Berlin Ambiente – Source: Flickr / anacoreta / Julia Dávila-Lampe
Daily Archives: August 2, 2012
Live CORGICAM: look at this adorable bebe with her bebes!
Do they have her on a drinks tray? Corgi can haz a softer bed?
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President Obama called the members of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team
barackobama: President Obama called the members of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team today to congratulate them on their wins last night. Judging from their Twitter feeds, they were pretty psyched.
It’s a shame American Christians don’t care about the economy or their own incomes
If fundamentalists spent even one quarter of their time and attention on what the GOP was doing for the wealthiest Americans (at the expense of the poor, working and middle classes) as they do on social issues like gay marriage and abortion rights, we wouldn’t be living through a time of income inequality that’s even greater than during the Great Depression.
Instead of worrying about the incomes and living conditions of their own families and friends and neighbors, these Christians are more worried about legislating what strangers should do with their privates lives. Meanwhile, they continue voting for the wolves who have been shoveling money up to their benefactors for the past three decades. Political Wire reports that Mitt Romney’s tax plan would reward the wealthy even more, while placing an even greater economic burden on the rest of us. And it will be the fundamentalists who vote for Romney:
A new Brookings Institution/Tax Policy Center study finds Mitt Romney’s plan to overhaul the tax code would produce cuts for the richest 5% of Americans — and larger bills for everybody else.
The Washington Post notes the researchers seemed “to bend over backward to be fair to the Republican presidential candidate” but “none of it helped Romney.”
“His rate-cutting plan for individuals would reduce tax collections by about $360 billion in 2015, the study says. To avoid increasing deficits — as Romney has pledged — the plan would have to generate an equivalent amount of revenue by slashing tax breaks for mortgage interest, employer-provided health care, education, medical expenses, state and local taxes, and child care — all breaks that benefit the middle class.”
A year ago, Think Progress reported that “crucial services and public investments for Main Street America are being gutted as taxes on the richest Americans are the lowest they’ve been in a generation. …ThinkProgress has assembled the following graph, which demonstrates that the United States is now about as economically unequal as Uganda and more unequal than countries like Pakistan or the Ivory Coast:”
Imagine the level of inequality if Romney and a Teapublican Congress get their way. What does it say about modern Christianity when all the fundamentalist rubes are capable of paying attention to are the social issues that the GOP distracts them with on an almost daily basis? Instead of helping those less fortunate, is trying to force your religious beliefs on others and being associated with what you hate really what Jesus intended?
When a pickle-soaked chicken sandwich became the symbol of Christian traditional marriage
image: silence-death
I look forward to the day when people treat each other better, when they respect each other — especially when there are differences — and let others live their own lives. Is that day only possible in a future without Christian fundamentalism?
Chaz the Intolerant Chick-Fil-A Chicken: “Eat up you Godless Sodomites!”
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Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis react to Romney aide’s “kiss my ass” comment
Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis react to the video of Mitt Romney’s aide telling reporters to “kiss my ass” in Poland.
How the Republican Party always distracts the rubes: gays and abortion
Yesterday while John Boehner and the rest of the Teapublican House were busy trying to give the super rich an average of $160,000 more in tax cuts, increase taxes on the rest of us by about $1,000, and protect “small businesses” like Bain Capital, they had a couple of familiar shiny objects to distract the rubes in their voting base from paying attention:
1) Chick-Fil-A Appreciation / Hate the Gays Day!
Chick-fil-A Wants Nothing To Do With Mike Huckabee’s Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day: “The former Arkansas governor created the event on his Facebook page, where he wrote that he was “incensed at the vitriolic assaults” made on Chick-fil-A as a result of their stance against gay marriage. To fight back, Huckabee said, Americans should swarm Chick-fil-A stores across the country on August 1 to show their support. Many customers seemed to have listened. In Indiana, a Chick-fil-A employee posted a photo of his store’s record-breaking sales. In Conway, Arkansas, a store reported record crowds. Dozens of tweets reported lines wrapped around the block. [...] Meanwhile, Wendy’s also appears to have a beef with the day. After a conservative blogger tweeted about a local Wendy’s sign recommending Chick-fil-A, the fast food chain wrote back: “An independent franchisee posted the sign, which he’s taken down. We proudly serve ALL customers.”"
Miss Lindsey Graham seems to appreciate the knee-jerk hate and bigotry of his Teagealical base — he must gladly pander to pseudo-Christians to keep his job:
christopherstreet: Unctuously prissy Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) at a Chick-Fil-A yesterday.
2) Yet another, new abortion bill! (jobs, jobs, jobs):
House Defeats Ceremonial DC Late Term Abortion Bill: “The House participated in perhaps one of the year’s most blatant displays of political kabuki theater Tuesday, shooting down a ban on late term abortions in the District of Columbia that had virtually no chance of passing. Majority Leader Eric Cantor had scheduled the abortion vote – a major priority of the National Right to Life Committee – despite the objections of moderates and even some conservatives who viewed the vote as little more than bait for the conservative base.”
Even REPUBLICANS are getting sick of the righwing extremists in Congress:
Rep. Mary Bono Mack blasts D.C. abortion vote | The Desert Sun: “A House bill this week to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy in Washington D.C. may have failed to gain enough of a majority to pass, but it certainly spawned a heated debate on the House floor afterward. Republican Reps. Mary Bono Mack and Robert Dold questioned House Majority Leader Eric Cantor for about 10 minutes after the 220-154 vote on Tuesday, according to Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. [...] On Wednesday, Bono Mack spokesman Ken Johnson said he wouldn’t detail the discussion with Cantor of Virginia, but explained the seven-term Palm Springs Republican’s frustration with the bill she and Dold of Illinois opposed. [...] “But, clearly, Congresswoman Bono Mack was frustrated about both the policy and process surrounding the abortion bill. There was no exception for rape or incest — absolutely none — and no amendments were allowed. “Additionally, this was on the suspension calendar, which historically is reserved for noncontroversial bills that enjoy broad support. In this case, 154 members voted against it.””
Roll Call News: “House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) was confronted on the floor this evening by Republican Reps. Mary Bono Mack (Calif.) and Robert Dold (Ill.), who were livid he had scheduled a tough abortion vote, according to someone who witnessed the incident. Both voted against the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would have criminalized abortions in Washington, D.C., past 20 weeks of pregnancy. “Are you kidding me? How many times are we going to vote on this?” Bono Mack told Cantor in the heated exchange, according to the witness.”
But it’s about the economy… right, Mitt?
Stephen Colbert does Dressage
How do you disprove a rumor that you didn’t pay any taxes for 10 years?
I guess you could release 10 years worth of tax returns…
“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told the Huffington Post that a Bain Capital investor told him that Mitt Romney didn’t pay any taxes for at least a decade. The person also told Reid that Romney’s wealth was significantly more than the $250 million estimated. “Tellingly, neither Reid nor his office would reveal who the investor was, making it impossible to verify if the accusation is true. And as his quote makes clear, he’s uncertain if the information is accurate… But there is limited political downside to the type of open speculation that Reid is making, so long as Romney refuses to budge on the issue of his tax returns. Increasingly, other Democrats are growing more assertive in their goading.”"
The GOP-led House rejects Obama tax cuts, will recess until September
“Bain Capital is the kind of small business that our Republican colleagues are trying to protect.” — Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.)
The Huffington Post reports that the House will recess this week — until September — without coming to an agreement on the Bush tax cuts and the wealthiest incomes: “The Democratic bill resembled President Barack Obama’s tax plan, which calls for letting the Bush-era tax cuts expire for incomes of more than $250,000 for couples and $200,000 for individuals. The Republican measure would extend all the Bush-era tax cuts for all income levels, but end breaks passed in 2009 that help about 25 million middle-class households.”
“Each side made stark arguments, with Democrats casting the issue as protecting the middle class, and Republicans countering that they were safeguarding small businesses and jobs.
“”The president wants to raise taxes on the so-called rich,” said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). “Well, let me tell you who the so-called rich are. About a million of those people that you want to increase taxes on are small business owners.”
“”Their priority is cutting taxes of the very wealthy in this country,” countered Rep. Sandy Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. “They want to give households that earn more than $1 million a year a tax cut –- on average –- of $160,000 next year.”
“[...] Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) derided the policy as “supply-side voodoo,” echoing criticism first made by George H. W. Bush. Pascrell noted that since the George W. Bush cuts were passed in 2001 and 2003, the income gap in America has grown.
“”To those members concerned with tax fairness, today, wealth concentrated with the top 1 percent is at the same level as the period immediately preceding the Great Depression,” Pascrell said. “So you shrunk the middle class with your great economic ideas between 2001 and 2008, and what you did, what you did is made the rich richer. I salute you.”
“[...] “These are not mom-and-pop businesses,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), arguing that only 3 percent of businesses with fewer than 500 employees would face tax hikes. “Bain Capital. Bain Capital [is] the kind of small business that our Republican colleagues are trying to protect.”
“Democrats also argued that with the expiration of the 2009 cuts — the child tax credit, a bigger earned income tax credit and a break on college tuition — middle-class families would face on average a $1,000 tax hike.
“[...] The failure of Congress to agree on taxes on the remaining 2 percent of Americans guarantees that the argument will be carried through to the campaign trail over the summer, and will be a prime debating point in the fall when Congress returns from its summer break.
Obama Plan Is 39.4% Just Saying… (via: randomactsofchaos)
And that’s 39.4% on the one percent!
May your day be filled with surprises
via: 4gifs
Tip: if you’ve recently had cervical fusion surgery, do not take a pain pill about 2:00 PM and then accidentally fall asleep at 7:00 PM. You will wake up at 2:00 AM in an alarming amount of pain — and most importantly, you will be awake for the rest of the night. #paincontrolfail #sleepfail #therewillbeworkfail
