Open Thread: C&L's Saturday Night Podcast Round
Up

post from Crooks and Liars on 22 September 2012 11:30:50 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Happy Saturday night, folks! It's Blue Gal from The Professional Left Podcast, bringing you this week's podcast round up. Be aware that these podcasts are also available on i-Tunes, and may not be safe for work.

Majority Report: Cliff Schecter joins Sam Seder for Mitt-plosion!

KagroX in the Morning with David Waldman: reviewing the coverage from Senate debates in Massachusetts and Virginia (h/t Netroots Radio)

The Bugle with John Oliver - Mitt Romney, Empathy Magazine's Man Of The Year 2012

Citizen Action of Wisconsin: Who are the 47%? And the continuing refusal of Wisconsin conservatives to debate Paul Ryan's budget.

Open thread below...

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Late Night: Fatsters Roundup

post from Firedoglake on 22 September 2012 11:00:21 PM. © Firedoglake

News to youse.[...]

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C&L's Late Night Music Club With Kenny Rogers &
The First Edition

post from Crooks and Liars on 22 September 2012 11:00:05 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Title: Calico Saturday NightArtist: Kenny Rogers & The First Edition

Saturday!

Anthology

Price: $8.99 (As of 09/22/12 06:18 pm details)

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http://crooksandliars.com/jared-shade-reynolds/cls-late-night-music-club-132

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David Brooks: 'I'm Not a Fan' But Let Me Tell You
About Glenn Beck's Show

post from Crooks and Liars on 22 September 2012 10:30:03 PM. © Crooks and Liars

David Brooks: 'I'm Not a Fan' But Let Me Tell You About Glenn Beck's Show

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From this Friday evening's PBS Newshour, David Brooks decided to share with the viewers something he learned after watching the exiled from Fox, hate monger Glenn Beck, about the "true" nature of Mitt Romney and how compassionate he is towards those that he's ministered to in his church.

And don't worry, Brooks is not really "a fan" of Beck, but he's ready to tell everyone about his show that you can only watch if you pay for a subscription. Who wants to take dibs that he's watching Beck daily along with a dose of right wing hatred from Limbaugh's show? Gotta' keep your finger on the pulse of the nation if you're going to continue to pump out the type of op-eds we've come to expect from Brooks in the New York Times week after week.

JUDY WOODRUFF: What do you think?
DAVID BROOKS: A brilliant move to distract people from the 47 percent. So it's like...
MARK SHIELDS: OK.
DAVID BROOKS: So, it's like, you have diabetes to distract from your cancer.
So, no, I think it was mostly the promise. They did this. The accountants did their work. They came up with results. They might as well get it out on a Friday afternoon. So, I think that was fine.
I never thought the -- the issue that cut was the, he's hiding something. And that is the leitmotif of the Romney campaign: He is hiding something, whether it is his plans, which he is not really making a case for, or his personality, which is hiding behind a faux persona. And so that cut.
I don't think the actual details of did he pay this or that tax -- to me, the mystery -- the essential mystery of Romney was sort of embedded in them, which is the guy gives $4 million to charity. He is a genuinely good person around the people he knows.
Yet, they don't talk about that. You -- I saw Glenn Beck's show -- I'm not a big fan of Glenn Beck, but I saw a Glenn Beck show this week where he's interviewing people after -- person after person, alcoholics, people Romney has personally ministered to, all this -- incredibly uplifting stories.
We saw a hint of it at the conventions. And yet it either doesn't come -- he's not talking about that in public, and it doesn't translate into a compassionate conservatism, which it could, which is the logical outgrowth of his personal life.

Ah yes, Romney is this wonderful compassionate conservative when it comes to members of his church. Too bad he doesn't feel the same compassion for that 47 percent he derided as supposedly being lazy moochers who just want to suck off of the government teet.

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Some Saturday Health Care Hijinks From Mikey The
Liar (update)

post from The Liberal Doomsayer on 22 September 2012 10:15:00 PM. © The Liberal Doomsayer

There?s a reason why I frequently refer to the Bucks County Courier Times as Mike Fitzpatrick?s PR operation. It?s because that?s exactly what that newspaper is, and they proved it again yesterday.

They ran a headline with a look of consternation on Fitzpatrick?s face (supposedly from fighting for his constituents again, I guess, or so they?d have us believe), and the ?news story? at the top of the front page had to do with the supposed revelations of the latest Congressional Budget Office report on the health care law.

And of course, this ?story? served up the usual demagoguery from Mikey The Beloved?congressional Democrats in the prior congress supposedly railroaded the bill to the White House?etc. (some of which was also refuted here)?

The (CBO) revision, 50 percent higher than a previous projection of 4 million in 2010, amounts to a broken promise, Fitzpatrick said.

In his first campaign for the White House, Obama pledged not to raise taxes on individuals making less than $200,000 a year and couples making less than $250,000.

The budget office analysis, however, found that nearly 80 percent of those who?ll face the penalty would be making up to or less than five times the federal poverty level. Currently that would work out to $55,850 or less for an individual and $115,250 or less for a family of four.

The average penalty in 2016 will be $1,200, according to the CBO.

(By the way, I assume that, outside of the CBO notation, all of this comes from Mikey himself, since there really is no other attribution implied.)

OK, so let?s back up here ? what?s 50 percent higher than 4 million, boys and girls?

Yes, 6 million, that?s right!

Which is 2 percent of the total population of this country.

Yep, 2 percent, people.

Think Progress tells us that and much more here, including the following...

?the revised 6 million figure does not mean the health care law puts a strain on the middle class. In fact, Obamacare will provide millions of families with large tax credits to help make health care more affordable for them, and the penalty will only be leveled against those Americans who choose not to purchase insurance even though they are able to afford it.

It should be noted that the Courier Times ?story? does indeed include a quote from the Obama Administration that corroborates the 6 million, 2 percent figure. Of course, it?s noted in PARAGRAPH 14 after the reader gets a heaping helping of Mikey?s partisan whining first (talk about burying the lede!).

Also, as noted here, part of the reason for the CBO adjustment is because of cuts to Medicaid that the Affordable Care Law may or may not make up (And the governors of which political party are primarily responsible for those cuts? The answer is here). Also, here is more on the Repugs' years-long effort to kill health care reform.

The Courier Times piece also notes that the Kathy Boockvar campaign was contacted over this, and here is the response?

Fitzpatrick?s opponent in the November election, Democrat Kathy Boockvar, was unavailable for comment Thursday.

Now it?s possible that there could have been a scheduling conflict of some type, and that might have been the reason why there was no official response from the PA-08 Dem challenger. However, the Courier Times also tells us the following?

Following the GOP?s summer repeal vote, (Boockvar) said rather than repeal the measure, ?let?s fix the law we have. Let?s make sure it?s affordable for individuals and small businesses alike. Let?s make sure that this law best carries out its purpose, making sure the most Americans have health care coverage as soon as possible so our children and our neighbors never have to rely on emergency rooms for their health care.?

That?s not exactly the full-throated defense that the Affordable Care Law deserves, Ms. Boockvar. As far as I?m concerned, it isn?t even close.

Basically, why am I the one communicating the utter absurdity of the latest fit of pique from Fitzpatrick and his willing accomplices at the Courier Times instead of you (oh, and in another tricky move by Mikey?s PR service, they perpetrated this fraud on a Friday, and since the paper doesn?t publish on a Saturday, this was the running headline for two days on the news stand copies all over Bucks, not just one).

Of course, I?m talking about the same alleged newspaper that ran full-page Fitzpatrick ads for weeks two years ago and ended up giving two candidate endorsements, one for Fitzpatrick and former rep Patrick Murphy, as opposed to a single one that reputable print publications do?wonder if they?ll extend Boockvar the same favor? Do I need to ask?

This is a picture of Gary Weckselblatt, the author of this utter dreck.

Here is a link to job postings at Pottery Barn (Williams-Sonoma is the parent company).

Weckselblatt knows how to do the rest (and for more of the reality point of view here, Ezra Klein tells us the following - more here)?

?and here is a tune for the occasion (haven?t featured anything from the ?80s for a little while ? about time).

Update 9/23/12: I may be putting on my tin foil hat here, but I?m wondering if there isn?t something much more organized at work than I first suspected.

You see, being a Roman Catholic, I attended services today, and of course today is ?Respect Life Sunday.? So the priest celebrating Mass tells us about the importance of the election coming up, and naming President Obama by name, criticizes him for supporting abortion, gay marriage and forced sterilization (the latter of which, by the way, is an urban legend, as noted here).

Oh, and after the homily ends, half of the congregation applauds (registered Republicans, I?m sure).

And to put the cherry on the icing on the proverbial cake, tables were set up in front of the church so congregants could fill in voter registration forms when they left Mass.

I realize there is quite probably no illegality whatsoever in what I just described. But given that the Church enjoys tax-exempt status and really isn?t allowed to ?officially? (wink, wink) endorse one political party over another (again, on the heels of the Courier Times doing their part with Mikey)?

Well, let me put it this way; no incense was used today in church because it wasn?t a high holy day (which happens for Easter services, among other occasions), but to give out the proper amount of it to purify the premises from the rankness of its political cronyism, they would have had to turn the entire grounds into a fog bank.

Read The Full Article:
http://liberaldoomsayer.blogspot.com/2012/09/some-saturday-health-care-hijinks-fr
om.html

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Some Saturday Health Care Hijinks From Mikey The
Liar

post from The Liberal Doomsayer on 22 September 2012 10:15:00 PM. © The Liberal Doomsayer

There?s a reason why I frequently refer to the Bucks County Courier Times as Mike Fitzpatrick?s PR operation. It?s because that?s exactly what that newspaper is, and they proved it again yesterday.

They ran a headline with a look of consternation on Fitzpatrick?s face (supposedly from fighting for his constituents again, I guess, or so they?d have us believe), and the ?news story? at the top of the front page had to do with the supposed revelations of the latest Congressional Budget Office report on the health care law.

And of course, this ?story? served up the usual demagoguery from Mikey The Beloved?congressional Democrats in the prior congress supposedly railroaded the bill to the White House?etc. (some of which was also refuted here)?

The (CBO) revision, 50 percent higher than a previous projection of 4 million in 2010, amounts to a broken promise, Fitzpatrick said.

In his first campaign for the White House, Obama pledged not to raise taxes on individuals making less than $200,000 a year and couples making less than $250,000.

The budget office analysis, however, found that nearly 80 percent of those who?ll face the penalty would be making up to or less than five times the federal poverty level. Currently that would work out to $55,850 or less for an individual and $115,250 or less for a family of four.

The average penalty in 2016 will be $1,200, according to the CBO.

(By the way, I assume that, outside of the CBO notation, all of this comes from Mikey himself, since there really is no other attribution implied.)

OK, so let?s back up here ? what?s 50 percent higher than 4 million, boys and girls?

Yes, 6 million, that?s right!

Which is 2 percent of the total population of this country.

Yep, 2 percent, people.

Think Progress tells us that and much more here, including the following...

?the revised 6 million figure does not mean the health care law puts a strain on the middle class. In fact, Obamacare will provide millions of families with large tax credits to help make health care more affordable for them, and the penalty will only be leveled against those Americans who choose not to purchase insurance even though they are able to afford it.

It should be noted that the Courier Times ?story? does indeed include a quote from the Obama Administration that corroborates the 6 million, 2 percent figure. Of course, it?s noted in PARAGRAPH 14 after the reader gets a heaping helping of Mikey?s partisan whining first (talk about burying the lede!).

Also, as noted here, part of the reason for the CBO adjustment is because of cuts to Medicaid that the Affordable Care Law may or may not make up (And the governors of which political party are primarily responsible for those cuts? The answer is here). Also, here is more on the Repugs' years-long effort to kill health care reform.

The Courier Times piece also notes that the Kathy Boockvar campaign was contacted over this, and here is the response?

Fitzpatrick?s opponent in the November election, Democrat Kathy Boockvar, was unavailable for comment Thursday.

Now it?s possible that there could have been a scheduling conflict of some type, and that might have been the reason why there was no official response from the PA-08 Dem challenger. However, the Courier Times also tells us the following?

Following the GOP?s summer repeal vote, (Boockvar) said rather than repeal the measure, ?let?s fix the law we have. Let?s make sure it?s affordable for individuals and small businesses alike. Let?s make sure that this law best carries out its purpose, making sure the most Americans have health care coverage as soon as possible so our children and our neighbors never have to rely on emergency rooms for their health care.?

That?s not exactly the full-throated defense that the Affordable Care Law deserves, Ms. Boockvar. As far as I?m concerned, it isn?t even close.

Basically, why am I the one communicating the utter absurdity of the latest fit of pique from Fitzpatrick and his willing accomplices at the Courier Times instead of you (oh, and in another tricky move by Mikey?s PR service, they perpetrated this fraud on a Friday, and since the paper doesn?t publish on a Saturday, this was the running headline for two days on the news stand copies all over Bucks, not just one).

Of course, I?m talking about the same alleged newspaper that ran full-page Fitzpatrick ads for weeks two years ago and ended up giving two candidate endorsements, one for Fitzpatrick and former rep Patrick Murphy, as opposed to a single one that reputable print publications do?wonder if they?ll extend Boockvar the same favor? Do I need to ask?

This is a picture of Gary Weckselblatt, the author of this utter dreck.

Here is a link to a job application at Pottery Barn (Williams-Sonoma is the parent company).

Weckselblatt knows how to do the rest (and for more of the reality point of view here, Ezra Klein tells us the following - more here)?

?and here is a tune for the occasion (haven?t featured anything from the ?80s for a little while ? about time).

Read The Full Article:
http://liberaldoomsayer.blogspot.com/2012/09/some-saturday-health-care-hijinks-fr
om.html

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Tea Party Report: Mitt Just Loves Him the 53
Percent

post from Crooks and Liars on 22 September 2012 10:00:05 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Everyone's so darned focus on Mitt Romney's disparaging remarks about the "47 Percent" of Americans who are parasitic leeches and will never vote for him. As Susie Sampson explains, he really just looooooves the 53 percent that might elect him President -- you know, the "quality" people.

Read The Full Article:
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/tea-party-report-mitt-just-loves-him

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Australia Seeks to Manage the Poor While Making
Them Poorer

When Mitt Romney derides the legions of Americans who are supposedly utterly dependent on government and are ruining the country's entrepreneurial spirit, we should remember that while this disdain for the poor may have a uniquely American inflection,[...]

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Want Me To Fix It Mitt

post from They gave us a republic... - Front Page on 22 September 2012 09:58:08 PM. © They gave us a republic... - Front Page

By @TomBales1
Dear Mitt:

I've put off writing for a while now, waiting to see if you were ever going to get your crap together and find a truck big enough to haul it in but with everything that's happened over this past week or ten days, it's obvious that you're not going to pull this thing together without my help. I am therefore offering to serve as your senior campaign advisor free of charge for the remainder of the campaign since it's become obvious that you are being truly ill served by the staff you have now. I'm not sure that even I can save your candidacy but we can at least work on your image a little.

I have taken the liberty of putting together a rough outline of the three main things that will need to be done over the next few weeks in order to make the "horserace" being claimed by the corporate media something at least something other than a running joke. These strategies are all based on something called "common sense", something that you and most of your senior campaign staff seem to have taken leave of on Inauguration Day, 2009 when the poor black kid from the Chicago ghetto got himself elected to the job that... like everything else in your life... you seem to think you're entitled to without ever having to work for it'

1. Lose Marie Antoinette... like last week. Every time this woman opens her mouth she simply reinforces the public's perception that she's just another whiny little self entitled rich bitch who wouldn't know hard times if they were gnawing her ass off. So far, between the two of you, you've managed to alienate every single voting block out there with the possible exception of the billionaire financier sector and even they just sit and shake their heads every time one of you opens his/her mouth.

I simply can not believe that in view of what has occurred every single time you've stuck her in the faces of the American public, that you continue to do so but here she was again this week,,, of all things... attacking Republicans. The LAST thing you need to be doing when you're as deep in the crapper as you are is alienating the goddamned core base. Have you checked out Republicans for Obama yet? Even if their claims in regard to the number of Republicans who WON'T be supporting your elitist ass are only half or a third true, that's millions of Republicans who won't be voting for you. You keep letting Annie piss people off if you'd rather be remembered as an asshole instead of a president. Otherwise, super glue her lips together and don't let her out in public,

2. Knock off the "I'm one of you" bullshit. You're just not a good enough actor to pull it off. If there's one thing that should be obvious to every living breathing creature on this planet it's that Mitt Romney is NOTHING even remotely resembling the rest of us. I'm not sure exactly what you are but someone who understands the simplest basics about what it's like to live at a lower level than you do on the food chain that YOU helped to create certainly isn't it.

Every statement you've ever made on the subject of working class Americans has shown your utter disdain for anyone who has ever had to work for a monthly paycheck, especially those who might have gotten their hands a little dirty doing it. You didn't have a chance of pulling it off BEFORE Boca Raton and you damned sure don't now. Just be your normal, everyday loathsome bastard self Mitt. You won't win any of the working class independents that way, but you aren't likely to get those votes anyway and at least you won't be knocking yourself out pretending to be something you're not or to care about something you don't.

3. Let the grownups handle foreign affairs. Nobody has elected you, nor has anyone died and left you in charge, therefore you have no more business calling press conferences to criticize or otherwise talk about the governments handling,,, either of an isolated incident or of foreign affairs policy in general... than I do. Grandstanding on the graves of American diplomats and embassy personnel who were slain while performing their duty would be alien to a normal human being who actually possessed a soul and your performance last week simply reinforces the idea that you don't. When YOU are the one in charge and YOU have access to ALL of the information and intelligence that the POTUS is naturally privy to, then you get to make the hard decisions based on what you know, not what you think will make you the most brownie points with the Tea party fringe. Otherwise you're just another cheap grifter trying to turn tragedy to personal gain.

There's a lot more that needs doing but given the time constraints caused by your waiting so long to bring me in, even I may have trouble pulling it off. There's a very good chance that you just may have to settle for being remembered as the candidate who ran the crappiest presidential election campaign in history and hastened the destruction of the Republican party but at least you'll be remembered for something, eh?

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me-to-fix-it-mitt