Texas tramples women's rights

Well, it was an epic fight but sadly, despite the largest demonstrations in Austin ever, the Big Daddy Theocrats won this battle. Texas Senate legislated against women's health and free choice today. But there's no need to accept defeat. We do have options for the future.

"If you are angry about what happened in Texas tonight -- and what's happening in other states all around the country -- there is something you can do about it," spokeswoman Dawn Laguens said. "Register to vote, and vote for candidates who will protect women's access to health care."

And by candidates, we mean Democrats who fight for women's rights.

Democrats offered 20 amendments, ranging from proposals to add exceptions to the bill's 20-week abortion ban for victims of rape and incest to requiring annual inspections of abortion facilities and allowing teen mothers to be excluded from a state law requiring parental consent for family planning services. All were rejected on party-line votes in a debate that lasted until nearly midnight on Friday.

And not vagina obsessed cretins like this:

"It's about taking the life of an innocent baby," said Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston. "What choice does the baby have? Who speaks for the baby?"

Wouldn't be half as irritating to listen to this self-righteous crapola if these same panty sniffing vagina police cared one whit about that poor innocent baby once it's born. Especially if the unfortunate child has been born poor. These same people are the first to demand cuts in all social assistance that would give a child born into poverty a chance for a decent, dignified life.

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Ink Blots

By Capt. Fogg

Who needs ink blots?  Life itself is a Rorschach test. What you see as a pattern, a 'gestalt' if you prefer in something random or arbitrary is a window into your mind.  Likewise what you find to condemn in others may often illustrate what you feel - or fear to find - in yourself.  It's been my experience that people who feel guilty about all their lies are quick to see others as liars, for instance and when I hear certain TV personalities telling us how, as Rush once snickered, Michael J. Fox is faking his Parkinson's to get sympathy or the Republican hyenas who insisted that Hillary Clinton's cerebral blood clot was only an excuse to get out of testifying at the Benghazi witch hunt,  and when I heard Glenn Beck snickering yesterday that Theresa Heinz-Kerry, wife of our Secretary of State, hospitalized and in critical condition was faking it, what I heard was a faker, a phoney, a con man, a liar and a sociopath telling us his own story.

Am I wrong or is this a pattern?  Do the most vocal apologists for the wackadoodle Right routinely deny inconvenient reality and slander their opponents because they think everybody is like them?  Takers, leeches, liars, fakes and idiots?    Hey, the ink blots don't lie.

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GOP Obamacare hypocrisy

Proving that the GOP's alleged concern about Obamacare is based solely on politics and Obama Derangement Syndrome, Lee Fang at the Nation unearthed a treasure trove of Republican requests for Obamacare funding from Republicans who trash the program on a near daily basis and have voted dozens of times to repeal the bill altogether.

The list of these hypocrites is too long to list to them all, but it's instructional to see how they praise the program when they've got their hand out for the money.

House Republicans and the Senate Republican Policy Committee have trashed the ACA’s Community Transformation grants as an Obamacare “slush fund.” In the letters seeking these grants, however, GOP lawmakers have heaped praise on their potential. Cornyn writes in his letter that the grant would help “improve the health and quality of life of area residents.” Congressman Aaron Schock, a Republican from Illinois, congratulated a local nonprofit for winning a Community Transformation grant, noting that the program will give “people the tools to live healthier and longer lives.”

And adding to their disgusting deceit:

Whether cutting a ribbon or signing a letter, no Republicans have acknowledged that the health programs they are endorsing are provided by Obamacare.

You won't see this mendacity reported on the teevee news programs outside of MSNBC. But the rest of the BigMedia will be happy to "report" every false utterance these asshats spew to try undermine the program simply to rob Obama and the American people of a chance at successful health care reform.

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Victims of the IRS

In the GOP's ongoing waste of taxpayers time and money, they dug up some aggrieved Tea Party organizers to testify about their alleged victimization by the IRS. Dianne Belsom, president of the Laurens County Tea Party in South Carolina declares this persecution by paperwork is simply unacceptable. Also so very unnecessary because:

"I'd like to note that our group is a small-time operation with very little money and this represents a complete waste of time by the IRS in terms of any money they would collect if we were not tax-exempt," Belsom said.

If the amount is that small one wonders why they bothered to go for such a complicated tax exempt status. Probably be easier for them to just pay the miniscule tax. Or perhaps apply for a simpler non-profit designation. And again, the bigger question, is does this group deserve a "social welfare" status to begin with. A look at the Laurens County Tea Party accomplishment page suggests the answer is no way. Their accomplishments were mainly in hosting Republican politicians for speaking enagagements and promoting local GOP candidates.

Steve M. has much more on Laurens County Tea Party's activities, the majority of which are purely political and advancing the most far out of crackpot conspiracy theories. Thus unqualified for the tax status they seek. I'd add all of the witnesses appear to be party to a lawsuit versus the IRS as well.

These people aren't victims of discrimination. They're attention seekers at best and pure grifters at worst. The bigger scandal remains that the GOP is relentlessly wasting their taxpayer funded resources on fishing for ammo to be used purely for partisan gain.

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GOP credo: feed the rich, starve the poor

The Republicans are hellbent on destroying any and all government assistance for the olds, poors and other needy Americans. Their most inhumane target remains cuts to food assistance programs. Krugman blasts the GOPers today and notes:

And why must food stamps be cut? We can’t afford it, say politicians like Representative Stephen Fincher, a Republican of Tennessee, who backed his position with biblical quotations — and who also, it turns out, has personally received millions in farm subsidies over the years.

Prairie Weather has the full numbers. Congressman Fincher and his family have received roughly $8.9 million in government handouts over the last 10 years. In fact, Rep. Fincher is the second largest recipient of farm subsidies in Congress. And did I mention this farm bill that severely slashes food assistance for poor children, including the WIC program which insures the bare basic nutrional requirements for babies, also includes a $9 billion increase in crop insurance to the sole benefit of big agribusiness guys like Fincher?

That, in the world according to Fincher, we can afford. No problem because cotton farmers need that help. Those poor kids and poverty stricken olds can just go rummage in garbage bins for their daily bread I guess.

Once again, on the stupid or evil scale, we're putting this down as pure evil.

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Fiscal conservatives are killing us

It's always useful to remember budgets are only political documents. They're a rhetorical weapon of mass deception. Appropriations are the real deal. And more proof that the GOP really doesn't give a flying leap about budgets, even as they now refuse to go to conference to pass one, Republicans are furiously slicing and dicing funding to circumvent the sequestration cuts.

Of course they never offer specifics but the plan "focuses the biggest cuts" on aid to local school districts, health research and enforcement of labor laws. Also:

Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security and the Pentagon would be spared under the plan approved by the House Appropriations Committee on a party-line vote, but legislation responsible for federal firefighting efforts and Indian health care would absorb a cut of 18 percent below legislation adopted in March. [...]

Capitol Hill's budget would be untouched, however. House GOP leaders, who have boasted recently of their efforts to cut Congress' generous budget, opted against cutting further below levels imposed under the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts that began taking effects in March. In fact, the House would get a 1.6 percent budget increase when measured against current levels.

The foreign aid budget would be sharply cut as well, while a bill funding the IRS budget and implementation of new financial regulations would absorb a 20 percent cut from levels approved just two months ago.

Much more at the link but basically anything that aids or protects the middle class and working Americans or the needy gets the ginsu knife while their wealthy cronies are pretty much completely spared from the Republican whopper chopper. Now all they have to do is figure out how to blame the Democrats for it.

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Blame it on the inane

As if there weren't enough pseudoscandals to go around, our very useful media eagerly embraced the most inane fauxtroversy since flag pins with Umbrellapalooza. This loser was initially pitched by Griftzilla of the Great White North, Sarah Palin who spewed out some word salad on Facebook. No, I didn't read it, but here's the quote making the rounds:

Mr. President, when it rains it pours, but most Americans hold their own umbrellas.

You mean like this, Princess Dimwit? [via]



Meanwhile, I saw WaPo's Karen Tumulty saying this was a very important story, because bad optics! Swear the media excuses for fluffing these fauxscandals are getting as lame as the crackpots who invent them. That aside, I seem to be the only one who actually noticed Obama asked for the damn umbrellas in the first place as a courtesy to the Turkish Prime Minister standing next to him.

I watched that presser. Obama initially declined the umbrellas. It wasn't until Obama noticed his guest was uncomfortable that he interrupted his remarks and asked for the damn things. I'm sure if Obama was alone he would have never asked. He's certainly made speeches in bigger rainstorms than that. And he could hardly have asked for just one. It would have embarrassed the Prime Minister. Made him look like a pansy who was afraid to get wet.

You might think our very experienced journos would understand that protocol, but no. Instead they stampeded like a herd of enraged elephants to promote this lazy GOP meme as if they've never seen anything like this before. [via]



Also, this [via] :



And here's a whole gallery of Dharapak photos, many of which show Obama holding his own damn umbrella. A skill his predecessor apparently hadn't mastered well.



And they wonder why no one respects BigMedia anymore?

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Off with their heads

Yet another ritualistic resignation at the IRS, as required by the optics under what passes for civil society these days.

An internal IRS memo says Joseph Grant, commissioner of the agency’s tax exempt and government entities division, will retire June 3. Grant joins Steven Miller, who was forced to resign as acting IRS commissioner on Wednesday.

Grant joined the IRS in 2005.

But Booman is right. In a sane society, this is what should have happened to Tea Party group tax exemptions.

I am infuriated by these stories about Tea Party groups who are complaining that seeking tax-exempt status was like having a proctology exam. While I acknowledge that the IRS made unreasonable requests and caused unreasonable delays, I am even more outraged that they did not deny tax-exempt status to even one Tea Party group. Not one.

There isn't a single Tea Party group in the country that isn't primarily concerned with political matters. None of them should have qualified for tax-exempt status. None.

If this had been liberal groups organizing during the Bush administrations, not only would their tax exemptions have been denied, the leaders of the groups most probably would have been arrested. Hell, in those days they were arresting people for wearing tshirts and carrying signs even mildly critical of the government.

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GOP agree: Feed the rich, starve the poor

Rebuffing Democratic attempts to stop this inhumane pandering to special interests, Republicans rammed a bill through committee that starves children of the poor and impoverished olds in order to give more money to wealthy corporate farmers.

A Republican-controlled panel in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved the biggest cuts in food stamps for the poor in a generation and a potentially expensive expansion of federally subsidized crop insurance. [...]

Almost half the savings in the House bill would come from a $20.5 billion cut over 10 years in spending on food stamps for low-income Americans. [...]

Some 45.6 million people, many of them impoverished elderly or working-poor families with children, received food stamps at latest count.

The bill restructures the corporate farm welfare in a way that expands their subsidies, effectively putting the risks of the business on the taxpayer without any share of the profits in return. The biggest beneficiary of the shift will be crop insurance companies which have been riddled with fraud.

Small government the GOP way. You see, the "dependency culture" only applies to poor people who can't get jobs that pay a living wage, if they can get a job at all. [image via]

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Blame Congress for the IRS mess - Updated

Once you cut through the self-serving noise over the IRS psuedo-scandal, a few things become clear. Tea Party groups weren't really being targeted for their political beliefs. They were being asked to prove why they deserved a big tax exemption. And let's be real, if the name of your group stands for Taxed Enough Already, you're begging to be tied up in paperwork.

As I said before, I think most of the smaller groups were run by grifters who saw a prime opportunity to profit personally from the fear and anger of misinformed conservatives. More than one of them has been exposed as a fraud since the Kochs laid down that astroturf.

Also, I've seen no evidence President Obama had anything to do with it. He's not checking in with the IRS daily to give them a list of targets. He has no knowledge of their day to day operations. Anybody really think the CEO of a major corporation knows the intimate details of every manager's work day? It defies logic.

IRS was doing its job under the rules that Congress gave them, which were not at all clear. This is the smartest thing I've read about this so far. The real IRS scandal is in who was allowed to operate without challenge:

If that definition sounds murky—that is, if it’s unclear what 501(c)(4) organizations are allowed to do—that’s because it is murky. Particularly leading up to the 2012 elections, many conservative organizations, nominally 501(c)(4)s, were all but explicitly political in their work. For example, Americans for Prosperity, which was funded in part by the Koch Brothers, was an instrumental force in helping the Republicans hold the House of Representatives. In every meaningful sense, groups like Americans for Prosperity were operating as units of the Republican Party. Democrats organized similar operations, but on a much smaller scale. (They undoubtedly would have done more, but they lacked the Republican base for funding such efforts.)

So the scandal—the real scandal—is that 501(c)(4) groups have been engaged in political activity in such a sustained and open way. As Fred Wertheimer, the President of Democracy 21, a government-ethics watchdog group, put it, “it is clear that a number of groups have improperly claimed tax-exempt status as section 501(c)(4) ‘social welfare’ organizations in order to hide the donors who financed their campaign activities in the 2010 and 2012 federal elections.”

The real problem is the IRS was wasting time chasing the small fry while the big fish were allowed to freely cheat the system. President Obama can't fix that. Only Congress can, by making the rules clearer.

Update: Charlie Pierce has more on why the blame for this IRS mess is on Congress.

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Benghazi is the new circle derp

Obama is right. The Benghazi frenzy is a sideshow. Actually I would call it a freak show stuffed into a clown car, but not going to quibble about it. Certainly, it's painfully obvious why the GOPers are pushing it. With polling already being done showing she would blow anybody on both sides of the fence out of the race in 2016, they fear the Hillary.


[graphic via]

What may not be apparent, at least to those who don't watch the media players closely, is why our "both sides do it" journos suddenly got so interested in pushing such an obviously fake controversy and in fact, taking the GOP's side in blaming the White House. Kevin Drum thinks it boils down to just another fight over syntax.

No, it will be because the small group of reporters who are credentialed to the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room feels aggrieved that the press secretary told them something to their faces that concealed a bit of unseemly bureaucratic squabbling. It doesn't matter if the subject matter itself was important. In this case, it wasn't: the nickel version is that the State Department objected to the CIA adding a sentence making sure everyone knew they had warned about possible attacks beforehand, a statement that was both gratuitous and off subject. But trivial or not, Carney misled the reporters in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room about this, and that makes it personal.

Never underestimate the power of a press corps that suddenly decides the story is personal. It may be a while before they let go of this.

Maybe Kev wasn't on the twitter when it happened. The quibbling over the definition of the word "editing" was just a cover for why they were mad. The real outrage was over Jay having played favorites before the briefing started. He held a background briefing beforehand and only a few of the very important journalists were invited. So Kevin is right, it's personal. Hell hath no fury like a insider journo who's been consigned to the B list.

Meanwhile Greg Sargent wryly notes it feels like the 1990s all over again. Shorter, less polite version: Petty scandal mongering because of perceived slights is not responsible journalism. It's tacky and makes them look a pack of jackals.

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Rubio plays the fool - Updated

Well, I suppose Rubio's ridiculous demand will play well with the rubes:

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Monday called on the IRS commisioner to resign in the wake of the agency's admission that staffers in the Cincinatti branch targeted conservative non-profit groups for extra scrutiny in the run-up to the 2012 elections.

You see, the well deluded base probably won't hear this on Fox News.

Commissioner Douglas H. Shulman, who was appointed by President Bush in 2008 and held by President Obama, left the agency in Nov. 9, 2012. Any pre-election misconduct would have had to occur on his watch. The current acting commissioner is Steven T. Miller -- a permanent replacement has not been nominated.

When quizzed on this small fact, Rubio's office responded that of course Shulman couldn't be responsible, he was just the actual commissioner. Clearly, Miller is still responsible because he was the deputy the whole time.

Pretty sure Rubio won't be blaming this highly placed bureaucrat either. [Via Steve M]

Lois G. Lerner has been selected as the director of the Exempt Organizations Division of the Internal Revenue Service.

Chosen in December of 2005. Another Bush era appointee, so not guilty. I've also been wondering how many applications this division has to review in a year. Still not sure, but probably more than the 75 that were reviewed during the two years in question.

In this position, she will be responsible for administering and enforcing the tax laws that apply to more than 1.8 million organizations recognized by the IRS as exempt from tax.

Of course, not all of those are political front groups, but it does give us another clue about why the worker drones in that division may have been tempted to take shortcuts.

Update: Ed Kilgore has a good overview of psuedo-scandal fever and reminds BigMedia what their job is supposed to be.

So it would be nice if we could have a serious discussion of the abuse of tax exemptions to make it easier to pour obscene amounts of anonymous money into vicious and stupid campaign ads aimed at boosting the profits of the anonymous sources paying for them.

Of course, that will never happen because the same guys that should be investigated pour millions into their advertising revenue.

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Benghazi blowout fizzles

Darrell Issa's folly has been billed for days as the hearing that would blow the top off the alleged Benghazi cover-up. Or something. The leaks of the expected testimony of the very important whistleblowers were breathlessly touted as the bombshell that was going to drive Obama from office. The crackpot con echo chamber could hardly contain its excitement. And then the hearing happened. As you can see the committee was riveted.


[Luke Johnson photo via]

Appears this didn't go exactly as planned. To begin with their star witness with the very important title, Deputy chief of mission for the U.S. in Libya Gregory Hicks, seems to be mostly a glorified office manager with many responsibilities but little authority. Hick's pumped up bio is full of important sounding titles, but if you click through to the interviews his 22 years of experience seem to consist of ceremonial duties and shuttling messages between the actual negotiators.

That aside, the hearing was a bust mainly because it revealed nothing new and more importantly the testimony debunked the GOPers crackpot conspriracy theories. I leave it to Charlie Pierce to explain why this failed witch hunt feels all too familiar to those of us who remember the 1990s. Meanwhile, while it's tragic that these four people died in Benghazi, a little perspective is in order.



As someone on the twitter said, if only there was a way to compel the GOPers to explain to the American people why these four matter and all those others who died in attacks during the Bush administratin were never even mentioned.

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RNC exploits grieving Newtown mother in new ad

It's true that this new RNC ad where they're celebrating their "victory" over Obama in having squashed gun safety reform hits a new low in tasteless GOP gloating. But I'm only posting this because it shows the footage of Obama's last press conference where Jon Karl asked a stupid question about whether POTUS thought he's "lost his juice" because the bill couldn't even get to the floor for a simple up or down vote.

Our DC insider media was obsessed with this one stupid question. Everybody covered it at length. I've seen Obama's response described as sarcastic, defensive, irritated and bristling among other red siren adjectives. Watch the ad and see if you think that's an honest description.



I suppose sarcastic comes close, except the voice inflection sounds more like a teacher patiently explaining an obvious concept to an intellectually challenged student who needs so much extra help they probably should have been kept back a grade or two.

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Long time GOP intern caught in creepy cyber-stalking scandal

This kid, who apparently aspires to be a professional political intern, has worked with a lot of big name Republicans, including most recently Mitt Romney. It seems when he wasn't busy fetching coffee and pizza for his boss, Adam Savader, 21, was attempting to extort nude photos from random women he mostly knows from school.

Savader is a political science student at SUNY Farmingdale who’s interned for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan as well as Romney. He’s charged with illegally obtaining nude pictures of 15 women and threatening to make them public unless the women sent him more naked pictures of themselves.

Clearly he's a better hacker than he is an extortionist. He somehow retrieved the photos from the victim's personal email accounts and then launched his blackmail scheme. But he wasn't looking for money, just some forced virtual sexytime with the women of his dreams.

His other hobby was having his photo taken with celebrities "which he often posted online."

His Facebook page is filled with photos of him with several prominent politicos and actors, including Ryan, former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Minnesota Sen. Al Franken, Georgia Rep. Tom Price, Michelle Duggar from the TV show "19 Kids and Counting," tax lobbyist Grover Norquist, actor Allen Covert, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

And he "often bragged about about dressing up as 'Ellis the Elephant.'" In fact he was in the suit at the big annual ConCon, CPAC. So if you were a woman at CPAC and ever in proximity to Ellis the Elephant, chances are creepy intern stealthily took upshots of your undies if you were following the dress code and wearing a tasteful skirt with sensible pumps. And especially if you ignored the dress code and showed up in a miniskirt and cowboy boots.

The FBI press release has more of the icky details. The good old family values party. They never fail to amuse in their failures.

Addendum: Dave Weigel has lots more photos.

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Family values Republicans

Something light for a Sunday afternoon. Marcus Hook, PA, Mayor James “Jay” Schiliro (R-Crazy Drunk) won't be seeking re-election after all:

Authorities allege that late on the evening of Feb. 21, Schiliro contacted the young man by text message and had a Marcus Hook police officer deliver him to his borough home. There, with Schiliro’s 13-year-old daughter sleeping upstairs, the mayor allegedly gave the young man alcohol and produced three firearms, one of which was fired into papers inside the house.

During the encounter, the mayor repeatedly asked the young man if he could give him oral sex, according to court documents. Schiliro is not charged with any sex-related offenses.

However Mayor Schiliro does intend to serve out the remainder of his term because, he needs "to see it through." [via Taegan Goddard][photo via]

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