Profiles In Etch-A-Sketching

Mitt Romney has immediately fallen into the trap President Obama has laid out for him.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Wednesday said he unequivocally opposes "marriage between people of the same gender," drawing a contrast to President Obama's "evolving" position on the issue.

Later, in the afternoon, Mr. Obama said in an interview with ABC News that he now supports same-sex marriage.

Romney was asked Wednesday morning about the failure of a ballot measure that would have allowed same-sex civil unions in Colorado. In an interview with Denver-based KDVR-TV, he said, "I indicated my view, which is I do not favor marriage between people of the same gender, and I do not favor civil unions if they are identical to marriage other than by name," Romney said. "My view is the domestic-partnership benefits, hospital visitation rights, and the like are appropriate but that the others are not."

Romney had no choice.  His party would have flayed him and left him out in the sun to rot if he had voiced anything less than permanent second-class citizenship for the LGBT community.   And please note, this is a position "flip-flopping" Mitt is now 100% on the record as being against.

If this is Romney pivoting towards the center, Barack Obama is going to do better than he did in 2008 provided the people who begged him to take this position now follow up with their support.  There's a clear divide now between the parties, and the whole "both sides are the same" argument just died screaming.

So now marriage equality is an issue in the election?  Good.  It needs to be.  And there is no doubt that wingnut Mitt Romney is on the wrong side of history.

Show Me Getting It Right (For A Change)

Missouri's position on labor laws and minimum wage issues has always been shameful.  We are one of the worst states when it comes to reasonable practices and protective legislature.  However, as the cost of living rises in this area, the wages must as well for those scraping by to survive.  Minimum wage should ideally allow modest living and regular meals, and heaven forbid a few dollars to sock away for emergencies like auto repairs or illness.  Right now, workers earning minimum wage are unable to meet the minimum living standards for someone who works full-time.  If a worker holds up their end of the bargain and is productive, they should feel entitled to earning enough to stay off the streets and eat a balanced diet.

Republicans have shown their disconnect with the working class, with at least two candidates proving their ignorance by not knowing the actual minimum wage.  Sarah Steelman guessed wrong, and Todd Akin admitted he did not know.  However, they were all quick to say they were against it because it was a burden on businesses. 

"My guess is its somewhere in the 6 or 7, but I don't know the exact number right now," replied Akin, who, as a congressman, is currently responsible for helping to set federal policy.

Imagine my surprise when I learned that there is real movement towards raising the minimum wage above the federal requirement.  Instead of the current $7.25 this would raise minimum wage to $8.25 and raise tipped workers up to 60% of that instead of the current 50%.  This would be a major boon to struggling people who are working hard for businesses that cut benefits or rely on customers who skimp on the tip even when the service is excellent.  Anyone who has worked for tips can tell you it's incredibly difficult to budget with a variable like that, and a short week can mean the utilities are shut off for millions of workers living check to check.

People who vote against workers fail the system.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics tells us that in 2008  twice as many women were earning minimum wage or earning below minimum wage than men.  The young and single were more than twice as likely to earn minimum wage.  Young single women were at a fair disadvantage.  These are the women who don't have any money left at the end of the month.  The guys Republicans voted against unanimously, so that they wouldn't be guaranteed fair pay for doing the same work and bearing the same responsibilities as male workers.  The women who now may have to pay money they don't have for birth control in a responsible attempt to avoid bringing a child they cannot possibly support into the world.  Birth control that was once funded  in an attempt to encourage responsibility has now become subject to the religious views of some quacking assholes who have decided they should save us from our moral failures, all at the cost of a few minimum wage bums.

Akin, who said he did not believe government should be setting prices, is still  in favor of government  telling us who we can marry and restricting women's health care options for cancer screenings and routine preventative care.  Oh yeah, and protecting businesses so that it's legal for businesses to discriminate against gays.  He's a real man of the people.  His kind of people.  The rest of you can breed a labor force and keep his folks in the style to which they are accustomed.  And hey, if the fruits and slutty women would gripe a little less, that would be greatly appreciated.  It's interfering with his work, like think of catchy slogans such as "stage three cancer of socialism" in reference to federal student loans.  His actions will keep the minimum wage workers stuck forever, unable to afford to live and no hope of working their way out of the circumstances.

One last fun fact: Michele Bachmann endorsed him.  She who denies that there is a war on women would be just stupid enough to do that.

In Which Bon Is Shocked By Some First-Time Events

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean ripped into Michele Bachmann on Sunday, calling the Republican congresswoman's prediction that women will vote for Mitt Romney "perfectly ridiculous."

"Frankly, Michele Bachmann has never had much command of the facts and that shows us exactly why," Dean said on "Face the Nation," in response to Bachmann's claim that female voters would turn out for Romney. "Women are terrified of what the Republicans are talking about. They're talking about basically stripping away their ability to have insurance pay for their birth control pills."

Earlier on the CBS News program, Bachmann said the so-called "war on women" is a myth concocted by Democrats.

"The myth is there is a Republican war on women," Bachmann said. "There's not a Republican war on women. That's coming from the Obama reelection team."

You can read the full article, complete with video goodness here.

Let's explore some exciting, groundbreaking events here.

1.  Someone finally calls Bachmann out on the fountain of bullshit she calls "a speech".  Dean is eloquent, factual, and without remorse as he rips her a new one.  And deservedly so, Bachmann is a cancer among her own kind, a woman who will sell out other women for her dreams of power.  She is also a babbling idiot and a cavewoman in her ideas of how the world should work.

2.  Bachmann did not say "Obamacare" in the snippet I watched.  I kid you not, folks, that is the first time since I became aware of it that she has not used every single question ever to point back at Obamacare.  I have joked about it being part of her contract somewhere because she just could not help herself.  Now that I have given credit where it is due, I would like to point back to the "babbling idiot" measurement of her speaking abilities.

3.  Bachmann has mostly dodged gender-related questions, because even the slightest nod is a step on the path to illuminating her hypocrisy.  So for her to state outright that the war on women is a myth, and one set in motion by Democrats, is pure folly on her part.  She doesn't smear the Dems, she sets herself further from women, reality, and truth.  She makes herself look completely ridiculous and actually elevates Democrats in the same breath.  I feel like I should thank her for that, but well... again we go back to the "babbling idiot" remark.

Compromise Is You Do Exactly What I Want And I Approve Of It

Compromise?  Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock has your gorram compromise right the hell here.

Richard Mourdock, fresh off of defeating Dick Lugar in the Indiana Senate primary, hit the ground running with a quote everyone is talking about this morning:

MOURDOCK: I certainly think bipartisanship ought to consist of Democrats coming to the Republican point of view. … If we [win the House, Senate, and White House], bipartisanship means they have to come our way, and if we’re successful in getting the numbers, we’ll work towards that.

That’s the Republican nominee on MSNBC.

"If we win, screw the Democrats.  If the Democrats win, they must have cheated and the people really demand the Republican point of view.  What's the problem here, anyway?"

There are no moderate Republicans.  There are no compromise artists left.  They will all be gone by 2014 or 2016 at the latest, and the remainder will all be exactly like Richard Mourdock, who will tell you straight out that mandates only matter if the Republicans have one, and if you don't agree with them, you don't matter, you're not American, and you should really stop thinking you have any place in the political process.

This is bipartisanship.  But both sides are guilty of this, right?

Hot Plate Special

The record warm spring we had was hot enough to give us a new 12 month temperature record for the United States according to new NOAA data:

The past twelve months were the warmest twelve months in U.S. history, said NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) on Tuesday, in their monthly “State of the Climate” report. Temperatures in the contiguous U.S. during May 2011 – April 2012 broke the previous record for warmest 12-month period, set November 1999 – October 2000, by 0.1°F. The past twelve months have featured America’s 2nd warmest summer, 4th warmest winter, and warmest March on record. Twenty-two states were record warm for the 12-month period, and an additional nineteen states were top ten warm. NOAA said that the January – April 2012 period was also the warmest January – April period since record keeping began in 1895. The average temperature of 45.4°F during January – April 2012 was 5.4°F above the 20th century average for the period, and smashed the previous record set in 2006 by an unusually large margin–1.6°F.

But yelling SUNSPOTS and GLOBAL COOLING and THE SCIENCE ISN'T SETTLED will solve all our problems.  The country was nearly 2 degrees warmer for the first 4 months of the year than 2006's record heat,  but we should probably wait another 100 years or so until we have a clearer picture of climate in the long run because really all this is just about weather data points, and REAL SCIENTISTS know that weather changes!

I'm sure our great-grandkids will be thrilled with us by then.

StupidiNews!

• Two explosions in Syria have killed 40 and injured 170 more, with both the Assad regime and rebel forces blaming each other for the attack.
• Spanish protestors plan four days of rallies and strikes starting this weekend to protest the country's newest austerity measures.
• The biggest foreign policy factor in Mexican elections this year may not be the United States, but Brazil.
• Greece's continued inability to form a government has caused the Dow to slide for six straight sessions.
• Alliant Techsystems is the latest company to join the private sector space race with plans for a manned rocket to compete for the International Space Station contract.

Last Call

Somebody explain to me again which side is trying to start a "race war" again, because these folks don't look like the New Black Panther Party or La Raza or a Islamist jihadi group to me.

Members of a white supremacist skinhead group called American Front trained with AK-47s, shotguns and explosives at a fortified compound in central Florida to prepare for what its reputed leader believed to be an “inevitable race war,” prosecutors said Tuesday.

According to court documents, members of American Front discussed acts of violence that included causing “a disturbance” at City Hall in Orlando, shooting at a house and attacking an anti-racist skinhead group.

At least 10 members of the group, which authorities described as a militia-styled, anti-Semitic domestic terrorist organization, have been arrested in Florida since the weekend, including at least three people on Tuesday.

The felony arrest charges include paramilitary training, attempting to shoot into an occupied dwelling, and evidence of prejudices while committing an offense. The last charge falls under Florida's hate-crimes law.

“This investigation is a result of our ongoing partnership with local law enforcement and federal agencies in a concentrated effort to stamp out hate crime in our community,” Ninth Circuit State Attorney Lawson Lamar said in a statement Tuesday.

So can we admit that we have a domestic terror problem in the United States, and that law enforcement should profile, I dunno, rural white people? Pull them over at traffic stops randomly? Harass groups of them because a group may pose a danger to the community? Put them on no fly lists?   We have to throw these guys in Gitmo because we can't possibly give them a trial here on US soil, right?  I mean, when does this administration do what conservatives say we have to do in a situation like this?

Oh that's right, never.  This administration doesn't operate like that.

Thank god.

Another Milepost On The Road To Oblivion

Just a reminder that not all racist assholes are Republicans, folks.

Just how unpopular is President Barack Obama in some parts of the country? Enough that a man in prison in Texas is getting 4 out of 10 votes in West Virginia's Democratic presidential primary.

The inmate, Keith Judd, is serving time at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution in Texas for making threats at the University of New Mexico in 1999. With 83 percent of precincts reporting, Obama was receiving 60 percent of the vote to Judd's 40 percent.

For some West Virginia Democrats, simply running against Obama is enough to get Judd votes.

"I voted against Obama," said Ronnie Brown, a 43-year-old electrician from Cross Lanes who called himself a conservative Democrat. "I don't like him. He didn't carry the state before and I'm not going to let him carry it again."

When asked which presidential candidate he voted for, Brown said, "That guy out of Texas."

Yeah.  Two out of five WV Democrats voted for an insane Texas felon than support the black guy.  Much like Kentucky, Romney will win WV by 15-20 points in November for the simple reason that Barack Obama is black.

No more.

No less.

Evolution Revolution

President Obama announces the position he's held on same-sex marriage for, oh, I don't know, several years now, but it makes national news:

In an interview with ABC News’ Robin Roberts, the president described his thought process as an “evolution” that led him to this place, based on conversations with his own staff members, openly gay and lesbian service members, and conversations with his wife and own daughters.

"I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don't Ask Don't Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married,” Obama told Roberts, in an interview to appear on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Thursday. Excerpts of the interview will air tonight on ABC’s “World News with Diane Sawyer.”

The president stressed that this is a personal position, and that he still supports the concept of states deciding the issue on their own. But he said he’s confident that more Americans will grow comfortable with gays and lesbians getting married, citing his own daughters’ comfort with the concept.

“It’s interesting, some of this is also generational,” the president continued. “You know when I go to college campuses, sometimes I talk to college Republicans who think that I have terrible policies on the economy, on foreign policy, but are very clear that when it comes to same sex equality or, you know, sexual orientation that they believe in equality. They are much more comfortable with it. You know, Malia and Sasha, they have friends whose parents are same-sex couples. There have been times where Michelle and I have been sitting around the dinner table and we’re talking about their friends and their parents and Malia and Sasha, it wouldn’t dawn on them that somehow their friends’ parents would be treated differently. It doesn’t make sense to them and frankly, that’s the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective.”

FOX News immediately blew a gasket:

 

 

When FOX Nation is attacking POTUS on its front page, he's winning, folks.  Your move, Mittens.  Bwahahahaha.

Does This Look "Clinically Obese" To You?

She loves bouncing on her trampoline, goes to swimming lessons once a week and always eats her veggies.

So five-year-old Chloe Ward’s parents were stunned to receive a letter from the NHS informing them that she is clinically obese.

The letter, which followed a check-up at her school, said Chloe is so overweight she’s at risk of developing heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

BMI isn't always a dependable measure. Like any system, there will be exceptions.  If they felt that she was in danger, it makes sense to check further and make sure that this little girl is okay.  But common sense has to weigh in here somewhere.  The truth is, she's just fine.

I'm amused and horrified that they discuss eating disorders without a trace of irony.   The reality is, a second check would indicate that Chloe's weight is within normal bounds, and certainly not obese to the point of risking health issues. If her parents are accurate, she has regular exercise and eats healthy food.  What red flag are they using to continue to insist that she is in danger?

Healthy weight isn't the ultimate end result.  Healthy weight is the product of good eating habits, exercise, and balance.  It doesn't do the person any good to reach an ideal weight if they do so by drug abuse, bad eating habits, or skipping food that also contains vitamins and minerals.  All of these aspects are related, and to focus on weight alone skews the reality of treating the body as a whole.

Meet Chloe.  Imagine being told she is so overweight she is in life-threatening peril.

Short And Sweet: Syrup Optional

Our nieces and nephews have always loved specialty pancakes.  Mickey Mouse shapes, hearts, even flowers if I am feeling artsy that day.

This blows me away.  Here are dozens of pancakes, from geckos to instruments, organs, animals, buildings, you name it.  I can't verify the site's authenticity, but even if this is a Photoshop extravaganza, it's a fun one.

Check it out!

The Loan Deranger Rides Again

Oldage Mutant Nimrod Turtle and his crew have used the filibuster again to block a majority Democratic party vote from passing, this time to punish college kids.

The political battle over President Obama’s plan to keep student loan interest rates from skyrocketing escalated as Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic proposal to tax wealthier earners to pay for it.

Republicans stopped the effort with a filibuster, even as some in the GOP view this as a politically risky move at a time when middle-class families continue to struggle to afford college. Rates for 7 million new undergraduate student loans are set to double to 6.8% on July 1 if Congress fails to act.

The vote was 52-45, failing to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome the GOP filibuster. All Republicans voting opposed the effort, except Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, who voted present. Democrats voted to advance the proposal.

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said the standoff could be resolved easily if Obama would negotiate an alternative plan. Republicans back a House-passed proposal that would gut a public health and prevention fund in Obama’s new healthcare law to pay the costs of keeping government-backed student loan rates low – a non-starter for Senate Democrats.

So you can have your student loans at decent rates,  we just can't ever have our precious, privileged rich people pay for it.  Instead, we have to eliminate health care for poor people.  Hey, if the poor useless bastards die, they're no longer a drain on the economy, right?  Self-solving problem!

And Mitch is betting that not a single Republican will be punished for this vote, or the dozens of other filibusters in the last four years.  No, he's betting you'll take it out on President Obama and Harry Reid.

He's counting on it, actually.

The Most Dangerous Game

And here I was, all ready to write about how Benjamin Netanyahu's call for early elections in September meant A) he didn't have the domestic backing to lob bunker busters in the general direction of Tehran and B) he was rolling the dice in order to try to get a better result.  Turns out I was right in a sense.  He just bypassed the whole early elections and democracy thing on the way.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition chairman MK Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) reached a surprise agreement early Tuesday morning to form a national unity government.

The move came as the Knesset was preparing to disperse for early elections, which were expected to be scheduled for September 4.

Under the agreement, Kadima will join Netanyahu's government and commit to supporting its policies through the end of its term in late 2013. Mofaz is expected to be appointed deputy prime minister, as well as minister without portfolio.

Mofaz will also serve as a member of the security cabinet, and Kadima members will serve as chairmen of the Knesset foreign affairs and defense committees, the economics committee, and any others that are agreed upon by both sides.

Mofaz ousted former Kadima head Tzipi Livni a couple weeks back as head of the opposition.  Ambitious doesn't begin to describe the guy, apparently.  Now thanks to Mofaz, Bibi is holding all the cards and the rest of his coalition government can suck it.  Dice were loaded all along.

So the question now is what will Bibi do with his new instant majority government?  We know what Mofaz is getting out of it.

As talk of early elections heated up in recent weeks, polls have shown Kadima losing significant strength, winning perhaps a dozen seats rather than its current 28, a clear incentive for Mr. Mofaz to make the unity government deal. Several other centrist and left-leaning parties would have each won about a dozen seats, according to the polls, leaving a divided opposition that would likely only have increased Mr. Netanyahu’s power and hold on the government.

Plus he's now Bibi's right hand man and Vice Minister.  And as such, Netanyahu now has free reign to do whatever he wants for the next 18 months or so.  I actually have to hand it to the guy, this is a pretty epic win on his part.  Opinions differ on what Bibi will do with his new power but nobody's disputing he has it.  Somewhere, a bunch of Republicans are looking into how to pull this off here.

I'm sure this will end well for everyone involved.  Yep.

StupidiNews!

• As widely expected, North Carolina voters have overwhelmingly passed a state constitutional amendment to restrict the legal recognition of a relationship to one man, one woman being married.
• Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett will get his rematch against Gov. Scott Walker as Wisconsin Democrats selected Barrett to run against Walker in June's special recall election.
• Tea Party backed Indiana Secretary of State Richard Mourdock has easily unseated six-term Senator Richard Lugar in last night's GOP primary in the Hoosier State.
• Greece's Syriza party is vowing to form a coalition government that ends their bailout deal with the EU and could exit the euro currency to boot. 
• Chinese trade restrictions on rare earth metals are not expected to be relaxed anytime soon, according to Congress.

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?