A Modest Proposal From Tom Junod

Because they deserve some sort of recognition and because we are never going to have sensible gun laws in this country.

Republicans have won the gun-control battle. ... As such, the Republican Party now has the kind of historic opportunity that only victors enjoy. They have the opportunity to declare victory while at the same time extending a hand to the losers; to reach across the aisle and to relieve their Democratic counterparts of the terrible responsibility of actually doing something in the wake of national tragedies; to inject some realism into the gun debate while dealing with it on an entirely symbolic level; and most of all, to have something to offer grieving families beyond empty words, ineffectual promises, and hypocritical bromides:

A medal.

The medal would be called the Bearing the Cost of Freedom Medal, although, because it would be loosely modeled after the Purple Heart and would come with a black ribbon suitable for mourning, it could also be called the Black Heart.

Of course, it will never be as black as the hearts of those who support the NRA.

UPDATED: I really can't believe that so soon after putting up this post I have to update it with this. We have become a sick society.

Eight people were wounded, and at least two people are dead, after a shooting outside the Empire State Building in the Midtown area of Manhattan on Friday morning.

The shooting occurred at Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street around 9 a.m. ET. The New York Post reported that the incident was the result of a co-worker dispute; the gunman was fired from his job on Thursday and returned to his office today to target his boss, local and federal officials told NBC News, according to a tweet. The gunman, who was shot by police at the scene, and a bystander are both dead.

It's just disgusting.






 

GOP Convention News

That's if there is a GOP convention.

Tropical storm Isaac, which is gathering strength in the Caribbean, could strike Florida, hurricane forecasters say, triggering concern it might force a postponement or cancellation of the Republican National Convention in Tampa next week.

We'll see if God really is on their side. Worst case scenario for them is if Romney and Ryan get washed out to sea and they have to run Ron Paul because he isn't there because they didn't allow him to speak.

Comes this news that the Obama campaign is going to "disrupt" the convention which I see as a huge mistake. I really think the last thing you want to do is distract from the climate change denying, birth enforcing, granny killing, Kenyan Muslimming, birth certificating, God fearing all around craziness of the Republican convention.

Bucking protocol, President Obama and the Democrats are planning a full-scale assault on Republicans next week during their convention.
Presidential candidates have traditionally kept a low profile during their opponent's nominating celebration, but Democrats are throwing those rules out the window in an attempt to spoil Mitt Romney’s coronation as the GOP nominee.

It's so unfair. But Obama is from Chicago.

And just to prove that right-wingers don't "get" irony comes word that the theme of their convention is "we built this." This is in a stadium that was built with 62% of the funding coming from the public.

However, the stadium where the GOP will be announcing “We Built This!” was financed primarily by the government. The Tampa Bay Times Forum arena, which houses the Tampa Bay Lightning, was built in 1996 as the “Ice Palace” with 62% government funds. The total budget for the project was $139 million, of which public money accounted for $86 million and team money accounted for $53 million.

Hopefully no one in the nasty mainstream media will  point that out. Chances are. Not.

Norman Lizt Going Galt

I read this ad in the NYT this morning and am really disappointed in not being able to provide a link to it. Guess I'm not the only one who was impressed, though.

An eye-catching full-page advertisement appeared in The New York Times today from a self-described affluent business owner.

What will the world do without one fewer private equity investor? We'll soon know unless Romney pulls off a miracle.

The writer, Norman Lizt of La Jolla, Calif., says he pulls in “close to eight figures annually” and has built a substantial net worth as a sole, private equity investor. He says he also employs a half-dozen people and contributes to charities.

I certainly wish him a very happy retirement. He indicates in the article that it is the fault of President Obama that these 6 people will be out of work. I would like to suggest that at least one of them may be as capable of running a private equity firm as the super-genius wealth creator Norman Lizt. If they can't then I'm sure someone else can. I'm pretty sure that's how capitalism works.

And so, he says, “I probably will simply shutter my business and say my sweet farewells to a half dozen great employees (who are unlikely to equal their current remuneration elsewhere … if they are fortunate enough to get new jobs in this economy).”

Yeah, if these half dozen great employees can't run the business as well as whine-ass, greedhead Norman Lizt then maybe they were just dead weight to begin with. But once again have a nice retirement Mr. Galt Lizt.

“To Barack Obama, I say thank you …” he concludes, “… for freeing me from the yoke and bondage of my current endeavors and providing a newfound freedom. I just hope, however, that there are not thousands and thousands of others in the same position as I am in … the multiplier effect on jobs, the economy and charitable giving could be devastating!”

I'll take the liberty of saying you're welcome for the president. Since you've probably just been loafing the past few years anyway it'll be good to get some fresh blood into the economy. Don't worry I'm sure we're going to be able to survive without you. Bon Voyage!

What's Adelson Buying?

With all the cash Sheldon Adelson is spending on Romney/Ryan investment you can't help but wonder what kind of return he's expecting. A war with Iran is probably a given. A little help with the US attorneys might be a consideration, too.

Federal authorities are investigating whether Las Vegas Sands Corp. and several of its executives violated money-laundering laws by failing to alert authorities to millions of dollars transferred to its casinos by two Las Vegas high rollers, according to lawyers and others involved in the matter.

The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles is examining the casino company's handling of money received several years ago from a Mexican businessman later accused of drug trafficking and a former California executive subsequently convicted of taking illegal kickbacks, according to the people involved.

And this,

The probe comes as the casino giant, controlled by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, faces possible legal trouble on another front. U.S. authorities are also investigating whether Sands violated U.S. antibribery laws in its operations in the Chinese territory of Macau...

Maybe ought to save some of the money he's putting into the Romney campaign and earmark for his defense fund.

Paul Ryan Suspended

It was announced today that the FEC has suspended Paul Ryan for 50 days for testing positive for an illegal substance. A Ryan spokesman explained that he didn't know how this could have happened unless it was the veep nominee's bull semen power drinks. While Ryan will miss the Republican convention his chiseled physique will return in time for the stretch drive to election day.

The White House released this statement, “Anytime you hear about something like that, with someone that’s had success against you, it’s disappointing.” He added, "the president wants to reassure all Americans that he will be sticking to the suds and avoiding performance and revenue enhancers."

Thank You David Simon

I promise if I ever spring for cable TV I will start watching your shows. In the meantime thank you for saying what was going through my mind, but saying it all so much better.

Mitt Romney paid taxes at a rate of at least 13 percent. And he’s proud to say so.

Can we stand back and pause a short minute to take in the spectacle of a man who wants to be President of The United States, who wants us to seriously regard him as a paragon of the American civic ideal, declaiming proudly and in public that he has paid his taxes at a third of the rate normally associated with gentlemen of his economic benefit.

Well this part I've been saying for years.

This republic is just about over, isn’t it?

And I'm afraid it is. Nice while it lasted.

Et Tu Stockman

It's one thing for Romney and Ryan to have Paul Krugman telling them they're full of shit.

 Ryan has a completely undeserved reputation in the media as a bluff, honest guy, in Ryan’s case supplemented by a reputation as a serious policy wonk. None of this has any basis in reality; Ryan’s much-touted plan, far from being a real solution, relies crucially on stuff that is just pulled out of thin air — huge revenue increases from closing unspecified loopholes, huge spending cuts achieved in ways not mentioned. See Matt Miller for more.

It seems like quite another to have David Stockman doing so.

Thirty years of Republican apostasy — a once grand party’s embrace of the welfare state, the warfare state and the Wall Street-coddling bailout state — have crippled the engines of capitalism and buried us in debt. Mr. Ryan’s sonorous campaign rhetoric about shrinking Big Government and giving tax cuts to “job creators” (read: the top 2 percent) will do nothing to reverse the nation’s economic decline and arrest its fiscal collapse.

Mr. Ryan professes to be a defense hawk, though the true conservatives of modern times — Calvin Coolidge, Herbert C. Hoover, Robert A. Taft, Dwight D. Eisenhower, even Gerald R. Ford — would have had no use for the neoconconservative imperialism that the G.O.P. cobbled from policy salons run by Irving Kristol’s ex-Trotskyites three decades ago. These doctrines now saddle our bankrupt nation with a roughly $775 billion “defense” budget in a world where we have no advanced industrial state enemies and have been fired (appropriately) as the global policeman.

And this from the Matt Miller link.

Ryan’s revised plan, passed by the House in 2011, wouldn’t reach balance until the 2030s while adding $14 trillion in debt. It adds $6 trillion in debt over the next decade alone — yet Republicans had the chutzpah to say they wouldn’t raise the debt limit!

 Over time, Ryan’s “vision” would decimate most federal activities beyond Social Security, Medicare and defense.

So, I Was Feeling All Sad and Blue

I had gone over to faux professor Donald's place and he was all happy about the Ryan pick. No links cause he hates the traffic especially from Nazi progressives. And I went and read Roy's Voice column about how it's the Second Coming of Saint Ronnie now that Willard and Paul have hooked up. BTW, go visit Roy, he loves the company. The Reagan loving is laid on very thick, though.

So I was feeling very down until I went and visited my second favorite wingnut. Bob Lonsberry is kind of a local boy made, well not much. He's on the radio out Rochester way and writes a web column. When I saw the title of his column,  RYAN WAS THE WRONG CHOICE, my spirits were immediately elevated.

He has decided to throw the race and he has decided not to be subtle about it. Here’s the bottom line: Paul Ryan doesn’t bring a vote to the ticket.

Now Bob's a fellow Mormon so he probably has the inside scoop from himself. And I'd been thinking for awhile that Romney was taking a dive. To have it confirmed is some really good news, though.

 In a race where the fight is for the flakes in the middle, Paul Ryan absolutely does not move the needle.

We see here that Bob himself is not much the politician or he doesn't think "the flakes in the middle" are going to read his web musings. And not that I would want Paul Ryan in charge of anything, but from the point of view of the opposition this makes sense.

Having Paul Ryan’s knowledge and intellect guide the restructuring of the federal budget in a Romney administration is a good idea. To do that, you make him Treasury secretary, or director of the budget, or create some czar position. Almost never has a vice president been selected on the basis of some specialized skill which he would use in the administration. That’s what cabinet secretaries are for.

Fortunately Bob and I agree that Ryan is not going to get to do that either.

And, incredibly, by his choice, Mitt Romney has ended the congressional career of the only guy with the brains and the guts to say what needs to be said about the budget.

Say it loud, proud and often you zombie eyed granny starver!

And Mitt Romney has played directly into it. The Democrats have invested a year in making Paul Ryan’s last name a cuss word in American politics, and Mitt Romney has made sure that that Democrat investment doesn’t go to waste. We have agreed to argue their issue, and that is almost never a smart move.

Thanks Bob.

UPDATE: My hopes are confirmed after coming back from viewing the stock markets' nearly half a percent nosedive on the first open since the Ryan pick. I know how the Right likes to put so much weight on every little movement up or down. Obviously this is a slam dunk.

Death of a Gun-Loving Meme

Know it's not going to happen but I'd like for this to end the bullshit "if only someone had been packing heat.

The madman who gunned down Sikh worshippers blew his own brains out after he was blasted in the gut by a crack-shot Wisconsin cop, the FBI said yesterday. “I’ve seen the video — it was an amazing shot. And thank goodness,” FBI Special Agent Teresa Carlson said.

Brian Murphy was the name of the officer and he himself sustained injury from 9 shots.

Or Maybe Ron Paul

The White House is offering to help expand Willard's Veep choices.

Pick Paul Ryan! Bobby Jindal! Rob Portman! Tim Pawlenty! When it comes to advising Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on choosing a running mate, it seems as though everyone inside the Beltway is getting in on the act—including, now, the Obama campaign.


"Newt Gingrich or Michele Bachmann would be an excellent choice for Mitt Romney to choose," Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One.

I understand Dr. Paul is not on the scheduled speaker's list yet so maybe he is on their RADAR.

ROMNEY/PAUL 2012 - Rich and Crazy!

UPDATE: Looks like it's Paul Ryan.

Romney/Ryan 2012 - Rich and Zombie Eyed Granny Starver

When is Enough Enough?

I realize that I don't post much here, but to have two posts in a row about the actions of murderous psychopaths is a disgusting trend I'd like to stop. In order not to focus on the individual responsible for the latest mayhem, I'll post on what little "good" news there is.

Satwant Singh Kaleka, president of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, would do anything for his beloved, tight-knit community, relatives say.On Sunday, he died standing up to the horror of a gunman's attack on his house of worship in the Milwaukee suburb of Oak Creek. Kaleka, 65, managed to find a simple butter knife in the temple and tried to stab the shooter before being shot twice near the hip or upper leg, his son said Monday.

Mr. Kaleka showed more bravery and adherence to his religion than I'm sure 99% of the gun-toting, God-fearing right wing nutjobs currently running amuck in this country. You know, I was getting sick of the idiocy of the Romney campaign but now I'd really like to get back to that.