Friday, October 30, 2015

CNBC "Crap Sandwich" Infuriates GOP


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Previous Related Posts:
First GOP Primary Debate
Countdown to the Fox Clown Car Debate
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The channel of high finance CNBC hosted a GOP Debate the other night, but instead of focusing on money issues, the Moderators were all over the place, asking embarassing questions to surly candidates who dodged, rolled their eyes, and insulted back with gusto. In the words of RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, it was a "Crap Sandwich."



Reince Priebus via Business Insider:
"Obviously we had assurances that it was going to be straight-up finance, which is what they do every day," he told Hannity on Thursday. "And what was delivered was just nothing but a crap sandwich. I guarantee you we're going to make sure that CNBC isn't hosting and moderating another debate with our candidates."






Even many journalists were tempted to use the phrase "Shit Show"



From Think Progress
Reporters from both conservative and liberal-minded news organizations seem to agree: the CNBC Republican presidential debate was kind of a trainwreck.
That wasn’t really because of the candidates, though — it was because of the moderators. For the first hour, CNBC moderators Becky Quick, John Harwood, and Carl Quintanilla didn’t let candidates interact with each other, resulting in multiple moments of incomprehensible yelling. This may have been because of stricter time limits — this particular 10-candidate debate was only two hours, while the previous Republican debates have spanned three hours.
But constant interruption wasn’t the only problem. Candidates were also highly critical of the CNBC crew, accusing them of being part of the “liberal media.” At one point, Ted Cruz ripped into the moderators for asking what he called unfair and non-substantive questions. And in two instances, audience members actually booed at questions the moderators asked of Ben Carson and Mike Huckabee.

From Sean Illing on Salon:
What happened was less a debate among contenders and more a showdown between the candidates and the moderators. Everyone attacked the moderators when they heard a question they didn’t like, and then made a show of their rebelliousness – this was great for anti-media conservatives, but a distraction for everyone else. The moderators had their moments, but they were mostly awful. Frivolous questions about Rubio’s absenteeism or Trump’s “moral character” or fantasy football gave the candidates just enough fodder to avoid answering the hard questions whenever they were asked. The result of all this was two and a half hours of political gas.

Colbert on CBS: "Did ya'll watch the GOP Debate last night on CNBC? (light applause) I'm so sorry. I, uh, I did watch it, and in some ways it was impressive. They managed to thread the needle between confusing and boring... CNBC showed us how to conduct a debate without a shred of respect....And what the moderators lacked in courtesy they made up for in lack of preparation."



So yeah, Moderators had a really bad night!











Some (including Moderator John Harwood) faulted the candidates for not wanting to answer hard questions:










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Sunday, October 25, 2015

Hillary Survives Eleven Hours of Benghazi Madness

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Previous Related Posts:
McCarthy Out as Speaker over Benghazi Remarks
NYT Debunks Benghazi - Tea Party Heads Pop
Is Benghazi Mania Over?
Lara Logan and the Bogus Benghazi Report
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Hillary Clinton was grilled for ELEVEN hours by the witch-hunting Benghazi-craycray Committee. Eleven hours of vindictive partisan nonsense.



From Newsweek
. . . even by their hyper-partisan standards, House Republicans reached a new level of partisanship on October 22. For 11 grueling hours, a House committee grilled Hillary Clinton about the 2012 terrorist attack on the State Department’s facility in Benghazi, Libya.
Although the committee droned on from dawn to dusk, the hearing did not produce a single substantive new fact about Benghazi.
. . . Following Gowdy’s lead, the other Republicans asked their questions in the form of accusations that Clinton heartlessly caused the American deaths in Benghazi. No objective observer could interpret the committee’s questions as having any purpose other than to score crude political points.
Crucially, Clinton refused to take the committee’s bait. She learned from her past mistakes. In the 2013 Senate hearing, she was combative and defensive. On Thursday, she was patient, measured and relaxed. She avoided giving her opponents sound bites they could use against her in the 2016 presidential election.





The Whole Thing Here from Roll Call:



Crazy Moments:

Chairman Trey Gowdy comes out swinging at Hillary












"Moment of Levity" ~ Rep. Martha Roby R-Alabama asks if Hillary was "alone all night" when Benghazi attack occurred















Rep. Peter Roskam R-Illinois skewers Hillary













Gowdy and Rep. Elijah Cummings R-MD Bicker









Rep. Jim Jordan R-Ohio wouldn't let her answer














Mike Pompeo R-Kansas asks stupid questions























Rep. Adam Smith D-CA:
The purpose of this committee is to prosecute you!















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Wednesday, October 14, 2015

First Democratic Debate for 2016

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It was a fun night! :) I love watching all of them, but clearly some aren't ever going to be President!









































































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Monday, October 12, 2015

GOP Desperately Seeking a House Speaker

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Previous Related Posts:
All Over and Not Crying ~ John Boehner Resigns

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Speaker of the House John Boehner resigned after the Pope visited Washington and the result has been utter chaos among Republicans. The heir-apparent to Boehner was supposed to be Kevin McCarthy, but he made the mistake of being really honest (a rarity in Congress) and admitted they targeted Hillary Clinton with the Benghazi Committee:















Also a smear campaign was happening on social media saying he committed adultery with married Congresswoman Renee Ellmers of North Carolina.




Last week McCarthy realized he didn't have the votes to become Speaker and decided to pull his name in a surprise announcement. Congress and the beltway press were shocked! SHOCKED!





The Presidential Candidates React:
























Then in a complete show of madness, people started asking Paul Ryan to step up and become Speaker. In response, he acted as though they had tossed him a radioactive hand grenade. He said he would think about it over the weekend - we'll see what Monday brings.











Here's what's happening in the Stupid Party:

From Business Insider
Confusion reigned across the party. One Republican aide told Business Insider on Thursday, "I honestly have no idea" of the caucus' next move. Another echoed that sentiment. Yet another had similar thoughts, though the aide simply sent Business Insider the emoticon commonly referred to as a "shruggie," that signals a shrug: "¯\_(ツ)_/¯"
"Thunderdome," Erick Erickson, a prominent conservative activist and the editor in chief of the site RedState, told Business Insider.

From Addicting Info:
Currently, a small faction of Tea Party extremists in Congress is wreaking havoc and chaos at every possible turn. These 40 republican politicians, all members of the House Freedom Caucus, have decided to hold their fellow Republicans, and likely the entire country, hostage to their fanatical demands. Every seemingly-sane member of Congress has been targeted by these far-right nuts, who have absolutely no clue how to govern.
This is the group that orchestrated the resignation of House Speaker John Boehner. They went after Republican colleagues, Renee Ellmers and Kevin McCarthy, when it looked as if McCarthy had a good chance of becoming the next speaker.
Sane conservatives, scrambling to save the party from a now inevitable implosion, have been begging Paul Ryan to put in a bid for speaker. Although Ryan has repeatedly said that he is not going to run, far right extremists are now attacking him, apparently just for being mentioned as a possibility.




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Friday, October 9, 2015

Pope Distances Himself from Kim Davis Meeting

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Previous Related Posts:
Kim Davis is Back - but for How Long?
Kim Davis Released from Jail Into Christian Hullabaloo
Kim Davis Held in Contempt of Court

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The Pope came to the U.S. and had a great visit, lauded by faithful Catholics and the Democrats as well. As soon as he got back to Rome, something hit the fan that no one expected. Kim Davis and her lawyers from the far-right Liberty Counsel announced that she had met with the Pope when he was in Washington D.C. and he actually encouraged her in her fight against the gays.

Well, that's what they said. The real story is quite different. A conservative right-to-life bishop who favored the last Pope is behind all this, and he set up Pope Francis. And in the past week, her attorney's group Liberty Counsel has been labeled a "hate group." But what's really offensive is that a low-level American bureaucrat who acts like Dolores Umbridge should command the news cycle on a world scale the way this woman does. She really needs to resign and go away, or Judge Bunning in Kentucky needs to throw her back in jail.

From the Wisconsin Gazette:
The firestorm began when David and her lawyers from the Liberty Council went all over the national media talking about a "private meeting" with the Pope, his blessing her and telling her to "stay strong," and insinuating that he expressed support for her refusal to do her job.
The Vatican, to its own detriment, dragged its heels and gave non-committal responses to journalists as Davis and her team continued to wring out every bit of attention they could -- without producing any evidence of a "meeting" -- with any media outlet that expressed interest. Not enough media were responsible to note that just last week another fraud was perpetrated by Davis and her team about a rally that included grossly exaggerated information.
Finally, official reaction is coming late and only under tremendous pressure, and has made this into a public relations as well as religion and political story. Headlines now scream "Vatican Source: Pope Blindsided By Meeting With Controversial Kentucky Clerk."
. . . So it turns out that Davis, like so many others during this trip, was able to shake the Pope's had, be blessed and exchange a few words, which I am sure he said to others. Private meeting? Encouraging her for her conviction? I doubt he even knew who she was, frankly, and the whole think stinks of making a mountain of good PR out of a molehill of an interaction.



From NewNowNext:
The Pope’s secret meeting with Kim Davis sparked a social media firestorm following his historic first visit to the U.S. last month — people demanded answers to a variety of questions from “Who set this up?” to “Why meet with Kim Davis over more worthy Catholics?”
Once the Vatican claimed it wasn’t responsible for organizing the meeting, the man who did was quickly identified as Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, an anti-gay crusader whose “rough management style” had him ousted from the Vatican and relocated to the U.S. in 2011.
Speaking with The New York Times, Matthew D. Staver, an attorney for Kim Davis, confirmed that Viganò extended an invitation to his client, but that everyone assumed the invitation had come directly from the Pope himself.
Staver and Viganò are apparently old pals, having once met at an anti-gay National Organization for Marriage rally in Washington, D.C. According to Staver, Viganò made a point to “thank me for my message” when the two met.
The Pope, as indicated by a gay couple who met him on the same day as Davis, was blindsided by the meeting.
























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