Month: January 2015

Gonna soak up the sums
by Tom Sullivan

If nothing else, Sarah Palin’s “bizarro” speech at the Iowa Freedom Summit this weekend warmed up the crowd for the real cowboys.

Sarah Palin is now the rodeo clown sent out to get the crowd riled and make the real cowboys look better in comparison.— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) January 24, 2015

But even as Republican presidential wannabes tried to out-right each other in Iowa, the people who count most in this country — those with the most to count — held their annual donors’ summit at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Rancho Mirage, CA. John Nichols, writing for The Nation:

“Americans used to think Iowa and New Hampshire held the first caucus and primary in the nation every four years. Not anymore,” explains Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. “Now the ‘Koch brothers primary’ goes first to determine who wins the blessing and financial backing of the billionaire class. This is truly sad and shows us how far Citizens United has gone to undermine American democracy.”

Sanders was referencing the five-year-old US Supreme Court ruling that struck down barriers to corporate spending to buy elections—one of a series of decisions that have dramatically increased the influence of not just of corporations but of billionaires like the Koch brothers.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida chose not to attend the Iowa event, instead reserving their time for supplication at the Koch brothers’ event, along with another unofficial 2016 presidential contender, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker:

An hourlong panel discussion featuring U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida will take place at 8:30 p.m. Sunday. [PST, presumably]

ABC News chief White House correspondent Jonathan Karl will moderate it, and the network will livestream part of it.

Perhaps Cruz will again repeat the Churchill’s bust nonsense as he did again in Iowa on Saturday. Debunked three years ago? No obstacle in this alternate universe.

Update: More detail on bustgate.

Family values

by digby

She seems nice.

Meanwhile, here’s some salad:

Cruel and unusual

by digby

Ritualized state executions of this sort are barbaric too:

On Thursday, Richard Glossip will be put to death for a crime he says he didn’t commit.

The 51-year-old former motel manager has spent more than 17 years on Oklahoma’s death row for a murder conviction. He’s maintained his innocence from the start and plans to fight for his life until the end, but he says he knows that realistically he may not live past January 29. Among U.S. states, only Texas has executed more people than Oklahoma…

The 51-year-old has been on death row ever since he was convicted of first-degree murder nearly 17 years ago on the testimony of a single witness. Glossip has maintained his innocence from the start, and now he’s hoping that a last-minute reprieve from Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) — or the White House — can spare him from becoming the 196th person to be put to death by the state of Oklahoma.

Justin Sneed, a young contract handyman who worked and lived at the Best Budget Inn that Glossip managed in Oklahoma City, confessed to beating motel owner Barry Van Treese to death with a baseball bat on Jan. 7, 1997. Prosecutors said Glossip feared losing his job and recruited Sneed to kill his boss. Sneed would later testify that Glossip promised him $10,000 to commit the crime. Both men were convicted of first-degree murder. In exchange for his testimony, Sneed received a life sentence without parole; Glossip received a death sentence.

A judge told Glossip that if he admitted his involvement in Van Treese’s death, he would be sentenced to life in prison and eligible for parole in 20 years. Glossip said he refused to perjure himself by admitting to something he didn’t do.

I’m against capital punishment for all the usual reasons. But the idea that someone can be executed solely on the word of someone who actually perpetrated the violence and who got a reduced sentence in return for his testimony is absolutely mind-boggling.

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Dispatch from King’s ring kissing ceremony

by digby

Byron York gives his informed take on Iowa and the state of the GOP primary at the moment. There’s lots to think about, most of it really disturbing. First, they like Chris Christie because he’s a “fighter.” This doesn’t surprise me. As long as he sticks it to liberals, particularly if he is willing to take on the Beyotch the way he takes on schoolteachers who question him, there are a whole lot of conservatives who will forgive any previous apostasy. That’s what they live for. And not just Iowa conservatives. In fact, over Christmas I had California relatives all telling me how much they love Christie for telling voters to “sit down and shut up.”

Then there’s this:

Foreign policy has become as important as social issues, and that means people will listen to John Bolton.

Did I mention it was disturbing? How about this?:

You know what Bobby Jindal said about Muslim “no-go zones” in Europe, a statement that resulted in Jindal being criticized and mocked by mainstream commentators? It turns out many social conservatives in Iowa really liked it. To them, Jindal was warning about the danger of enclaves of unassimilated Muslim populations in an age of Islamic radicalism, a problem they fear could be in store for the United States. Jindal, who is himself the model of an assimilated American from an immigrant family, not only did not suffer from his remarks but instead benefited from them.

So Fox News really is to the left of the GOP base now. Dear God.

There’s lot’s of interesting analysis in this article and I urge you to read it.  We are going to be in for quite a ride.

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Is Fox News on drugs?

by digby

I don’t know what’s going on over at Fox News but there seems to be a tear in the matrix. You already know about their profuse apologies for suggesting that Europe is riddled with “no-go” zones where Sharia law is practiced and the state has no influence. And Rupert Murdoch himself had to back track for saying that moderate Muslims are responsible for Islamic extremism. Since when do they give a damn about insulting Europeans or Muslims? That’s part of their business model.

But what in the hell is this?

Fox News anchor Chris Wallace slammed Israeli Prime Minsiter Benjamin Netanyahu over his upcoming trip to the U.S. to deliver a speech to a joint sitting of Congress on March 3 – an invitation extended by Republican House Speaker John Boehner, and in violation of diplomatic protocol. It is the White House, not Congress, which usually invites world leaders to visit the country.

The invitation has been interpreted as an attempt by Netanyahu and his Republican allies to push through more Iran sanctions – a move that Obama has warned will damage the nuclear negotiations taking place with the Islamic Republic. Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Thursday that they will not meet Netanyahu during his U.S. trip because of the close proximity to the Israeli elections.

These are all foreign policy and national security topics so perhaps Fox is just trying to tame the crazies a little bit so they don’t accidentally blow up the world. But it seems unlikely. This stuff is their bread and butter. What’s going on?

Watch the video.  You will be surprised.  Keep going to the end for the truly surreal conclusion… somebody clearly slipped some ecstasy into the coffee ….

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How do we tell which ones are the good guys with guns again?

by digby

It’s gets so confusing when they let black people carry guns just like white people:

A surveillance video from a Walmart located near Tampa shows 62-year-old Clarence Daniels trying to enter the store to purchase some coffee creamer for his wife this past Tuesday. He barely steps through the automatic doors before he is pummeled by shopper Michael Foster, a 43-year-old white man.

“He’s got a gun!” Foster shouts, to which Daniels replies, “I have a permit!”

According to local news reports, Foster originally spotted Daniels in the store’s parking lot placing his legally owned handgun underneath his coat. In keeping with Florida’s well-known vigilante spirit, Foster decided to take matters into his own hands by following Daniels into the Walmart. Without warning, he tackled Daniels and placed him in a chokehold.

Police soon arrived and confirmed Daniels indeed had a permit for the handgun.

I’m very sure that he would have done exactly the same thing if he’d noticed a white man with a concealed handgun going into Walmart. Of course he would have.

On the other hand, Daniels should be happy that Foster didn’t just shoot him down. He could have. And he could have gotten away with it if he could have convinced the cops that he feared for his life. And the gun proliferation zealots would have called him one of the “good guys.”

Exercising 2nd Amendment rights doesn’t mean you won’t get your hair mussed. A few thousand innocent people getting shot every year is a small price to pay so that some people can carry lethal weapons around in public for no good reason. It’s how we keep ourselves safe from tyranny. Apparently.

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QOTD: pleaseohpleaseohplease

by digby

The clown car wouldn’t be complete without her:

“Without putting any words in my mouth, you can absolutely say that I’m seriously interested,” said Palin, the 2008 vice presidential nominee, in the lobby of the Marriott late Friday night.

The Dickens, you say?
By Tom Sullivan

As Digby said yesterday, they will never quit trying to dismantle the social safety net. Both here and abroad, it seems, we’ve gotta keep those “takers” from taking. They are somehow keeping our “Makers” from making. (Genuflect here.)

It seems the British have set up a system of sanctions to keep the eligible jobless from receiving help. And, boy howdy, you thought Fox News’ obsession over the grocery shopping habits of Americans receiving SNAP benefits was Dickensian.

Check out the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in the land of Dickens:

“A Ukip parliamentary candidate named Lynton Yates this week suggested banning benefit claimants from driving: “Why do they have the privilege to spend the tax payers [sic] hard earned money on a car, when those in work are struggling to keep their own car on the road?” Ukip’s communications people said that Yates’s suggestions were “not Ukip policies and they will not form part of the Ukip manifesto”, and the media rejoiced in the week’s example of the party’s supposed fruitcakery – though at the time of writing, Mr Yates was still Ukip’s choice for the East Midlands seat of Charnwood.

But the problem isn’t his, or Ukip’s, alone. After all, in the sense that he proposed stripping “benefit claimants” of something most people take for granted, Yates’s plans merely sat on the outer edge of what now passes for mainstream thinking. When the state makes it clear that the poor and unfortunate are not to have spare bedrooms, and embraces the idea of stopping them buying booze and fags and shredding their entitlements if they have more than two kids, is it really such a leap to deny them non-public transport too? For all its inanity, there is a sadism at the heart of the Yates idea that is not a million miles away from the cruelties increasingly built into the benefits system: cruelties most of us would not put up with for a minute, but which are visited on thousands of people every week.

Can’t let them breed, now, can we? Because “nits make lice.”

UKIP issued a statement to clarify that Yates’ pamphlet containing these suggestions was not a joke or a hoax:

On the topic of the cost of keeping criminals in prison, it continued: “I personally would look to overseas countries who could tender for their incarceration.

“I’m sure they could dramatically reduce this cost to the taxpayer.”

And, no doubt, decrease the surplus prison population.

Because you need this

by digby

It’s been a long week and I think we could all use a drink and baby pygmy hippo right about now:

Salut!

Who was it who compared Ted Cruz to Joe McCarthy?

by digby

He adamantly denies the resemblance, much to Ann Coulter’s dismay.

Anyway:

Two arch-conservatives unveiled legislation on Friday to revoke the U.S. citizenship of anyone who seeks to join a group designated by the State Department as a foreign terrorist organization.

The Expatriate Terrorist Act, offered by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), amends the Immigration and Nationality Act so as to deny an American passport to — or strip the existing citizenship of — an individual

whom the Secretary has determined is a member, or is attempting to become a member, of an organization the Secretary has designated as a foreign terrorist pursuant to section 12 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 13 U.S.C. 1189).
“I believe these American terrorists have voluntarily renounced their citizenship upon taking an oath to a foreign terrorist organization (FTO),” King said in a statement.

In a sign that the legislation has legs in Congress, it is co-sponsored by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the chair of the Judiciary Committee, which oversees immigration policy.

In case you are wondering why this is considered necessary, I’m guessing it’s so that they can deny Americans their rights under the constitution. I would hope that it isn’t possible to do this before they are convicted of anything (under the constitution) but once they are, I guess they could be sent to Guantanamo after President Huckabee expands it.

Anyway, God bless the USA.

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