Is it me or does that gym look like something out of Hoosiers?

A bunch of baby strollers. Empty baby strollers. Damn it, this means something…

ayn rand and a mormon walk into a bar… that’s it, no punchline

Have to say, the Republican “base” are bunch of ungrateful fucks aren’t they?

Willard thinks that rich white guys are teh awesome so double the rich white guys = double teh awesome. Like I’ve said repeatedly: he just can’t help himself looking rich and clueless.

Looks like Mitt has given up on the pigmented voters.

Shitting the bed again, but with Rafalca-like results this time!

Well played, Master Romney. Well played.

And the “wrinklies” as well.

From previous – Blondo Boots are the Boots of choice for the chic urban professional. They’re Canadian. Nordstrom’s have them.

I’m sure they hope Ryan will entice a few of the women who have wandered off back into the fold.

I look forward to the Ryan-Biden debate. I hope there’s more than one. That’s going to be a fiasco for team Rich White Guy, even more than the Palin-Biden debate was for team Old White Guy.

You’re right. Ryan has all the charm of a toothache.

It’s not just the lack of charm but his inability to stop himself spouting the discredited, heartless Randian economic theories he’s in love with. Ryan could get wound up enough to change the conversation in this country. When given the choice, people are going to vote against austerity for themselves, every time.

Some snarky website, Mashable.com, claims this guy, Ryan has had his Wiki page edited. They removed his, High School Award. Ryan was voted, “Biggest Brown Noser”. Seems to good to be true.

Already, I can see Ryan is not nearly as funny as a Mormon Bishop baptizing dead people.

The Rmoney/Ryan machine generates all the excitement of giving your wife socks on your anniversary.

Wait ’til the Tea Party realize the Lyin’ Ryan Budget guts their medical coverage …

Don’t get cocky. Al Gore was a mental genius compared to W, the alcoholic that folks wanted to have a beer with. John Kerry was stomping W’s ass until he went windsurfing and checked out for two weeks. John McCain was even-steven until the economy collapsed in October (watch out for October–it’s when 3rd Quarter reports come in). And no one was believing the Ryan nonsense in 2010 that the ACA cut Medicare.

Dick Cheney and Alan Simpson were circumspect and toning down the scary on McNeill-Lehrer News Hour in the 1980s. Expect the monster to dial back to the Munster.

And remember that this is going to be a total $3 billion to $4 billion campaign—and that’s just the Presidential race. It will be amazing if folks will know how to leave the house after the media blitz that is coming.

That machine seems to be designed to generate money and base enthusiasm. It remains to be seen if it will but early indications are that team Rmoney isn’t going to get much help from the msm with his Ryan pick. Even the beltway clowns are shaking their collective heads.

Not for my Obama-hating Republican friends. A black man in the White House just sets them off and rationality completely disappears.

Hmmm. . . yes!

Biden can make Ryan look like Dan Quayle at Lloyd Bentsen’s hands. It wouldn’t be hard to do.

I always thought Bentsen had some pre-debate intel and was just waiting for his moment like the Cheshire cat. It was awfully good, no?

(watch out for October–it’s when 3rd Quarter reports come in)

True but I’ve been seeing a great many indications at least in my community that commerce is on a pretty serious uptick. Lots of new construction and new occupation of empty retail space are just a couple of indicators. There is also a whole lot of freight on the roads. I think the third quarter reports will be Rmoney’s surprise in October.

Biden can make Ryan look like Dan Quayle at Lloyd Bentsen’s hands. It wouldn’t be hard to do.

somehow biden managed to do nothing to palin though, and even though we thought she showed herself the moron the republicans were exuberant with her performance

biden will take it easy on ryan just like he took it easy on palin

why?

he doesn’t want to look like a bully I guess

Yes, yes. My community, which is small, has had two new retail buildings up this past 6 – 8 months.
No job for me, but I’m feeling hopeful for the neighborhood’s upswing.

Biden let Palin disintegrate all by herself, he couldn’t smack her down and risk being labeled anti-feminist.

Biden will smack Ryan like he did Giuliani … remember his famous line that won him the Veep ?

he doesn’t want to look like a bully I guess

Ah! But Ryan’s not a woman. The chivalrous Biden might be a tad less polite.
EDIT: Just think of it, a person as ideologically rigid and outside the mainstream as Palin without the protections her gender affords her from gentlemen of Biden’s generation. He’ll mop the floor with Ryan.

Not for my Obama-hating Republican friends. A black man in the White House just sets them off and rationality completely disappears.

Mitt already had that vote.

Book Salon up with Jonathan Caulkins, Mark Kleiman, and Angela Hawken’s Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs To Know hosted by Pete Guither

That’s the idea to put in folks head, they say the limit for cuts is 55 but everyone knows once the foot’s in the door that will change. Let people know they are being sold a bunch of crap.

Who knows demi? I hope you get a job soon but I’m glad you have a good man to lean on a bit during this time. :)

Aw, Peg. I’m part of a team here, and I’m appreciative.
As, you know, there’s a real long line of people looking for a job these days.

Looking for a job? Jaysus, it just took me three years to get -back- to where I was 15 years ago. If I knew maths I could diagram this.

I’m deeply, deeply amused by the Republican meme that ‘the good people’ care about the debt. Screw the debt. I want to work in the kind of job for which I trained! The debt can take care of itself!

(With the note that at the end of the month I’m off to take up a very tentative sort of job in Rock Island, IL. Hunh. This is desperation time. A Westerner in Rock Island? Rilly? I don’t mass nearly enough to do this.)

I have seen that nugget in various places about the ZEGS* being voted Biggest Brown-Noser by his high school classmates, but was stunned a few minutes ago to actually hear that on the hourly NPR news feed (before the start of Weekend ATC). It won’t be a surprise to me if a few phone calls are being made, to see to it that they yank that from subsequent re-broadcasts.

*Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver (praise be to Charlie Pierce)

Well, too bad. It’s going to survive for posterity on TBogg’s NYC survival tips for the L&TC.

Geez, all the O’s team has to do is play Mike Wallace’s interview with the disgusting Ayn Rand opining on religion and atruism and self-interest interspersed with the Zombie-eyyed Grannie- starver waxing love for said creepy, RUSSIAN!!!, Rand and how she shaped his whole philosophy. Then cut to Catholic Bishops and Nuns talking about the ‘immoral’ Ryan budget. Then cut to asshole, immoral, tax cheat Romney defending a plan that the powerful Catholic Church HATES, the Church with the dead leader that said asshole uses to ‘defend’ ‘Christains’ against the dastard O’s horrible, terrible CONTRACEPTIVES!!!!. God, this is gonna be easy.

The minute children of the future retirees realize that, no, they’ll NEVER get to retire themselves because the reverse mortgage has left their inheritance with Goldman Sachs or Bank of America and there’s no Social Security or Medicare to make them or their parents halfway secure, so said parents are now living in THEIR basement, I don’t know….it writes itself. Hell, I am a granny…actually, I’m a new great-granny, and I could write these ads in my sleep. It may not suprise you to find out that putting a ton of a percentage of my income away in savings every month has not, I repeat NOT netted me 100 million dollars in my IRA. I just can’t figure it out.

Mmm-mmm-mmm! Nothin’ women love more than a guy with “zombie eyes,” that crinkle in his earlobes that indicates a genetic predisposition to heart disease, and the ears of a psychopathic killer. (Seriously–look at the ears of a few famous murderers.)

I wasn’t going to post about Mitt’s zombie-eyed granny-starver wingman….

Well, I don’t see how Romney/Ryan could possibly be any worse for granny (and the rest of the world) than Obummer II (Bush IV).

It’s really no surprise the Kenyan Usurped miscalculated again and didn’t sign Ryan onto Team KillKill before Willard fluttered his dreamy baby-blues…

By the way, can Charlie Pierce please get a Pulizer Prize for what will become one of the greatest labels ever slapped upon a politician that is guaranteed to, not only stick for generations to come, ala”Tricky Dick”, but may just shape the election of 2012? Fabulous! I love Charlie. Zombie – Eyed Granny Starver forever. Toast…Paul Ryan is going to be toast, and we can only hope he and Miitens finally spell doom for this insane Republican party.

Well, conservative women do have an odd sense of what makes a man attractive.

Come to think of it, so do conservative men.

we can only hope he and Miitens finally spell doom for this insane Republican party.

Firebagger says “no”, this is just what the Republican Party wants…

Nonetheless, they are excited. No enthusiasm gap there. As might have been the case if the Baptists looked askance of Romney’s Mormonism. Racial bigotry trumps religious bigotry in this case. Baptists supporting a Mormon-Catholic semi-theocratic ticket.

Ayn Rand is the Orly Taitz of her time.

And Ryan…who presents as just one of the middle class seems more like just another son of the 1%. SS funds after his dad died? Not funds to live on like Bill Clinton and his mom. Just another opportunity for a 1%er’s investment vehicle.

~ P.S. (Wonder if he paid taxes on the interest?)

You might be surprised that when the olds realize what ‘that nice looking boy’ is proposing, even these Hoverround-Americans will take pause.

Looks like your snark tags are missing.

And don’t forget when Ayn “I depend only upon myself” Rand got cancer, she depended on Medicare to cover most of her expenses. Asshole hypocracy of the first order.

At the Great Orange Satan, this has been proposed as the line to use:

Paul Ryan, the guy who wants to eliminate Medicare and Social Security.

Pretty much says it all. (Someone put in the cartoon of Ryan as a Boy Scout walking the little old lady (labeled ‘Medicare’) across the street, just before he lets her fall in a manhole.)

I heard he lives in a house that’s on the National Register of Historic Buildings. He gets a tax credit for that. I’d like to know where he got all his money, since he’s been in Congress most of his adult life.

Not to mention the almost 100% likelihood, should the olds vote to scrap Medicare for the rest of us, that the rest of us would quickly figure out that we can’t afford to continue Medicare coverage for the olds, since we need to save our pennies for when we are old and have to pay for all of our medical needs. Leading very quickly to the rest of us voting for people who promise to cut off coverage for those who voted to cut it off for us.

Paybacks, they are a bitch, but if the folks who figure they won’t be around long enough to have to deal with the hellscape they support for the rest of us with their vote are going to take such a FYIGM attitude to their kids and grandkids, then it would be up to us to make sure the hellscape arrives in time for them to get a taste of it before they shuffle off this mortal coil.

Well, please keep telling me stuff I want to hear. Even lie to me.

I just got caught up on some podcasts that included NPR’s Michel Martin, Tell Me More. The success of this program is her commitment to air the whole spectrum of viewpoints from far left to far right. Besides educated African American perspectives.

She had Tea Party spokesmen for guests, stumping for Ryan. I was screaming my brains out at my computer, it was so incredible. I can’t even believe such infantile stupidity is walking around breathing.

Far be it from me to dispute Charlie Pierce, but I think he’s wrong on the tax credit thing. I’ve written National Register nominations and tax credit applications for the past 20 years, and unless there have been some VERY recent changes, there’s no credit for renovation/rehab of a historic property that’s being used as a residence. That tax credit only applies to buildings used for commercial properties, whether it’s as a rental or as office space. There is one program for owners of historic properties who live in the properties that can be used for a one-time tax credit – facade easements – in which the ownership of the building exterior is granted to a state historic preservation agency in return for a credit in the amount of the value of that portion of the property (typically 15% or less of the total value). Not many people take advantage of facade easements, for the simple reason that they restrict the owner from making any changes to the exterior, and they stay with the property in perpetuity, which can make the property a lot harder to sell and/or reduce the price it can command when sold.

Sorry for the pedantry.

Oh c’mon. the Mittster sees the hand writing in the wall. His objective…now that he knows he can’t win… is to be spokesman/chief wingnut of the most rabid remains of the GOP. Surplanting the mama grizzly.
Come to think of it , don’t his “I’m just a common guy” jeans look like ‘mom jeans’?

Just some pregame warmup before wondering over to The Mothership….

A couple things, via Anne Laurie over at Cole’s place:

Briefly checking in from his vacation location, Kthug has weighed in: Galt/Gekko_2012.
You will probably find nothing new there, if you’re already well informed about The ZEGS.

In a precautionary note, Paul Constant notes that The ZEGS is a very accomplished liar and spinmeister – MUCH more so than Mittbot Rmoney, the latter having been cushioned by privilege and surrounded by sycophants for most of his life, and who presumably had people on staff to lie and spin for him (or who were tasked with contracting out such dirty work).

The ZEGS’ spin is particularly effective in the presence of those who are less-than-avid students of our fucked up politics. Anne Laurie’s quote of Constant, from that last link:

… Something that worries me, though, is Ryan has a disconcerting habit of completely denying the reality of his record, in a very convincing way. If a senior citizen asks Ryan about privatizing Medicare, he will toss a word salad that leaves the senior disoriented and convinced that he’s actually for a stronger Medicare. He will force his interns to read Ayn Rand novels, tell everyone we’re “living in an Ayn Rand novel,” and even credit his entire life of public service to Ayn Rand, and then he will tell a crowded room with a straight face that his love for Ayn Rand is an “urban legend.” Both of these contradictory truths are on the record.

That’s interesting. I’ll chalk that part of it up to ‘misinformed source’.
(I still want to know where he got his money from. And if he’s willing to admit that he’s benefited from ‘entitlements’ that he doesn’t want anyone else to have.)

In other possible news:
Apparently Rmoney would be paying taxes at an effective rate of less than 1% under Mr Catfood Budget’s plan, because Mr Catfood Budget’s plan would eliminate all taxes on investment income.

You’re right, as usual, but much easier to plant the idea in folks minds that they will be betrayed so it doesn’t get that far.

Bully/Brownnose 2012

It’s said that history repeats itself…

Do we have the Tom Eagleton of 2012, by any chance?

I guess it would happen every 40 years.

And he will never, ever be called on this by the establishment media. At least, not in any venue that the average American has a shot at seeing.

Mitt-Rhymes with …ZEGS-Rhymes with …

Mitt-Rhymes with …/ZEGS-Rhymes with …

Danged formatting.

Unfortunately, I think you are correct.

On the general topic of reporters not wanting to risk losing continued access to the high and mighty, or coming off as big ol’ meanies for doing their jobs, you might get a kick out of the following…

There was an exchange between caller ‘Kirk’ and Diane Rehm’s journalist-guests on her most recent weekly Friday morning “domestic politics hour” or whatever it’s called – scroll down to 10:51:32 in the show transcripts. Kirk actually directed his inquiry to CNN’s John King specifically, asking why reporters don’t persist when an interviewee refuses to answer a question.

Apparently there is some kind of three-tries-then-aww-screw-it-the-audience-will-figure-it-out rule. Awesome! Not really a surprise, though, and even the dumbest pols and MOTUs no doubt catch on pretty quickly to the fact that even minimal patience and intransigence on their part will be rewarded.

I couldn’t find it, but there’s a legendary (to me at least) interview of a recalcitrant interviewee by a British journalist, and the journalist kept at it for a long, long, long time. Would be good to see more of that sort of thing – even if only on occasion – just to keep the powers-that-be on their toes. Won’t happen though; I’m sure word would come down from Corporate to knock it off and play nice.

I think it’s a friggin, dispiccable shell game. The “debt” we accummulated for the four decades after WWII, was spent internally on the U.S., making us stronger. The debt from Raygun onward was poured down numerous partisan ratholes while the CongressWhores did their lobbyist masters bidding and weakening the U.S. externally and domestically.

After the USSR fell, I always thought that would be our fake if the numbskulls in the Beltway ever adopted the politburo’s style of governing. And they have. But a worse crowd is yammering to get in.

American elections are always about the lesser evil. At some point that’s going to wear thin too.

schrambo, that was exactly my thought! Absent Eagleton’s actual decency and goodness of course.

Jenn, Charlie may be referring to a purely Wisconsin-based break -
“Historic Home Owners’ Tax Credits
The Wisconsin Historical Society’s Division of Historic Preservation administers a program of 25-percent state income tax credits for repair and rehabilitation of historic homes in Wisconsin.

To qualify, your personal residence must be one of the following:

Listed in the state or national register;
Contributing to a state or national register historic district; or
Be determined through the tax credit application process to be eligible for individual listing in the state register.

And you must spend at least $10,000 on the following types of eligible work within a two-year period:

Work on the exterior of your house, such as roof replacement and painting, but not including site work such as driveways and landscaping;
Electrical wiring, not including electrical fixtures;
Plumbing, not including plumbing fixtures;
Mechanical systems, such as furnaces, air conditioning, and water heaters; and
Structural work, such as jacking up floors.

If you cannot meet the $10,000 minimum investment requirement within the two-year period, when you apply, you may request a five-year expenditure period. ” http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/hp/architecture/tax_credit.asp

Good point. Here in my state we don’t have a state credit available.

However, I’ll note again: this is a one-time credit, not an annual tax write-off (many, many people seem to believe that having your home on the Register confers this type of benefit, and from Pierce’s statement this would be the assumption a reader would take away), and it’s narrowly focused (you have to spend at least x amount in y period of time and for things found on list z) because it’s trying to incentivize a particular activity – in this case the restoration and preservation of historic homes. I don’t see where Ryan has committed a foul here, other than perhaps like in all other things being a hypocrite, in that under Ryan’s austerity plans, there probably wouldn’t be a Wisconsin Historical Society Division of Historic Preservation (nor a National Park Service with a National Register) to administer programs such as the tax credit program.

Biden didn’t have to do anything to Palin, she did it to herself.

Yeah, his sponsorship of a “personhood amendment” a while back should be a surefire draw for them!

(via Think Progress)

The obvious strategy: Excite the base and suppress everyone else’s vote.

Tarheel, I hate to say this, but your facts are off a bit:

1) Al Gore did actually win. He also was up against the then baggage of Clinton’s BJ exploits (hilarious now, since Clinton’s really popular) and made a very poor Veep pick in Holy Joe. It’s been speculated that he could’ve been far more strategic electorally and would’ve taken another, needed state.

Kerry never “stomped Dubya’s ass”. While I supported him, he was always a weak-ish pick. The country was even more divided in 2004 than it is now.

McCain lead or was even with Obama only because of a campaign bounce/Palin fascination. Then she opened her mouth and everyone started laughing. Grnated the financial melt down sped stuff back that way, gave Obama states he otherwise wouldn’t have carried (Indiana, for example) and helped a lot down ticket. But except for two weeks out of the entire cycle, Obama consistently led McCain. It’s precisely why McCain chose to “see the Dems’ negro and raise them a vagina”.

In other news: Eddie Munster’s money comes from his family—they’re not Mittens rich, but they are rich. From a construction company that (of course) makes much of its $$$ from green, evil gubmint contracts. PeeWee simply used the same entitlement he’s seeking to deny less forutnates (who would need it for such silly things as food and shelter) for his tuition payments. I bet he bragged about paying his own way, too.

Lastly, he’s officially Mittnes’ Palin: it’s already being spun that he brings out “big” crowds. Apparnetly 8,000 people in a reddish state attending a big announcement with their governor present is a very, very big crowd. at a different event he and Rmoney held yesterday (with NASCAR tie in!) an entire 1,700 people were there!!!

And yes, this is something to brag about. Here in Portland we still recall Obama’s speech at Waterfront Park in MAY 2008, when 72,000 people showed up. Even in 2010 when the Prez stumped for Kitzhaber over 10K attended.

I guess some think Biden threw the debate by not saying something like:

“I know Charo. Charo is a friend of mine. Governor, you’re no Charo.”

Seriously though, I do think we should start talking about what wonderful debaters Romney and Ryan are. I don’t want to see any more instances where the pundits declare victory for the conservative because he didn’t wet himself.

Well this time Joe’ll have ample opportunity to take that child out to the woodshed and it’ll can be Eddie Munster OR PeeWee Herman!

Oh, fortunately, the baggers are already doing this for us—insisting that Paul Ryan is a brilliant debator. Because they’re already forgotten about the time Barney Frank made thier little boy scout cry.

I’m hoping Rachel Maddow or someone will point out that Romney mated, so to speak, with Ryan aboard a gigantic, powerful, example of what the commonwealth accomplshed under Rooseveltian leadership and Keynesian policy. Perhaps with a caption like, “You twerps didn’t build this platform by yourselves.”

Oh, I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo looking forward to the debates…. Fifty bucks Mittens storms off halfway thru ’cause the President wasn’t sufficiently deferential.

Poor Palin! NPRs Southern California station did some interviews with the CA REpublicans attending the state convention in Burbank. They all enthused over the Ryan pick, but I had to laugh when one fellow went on and on that it was the most exciting and dynamic VP pick in the last 100 years, since Teddy Roosevelt!

Palin is so toxic they even pretend she didn’t happen.

my local newspaper put out an editorial praising Romney’s ‘bold choice.” For his next bold choice, he’s going to have oatmeal for breakfast. Really, this was the safest choice since my ex-wife forced me to paint the bathroom beige. The right wing of the party demanded a doctrinaire arrapchik who would promise to dismantle the social safety net, and they got it. With a PowerPoint presentation to show how sending granny to the glue farm is going to make everybody rich. Except granny.

Too bad White/Whiter Romney/Ryan are gonna abolish the US postal system. Otherwise, granny could tour the world as envelope flap-glue.

Hold on, isn’t Mama Grisly a granny?

It’s a shame that Eddie is gonna abolish the postal system. Renaming his local post office was one of the two bills he’s managed to pass in his 13 years in congress. Now his centerpiece accomplishment is all for naught. But I guess that’s the sort of awesome dude our PeeWee Herman is!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/12/paul-ryan-bills_n_1769816.html

Can he get himself a tax break by declaring his shuttered post office an historic landmark?

Please see upthread about the inaccurate reports of the tax breaks for historic properties.

Already been there.

Me and zumpie? Sarcastic Oregonians!

Yeah, baby! Speaking of which—-Allen Alley’s still insisting we’re gonna go all red this year. And, of course, that Munster’s an aaaaaaammmmmaaaaaaazing veep choice.

Any of those Palm Springs GOP strip club visitors yours?

‘Sarcastic Oregonians’
Oxymoron?

I think Allen cooked his brains on that wander around the desolation of eastern Oregon walk across Oregon to meet voters stunt. What he and the zombie-eyed granny-starver do have in common is playing second fiddle to a richer white guy.

Dudley.bitchez.getsome! I’m surprised Dudley didn’t ask for an historical monument tax break on his primary mansion residence in WA as he was running for OR’s governor!

oregonian sarcasticus seems to be an invasive Portland and HippyTrackTownUSA species.

Things have gotten so crazy someone tye-dyed my local fire hydrant last weekend! It’s almost as cool as the gnome-hydrant a block down.

Make that TWO rich white dudes! I’m sure Alley’s nose was waaaaay up Gordon Smith’s butt back in the day…

Speaking of which isn’t it just sooooo interesting that both guys left our fair state once they lost their respective elections?

@GWPDA – there are a few of us here, you just have to look. MaryCH is one, too!

In other news on FB, addicting info finally debunked the mythology that Carter led Raygun up until the debates. Carter’s lead was gone before JUNE. And I even like Carter.

I think GWPDA would love Oregon. I mean, who wouldn’t? We just crowned a new slug queen in HippyTown last week!

The ONLY bad thing about here is that we don’t have a nice theme/water park. And I mean a REAL one. Even Wild Waves up in Federal Way doesn’t REALLY cut it. I enjoy water slides and roller coasters–and not places like Oaks Park where it’s low on thrills but high on hurls.

Full disclosure: zumpie, jr. puked all over her poor self and her friend on The Spider there, Friday.

But we DO have nice white water rafting, scenery, three or four different micro climates, etc…

I’m only suprised that you haven’t yet been attacked by the Woolly Hat Flash Knitters.

I’d so go to that!