Irritable Liberal Syndrome

Blog Posts of the Year

2011-12-28T15:02:00.000-08:00

All worth reading. Some political, others not.

My personal favorite is the airing of Bristol Palin's grievances.

Donald Trump - racist idiot - Suffers from extreme form of ODS

2011-12-28T14:28:00.000-08:00

To celebrate Kwanza he also went out and raped a random selection of white women. A number of right wing hacks have also attacked Obama for the same thing without mentioning Christmas. For the record George W. issued a very similar pro-forma Kwanza statement every year in office.

ODS (Obama Derangement Syndrome) is in full bloom with Fox News running in people's heads 24/7 Obama can never do anything right in those suffering from the malady. They dress to casually for Church on Christmas day. They were in Hawaii where long pants are considered formal for gawd's sake. They dress too fancy/uppity (El Rushbo's words) for gala dinners, Michelle goes shopping in way too expensive places until she goes shopping at Target incognito, get's recognized and then is accused of all sorts of opportunism.

There is a direct correlation between the severity of ODS and a total incapacity to think logically in other areas. They may never realize this.

The genius amphibian's 'day of infamy'

2011-12-28T10:27:00.000-08:00

Newt Gingrich isn't going to be President. He isn't going to even win the GOP nomination. His little surge in popularity has withered away and now his ragtag campaign couldn't even get him on the primary in his home state of Virginia. It was his campaign's excessive response that made the headlines, comparing the setback to Pearl Harbor. Calling him a pompous, bloviating ass would be an insult to pompous assholes.

It ranks up there with Steven Swartzman, multi-billionaire hedge fund manager who compared Obama's call for eliminating the tax breaks for hedge fund managers to Hitler invading Poland, from a Jew no less.

Rick Perry - a new frontier in stupidity

2011-12-28T09:38:00.000-08:00

“Every barrel of oil that comes out of those sands in Canada is a barrel of oil that we don’t have to buy from a foreign source,”

This line brought out one of the biggest cheers at a recent speech in Iowa proving his supporters are about as stupid as he is.

An instant classic

2011-12-21T22:19:00.000-08:00

The new Absolutely Fabulous on the Kardashians.

Dr. John - Such A Night

2011-12-21T22:12:00.001-08:00

Scott Walker's race to the bottom continues unimpeded

2011-12-21T08:05:00.000-08:00

We reported recentlythat Scott Walker, who promised jobs, jobs, jobs and more jobs led the nation in job losses in October as Wisconsin shed 9,700 hundred jobs in October. To make matters worse, he fed his recall opponents the perfect TV ad fodder by openly mocking the policies of neighbors, Illinois, which ironically registered the largest employment gains.

The numbers for November are out and while Illinois is no longer #1 Wisconsin is firmly anchored again at the bottom. This time Wisconsin lost 14,700 jobs, edging out Minnesota as the only two states to lose jobs. This marks the 5th straight month of job losses in Wisconsin when Walker's budget came into effect.

There is one job loss that a majority of the state will cheer, Walker's own tenuous hold on the Governor's office. Scott Walker, creating a legacy, one lost job at a time.

Even the Wall Street Journal recognizes the suicide pact

2011-12-21T07:24:00.000-08:00

They're worried.

GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell famously said a year ago that his main task in the 112th Congress was to make sure that President Obama would not be re-elected. Given how he and House Speaker John Boehner have handled the payroll tax debate, we wonder if they might end up re-electing the President before the 2012 campaign even begins in earnest.

The GOP leaders have somehow managed the remarkable feat of being blamed for opposing a one-year extension of a tax holiday that they are surely going to pass. This is no easy double play.

Republicans have also achieved the small miracle of letting Mr. Obama position himself as an election-year tax cutter, although he's spent most of his Presidency promoting tax increases and he would hit the economy with one of the largest tax increases ever in 2013. This should be impossible.

House Republicans yesterday voted down the Senate's two-month extension of the two-percentage-point payroll tax holiday to 4.2% from 6.2%. They say the short extension makes no economic sense, but then neither does a one-year extension. No employer is going to hire a worker based on such a small and temporary decrease in employment costs, as this year's tax holiday has demonstrated. The entire exercise is political, but Republicans have thoroughly botched the politics.

Let's ignore the usual WSJ claptrap about Obama being a 'tax and spend' liberal, planning one of the biggest tax increases ever. He's never proposed anything other than letting the Bush tax cuts expire for the richest of Americans, which considering the current state of the deficit and the low ration between tax revenues and GDP is essential to closing the deficit.

Secondly, the editorial dismisses the payroll tax cut because it's employers won't be tempted to hire based n a 2% lower payroll tax cut. Probably not, but it doesn't even occur to those 1% brains that the tax cut puts extra money in the pockets of 160 million working Americans who might actually go out and spend that money. Most estimates peg the benefit of the tax cutadding 1 to 1.5% to GDP this year as well as job losses or gains depending on which way this circle of idiocy plays out. That doesn't enter their 1% minds.

Remember this is the paper that called people collecting unemployment or those earning so little they barely paid Federal income taxes. "those lucky duckies".

House Republicans prepare for mass suicide on Payroll Taxes

2011-12-20T17:46:00.000-08:00

House Republicans decide to piss off 160 million American workers by rejecting payroll tax cut extension.

And Fox as usual puts its complete ignorance on display.

Most economists as well as a number of large banks believe extending the payroll tax cut for a year will increase GDP for 2012 by between 1-1 1/2%. That's a big deal. They also repeat the "49% of Americans don't pay any taxes" lie. No, 49% of Americans don't pay Federal Income taxes but they do pay many other taxes including Social Security taxes. They pay Federal taxes at the gas pump and on many other products. They pay state and local taxes, they pay property taxes directly if they own or indirectly if they rent. They pay sales taxes, taxes on utilities, phone service and a host of other taxes, so saying they pay no taxes at all without qualification as the Fox people would let you believe is a total lie. Par for the course.

A short and maybe not so sweet honeymoon for Gingrich

2011-12-20T17:33:00.000-08:00

Gingrich's super awesome baggage was bound to trip him up sooner or later once he became the latest great hope to keep Romney at bay and ascend to the While House. The 'sooner' option is making it a runaway. The latest polls show Gingrich bleeding support and with a smaller campaign organization than most of the other contenders and less money to spend he's taking it in the nuts.

Witness this pleasant exchance with an Iowa voter.

Then again, I'm with Newt on his comments on the Paul Ryan economic plan.

"Only the little people pay taxes"

2011-12-13T15:40:00.000-08:00

The Gingrich - Helmsley 2012 Tax Plan.

From Paul Krugman, named after the odious Leona Helmsley who issued the above statement while being sentenced for tax evasion. About 60% of Americans will be paying taxes at a higher rate than the top 1%. Not that many Americans aren't already paying at a higher rate than the 1%.

If, and there is still a big if, Gingrich is the nominee, I relish seeing him trying to explain this to the American people.

Headline of the day

2011-12-12T15:44:00.000-08:00

Anti-Gay Alabama GOPer Secretly Donated Sperm To Lesbian Couples In New Zealand

Nuff said.

Obama's dastardly evil plot to destroy Christmas from the inside

2011-12-12T15:36:00.000-08:00

Wingnuts tie themselves in knots. The latest outrage is that the While House is displaying 37, count 'em, Christmas trees this season. How dare they be so extravagant when times are so bleak. Never mind most of them are in the part seen by the public and rarely by the Obamas.

The details are gruesome.

The economy may be weak, unemployment strong and the first family soon to vacate the White House for another half-month of vacation in Hawaii.
But the Obamas have gone all out in decorating their house this year, including a nearly quarter-ton gingerbread White House.
They have also installed 37 different Christmas trees. Thirty of the trees are live, or were, including one nearly 19-feet tall from Wisconsin. Seven of the three dozen Christmas trees are artificial or homemade including, of course, one from recyclables.

So we know that Obama is waging an all out war against Christmas instead of Iran yet he's overdecorated the White House with Christmas trees...mmmm. Obviously some sort of devious plan to all all good Christians into thinking Obama likes Christmas when it's obvious he's going to destroy it from the inside.

Talking Heads - Life During Wartime Live

2011-12-09T17:06:00.000-08:00

Rick Perry determined to immolate himself

2011-12-09T16:42:00.000-08:00

His new ad attacks gays in the military and the 'war on Christmas'. The GOP candidates, other than Gingrich who is marking time, basking in the present adulation are in a determined sprint to the precipice of destruction, trying to outcraze each other. Perry might just be in the lead with Santorum a close second.

His ad might set an all time record on Youtube for dislikes. As of a couple of dislikes were at 496,954 and likes were at 13,089. Within a few minutes dislikes were up by over 300 while 12 more people liked the ad. All this in three days.

By comparison, the odious Rebecca Black video has racked up about 258,000 dislikes in three months.

Perry should double Rebecca's total within a few hours.

Imaginary Farm Dust Regulation Banned By House

2011-12-09T15:57:00.000-08:00

"We have spent an entire day debating about a bill that does not address an existing problem," said Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.).
"This entire session of Congress has felt to many of us like a trip into Alice's Wonderland," said DeGette. "To paraphrase the Cheshire Cat, 'We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad. ... You must be mad or you wouldn't have come here.' Sadly for the American people, H.R. 1633 simply underscores the 'madness' of this body right now."

No wonder Congress is polling only slightly better than Gonorrhea. Somehow a legal requirement for the EPA to review ambient air pollution every five years has morphed into a hysterical meme that the EPA is going to make dust illegal and that, naturally will kill millions of jobs. Fox News has only amplified the faux hysteria until the House Republican were forced into action. Next up for these paranoid cretins is exempting UFO's from FAA regulations. The entire party has become a sick joke. On the plus side, bloggers will never run out of material.

Prohibiting the regulation of dust, the bill also removed regulations on open pit and asbestos mines. What's a little asbestos dust in the lungs?

Santorum - 'keep science out of poliics'

2011-12-09T13:52:00.000-08:00

God forbid we should base any political decision on scientific fact. Let medieval superstition and ignorance reign instead.

Discussing controversial classroom subjects such as evolution and global warming, Santorum said he has suggested that “science should get out of politics” and he is opposed to teaching that provides a “politically correct perspective.”

Teaching evolution, teaching about human sexuality, teaching about global warming isn't a 'politically correct perspective', it's a correct perspective He argues that parents love their children and want to give them the best opportunity possible so they should decide about their education. What a crock? Loving your kids doesn't make you an expert on education. Santorum said his seven children were all schooled differently but all were home schooled from the 8th grade. So now we have seven mini brainwashed Santorums who are comfortable with a pickled fetus on the mantelpiece and are now fully equipped to become blithering idiots living in the 18th century. There should be a law against that.

More if his ignorant drool at the link..

John Lennon - It was 31 years today R.I.P.

2011-12-08T23:22:00.000-08:00

Power to the People. I'm sure John's up there smiling down at the OWS protesters in Zuccoti Park and across the world. If he was still with us he would have showed up, sang and cheered on the crowd.

Charlies Pierce advises the GOP "get out of Iowa, now!"

2011-12-08T22:51:00.000-08:00

I wish I could write half as well as he does. I was still laughing on the second read. Just read his blog.

In other words, the first serious event in the winnowing out of the Republican party's presidential field will be largely in the hands of people who consider Sean Hannity either too godless, or too intellectually challenging, or insufficiently conservative. The panel went on to discuss this judiciously, as a matter of political reality. But, really, that in itself is an indication of something, and it's not a healthy situation to find yourself in.Look at the available evidence just this week. Having to appeal to this electorate first sent Jon Huntsman into a fan-dance over climate science. It resulted in Rick Perry's releasing a singularly idiotic television ad on the basic theme of "My God's Dong Is Bigger Than Your God's Dong."
(Really, Goodhair, if you've got that much money left, just send every registered Republican in Iowa 25 large. Sure, it's illegal, but it's whole lot less embarrassing.)
And it prompted Willard Romney to "come out swinging" — oh, Willard, you're so...rugged! — at Newt Gingrich, whom Iowa seems poised to make the frontrunner for the nomination. (And, dammit, isn't that fact alone enough for you to beat feet for the Illinois border?) Unfortunately, Willard chose to make the basis for his counterstrike the notion that Newt isnot conservative enough, and that Newt's primary heresy is his insufficient devotion to the economic philosophy of the bold boy-genius Paul Ryan, particularly Gingrich's at one point calling Ryan's put-granny-on-the-ice-floe changes in Medicare "right-wing social engineering." So, if you're keeping score at home, Mitt Romney has managed to become simultaneously Dr. Mandrake Q. Mandate From The People's Republic Of Taxachusetts and the newest champion of a completely voucherized health-care plan that will explode the deficit, inflate prices, leave millions of people uninsured, and which has proven to poll approximately as well as the mange. Well-played, Willard!

Read the whole post here.

Orrin Hatch loses it on CNN - Consumer Financial Protection version

2011-12-08T22:28:00.000-08:00

Hatch may me as right wing as they come even though he's always been considered a relatively sane elder statesman in the formerly venerable Senate, now little more than a kiddie romper room but with less decorum..

The GOP filibuster in the Senate today killed the nomination of Richard Cordray (not the Cordray formerly on the Daily show) to head the bureau. The Republicans say they have no objection to the qualifications of Obama's choice to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) they're not going to nominate anyone even if Ayn Rand can be cloned and nominated. The reality is the Director can only make recommendations not law.

. If my effing toaster oven gets fried a week after I bought it and the manufacturer won't take responsibility I have a Federal consumer bureau I can take my complaint to. Get screwed by the fine print on page 11 of my new credit card agreement and i'ts 'tough luck bub, if you can't understand the legalese fine print on page 11 you shouldn't be getting a credit card or you should have consulted your lawyer first.'

He's another Czar screamed Hatch, no oversight, He can dictate everyone's credit rating arbitrarily, they're job killers, it's even worse than Obamacare and that was the worst thing ever, no maybe Pearl Harbor and 9/11 was worse; it's our American Holocaust. Sure, the Director of the Bureau is going to have 400 employees sifting through over 200 million people's credit records and is going to take away credit from all the rich people except for Democrats and is going to give all those lazy people collecting unemployment rich people's credit ratings.

How about some oversight on credit card companies and the banks? Can't have that - job killer, job killer, job killer, baby killer (oops wrong department). Truth is they don't want the Bureau to exist in any form .

As a side note, the Bureau is working to come up with a standard two page credit card contract that will actually make it easier to understand and shop for the best deal. They're working with the banks to do this. The kicker is the banks won't even be required to comply. So much for omnipotent power. Jesus H. Christ on a pogo stick, these people are so far up the banks asses they can talk out of their throats. THEY DON'T WANT ANY REGULATIONS ON THE BANKS. It's as simple as that. The recession was all Barney Frank's fault anyway, the banks have integrity so we don't need oversight and they're job creators.

Madness, I tell you.

Santorum - people are fat so they don't need food stamps

2011-12-08T14:38:00.000-08:00

Santorum is an anal wart on humanity. For a 'good Christian' he hates a lot of stuff. The irony is that the right rail against any attempts to curb obesity, yelling 'nanny state, nanny state' against every idea while they continue to support labeling pizza as a vegetable for school nutrition. People are obese therefore food stamps are unnecessary.

Michelle Obama has got nothing but abuse for her attempts to fight obesity including this bit of derangement from the fat tub of lard Rush Limbaugh.

Santorum told the group he would cut the food stamp program, describing it as one of the fastest growing programs in Washington, D.C.
Forty-eight million people are on food stamps in a country with 300-million people, said Santorum.
“If hunger is a problem in America, then why do we have an obesity problem among the people who we say have a hunger program?” Santorum asked.

Santorum is lucky he gets paid extremely well by the wingnut welfare program for his warped ideas. Try working a real job dipshit. Maybe more people need food stamps because more of the unemployed and underemployed have run through their savings and food stamps make a real difference for people who cant earn a living talking shit.

There is also no better stimulant for the economy. All that money gets spent immediately. Take this report from NBC News: . Waiting for Midnight, hungry families on food samps give Walmart 'enormous spike'

Ricky, want to really tackle obesity instead of just using it as an excuse. You can't by hot food with food stamps in a supermarket. Exclude sugared sodas and candy as well. Give an extra 10% if people by a certain percentage of fruits and vegetables. Mayor Bloomberg, who isn't always an asshole suggested that.

A few days ago I saw three more than tubby kids waddle into a 7/11 and buy a bucketload of candy with a food stamp card. That should not be allowed and shame on the parents.

And Newtie, here is some info you should file away. You can't book a flight to Hawaii with a food stamps card. You can't even get a hot dog or a hot chicken wing and you certainly can't get any alcohol. It's not a fucking credit card.

Classic Jethro Tull - My Sunday Feeling at the Isle of Wight

2011-12-08T11:21:00.000-08:00

"Justice in America" - Matt Taibbi

2011-12-07T20:24:00.000-08:00

Had a quick piece of news I wanted to call attention to, in light of the recent developments at Zuccotti Park. For all of those who say the protesters have it wrong, and don’t really have a cause worth causing public unrest over, consider this story, sent to me by a friend on the Hill.
Last week, a federal judge in Mississippi sentenced a mother of two named Anita McLemore to three years in federal prison for lying on a government application in order to obtain food stamps.
Apparently in this country you become ineligible to eat if you have a record of criminal drug offenses. States have the option of opting out of that federal ban, but Mississippi is not one of those states. Since McLemore had four drug convictions in her past, she was ineligible to receive food stamps, so she lied about her past in order to feed her two children.
The total "cost" of her fraud was $4,367. She has paid the money back. But paying the money back was not enough for federal Judge Henry Wingate.

Compare that to Wall Street

All of these companies have been repeatedly dragged into court for fraud, and not one individual defendant has ever been forced to give back anything like a significant portion of his ill-gotten gains. The closest we've come is in a fraud case involving Citi, in which a pair of executives, Gary Crittenden and Arthur Tildesley, were fined the token amounts of $100,000 and $80,000, respectively, for lying to shareholders about the extent of Citi’s debt.Neither man was forced to admit to intentional fraud. Both got to keep their jobs.

Financial fraud, no problem, OWS: crush them, people lying to feed their family: Throw them in jail.. The full article.here.

30 large US corporations paid more to lobbyists than in taxes

2011-12-07T13:47:00.000-08:00

30 companies, $163 billion in profits, minus $10 billion in taxes and $475 million to lobbyists. That investment paid back like a penny stock on steroids.

'Obamacare' to the rescue

2011-12-07T11:22:00.000-08:00

The ACA act, commonly known as 'Obamacare' is stealthily gaining more support as more Americans are feeling it's benefits. One key issue is the availability of health insurance for people with pre-existing conditions. Another is a partial filling of the 'doughnut hole' in Medicare drug benefits which has reduced out of pocket expenses after the threshold of $2,700 to $6,154 where all expenses are borne by the patient. Millions of Medicare patients are already reaping the benefit of reducing that expense.

Those 25 or younger who are having the toughest time finding jobs, never mind jobs with health benefits can stay on their parent's plans are feeling the effect. Rescission, where health insurers can cancel a policy because the policy can be cancelled because of an omission in the original application is a thing of history. One of the more notorious cases was where a woman's policy was cancelled after being diagnosed with breast cancer because she neglected to mention she was treated for acne as an 18 year old won't happen again.

This personal story in the op-ed pages of the Los Angeles Times has been getting a lot of attention.

I want to apologize to President Obama. But first, some background.

I found out three weeks ago I have cancer. I'm 49 years old, have been married for almost 20 years and have two kids. My husband has his own small computer business, and I run a small nonprofit in the San Fernando Valley. I am also an artist. Money is tight, and we don't spend it frivolously. We're just ordinary, middle-class people, making an honest living, raising great kids and participating in our community, the kids' schools and church.

We're good people, and we work hard. But we haven't been able to afford health insurance for more than two years. And now I have third-stage breast cancer and am facing months of expensive treatment.

The full article here.