That Seal Was Real

(via jonnyjabberwockey)

doomsdayheartbreak:

(via stoneagechronicles)

stoneagechronicles:

These are the 38 Republicans who don’t care about the disabled. These are the 38 Republicans who chose to speak for the U.S. in saying, as a country, “we do not care.”

kileyrae:

It  makes sense if you don’t think about it.

stoneagechronicles:

cognitivedissonance:

quickhits:

GOP Crazies Tell GOP Crazies to Stop Being So Crazy.

It’s a case of the message being correct, but delivered by a perfectly inappropriate messenger. As Republicans sort through the rubble left behind by the 2012 election cycle, they’re beginning to divide into two camps: “we’ve got to stop being so danged crazy!” and “we weren’t even close to crazy enough.” It’s pretty clear who’s right here. After all, Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock, and Allen West didn’t lose their races because everyone thought they were big ol’ flaming liberals. They lost because their electorates were obviously tired of rightwing frootloops.

The problem with this intra-party division is that one group bleeds over into the other. Crazy people are demanding other crazy people stop being so darned crazy.

Politico:

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Monday called on Republicans to “stop being the stupid party” and make a concerted effort to reach a broader swath of voters with an inclusive economic message that pre-empts efforts to caricature the GOP as the party of the rich.

In his first interview since his party’s electoral thumping last week, Jindal urged Republicans to both reject anti-intellectualism and embrace a populist-tinged reform approach that he said would mitigate what exit polls show was one of President Barack Obama’s most effective lines of attack against Mitt Romney.

“We’ve got to make sure that we are not the party of big business, big banks, big Wall Street bailouts, big corporate loopholes, big anything,” Jindal told POLITICO in a 45-minute telephone interview. “We cannot be, we must not be, the party that simply protects the rich so they get to keep their toys.”

“It is no secret we had a number of Republicans damage our brand this year with offensive, bizarre comments — enough of that,” Jindal said. “It’s not going to be the last time anyone says something stupid within our party, but it can’t be tolerated within our party. We’ve also had enough of this dumbed-down conservatism. We need to stop being simplistic, we need to trust the intelligence of the American people and we need to stop insulting the intelligence of the voters.”

Pretty on the money. Only one problem: Bobby Jindal is the stereotypical Republican whackjob. After all, it was Jindal who bizarrely criticized volcano monitoring as a waste of money. Ironically, Jindal later blew $200 million on a scheme to protect Louisiana from the Deepwater Horizon oil slick — after being warned by scientists that it wouldn’t work. For the record, Louisiana’s not a wealthy state with hundreds of millions of dollars they can flush down the toilet whenever the governor thinks he’s an engineering genius.

If Bobby Jindal represents any wing of the Republican Party, it’s the crazy anti-science and anti-fact wing. This is a man who participated in an exorcism in college and signed what is most likely the most backwards piece of education legislation into law. Among the “facts” kids in Louisiana are now allowed to learn are that dinosaurs and humans lived side by side, that “God used the Trail of Tears to bring many Indians to Christ,” and that slavery and the Great Depression are being misrepresented as bad things.

This is the guy who’s telling other Republicans to stop being so crazy.

But my point isn’t to single out Jindal. The point is that Jindal represents a real problem for the GOP — namely, that crazy people don’t know that they’re crazy. He’s absolutely correct that the GOP needs to stop being the party of morons and lunatics, but he has absolutely no idea that he’s one of those morons and lunatics. He wants to see Republicans stop promoting every brand of conservative craziness but the science-denialism that embraces creationism and believes global warming is a hoax perpetrated by socialist scientists. Republicans have to reject every form of insanity and idiocy except his particular brand, because his isn’t crazy or stupid.

And that’s the entire GOP’s problem in a nutshell. They all need to stop being nutjobs, but they all think the other sort of nutjob is the problem. So the anti-science nuts blame the anti-abortion nuts, who in turn blame the economic flatearthers, who point their fingers at the next group of crazies down the line. You can see how well that’ll pan out for them.

No, what Republicans need is not for one group of lunatics to start listening to another group of lunatics. What the Republican Party needs is new Republicans. And the old Republicans aren’t exactly willing to be replaced by a saner brand. Nor are Republican voters eager to replace them.

So they’re left with Bobby Jindal as a prime example of their dilemma; he both put his finger directly on his party’s problem and totally misunderstood it at the same time. And so, it’s unlikely that the problem will be solved anytime soon.

-Wisco

[image source]

I once witnessed a guy who was tripping the light fantastic have an argument with his reflection over who deserved the blame for taking “a drug bomb made of sad” in the first place.

I imagine this now the current state of the GOP.

tl;dr version of Jindal: The whole Republican party needs to Etch-A-Sketch. Except for me.

thedailywhat:

What Is Rape? of the Day: Andy Borowitz puts it best: ”There’s something wrong with our politics if we can’t even agree about rape anymore.”

[thefrisky]

(via stoneagechronicles)

mikeo56:

Letting Us Die: Republican Governors Are The New “Death Panel”

Meet the newest “Death Panel” on the block.

They are the six Republican governors who have vowed refuse the Medicaid expansion that will happen most other states, under the Affordable Care Act — Rick Scott (FL), Rick Perry (TX), Phil Bryant (MS), Nikki Haley (SC), Terry Branstad (IA), and Bobby Jindal (LA). These Republican governors are opening the “trap door”  that the Supreme Court installed in the Affordable Care Act, even at it upheld most of the law. But it’s the poorest residents in these states, many of whom are African American and Latino, and who would have gained health coverage and access to care, that will fall through that trap door. 

While the Court upheld the bulk of the Affordable Care Act, it weakened the Medicaid expansion written into the bill.  Since Medicaid is a federally-funded, state-administered program, under the health care reform law, the federal government would pay 100% of the state governments’ additional costs for the first three years of the Medicaid expansion, and 93% each year after that.  As the law was written, the federal government could take away the existing Medicaid funding of states that refused the Medicaid expansion. However, the Supreme Court ruled that states could refuse to expand their Medicaid programs, and the federal government can’t penalize them by taking away their existing Medicaid funding.

In other words, the Supreme Right Wing Court left the “carrot” but took away the “stick,” and in the process cut a hole in health care reform just big enough for millions of Americans who need its benefits the most to slip right through.

GOP and GOP Supreme Court Scum Are Shit

(via stoneagechronicles)

holygoddamnshit:

33 ROMNEY QUOTES: THE PRINCE OF PANDER

by Ed S. Staff, Perspectives

Willard Mitt Romney seems to have a habit of trying to say the right thing to the right people at the right time.  The problem for Willy is that it seems like most of the time he directly contradicts something that he said to someone else.   Americans are used to politicians pandering to various groups, but as the GOP decides which nominee they would like to choose to lose to President Obama, some are finding it hard to see exactly where Mitt stands on any of the issues. 

Mitt Romney once said that he has the “learned to work with people across the aisle.”  It may in fact be true that Romney has a knack for building consensuses among conservatives and liberals alike as none are sure whether or not to trust Mitt Romney on the issues.   As a public service to both parties we have compiled a list to find out just where Mitt Romney stands…

…on a woman’s right to choose

 FLIP:   “I will preserve and protect the woman’s right to choose.”

FLOP:   “I have consistently been prolife.”

…on legalized abortions

 FLIP:   “I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country.”

FLOP:  “The right next step in the fight to preserve the sanctity of life, is to see Roe v Wade overturned.” 

…on the Occupy Wall Street movement

 FLIP:   “I think it’s dangerous, this is class warfare.”

FLOP:   “I look at what’s happening on Wall Street, and my own view is boy, I understand how those people feel.” 

…on Ronald Reagan’s policies

 FLIP:   “Look, I was an independent during the time of Reagan/Bush, I am not trying to return to Reagan/Bush.”

FLOP:   “The principles that Ronald Reagan espoused are as true today as they were when he spoke them.”

…on the Blunt Amendment

 FLIP:   “I am not for the bill”

FLOP:   “Of course I support the Blunt Amendment.”

…on the Recovery Act

 FLIP:   “I have never supported the President’s Recovery Act, alright the stimulus.  No time, no where, no how have I supported the President’s stimulus.”

FLOP:   “I think there is need for economic stimulus.  American’s have lost about 11 trillion dollars in net worth.  And government can help make that up in a very difficult time.”

…on TARP

 FLIP:   “TARP got paid back and it kept the financial system from collapsing….it was the right thing to do.”

FLOP:  “TARP outta be ended.”

…on extending the payroll tax cut

 FLIP:   “Look, I don’t like temporary little bandaids.”

FLOP:   “I would like to see the payroll tax cut extended.”

…on gun laws

 FLIP:  “We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts.  I support them.  I won’t chip away at them.”

FLOP:  “When I was Governor, I worked closely with the NRA and the Gun Owners Action League to advance legislation that expanded the rights of gun owners in my state.”

…on saving the auto industry

 FLIP:  “I’m not willing to sit back and say too bad for Michigan, too bad for the car industry.”

FLOP:    “That’s exactly what I said, let Detroit go bankrupt.”

…on health coverage mandates

 FLIP:   “I like mandates.”

FLOP:   “The federal constitution does not allow for mandates to be provided by the government.”

…on Health Reform

 FLIP:  “That’s what we did in Massachusetts and that is we put together an exchange and the President is copying that idea, I’m glad to hear that.”

FLOP:   “Obamacare is bad news and if I am President, I will repeal it.”

…on Global Warming

 FLIP:   “I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans contribute to that.”

FLOP:   “My view is we don’t know what is causing climate change on this planet.”

…on assault weapon ban

 FLIP:   “I do not support any new legislation of an assault weapon ban nature.”

FLOP:  “I just signed a piece of legislation extending the ban on certain assault weapons.”

…on himself

 FLIP:   “I think you’ll find that I’ve been as consistent as a human beings can be.”

FLOP:   “If you are looking for someone who has never changed any positions on any policies, than I’m not your guy.”

In 1994 Mitt Romney ran against the Liberal Lion Ted Kennedy, for his Senate seat, and described himself as an independent during the Reagan/Bush years.  During his run for Massachusetts Governor he once said, “I am someone who is moderate and my views are progressive.”  While speaking to CPAC this year he told the audience, “I have been a firm conservative.”   We have determined that while we all struggle to find the principles and core beliefs of Mitt Romney, at least on this subject we may be able to believe his latest description of his political beliefs.  It could be true that he is in fact a conservative, because we have determined that he must believe firmly in at least one of the theories of the Right-Wing Philosopher Ayn Rand who once quipped, “Contradictions do not exist.  Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises.”

(via nonplussedbyreligion-deactivate)