Call Me Unimpressed

I will believe it when I see it.

The fact is if there had been something to wreck Romney once and for all, it would have already come out, and there ARE things that have come out which have done damage to him and Ryan.

The problem is millions upon millions of people have already voted for any "scandal" to have much impact; early voting has started in many parts of the country. Oregon started mailing in ballots for mail-in return, as I noted yesterday on a blog post.

If there is a scandal, get on with it; otherwise, shut up about it.

The Beach Bums

It was too good to be true there would be a happy ending to the longest-running soap opera in show business. Somebody should tell Mike Love that original or near-original Beach Boy members Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, and David Marks ARE the band, at least of those still alive. Love's ego and greed can't take it, so he FIRES the surviving original lineup members for a bigger cut for himself.

What a jerk.

Love will be touring as the Beach Boys with Bruce Johnson and a back-up band that may or may not include Uncle Jesse.

“I’m disappointed and can’t understand why he doesn’t want to tour with Al, David and me,” Wilson told CNN. “We are out there having so much fun. After all, we are the real Beach Boys.”

Let's see...Wilson wrote the melodies and at times the lyrics of some of their greatest hits, and he's booted out.

Unbelievable.

No Love is lost here.

Since he IS a shit, I don't really care to read how big his shits are.

Enough is Enough

Why in the hell is the L.A. Sheriff's Department bothering reopening the Natalie Wood drowning case from 1981? It all sounds like a publicity stunt.

If no foul play is suspected, then why bother with it?

It was an accidental drowning, pure and simple.

Let her rest in peace.

Etc.

The so-called "super committee" is completely unconstitutional, but it is giving cover to what Obama really wants, and that is to fuck over Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

If he carries out what they want he should be voted out of office regardless of whom the GOP nominates.

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Why did the Sandusky case take so long?

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Paying the Piper: Ronald Reagan wasn't all that in the sack.

Etc.

Time will tell if the third time's a charm for Paul McCartney.
At least she's not half his age.
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News, Etc.

In good news for bloggers and others, it appears copyright troll Righthaven is on its last legs; it hasn't filed any lawsuits in several months and has suffered one legal setback after another.

Good riddance.
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The "shock doctrine" is coming to your friendly neighborhood school.
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Delusional bitch deserves to rot in anonymity.  What else did she expect?

No sympathy here, Monica.
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A batterer beats the shit out of people, and he has the nerve to ask for their forgiveness and support.
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Etc. and Outrages

Con man Obama continues with his crapola of "equal sacrifice" and "shared sacrifice," which we know are code words for the IMF's "austerity" plot to impoverish the masses in order to bail out the idiots responsible for tanking the economy.
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Oregon congressman David Wu is resigning from office over a sex scandal with an 18-year-old.

THIS guarantees a ruined political career, but fuck over the country? You have it made.
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Bluntly, companies not hiring the unemployed are engaging in nothing more than age discrimination.

Companies that do it are full of shit.

link

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And if that isn't enough to make a job seeker mad, now there are companies which are allowed to invade prospective candidates' privacy even more with social media background checks.
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It's not "centrism," Paul, that is the cult; it is instead neoliberals or libertarianism or Friedmanism that is destroying the world.

Speaking of which, the IMF is scared shitless the United States is going to default.

I say round up all of the scoundrels in both political parties and throw them in jail. I have another idea, too, but I can't say it here on the blog.

Etc.

No surprise that Anthony Weiner has resigned from his House seat.

I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for idiots in either political party.
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Dear Tony,

Take the entire House of Representatives, the United States Senate, the Supreme Court, and the White House with you.

ALL of these institutions and the people in them are screwed up. They aren't representing the vast majority of people anymore.


link

News, Etc.

James Auchincloss is sent back to jail over child porn charges, while the prosecutor can't resist taking a cheap shot at his family, a family that has reportedly had NOTHING to do with him for years.

Auchincloss was said to have been a source for Kitty Kelley's Jackie Oh!  and Onassis was said to have been so pissed off at him, she cut him off.  The book was published way back in 1978.

Jackie died in 1994--seventeen years ago--and it can be assumed the family has had little if any contact with the Auchincloss black sheep ever since.
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Rep. Anthony Weiner is misogynist, idiotic, and arrogant, but what else does his scandal mean?

Scandal-mongering allows the ruling elite to conduct its internecine battles without any interference from the masses. This or that politician can be eliminated without acknowledging the issues involved.

In this case, it appears the Murdoch-owned media targeted Weiner at least in part because he was the presumed frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City in 2013, when the current mayor, billionaire Michael Bloomberg, leaves office because of term limits.

More generally, both capitalist parties use such scandals to position themselves against each other while avoiding any discussion of political substance.

I can't argue with that.
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Another lie exposed as government pension funds won't be bankrupting states.

News, Etc.

Some 154 employees, including administrators, are bailing out of WCSD thanks to an early separation "incentive."

Older teachers with enough years in BETTER take it or risk harassment out of their jobs.
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Obama is a neolib, so don't expect him to do one meaningful thing about the jobs crisis, especially when it comes to FDR-style job creation programs.

These are the jobs of the future:





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"Insurance policy" equals blackmail.

On the other hand, Anthony Weiner has proven himself to be nothing but a big dick.

I suppose the picture if not the member is copyrighted, so I will simply post the link to the pic.


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More bullshit from the teacher-trashing Los Angeles Times, which quotes a teacher-trashing outfit claiming LAUSD "wastes" a half-billion on "pointless teacher training."  If this isn't neoliberal bullshit, I don't know what is.

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One-time blogger now neolib pundit Matthew Yglesias proves himself as ignorant about education policy as Obama or any so-called "Democrat."

Of course it is all talking points from the neolib "Democrats for Education Reform," which in fact is nothing but rightwing bullshit opposing a key component of democracy.

I don't bother with many of the so-called "A-list" bloggers because there are so many other blogs out there that are better than these overrated types.
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If you want to see some beautiful pictures, take a look at these of the recent volcanic eruption in Chile.

Incredible.

Now for the Video

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

No mayoral job for you, Tony.

Idiocy is a Bipartisan Affair

Good thing I didn't comment much on New York's Andrew Weiner; I figured he was probably guilty of being an idiot on social networking sites.  Now he has admitted as much.

Time to quit playing on that shit and actually work for a living.

Saying he has not been honest with his family and constituents, Rep. Anthony Weiner today admitted that he exchanged graphic photos with six women over Twitter and Facebook, but said he will not resign, even as Democratic leaders called for an ethics investigation.

"I have not been honest with myself," a tearful Weiner said today, adding that it was a "hugely regrettable mistake."

The New York Democrat said some of the relationships dated back three years and that he generally met the women on Facebook. He added that he did not have a physical relationship with any of the women and that he mistakenly treated it as a "frivolous" thing.

He says he didn't use any government equipment to get his jollies, but he's still an idiot.

 

News, Etc.

Phillip Garrido will no longer be a staple of the tabloids, as he was sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars for the kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard.    link
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This is as good a case I can think of to not use Twitter and  make a twit of yourself.

That picture is nothing to write home about, either.  Weiner won't be modeling underwear ads.
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News, Etc.

The federal government continues to play fast and loose with UI numbers by saying the rate is 9.0 percent while only 36,000 new jobs were created.

The lousy weather back east is being blamed for the numbers.
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President Obama sheds crocodile tears over Egypt:

Obama’s prayer follows a series of White House and State Department statements “deploring” the violence in Egypt and expressing moral indignation over the attacks by the regime of President Hosni Mubarak on peaceful protesters and the media.

Who do they think they are kidding? For 30 years, US administrations, Democratic and Republican alike, including that of Obama, have backed Mubarak precisely because of his ability to impose policies supported by Washington against the overwhelming opposition of the Egyptian people. That this required systematic and relentless violence was well understood.

Meanwhile, the protests continue as the ruling elite fractures.
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Does anybody really care whether dirty old man Hugh Hefner has his "groove back" or not?

I read enough about the filth in his mansion and the filth in his mind not to give a crap about his business or sexual prowess.
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Speaking of disease, diseases once thought eradicated or rare in the United States are making a furious comeback. These diseases include measles, the mumps, pertussis (whooping cough), and TB. They are making a comeback thanks to deliberate neglect of our infrastructure and budget cutbacks:

From January 1 to December 31 in 2010, the CDC reported 8,383 confirmed cases of pertussis in California, which once enjoyed a living standard among the highest in the world. More than 1,100 adults and children have been diagnosed with the illness in San Diego County alone, and across the state at least 10 babies died. California has not suffered this great an outbreak since 1947.

Michigan, once home to a thriving auto industry, also suffered an increase in pertussis in the first half of 2008, continuing through 2010. There were 315 reported cases in 2008, with 902 cases in 2009 and 1,092 in 2010. Ohio recorded a level of infection not seen since 1985, with 966 reported cases.

The official figures do not include those who are unable to seek medical attention due to financial hardship. Given that the US is in the midst of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression and tens of millions lack health insurance, the real numbers are certainly much higher.

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And what about the almost 5 million people who have dropped off UI and aren't counted in any statistic?

They can go hang as far as our elected officials care.
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John Luebbers has pleaded not guilty in the shooting of Placerville school principal Sam LaCara.

Why Should Anybody Be Surprised

that somebody who makes a living exploiting women and getting "engaged" to women young enough to be his great-granddaughter has an "empire" which is equally sordid?

Hefner likes to have anywhere between three and 15 girlfriends at any one time. One of the group will be chosen to be Girlfriend No 1. She will share Hefner’s bedroom at all times, while the others are merely visitors.

For Izabella, the Playboy Mansion was far from the glamorous pleasure palace she had imagined. ‘Each bedroom had mismatched, random pieces of furniture,’ she recalls in her autobiography Bunny Tales. ‘It was as if someone had gone to a charity shop and bought the basics for each room.

‘Although we all did our best to decorate our rooms and make them homely, the mattresses on our beds were disgusting — old, worn and stained. The sheets were past their best, too.

Oh, barf.

Hef is little more than an acceptable version of fugitive pimp Joe Conforte.

News, Etc.

A guy who claimed to have a one-night stand with Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell manages instead to make her look sympathetic.
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Gossip, Etc.

Rumor has it freed miner Yonni Barrios has a second mistress.

And so it goes...

News

For fun there are more tape recordings of the Mel and Oksana soap opera to divert one's attention from the idiotic Congress.
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Guess which college received more Pell Grants than anybody else? Hint: It was one of the colleges profiled in a recent PBS Frontline episode.
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How Far the Mighty Have Fallen

Probably nobody is more deserving of condemnation and derision than actor Mel Gibson, and that goes beyond the latest accusations of domestic violence and those foul-mouthed tapes.

He's clearly got something wrong with him, but controversy has dogged this guy for years, as Rich notes:

Gibson is in such disgrace today that it’s hard to fathom all the fuss he and his biblical epic engendered back then. The commotion began with the revelation that his father, Hutton, was a prominent and vociferous Holocaust denier and that both father and son were proselytizers for a splinter sect of Roman Catholicism that rejected the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, including the lifting of the “Christ-killers” libel from the Jews. Jewish leaders and writers understandably worried that “The Passion” might be as anti-Semitic as the Passion plays of old. Gibson’s response was to hold publicity screenings for the right-wing media and political establishment, including a select Washington soiree attended by notables like Peggy Noonan, Kate O’Beirne and Linda Chavez. (The only nominal Jew admitted was Matt Drudge.) The attendees then used their various pulpits to assure the world that the movie was divine — and certainly nothing that should trouble Jews. “I can report it is free of anti-Semitism,” vouchsafed Robert Novak after his “private viewing.”

It was all downhill from there. Mel's saintly image soon became tarnished and now his reputation is truly shot to shit, thanks to his own words on tape.