Tag Archives: jan brewer

Video: Bill Maher on Republicans’ offensive treatment of President Obama (2/17/12 New Rules)

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Bill Maher (partial transcript via: DailyKos):

But there’s something about this President that makes conservatives think it’s OK to go apeshit in his presence.  They didn’t do this to Carter, an actual pacifist, or Clinton, who really did have a plan for universal health care, or LBJ, who actually made it easier for poor people to vote and eat.  All of them clearly evil America-haters.

But they got treated with a modicum of respect, at least to their faces.  Not Obama.  What can it be that’s different about him?  (ponders for a moment to uncomfortable audience laughter)

It’s either his race, or it’s your brain chemistry, or it’s something that happened when your dad spanked you and you liked it and you were looking at a box of Cream of Wheat.  I don’t know, I’m not a therapist.  Maybe it’s not race.  I don’t know what’s in people’s hearts.  Except Newt Gingrich, I know what’s in his heart: lust and cheese fries.

But this type of in-the-room, in-your-face, in-your-space disrespect is new.  Admit that, and I will admit that, of course, something like impeaching Clinton was far more serious.  But it was also at least in some ways more respectful.  It was done with high pomp, through official channels, and was all about the rule of law, and the Chief Justice wore a special robe he got from a musical or something.

And somehow that is a lot more respectful than this.

Saturday morning’s 9 interesting things

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1) Catholicism then: “I as a Catholic have absolutely no right in my thinking to foist through legislation or through other means, my doctrine of my church upon others. It is important to note that Catholics do not need the support of the civil law to be faithful to their religious convictions,” - Boston’s late Cardinal Richard Cushing, 1965, the man who married John F Kennedy. – The Dish

2) Catholicism now: “[O]nce the colleges fell and those who were being educated in our institutions, the next was the church. Now you’d say, ‘wait, the Catholic Church’? No. We all know that this country was founded on a Judeo-Christian ethic but the Judeo-Christian ethic was a Protestant Judeo-Christian ethic, sure the Catholics had some influence, but this was a Protestant country and the Protestant ethic, mainstream, mainline Protestantism, and of course we look at the shape of mainline Protestantism in this country and it is in shambles, it is gone from the world of Christianity as I see it.” - Rick Santorum’s assessment of mainline Protestantism, at Ave Maria University in 2008 [Note: you can listen to audio here]

3) Bill Moyers on contraception debate: religious freedom includes freedom FROM it - “If an individual Catholic worker wants coverage, she should have access to it,” Moyers said. “Just like any other American citizen. Under the new plan, she will.”

The GOP’s uterus inspection device

4) Va. GOP Demands Invasive Vaginal Ultrasound Procedure Before Abortion - Republicans in Virginia’s House of Delegates really have their hearts set on new legislation that will force all women seeking abortions to first undergo penetration by a transvaginal ultrasound transducer. They’re so enthralled with this harlot-shaming tool that today they voted down an amendment that would have allowed doctors to determine whether this penetration was necessary. Clearly, whether it’s medically necessary or not has nothing to do with this law. The GOP wants to get all up in women’s uteruses — literally. The penetration part is vital to their agenda.

CNN contributor and Andrew Breitbart editor DANA LOESCH saying, basically, if you’ve spread your legs  for intercourse, why would you have a problem with other things being inserted into your vag for no reason? - “That’s the big thing that progressives are trying to say, that it’s rape and so on and so forth… [high voice] “Oh what about the Virginia rape? The rapes that, the forced rapes of women who are pregnant?” What!? Wait a minute, they had no problem having similar to a trans-vaginal procedure when they engaged in the act that resulted in their pregnancy.“

5) Panic on the Streets of DC - They are terrified: A prominent Republican senator just told me that if Romney can’t win in Michigan, the Republican Party needs to go back to the drawing board and convince somebody new to get into the race. “If Romney cannot win Michigan, we need a new candidate,” said the senator, who has not endorsed anyone and requested anonymity. They really have no one to blame but themselves. They’ve spent so much time lying about everything and creating an echo chamber to reinforce and transmit those lies within the so-called “conservative” movement that quite simply, anyone who appeals to the wingnut base is someone so twisted as to be utterly repugnant to the rest of the nation.

6) BREAKING: Obama DOJ Won’t Defend Constitutionality Of Denying Military Benefits To Same-Sex Couples - the Obama administration has announced that it will not defend laws that prevent married same-sex couples from obtaining military benefits. In a letter to Congress today, Attorney General Eric Holder argued, “[t]he legislative record of these provisions contains no rationale for providing veterans’ benefits to opposite-sex couples of veterans but not to legally married same-sex spouses of veterans … Neither the Department of Defense nor the Department of Veterans Affairs identified any justifications for that distinction that would warrant treating these provisions differently from Section 3 of DOMA.”

7) Arizona Bill To Limit Unions Would Cost Local Goverments Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars - Arizona Republicans introduced a slate of legislation earlier this month targeting public sector unions… Though two of the bills, including one that would have essentially banned public sector unions, stalled in the state legislature, a bill that would end the practice of workers automatically deducting union dues from their paychecks is still proceeding. Like Walker and his Republican colleagues in Wisconsin, Brewer and Arizona’s Republicans have presented the union “reforms” as a necessary step in bringing the state’s budget under control. But according to a new report from the state’s Joint Legislative Budget Committee, the bill would actually cost local and municipal governments — and Arizona taxpayers — hundreds of thousands of dollars…

8) FBI breaks up latest terrorist plot that it created (God knows how much this cost) - The FBI is masterful when it comes to thwarting their own baroque terrorist plots in dramatic fashion at the very last minute, just as their scripts instruct them to do. The Feds found today’s lucky arrestee, a 29-year-old Moroccan, about a year ago and thought, Sure, this one looks Muslim enough to me, he’ll do… now let’s start brainstorming a plot and getting him all the fake bombs and training and support he needs so we can arrest him in a year.

9) Six recused in Maxine Waters ethics case - Six members of the House Ethics Committee — including all five Republicans on the secretive panel — have recused themselves from the long-running case involving Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters (Calif.), an unprecedented move that raises new questions on whether the Waters case can be finished. [...] Waters is alleged to have improperly intervened on behalf of a minority bank where her husband owned more than $350,000 in stock during the 2008 U.S. financial crisis. Waters has denied any wrongdoing, but the Ethics Committee initially voted to charge her with three violations last summer. Waters then asked for an ethics “trial.” Those proceedings were postponed in Nov. 2010 and the case has been on hold following legal and partisan fights.

Tuesday morning’s 10 interesting things

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1) Satire: Santorum thinks ‘it’s never polite to look a rape horse in the mouth’ - From the satirists that brought you comedian Andy Cobb as “a godless heathen” mocking Rick Perry’s bizarre anti-gay political ad comes a tidal wave of sarcasm cresting off Rick Santorum’s odd statement that women who are the victims of rape should “make the best of a bad situation” and go through with the pregnancy. Watch video:

2) Dems Say Romney Outspends Newt 5 -1 In Florida - The narrative that Team Romney is pushing is that of a new-and-improved candidate, battle-hardened after his South Carolina woes, and sharpened as a candidate by having had to outsmart Newt Gingrich. The Dems think these figures suggest something else: that it’s not Romney who’s winning votes in Florida, but the size of his wallet.

3) Gingrich sued over use of “Rocky III” theme song - Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich faces a lawsuit over his use of “Eye of the Tiger,” the theme song to the movie “Rocky III,” court documents show. || Seriously, Newt? Eye of the Tiger? Maybe it would be best if Republicans stick to music that suits them. Remember when Heart wouldn’t let McCain/Palin use Barracuda? 

4) Putting Romney’s wealth in context -  For most working families, this is a level of wealth that’s hard to relate to. Romney took in more wealth in a day in 2010 — without actually having a job — than most Americans earn in a year. Romney would be in the top 1% based solely on the income he receives in one week. [...] The problem isn’t that Romney is extremely wealthy. It’s hard to imagine a significant number of voters saying, “I’m uncomfortable voting for a rich guy.” The problem is how Romney acquired his vast wealth (a vulture-capitalist firm), his frequent gaffes on the subject, and his policy agenda (which includes more tax breaks for the wealthy).

5) Scamming his herd: Rick Warren is an ass, but he’s right - Rick Warren, mega-church grifter, uses some of his tax-exempt time to promote the asinine Republican attack on President Obama’s use of the teleprompter: “Leaders speak from conviction. Actors speak from telepromters.” — @RickWarren  Of course Warren is right. Actors do use teleprompters:

6) Majority Of Americans Support Taxing Investment Income The Same As Wage Income - …a CBC News/New York Times poll shows that a majority of Americans favor taxing investment income the same as wage income. The disparity between the 15 percent top rate for investment income and the 35 percent top rate for wage income is what enables wealthy investors like Warren Buffett to drive their tax rate down to or below the rate at which many middle class families pay.

7) ‘Socialist’ Obama has conservatives seeing red - “I am for the Declaration of Independence,” Newt Gingrich proudly proclaimed. “I am for the Constitution.” Obama, by contrast, “is for European Socialism.” (i.e. Obama’s black) [...] Another Gingrich supporter, John, who only gave his first name, said he was convinced Obama’s upbringing overseas — he spent part of his childhood in Indonesia — explains his alleged estrangement from centrist American values. “Mom, baseball and apple pie… He doesn’t understand us,” said John. (i.e. Obama’s black)

8) Santorum pushed to limit malpractice awards but sought larger payout for wife - On the campaign trail, GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum says he will push to limit payments to victims in medical malpractice lawsuits, which he blames for unnecessarily driving up health-care costs. And over the course of his two decades in politics, he repeatedly spoke in favor of capping such awards. But Santorum testified in support of his wife when she filed a medical malpractice suit in 1999 that sought $500,000, twice the cap in his 1994 legislative proposal. Karen Santorum claimed that a Fairfax chiropractor had left her with a permanent back injury that probably would result in a lifetime of pain medication and restricted mobility.

9) Jan Brewer Expecting Treat Now for Shaking Finger at Barack Obama - From the “JAN PAC” website: “Friends, I need your help! When I met President Obama this week, I really wasn’t pointing at him. I was telling him, “You have ONE more year!” The President needs to be reminded that he is the President of the FEDERAL REPUBLIC and not a KING lording over state governors. While I wanted to talk to him about jobs, our economy and visiting our border, President Obama criticized my book, Scorpions for Breakfast, and then walked away from me…”

10) Matt Taibi | Rolling Stone | The Odd Couple: Romney Vs. Gingrich - Less than a week after New Hampshire, Romney committed a series of gaffes that revealed his crucial character flaw: He’s a hypernervous control freak who flips out if you try digging around below the paper-thin veneer of his schlock patriotic presentation. The robotic Mormon financier looks like a walking OCD diagnosis, a trim coil of tightly wound energy with perfect coif and tie, seemingly living in permanent terror of a single hair falling out of place. For this type of anal-retentive personality, the messy chaos of South Carolina was a phobic horror. Faced with actual opposition, he lost his grip on everything. At a time when a quarter of the population has zero or negative net worth, when outrage against the financial elite is at an all-time high on both sides of the political aisle, Romney, it turns out, is so weirdly tone-deaf about his status as a one-percenter and bloodsucking corporate raider that any question in that direction sends his eyes pinwheeling. As his electably boring-mannequin act began to crumble, his carefully concealed true self – a deluded gazillionaire nitwit – was suddenly thrust naked onstage for all of America to gape at…

Brewer says Obama “was somewhat thin-skinned,” doesn’t remember pointing her finger at him

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[Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer] says she welcomed the president to the city warmly and said she hoped to sit down with him some time. [...] “He was somewhat thin-skinned a little tense to say the least,” Brewer told KFYI radio. As for the pointing her figure at the president: “I was trying to be very calm. The picture is interesting, I don’t remember doing that.” — Brewer does not recall pointing her talon directly in the face of the President like a harpy.

Damn the lamestream media with their cameras…

Related: 

Jan Brewer owes the President an apology

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Photo of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (REPUBLICAN) pointing her acrylic-nailed talon into the face of the President of the United States of America during an argument.

Obama tangles with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer over immigration book

Brewer attempted to hand Obama a letter, which she later told reporters was an invitation to sit down with her to discuss “Arizona’s comeback” and to tour the U.S.-Mexican border with her.

That’s when things went sour. Obama and Brewer engaged in what reporters described as an “intense exchange,” with the Republican governor pointing her finger at the president and the two appearing to talk over each other.

The exchange ended when Obama abruptly walked away as Brewer appeared to still be speaking, according to a summary provided by reporters in the press pool that shadows the president on his trips.

Asked about the conversation, Brewer told the reporters that Obama was “a little disturbed” about her book, “Scorpions for Breakfast: My Fight Against Special Interests, Liberal Media, and Cynical Politicos to Secure the Border.’’

The book, which was published two months ago, details her conservative approach to dealing with the state’s illegal immigration challenges. An article in the Arizona Republic last fall said that Brewer cast Obama as “patronizing and condescending.”

She portrayed the federal government as “out of control” and said that the president lectured her during a June 2010 meeting in the Oval Office, the newspaper reported.

“He didn’t feel that I had treated him cordially” in the book, Brewer told reporters Wednesday. “I said to him that I have all the respect in the world for the office of the president. The book is what the book is. I asked him if he read the book. He said he read the excerpt.”

[...] “Anyway, we’re glad he’s here,” a shaken Brewer said. “I’ll regroup.”

Hahah. Yes, you do that, Jan. Maybe you haven’t heard, but actions have consequences. Apparently the “office of the president” isn’t impressed with you or your little book.

I love that he walked away from her in mid-screech.

ryking:

If a Democratic governor, or a black governor, had gotten in George W. Bush’s face like this the way Arizona governor Jan Brewer did [yesterday] with Barack Obama, the media would have a field day. I also have to seriously wonder if she would have pulled this crap if the President were white.

Jan Brewer owes the President an apology.

Related: 

Gov. Brewer admits she was wrong

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(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Gov. Jan Brewer FINALLY admits to AP that she was wrong about decapitated bodies being found in Arizona’s deserts: ∞

“That was an error, if I said that,” the Republican told The Associated Press on Friday. “I misspoke, but you know, let me be clear, I am concerned about the border region because it continues to be reported in Mexico that there’s a lot of violence going on and we don’t want that going into Arizona.”

If? There’s no “IF” you said it.

…in a June 27 interview on Phoenix television station KPNX when asked about the earlier beheadings claim.

“Oh, our law enforcement agencies have found bodies in the desert, either buried or just lying out there, that have been beheaded,” Brewer said.

[N]one of the southern Arizona coroners who handle immigrant cases have seen headless bodies.

Full story…

UPDATE***

Bob Cesca: Jan Brewer is just now learning that the only way Republicans can win is to shut their mouths until November 3 or else be exposed as the incompetent doofs they are. So she won’t be participating in any more debates between now and the election following her epic meltdown this week.

“All you guys were doing and talking were beheadings, beheadings, beheadings,” the governor said. “That is something that has stuck with you all for so long, and I just felt we needed to move on.”

Truly the Palinization of politics: it’s the “lamestream” media’s fault she lied  and that she wouldn’t admit it until now. Tea Party! ∞

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Vampires and sunlight

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Charles Johnson on Jan Brewer:

Has right wing American politics reached such a fever pitch of insanity that this is now a winning strategy — to simply cut yourself off from all possible challenges to your views, and run away from reporters?

Bob Cesca on Palin:

Sarah Palin is loaded with guts, isn’t she? Refusing to talk to non-Fox reporters, refusing to take real questions, insisting upon pre-screening her audience questions and hiding her statements behind the one-way mirror of Twitter and Facebook. Brave!

“We have did what was right for Arizona”

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John Cole calls this painful-to-watch minute of Jan Brewer “the Palinization of politics“

It’s a sad fact that something like this will only further endear her to Tea Partiers, who think the most important parts of our Constitution are the Second Amendment and the Bible.

Plus, it’s likely that none of her supporters were awake at 8:00 PM when this aired in Arizona.

UPDATE ***

Charles Johnson finds video of Brewer after the debate: [she refuses] to answer questions about her claim that there were “beheadings” near the border — and ended up turning and running from the media.


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