Monday, December 31, 2012

21 Unforgettable Election Memes of 2012

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(pic credit: SnarkAmendment)


There are some unforgettable sights of Election 2012, and I'm not even sure this list is complete or can do justice to what is here. But these are images burned into our minds and retinas forever.

Cross-Posted on Life In the Snark Lane

1. Callista Gingrich's Shining Helmet Hair

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source: Newsweek Tumblr

Callista sat directly in front of me during our CafeMom Coffee Break with Newt Gingrich a few weeks ago, and I kept sneaking peeks at her hair throughout the event. Under the lights, it practically glowed. She looked like some sort of fussy, retro angel.
I'm just dying to touch that hair!
~ Lindsay Ferrier on The Stir

I Almost Got Callista Gingrich's Hair
. . . The color alone took three hours to achieve. Three hours of bleach and gloss and glaze and goop and my head being knocked about left and right. The gloss (or maybe it was the glaze?) burned my scalp; when I mentioned this, Pejman looked right at me and said, “Beauty tingles.”
Holly Allen on Salon

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2. Rick Santorum's Ubiquitous Sweater Vest

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source: Fear Rick's Vest Tumblr





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3. Romney's "Dog on the Roof" Story

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source

Before beginning the drive, Mitt Romney put Seamus, the family’s hulking Irish setter, in a dog carrier and attached it to the station wagon’s roof rack. He’d built a windshield for the carrier, to make the ride more comfortable for the dog.
As the oldest son, Tagg Romney commandeered the way-back of the wagon, keeping his eyes fixed out the rear window, where he glimpsed the first sign of trouble. ”Dad!” he yelled. ”Gross!” A brown liquid was dripping down the back window, payback from an Irish setter who’d been riding on the roof in the wind for hours.
As the rest of the boys joined in the howls of disgust, Romney coolly pulled off the highway and into a service station. There, he borrowed a hose, washed down Seamus and the car, then hopped back onto the highway. It was a tiny preview of a trait he would grow famous for in business: emotion-free crisis management.
~ Time Swampland, quoting the original Boston Globe story

Among those who professed shock at the story was Fox News host Chris Wallace. "I have a yellow lab named Winston. I would no sooner put him in a kennel on the roof of my car than I would one of my children. Question: What were you thinking?" Wallace asked the former governor.
Replied Romney with a nervous laugh, "This is a completely airtight kennel, mounted on the top of our car. He climbed up there regularly, enjoyed himself, he was in a kennel at home a great deal of the time as well. We loved the dog, it was where he was comfortable and we had five kids inside the car and my guess is he liked it a lot better in his kennel than he would have liked it inside."
~ Reported by NPR

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4. Mitt Romney's Etch-A-Sketch

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source: Jed Lewison, Daily Kos

HOST on CNN: Is there a concern that Santorum and Gingrich might force the governor to tack so far to the right it would hurt him with moderate voters in the general election?
Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney Advisor: Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It’s almost like an Etch-A-Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all of over again.
~ Think Progress

When you run as somebody you're not, it's hard to keep straight who you're supposed to be.
~ Democratic Strategist Bob Shrum on Hardball



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5. War on Women

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source: Matt Bors

What does it say about the college co-ed Susan Fluke [sic] who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex -- what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex.
. . . So Miss Fluke, and the rest of you Feminazis, here’s the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex. We want something for it. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.
~ Rush Limbaugh talking about Sandra Fluke

If the Democrats said we had a war on caterpillars and every mainstream media outlet talked about the fact that Republicans have a war on caterpillars, then we’d have problems with caterpillars. It's a fiction."
~ Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt” airing this weekend, via Daily Kos

Women + insects = adding 10 pts more to gender gap
~ Stephanie Cutter, Obama's Deputy Campaign Manager, on Twitter

We are seeing it. We are seeing the fabric of this country fall apart, and it's falling apart because of single moms.
~ Republican Primary Candidate Rick Santorum (lost)

If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.
~ Missouri Senate Candidate Todd Akin, R-Missouri (lost)

I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is that gift from God, and I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.
~ Senate Candidate Richard Mourdock, R-Indiana (lost)

More War on Women Quotes Here on Current
When Caterpillars Eat Your Brain
Conservative Women Rush to be Rush Babes for America
Tea Party Candidate Wants to Hurl Acid at Female Senators
Paul Ryan's Problem with Women
McDonnell and Cuccinelli Fight War on Women in Virginia
Doofus Todd Akin VS. Wildcat McCaskill
Barbarian Mourdock of Indiana Calls Rape a "Gift from God"
Wingnuts Get Nasty when Fluke is Nominated as Time Person of the Year

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6. Off-Shore Tax Havens in the Cayman Islands

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The firm today has at least 138 funds organized in the Cayman Islands, and Romney himself has personal interests in at least 12, worth as much as $30 million, hidden behind controversial confidentiality disclaimers. Again, the Romney campaign insists he saves no tax by using them, but there is no way to check this.
~ Vanity Fair

Today we’re learning more about Mitt Romney’s bets against America. Vanity Fair’s raising important questions about Romney’s offshore accounts in foreign tax havens, including his mysterious corporation in Bermuda, his funds in the Cayman Islands, and the Swiss bank account he opened. The question is, why? Was he avoiding paying his fair share of U.S. taxes? Was he hedging against the dollar? Until he releases his tax returns from that period, Americans will never know. This raises serious questions. If he has nothing to hide, why doesn’t he just release his tax returns?
~ Obama Spokesman Ben LaBolt



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7. Rafalca the Dancing Horse

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source: Atlantic Wire



As a living, breathing, clippety-cloppeting, velvet-nosed and liquid-eyed avatar of Romney’s extreme wealth, she’s given her uncle Mitt the kind of handicap his advisers fear might make his path to the White House heavy going. That may be why the Republican presidential hopeful betrays scant interest in his wife’s four-legged protégé.
During Romney’s accident-prone sojourn in London in late July, he told NBC‘s Brian Williams that he didn’t even know when Rafalca would be appearing at the Games — “I have to tell you,” he said, “this is Ann’s sport.”
~ Time Magazine

Obama is going to need all the help he can get because Romney is surging, thanks in part to his new secret weapon. Long time viewers know that every year I declare a sport of the summer. Last year it was the elegant art of canoe dancing....Last week I declared that this year's sport of the summer will be Dressage, or "Horse Ballet."
. . . The Romneys are the proud owners of a German Oldenburg mare named Rafalca. There is no better way to dispel the myth that Romney is a detached patrician elite than competitive horse prancing. I mean, it's basically Nascar in a velvet top hat.
~ Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central
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8. The Romney Shambles

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Romney could not have played more into the image of the callow American if he’d showed up at Buckingham Palace in Dockers. In his honor, the nation even resurrected a little-used epithet, “wazzock,” which refers to, as John Cassidy wrote, “a hapless idiot who blunders around saying or doing things he or she shouldn’t” (or, literally, a bull’s penis). This weekend, the BBC reported that, according to Harvey Weinstein, David Cameron, the Tory Prime Minister, has told people that Romney’s graceless performance has won him “the unique distinction of uniting all of England against him with his various remarks.”
~ Lauren Collins on The New Yorker

Who is this klutz, this clodhopper, this lawn sprinkler of national insult? Well, he`s Mitt Romney. Remember him, the guy who promised to restore and upgrade the special relationship with Great Britain and has instead barfed on the Buckingham Palace lawn?
~ Chris Matthews on MSNBC's Hardball





Romney Shambles Day One: Disconcerting London Gaffes
Romney Shambles Day Two: British Press Pounces
Romney Shambles Day Three: On to Israel
Romney Shambles Day Four: Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran
Romney Shambles Day Five: Poland
Romney Shambles Day Six: Warsaw Speech
Romney Shambles Review

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9. Ann Romney Versus "You People"

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source: @AzureGhost

We've given all you people need to know and understand about our financial situation and about how we live our life. . .
~ Ann Romney to Robin Roberts on ABC News

. . . The other thing they have to understand is that Mitt is honest, his integrity is just golden. We pay our taxes, we are absolutely . . . beyond paying our taxes we also give 10% of our income to charity, so we have no issues that way.
The only reason we don't disclose anymore is, you know, we just become a bigger target.
~ NBC Interview with Natalie Morales

This is hard and, you know, it's an important thing that we're doing right now and it's an important election and it is time for all Americans to realize how significant this election is and how lucky we are to have someone with Mitt's qualifications and experience and know-how to be able to have the opportunity to run this country.
~ Ann on Radio Iowa



More Here:
Return of the Romneys (Post Election)
Where was Mitt on Inauguration Day?
Poli-Ticks: Romney Vs. Lyme Disease
Ann Romney Obviously Worried about Mitt's Mental Health
Mitt's Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
Romney Dumps 'A' Tax Return - So There, Take That!
Mitt Hammered By Critics From Both Sides (With Ann's Famous "This is Hard" Remark)
Ann Romney Thinks Her Horse is Classier than 47% of Dems
Romney Fall-Out Continues from VideoGate
David Gregory Plays Softball With the Romneys
Ann Romney Loves Women, Avoids Female Issues


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10. Birtherism

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My investigators believe that the long-form birth certificate was manufactured electronically and that it did not originate in a paper format as claimed by the White House.
~ Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona via LA Times

He said he was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia… Now they’re saying it was a mistake. Just like his Kenyan grandmother said he was born in Kenya, and she pointed down the road to the hospital, and after people started screaming at her she said, ‘Oh, I mean Hawaii.’ Give me a break.”
~ Donald Trump on Daily Beast

Speaking about his Michigan roots, he said, "No one's ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised." The joke was received with hearty applause by the audience. . . .
~ Mitt Romney Speaking in Michigan, via Huff Post


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11. Lyin' Paul Ryan

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source

HH: Are you still running?
PR: Yeah, I hurt a disc in my back, so I don’t run marathons anymore. I just run ten miles or yes.
HH: But you did run marathons at some point?
PR: Yeah, but I can’t do it anymore, because my back is just not that great.
HH: I’ve just gotta ask, what’s your personal best?
PR: Under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something.
HH: Holy smokes. All right, now you go down to Miami University…
PR: I was fast when I was younger, yeah.
~ Paul Ryan Radio Interview with Hugh Hewitt as he lies about his Marathon Time

Runner's World checked 11 years of results for Grandma's Marathon, from 1988 through 1998, and found a finisher in the 1990 race by the name of Paul D. Ryan, 20, of Minneapolis.
Ryan's middle name is Davis, and he was 20 in 1990. The finishing time listed was 4 hours, 1 minute and 25 seconds.
~ Research by Runner's World Magazine proving that Ryan was Lying

"No, I never asked for stimulus," Ryan said when questioned on reports that he had sought funds.
Ryan's statement directly counters the evidence of four letters obtained by the AP which the congressman wrote to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, praising energy programs supported by the stimulus and requesting funds for initiatives in his district.
~ Associated Press report that Paul Ryan openly lied to the media about whether he asked for stimulus funds for his district

On Paul Ryan's Republican National Convention Speech:
"Three Words: Dazzling, Deceiving, Distracting"
. . . to anyone paying the slightest bit of attention to facts, Ryan’s speech was an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech. On this measure, while it was Romney who ran the Olympics, Ryan earned the gold.
~ Sally Kohn on Fox News

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12. Clint Eastwood Talks to an Empty Chair

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I don't . . . I don't . . . I don't know . . . Clint Eastwood is 82 years old. And I don't know if that's what was going on there . . . That was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen at a political convention in my entire life, and it will be the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen if I live to be one hundred.”
~ Rachel Maddow on MSNBC

I could never wrap my head around why the world and the President that Republicans describe bears so little resemblance to the world and the President that I experience. And now I know why.
There is a President Obama that only Republicans can see.
~ Jon Stewart on The Daily Show

Clint Eastwood Talks to an Empty Chair in Tampa
Romney Advisers on Hotseat Over Chair Debacle
Media Turn Clint Eastwood Every Which Way but Loose
Clint Eastwood Blames Mitt for Stupid Chair Skit

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13. The 47%

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~ Romney on a secretly recorded video posted by Mother Jones

Here was Romney raw and unplugged—sort of unscripted. With this crowd of fellow millionaires, he apparently felt free to utter what he really believes and would never dare say out in the open. He displayed a high degree of disgust for nearly half of his fellow citizens, lumping all Obama voters into a mass of shiftless moochers who don't contribute much, if anything, to society, and he indicated that he viewed the election as a battle between strivers (such as himself and the donors before him) and parasitic free-riders who lack character, fortitude, and initiative.
~ Journalist David Corn, who leaked the 47% video with the help of the Anonymous filmmaker and James Carter IV, grandson of President Jimmy Carter

All of us make mistakes. . . . What people want to know, though, is you're not writing off a big chunk of the country because the way our democracy works.
This is a big country. And people disagree a lot, but one thing I’ve never tried to do – and I think none of us can do in public office – is suggest that because someone doesn’t agree with me that they’re victims or they’re unpatriotic.
~ President Obama on CBS, The David Letterman Show

Today Mitt Romney Lost the Election
You can mark my prediction now: A secret recording from a closed-door Mitt Romney fundraiser, released today by David Corn at Mother Jones, has killed Mitt Romney's campaign for president.
~ Josh Barro on Bloomberg

Romney Goes Totally Ayn Rand in Secret Video
Obama Will Win 47 States with Help of Moochers
Romney Fall-Out Continues from Video-Gate
View from the Far Right as Romney Falls From Grace
Ann Romney Thinks Her Horse is Classier Than the 47% Dems
Romney Dumps a Tax Return - So There, Take That!

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14. Fire Big Bird and Cut PBS

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New Minas on Daily Kos

What things would I cut from spending? Well, first of all, I will eliminate all programs by this test, if they don't pass it: Is the program so critical it's worth borrowing money from China to pay for it? And if not, I'll get rid of it. Obamacare's on my list. ... I'm sorry, Jim, I'm going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I'm going to stop other things. I like PBS, I love Big Bird. Actually like you, too. But I'm not going to -- I'm not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for. That's number one.
~ Mitt Romney to PBS Moderator Jim Leher during First Presidential Debate





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15. Binders Full of Women

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source: @TeaPartyCat

And I -- and I went to my staff, and I said, "How come all the people for these jobs are -- are all men." They said, "Well, these are the people that have the qualifications." And I said, "Well, gosh, can't we -- can't we find some -- some women that are also qualified?"
And -- and so we -- we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet.
I went to a number of women's groups and said, "Can you help us find folks," and they brought us whole binders full of women.
~ Mitt Romney During Presidential Debate, via ABC News







More Here:
Snark Amendment: Romney's Binders Full of Women Debate Meme
Binders Full of Women Tumblr
Binders full of Women on Wired
Know Your Meme: Binders Full of Women
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16. Joe Biden's Grinning Malarkey

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source: Gifwich Tumblr

Mr. Biden, clearly delighted to come to President Obama’s rescue, relished his role, addressing his opponent as “my friend” but dismissing his arguments as “malarkey.” He laughed at Mr. Ryan’s remarks so often and so heartily that at times he seemed like a guest at a comedy club roast, not a vice president debating the fate of the nation with his opponent.
~ New York Times

It reminded me ... of watching a musk ox run across the tundra with somebody underfoot. And in this case, when it came to style, it was Paul Ryan underfoot....
~ Previoiusly Debated VP Candidate Sarah Palin





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17. Horses and Bayonets

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source: thecarryall.com
more here at horsesandbayonets.tumblr

You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military's changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines.
~ Barack Obama During 3rd Debate





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18. Hurricane Sandy

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I’ve got a job to do here in New Jersey that’s much bigger than Presidential politics and I could care less about any of that stuff… if you think right now I give a damn about presidential politics then you don’t know me.
~ Romney's Surrogate, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, when asked if he would let the Republican candidate visit the state

If President Obama wins re-election on Tuesday, the historical memory of the race might turn on the role played by Hurricane Sandy.
Already, some analysts are describing the storm as an “October surprise” that allowed Mr. Obama to regain his footing after stumbling badly in the first presidential debate and struggling to get back on course. Some Republicans seem prepared to blame a potential defeat for Mitt Romney on the storm, and the embrace of Mr. Obama by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and other public officials.
~ Nate Silver on the importance of Hurricane Sandy

The election isn't gonna be moved. It's gonna happen Tuesday. Of course, the opposite theory is, “What the hell is Christie doing? He's giving Obama a chance to look presidential, clean up a state, look competent, look like he cares and so forth. What's a Republican doing propping up Obama?"
~ Rush Limbaugh





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19. Nate Silver Vs. Unskewed Polls

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source: The Penguin Press Tumblr





Nate Silver could be a one-term celebrity.
~ Dylan Byers on Politico

Nate Silver is a man of very small stature, a thin and effeminate man with a soft-sounding voice that sounds almost exactly like the “Mr. New Castrati” voice used by Rush Limbaugh on his program. In fact, Silver could easily be the poster child for the New Castrati in both image and sound. Nate Silver, like most liberal and leftist celebrities and favorites, might be of average intelligence but is surely not the genius he's made out to be. His political analyses are average at best and his projections, at least this year, are extremely biased in favor of the Democrats.
~ Dean Chambers, founder of Unskewed Polls, on Examiner ~ this paragraph has now been edited out of the article

Nate Silver: Patron Saint of Confirmation Bias
. . . When the left wakes up on Wednesday, surveying the electoral wreckage around them, they may regret allowing themselves to be lulled into such a false sense of security.
~ Michael Flynn on Breitbart


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20. Karl Rove's Meltdown on Election Night

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Fox News Loses Its Mind Over Election Results
~ Headline on NY Mag








This is a bad day for Republican pollsters, and it’s something that they should be held accountable for. You have to tell your clients the truth, and you have to be accurate. And to miss so many states and to be this far off, your Fox News viewers ought to be outraged, because day in and day out they were told that Mitt Romney was going to win, and the fact is Ohio was ​never​ up, Wisconsin was ​never​ up, Pennsylvania was ​never​ up…the published polls were correct. Nate Silver was correct. But the Republican establishment polls were wrong.
~ Republican Pollster Frank Luntz

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21. Obama Wins Again For All the Right Reasons

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"A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words"
Kevin Drum on Mother Jones

From a righteous rant by Rachel Maddow on MSNBC (click here for full transcript)

That happened (the re-election of Barack Obama). That really happened.
We are not going to have a Supreme Court that will overturn Roe versus Wade.
There will be no more Antonin Scalias and Samuel Alitos added to this court.
We're not going to repeal health reform.

Nobody is going to kill Medicare and make old people in this generation or any other generation fight it out on the open market to try to get health insurance.
We are not going to do that.
We are not going to give a 20% tax cut to millionaires and billionaires and expect programs like food stamps and kid's insurance to cover the cost of that tax cut.

We'll not make you clear it with your boss if you want to get birth control under the insurance plan that you're on.
We are not going to redefine rape.
We are not going to amend the United States Constitution to stop gay people from getting married.

We are not going to double Guantanamo.
We are not eliminating the department of energy or the department of education or housing at the federal level.
We are not going to spend $2 trillion on the military that the military does not want.
We are not scaling back on student loans, because the country's new plan is that you should borrow money from their parents.

We are not vetoing the Dream Act.
We are not self-deporting.

We are not letting Detroit go bankrupt.
We are not starting a trade war with China on Inauguration Day in January.

We are not going to have, as a President, a man who once led a mob of friends to run down a scared gay kid, to hold him down and forcibly cut his hair off with a pair of scissors while that kid cried and screamed for help, and there was no apology not ever.

We are not going to have a Secretary of State John Bolton.
We are not bringing Dick Cheney back.
We are not going to have a foreign policy shop stocked with architects of the Iraq War.
We are not going to do it.
We had the choice to do that if we wanted to do that as a country, and we said no last night, loudly.

Ohio really did go to President Obama last night.
And he really did win.
And he really was born in Hawaii.
And he really is legitimately President of the United States, again.

And the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not make up a fake unemployment rate last month.
And the Congressional Research Service really can find no evidence that cutting taxes on rich people grows the economy.
And the polls were not screwed to oversample Democrats.
And Nate Silver was not making up fake projections about the election to make conservatives feel bad. Nate Silver was doing math.

And climate change is real.
And rape really does cause pregnancy sometimes.
And evolution is a thing.

And Benghazi was an attack on us, it was not a scandal by us.
And nobody is taking away anyone's guns.
And taxes have not gone up.
And the deficit is dropping, actually.

And Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction.
And the moon landing was real.
And FEMA is not building concentration camps.
And U.N. election observers are not taking over Texas.

And moderate reforms of the regulations on the insurance industry and the financial services industry in this country are not the same thing as communism.

. . . And the if the Republican party and the conservative movement and the conservative media is stuck in a vacuum-sealed door-locked spin cycle of telling each other what makes them feel good and denying the factual, lived truth of the world, then we are all deprived as a nation of the constructive debate about competing feasible ideas about real problems.

Last night the Republicans got shellacked, and they had no idea it was coming. And we saw them in realtime, in real humiliating time, not believe it, even as it was happening to them. And unless they are going to secede, they are going to have to pop the factual bubble they have been so happy living inside if they do not want to get shellacked again, and that will be a painful process for them, but it will be good for the whole country, left, right, and center.


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

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Wednesday, December 26, 2012

CNBC's Maria Bartiromo Shrieks at a Democrat and Traders Cheer


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Bartiromo: Are you guys just incompetent or what? I mean, if you can't do this, if you can't do what the American people pay you to do, why don't you just step aside and put somebody in there who can actually get a deal done?
. . . You're talking about $1.2 trillion in revenue, but you're not prepared to put anything on the table. People are not stupid.

. . . Cardin: The easiest way to get the revenues is to get the rates on the higher-income taxpayers.

 Bartiromo: That's all you want to do. That's it. It's your way or the highway. Raise the rates on the rich. No other way. Your way or the highway. That's it.. That's where we are. Thank you, Senator.

Cardin: Next time, let me answer the questions --

Bartiromo: Oh, you've answered them. Clearly.


I'll give her one cheer for clearly exposing Democrats' "my way of the highway" approach. She missed the opportunity to get to three cheers because it seems that she's just now recognizing after all these months that Democrats, including President Obama, won't accept any kind of a solution that doesn't involve raising the top rates -- even though they've been saying that very thing all along. ~ Tom Blumer on Newsbusters  . . . from time to time, you just have to give credit where credit's absolutely, positively due. Because if this thing hasn't gone viral yet, it damn well should. Yesterday on CNBC, host Maria Bartiromo schooled a United States senator. I won't even mention his name. After what happened to him, he's not worthy, and he probably would prefer I just leave him out of this whole thing. He would prefer you don't even watch the video. ~ The Street She is a yammering magpie trying to be relevant! ~ comment by B. L. on The Street As a journalist, she sucked. She let her own frustrations and point of view get in the way of an honest interview. There is a difference between hard-nosed questioning and badgering; she clearly crossed that line. ~ comment by Rick G. on The Street  . . . I think she unloaded on the wrong person. The agreement is not merely about getting the dollar number to be the same. It is important what is changed and what is not changed. Certainly a Democratic Senator whose party just won the election gets to have a say in what happens. ~ comment by disqus_lCwrk6cnV1 on The Street ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Quotes from the CNBC Facebook Page  Go Maria!!! Bite their heads off!! she's my hero
~ Heather M.

I thought she was rude,,,,,
~ Jay T.

I Love her but I really thought she was just a Bully and did nothing but trivialize what is going on. Boehner is jerking us all around. He doesn't have the votes nor the Intestinal Fortitude to go against those who have bought Congress. He can't control his caucus. We had an election we voted for taxes being raised on those over 250K and Obama has given even more. We knew what we were voting for. The Republicans have to face reality They LOST. The Senator could not get a word in edge wise. It reminded me of Hard Ball with Chris Matthews.
~ Jackie S.

She never treats Republicans in such a contemptuous way, she's becoming all that's bad on cable, look for her to move to Fox soon where she'll fit in perfectly!
~ John M.

Raise those mean nasty rich people's taxes don't raise mine I want my gubmint check to come on time lol welcome to Rome 700 A.D. All empires come to an end.
~ Gary E.

love it. I don't care which party or politician she's interviewing, every one of them is ruining Christmas.
~ George P.

Great job Maria !!! this guys need to be push for a "yes" or "no" answer, other-way they only say "bla-bla-bla".
~ Diego S.

CNBC might consider that Democrats are their viewers too. We do not need CNBC commentators to spread Republican lies and deceit; they already have Fox News for that. Why does Maria not ask Boehner or Republican guests what spending cuts they would support that does not entail throwing Grandma from the train. Maria needs to take some time off, a lot of time off. Perhaps, she would be happier over at Fox News.
~ Connie V.

The Cliff Diving has begun ... Maria is going to be much poorer as Wisdom Tree Funds lose a billion dollars by the close of tomorrow's market. Karma for the house of Steinberg from all the Frank B. Hall people they screwed in the 1980's.
~ Fred C.

hahahaha,,, Maria is among the 1% of filthy rich American, who are against raising the taxes for the 1% and will pick-on and corner any Democrat politician, while giggling and flirting with the republican politicians she gets to interview... hahaha,, great way for CNBC to glamorize her,,,,, she must be getting desperate and scared like the rest of the 1%, thinking about the tax hike she is going to have to pay up... :))))
~ Vin da V.

Always thought CNBC was bipartisan.... Neutral..... This is sad. CNBC is allowing right wing tantrums on air. So unprofessional..... The last straw was Maria acting like a little school girl giggling over the attention she got on the floor. I will be watching Bloomberg from now on.
~ Andrea L.

Itsy bitsy spider going over the cliff, watch out Maria your going to get bit, Ranting, ranting ranting is not impressing most, we all know your really should quit. Terrible, me bad. Please Faux Fox, hire Maria.
~ Shirley M-D

Great. Just wish the guy had been next to her so she could grab him by the collar and shake sh#t out of him. Loved the applause at the end.
~ Stephen S.


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David Gregory's Gun Show on NBC - Updated

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Reuters
NBC News anchor David Gregory is being investigated by police after displaying what he said was a high-capacity gun clip on Sunday's broadcast of "Meet the Press," a spokeswoman for Washington's Metropolitan Police Department said Wednesday.

Gregory held up what appeared to be a 30-round gun magazine - barred under Washington municipal code - while hosting the nationally broadcast interview with National Rifle Association Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre.

. . . The incident is "being investigated as a violation of D.C. code," said Washington Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman Tisha Gant. She declined to elaborate.

Washington's municipal code prohibits possession, sale or transfer of "any large capacity ammunition feeding device, regardless of whether the device is attached to a firearm."

The maximum penalty for conviction on such a charge is a $1,000 fine and one year in prison.

From Jonathan Turley's Law Blog
Meet the Police: NBC’s David Gregory Under Investigation For Weapons Violation On Show

. . . This may have been a case where a picture — or consultation with counsel — might have been in order. There is no exception for the media in such possession cases.

On the show with the National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre, Gregory showed him the clip and said “Here’s a magazine for ammunition that carries 30 bullets. Now, isn’t it possible that if we got rid of these . . . if we replaced them and said, ‘Well, you can only have a magazine that carries five bullets, or 10 bullets,’ isn’t it just possible that we could reduce the carnage in a situation like Newtown?”

The predictable response from LaPierre was “I don’t believe that’s going to make one difference.” The less predictable response came from gun owners and gun control advocates who noted that the possession of such a clip is a crime. The D.C. law states “No person in the District shall possess, sell, or transfer any large capacity ammunition feeding device.” This does not require that the clip be attached to a weapon and does not appear to require that it have rounds in the clip.
The reported investigation could also ensnare those NBC employees who obtained and transported the clip.

David Gregory will not host this Sunday's 'Meet The Press'
NBC's David Gregory, the subject of a now-popular police investigation, is on vacation and will not host this Sunday's edition of "Meet The Press."
. . . Gregory's vacation was scheduled prior to last week's show, according to NBC. He is scheduled to host the Jan. 5 edition of "Meet the Press."
NBC News has declined to comment on the investigation.
~ Politico






Yup, jail a man for making a point, but let's let any loon buy a gun. Conservatism at its finest. Reptilian in nature, and their long heated battle against information, facts and reality continues.
~ comment by Toddynho on Huffington Post

20 plus children dead at the hands of an elephant hunting, military weapon and the big story is Elmer Fud..... er , ah I mean David Gregory? Really? Every public affairs show on TV needs an armed guard.
~ comment by Huntingtonbeachboy on Huffington Post

Republicans: We dont have a gun problem in this country, we have a journalist holding a magazine to make a point problem.
~ comment by HabeasPorpoise on Huffington Post

Throw Gregory in jail! After all, what is more dangerous: a journalist holding a gun clip on a tv show to make a point, or a gun clip in a semi automatic rifle pointed at innocent civilians? According to the NRA and conservatives, it's the journalist, and we all know why...
~ comment by JWoodz on Huffington Post



























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Dick Armey's Literal Armed Coup at FreedomWorks ~ Updated

Photobucket


From Washington Post

The day after Labor Day, just as campaign season was entering its final frenzy, FreedomWorks, the Washington-based tea party organization, went into free fall.

Richard K. Armey, the group’s chairman and a former House majority leader, walked into the group’s Capitol Hill offices with his wife, Susan, and an aide holstering a handgun at his waist. The aim was to seize control of the group and expel Armey’s enemies: The gun-wielding assistant escorted FreedomWorks’ top two employees off the premises, while Armey suspended several others who broke down in sobs at the news.

. . . “This was two weeks after there had been a shooting at the Family Research Council,” said one junior staff member who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. “So when a man with a gun who didn’t identify himself to me or other people on staff, and a woman I’d never seen before said there was an announcement, my first gut was, ‘Is FreedomWorks in danger?’ It was bizarre.’ ”


From Mother Jones about "Armey's Hostile Takeover"
On December 12, James Burnley IV and C. Boyden Gray, two FreedomWorks board members (and allies of Armey), sent Kibbe a letter informing him that they had received "allegations of wrongdoing by the organization or its employees."
. . . Shortly after receiving the December 12 letter, Kibbe wrote a memo outlining his beef with Armey, Burnley, and Gray....
. . . (From Kibbe's Memo:)
Our favorite "Armey's Axiom" goes something like this: "Every argument in Washington, like in a marriage, is really about something else." So it goes with the attempted hostile takeover of FreedomWorks by three Republican insiders from the old guard. Is it about a book contract, or a pilfered appearance on CNBC? No, it is not. As it turns out, the fight for lower taxes, less government and more freedom is all well and good until it is Republicans—"old friends"— that are the ones needing to be held to account. It is our sense that the irresponsible acts of the so-called Trustees of FreedomWorks—Dick Armey, C. Boyden Gray, and James C. Burnley—on September 4th, and their continued hostile acts today, are all about retribution for our willingness to take a strictly nonpartisan approach to politics, our willingness to hold both Republicans and Democrats to the standards set out by our freedom philosophy and the clear limits on government power delineated in our U.S. Constitution.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dick Armey agreed to quit FreedomWorks back in September in exchange for $8 million.
Holy grassroots, Batman. It was worth $8 million to FreedomWorks to make Dick Armey go away.
For Mr. Armey`s part, he says that really his departure from FreedomWorks is just a matter of principle. That was the quote from him.
"My differences with FreedomWorks are a matter of principle." Which means on the $8 million check that you write to me, please put principle in the memo line, because that`s why I`m leaving -- principle.
The right seems to be imploding since the election, which we expected. It turns out though that the unexpected thing is that the implosion is going to happen very, very slowly, day by day by day, with new acrimonious details dripping out in every news cycle.
~ Transcript of Rachel Maddow Show, December 4, 2012

The republicans and the Tea Party are like a bowl of guppies, all swimming around, eating each other AND their young.
I love it. For so long they attacked teachers, fire fighters, police, unions, the American worker, education, and science. Now they get to eat each other, and maybe it will give them indigestion.
~ comment by Clemans on Mother Jones

FreedomWorks: another oxymoron.
~ comment by dennycrane on RawStory

So let me get this straight. If this had been a Joe Nobody, he would have been sent to prison. Yet, because this guy is wealthy and connected, it's viewed as "just" a bizarre act by an eccentric old man? And he extorted a half mil a year for the next 20 years?
~ comment by Christopher O. on Gawker

So Dick nearly unloaded on an army of teabaggers? Fitting.
~ comment by Gadzodilo on Gawker

[military-themed dick joke]
~ comment by NotevaluatedbytheFDA on Gawker

If you put this in script form and took it to Hollywood, they would throw you out of their offices for come up with something totally unbelievable. Unfortunately, nowadays, in order for something about the GOP in Washington to be believed, it must be unbelievable.
~ comment by Its the Supreme Court Stupid on Daily Kos

Ah, the Banana Republic of FreedomWorks.
It's how they want to run everything, isn't it?
Bizarre, truly bizarre.
~ comment by Onomastic on Daily Kos

































UPDATE: Mother Jones Reveals Gunman's Identity
Armey tells Mother Jones that this episode has been hyped up by his FreedomWorks foes, and he says the not-so-mysterious gun-touting assistant was a former Capitol Hill police officer named Beau Singleton, who used to be part of Armey's congressional security detail and who has volunteered his security services to Armey and FreedomWorks for years.

"He was well-known to the people at FreedomWorks," Armey says. "He has provided me personal security on many occasions when I was in Washington." Singleton also oversaw security for FreedomWorks in September 2009 when it organized a large rally in Washington. Singleton, Armey says, is authorized to carry a gun, but he does so in a back holster that cannot be seen by an onlooker. "I was unaware he had a gun [at the meeting]," Armey maintains. "He kept it under his coat in the back....But the news looks like Armey came in there like John Dillinger, all guns a-blazing. That was false."

Armey says that his wife, Susan, and his assistant, Jean Campbell, were concerned about a FreedomWorks official losing his temper at this meeting and suggested that Singleton join Armey and the two of them on this trip to the group's office. But he insists there was nothing odd with him showing up at FreedomWorks with Singleton by his side.

Singleton, 56, confirms Armey's account. He says that he has known Kibbe and Brandon for years and that he had often "been around" at FreedomWorks. He adds that during the meeting between Armey and Kibbe, he "just observed. I was just kind of there....I can't see why they would act like I was menacing."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

UPDATE: Hardball ~ December 26, 2012

David Corn of Mother Jones: It's become very bitter. . . . That story obviously came out because people favorable to Kibbe wanted it out and wanted to make Dick Armey look like a complete madman.
But the Post didn't report who the gunman was. Just an hour ago before coming on the show I spoke to Dick Armey and I spoke to the guy with the gun! He's a former Capitol Hill police officer who Dick Armey has used time and time again as a private security guy when he's in Washington. The guy volunteers his services.
Chris Matthews: Why did he need him in that moment?
Corn: What happened was, they knew it was going to be a contentious meeting.
Matthews: So bring a guy with a gun?
Corn: His wife and his assistant said 'bring Beau along just in case the FreedomeWorks guys go ballistic. And the thing is - Beau Singleton, that's the name of the guy--
Matthews: What was he going to do with the gun?!
Corn: He's done private security at FreedomWorks to begin with. So they knew him. It wasn't like they didn't know who he was. To me a big mystery is why the Washington Post didn't just say who this guy was? They made it sound like a guy in a hoodie brought in off the street. It was a guy who did security at FreedomWorks and he was brought in and it wasn't as menacing as it sounds. But this indicates how bad the blood is between these two sides and there is now people allied with Dick Armey . . .

Joan Walsh: It's the right versus the far right - they're all a bunch of grifters. I love you (Matthews) and David (Corn) to death, but you're both being way too nice to Dick Armey.
Matthews: You're calling Dick Armey a 'grifter'?
Joan Walsh: Yes, I am.
Matthews: Meaning he's stealing money?
Walsh: He walked with - grifting isn't stealing, necessarily. He walked away with 8 million dollars and he's mad at Matt Kibbe because he (Kibbe) got 50 thousand dollars?
. . . and David, for you to say it's not a big deal because they walked in with a guy with a gun and say they supposedly knew the guy. I mean, they're all crazy! A pox on all of their houses!
What's going on you guys? . . . (the guy with the gun) scared some people, and I once sat here while Dick Armey said he was glad he wouldn't have to be married to me. He's a grifter. He's not an attractive or decent guy. . . . I don't have a dog in the fight but I came on TV to talk about politics and I was insulted. I think he's a jerk. I think his wife came with him and she's a big jerk. And I say a pox on all their houses. I'm glad they're shooting at each other and not at the rest of America.

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