Another Milepost On The Road To Oblivion

Ladies and gents, my senator, Rand Paul.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) became the latest Republican to weigh in on President Obama’s decision to personally support same sex marriage Friday. From his speech before a Faith and Freedom Coalition meeting in Iowa, per the Des Moines Register:

At the Iowa Faith & Freedom event, Paul mocked President Obama’s remark that his view on marriage was evolving.  “Call me cynical, but I didn’t think his views on marriage could get any gayer,” he said.

The Faith and Freedom Coalition is a socially conservative group led by former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed. At the event, Paul’s speech focused on what he said are the connections between social conservatives and the more libertarian conservatives who support his father’s presidential bid.

 

And I didn't think Rand Paul could be any more of a complete douchecanoe, but there you are.

New Lows In Hypocrisy

If Republicans think people are spending too much time talking about issues other than jobs, then somebody should, you know, probably tell the Republicans.

After a week when gay marriage dominated headlines, House Republicans on Saturday tried to put the focus back on jobs and the economy, which they view as their strong suit heading into this fall's elections.

President Obama gave his personal endorsement of same-sex marriage on Wednesday, but GOP leaders have not pounced on Obama's announcement. Instead, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) used his Thursday press conference to talk about an economy which has shown lackluster growth.

On Saturday, Rep. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) reiterated Boehner's economic arguments and appealed to women and to students, two demographic groups which supported Obama and which his reelection campaign has been working to keep.

“The challenges young people and women face in this economy need to be addressed, not exploited for political gain,” Noem said.

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney spent the day at Liberty University exploiting young people and non-"jobs" issues for political gain.

Presumed GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Saturday reaffirmed his stance on same-sex marriage during his commencement address at Liberty University.

"Marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman," he told students at the evangelical Christian College.

On Wednesday President Barack Obama announced for the first time that he supports same-sex marriage. On the same day, Romney reaffirmed his belief that marriage is between a man and a woman, but believes states should have the ability to extend certain rights to gay couples, short of marriage.

On Thursday, Romney reiterated a stance, long held, that states should be able to decide whether or not same-sex couples can adopt children.

"I know many gay couples are able to adopt children," Romney said in an interview with Fox News. "That is fine. But my preference is we encourage the marriage of a man and a woman and we continue to define marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman."

Sure, sounds like he wants to focus on the economy.  Has Orange Julius's people even talked to Mitt's people?  I'm thinking not.

Bristol Palin Spouts Off Again

Bristol Palin is a chip off the old moose - she has no more a clue when to shut up than her mother.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Bristol Palin says children do better with a mother and father.

The daughter of 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin made the comment on the religious website patheos.com. She was responding to President Obama's endorsement of same-sex marriage. 

This, from the single mother, who grew up in an affluent household, who had the world handed to her on a silver platter, who spouts hate rhetoric against gays and pretends to be sorry when it catches up with her.    She is another example of the stupidity in the country, proudly carrying on her mother's tradition of intolerance and righteous indignation at other people's freedom.

Shut your pie hole, sweetheart, you're drawing flies.

Adopting Quite An Attitude

The Avengers has impressed the vast majority of the people who went to see it.  Whenever people love something, it is like a challenge to some folks that simply must find something to complain about.

Disney’s “The Avengers” has earned almost universally positive reviews and made $200 million in its first weekend. Yet for some in the adoption community, a joke in the film goes too far.

The joke is at the expense of Loki, the film's villain and adopted son of the god, Odin. Loki's brother Thor defends him to fellow Avenger Black Widow, who then points out that Loki’s “killed 80 people in two days.” Thor then replies, “he’s adopted.”  

As noted in a petition created by Jamie Berke on Change.org, “According to your scriptwriter, the fact (Loki) was adopted is the reason he is a bad guy!...Being adopted is not something to use for the butt of jokes! Marvel, immediately cease using adoption as the butt of jokes AND issue a public apology to the adoption community!”

Oh, come on now.  I think that's a bit of an overreaction.  My sister is adopted, so I was raised in a family that was sensitive to the topic, as well as to how people will react without thinking.  I know the thoughtless things people can say.  The funny thing is, my sister resembled my parents more than I did, so when "one of them is adopted" came out they often thought it was me!

Still, this was a quick joke, it never implied that Loki was a bad guy because he was adopted.  In fact, despite the fact that he is a bad guy, his adopted brother still loves him and fights to save him every step of the way.  In my opinion, Marvel owes no apologies, nor do the actors or anyone associated with the picture.

Nobody promises life won't ruffle a feather here or there.  There is a chance that this light, offhand remark caused someone a pinch of pain for someone who is sensitive to being adopted.  Such is life.  I have never viewed adoption as a handicap of any sort, however.  I believe those who say it means the children weren't wanted are not seeing the other side of the coin, where that child was desperately wanted and loved.  Everyone is going to see this differently, filtered through the lens of their own experiences.  Regardless, this was a comment made without malice, and in context truly was a funny comeback.

Jamie Berke, get over yourself.

Doing The Right Thing

The President's stance on gay marriage is far from the catastrophe some are predicting politically.

A new national poll from Gallup shows that 60 percent of Americans say that President Obama’s endorsement of same-sex marriage will make no difference in how they vote. Among those who it will, twice as many Americans said they were less likely to vote for him because of it (26 percent) versus those who would be more likely (13 percent). The poll comes as President Obama became the first sitting chief executive to endorse gay marraige.

Overall, 51 percent of Americans polled approved of President Obama’s new position the policy, while 45 percent were against it.

Might have even helped.  What about the breakdown?

Specifically, 23% of independents and 10% of Democrats say it makes them less likely to vote for Obama, while a smaller 11% of independents and 2% of Republicans say it makes them more likely to vote for Obama. Those figures suggest Obama’s gay marriage position is likely to cost him more independent and Democratic votes than he would gain in independent and Republican votes, clearly indicating that his new position is more of a net minus than a net plus for him. However, those figures also underscore that it is a relatively limited group of voters – about one in three independents and fewer than one in 10 Republicans or Democrats – whose votes may change as a result of Obama’s new stance on gay marriage.

And as everyone keeps saying, six months is an eternity in politics, yes?  Poll the President ending the war in Iraq among the same group of voters, see how that turns out.  It's not going to be the only issue in November but neither is his stance on gay marriage, either.

Even better, poll Mitt Romney's stance on a constitutional amendment to revoke same-sex marriage in the states where it's allowed now.  I'm betting those numbers are worse for him than these are for the President, especially among independents.

So no, not worried about this at all, and he did the right thing.  Shouldn't we be supporting him for doing so?

Big Dog Barks, But Ed Klein Bites

The "liberal media" is trying to divide the Dems and there's all kinds of fault lines.  The Clinton/Obama "fault line" more or less vanished after 2010's election nonsense, but fault lines run deep, and if you flood them with enough sewage they might slip.

Bill Clinton thought so little of President Obama — mocking him as an “amateur” — that he pressed his wife last summer to quit her job as secretary of state and challenge him in the primaries, a new book claims.

“The country needs you!” the former president told Hillary Clinton, urging her to run this year, according to accounts of the conversation included in Edward Klein’s new biography of Obama.

The title of Klein’s explosive, unauthorized bio of Obama, “The Amateur” (Regnery Publishing), was taken directly from Bill Clinton’s bombshell criticism of the president, the author said. 

“Barack Obama,” Bill Clinton said, according to book excerpts, “is an amateur.”

If Edward Klein's name sounds familiar in conjunction with the Clintons, there's a reason for that as Steve M. reminds us about Klein's last book about sinking Hillary Clinton's career in 2005.

 

Its most scurrilous charge was that Chelsea Clinton was conceived during a rape of Hillary by her husband, a charge Klein backed down from when he was challenged by -- of all people -- Sean Hannity.

So we're talking about a guy so sleazy even wingers give him a wide berth (or at least they did back in 2005). And now we have this in the New York Post -- and if we can't prove that Klein is peddling irresponsible nonsense, we can at least say with certainty that he writes some of the most implausible dialogue in the history of the English language.

It's a hit job and a nasty one on the President.  Of course, this isn't 2005, either and the monstrous GOP of today won't even skip a beat when it comes to pushing Klein's book on the air...and more than a few Democrats will bite too.

Obama Derangement Syndrome sells.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• Claiming mandatory sentencing laws, a Florida judge has sentenced a woman to 20 years in prison for aggravated assault with a firearm for firing a warning shot to scare off her abusive husband.
• A new documentary shows Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker promised a billionaire donor he would "divide and conquer" the state's public unions in January of 2011.
• Lawmakers and regulators alike are scrambling for answers in the wake of JP Morgan Chase's $2 billion hedge losses in the last six weeks.
• Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin is cashing in his dual-citizenship in the US in order to avoid a major tax bill as the company's IPO nears.
• Amnesty International faces tough questions as the firm's UK website was hacked in order to host a spy trojan that spread across the EU.

Last Call

Harry Reid bemoaned last night the missed opportunity of busting the Senate filibuster last year, considering the GOP invoked its use pretty much every second over the last five and a half years.  Ezra Klein recaps:

Reid’s comments came after Republicans filibustered his attempt to move a House-passed compromise reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank. But the proximate cause of Reid’s ire hardly matters. The point is that he’s concluded he was wrong to oppose filibuster reform when Democrats had the chance.

Election wonks I know think that if President Obama wins re-election, Democrats have even odds -- and maybe even a bit better -- of retaining control of the Senate. Their margin will be slim. But a slim margin is all they’ll need for filibuster reform if they follow the Merkley/Udall plan, which uses a process called “the Constitutional option” to change the rules with 51 votes. More on that here.

Ahh, but there's a down side, as I've been saying.  That 53-47 current margin is 3 lost seats from being a tie, and 4 from being the end of the filibuster if the GOP keeps the House (which if they retake the Senate they certainly will).

Consider, though, what this means if Republicans retake the Senate. The leader of the Senate Democrats appears to have endorsed some version of filibuster reform. That doesn’t make filibuster reform an inevitability. But it does make it likelier. And wouldn’t Republicans prefer it happen on their watch than when the Democrats control the institution? Probably.

It's very likely if the GOP takes both chambers of Congress and 100% guaranteed if that happens and Romney wins.  Now that Reid has opened the gates, the Republicans will start making the argument that if they do take the whole ball of wax, the only way to get rid of all that "Obama socialism" is to axe the filibuster.

Of course, as voters, we ultimately determine that fate.  Get out there and register a friend to vote this week.

Another Milepost On The Road To Oblivion

Bring on the meteor. Thanks.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- An unidentified entrepreneur admits he is trying to profit off Trayvon Martin's death by selling gun range targets featuring the teen who's death has sparked a nationwide controversy. Although Martin's face does not appear on the paper targets, they feature a hoodie with crosshairs aimed at the chest. A bag of Skittles is tucked in the pocket and a hand is holding a can resembling iced tea.

The wall of fire resulting from impact will be nifty.

"This is the highest level of disgust and the lowest level of civility," said Zimmerman's attorney Mark O'Mara. O'Mara said he is worried about how Martin's parents will react to the image of their son on a target intended to be used for shooting practice. The attorney is also concerned the targets will further inflame the community. "It's this type of hatred -- that's what this is, it's hate-mongering -- that's going to make it more difficult to try this case," said O'Mara. Local 6 has been unable to determine the identity of the seller, who had also set up a website to sell the gun range targets. In an email exchange with reporter Mike DeForest, the seller wrote, "My main motivation was to make money off the controversy."

It can't come soon enough, I figure. Going to print this story off and place it in a bowl of delicious Purina Meteor Chow and see what comes 'round.

Ghost In The Moose-chine

Bristol Palin's Facebook ghostwriter has declared open season on the Obama daughters.

In a new blog post entitled "Hail to the Chiefs – Malia and Sasha Obama," Bristol takes issue with the influential role Obama's daughters supposedly played in helping him "evolve" his opinion on same-sex marriage.

"In this case, it would've been helpful for him to explain to Malia and Sasha that while her friends parents are no doubt lovely people, that's not a reason to change thousands of years of thinking about marriage," she writes. "Or that – as great as her friends may be – we know that in general kids do better growing up in a mother/father home. Ideally, fathers help shape their kids' worldview."

This coming from an unmarried single mom who had a kid out of wedlock, who knows everything about the sanctity of marriage better than Barack Obama, happily married to Michelle Obama for more than 2 decades.   Ed Kilgore sums it up:

To be clear, I am not mocking Bristol Palin when I offer these responses. She has the last laugh on me, and on all of us. Like her mother, she has a knack of luring people who know better into paying attention to her rants. In my defense, I’ll say that some of Sarah Palin’s most casual, fact-free rants have wound up in national GOP talking points, leading millions of anxious seniors to believe that the President of the United States wants to have them euthanized. It’s sometimes best to get a head start on Palin-generated nonsense, or in this case, on the next generation of Palins.

In other words, for the rest of their lives, the Palins can spout whatever vapid, moronic moose crap they want and the machine makes it become the pulse of the heartland.  America is a truly great country, where proxy fight attacks over policy are led by the children of political has-beens on the kids of the President.

Nice.  Also, bonus points for going after the President's teenage daughters.  That's how Republicans roll, you see.

Twisted Sisters

A scientist caught the birth of rare twin waterspouts on camera as the twisters churned to life over Louisiana waters yesterday (May 9). One of the powerful and unusually long-lived twisters damaged homes and cut power as it barreled across Grand Isle, a long, narrow island along the southeastern leg of the state's Gulf coastline.

The tornadoes formed at the front edge of a powerful storm system that moved across the region yesterday afternoon.

"You could clearly see them forming in the sky," he said, "and I was able to get them on the camera as they were starting to drop."

The pictures are cool, and the full article gives some background information on waterspouts and the levels of danger they pose.

While these occurred in Louisiana, they are not rare around the shores of the US.  While stuck behind a wreck in Florida, I watched one develop about a mile from me.  It was one of the bad kind, but it stayed out in the water and went parallel to the coast.  The storm had already driven the boats away, so nobody was hurt.  Still, I was humbled by its raw power.  As far away as I was, you could feel the strangeness in the air.

One of these sisters ventured onto land, but so far the damage is relatively light.  For two dangerous twisters to form and sustain for so long, it's the best outcome one could hope for.

A Pretty 70-Year-Old Virgin Worked As A Cabaret Dancer... And Then It Gets Weird

Pam Shaw is old enough to be a great-great-grandmother, and yet she has retained her virginity despite years working in the entertainment industry.  It's hard not to take this with a grain of salt, but her story is interesting.  Virginity aside, I bet she is a hell of a character with some stories to share.

"Now's the time. I'm ready to take the plunge for the right bloke," Pam Shaw tells the Sun."My standards are still very high, though. I'm hoping to bag a tall, dark and handsome millionaire."

Shaw says she doesn't believe in sex before marriage and has been too busy with her career as a cabaret dance to settle down. "I feel I am ready to give marriage a go and maybe go to bed with a man," she said. "You are never too old for anything. Just look at Joan Collins."

That she believes in such a romantic man is her greatest indicator of genuine inexperience.  I'm just saying, most women stop believing in that particular dream early into things.

Also, I have to point out that there is no trace of judgment or cruelty to those who do have sex outside of marriage.  Shaw states her beliefs without implying anyone should follow her choice to such an extreme.  That alone is enough reason that I hope she does find that fella, and teaches him a thing or two.

Meanwhile, Back At The Lunatic Ranch...

House Republicans have now officially trashed last year's budget agreement by eliminating all agreed upon Pentagon cuts and replacing them with cuts on the poor, because screw Obama, that's why.

The House voted Thursday to override steep cuts to the Pentagon’s budget mandated by last summer's debt deal and replace them with spending reductions to food stamps and other mandatory social programs.

While doomed in the Senate and opposed by the White House, the legislation, which would reduce the deficit by $243 billion, is a Republican marker for post-election budget talks with the White House.

Members approved the Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act in a party-line 218-199 vote. As expected, the bill was supported by nearly all Republicans — only 16 opposed it, and no Democrats supported it.

So at this point, the House GOP is probably going to work towards another shutdown in an election year as things get increasingly grim for Mitt Romney.  After all, what will they have to lose since they're going down anyway?  What makes anybody think they would ever follow through and keep their word?

We'll see how it goes.  I bet I'm using Shutdown Countdown again before too long.

Dimon Dog Days

That stink yesterday night after Wall Street's close was JP Morgan Chase crapping the bed to the tune of nearly a billion in a bad hedge fund deal.

Since the end of March, the company's Chief Investment Office "has had significant mark-to-market losses in its synthetic credit portfolio," the company said in a filing late on Thursday.

Chief Executive Jamie Dimon called the mistakes "egregious" and apologized to stock analysts on a conference call that the company suddenly scheduled after making the disclosure in a quarterly filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Dimon acknowledged that the errors are especially embarrassing in light of his public criticism of the so-called Volcker rule to ban proprietary trading by big banks.

"It plays right into the hands of a bunch of pundits out there, but that is life," Dimon said. He said he still believes in his arguments against the Volcker rule. The problem at JPMorgan, he said, was with the execution of the hedging strategy.

The strategy "morphed over time" and it was "ineffective, poorly monitored, poorly constructed and all of that," Dimon said.

"This violated our principles. This trading violates the Dimon principle."

Apparently the Dimon Principle is "if you lose big enough at Big Casino, the house will pay you back anyway."  We'll see how markets react today to this one.  I'm betting it's going to be a very bad Friday on Wall Street.  But remember, we can't have the Volcker Rule because our super smart titans of Wall Street wouldn't be able to make any money.  You know, instead of losing billions and making you pay for it, that's perfectly okay.

Sorry about crashing your economy and all, but DIMON PRINCIPLE, that's why.

StupidiNews!

• The Obama administration is directing the EPA to relax standards on vapor recovery fuel pump nozzles, saying newer cars don't need them and that gas station owners shouldn't have to pay for them.
• The Senate will hold public hearings in July on a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United ruling allowing unlimited campaign contributions.
• Oil and gas industry experts are saying the half-century old US embargo on Cuba is threatening the safety of offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
• European Union officials are predicting the eurozone will begin to enter recession in 2012 as Spain and Italy contract.
• Microsoft is bringing IE9 to the Xbox 360, powered by the Kinect motion sensing system for browsing by gesture.