StupidiNews!

• Golfer Rory McIlroy took the PGA Championship by 8 shots on Sunday,ending with a 13 under par 275 on Kiawah Island's Ocean course, his second consecutive major win in record-setting fashion.
• The mayor-elect and campaign manager of the Mexican city of Matehuela has been gunned down, reportedly by drug cartels, as Mexico's violent war on the cartels continues.
• Afghan security forces say they have broken up a terror attack plot on the Afghan Parliament and at least one of the country's leaders.
• Google will be cutting about 4,000 workers, most outside the US, in its Motorola mobile phone unit as it struggles to get the division back to profitability.
• Facebook and the ACLU are among the heavy hitters appealing a federal judge's decision that liking something on Facebook is not free speech.

Last Call

The Daily Caller gives the game away regarding the Village love affair with Paul Ryan.  Front and center:  Nooners.

“It’s good to remember that the Republicans won in 2010 — rather overwhelmingly — and part of the reason they won in the congressional races was that the American people have really become concerned about the future of their country when they think about the endless hemorrhagic spending that is going on from Washington,” Noonan said.

“Now, Paul Ryan has been very associated, primarily associated on the Republican side, with being someone who has come forward and said, ‘We have got to more align revenues with what we are spending. We have got to get a little more reasonable here.’”

It’s important, Noonan added, for the Wisconsin congressman to define his policies for the public instead of letting his opponents define them first.

“The challenge for him and the danger, I think, of his nomination, is that there are a lot of Americans who are in financial hard times, a lot of Americans are living near the edge, a lot of Americans perhaps half are receiving some money from the U.S. government each month. Paul Ryan — when you include Social Security — Paul Ryan has to go to those people, I think, quickly, and convince them, ‘Look, I’m not trying to end the things you need. I am trying to save the things you need.’ The Democrats are going to say that he’s shark. He has to say that he’s the lifeboat.”

Yes Peggy, he has to convince the proles that cutting their Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and eliminating food stamps and Pell Grants is good for them.  He's saving them from having to be anything other than dirt poor.  What a relief!

Nooners is of course completely clueless, but she's one of the many Villagers who pulled the wool over the eyes of millions of voters and got the GOP back into power.  She's clearly in the Romney/Ryan corner and will use her place on TV and in the papers to lie for him.

But remember, the "liberal media" is in the tank for Obama.

The Battle Both Sides Wanted

Reince Priebus now saying that President Obama has "blood on his hands" on Medicare cuts.

RNC Chair Reince Priebus hit on the GOP talking point that it’s President Obama, not Paul Ryan, who is destroying Medicare in an interview on “Meet the Press.”

“If [any] person in this entire debate has blood on their hands in regard to Medicare, it’s Barack Obama,” Priebus said. “He is the one that’s destroying Medicare. We are the ones that are offering solutions… ”

PS, you know who else has those same "cuts" (which are actually reductions in future spending growth projections?)  Paul Ryan.

With Paul Ryan as his vice presidential nominee, Mitt Romney’s central argument pushing back against critics of the House budget chief’s Medicare plan is that President Obama cut deep into Medicare under the Affordable Care Act. But Ryan’s plan includes the same cuts, which don’t target beneficiaries.

“Unlike the current president, who has cut Medicare funding by $700 billion, we will preserve and protect Medicare and Social Security,” Romney said Saturday while introducing Ryan.

The trouble with this argument — made frequently by Republicans, including Ryan himself — is that Republicans have voted overwhelmingly for Ryan’s own budget which sustains the Medicare cuts in “Obamacare.” Conservatives argue that Ryan’s plan, unlike the Affordable Care Act, doesn’t use the Medicare savings to fund additional spending.

Talking points circulated by the Romney campaign Saturday similarly instruct surrogates to make the “Obama cut Medicare” argument to blunt voters’ fears over Ryan’s Medicare plan.

The Ryan Plan, now the Romney/Ryan Plan literally makes the same exact reductions and Republicans voted overwhelmingly for those reductions.  But of course Priebus doesn't mention that.

I wonder why.  Oh yes, because he's a scuzzy liar.

And where's Mitt's tax returns?

John Daly Gives 'Em The Finger

John Daly has an endorsement deal with Sonoma-based Loudmouth Golf, which explains the wild, colorful pants he wears on the course. Daly is taking his attire into another realm for today’s second round of the PGA Championship in Kiawah Island, S.C.

Daly will be wearing pants designed to increase awareness and fund research to find a cure for prostate cancer. As a Loudmouth spokeswoman put it, “John’s pants are splashed with brightly colorful fingers to represent the early detection prostate cancer screening procedure for men. It’s a humorous spin to raise awareness on a very serious examination that few men like to talk about. John is wearing the pants to show his support to raise awareness for prostate cancer.”

You can click here to read the full article and check out the pants.  They are actually pretty funny, and not at all offensive (as someone will surely try to say).

Daly has always had a sense of humor, why not use it for a good cause?

Sketchy Teen Attacks Artist

CUMMINGTON — A 14-year-old male faces multiple charges after he allegedly snuck into a Swift River Road home in Cummington and beat a nationally known illustrator with a shovel.

Jane Dyer, an award-winning children's book illustrator whose work has appeared in New York Times best-sellers, continues to recover from the July 26 attack, which left her with blunt-force injuries and a wound to her head requiring about five surgical staples that were removed Monday afternoon.

The teen, who was quickly arrested by Cummington police, allegedly entered the Dyers' Cummington home about 5:30 p.m. July 26. When Dyer discovered him, she said, he struck her in the back of the head with a shovel.

The teen continued to beat her while she lay on the floor trying to deflect the attack and call for help, she said.

The youth then ran off and was apprehended by Cummington police about 30 minutes later, based in part on a description she provided, Dyer said.

I sat on this for a couple of days, hoping to discover the reason for the attack.  If there is one, they are keeping it quiet.

I'm really surprised by the violence of the crime.  It seems very personal, very full of hate.  Dyer is recovering and will be fine, with the exception of a little scarring (five surgical staples = big ouch).

Medi-Raid And Medi-Careless

JM Ashby pulls up the House Democrats' report on what the Ryan budget plan means you'll be losing should these assclowns end up in the White House.  Here's the breakdown for the Cincy Metro area:

The Republican proposal would have even greater impacts on individuals in the Cincinnati metro area age 54 and younger who are not currently enrolled in Medicare. It would:

• Deny 3.5 million individuals age 54 and younger in the region access to Medicare’s guaranteed benefits.

• Increase the out-of-pocket costs of health coverage by over $6,000 per year in 2022 and by almost $12,000 per year in 2032 for the 772,000 individuals in the region who are between the ages of 44 and 54.

• Require the 772,000 individuals in the metro area between the ages of 44 and 54 to save an additional $180 billion for their retirement – an average of $180,000 to $287,000 per individual – to pay for the increased cost of health coverage over their lifetimes. Younger residents of the metro area will have to save even higher amounts to cover their additional medical costs.

• Raise the Medicare eligibility age by at least one year to age 66 or more for 428,000 individuals in the district who are age 44 to 49 and by two years to age 67 for 2.7 million individuals in the district who are age 43 or younger.

Be sure to check out the map to see what benefits you will be losing under GOP control where you live.  Do you think that President Romney will veto the Ryan budget plan in 2013 when the Tea Party puts it on his desk?  If you're under 50, do you think Romney/Ryan gives a good goddamn about you?  They can win on just the Boomers and the seniors, and they plan on it.

By the way, do you know who has the closest voting record to Paul Ryan in the House?  I'll give you a guess.  Nate Silver runs the numbers.

Politics 101 suggests that you play toward the center of the electorate. Although this rule has more frequently been violated when it comes to vice-presidential picks, there is evidence that presidential candidates who have more “extreme” ideologies (closer to the left wing or the right wing than the electoral center) underperform relative to the economic fundamentals.

Various statistical measures of Mr. Ryan peg him as being quite conservative. Based on his Congressional voting record, for instance, the statistical system DW-Nominate evaluates him as being roughly as conservative as Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota.

In fact, Nate finds that Paul Ryan is the most partisan veep candidate in modern American history.

He's more of an ideologue than Dick Cheney.  Let that sink in when you say "But Romney will govern as a moderate."  Bullshit.

It's your funeral.  You won't be able to afford the healthcare to prevent it, and you won't be able to afford the funeral, either.  New tag:  Robot/Zombie '12.

Last Call

TNR's Alec MacGillis explains why Romney walked right into the jet intake on Paul Ryan by noting that Romney said during the debates that Newt Gingrich's plan to eliminate capital gains taxes would have meant that Romney would have paid no taxes for the last two years.  Romney himself said this.

Guess what the Ryan budget plan does?

Don't believe it? Romney himself said so, just a few months ago. The Ryan plan -- formally, the "Roadmap for America's Future" -- "promotes saving by eliminating taxes on interest, capital gains, and dividends; also eliminates the death tax." Mitt Romney's income -- more than $20 million each of the past two years -- comes almost entirely from capital gains on his investments, or from "carried interest," a cut of Bain Capital profits that are taxed as capital gains (the infamous "hedge fund loophole.") His only major ordinary income was from the speaking fees he collected ($374,000, or "not much," as he put it.) This explains why his tax rate was only 13.9 percent last year -- because the capital gains rate is 15 percent, well below the top rate of 35 percent for ordinary income.

So if the reason that Mitt Romney isn't releasing his taxes is because he's managed to game the system and end up owing zero in taxes for several years,  then picking a running mate whose plan would assure that Mitt Romney would basically never pay federal income taxes ever absolutely assures that Romney cannot release his taxes now.  He'd lose by 20 points.

But Romney doesn't have to release his taxes to be attacked on this issue, and rightfully so.

Not that they even need the Romney example, really. There is an easy broader case to be made against exempting capital gains, which are already taxed at a lower rate than they have been in decades (thanks partly to a certain former Democratic president.) Consider: over the past 20 years, more than 80 percent of all capital gains have gone to the top 5 percent of taxpayers and half have gone to the top one-tenth percent of taxpayers. It is the favorable treatment of capital gains that has helped drive income inequality to its current levels and that results in the 400 households with the highest income in the country paying such jarringly low tax rates. And Ryan wants to now eliminate the tax on this income entirely? Just seven months ago, Romney argued convincingly in his exchange with Newt that this was taking a good thing a bit too far. Now he's tied at the hip to the leading champion of this approach -- and has turned himself into the poster boy for why it's a terrible idea. In that sense, Ryan and Romney could hardly be more ill-suited to each other's needs: Romney puts an inconvenient face on the extremity of Ryan's plan, while Ryan's plan sheds even more light on Romney's taxes -- or the glaring lack thereof.

OK Team Obama, you got a fastball the size of a beach ball over the plate.  Swing for the fences.  These guys are going to decimate Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, Pell Grants, you name it...to make sure people like Mitt Romney pay zero taxes on their millions.

I'm betting Team Obama is cool running on that.  In fact, they wasted no time today and released this web ad:



Oh, and where's your tax returns, Mitt?

Podcast Versus The Stupid!

Episode 2: Robot/Zombie '12, where we discuss Romney's horrible choice made from other horrible choices, and Bonnie calls Moose Lady a "Waffle House hooker".

Listen to internet radio with Zandar Versus The Stupid on Blog Talk Radio

Enjoy.  (Yes, we're sorry about the noise in the background, we're still getting the kinks worked out.  Bite my shiny metal ass.)

Happy Birthday! ZVTS Turns 4

We're four years old this week!





Another year and we're still here, thanks to you guys. We'll have this week's PVTS up for you later on. Here's to making it to five...

StupidiMom

Angela Carrillo is held on two felony counts for allegedly assaulting a minor. Court documents say late Thursday night, two women told Carrillo they were going to take the child for a walk - but instead brought her to the emergency department to report the abuse.

One of the women told police she had to revive the child Monday after Carrillo beat her. Documents also say Carrillo allegedly yelled at the child and told her she was "tired of raising" her and that she "looks like her dad."

When asked about the child's injuries, Carrillo told police the child fell down the stairs.

Yeah, and if I ever catch up to this woman I'll be telling police she walked into a door.

How awful it must be to be beaten because you look like someone else.  Someone your mother decided to have a baby with, only to punish her for living.  At least this child had a couple of angels who stood up for her and helped end the abuse.

If only they could all be so lucky.

Gripping Stupidity

Why was a teenager groped by a stranger?  Well, because he just couldn't resist.  Thank goodness he's temporarily out of population while he learns a little impulse control.

Jackass.

Specifically, Morris is accused of groping a woman’s buttocks outside a dressing room at a Walmart in North Lauderdale. The teenager, pictured in the adjacent mug shot, was arrested shortly after the incident Thursday evening.

During questioning by law enforcement, Morris copped to grabbing the victim’s rear end and provided an explanation, of sorts, for his behavior, according to a sheriff’s report.

“Her booty looked so good,” he noted, “I just couldn’t resist touching it.”

Keep up that trend, and they'll be saying that about you in prison, princess.

We Are Not Amused, Sir

Mitt Romney has decided that the mean, mean old black President should stop picking on him and that everything he doesn't want to talk about anymore is now off-limits, and if that President Obama doesn't accept his offer, then it proves he's the anti-Christ and that we should all hate him forever.

Romney said he would prefer the campaigns “only talk about issues,” and claimed that “our ads haven’t gone after the president personally. … We haven’t dredged up the old stuff that people talked about last time around. We haven’t gone after the personal things.”

Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul offered up a broader take on whether Romney was really suggesting that his career at Bain Capital — the crux of his argument that he is better equipped to handle the economy — should be considered off-limits.

“The governor was expressing his view that he hopes we can have a campaign focused on the issues rather than one of desperation and lies as we’ve seen from the Obama campaign,” Saul said in an e-mail.

On its face, this is Romney admitting his completely screwed and that his campaign is falling apart.  But that's actually the point: the fact that Mitt Romney is whinging to Chuck Toddler that Obama is crushing him is dead proof that he's now expecting the Village to bail him out.  He's working the refs, because the last thing the Village right now wants is the notion that "Romney is toast" to take hold 3 months before the elections, and everyone tunes out the pundits and the press.

Guess that's why he picked Paul Ryan as his running mate.  He's going all in on the White Guy Austerity ticket.

Game's afoot, Watson.

The Bold, Bold Flavor Of Nevada

Considering the fact that Romney picked Paul Ryan this morning, it's useful to go back and look at Nate Silver playing a maddeningly good Devil's advocate by suggesting Mitt Romney should have made a REAL "bold" pick:  moderate GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada, if he wanted to you know, win.

If Mr. Romney were to pick a more moderate Republican, one potential choice stands out: Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada. Nevada, like Ohio, is a swing state. It contains fewer electoral votes than Ohio, but Mr. Sandoval is considerably more popular back at home than the relatively anonymous Mr. Portman — so the pick could have about the same electoral impact.

Mr. Sandoval, also, is Hispanic, at a time when Mr. Romney has struggled to pick up any support among that group of voters.

But Mr. Sandoval favors abortion rights. “I am pro-choice; I oppose partial-birth abortion, late term abortion and federal funding for abortion,” he writes on his Web site. Mr. Sandoval also favors domestic partnerships for same-sex couples, but not same-sex marriage.

Although Mr. Sandoval is fairly conservative on many other issues, his abortion position alone would make him a huge risk with Republican activists — especially if they have their hearts set on Mr. Ryan. There could be fireworks at the convention. It might actually be worth covering as a news event, for a change.

And Mr. Sandoval is risky in some other ways. With less than two full years in office, and hailing from a low-population state, he would be making a huge jump to the national stage.

But if Mr. Romney wants to take a risk, Mr. Sandoval would also present considerable upside. One drag on Mr. Romney is that the Republican Party is unpopular. Presenting someone who is a fresh face to voters in all senses of the term — demographically, ideologically and otherwise — could mitigate that.

Veeps are like proctologists:  first do no harm when your job is dealing with assholes.  In that respect, I think that while Nate makes an eminently logical point here, the reality is that a pro-life Republican on the national stage of the GOP has the political lifespan in 2012 of a fruit fly made out of snowflakes dropped into a volcano from atmospheric reentry. They wouldn't burn Romney in effigy, they'd burn him in person.

Second, Paul Ryan was the choice because Romney's going to want an attack dog, and Romney's idea of an attack dog is Paul Ryan, sort of a mildly insulting, cold-blooded accountant type.  That's who went around delivering the bad news in Romney's world for 25 years at Bain, bureaucratic hatchet men.  Nobody's going to be better at telling America that anyone under 50 today will never see a dime of Social Security or Medicare once the GOP gets through than Paul Ryan, folks.

Still, on paper Sandoval is a pro-choice Latino Republican.  He's exactly who Mitt Romney would need in order to win in a world where the Republican Party wasn't so completely bugnuts insane, so I respect the pick.

I just think this is Nate being a bit too Ivory Tower here again.  Reality proved who's running Romney and the GOP, and it's not the sane people.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• It's Romney/Ryan on the ticket:  Mitt Romney will announce his selection of Wisconsin GOP Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate this morning from the deck of the USS Wisconsin.
• The US Army is testing a giant spy blimp for urban reconnaissance missions currently over the state of New Jersey.
• The US women's 4x100 relay team not only won gold, but set a new world record in the race with a blistering time of 40.82 seconds.
• The Pentagon is looking into replacing the aging Air Force One in time for the inauguration in January, 2021.
• A project for the first LGBT gamers convention is getting underway with crowdsourced support.

Last Call

Greg Sargent details the interesting bits of a new book about the stimulus, including a passage attributed to VP Joe Biden about the GOP deciding even before the President took office that they had to destroy him.

Biden says that during the transition, he was warned not to expect any cooperation on many votes. “I spoke to seven different Republican Senators, who said, `Joe, I’m not going to be able to help you on anything,’ he recalls. His informants said McConnell had demanded unified resistance. “The way it was characterized to me was: `For the next two years, we can’t let you succeed in anything. That’s our ticket to coming back,’” Biden says.

The vice president says he hasn’t even told Obama who his sources were, but Bob Bennett of Utah and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania both confirmed they had conversations with Biden along these lines.

Later in the book, former Ohio GOP Sen. George Voinovich confirms these orders from Mitch McConnell as well.  And the plan worked:  Republicans gained 63 House seats and 7 Senate seats by blaming the Democrats.  Even Republicans admit that the GOP Plan was in full effect from November 2008 onward:

“People were pretty demoralized, and there were two totally opposite thoughts on how to approach the situation,” a McConnell aide recalls. “One was, `we don't like the president, we ought to pop him early.’ The other was, `he’s really popular, we should work with him, because that’s what people want us to do.’ The boss’s take was: Neither." McConnell realized that it would be much easier to fight Obama if Republicans first made a public show of wanting to work with him.

And so they lied from election day and were fabulously rewarded for it, because our corporate "liberal" media was 100% compliant in selling it, especially after the ACA passed.  Now of course long-time readers will remind us that McConnell's open statement saying the number one goal of the GOP was to make Obama a one-term President isn't news, but the fix was in to sabotage the economy through inaction from the moment Obama won.  They were never, ever going to work with him.  They were only going to try to destroy him...and us along with him.

Vote accordingly come November.