Who's the Worst of the GOP White House Contenders? Marco Rubio.

By a mile.  Nobody else in the GOP Clown Car even comes close; mostly because the rest of them don't have a snowball's chance in Hell of ever winning a national election.

Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina are batshit crazy.  Donald Trump is too loud and obnoxious.    Ben Carson??? ROTFLMAO!  Ditto for “Jeb!”

Marco Rubio is every bit as Far Right, every bit as corporate-owned-and-operated, as the rest of the GOP Clown Car, but without the foaming-at-the-mouth bug-eyed craziness that would scare off Middle America.  Marco Rubio COULD get elected if he wins the nomination.  And that is just plain fuckin' scary.

Underneath that smiling personable Ricky Martin demeanor, Rubio is just another corporate prostitute who's being paid to pick up where George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan left off.  Here's Matt Taibbi's impression of Marco Rubio in a Rolling Stone article:

“He is short but prickishly good-looking, all hair and teeth and self-confidence. He's the kind of guy that no group of men wants to go to a bar with, both because he spoils the odds and because he seems like kind of an asshole generally...There are young women in the crowd looking up at him adoringly, like a Beattle... He's so slick, he could probably sell a handful of cars at every speech...He checks all the boxes of what the Beltway kingmakers look for in a political marketing phenomenon: young, ethnic, good-looking, capable of working a room like a pro and able to lean hard on an inspirational bio while eschewing policy specifics...Rubio sells a kind of strident, bright-eyed dickishness that in any other year would seem tailor-made for roping in conservatives.”

Scared yet?  Here are some of the “policy specifics” that Marco Rubio wants to eschew — at least until AFTER he wins the White House:

If you like Private Prisons — aka the Prison Industrial Complex, For-Profit Prisons, the various Kids-For-Cash scandals (Google it) — You'll love Marco Rubio.

And don't you just hate those FCC commies with their nanny state Net Neutrality?  Wouldn't you love to crack down down on those municipal governments who are providing low-cost high-speed Broadband access?  So would Marco Rubio.

And needless to say, Marco Rubio wants to return control of banking/financial regulations to the Wall Street thugs who have purchased him.

Be Very Afraid.

Matt Taibbi's Rhetorical Question about the Tea Party

Meme GOP

Here's the entire quote from the Meme GOP post:

“So how does a group of billionaire businessmen and corporations get a bunch of broke Middle American white people to lobby for lower taxes for the rich and deregulation of Wall Street? That turns out to be easy. Beneath the surface, the Tea Party is little more than a weird and disorderly mob, a federation of distinct and often competing strains of conservatism that have been unable to coalesce around a leader of their own choosing. Its rallies include not only hardcore libertarians left over from the original Ron Paul "Tea Parties," but gun-rights advocates, fundamentalist Christians, pseudo-militia types like the Oath Keepers (a group of law- enforcement and military professionals who have vowed to disobey "unconstitutional" orders) and mainstream Republicans who have simply lost faith in their party. It's a mistake to cast the Tea Party as anything like a unified, cohesive movement — which makes them easy prey for the very people they should be aiming their pitchforks at. A loose definition of the Tea Party might be millions of pissed-off white people sent chasing after Mexicans on Medicaid by the handful of banks and investment firms who advertise on Fox and CNBC.” 

And check out the Rolling Stone article from which these quotes were taken:   The Truth About the Tea Party by Matt Taibbi.

You won't be surprised, but you'll be more furious and disgusted than ever.

Occupy Wall Street is Growing, Spreading

And it’s here to stay.  Occupy Wall Street started on September 17th, and it took at least a week for the mainstream “media” to even notice.  Even then, they mostly just poked fun at the demonstrators’ funny clothes and the fact that their message was “incoherent” and “inarticulate.”

When one tenth that many teabaggers gather in a park with their dorky costumes and misspelled signs, the media are all over them like stink on shit.  “The American People are rising in anger!”  But I digress…

Now several unions — including the New York Transit Workers Union (TWU Local 100) — are taking up the cause.  They’re organizing a massive rally next Wednesday, October 5th.  A spokesman for TWU Local 100 said:

“While Wall Street and the banks and the corporations are the ones that caused the mess that’s flowed down into the states and cities, it seems there’s no shared sacrifice. It’s the workers having to sacrifice while the wealthy get away scot-free. It’s kind of a natural alliance with the young people and the students…They just seem to be hanging out there getting the crap beaten out of them, and maybe union support will help them out a little bit.”

And the New York Metro 32BJ SEIU, with about 70,000 members, will be showing their solidarity with Occupy Wall Street at a rally on October 12th.

Occupy Wall Street has spread to other cities as well, including Chicago and Boston.

Matt Taibbi is hopeful that Occupy Wall Street will continue to grow into a much larger movement and create the necessary public awareness.

If you aren’t familiar with Matt Taibbi’s Rolling Stone articles and his book “Griftopia,” you don’t know what you’re missing.  He might be the only person on the planet who can take an excruciatingly complicated and boring subject like derivatives and translate it into a Hunter Thompson-esque Gonzo writing style that’ll have you on the edge of your seat.

Five Traits Shared by Every Teabagger

This is taken from Matt Taibbi’s article, “Tea and Crackers: How Corporate Interests and Republican Insiders Built the Tea Party Monster” in the current Rolling Stone.

It’s an excellent article. (The same issue of RS also has an interview with Obama.) If you’ve been following the news closely, the teabagger article probably won’t tell you anything you didn’t already know. Hopefully this article will reach the jillions of Rolling Stone readers who don’t surf leftwing websites.

Taibbi says:

“So how does a group of billionaire businessmen and corporations get a bunch of broke Middle American white people to lobby for lower taxes for the rich and deregulation of Wall Street?” And:

“A loose definition of the Tea Party might be millions of pissed-off white people sent chasing after Mexicans on Medicaid by the handful of banks and investment firms who advertise on Fox and CNBC.”

My favorite part is the author’s personal observations about teabaggers, based on conversations and interviews during the past year. Most of them share these five traits:

I. You probably think most teabaggers were happily oblivious during the GW Bush years, and they suddenly developed a pulse when that Kenyan Muslim hijacked the White House. Nope. You’re Wrong! Each and every teabagger has been out there for the past ten years, protesting against Big Government and High Taxes. Funny how we didn’t start seeing them until a year and a half ago, but by golly, they’ve been out there all along, yessireebob!

II. They all know the Constitution inside and out, and each one of them thinks they’re the only person in America with this unique qualification.

III. They all play the “Race Card” card. They insist that poor homeowners (mostly minorities) caused the trillion-dollar meltdown (enabled by that socialist Community Reinvestment Act of the late ‘70s); they’re obsessed with “news” stories about ACORN and the New Black Panthers; and they claim Obama is a Muslim who was born in Africa. And then they’re just shocked — shocked! — that people accuse them of being racists.

IV. Some of their best friends are black.

V. They think anyone who disagrees with them is an America-hating leftist. This attitude is nurtured by their mentor, Dick Armey, who regularly tells his inbreds that their opponents are “people who do not cherish America the way we do.”

If you’ve done much arguing with teabaggers — in person or online — you’re probably familiar with these Big Five talking points; especially the first one.

John McCain’s New Motto: “It’s NOT the Economy, Stupid!”

“We can't win on the issues. If America’s voters are smart enough to notice the collapsing economy, we’re fucked. Our only chance is to distract the voters with shitsmears and Swiftboat attacks. It’s not my fault; I'm a sleazebucket and that’s what sleazebuckets do.”

The above isn't an exact quote, but the meaning is pretty close. Here's the actual quote from McCain adviser Greg Strimple. He promised “a very aggressive last 30 days” of the campaign, and then said: “We are looking forward to turning a page on this financial crisis and getting back to discussing Mr. Obama’s aggressively liberal record and how he will be too risky for Americans.”

“Turning a page on this financial crisis” — WTF?!?!?! We’re teetering on the edge of the worst financial disaster since 1929. Taxpayers have just handed over $700 billion (or is it $800 billion now?) to the Wall Street criminals who caused this whole catastrophe, and nobody knows whether this massive giveaway will even work.

But according to this dickwad, we’re about to “turn the page” on this little nuisance (it’s just like swatting a fly) and then we can quickly get on with Operation Sleaze. Asshole!

Barack Obama said McCain and his aides “are gambling that he can distract you with smears rather than talk to you about substance. They'd rather try to tear our campaign down than lift this country up. It's what you do when you're out of touch, out of ideas, and running out of time.”

Tens of millions of Americans are scared shitless of losing everything they own. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are trying to come up with solutions. Songbird and Winky are telling everybody “Hey, look over there! It’s the Weather Underground!” “Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim teeheeheeheehee.”

Will the voters fall (again) for these bullshit Swiftboat attacks? If they do, then Matt Taibbi is right in his scathing indictment of Americans.

cross-posted at Bring It On!

Undercover: Into the Bowels of the Evangelical Movement

No matter what you’ve already read and heard about deranged herds of bookburning tongue-speaking “Christian” wackjobs, there’s always something even worse that’ll have you going “WTF??? Oh. My. God!”

Matt Taibbi went underground and infiltrated a 3-day workshop put on by John Hagee’s Cornerstone Church. Aside from being one of John McCain’s friendliest bedfellows, John Hagee is the leader of Christian Zionism. This is the belief that America and Israel should unite for the purpose of speeding up the arrival of Armageddon.

As True Believers all know, Jesus will be reappearing, but not until after Israel is involved in a final bloody showdown with the forces of Satan. And then — ooooohhhh I’m so excited! — the RAPTURE! Come on, let’s get this party started!

When you think of “Christian” demagogues, you probably think of those wacky televised presentations. As Matt Taibbi describes it: “Perfectly groomed people in pale suits and light-colored dresses, smiling and happy and full of the Holy Spirit, robotically singing hymns at the behest of some squeaky-clean pastor with a baritone voice and impossible hair.”

But: “We don't get to see the utterly batshit world they live in, when the cameras are turned off…in other words, there's a ready-for-prime-time stage act — toned down and lip-synced to match a set of PG lyrics that won't scare the advertisers — and then there's the real party backstage, where the spiritual hair really gets let down.” And does it ever!

This is a long article but it’s an excellent read. It has all the suspense of a cop show when somebody goes undercover and infiltrates a vicious gang. Obviously the author came out unharmed since his article was published. But all through the article there’s this nagging tension, this sensation of “oh my God, what if he gets recognized? What if somebody figures out he isn’t one of Them?”

During the final day of the “Encounter Weekend” (as they called it), there was a fire-and-brimstone ceremony for exorcising demons. The workshop leader (his name was Philip Fortenberry) repeatedly yelled out “In the name of Jesus I cast out the demon of _______.” These are the demons that were cast out (in order): Incest. Sexual abuse. Astrology. Lust. Cancer. Handwriting analysis. Intellect. Anal fissures. Philosophy. Pornography. Disconnect.

And the Encounter Weekend wouldn’t be complete without the obligatory Harry Potter anecdote. Philip Fortenberry (again) mesmerized the audience. His nephew had called him up one night, frantic. His two young sons had collapsed on the floor and they were writhing and gasping for air.

“And I said to my nephew, I said, 'It isn't something they've done. It's something you've done.' I told my nephew to look around the house. I said, 'Do you have a copy of Harry Potter?' And he said yes. And I said, 'That's your problem.' So I told him to go get that copy of that book, tear it in half and throw it out the window. So he does it, and guess what? Both of those kids stood up completely recovered, just like that." Praise the Lord.

Damn You Harry Potter!

Enjoy this article. You’ll laugh. You’ll cringe. You’ll clench your fist and yell out a few cusswords you haven’t even thought of since high school. And you’ll probably need a massive hit of your favorite drug.

This is a necessary glimpse into America’s seamy underside. It isn’t pretty, but we need to recognize and acknowledge it. And if you’ve ever wondered how rightwing “Christian” demagogues could have so much power — remember, there are millions of Americans who are exactly like the people portrayed in this story.

cross-posted at Bring It On!

Congressional Democrats: Nothing But Smoke and Mirrors

If you’ve been following the news in the past year, you’ve probably noticed how completely useless our new Democratic “leaders” have been. And you were probably wondering: is this something calculated; some sort of sick variation on Good Cop Bad Cop? Or are the Democrats really this timid and scared shitless of their own shadows?

Well, wonder no more. It’s a scam. (Hope you'll read this whole article by Matt Taibbi; and preferably bookmark it. It'll piss you off, but we need to know this.) We've been had. And with all due respect to that song by The Who, we probably WILL get fooled again. And again and again…

The Democrats have made a conscious decision NOT to focus on getting us out of Iraq. Instead, they're focusing all of their time and energy on defeating Republicans in the upcoming election. I would’ve thought that getting us out of Iraq (since that was the reason we ELECTED them!) would be the best way to win the ’08 election, but what do I know?

Harry Reid actually came out and said that he can't fit Iraq into his busy schedule. "Sorry about those 4,000 dead American soldiers. I’ll get back to you on that We have the presidential election. Our time is really squeezed."

And Nancy Pelosi actually said — this is no joke! — that she’s putting Iraq on hold until 2009, because by then "we'll have a new president. And I do think at that time we'll take a fresh look at it." Whoa! Stand back! She's planning to "take a fresh look at it." OOOOOOHHH!!! Talk about somebody who jumps right in there and grabs the bull by the horns.

But the most infuriating thing about this whole charade is the fact that it’s so calculated and devious. They're pulling the same sleight-of-hand tricks over and over. They don't want to solve any problems. Fuck no, they want to keep the Iraqi war and all the rest of Bush’s scandals front and center so they can keep campaigning against them. “Goddammit, this time we’re really gonna stand up and say NO to Iraqmire / waterboarding / the Patriot ACT / the Military Commissions Act / telecom immunity…oh darn, we lost again. But by golly we sure tried.”

An aide to one anti-war House member said: "It was all about the public show. Reid and Pelosi would say they were taking this tough stand against Bush, but if you actually looked at what they were sending to a vote, it was like Swiss cheese. Full of holes."

He also said: “Can you imagine Tom DeLay and Denny Hastert taking no for an answer the way Reid and Pelosi did on Iraq? They'd find a way to get the votes. They'd get it done somehow."

Lynn Woolsey and Barbara Lee are two Democrats who are fed up with Reid and Pelosi. Woolsey said: “If we'd been bold the minute we got control of the House — and that's why we got the majority, because the people of this country wanted us out of Iraq — if we'd been bold, even if we lost the votes, we would have gained our voice."

The article says: “Before the 2006 elections, Democrats told us we could expect more specifics on their war plans after Election Day…and now they are once again telling us to wait until after an election to see real action to stop the war.” Film at eleven.

Matt Taibbi ends the article with: “Just get it done. Because if you don't, sooner or later this con is going to run dry. It may not be in '08, but it'll be soon. Even Americans can't be fooled forever.”

cross-posted at Bring It On!