Green Eagle

I am going to take a victory lap and proclaim that absolutely no one- not the pundits, not the mainstream press, not the bloggers- except me correctly predicted what was going to happen in the Republican Michigan primary. I predicted that Romney would use his now-perfected technique of waiting until a week or two before the primary, and then crush whatever real opponent he has with an avalanche of corporate-funded smears on radio and TV.  That is exactly what he has done, ending up right on the target of a 2-3% margin of victory, which, as I suggested, is all he needed to pay for to take the next step toward his inevitable coronation as the choice of the Republicans' real base- the hyper rich- to run for President. Get ready, because this strategy on steroids is going to be how he campaigns against Obama.  The only bright spot in all of this is that the Republicans seem to have really bought into their fantasy of Obama as the teleprompter-addicted fumbling elitist Chardonn...

Tell me again, Republicans, how Obama has been so bad for business. The stock market last peaked in the week of October 8, 2008, at 14,093.  Then, under Republican economic stewardship, the Dow fell in 17 months to 6627, 40 days into Obama's Presidency.  That is a loss of 7,466 points, or 53%.  That's right, folks, Bush and Cheney succeeded in a year and a half in destroying half the wealth of the stock market.  Then, Obama took over.  Under his control, the market has risen 96%, to over 13,000. How in the world can such a large part of the American people still have any doubt about which party is better for this country?  Man, they are destroying us all.

Like this, from USA Today, although the same thinking can be found without exception throughout the mainstream media: "WASHINGTON – A pair of new polls suggest the race for the Michigan primary has swung to Mitt Romney's advantage heading into the last weekend before the election. But his lead is a slim one." Naturally, the story of the Michigan primary is presented as some ebb and flow between the candidates, rather than the truth:  Romney needs a win in Michigan, but that's all he needs, not a landslide.  So the massively rich people behind Romney's candidacy will spend just enough on negative ads, to cut into Santorum's support and purchase a Romney victory.  That's what he did in Iowa, it's what he did to Gingrich in Florida, it's his whole campaign strategy: use the monetary advantage that comes from being the rich people's candidate to knock down anyone who gets close to him.  And, if it doesn't quite work, like in Maine and in t...

Well, here we are, in one of the most screwed up countries on earth, and the American people keep handing the tiller back to the criminals who got us here.  You know why this keeps happening?  Because Americans are the most stupid, ignorant, greedy people on earth, and they don't give a damn about anyone but themselves. Case in point today:  this article, caught by Atrios: "Farmers furious after Iraq stops buying US rice The talk of the day among Ray Stoesser and other rice farmers is Iraq's decision not to buy U.S. rice...Stoesser and other farmers know Iraqis struggled during the U.S. invasion and subsequent occupation..." "Struggled during the U.S. invasion?"  What, you mean when they were killed by the hundreds of thousands by us, during our aggression against their country?  Yeah, I guess that would count as struggling. "They know most countries , and people , buy based on price..."That's just not right," the 63-year-old Sto...

Rick Santorum: “Woodstock is the great American orgy. This is who the Democratic Party has become...They prey upon our most basic primal lusts, and that’s sex... it’s not about life. It’s about sexual freedom. That’s what it’s about.” Apparently, he missed the music part. Rick, here is a little of what was going on while you were obsessed with the sex:

Sweet Home Chicago:

Rick Santorum today: "And America sat from 1940 when France fell to December of '41 and did almost nothing," he explained. "Why? Because we're a hopeful people. We think, 'You know it will get better." Why, you lying dick?  The real reason was this:  Roosevelt spent years doing everything he could to support the British and other enemies of the Nazis (for one example, check out the lend-lease act ,) but he was obstructed every step of the way by the Republican party, which did everything it could to prevent any American action against Nazi Germany.  That's the truth, buster.  Try it some time. Do I even need to tell you that the whole reason that Santorum told this lie today is so he could compare Obama to Hitler?  And yet scum like this are presented by the Washington pundits as fully qualified to replace Obama in the White House.  What a world.

Some excerpts from a 2008 speech by current Republican frontrunner Rick Santorum: "This is a spiritual war. And the Father of Lies has his sights on what you would think the Father of Lies would have his sights on: a good, decent, powerful, influential country - the United States of America. If you were Satan, who would you attack in this day and age. There is no one else to go after other than the United States... The place where he was, in my mind, the most successful and first successful was in academia. He understood pride of smart people. He attacked them at their weakest, that they were, in fact, smarter than everybody else and could come up with something new and different." What a bunch of arrogant assholes, those Nobel prize winners and people like them, to think they are smarter and more knowledgeable than, say, the average Wal-Mart security guard.  What could ever fill them with the arrogance to think that, other than Satan.  But that's not the worst evil...

Let me start this edition of Wingnut Wrapup with a comment I saw someone make on a sane blog a couple of days ago: "As exhausting as it is, we have to keep up the pressure that the other side will lie and vilify anything and everything that is good or positive that does not fit their crazy logic or agendas.  They can not get away with their ridiculous attempt at faking journalism." That's why I keep doing this.  It isn't because I think right wingers are so amusing.  Well, onward: Katie Pavlich, Town Hall:  "Weeks ago, President Obama gutted our ground forces in favor of entitlement programs. Now, his administration plans to cut the U.S. nuke arsenal by 80 percent. It is clear President Obama is more than happy to weaken America as a military force in the world." God, that would leave us with only 500 or so deployed nuclear weapons!  How would we ever survive?  By the way, the thing about gutting our ground forces- that was a lie.  How surprisin...

From a comment at Town Hall: "It is the greatest hijack. The Republicans have fought for the rights of the Blacks and minorities against the racists in the Democratic Party. Yet, it is the GOP that is portrayed as racists and bigots. I guess all the Dems had to do was take off their white hoods and stop lynching and viola, the press portrays them as the ones that championed civil rights" Viola!  And cello too! Can someone explain to me how you deal with people who claim to believe things like this?  I mean, short of the techniques pioneered by those who fought the ebola virus?

Here's a statistic we won't be hearing discussed in the mainstream press: "196 individual donors...have provided nearly 80% of the money raised by super PACs in 2011 by giving $100,000 or more each." The one percent versus the 99 percent?  These 196 people represent less than one hundred thousandth of one percent of the American populace.  This is who really controls our political discourse in the time of Citizens United, and here we see the real constituency of the Republican party.   The interests and the welfare of the entire populace of the United States are being savaged to serve the interests of these 196 people and a few hundred more like them.  This is oligarchy on a scale only imagined by Francisco Franco or Juan Peron.  This sort of thing makes a mockery of the notion that there is any sort of real democracy in this country, and tolerating it is a ticket to third world status on the level of Nigeria, Pakistan, or any other impoverished hellhole tha...

Sarah Palin: "BOLLING: Governor, a lot of people are saying it can't happen. I don't necessarily agree with them. If one of the nominees, one of the GOPers, doesn't get enough delegates, it could go the a brokered convention. If it does get to that and someone said, Governor, would you be interested, would you be interested? PALIN:  I mean nobody is quite there yet. So I think that months from now, if that's the case...I would -- I would do whatever I could to help. BOLLING: That's -- that's fantastic. Fantastic.  I have insisted that this egomaniacal moron still thinks the country is going to turn to her and beg her to ascend to the Presidency, so she can singlehandedly set us on the road to redemption.  And she really believes it is going to happen.  In the entire loony bin that is the Republican pack of presidential wannabes, there is no one as loony as Sarah Palin.  And she hasn't given up yet.

Here is a bit of the text of a bill introduced by Senate Republicans to attempt to further exploit the outrage of their ignorant base over simple issues of health care: "Nothing in this title (or any amendment made by this title) shall be construed to require an  individual or institutional health care provider,  or authorize a health plan to require a provider,  to provide, participate in, or refer for a specific  item or service contrary to the provider’s religious  beliefs or moral convictions." Now, let me turn for a moment to one of the great Republican demons of the last couple of years- their incessant claims that Obama and the Democrats are paving the way for Muslims to introduce Sharia law in the United States.  Of course, as with virtually any Republican claim about Democrats, this is a vicious, racist lie without a shred of foundation in the real world. But here, in order to exploit an issue for partisan advantage, Republicans have introdu...

Or, as Atrios says: "Nobody Could Have Predicted Except everyone not evil and/or stupid." Austerity at work: "Unlike Greece, Portugal is a debtor nation that has done everything that the European Union and the International Monetary Fund have asked it to, in exchange for the 78 billion euro (about $103 billion) bailout Lisbon received last May. And yet, by the broadest measure of a country’s ability to repay its debts, Portugal is going deeper into the hole.  The ratio of Portugal’s debt to its overall economy, or gross domestic product, was 107 percent when it received the bailout. But the ratio has grown since then, and by next year is expected to reach 118 percent.  That’s not necessarily because Portugal’s overall debt is growing, but because its economy is shrinking. And economists say the same vicious circle could be taking hold elsewhere in Europe." And anywhere else in the world where this idea is tried.  Let's face it: letting rich ...

Man, I'm getting so sick of this crap- if the Republicans devoted as much energy to solving this nation's problems as they do to finding new ways to recycle their decades-old lies, we'd be in such good shape. Doug Giles, Town Hall:  "Who Would Jesus Tax?" Another brilliant bon mot from the darling of conservative intellectuals these days.  Let me explain this to you, Doug:  Jesus wouldn't tax anyone because he was not a government, but he did have something to say, didn't he, about the right of governments to tax people.  Remember that "Render unto Caesar" thing?  Probably just a slip of the tongue on Jesus' part. Here are some of the things that this unrepentant ass thinks would happen if government was run on the principles of Jesus: "• We’d enforce a tougher immigration policy; • Our military would be stronger; • We’d have a balanced budget; • We’d see a decrease in national debt and an end to prodigal spending" All ...

Here's a poll that reinforces something I have been saying since I had a chance to see Rick Santorum in action a couple of weeks ago: As ludicrous as it seems to sane people, Santorum, despite being somewhere to the right of Hermann Goering, has the ability to appeal to "independent" voters far more than Romney does.  Given the press' inevitable refusal to cover the insane inadequacy of Republican candidates, this guy, who is a master of the "aw shucks, I'm just like you all" style of politics, would be a far more formidable opponent for Obama than the marginally sane but patently hollow Romney. It has long been obvious that the so-called independents are the most ignorant and apathetic of all voters; I am now of the belief that the main thing that characterizes them is a stress level that is just short of going nuclear, so they will inevitably side with whichever candidate they feel more comfortable with.  Of course, this is not the real candidate...

Paul Krugman: "something has clearly gone very wrong with modern American conservatism."

Who cares? I mean really...one more self-indulgent pop star who had money, fame, adoration of her fans, a life that is just a fantasy to ordinary people, and here you have idiots all over the media today talking about how hard things were for her, and how sensitive she was because she was an "artist." There are plenty of people in this world who have it so tough that they deserve our sympathy.  This woman was not one of them.  She had it all and killed herself with drugs and irresponsibility.  So what?  There are plenty more pop divas where she came from, for anyone shallow enough to think such people mean anything. I'm sorry if this makes people mad, but we've got tens of thousands of poor women being left to become victims of breast cancer, so some right wing assholes can stir up their "base" with one more bogus outrage; we have 8,000 newly revealed cases of child molestation in one Catholic diocese in this country, and we are supposed to waste our t...

Here's a Yahoo headline that makes me want to move to Mongolia: "In CPAC keynote speech, Sarah Palin urges a long, competitive primary season" First of all, how can it be that anyone in the country gives a damn about what Sarah Palin "thinks" or has to say? But more importantly, how can anyone cover this deluded, stupid woman without saying straight out that there is one reason and one reason only that she is hoping for a  "long, competitive primary season-" that she still believes in her egomaniacal, sick heart that the party, failing to settle on a candidate, will turn to her as their savior, and annoint her to carry their banner like some modern day Joan of Arc, ushering in a glorious Christian Republic in which the whole country will bend to her will? And why do we have to have our political discourse polluted by constant coverage of someone who doesn't give a God damned about anyone but herself, and whose accession to the Presidency wou...

"The bankruptcy hearings for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee have revealed more than 8,000 previously unreported instances of alleged sexual abuse of children, according to one attorney representing the victims. The charges cover a span of 60 years and implicate a group of 100 alleged offenders, including nuns, church workers and some 75 priests."  And we are supposed to take it seriously when these disgusting criminals   pretend to be all bent out of shape at the moral outrage of having to provide women with health care.  How can this country have spun so off the rails that organized child rape means nothing, and yet people will scream from now to eternity over a made-up crisis?  This is 8,000 previously unreported criminal acts in one diocese, which the Church clearly knew about all along, but hid from the public.  How can this not be a crime of the most disgusting nature?  At this point, I feel all the more secure in my belief that sexual abuse of ch...

Here is a perfect sample of the mindless hatred that underlies so much of right wing cant.  It features a highly regarded conservative figure, Andrew Breitbart, having some sort of bizarre fit when confronted with protestors at a Conservative convention: Try to watch the whole minute and a half of it.  It wonderfully captures both the irrationality and the barely hidden violence that drive so many right wingers.

The Catholic Church, of course, which is even now doing everything it can to interfere in American politics on behalf of the lunatics who pass for the Republican party these days. What stirred my ire today?  An interview reported in the New York Times, with Catholic Cardinal Eddie Egan.  Egan made what was apparently a terrible mistake when he apologized because the Church was factory for manufacturing child molesters in the last few decades, and in all probability the last few centuries.  He's thought better of that now: "Cardinal Egan said of the apology, “I never should have said that,” and added, “I don’t think we did anything wrong.” He repeatedly denied that any sex abuse had occurred on his watch in Bridgeport. He said that even now, the church in Connecticut had no obligation to report sexual abuse accusations to the authorities. (A law on the books since the 1970s says otherwise.) And he described the Bridgeport diocese’s handling of sex-abuse cases ...

That's about all I have to say about last night's latest chapter in the Republican crash and burn.  Well, tough luck, Republicans...when you guys pushed through Citizens United with your carefully selected corrupt Supreme Court justices, and when you turned real control of your party over to the hyper-rich, you bought and paid for the guy, and now you are stuck with him. My advice:  eat up his lies, because it's the only sustenance you are going to get between now and November.

The second movement of Beethoven's seventh symphony has always been my single favorite piece of music on earth.  Now, at long last, someone seems to have discovered what I can only assume to be the original pro tools session when Beethoven recorded it on his midi controller: Thanks to Hullabaloo for finding this.

From some dick named Dan Komen at National Review Online: "Look, the beauty of free speech is that, if you’re inclined to do so, you can write a check to PP in an act of solidarity, or write a check to Komen as an expression of moral approval. That’s all fine. But there’s something quite a bit different, something creepy and not a little despicable, about the Planned Parenthood set’s besmirching Komen’s good name across a thousand platforms for having the audacity to stop giving them free money." Yes indeed.   Republicans have already determined that spending money is a form of speech.  Now, apparently, they have decided that it is the only form of speech, and that when the Constitution that they revere so much spoke of freedom of speech, it wasn't intended that this freedom be extended to, uh, actual speech.  Next time some conservative jackass starts explaining to you what the founding fathers really meant, keep this sort of thing in mind. Note:  No li...

There is something that cannot be ignored about this squalid episode.  It did not take place in a vacuum.  After Republicans succeeded in destroying ACORN through a campaign of lies and smears, they turned their attention to Planned Parenthood, and have been using the same filthy tactics against that organization for a year now.  The actions of the Komen foundation must be seen in the light of this ongoing campaign, and  the scorched-earth tactics of the Republican party to destroy every liberal organization, one at a time. Viewed in this light, it is impossible to see the Komen foundation's actions as anything but a vicious political manipulation, in which women's lives are to be sacrificed in order to serve the political goals of the Republican party's real base- the super rich.  Sorry, but to think otherwise is to ignore decades of Republican behavior.

Bush paid liar press secretary Ari Fleischer served as a consultant to the Susan Komen foundation over their decision to stab Planned Parenthood in the back.

Those of you who believe, as I briefly did, that the Susan G. Komen foundation was reconsidering its piggish decision to abandon Planned Parenthood in order to kiss up to right wingers need to read this post at Daily Kos.   In fact, nothing has changed at the Komen foundation except their newest attempt to crush the public reaction to their shameful conduct. I have one reservation with the Daily Kos article, however.  It is entitled "Lazy media reports Komen Foundation decision as 'reversal.' It isn't." In fact the mainstream media isn't displaying laziness at all.  It is simply doing what it always does: deliberately confusing the issue in order to deflect public attention from the endlessly disgusting behavior of the right.  Now, this issue can die away, and the Komen foundation can continue its betrayal of the women that it claims to be helping, without consequences.

Well, here we go...let the whining begin. To start, here's the dumbest fucking lie you ever heard: Tim Dunkin, Renew America:  "Robin Hood was a right-wing Republican.  There's a reason the Robin Hood story — as it actually is — resonates with conservatives. It's because we know that wealth redistribution, and the ever-increasing burden of taxation upon the productive classes needed to sustain it, are inherently unjust." There are no words in any language on this planet that can even begin to express how stupid this is, so I'll just move on, if you don't mind. Senator Marco Rubio:  "Sen. Marco Rubio on the SOTU: "The President Is on the Verge of Committing Economic Malpractice"  What would that make George W. Bush?  The Charlie Manson of Economics? Thomas Sowell, Town Hall:  "This may be the golden age of presumptuous ignorance. The most recent demonstrations of that are the Occupy Wall Street mobs. It is doubtful how many o...

Knowing that we are about to experience a ten month onslaught of Republican lies about Obama's supposed responsibility for our rotten economy, I want to try to assemble some of the real evidence.  Here's a little chart of unemployment claims since January 2007: I think this chart is pretty self-explanatory.  Here's a further interesting piece of information, the figures for job growth for the last several Januaries: January 2008: +13,000 January 2009: -820,000 January 2010: -39,000 January 2011: +68,000 January 2012: +243,000 I'm sure you can get the message here pretty easily.

Joe Lieberman's wife "has long been associated" with the Susan G. Komen foundation.

Obama made an appearance in church, and predictably, right wingers everywhere have worked themselves up into a fury.  Here's a typical example, from the dicks at Red State: "While Obama may have been correct in saying that government mandated, shared responsibility is equal to the Islamic belief that those who’ve been blessed have an obligation  to use those blessings to help others, he is incorrect to group in Jesus’ teaching, “for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.”  Aside from the fact that Jesus was discussing requirements from God, not the government, he was actually teaching his disciples that they were stewards of God’s gift of Revelation. Their requirement was to spread the good news of Jesus Christ." Yes, even when he's in Church, he is practicing Islam.  Well, stupid Green Eagle, not having been able to figure out yet that, if it's on a right wing website it must be true, went to another source: "The Lord answered, “Who t...

So, it's time to beat up on Ron Paul again.  First, let me say something about Anonymous- not the poster on my website, but the hacker organization.  My older son, who was involved with 4chan for a long time back in the day is convinced that anonymous is nothing but a collection of teenage nerds out to take their frustrations out on the world.  Here's a case where he is wrong- Anonymous has done a considerable service to us by hacking into the computers of an organization called "American Third Position" to reveal their connections with Ron Paul. Second, let me say that I am doing this for the record, so I'm sure that not that many people will follow all of the links here.  But the mainstream press is as usual giving a pass to a Republican candidate, in this case going so far as to ignore his willing collaboration with neo-Nazi, Aryan supremacist groups.  I have documented some of this before, and unfortunately, here is more. So first, what, exactly, is "...

Here's what happens when you have a Democrat in the White House: "U.S. stocks had a big January and they're starting February strong, too.  Stocks rose more than 1 percent in afternoon trading on the first day of February. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 136 points, its biggest gain since Jan. 3. Wednesday's gains followed the stock market's best January in 15 years. Wednesday's gains were pushed by strong manufacturing data and positive signals from Greece. U.S. factories boosted output in January by the most in seven months, according to the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index. And the Commerce Department said construction spending rose 1.5 percent in December for the fifth consecutive monthly gain...ADP said private-sector employment rose by 170,000 from December to January." That compares to the loss of 700,000 jobs a month when the last miserable President finally left the White House, a stock market and doll...

Courtesy of Mitt Romney: “I’m not concerned with the very poor."

So...Grover Norquist.  He was never elected to anything, never served in any position of service to the people of this country.  He's a lobbyist.  And yet, the Republicans have made him probably the most powerful person in their party, and one of the most powerful in the country.  You can't name a Republican that dares stand up to this guy, and any Republican who says anything that angers him issues a grovelling apology within days.  So, what does this Grover Norquist have to say lately? "Obama can sit there and let all the tax [cuts] lapse, and then the Republicans will have enough votes in the Senate in 2014 to impeach. The last year, he’s gone into this huddle where he does everything by executive order. He’s made no effort to work with Congress." No effort to work with Congress.  No effort to work with a pack of Republican mad dogs who have openly stated that their fondest desire is not to serve the country but to destroy him.  Of course, he ha...