Featured Posts
McCain Does A Little GOP Ass-Kicking

McCain Does A Little GOP Ass-Kicking

John McCain has finally had enough of his Republican teabagging cohorts, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz. In the latest expression of Republican frustration with conservative GOP colleagues, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) ...

Read More

How Does God Answer Political Prayers?

How Does God Answer Political Prayers?

Our friend, John Liming, wonders how God might deal with two conflicting prayers of a political nature. I have been reading an article on the website, Raw Story, where it is ...

Read More

Making ‘Cents’ of Tom Coburn and Disaster Aid

Making 'Cents' of Tom Coburn and Disaster Aid

Item 1: The Oklahoma tornado disaster has killed at least 24 people, left hundreds injured and caused millions of dollars in damage. But that has not stopped a senator from that ...

Read More

The Right Needs Smarter Bigots

The Right Needs Smarter Bigots

If you're new to right-wing think, here's an easy to remember rule of thumb to help you along; any and all evil in the world can be attributed directly to ...

Read More

Another Dick Cheny ‘STFU’ Moment

Another Dick Cheny 'STFU' Moment

From a political party overflowing with sociopaths and creeps, none other than Dick Cheney encapsulates to a greater degree what it is the Republican party has become. The blood of ...

Read More

Scandals: Real and Imagined

Scandals: Real and Imagined

It can be debated as to whether the filibuster came about as a political accident or was created to give minority parties a stronger say in opposing specific legislation they ...

Read More

The Crazy, The Scum and The Dead

The Crazy, The Scum and The Dead

While gun nuts sink a little deeper into madness with each passing day, Seattle is turning guns into bricks. The Seattle Police Department collected more than 700 guns during a buyback ...

Read More

To Infinity and Beyond!

To Infinity and Beyond!

Had enough of right-wing political crap and find yourself with a deep desire to get as far from the madding crowd as you can? Read on... The opportunity to travel to Mars ...

Read More

In Leviticus v. Deuteronomy, There is No Winner

In Leviticus v. Deuteronomy, There is No Winner

___ Follow MarioPiperniDotCom on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. .

Read More

NRA – The Blood on Their Hands

NRA - The Blood on Their Hands

  LaPierre's speech of lunacy here. ___ Follow MarioPiperniDotCom on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. .

Read More

Guns ‘n Kids and NRA Loons

Guns 'n Kids and NRA Loons

Here's the full quote from Charles P. Pierce. If your "way of life" involves handing deadly weapons to five-year olds, your way of life is completely screwed up and you should ...

Read More

America The Brave…or is it America the Fearful?

America The Brave...or is it America the Fearful?

A guest post from James Fidlerten. ___ After September 11, 2011, America became united, as it grieved the loss of so many lives on American soil. The tragic event also changed so ...

Read More

Gun Crazy Arizona Does it Again

Gun Crazy Arizona Does it Again

I'm not sure that 'crazy' is strong enough an adjective to describe the many (or few) who go to the absurd lengths they do in defending America's out-of-control gun culture. ...

Read More

Popes, Pedophiles and Saints-to-be

Popes, Pedophiles and Saints-to-be

When an enabler of sexual abuse directed at children sits on the threshold of sainthood, you know you're living in a world of screwed-up priorities. The canonisation of Wojtyla is getting ...

Read More

What if Bush v. Gore Never Happened?

What if Bush v. Gore Never Happened?

Retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, ponders Bush v. Gore, the Supreme Court case that decided the 2000 presidential election. Looking back, O'Connor said, she isn't sure the high court should have ...

Read More

No More Bushes

No More Bushes

Barbara Bush on a Jeb run in 2016. "We've had enough Bushes." An entire planet concurs. __ Follow MarioPiperniDotCom on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. .

Read More

Boston and Bush

Boston and Bush

Today we learn... The 19-year-old suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings has told interrogators that the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan motivated him and his brother to carry out the ...

Read More

Maureen Dowd’s Drivel

Maureen Dowd's Drivel

The above is in response to Maureen Dowd's ridiculous assertion that President Obama is incompetent for failing to get the 60 votes the Senate required to move the gun background ...

Read More

Guns, Gays and Immigration

Guns, Gays and Immigration

In desperate need of an excuse for voting against background checks, here's the one an unnamed Democratic senator is using. “Guns, gays and immigration — it’s too much. I can be ...

Read More

Congress and the NRA Makes Sure That America Loses…Again

Congress and the NRA Makes Sure That America Loses...Again

The vote came in at 55 to 45 in favor of expanding background checks for gun sales. In most institutes of democracy, that would have been more than enough to ...

Read More

Republican points out that his party is “Full of Racists”

John Sununu - black face - racist    :     http://mariopiperni.com/

Anytime a conservative speaks a truth critical of the Republican Party, no matter how obvious that truth is to non-conservatives, it’s news. Why? Because it’s so damn rare.

Colin Powell’s former chief of staff, retired Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, reacts to Romney hitman and all around prick, John Sununu, who suggested that Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama was motivated by race.

My party, unfortunately, is the bastion of those people — not all of them, but most of them — who are still basing their positions on race. Let me just be candid: My party is full of racists, and the real reason a considerable portion of my party wants President Obama out of the White House has nothing to do with the content of his character, nothing to do with his competence as commander-in-chief and president, and everything to do with the color of his skin, and that’s despicable.

Don’t expect Wilkerson to be invited to any RNC parties any time soon, or ever. Truth is not something Republicans handle all that well.

___

Follow MarioPiperniDotCom on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
.

Romney – Raw and Unplugged

The Republican Bubble   -   mariopiperni.com/

Are you a Barack Obama supporter? Well, check out below what Mitt Romney thinks of you. The words were spoken at a fundraiser earlier this year. Mother Jones obtained a tape of Romney’s Q&A session with a group of wealthy donors.

Here’s Romney responding to a question on how he can defeat Barack Obama.

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.

My job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.

Talk about contempt. The assumption that anyone not earning enough to pay federal taxes must be a free-loading liberal, is another example of right-wing insanity. Apparently, inside the bubble there are no struggling conservatives…nor are there people who have worked hard their entire lives but find themselves struggling to make ends meet during difficult economic times…and Romney feels it’s not the job of president to “worry about these people.”

I’ll let an MJ reader respond.

I just wanted to chime in, as one of the 47 percent.  I don’t pay income taxes.  I have several dependents, a home mortgage deduction, and I just started a small business that is doing well.  My taxable income is still quite small, and with my deductions and credits, I pay nothing in income taxes.  I do pay property taxes, sales taxes, medicare and social security taxes, and all the fees that are actually taxes.  I am not a free loader, I am a job creator, even if it is just my job.

In short, I would just like to say to Mitt Romney, you are a piece of lying filth, and I hope you get a terrible case of itching crotch rot.

Here’s one of the videos of Romney speaking at the fundraiser. Check out David Corn’s piece for more.


___

Follow MarioPiperniDotCom on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
.

Truth Takes a Beating In Paul Ryan’s Convention Speech

Paul Ryan - Pinocchio   :   http://mariopiperni.com/

A long time ago, in a make-believe land, this conversation took place.

The Blue Fairy: You must learn to choose between right and wrong.
Pinocchio Ryan: Right and wrong? But how will I know?
Jiminy Cricket: [watching] How’ll he know!
The Blue Fairy: [to Pinocchio Ryan] Your conscience will tell you.
Pinocchio Ryan: What are conscience?
Jiminy Cricket: What are conscience! I’ll tell ya! A conscience is that still small voice that people won’t listen to. That’s just the trouble with the world today…
Pinocchio Ryan: Are you my conscience?
Jiminy Cricket: Who, me?

It appears that Paul Ryan never did find out what a conscience is or, if he did, he has no use for one. He took the stage last night at the Republican National Lie-Fest and repeated every lying talking point that Republicans have been pushing for the last year.

Dan Amira could not have worded it better in stating that Paul Ryan is betting on the ignorance of America to sell his story.

Paul Ryan has a reputation as a nerdy budget wonk, but tonight in his RNC speech, he transformed into an attack dog. Running the gamut on the many, varied transgressions of President Obama — including the stimulus, the jobs crisis, ObamaCare, the debt, Medicare, and, obviously, “You didn’t built that” — Ryan had the crowd laughing, booing, and frequently showering him with piercingly loud standing ovations thanks to a slew of pitch-perfect applause lines. While this is just a hunch, we expect that his focus on Obama’s inability to adequately revive the economy probably hit home with a lot of moderate voters. In short, it was, without a doubt, the best, most effective speech of the convention.

It was also appallingly disingenuous and shamelessly hypocritical.

And then there’s this little fact which turns out to be what the entire Romney/Ryan campaign of dishonesty hinges upon.

But here’s the thing: Most of the millions of people who watched the speech on television tonight do not read fact-checks or obsessively consume news fifteen hours a day, and will never know how much Ryan’s case against Obama relied on lies and deception. Ryan’s pants are on fire, but all America saw was a barn-burner.

If you didn’t hear the speech, Amira has a long list of Ryan’s lies including his claim that Obama and the stimulus were responsible for a plant closing in Ohio…in December 2008! This was a month before Barack Obama took office and a bunch of months before the stimulus was passed.

If Jiminy Cricket was referring to conservatives and Republicans, he was right. They stopped listening to their conscience a long time ago and it’ll be evident again tonight in even grander fashion when Romney takes the stage.

___

(The Paul Ryan source photograph is a Creative Commons licensed image from photographer Gage Skidmore.)

Follow MarioPiperniDotCom on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
.

Time For Herman Cain To Give It Up

What more does anyone need to know about Herman Cain?  Even without the charges of sexual harassment, Cain was clearly out of his league.  Bought and paid for by the Koch brothers and endorsed by the Tea Party, the only positive that this know-nothing clown had was that his name was not Mitt Romney.

If the testimony of Sharon Bialek who has accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment (actually sexual assault would be a better description of what Cain did to Bialek),does not put an end to Cain’s cartoonish presidential run, then the Republican party is even more screwed up than anyone imagined.  There have now been four separate charges of sexual harassment against Cain as well as the claims of two former National Restaurant Association employees who witnessed Cain’s dirty deeds.  That should be enough to disqualify Cain.

For the record, here is Bialek’s description of Cain’s assault on her.

During their meeting, Bialek alleges that Cain put his hand under her skirt and reached for her genitals and also pushed her head toward his crotch while they were in a car.

She recalls saying: “This isn’t what I came here for, Mr. Cain.”

The now-GOP presidential candidate responded, according to Bialek, “You want a job, right?”

There are other parts of Bialek’s story which can be verified and which lend credibility to her story.  And again, she is not alone in making these claims.  The Cain camp response:

“All allegations of harassment against Mr. Cain are completely false. Mr. Cain has never harassed anyone. Fortunately the American people will not allow Mr. Cain’s bold ‘9-9-9 Plan,’ clear foreign policy vision and plans for energy independence to be overshadowed by these bogus attacks.”

What a fucking joke.  “Clear foreign policy”?  Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan’ is a clear foreign policy?  “Plans for energy independence”?  Drill everywhere and deregulate the oil industry is Cain’s vision for energy independence.  “Bold 9-9-9 Plan”?  Try unworkable, idiotic plan worked out on the back of a paper napkin by a third rate accountant.

Herman Cain’s 15 minutes should have been up months ago.  The fact that he is still running neck to neck with Romney for the lead should tell you where the Republican party stands in terms of serious presidential candidates.  The GOP is morally and intellectually bankrupt.  That is clear.

Cain has had more than enough time to defend his actions against his accusers.  He has chosen not to and so it appears that his little gambit of running in the GOP primary as a means of branding his name as to allow him to charge higher fees for his motivational speeches as well as sell more of his books, has backfired.  If the charges of sexual harassment against Cain are true (and there seems no apparent reason to believe that they are not), then Cain has become damaged goods.

Even teabaggers and fools, I imagine, lose interest with shiny objects once they get muddied up a bit.

___

Follow MarioPiperniDotCom on Facebook and Twitter.

.

Kasich’s SB5 Going Down For the Count

Looks like good news coming out of Ohio one day before the big vote to repeal a bill that limits the collective bargaining powers of over 350,000 public employees.

Labor is poised for a big victory in Ohio Tuesday.  PPP’s final poll on Issue 2 finds 59% of voters plan to reject Senate Bill 5, with only 36% voting for approval.

Democrats are almost unanimous in their opposition to SB 5, supporting repeal by an 86-10 margin. Meanwhile there’s division in the Republican ranks- 30% are planning to vote down their Governor’s signature proposal while only 66% are supportive of it. Independents split against it by a 54/39 spread as well.

If this margin holds on Tuesday night it will be a humiliating defeat for John Kasich. Kasich continues to be one of the most unpopular Governors in the country with only 33% of voters approving of him to 57% who disapprove. [...] If Ohio voters could do it over again they’d reelect Ted Strickland by a 55-37 margin over Kasich, and although they don’t have an opportunity for a redo on the Gubernatorial election the likely results of the Senate Bill 5 referendum on Tuesday can be seen as a proxy for it.

It would be nice if the vote would repeal both the bill and Kasich, but one out of two isn’t bad. Ohioans are stuck with Kasich for another 3 years but the repeal of SB5 will put a serious chink in his already damaged armor.  The lesson to be learned here (should the vote go as expected) is that organized grassroots protests do work.

The pro-labor side was able to amass almost 1 million signatures to place the repeal of SB5 on tomorrow’s ballot.  With that, they were able to raise almost $30 million as well as have thousands of individuals working phones and knocking on doors.  All this to battle the millions of dollars that poured into the state by way of the Koch brothers and the Tea Party movement who viewed the battle as a run-up to next year’s general election.

See what could happen when regressive legislation pisses off enough folks?  The people rise.  All they need to do now is to go out and actually vote.

___

Follow MarioPiperniDotCom on Facebook and Twitter.

.