss how Romney accepted a federal bailout of the Olympics, I’m game.

Both the overseas reaction to Mitt Romney’s London stumble tour and NBC’s shithouse coverage of the opening day of the Olympics reminded me just how embarrassing, incompetent, and unprofessional the American media is. And not to absolve ourselves from blame — Americans have also become too complacent. We don’t demand better, and it’s time for us to start.

Amen to that, JM.  Amen to that.

Hot Dog, What A Conundrum

Nathan Duszynksi, 13, said he decided to open a hot dog stand in his hometown of Holland, Mich., to help out his disabled parents. His mother has epilepsy and his father has multiple sclerosis.

He saved $1,200 – mostly money he made by mowing lawns and shoveling snow – and bought a cart.

He also checked with the city to make sure he didn’t need any licenses or permits, and even went to city hall in person with his mother.

“We wanted to make sure,” Nathan’s mother Lynette Johnson told WFMY News. “We stopped in there in person about a month ago and asked, ‘Do we need a business permit license?’ and [the city] said no.”  

Only 10 minutes after arriving to set up Nathan’s Hot Dog Hut on July 17, a city zoning official shut him down.

The problem was the location.  The city was unable to allow him to sell hot dogs from that particular spot.  However, they expressed regret, and are trying to find ways to help the boy make this work.  He's a good kid and he followed all the proper channels in an effort to be responsible.  While all food carts are banned from this area, the ban isn't citywide.  It's nice to see them work to try to find a compromise, or change the ordinance.

To add more generosity of spirit, a local business bought the food cart at a significant profit to Nathan.  They will allow him to use it for special occasions.

That's doing it right.

What A Pip

The Jackson Family Meltdown of 2012 has everyone talking, from water cooler conversation to celebrities throwing in their two cents. Gladys Knight even had something to say on a "The Talk" recently:

Thanks to the fine folks at TMZ:

Gladys appeared on "The Talk" Thursday ... saying, "Paris is 14? How old is Janet? Who's the one to try to direct the other one here? I would think it's a good thing [Janet] lets Paris know who she is."

Gladys added, "If [Paris] called me that, she would have no teeth ... That's how we were brought up. You respect your elders."

I would like to point out that it would help if the elders acted like elders.  Or acted like they gave a crap about the kids and their welfare.  Or about their brother, who died too young.  Nope, they care that the cash cow is dead and the money is up for grabs.  They should be ashamed of themselves, even if the drugging and other rumors turn out to be false.

Personally, I admire Paris Jackson.  She is too young to be facing all of this.  Whether through drugs or poor judgment, Katherine Jackson abandoned them and left them at the mercy of the siblings who are trying to tear the family apart for profit.  Paris showed she has some spine, and I have yet to hear of her chasing down the Jackson family members to start trouble with them.  So already, she's one up on the "elders" so deserving of their respect.

I think it's surprising that some folks totally understand why Katherine Jackson was exhausted, and why they siblings are so stressed, but nobody considers that this young girl is not only involved in the same exhausting situation, most of it is directly coming at her.  Her family is hostile right now and she only has her own siblings to look to for comfort.

You can watch the video to see how Janet acted, reaching to snatch a phone out of her niece's hands and  according to multiple sources calling her a spoiled little bitch.  On video, Janet was the one blocking her entry into the home, invading her personal space and trying to intimidate a child.  Paris remained calm, stood and looked her right in the face and told her to get the eff out of her house.  Now, how old is Janet?  How old is Paris?  Who acted like the grownup?

Nuff said.  Get these kids some real protection from these vultures.  And someone get Gladys Knight a tall, refreshing glass of STFU while we're waiting.  Advocating knocking the teeth out of a girl who has been through the death of a parent and the harassment of family (to the point of it likely being criminal) ever since that death... well, I say she gets to stand up for herself.  She has a right to be royally pissed.  Paris Jackson  knows more about what's going on that we do, Knight, or even the investigators.  So far that kid has shown more character and composure than most of the people surrounding her.  Let's give her our best, shall we?

Romney's Really Silly Israeli Melee

TPM's Paul Werdel has an interesting theory on the latest Republican poutrage involving White House spokeman Jay Carney and Israel:

The Romney campaign had at time of writing on Friday sent out two separate e-mail press releases chiding the Obama administration for its “refusal to say whether Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.”
One quoted House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and another, former Minnesota Senator and Romney surrogate Norm Coleman.

Now it’s worth noting this was long the easy rhetoric of some of the less serious contenders throughout the GOP primary. But coming from Romney, the party’s nominee-to-be, it would signal something far more significant.

I suppose it’s possible the Romney campaign is so unaware of the realities of the Middle East peace process, however moribund it may be, that they’re unconcerned with just how inflammatory an American president’s expression of support for an undivided Jerusalem as the capital of Israel would be to the Arab world. But even with the stumbles Mitt Romney has made this week on the international stage, that seems unlikely.

So, accepting that Romney is aware of the significance, it seems likely he’s prepared to signal a very real, very controversial departure from decades of U.S. peacemaking policy, and put the weight of his potential presidency behind a declaration that he believes Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. That would be a very big deal. 

I'm going to go with Occam's Razor here and say that given the evidence of the last month and especially the last week, the Romney campaign is staffed by foreign policy morons and/or cynics who will simply assume that FOX viewers don't know any better, so it's completely fine for them to say "Carney won't admit that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel! LOL!  OBAMA IS SO STUPID!" and they'll get away with it.  I'm leaning towards the latter, but the former cannot be completely discounted, either.

Werdel has some serious journalism chops coming to TPM from Al Jazeera English and BBC News and I'm glad to see such a blindingly qualified hire for Josh Marshall, but I'm going to respectfully volunteer that he has a bit to learn about how "journalism" in the United States works, especially when it comes to Republicans manipulating their base with voltage spikes to the lizard brain.  The average American will tell you of course Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and won't think twice about Tel Aviv, Haifa, or any other city in the country, completely unaware of the nuance or the internationally disputed status of the city.

I suppose the Romney campaign could be fronting Jerusalem as Israel's capital as a major US policy shift, but I would count that as the least likely.

Another Milepost On The Road To Oblivion

How much do the wingers hate President Obama?   This much.

Be more interesting. Share your news.

This billboard is currently up in Caldwell, Idaho near Boise in the state's Treasure Valley region.  Yeah, I know Idaho is about as red as it gets out west, but even the stoic people of Boise are a bit taken aback by, you know, openly comparing the President to a mass murder suspect.

The group that owns the board, The Ralph Smeed Foundation, says it wants to draw attention to military men and women dying overseas.

"(It's) way over the line, and I am not an Obama supporter," Lynn Davis Hathaway, said on the KBOI 2News Facebook page.

Hmm, the Ralph Smeed Foundation? Seems Idaho's most famous "libertarian" died in 2010.

Smeed, who was 88 years old, served in the Army during World War II, and then returned to his hometown of Caldwell.  He became active in Republican politics before starting his newspaper column in the Lewiston Morning Tribune in 1974.  He also started a think-tank called the Center for the Study of Market Alternatives in 1976, which published some of his writing.

Rick Coffman, a newspaper editor who became friends with Smeed in the early 1970s, carried Smeed’s columns in the Idaho Press-Tribune each Sunday on the editorial page.  “Ralph was all about ideas and principles, that those would sustain the country through good times and bad,” Coffman said.

 “Ralph fought all his life for what he believed – the value of a limited government, individuals having the freedom to choose what is best for them, that when government does something ‘for’ someone it does something else ‘to’ another someone.”

Coffman added, “Ralph is the only person I have ever known who I am convinced did exactly what he wanted to do every day of his life. We should all be so lucky.”

Many people learned of Smeed’s views from his reader board that included both policy opinions and partisan jokes, including “I would rather go hunting with Dick Cheney than riding in a car with Ted Kennedy.”  Smeed received some notoriety in the past few years for messages questioning President Barack Obama’s birth certificate.

The three word slogan at the top of the reader board, “Making Statism Unpopular,” may been the message he was most interested in promoting.

Oh good, he was basically Glenn Greenwald's cranky uncle from the Gem State.  And of course he was an Obama-hating birther asshole.  All "libertarians" are it seems.

Just call him Hitler already.

Oh wait, the wingers did that too.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• Both the al-Assad regime and Syrian rebels are entrenched and facing off in a fierce battle over the country's second-largest city, Aleppo.
• America was about the only major country not allowed to watch the London opening ceremonies live as NBC only showed the proceedings by tape delay.
• The Obama administration, seemingly bowing to pressure from the National Rifle Association, is backing away from the UN Small Arms Treaty.
• Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will meet with his German and European Central Bank counterparts in high-level talks on Monday for a European financial rescue plan.
• Multiple law firms are now investigating what could be insider trading of web game darling Zynga, whose stock crashed this week on lousy earnings.