When the little head does the thinking

Didn't get to post this last night before the debate but it's amusing enough that I still want to archive here for future historians. I mean it is kind of funny that the guy who claimed the terrorists hate us for our moral depravity, Dinesh D'Souza, got caught sharing a hotel room with his "finance" who appears to be half his age and for whom he apparently decided to dump his wife of 20 years.

Did I mention, this little tryst happened at some big Christian convention of the self-righteously "more moral than us heathens" where Mr. D'Souza was the keynote speaker? And our paragon of virtue quite suddenly decided to file for said divorce after their night together, where, he assures us, absolutely nothing that could be even remotely construed as carnal relations happened?

He should have just confessed to his momentary lapse into weakness of the flesh and begged God for forgiveness. The church elders love that stuff. Would have shortened the penance period before they could declare him absolved.

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Unraveling Paul Ryan's career in 23 seconds

I missed this bobblehead show where the Mayor of Atlanta, Kasim Reed, summed up Paul Ryan's clown act perfectly and almost made Peggy Noonan's head explode, judging by the the look on her face.



Okay, so maybe Peggers was just trying to suppress a wine induced fart. But she clearly was not amused.

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When Paul Ryan loved stimulus spending

Filed under IOKIYAR, what a difference a decade makes. I mean, let's just review Congressman Ryan's vigorous defense of stimulus spending in a previous life:

“What we're trying to accomplish here is the recognition of the fact that in recessions, unemployment lags on well after a recovery has taken place,” Ryan said at the time. “We have a lot of laid-off workers, and more layoffs are occurring. And we know, as a historical fact, that even if our economy begins to slowly recover, unemployment is going to linger on and on well after that recovery takes place.”

Ryan’s advocacy of stimulus spending wasn’t limited to Washington, either. When he returned home to face constituents, he used similar language to make the case for the Bush stimulus bill. “You have to spend a little to grow a little,” Ryan told constituents at a town hall in Wisconsin in January 2002, according to the Journal-Times, a local newspaper. “What we're trying to do is stimulate that part of the economy that's on its back." [...]

“We've got to get the engine of economic growth growing again, because we now know because of recession, we don't have the revenues that we wanted to, we don't have the revenues we need, to fix Medicare, to fix Social Security. To fix these issues we've got to get Americans back to work,” Ryan said. “Then the surpluses come back, then the jobs come back. That is the constructive answer we're trying to accomplish here on, yes, a bipartisan basis.”

Back then Congressman Ryan was all about creating jobs and helping the unemployed. Fast forward to the present day and now the same policy is simply dangerous and unacceptable socialism that creates a culture of dependency.

I've already done a longer post at Detroit News on this one, so I won't repeat my commentary here. I'll just add, if overdosing on hypocrisy was fatal, these guys would all be dead.

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Spending cuts are for other people

In light of Rmoney's tone deaf response to yesterday's media manufactured Obama "gaffe," Digby takes a little stroll down memory lane and recalls when the Governator attacked public employees as special interests. She makes a good point, but I found this bit at the end about the state of fiscal conservatism even more interesting:

Members of the House of Representatives voted Friday to protect their own office expense accounts from budget cuts.

The bipartisan 307-102 vote came on a $3.3 billion measure funding congressional operations.

Republicans controlling the House have been trying to cut domestic agency budgets by about 5 percent. But when it came to their own staff, travel and office expenses, GOP leaders opted to freeze their $574 million budget after two years of cuts.

The funding bill includes a 1 percent cut that comes chiefly from cutting back on repairs to the iconic Capitol dome, which dates to the Civil War.

After passing the measure, lawmakers immediately left Washington for a weeklong vacation.

It's the entrenched establishment politico's creed: Suffering for thee, but not for me.

They pay no price for it. It goes practically unnoticed because the establishment media would rather invent a fauxtroversy to fit the horserace narrative than report Congressional hypocrisy. Besides, big media won't pump up a story like this because they don't want to risk their access or their place on the cocktail party circuit.

The depressing thing is, I don't see a way to change that dynamic. Media doesn't pay a price for this crap either. In fact, they get rewarded for it too. It's enough to drive you to drink. [graphic via]

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Conservative family values

Innocent until proven guilty and all that, but it's not like this is the first time we've seen an alleged "family values" conservative commit violent crimes against women.

March 17, 2012 (Lemon Grove)—Lemon Grove resident Michael John Kobulnicky, 50, a leader in the San Diego Tea Party and former regional director of the Southern California Conservative Party, is under arrest for allegedly kidnapping and raping a local woman on Fiesta Island.

“He dragged her out of the car and sexually assaulted her pretty brutally,” San Diego Police Lt. Andra Brown told ECM news partner 10 News in late February, shortly after the February 25 assault occurred.

Not only that, but one of the charges is rape with a foreign object. Whatever the hell that means. Apparently he offered her a ride home and then instead, he took her to a presuambly secluded place and left her lying there on the sand after he finished brutalizing her. And we might mention his former wife charged him with abuse as well.

Again, he hasn't been convicted yet, but both the Tea Party and the SoCal Con Party were quick to disown him. Meanwhile, one can only hope the unfortunate woman he is supposed to marry next month has the sense to call off the wedding.

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I am curious, homosexual

I used to follow the annual con-Con festivities for the amusement value but just not finding CPAC as entertaining this year. Nothing ever changes. Same bigoted idiots, different year. But this is vaguely amusing.

As always, you have your attendees who vow to fight to the death to protect the sanctity of marriage between a man a woman and stop those damn queers from getting married. But hey, a little discreet homo-experimentation? Bring it on big boy. Or boys, as the case may be.

You have your Craig's list pitches and your Grindr searches going on even as you read this. Oh, and in case you didn't know, and I just found out myself yesterday, Grindr is apparently the place where gay men go to meet online.

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Things you won't see on TV

Why is it only bloggers post context like this? Bob Cesca's Chart of the Day would seem relevant to the discussion in a sane world.

Remember the GOP's great concern about the national debt during the Reagan and Bush Jr. administrations? Me neither.

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GOPer Joe Walsh: Real 'Murkins skip out on child support

Tea Party freshman, Rep. Joe Walsh shrugs off 117K in unpaid child support. No big deal he says, that's "real America" for you. Apparently in his "real America" it's just fine for deadbeat Dads to fail to support their kids while taking European vacations with their girlfriends and loaning their campaigns 35K here and there.

This is the same guy, who made this viral video about the fake debt crisis in DC:

“I won’t place one more dollar of debt upon the backs of my kids and grandkids unless we structurally reform the way this town spends money!” Walsh says directly into the camera in his viral video lecturing Obama on the need to get the nation’s finances in order.

To be fair, the support arrears is in dispute. He claims he only owes about 10K, which of course totally justifies the vacations, the loans and the high priced rent he pays for a new home in a tony neighborhood for his current family. But not so easy to write it off as a domestic dispute given Walsh's history of fiscal irresponsibility.

He lost a 300K condo for failure to pay the mortgage, there are, or were, liens on his property from unpaid bills and a former staffer is suing him for 20K in unpaid salary. This is the guy who is holding the US economy hostage unless he gets to force his vision of "fiscal responsibility" into law. We're so screwed.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Boehner refuses to honor successful bin Laden mission

The Senate already passed their own resolution but Speaker Boehner won't allow the House to honor the team that took down bin Laden. Boehner cites the new House rules passed along party lines in January that "prohibit the consideration of any measure that “expresses appreciation, commends, congratulates, celebrates, recognizes the accomplishments of, or celebrates the anniversary of, an entity, event, group, individual, institution, team or government program; or acknowledges or recognizes a period of time for such purposes.”

However, the House was allowed to pass measures naming a Texas courthouse for the two Presidents Bush and a post office for a U.S. soldier slain in Iraq. The rules apparently allow this sort of tribute one day a month. But that aside, if memory serves, those new House rules were passed on January 5, 2011. Yet on Jan. 12, 2011 a sobbing Boehner called up a resolution honoring those killed and wounded in the Gabrielle Giffords shooting. "First responders and those who helped subdue the gunman were also noted in the resolution and Boehner pointed out their contributions."

Furthermore, the rule doesn't appear to prohibit the introduction and tabling of resolutions. A look at the list of current House actions lists 251 single resolutions alone. Among them are resolutions "Calling on the State Department to list the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as a 'Country of Particular Concern' with respect to religious freedom", expressing condolences with Australia over the deadly floods, recognizing the anniversary of the tragic earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010, supporting the contributions of Catholic schools, supporting "Hockey is For Everyone Month" and "Celebrating the life of President Ronald Wilson Reagan on the 100th anniversary of his birth." Granted none of these appear to have come to a vote but they still take up time on the floor to introduce.

Also, it's not like the GOP doesn't have a history of pushing numerous honoray resolutions themselves. In July of 2010, Boehner co-sponsored a resolution honoring the troops in Iraq. And no complaints about wasting time when the House similarly honored a basketball player/jazz musician in July 2009, honored a pro-surfer in May 2010, and honored a former Congressman in December 2010.

And of course, the most infamous resolution of all was when 32 Republicans sponsored a resolution honoring serial liar James O'Keefe stating that O'Keefe was "owed a debt of gratitude by the people of the United States" for doctoring the videos that led to the demise of their hated enemy ACORN.

Funny, I'm so old I remember when every other phrase out of the GOP's mouths was "honor the troops." Now that these same troops took down US Public Enemy Number One after he was at large for almost ten years, Boehner's response is meh? Don't suppose that has anything to do with the fact there's a Democrat in the Oval Office, does it?

Poor Little Rich Man

Republican Congressman Denny Rehberg held a town hall in his home state of Montana and tells his constituents he feels their pain:

"I’m a small businessman. My wife is a small businessman. She hasn’t taken a salary in ten years as a result of business. We’re struggling like everyone else. With the economy," Rehberg said.

Yep just a small businessman running a multi-million dollar ranch, who, "as of 2009 records, is the 14th richest member of the House of Representatives. Opensecrets.org estimates that his average net worth in 2009 was $31 million." And maybe he's just the 23rd richest guy in Congress. The calculations vary. And of course he doesn't mention that he gets a high six figure annual base salary at the expense of the taxpayers. Poor guy says he is just "land rich and cash poor."

I guess to be fair, even though he's getting that dependable hefty paycheck and is holding on to real assets that he could sell for millions or borrow against, when you're hanging out with multi-billionaires like the Koch Brothers, you just feel poor dammit. That's just like some poor, landless working schlub, scraping by from week to week on a couple of hundred bucks or less.

Sardonic laughter

Krugman does his civic duty and reports catching George Will in moment of hypocrisy. Seriously, I laughed out loud, but it wasn't a happy chortle.

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Sacrifice for thee, but not for Tea Party

I'm surprised to see this today, what with the establishment media breathlessly awaiting the latest Tea Party protest in DC over the spending cuts, but good for ABC for pointing out Tea Party hypocrisy on agricultural subsidies:

While the majority of American farmers receive no government money at all, at least 23 current members of congress or their families have received government money for their farms -- combining for more than $12 million since 1995 according to a new report from the Environmental Working Group. [...]

In 2009 alone, government farm subsidies totaled more than $16 billion. They totaled almost a quarter of a trillion dollars over the last 15 years.

Yet they don't seem to be on the Tea Party hit list and only one of the recipients was willing to unequivocally state he would abolish them altogether.

It's far from a complete list, but SoBeale gives us the lowdown on her state's TP beneficiary and reminds me that Michelle Bachmann is also on that list.

This subsidy program ceased being a safety net for small farmers long ago. In fact, the bulk of agricultural subsidies go to corporations and many receive money who are not even actually farming the land. Indeed, even George Bush tried to eliminate them, but the "fiscally concerned" Congresscreatures of the corn belt block won't let them go. Guessing the 10% who collect 74% of the subsidies are big campaign funders.

Newt goes for the incoherent defense

Deleting his old silly tweets won't solve his larger problems. In his latest attempt to explain his complete aboutface on Libya, Newt keeps digging that hole deeper.

Newt a couple of weeks ago:

GINGRICH: All we have to say is that slaughtering your own citizens is unacceptable, and we’re intervening. And we don’t have to send troops, all we have to do is suppress his air force, which we can do in minutes. And then we have to say, publicly, that he is gone, that the military should switch sides now. … The fact there’s no more Libya air power, and the fact that the United States has come out decisively for replacing him, I suspect the military will dump him.

Newt yesterday:

GINGRICH: If they’re serious about protecting civilians, you can’t do that from the air. Gadaffi is going to use light infantry, he’s going to use his secret police. He’s going to be in the cities, he’s going to be inside buildings. Your not going to be able to do that with air power. This is a fundamental mistake. And I think is a typical politician’s over-reliance on air power.

And Newt is showing a typical GOP reliance on saying what he thinks the audience wants to hear, no matter how contradictory or nonsenical.

Of course he is far from the only one. There's a whole raft of hypocritical GOPers taking 180 degree turns in their position on the Libya "intervention." It used to be sort of joke, but it's the new reality now. The GOP's entire platform really can be summed up with, "Whatever Obama, (or the Democratic party), does is bad and we're against it. Even if we initially recommended the policy."

Addendum: In the second link, Michigan Rep. Candice Miller is misidentified as a Democrat. I tweeted Jon Karl who was listed an a co-author of the piece when I noticed it this morning. No response and no correction so far. Be interesting to see if they ever fix it.

Health care for he, but not for thee

Blue America PAC has been running health care hypocrite ads against some GOPers who voted for repeal of health care reform out of "fiscal concern" but then take the taxpayer subsidized benefits for themselves. Seems they only got the ad on NJ Rep Lance half right.

The good news for at least one of those congressmen is that Blue America got it wrong. It turns out that Republican Rep. Leonard Lance of New Jersey had, in fact, turned down his federal benefits. Thus, the Blue America ads were not accurate.

The bad news is that the reason Rep. Lance turned down the federal benefits is because he’s already getting a better policy at a much better deal from the State of New Jersey. As a retiree from the state senate, he qualified for a free Cadillac style health care plan the state provides for retirees and their families (he does have to pay co-pays but no premiums) for life. [...]

Lance receives family health coverage that is free except for co-pays, the state Department of Treasury confirmed Friday. The former state senator, assemblyman and Kean administration official qualified for retirement in 2006, his 25th year of service. He retired in January 2009, when he moved on to Washington, and enrolled in the state’s free health plan for retirees.

Guess he's not worried about Christie's threat to cut those "lavish retiree benefits" in the next budget. I'm guessing that will only apply to the union workers, not to the political class.

Relentless GOP hypocrisy

No great surprise in Eric Cantor's gross hypocrisy in taking credit for a job fair, made possible by some $52 million in stimulus money that he voted against and relentlessly claims didn't create any jobs. I'm expecting to get another email from the DCCC in a couple of days "alerting" me to it. But Cantor is far from the only GOPer taking credit for Democratic bills that they voted against en masse. What I want to know is why the establishment Dems aren't out there every time pushing that narrative into the big media news cycle instead of waiting around for the bloggers to do all the pushback.

GOP touts deficit raising tax cuts with no offsets

Shorter GOP as voiced by John Kyl: Republicans can't possibly support deficit spending that benefits the working class or extends the social safety net. However, tax cuts for the wealthy don't ever need to be paid for in advance. Eric Cantor agrees wholeheartedly.

As Ezra points out, "Back in the real world, tax cuts and spending increases have the exact same affect on the budget deficit. This sort of comment is how you tell people who care about the deficit apart from people who are interested in exploiting fears of the deficit to shrink the size of government."

And Steve Benen thinks it's a lousy message to be sending to Americans. I agree of course, but sadly the people in the GOP base probably won't see it that way. Not even with pictures like this:

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Souder resigns to spend more time with his family values

My interest in Mark Souder dates back to when I was blogging strictly for drug policy reform and even then there few bigger liars than him among the prohibitionists. Of course, he is also one of the biggest social conservatives in the House, pontificating at great length about family values and pushing the abstinence only approach to birth control. Happy to have lived long enough to see him get the payback for his hypocrisy. He announced today he's resigning his office because he got caught having an affair with a staffer.

Oddly, the scandal didn't take hold until now. He just survived a contested primary on the claim the allegations were just a smear tactic. One wonders what happened since then to change his mind. But in any event he's gone now and the Congress will be better off for it.

The biggest surprise to me is that he actually resigned. Most of the GOPers on this list who were caught up in sexual hanky panky stick it out. Anyway, if you care for a little schadenfreude with your coffee, you might want to watch his testimony on abstinence before Congress. Apparently there's another video on the subject where his lover appears as his interviewer. Expect that youtube will surface soon.  Sorry, Souder's alleged mistress is the one introducing him in the video at the last link.

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The Family

The day slipped away from me and I need to run an errand so here's a fascinating look at the entity behind the C Street house. They're not just running a quasi-brothel. They're also a shadow lobbyist group for the foreign policy interests of various dictators and tyrants. But they're registered as a church and pay no taxes.

Why do I think if this was left wing organization, Politico would be all over this story?

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C Street Follies

Beyond comical. Yet another denizen of the C St. House that harbored philanderers Ensign and Sanford, among other good Christian GOPers, has been caught "in flagrante."

In an "alienation of affection" lawsuit, former Rep. Charles W. Pickering Jr.'s estranged wife, Leisha, alleges that he carried on an extramarital affair...

I guess the "C" is for Casanova. More at TPM.

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WaPo - Access for Sale - Updated

In the wake of the ongoing hissy fit among of the "serious" journalists of unearned privilege about Obama's audacity in "controlling the media," this morning's revelation of the WaPo's pay to play scheme is especially amusing.

For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few" — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper’s own reporters and editors.

Yes for only 25K for one, or the bargain rate of 250K for all 11, you too can attend "an evening with the right people" at an "off-the-record dinner and discussion at the home of CEO and Publisher Katharine Weymouth" and "can alter the debate." The flyer promises intimate access to key Obama administration and congressional leaders and of course, the WaPo's own crack team of impeccably objective reporters and editors. First "WaPo Salon" is titled, "Health-Care Reform: Better or Worse for Americans? The reform and funding debate." Oddly, although I've been tirelessly blogging about the subject, I didn't get an invite to this "unique opportunity for stakeholders to hear and be heard." Surely, an oversight.

Unsurprisingly, the news lit up the Memeorandum board immediately and the WaPo newsroom was quick to respond.

The flier circulated this morning came out of a business division for conferences and events, and the newsroom was unaware of such communication. It went out before it was properly vetted, and this draft does not represent what the company’s vision for these dinners are, which is meant to be an independent, policy-oriented event for newsmakers. As written, the newsroom could not participate in an event like this.

We do believe there is an opportunity to have a conferences and events business, and that The Post should be leading these conversations in Washington, big or small, while maintaining journalistic integrity. The newsroom will participate where appropriate.

In other words, the flier makes it sound so sordid, but they still want to do it. I wonder what exact format would allow the WaPo to sell access to itself and major stakeholders and still maintain their "journalistic integrity?" And how is it they can guarantee attendance by government officials involved in making policy? Can't wait for Dana Milbank and Fred Hiatt to explain it to us.

Update: Dinner canceled due to bad press.

Weymouth knew of the plans to host small dinners at her home and to charge lobbying and trade organizations for participation. But, one of the executives said, she believed that there would be multiple sponsors, to minimize any appearance of charging for access, and that the newsroom would be in charge of the scope and content of any dinners in which Post reporters and editors participated.

Brauchli said he had been involved in discussions, stretching back to last year, about newsroom participation in conferences of the sort commonly staged by major news organizations.

Not clear to me how selling more tickets makes the concept any less unethical. Still pay to play so matter how you word the flyers.

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