Green Eagle

The Los Angeles Times explains it all to us: "GDANSK, Poland – Mitt Romney is rapidly discovering the downside of a high-profile overseas trip – a visiting American presidential candidate makes an irresistible punching bag for foreign political leaders, and the resulting blows can overshadow whatever message the campaign had hoped to convey to voters back home." Apparently, their memory at the Los Angeles Times doesn't go back four years to when another Presidential candidate made a "high-profile overseas trip" to an almost universally enthusiastic  response everywhere he went.  Funny, when the Presidential candidate involved doesn't act like an over-privileged spoiled brat, he doesn't become a punching bag. Maybe there's a lesson there for the American people, if the press thought it was important enough to dwell on.

You think he did bad in London?  Here is Mitt Romney's day's work in Israel: He told the Arabs that they have an inferior culture, and at the same time praised Jews for having so much money- thus managing to commit an almost unheard of two-for-one act of antisemitism in one remark, as well asrendering any effort he might make as President to deal with Arabs virtually impossible. Of course, since he seems to have no interest in Arabs except to bomb them, maybe conducting himself like a smug, self-righteous ass talking to his inferiors is his idea of masterful foreign policy. He stated that, if President, he would make it U.S. policy that an undivided Jerusalem is the capital of Israel- something that no previous President, Democrat or Republican has ever done, because that act would produce not one shred of positive outcome, while needlessly antagonizing Arabs, solely to pander to his "base" on the right in this country- a miserable sign of what kind of foreign p...

I saw someone refer to Mitt as "the American Borat."  I would love to see that become more widespread.

 “We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he feels that the special relationship is special,” (a Romney) adviser said of Mr Romney, adding: “The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have”.  May I point out that, if Romney had been the President of the United States yesterday, he would have succeeded in destroying that "special relationship" in one day.  He is a socially inept bully who enjoys humiliating people, and who doesn't seem to understand what happens when you deliberately try to humiliate whole countries.  This man, who I just saw a commenter refer to as "the American Borat," did more to hurt our relationship with the British people in a day than the last five Presidents did all put together. Of course, it's all okay with right wingers.  Bryan Kilmeade on Fox: "the British press better back off, and so should the officials — this guy could be president."  Yeah, they better back off, because if he becomes pr...

By Paul Krugman this morning.  I don't think I need to excerpt any of it here, or add any gratuitous comment of my own, but I suggest you read it.

We now learn that while Mitt was involved with the Mormon Olympics a few years ago, he commissioned six different pins with his own picture on them,  Here's an example: Yeah, we love you, Mitt, if you do say so yourself.  If you're masochistic enough to want to see the rest. you can find them here. I'm beginning to think that the Republican party has succeeded in selecting the most comically awful Presidential candidate ever.  Not that, with billions in corporate money behind him and a complicit press, he can't win the election. Of course, then we will have the most awful President ever, even worse than Bush.  It just won't be comic.

In writing essentially the same post every single day-  Mitt lies about this, Mitt lies about that...this has got to be the most dispiriting election I have ever seen.  It's about nothing but whether the Republicans can craft a seamless enough lie about Obama and themselves, and can then get enough corporate money to jam it down people's throats (with, of course, help from the mainstream press.) Here's an article (if you care) about what a total fool Romney is making of himself in England: "Oh, Mitt: those Romney gaffes in full...Boobs, blunders, clangers – whatever you call them, Romney likes to drop them. And he's really outdone himself in London From criticising the biggest sporting event Britain has held in over 40 years, to "looking out of the backside of 10 Downing Street", Mitt Romney's first foreign trip of his presidential candidacy hasn't gone quite as well as he might have hoped. As the former Massachusetts governor continues to ...

Wisdom from Mitt: "Romney to NBC News: "Changing the heart of the American people may well be what's essential, to improve the lots of the American people." Hey, it worked for Dick Cheney.

Any excuse is enough for Green Eagle.  I'm thinking of the backup vocals- ride Sally ride:

Add them together and you get "Republican." Today's example, and proof of the House Republicans' promise from the 2010 election to remain "focused like a laser on jobs:" "Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is floating legislation that would name most U.S. coastal waters after former President Ronald Reagan. Issa reintroduced his bill Wednesday to rename the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone, which generally extends from three miles to 200 miles offshore, as the Ronald Wilson Reagan Exclusive Economic Zone." Man, I am so glad that they care so much about keeping their promises and showing any scrap of respect to this country and its people.  This single action should be enough for this jackass to be jeered out of office.  But unlike the time that Obama slipped and accidentally said he's been to "57 states" instead of 47, which will never be forgotten and has become an ironclad proof that, like all Negroes, he's pretty dumb, thi...

I have to say that I am totally bored with mass shootings.  So I'm going to pretty much ignore this one.  The reaction to it, however, is another thing entirely. If you look around right wing websites, you will find endless abuse directed toward the left because ABC news, upon learning the name of the shooter, blamed a teabagger from Colorado with the same name.  Now, leave aside the fact that ABC is owned by Disney, one of the most right wing companies in the United States- this incident was enough of an excuse for dozens of websites to attack the left. Not so much interest, however, in this (courtesy of Little Green Footballs:) "This" being popular right wing talk radio host Alec Jones stating openly that this shooting incident was planned and carried out by the Obama administration to somehow further their goal of destroying the United States. Make a humorous campaign spot with a dancing horse, and you have gone way over the edge- if you are a Democrat....

Today, this includes the mainstream press and, unfortunately, most all of the left wing commentators too, who have been totally taken in by this. "This" being the sight of Mr. Boehner and Mr. McCain reacting with ire at Michelle Bachmann for calling one of Hillary's assistants a Muslim plant: "Boehner's remarks come a day after Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., took to the Senate floor to denounce a series of letters Bachmann and four other Republican House members sent to various agencies about the Muslim Brotherhood. Other Republicans who have also criticized Bachmann include South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown and Bachmann's former presidential campaign manager Ed Rollins." Even a generally rational source as Daily Kos seemed to find in this touching scene  some sort of proof that Republicans actually do have some sort of soul, and are not entirely (as Green Eagle insists) utterly incorrigible criminals: "Well,...

So, the Democratic National Committee put out the following spot a few days ago, featuring the Romneys' dressage horse: Using footage of the horse is nothing but a minor jab at the Romneys for being the kind of out of touch rich people who participate in such a sport.  But, oh no, according to Ann, it was really an unacceptable, boorish insult: "Ann Romney, who trains with show horses as part of her therapy for multiple sclerosis, took offense in an interview with Robin Roberts on “Good Morning America...” So, in the face of Romney surrogates accusing Obama of being an un-American, socialist foreigner who is collaborating with our enemies, on an almost daily basis, how does the gutless DNC respond? "... and now the DNC is saying it will put out no more horse videos, and is expressing regret for offending Ann Romney." This is the sort of contemptible behavior that has earned Democrats a reputation for being weak, fainting violets who are incapable of standi...

Oh-so-wise Villager Chris Cilizza, in the Washington Post today, quotes this without a word questioning it: "Perception is becoming Romney’s reality and these issues have now risen above mere distractions,” said John Weaver, a Republican consultant and former senior adviser to Sen. John McCain ’s (R) 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns. “The President has had the worst three months of any incumbent, due to the economy, since George H. W. Bush in 1992" The worst three months since 1992 due to the economy?  As usual, I guess we are supposed to forget the three months from September to December 2008, under George W. Bush, when the Dow lost about 3300 points, and job losses rose to 800,000 a month. But as usual, any lie told by a Republican, no matter how preposterous, is fine with the Washington Post.

As we see an increasing chorus of demands, even from the right, that Mitt do something to stop the avalanche of suspicions now swirling around his refusal to let people know how he has handled his hundreds of millions, the Romney campaign today seems to be slipping into hysteria.  Two major spokesmen for Romney ramped up the viciousness and desperation of the attacks on Obama.  One, playing the red card, claimed that Obama's backing of green energy technology was turning the United States into the Soviet Union.  And a second stated openly in the national media that Obama "doesn't know how to be an American." We all knew that it would come down to this sort of thing in the end, but mid-July seems rather early for it.  Unfortunately, I suspect this presages a quick descent into the lower reaches of the gutter, where Mitt's campaign will ensconce itself for the next few months. At this point, just about everyone, right and left, suspects that there is something...

Pretty much a garden variety crop today.  Green Eagle is only doing this because the collected Wingnut Wrapup is someday going to be required reading in Obama-Communist public schools.  Well, let's get it over with: Doug Giles, Town Hall:  "Remember When Being on the Government Tit Was a Bad Thing?" Doug, remember when being a vicious lying racist was a bad thing?  No? Here's a little more of Doug's fine writing: "As Providence would have it, at the ripe old age of 21, I extracted my head from my backside via Christ’s effectual grace" A piece of advice, Doug:  ask Jesus for your money back.  The extraction didn't work. Daniel J. Mitchell, Town Hall:  "Why Western Europe Became Rich in the Past…and How It Can Regain Prosperity Today" Daniel claims it's all about government spending.  Listen, you lying pig, Europe got so rich in the past by stealing the rest of the planet's resources, and holding a large part of the wor...

That seems to be the basic Republican line about Mitt Romney's taxes. Hey, people like Mitt spent years and tons of money electing a government that saw to it that what Romney has done went from being illegal to being legal.  They bought and paid for that legality.  And that's all that matters, right? So, elect Mitt and you will see a lot more things that used to be illegal become legal.  Oh, not things that you might take advantage of.  These newly legal actions will be like Mitt's taxes- things that really rich people will find useful- things like destroying the banking system for your own financial benefit, or killing off tens of thousands of jobs in order to suck companies dry.  Oh wait, that's already legal.  It's a free country, you know.  As for you, a few more years and the only thing that will be legal for you is buying guns.  If you voted Republican, that is.  For Democrats, the only legal thing will be starving to death.

Here's a perfect example of the manner in which Republican lies are injected into the public consciousness by endless repetition.  This is a chart (this time from Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit) which we see over and over again in various forms: A cursory look at this chart would lead people to believe that Obama exploded the Federal budget deficit.  This apparent fact is used to bolster the Republican myth that it is Democrats who are the out of control spenders in the U.S. However, one thing is wrong with this chart, which Hoft and all the other Republican propagandists know perfectly well:  The line for the year 2009, when the deficit vastly increased, represents not Obama's budget, but the last Bush budget, passed in October of 2008.  The chart should really look like this: Quite a different story, huh?  Now, we see that it is the Republican Bush who tripled the budget deficit in one year.  In fact, Obama has made significant cuts in the deficit every...

Back in mid-June I reported on a great uprising promised by the Catholic Church.  Here are some of their statements:  "The fourteen days from June 21—the vigil of the Feasts of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More—to July 4, Independence Day, are dedicated to this “fortnight for freedom”—a great hymn of prayer for our country." "U.S. Bishops Prepare Catholics for Civil Disobedience: ‘We May Need to Witness to the Truth by Resisting the Law’...bishops of the United States are now preparing Catholics for what may be the most massive campaign of civil disobedience in this country since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and early 1960s."  Well, where was it?  "...the most massive campaign of civil disobedience in this country since the Civil Rights Movement"  doesn't seem to have amounted to a pile of beans. I'm not writing this to gloat.  This is a phenomenon that we have seen over and over again with the teabaggers.  Their claims to repres...

Maybe you'd like a Kindle or a Nook, but you're justifiably afraid that they are tools of Satan?  Well, check this out: "GodPad? Christian tablet makes rapturous debut Edifi designed to 'get people closer to God' ...if you’re looking to get in God’s good graces, or you’re simply in the market for a family-friendly tablet, you may want to check out Family Christian's Edifi. Billed as the world’s first Christian tablet, its genesis came with the inevitable intersection of technology and religion, according to Brian Honorable, a technology supervisor at Family Christian, the group that sells the tablet... “We basically wanted to spread God’s word through a tablet.  It goes along with our mission: trying to get people closer to God … through a tablet.” ...the Christian tablet is more than just an e-reader. It also comes with movie-watching capabilities, Christian radio stations, and even a web browser with built-in “safe search,” so the tablet is safe for...

I read the following remark by Roy Edroso a couple of days ago at Alicublog: " AND PEOPLE WONDER WHY I DRINK. Apologies for the paucity of posts this week. They've piled a ton of new work on me at my job...But I'll be frank with you -- a lot of it is just malaise. Sometimes I just can't even, as the kids say. This election seems to have surpassed the last one for stupidity already, and it's only July."  I can't tell you how much I agree with him.  There is little going on in the country besides the election campaign, and the campaign comes down to the same thing every day.  The Romney people trot out their newest vicious lie, and we spend all of our time documenting what preposterous, evil nonsense it is. In the meantime, the Republican party's miserable stewardship of our country goes unnoticed by the press. And all the time, we know perfectly well that every lie Romney tells reaches a few people who never hear the refutations, keeping this lo...

From Jim Hoft: "Disgusting!… Dem ‘Trackers’ Tape & Post Video of GOP Incumbant’s Homes Online" This is apparently a tremendous outrage. Well, just to make us even, Jim, here's a picture of the Democratic incumbent's home: Just to remind you.

So now it turns out that Mitt Romney flew in some black people who had nothing to do with the NAACP, to attend their convention and cheer during his speech.  He then had the gall to have a meeting with these same people who he brought to the convention, and claim that it was a meeting with NAACP officials who were enthusiastic about his candidacy. This is shameful, pathetic behavior, but it is just fine with Conservatives, and it is being treated by the mainstream press as just normal campaign behavior.  This is the same press corps that is more than willing to air over and over again Republican claims that Obama's questioning Romney's history in business is somehow way outside the bounds of propriety. And that's how you get a close race between a thoroughly competent, honest President and a rich crook.

Varying responses to Mitt Romney's speech yesterday to the NAACP: Talking Points Memo:  "NAACP Crowd Boos Romney’s Promise To Repeal ‘Obamacare’" Crooks & Liars:  "Mitt Romney Loudly Booed at NAACP" Little Green Footballs:  "Mitt Romney parroted his standard right wing positions to the NAACP convention today...and was booed by the audience several times." And from the right: Town Hall:  "Romney Receives Standing Ovation for Straight Talk at NAACP Convention " Man...you just can't slow them down once they get on a roll.

Thirty one? What's that?  Well, today is the thirty first time in the last 18 months that Republicans in the House of Representatives have turned their attention to bogus efforts to "repeal" the Affordable Care Act. Since, even if they do pass something, it could never get through the Senate, let alone avoid an Obama veto, this is nothing but a public display of intransigence, and refusal to turn their attention to the nation's real problems.  Yet, every one of these 31 times, we see the mainstream media treat these tantrums as though they are legitimate behavior.  Encourage your dog to stand in the yard and bark his head off every time someone walks by, and by George, it won't be long before he gets to like acting that way.  P.S.  In the spirit of full disclosure, our Corgi taught himself to stand in the yard and bark his head off, so don't blame us.

Who else? Mitt, of course.  Today's example has to do with his supposedly blind trust involving his offshore investments.  Here's a tweet from Radio Iowa's Okay Henderson, regarding an interview he had with her yesterday: "Romney re: off-shore investments – they’re in a blind trust. “I don’t manage them. I don’t even know where they are,” he says." Now, this news, from an Obama campaign research document: "The problem with Romney’s claim? The Bermuda corporation—Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors—was registered in 1997 and Romney was listed as the “the sole shareholder, a director, and president” of the corporation. The Bermuda corporation was under his personal ownership until it was transferred into a blind trust in his wife’s name the day before he was sworn in as governor, possibly to avoid disclosure. In fact, the one fulltax return Romney did release shows that he directly owned the company as recently in 2010 and it was not held in his trus...

Here is a little excerpt from a post by Digby, quoting an article by Robert Draper: "Robert Draper describes the results of focus groups done a few months ago by Democratic groups attempting to define Mitt Romney: Burton and his colleagues spent the early months of 2012 trying out the pitch that Romney was the most far-right presidential candidate since Barry Goldwater. It fell flat. The public did not view Romney as an extremist. For example, when Priorities informed a focus group that Romney supported the Ryan budget plan — and thus championed “ending Medicare as we know it” — while also advocating tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, the respondents simply refused to believe any politician would do such a thing. That's really how bad the Ryan budget is: voters don't believe that real politicians would actually do such a thing." I have made a point before, and this is a good time to make it again.  This problem- that the American people just can't ...

Okay, okay, so Green Eagle doesn't have enough constructive to do with his time.  Anyway, here we go again... Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit:  "It’s the Obama Way… 3 Million Kids Now Get Free Lunches All Year Long...The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Summer Food Service Program provides three million low-income children with free, nutritious meals during the summer months when school is not in session." What an abomination!  Free lunches for kids.  Let them get their own God damn food.  Do you know how many car elevators Republicans could buy with the money that it takes to give food to three million poor kids? Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit:  "Impeach John Roberts Movement Gains Steam" Jim's proof:  Someone has created an Impeach John Roberts page on Facebook.  That'll tell them! Rick Berman, Town Hall:  "Mr. Trumka, You Clearly Do Not Understand Freedom" Not if you think it includes the right to join a union.  Mr. Berman reasons: "...

Courtesy of NPR , the places in the United States that saw high temperature records broken in June:   But of course, there were two words that the NPR article didn't dare mention.  Can you guess what they are?  Hint:  Their initials are G and W, and I don't mean George W. Bush.

Mitt Romney today, as paraphrased at Daily Kos: "Today, he clarified his position in response to a question from a reporter. Unlike the claim in his ad, Romney said his plan wasn't to balance the budget right away. Instead, he said his plan called for saving "more and more money over time, so we're able to get America to a balanced budget in eight to ten years—not in the first year." Cast your minds back, O Republicans, and you might remember a recent President who did exactly that. Remember how you treated him?

As usual.  You might want to read the whole article: "Romney wasn’t so much a captain of industry as a captain of deindustrialization, making big profits for his firm (and himself) by helping to dismantle the implicit social contract that used to make America a middle-class society."

I mean the Roberts thing.  I'm beginning to think this one Supreme Court vote has totally shaken their confidence that they can buy the Presidency this fall, sending them right into madness.  Here is a really out of control example, from a female jackass named Gina Miller at the ever-disgusting Renew America.   Gina describes herself as follows:  "a native of Texas and current resident of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, is a conservative Christian political writer and radio/television voice professional." Of course, everyone knows that a "conservative Christian political writer and radio/television voice professional" is far more qualified to assess the constitutionality of legislation than the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court and the former constitutional law teacher who is currently the President of the United States.  I mean, that goes without saying, right? Well, here we go. Get ready for wisdom, tempered with an appropriate degree of respec...

Surprise!  The Republicans are lying again. It has already become a staple of Republican propaganda that the mandate in the Affordable Care Act is the biggest tax increase in the HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE!  A couple of examples: Rush Limbaugh:  " And what we now have is the biggest tax increase in the history of the world." Sarah Palin:  "We now see that this is the largest tax increase in history." Representative Jeff Landry:  " “This is the largest tax increase on the poor and the middle class in the history of this country..." Red State:  "The Supreme Court today upheld in its 5-4 decision on the Affordable Care Act the largest tax increase in U. S. History." Daily Caller:  "Out of all the smoke and mirrors comes the biggest tax increase this country has ever seen."  Now, please believe me- I could go on all day quoting more examples of this claim, which has become absolutely established fact on the other planet where Republic...