D.C. Douglas thanks the Tea Party.

This guy gets better and better all the time.

It has been too long since Jack Cafferty has graced IM with his presence.

Cafferty asks "Are Sarah Palin and Donald Trump the answer to the country's problems?"

I think most of us could easily answer that question, but let's hear what Jack has to say about that.

My favorite portion was  as he referenced the poor performance of "The Undefeated."

"The popcorn stand at the theater took in more money."

A weary President Obama announces deficit agreement.

Like most liberals I am not even remotely happy that we seem to have bent over backwards for the good of the country while the Republicans have done nothing but act like anarchists determined to see America's reputation, and standing in the world, destroyed.

Especially since it appears that even this agreement (IF it actually gets passed) would still not ensure that our AAA credit rating would remain intact:

Stock markets around the world rallied on Monday, in relief that the world's largest economy would probably avoid running out of cash this week. But the agreement, which includes around $2.5 trillion of spending cuts over the next decade, has been criticised by some on both sides of the political divide, and will probably not save America's triple-A credit rating.

You know I once described to a friend that the problem with many relationships is that the person who cares the least about its survival, or the feelings of the other person, is the one in charge.  Since they have less invested in the relationship's survival they are free to act with impunity, while the person who is determined to "make it work" is frantically attempting to smooth things over and keep the relationship together.

Essentially that is what we are seeing in this situation between the President and the Democratic party, and the Republicans and their Teabagging Rottweilers.  A scorched earth approach does not seem to bother the Teabaggers because they either don't understand the repercussions, or simply don't give a shit.

But watch the video up above again.

Do you see how tired and saddened that man appears?

That is a man who felt the needs of the American people in his BONES.  In this relationship HE is the one who cares too much, and who will always do what he needs to do to save the relationship/country, and the people who will be devastated by its demise.

And that, despite whatever we may feel about this apparent capitulation, is WHY he deserves our support and our faith.  He did not give up on us, and by God we should not give up on him.

You can wear a thousand flag pins, and own NOTHING but red, white, and blue underwear, but if you cannot put the needs of the American people above your own ideology, than you are NOT a patriot! And you are not part of the solution, you ARE the problem!

Entire Massachusetts congressional delegation participates in the "It Gets Better" project. With one notable exception.

Wow that was very uplifting!

I am really impressed that ALL of the Massachusetts delegation were able to come together, and do something so positive for the LGBT community in their state. That was really quite touching.

But you know, it felt to me that there was something missing.  Did you notice it too?

Yeah that's it!  Scott Brown, where in the hell was Scott Brown?

Did he not get the memo?

A Democratic Hill staffer with knowledge of the project told The Huffington Post that Brown was invited to participate, but he declined.

"Scott Brown has a strong record at the state and federal level against bullying and believes that all people regardless of sexual orientation should be treated with dignity and respect," said Brown spokesman Colin Reed when asked whether the senator had been asked to appear in the video. "His main focus right now is on creating jobs and getting our economy back on track."

Yeah you know I don't think that anybody's segment on that video was more than a few seconds long.  Surely THAT would not seriously take away from the time that Senator Brown needed to "create jobs" or get the "economy back on track."

I mean someone might start to think that Scott Brown hated the gays or something!

What's that?

Arline Isaacson, Co-​Chair of Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus stated, “Scott Brown has voted consistently against the LGBT community throughout his entire career in the Massachusetts legislature. His has not been an incidental opposition. He has voted against us loudly, proudly and unequivocally.

Unfortunately, most people don’t realize just how bad his record is:

–He voted over 25 times against marriage equality, even when 3/​4 of our legislature and many MA Republican legislators stood with us.
– He doesn’t support the Transgender Civil Rights & Hate Crimes bill
– He opposes repealing “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”
– He opposes repealing the “Defense of Marriage Act” (DOMA)
– He has ridiculed LGBT parents as inadequate
– He supported anti-​gay policies of George W Bush & Mitt Romney

Ohhh!  I get it now.  Brown is one of THOSE guys.

You know the ones that are so insecure about their sexuality that they are constantly making sure that they don't do anything which might accidentally appear gay, like stripping down for a national publication.

Oh, yeah that's right.

Well to be fair, Brown WAS quite a bit younger during his "drop trou for Cosmo" days, and besides there is NOTHING gay about that pose. (Okay well it might be a little gay.)

Still there is some hope that Brown is not one of those idiots that goes over the top to prove they are a strapping heterosexual by posing in a vaguely inappropriate manner with their scantily clad daughters. Because that would be just....oh.

 

Oops, I spoke too soon.

You know maybe the Massachusetts LGBT community is better off WITHOUT Senator Brown's participation in their "It Gets Better" campaign.

Because I don't know about you, but he kind of gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Besides, I am still not sure whether homophobia is something you are born with, or something that you get from your environment, so perhaps it is best to keep Senator Brown away from impressionable young teenagers. At least until science is certain about the issue.

(H/T to the Huffington Post.)

You might be able to fool the general public about the success of the Palin propaganda film "The Undefeated," but you CAN'T fool the movie critics!

Image courtesy of the amazing Love and Knishes.

From Box Office Mojo:

Normally, a movie with such poor box office would not receive story coverage on Box Office Mojo, but the furor over The Undefeated calls for an injection of truth.

Even before The Undefeated bottomed out in its second weekend, the movie was a bust in its first weekend, but its boosters latched onto two stats: per-theater average and ranking among political documentaries. The classic tactics of movie spin include bragging about per-theater average and declaring a high ranking in a niche category. The funny thing is that Undefeated's opening didn't rate highly on either front, making the spin extra-egregious.

Within the minor political documentary sub-genre, The Undefeated's $6,532 opening weekend per-theater average ranked 33rd out of the 91 limited openings tracked over the past 30 years, normalized for ticket price inflation. Among all documentaries, it was in the middle of the pack. Hardly worthy of hyperbole. Even if it had little to no advertising, Undefeated had far more media coverage than most other political documentaries and independent releases could ever dream of. The awareness was there.

Undefeated boosters ran with the notion that the movie's opening had the "second highest per-theater average of the weekend, behind only Harry Potter," but the movie was actually sixth in that metric. They also latched onto a press release about how The Undefeated averaged "above $11,000 in top markets." But averages are naturally higher in top markets (that's why they're "top markets") and, without context (how it compared to other movies' grosses in those markets), that was a meaningless statistic.

It's extremely myopic to believe that having one of the higher per-theater averages on a given weekend means a movie is a success, and The Undefeated's second weekend bore that out. Indeed, "per-theater average" is one of the most overrated stats. For limited releases, the most receptive locations are cherry-picked with the purpose to impress with a high per-theater average in order to book more markets. The fewer the theaters, the easier it is to have a higher average.

To put these numbers into further perspective: The Undefeated's ten theaters on opening weekend yielded 159 showings. Using the current average ticket price of $7.86, that means the movie played to an estimated 52 people per average showing or at about one-fifth to one-quarter capacity. In the movie's second weekend, which had 211 showings, the per-showing average attendance dropped to 15.

Damn, I like how this guy Brandon Gray left absolutely NO doubt that this movie was an unmitigated disaster. 


Not really much argument left is there?


Which makes THIS, seem just that much more pathetic.



The path to the White House runs through the theaters across America showing this film.

We need to sell those theaters out! No more excuses, no more complaints. Let’s show the world why we support her. Show them this film! We need your help to make this happen. We can’t sit silently anymore. Now we must act.

Special incentives:

Each Youth For Palin's Youth Brigade member will receive special rewards including $$ compensation and/or a donation to our group (your choice). special recognition, and other items.

Game On!

Personally I think that any parent who encourages their child to pimp this move for Snowdrift Snooki should be brought up on charges of child abuse.


It finally dawned on me who the Palin-bots who are refusing to see the writing on the walls about Palin's pathetic propaganda piece remind me of.  They remind me of those Japanese soldiers who stayed at their posts for decades because they did not realize the war was over.

If only the Democrats in Washington were THIS determined to stand up for the American people against the Republicans and their corporate overlords.

Another brilliant video from D.C. Douglas. (Warning NSFW!)

Today's victim topic, Andrew Breitbart.



(BTW the NSFW stands for "Not Safe For Work," just in case anybody is still confused about that.)

When Kathy Griffin met Michele Bachmann.

Your moment of geek this Monday morning.

Seriously this is the COOLEST video you will see all day.

I promise.



What an amazing time to be alive.

Here is a little comedy to start your day off this Saturday morning. "Cooking with Sarah Palin."

She did a pretty good impression but she messed up by taking off her top, because Sarah Palin's "chesticles" are only store bought, so exposing the "girls" would have revealed two dangling, dried up old windsocks.

This young woman is absolutely gorgeous and no matter how much pancake make up she put on, or padded bras she used to inflate her chest, Sarah Palin could NEVER look anywhere near this attractive.

Oh and she seems pretty bright too.  Other than those minor quibbles, the impersonation is dead on.

SarahPAC paid $13,708 to decorate Sarah's bus so she could go on a five day vacation. How is that fiscal conservative BS working for ya? Update!

Courtesy of The Note:

Sarah Palin spent almost $14,000 to adorn her “One Nation” tour bus with larger-than-life renditions of the Constitution, Liberty Bell, and her signature.

That’s one of hundreds of expenditures listed in SarahPAC’s semi-annual FEC report, which was filed online today. The former Alaska governor’s political action committee paid $13,708.44 to the Tennessee company Fast Signs for “Bus Wrap” on May 26, three days before her tour of the northeast kicked off.

Unbelievable that the poor, undereducated paint chip eaters that are still dreaming of a Sarah Palin Presidency, spent almost $14,000 to decorate a bus so that their idol (And the only family member that could stand her) could visit tourist attractions for five days, while continuing to play the political prick tease in order to attract the publicity that she so desperately craves.

That is almost $3000 a day!  And what did the Palin-bots GET for their hard earned money?

This:



And of course this. Not to mention this. And really who could forget this? Which of course inevitably led to this.

Well gee that was such a good investment I wonder what else Palin spent her supporter's retirement savings on?

SarahPAC raised $1,658,897 during the first six months of 2011 and spent $1,591,520. The PAC has $1,402,368 cash on hand. In a statement, SarahPAC treasurer Tim Crawford told ABC News that the group “more than doubled the amount we raised as compared to the same time period in 2009. We received more than 36,700 contributions from over 24,000 contributors.”

Among SarahPAC’s other noteworthy disbursements:

-- $26,295.47 to a Visa/BankCard payment center in Dallas, Tex. for “Air Fare, Lodging, Car Rental, Wireless.” The date of disbursement is June 2, the day she visited Massachusetts and New Hampshire. 
Presumably, the sum accounts for some of the cost of her “One Nation” tour. 


So besides the $14,000 she wasted on this "bus tour" she also spent an additional $26,000 on air fare, lodging, and "CAR RENTAL!"  What the hell for? She had a bus with $14,000 worth of decorations on it that she could both live in AND use for transportation!


-- $5,794 to Israel’s Sar-El Tours and Travel for a“Tour of Holy Land.” Palin visited Israel in March and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Oh yeah, that trip ALSO turned out well.

-- $18,700 to Young America’s Foundation, a conservative outreach organization aimed at students.

Is that how much the brain washing of young people costs these days? How much do you want to bet she could not get HER kids to attend if she duct taped them to the top of her car and drove their ass there?

-- $10,000 to Peter Schweizer for “Research Consulting.” Schweizer is a conservative author based in Florida who Palin hired as her foreign policy adviser in May.

I wonder if part of his advice was for Palin to hide in her room for two days while visiting India in order to avoid the locals?

-- $5,416.66 to Anchorage, Alaska’s True North L'Attitudes for scheduling.

-- $683 to the Nashville, Tenn. store Nico & LaLa for bookmarks.

There is in fact much more in these filings, which you can find here.

I have a feeling that this is just the beginning and that we will learn much more about how Sarah wastes her supporters money in the days, and weeks ahead.

You know some days I feel bad for the people who are so besotted with Sarah Palin that they will allow her to take such advantage of them.  Today is not one of those days.

You people are idiots, and she's a fraud, move on!

Update: It looks like the Washington Post has uncovered evidence that Palin's bus tour might actually have cost even MORE than we thought. Seriously?

But the total for the trip is likely much more, because many bills came in after the June 30 filing deadline, Sarah PAC treasurer Tim Crawford said in an interview. In addition, many other expenses associated with the trip, such as photography, videography, Internet fundraising and airfare, are more difficult to account for. (One item in the report describes $6,999 paid to an air charter company called Republican Presidential Travel on June 9, at the tail end of “One Nation.”)

Wait, what?  There is a such thing as a "Republican Presidential Travel" airline?  I have never heard of that.

And by the way neither have the folks over at Talking Points Memo. But they did learn THIS:


Doug Garrett, the former owner of Moby Dick Airways, told TPM that Republican Presidential Travel is headquartered in Alaska and under an agreement with the new owner of Moby Dick Airways only does charters in Alaska. He referred questions specifically about the services his company provided to Palin to SarahPAC.

Okay by a show of hands, does ANYBODY have any doubt that this airline is somehow ONLY providing flights to a certain half-term governor?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Keith Olbermann reveals the tactics that Rupert Murdoch uses to keep his employees in line.

 My favorite part comes toward the end.

 "And when the tide recedes there will be nothing left. Not of News Corp, not of Fox News, not of Rupert Murdoch."

See? Even Keith Olbermann believes that it is possible THIS will be the end of Murdoch.

Maybe this is like in a "Peter Pan" play.

If all of us believe and clap hard enough, instead of bringing Tinkerbell back to life, we can wish for the demise of Fox News. And it will happen.

Worth a shot.

(H/T to Politicususa.)

As a juxtaposition to the post directly below I present the "Obama Babies."

Now what ever you do, I don't want you to smile.



You smiled didn't you?

Sarah Palin makeup tips. Just for fun.

(If video does not play for you try clicking here.)

Personally I think this is the best way to learn about Mormonism.

I am sort of fascinated with the judgemental attitude, and out right rejection, or Mormonism by other Christian denominations. Especially in light of the fact that we may have two Presidential candidates who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

You know as it turns out I actually do know quite a bit about Mormonism, as I spent my youth studying various religions, philosophies, and their impact on the world.

Essentially I do not place ANY religious belief above another, yet Mormonism has always seemed to expect an even more profound suspension of disbelief than have other western religions, since it is so much newer and somewhat more radical in its interpretation of Christianity.

In my opinion only Scientology requires an even more profound denial of contradictory evidence.

So perhaps for that reason I have always been a little fascinated with the Mormon religion.

Especially since other Christians often treat it as ridiculous and unbelievable. Which I always considered odd since their own faith requires a suppression of critical thinking and the complete acceptance of things which an ancient book that has been translated hundreds of times, and updated and modified over and over again throughout the centuries, tells them is a factual account of events that happened many thousands of years ago.

Which begs the eternal question.  Why is YOUR belief worthy of your unquestioning faith, yet others are deemed unworthy, or even loony?

And on that note why is 22% of the country hesitant to vote for a candidate solely because they are Mormon? For someone like me, that just seems hypocritical.

Republicans hire Obama impersonator to belittle the President, only to escort him off stage when he turns on them.

Courtesy of Sarah Jones over at Politicususa:

Video surfaced today of the Republicans kicking Reggie Brown, their Obama impersonator, off the stage at the Republican Leadership Conference after he made fun of their candidates. I confess that I’ve been struggling to understand what passes for Republican humor ever since we found out that they think Colbert is a conservative and tried to claim “Obama Waffles” “Barack the Magic Negro” and “Watermelon White House” were “satire”.

I’m still befuddled after watching this video, because they were gettin’ a good laugh on as Reggie mocked Obama’s race and birthplace but they got all button down upset when Reggie went for the Obamneycare.

See, it’s rip roarin’ funny when the impersonator goes after Obama, talks about race endlessly, and equates Obama with the Kardashians. I’d grade this sort of low level base humor on par with what I expected from my nephew when he was in Junior High, but I’ll note that even my small town nephew with a big heart got the cruelty of such jokes by the time he reached the ripe age of 13. Happiest laughter at Anthony Weiner jokes — this coming from a party chock full of elected officials who have committed actual sex crimes and remain in office, self-awareness clearly not in evidence in New Orleans this night.

When do they get offended? When the humor is directed at their candidates, of course.

At has been pointed out repeatedly that the Republicans just don't get humor.  So they hire a rather juvenile comedian because he sounds like Obama and often mocks him in his act, but have no idea that this guy makes jokes that also target their own candidates. 

When they realize that his jokes have more than just a grain of truth in them about the GOP field they quickly have him escorted offstage by an old white guy.

Of course having Obama pushed off stage by an old white guy is EXACTLY the kind of wet dream that most of the GOP have every night anyway.

The softer side of President Obama.

You know he has a lot of practice calming down babies thanks to his experience working with the Republicans.

I love the look on Michele's face by the way.

A trip down memory lane to back when MTV was ALL about music.

I am literally posting this for NO other reason than that I was looking for a video and, after seeing this in my favorites, found myself rocking out for four minutes while sitting at my computer.

In my opinion this song has one of the most contagious beats in the history of rock and roll.

Go ahead, just TRY to sit still without at the very least tapping your foot as it plays. I bet you can't do it.

(Oh by the way I am a huge fan of "The Big Chill" as well.)

The Queen of England honors our President. And you know, I think she meant it!

Wow!  That was quite impressive.

You know I cannot help but notice that while Sarah Palin cannot even get an audience with the severely ill, and dementia stricken Margaret Thatcher, that President Obama is warmly welcomed by the Queen, who has certainly seen her share of presidents, prime ministers, and royalty, yet seems truly impressed with our most current leader.

I don't know about all of you, but this picture makes me very proud of who we have in the White House.

(H/T to The Only Adult in the Room.)

Did you have an enjoyable Rapture Day? Well here are some who certainly did not!

"What? Who thought people would actually believeme? 

I think those of us who tend to think, rather than believe, had little difficulty having a relaxing, and sometimes comical, Rapture Day.  However there are those who spent the day in complete disbelief as they had their "gullibility hymen" ruptured, and their innocence ripped away from them.

Courtesy of the LA Times:

Keith Bauer, a 38-year-old tractor-trailer driver from Westminster, Md., took last week off from work, packed his wife, young son and a relative in their SUV and crossed the country.

If it was his last week on Earth, he wanted to see parts of it he'd always heard about but missed, such as the Grand Canyon. With maxed-out credit cards and a growing mountain of bills, he said, the rapture would have been a relief.

On Saturday morning, Bauer was parked in front of the Oakland headquarters of Camping's Family Radio empire, half expecting to see an angry mob of disenchanted believers howling for the preacher's head. The office was closed, and the street was mostly deserted save for journalists.

Bauer said he was not bitter. "Worst-case scenario for me, I got to see the country," he said. "If I should be angry at anybody, it should be me."

Tom Evans, who acted as Camping's PR aide in recent months, took his family to Ohio to await the rapture. Early next week, he said, he would be returning to California.

"You can imagine we're pretty disappointed, but the word of God is still true," he said. "We obviously went too far, and that's something we need to learn from."

Despite the failure of Camping's prediction, however, he said he might continue working for him.
"As bad as it appears—and there's no getting around it, it is bad, flat-out—I have not found anything close to the faithfulness of Family Radio," he said.

Others had risked a lot more on Camping's prediction, quitting jobs, abandoning relationships, volunteering months of their time to spread the word. Matt Tuter, the longtime producer of Camping's radio and television call-in show, said Saturday that he expected there to be "a lot of angry people" as reality proved Camping wrong.

Tuter said Family Radio's AM station in Sacramento had been "severely vandalized" Friday night or Saturday morning, with air conditioning units yanked out and $25,000 worth of copper stripped from the equipment. He thinks it must have been an angry listener. He was off Saturday but planned to drive past the headquarters "and make sure nothing's burning."

Camping himself, who has given innumerable interviews in recent months, was staying out of sight Saturday. No one answered the door at his Alameda home, though neighbors said he was there.

You know I want to be sympathetic, but I just can't. These people were clearly born to be taken advantage of. As a matter of fact, one has to wonder just how many of THESE people are also SarahPAC contributors?

But the group that I CAN feel sympathy for are the children of these brain damaged imbeciles. I mean there are actual human beings who rely on these apparently lobotomized morons for food, and shelter, and guidance.  I think that the local child protective services should go to their houses and take these children into state's custody before their parents convince them to do something even dumber, like get all of their information from Fox News, or go on DWTS while pregnant, or support Donald Trump's 2016 Presidential bid.

All in all the entire thing is ripe for parody. And fortunately we have the Taiwanese animators to do that very thing.



Yes, that is about the level of seriousness this whole thing deserved. If even that.