My Prediction for 2016

Jeb Bush will be the GOP nominee for president in 2016, Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee, and Hillary will defeat Jeb in the General Election despite thanks to Herculean efforts by Republicans to suppress the Democratic vote.

Rand Paul appears to be the frontrunner for the GOP nomination now, but that is an illusion. Paul is simply too radical to get the Republican nod in 2016.

This Is Akin To Hitler Complaining About The Conditions At Auschwitz

Condi "We Don't Want The Smoking Gun To Be A Mushroom Cloud" Rice does her neocon thing:

Former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice says that American leaders need to resist the temptation to become weary of war, according to a report of her remarks at a fundraiser.

“I fully understand the sense of weariness," she told a GOP fundraiser Wednesday, according to reports. "I fully understand that we must think: ‘Us, again?’ I know that we’ve been through two wars. I know that we’ve been vigilant against terrorism. I know that it’s hard. But leaders can’t afford to get tired. Leaders can’t afford to be weary.”

I am so very tired of these people. Rice and the rest of those assholes in the Bush Regime lied this country into that eight-year-long cluster-fuck in Iraq and they are now complaining of war weariness?

I've got a novel idea:  How about not going to war unless we absolutely fucking have to.

Quote of the Week

"[H]ow do we determine when a corporation has [a religious] belief? Who says it?  The majority of shareholders?  Is it 51%?  What happens to the minority?  And how much of the business has to be dedicated to religion?  Five percent? Ten percent? Ninety percent?"

- Justice Sotomayor, during last Tuesday's oral argument on the Hobby Lobby case.

Money For Nothing

I think Ted Nugent is onto something here:

The town of Longview, Texas paid Nugent $16,000 to not appear at the town's Fourth of July Festival.  According to KLTV, a city spokesman said Nugent was "not the right feel for this kind of community event."

The city had reached a verbal agreement with Nugent, scheduling the rocker as the headliner who would play inside the Maude Cobb Convention and Activity Center during the town's Independence Day celebration. To break that agreement, the town paid Nugent half of his guaranteed performance fee of $32,000 from Maude Cobb's annual budget.

The move comes amid criticism of comments Nugent made about President Barack Obama in January 2014, calling him a "subhuman mongrel." Nugent, who campaigned with Texas Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott amid the controversy, apologized for those comments in February.

Needless to say, it's a pretty solid scam on Nugent's part.  All he need do is agree to perform somewhere, and then make racists comments about the President, and next thing you know folks are paying him not to show up.  Well played, Ted.

Pay No Attention To the Folks Who Are Benefitting From Obamacare

Hilarious:

It seems Scott Brown, the once (and future?) U.S. senator, didn't have an answer when confronted with one of his fellow Republicans who has benefitted from Obamacare. The Huffington Post flagged the Wednesday story from the Coos County Democrat. Brown had met with Herb Richardson, a New Hampshire Republican state legislator, as Brown is exploring a run for the state's U.S. Senate seat.

During the meeting at Richardson's home, Brown called Obamacare a "monstrosity." But Richardson and his wife quickly interjected, according to the Democrat, saying that the law had been "a financial lifesaver."

An injury had forced Richardson to live on workers compensation, which became so costly that he and his wife had to move out of their house. To make matters worse, they had to pay $1,100 a month to keep their health insurance. But thanks to the Affordable Care Act, the couple now pays $136 a month for a plan that covers both of them.  Former Senator Brown, however, reportedly changed the subject after the Richardsons made their comments praising the ACA.

I have a feeling we're going to hear a lot of these stories over the next few months.  My question, however, is why aren't the Democrats capitalizing on this?  The Republicans keep running attack ads featuring Obamacare "horror stories," all of which have been easily debunked. But for every fake ACA horror story, there must be hundreds of thousands of Obamacare successes similar to the Richardsons' experience.

Perhaps the Democrats feel that they can get more bang for the buck if they wait a couple more months before running their own ads featuring Obamacare successes.  In any event, I sure hope the Dems decide at some point to go on the offensive with regard to the ACA, particularly given that the GOP has apparently decided to make Obamacare the only issue in the 2014 campaign season.

Why Is The Radicalized Right So Up-In-Arms Over Obama's "Between Two Ferns" Appearance?

Here's why (from USA Today):

President Obama's appearance on the Web talk show Between Two Ferns with comedian/actor Zach Galifianakis has bumped traffic to Healthcare.gov.

Obama pitched health care enrollment in the interview, which was posted to Funny or Die's website Tuesday morning.

Tuesday's traffic to Healthcare.gov was almost 40% over Monday's traffic. This morning there were more than 890,000 visits to the site, according to a tweet by HealthCare.gov.

Needless to say, conservatives were not amused (despite the fact that Obama's appearance on the on-line talk show was pretty fucking hilarious):

For some Republicans, it was funny until the conversation turned to health care. Other conservatives found the whole thing undignified, and called it a distraction from the real issues. Still others saw it as further evidence of Hollywood's liberal bias, and wondered what was the point of comedy that was deferential to authority.

My favorite right-wing response to all this is from Congressman Randy Weber (R-Tex.), who tweeted:

"Instead of wasting time with a parody interview, he should be focusing on finding answers re: #Benghazi"

Ben-Ghaaaa-zi!

Tweet of the Week

Republicans must embrace Hispanics unless science finds way for Hispanic women to give birth to old white men!

- Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn), quoting Stephen Colbert.

John McCain's "Near Delusional" Cold War With Himself

"The Cold War is over, the Soviet empire is gone and neither one is missed."

- John McCain in August 2008.

“[Obama administration officials] have been near delusional in thinking the Cold War was over. Maybe the president thinks the Cold War is over, but Vladimir Putin doesn’t. And that’s what this is all about.”

- John McCain on March 7, 2014.

And speaking of folks with heads up their asses, here is what Radical Right Wing radio host Michael Medved said today at the Right-Wing Shit Show (also know as CPAC):

"There has never been a state in this country that has ever banned gay marriage. That is a liberal lie."

Hilarious.

Amazing Racists: Part XXXVII

Drug addict Rush Limbaugh had this to say about 12 Years A Slave winning Best Picture:

"If it was the only thing that movie won, it was gonna win Best Picture. There was no way. It didn't matter if it was good or bad. I haven't seen it. It was going to win. It had the magic word in the title, 'slave.'"

Too bad Limbaugh didn't decide to become a movie critic, because I have no doubt he would've written -- for the most part -- a glowing review of a film wherein a free Black American is enslaved for over a decade.  Here's what his review probably would have said:

12 Years A Slave -- released on October 18 -- is the first feel-good movie of the year.  The film made me long for America's good old days, when uppity Negroes who didn't know their place were shown their place.  The only part I didn't like is at the end [spoiler alert!], when the main character's freedom is restored and he is returned to his family. I was very troubled by that.

Anyway Rush -- you missed your calling.

Ben-GHAAAA-zi!!!

I laughed out loud when I read this tweet from Lindsey Graham concerning the Crisis in Ukraine:

"It started with Benghazi. When you kill Americans and nobody pays a price, you invite this type of aggression."

Even some Obama-hating right wingers couldn't believe Graham actually went there. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that he's facing a very tough reelection bid.