BlatherWatch

Rush blows like the wind, Robertson praises same

 

  In the lead up to the conventions full of more hot air than that being pushed ahead of a hurricane, Rush claims gubmint weather modifications were used to cancel GOP convention and Robertson says the big guy did same to protect Tampa.  Plus, GOP grassroots members may be forced out of convention starting today, according to Red State

"At 2:00 p.m. today in Tampa, the Republican National Committee, led by Team Romney, is moving to shut down conservative grassroots activists. I’ve been on the phone with several individuals involved in the fight who tell me that the fight is not over, it is only just starting."

"Specifically, the media is reporting that the rules fight is over because Team Romney is abandoning Ben Ginsberg’s effort to allow candidates to control delegates. Under an initial proposal, delegates would, in effect, be chosen by the presumed nominee’s campaign and not based on votes in the states and delegate selection processes in the states."

  Will Rand Paul sell out his dad for 30 pieces of end times silver/gold?

 

 

 

 

This is an Open thread folks as the next 2 weeks promise to be a doozy of a storm, so hang on to your parasols and straw hats.

 Some Updates tonight from twitter:

@ GingerGibson : Number of times "I" appears in Christie's prepared text:37. Number of times "Romney" appears: 7

@ howardfineman : A tough, harsh, nasty speech by Chris Christie -- but effective for the GOP base if nowhere else. @ jbendery : 20 mins into his speech, Chris Christie actually stops talking about himself and says Mitt Romney's name for the first time. @ howardfineman : Ann said nothing in particular by way of a narrative; did not mention her MS or their charity or any direct mention of the Mormon Church.

Rumor has it...

The "Big Surprise" up the expensive sleeve of Donald Trump is rumored by the kids in the know to be an appearance of The Donald with Reggie Brown, a semi-famous Obama impersonator.  Apparently the plan is for them to come out on stage and The Donald will point to "obama" and shout "YOU'RE FIRED!!!"  This is sure to cause spasms of delight among the faithful.

Tommy Christopher, over at Mediate.com writes :

My first glimpse of Reggie Brown was his “debate” against perennial GOP straw poll champ Ron Paul, using verbatim President Obama quotes. Engineered by Fox’s John Stossel, I was struck by how sad the shadow-boxing spectacle was for Paul, but also by Reggie’s spot-on impression of Obama. Weirdly, many of the blog posts about the “debate” didn’t mention Reggie by name, identifying him only as an “Obama impersonator,” and it took me a few minutes of googling to track him down.

It shouldn’t be a  problem for Reggie going forward (his 186 Twitter followers also figure to multiply). His performance at the Republican Leadership Conference catapulted him to molten-hot status in the perpetually overheated news cycle. Initially, his performance was panned, by liberal blogs, as “racist” and a “minstrel show,”  but as video emerged of an RLC organizer pulling Reggie off the stage when the jokes turned against Republicans, the narrative changed. RLC President Charlie Davis pulled Reggie in the middle of a chuck about Republican candidates, but insisted that it was because of the “racially insensitive jokes” from earlier in the act. Reasonable people acknowledged that Reggie’s racial jabs were mild, and not all that different from humor that the President himself has employed. The tide quickly turned in Reggie’s favor, especially with those who have no ax to grind, politically.

Before joining William Gold Entertainment’s “Politicos” impersonator troupe (along with Bill Clinton lookalike Tim Watters, Sarah Palin ringer Patti Lyons, and Tim Northern as Juan Williams), Reggie Brown was a regional Emmy-winning broadcaster in his own right, following a stint as a model. A native of Chicago, Reggie first learned of his resemblance to Barack Obama in 2001, from his brother, Lawrence, and others who told him “you look like my professor, you should google him.”

It wasn’t until 2008, though, that Brown turned his resemblance to Obama into a career, one which he describes as “the best job in the world.”

 This is an Open Thread.

Will Romney even be on the ballot here?

On her show Wednesday night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow explained how the Libertarian Party might get presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney removed from the ballot in Washington State.

Earlier this month, the Libertarian Party of Washington State filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent Romney’s name from being printed on Washington’s general election ballot.

Under Washington law, the Republican Party is no longer considered a majority party because they did not formally nominate a candidate for U.S. Senate in 2010. As a minority party, Republicans can only place a name on the ballot for President by collecting 1,000 signatures of registered voters, which they have not.

“If the lawsuit succeeds, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan might have to run as write-in candidates in Washington State,” Maddow said. “And look, nobody expects Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan to have any chance in heck in Washington State. So it probably in the long run does not matter whether Romney is on the ballot or not.”

“But for every Republican who delighted in [attempts to remove Obama from the ballot], you can file this one under ‘medicine comma taste of your own,’” she joked.

Oh those wacky Republicans!!

Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for Senate in Missouri who is running against Sen. Claire McCaskill, justified his opposition to abortion rights even in case of rape with a claim that victims of “legitimate rape” have unnamed biological defenses that prevent pregnancy.

“First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare,” Akin told KTVI-TV in an interview posted Sunday. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

Akin said that even in the worst-case scenario — when the supposed natural protections against unwanted pregnancy fail — abortion should still not be a legal option for the rape victim.

“Let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work, or something,” Akin said. “I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.”

 

See you next week, dear

     

So today is Paul Ryan's first Monday as Mitt Romney's number two, but instead of joining his boss's bus tour through Florida, he's been dispatched to the Iowa State Fair, where Mitt famously said that corporations are people. Don't worry, though. It has nothing to do with Paul Ryan's plan to end Medicare as we know it and turn it into a voucher program.

Romney adviser Kevin Madden denied that the campaign was keeping Ryan out of Florida because of his proposal to privatize Medicare for people under 55; tinkering with the program for the elderly has long been toxic in Florida politics.

"This has more to do with expanding our bandwidth," he told reporters here on Sunday morning. "Gov. Romney is going to be talking about the issues that are important to Floridians."

And if you believe that, then you also believe the reason that neither George W. Bush nor Dick Cheney will be attending the Republican convention is that they had scheduling conflicts. But to be fair, it's not hard to understand why Romneyland is as eager to hide Ryan's plan to end Medicare as they are to hide any evidence that Bush and Cheney were Republicans. Just check out the headlines for yourself.

The weird thing is that despite the Ryan pick, Republicans have apparently concluded that Romney cannot win the White House without taking Florida.

A well-placed source said Republicans recently did an extensive regression analysis war-gaming what states are most crucial given the polling.

The single state that Romney absolutely had to have in all the various combinations: Florida.

If that's what they believe, it's hard to understand why Romney picked a guy who wants to end Medicare ... unless they actually don't think it will be a liability. The state's Republican Agriculture Commissioner, who served with Ryan in the House, seemed to express that view to Politico.

“The Ryan pick certainly energizes both sides and that means in Florida the Romney campaign will need to be very clear about [what his] budget reform means — and doesn’t mean — for seniors,” said Florida Agricultural Commissioner and former Ryan House colleague Adam Putnam. “Fortunately, nobody is better at explaining these issues than Paul.”

But if Romneyland really believes "nobody is better" than Ryan at spinning his Medicare plan, then why isn't he in Florida today with Romney? Why are they waiting to send him to the state until next Saturday, when his appearance will not get nearly as much attention as it would have today? I mean if Paul Ryan's plan is so great, and Paul Ryan is so great at explaining it ... why not let him explain it?

The question pretty much answers itself.

In the news...

Donald Trump will receive the 2012 “Statesman of the Year” award from the Sarasota Republican Party in August.

Trump has been tapped to receive the award on the day before the Republican National Convention, just 60 miles south of the festivities in Tampa Bay.

The move, however, is not meant to upstage the convention, according to Trump spokesman Michael Cohen.

“It would seem obvious that Donald Trump will play a role in the Tampa convention, as his massive popularity, reflected in this recent award, shows what an asset he would be in making the convention into an even greater success.”

Haley Barbour received the award in 2011, at an event that also featured remarks from Herman Cain.

No state exemplifies what happens when wingnuts take control as much as Arizona, where right wing Gov. Jan Brewer is now asking the Supreme Court to let her take away the health insurance of state employees’ same-sex partners.

"Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) has requested that the Supreme Court overturn a ruling that allows state employees to keep their same-sex partners on their benefits, including health insurance.

Brewer filed a petition for a writ of certiorari on July 2, requesting that the high court overturn the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s September 2011 ruling in Diaz vs. Brewer. The pushback comes three months after the Ninth Circuit denied a request by Arizona state lawyers to re-hear the case with an 11-judge panel.

Last September, the Ninth Circuit’s ruling prevented Arizona from implementing a law that would have barred state employees’ same-sex partners from remaining on their health plans. The ruling affirmed a lower court’s decision to place a preliminary injunction on the law."

Los Angeles Times reporter Maeve Reston was at Mitt Romney’s fund-raiser at the home of far right billionaire David Koch in the super-exclusive Long Island community of East Hampton, and interviewed one of Romney’s wealthy donors — who had some interesting remarks about the “common people.”

EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. – As protesters assembled on a beach in advance of Mitt Romney’s evening event at the home of conservative billionaire David Koch, the candidate slipped to East Hampton for his first of three fundraisers on this tony stretch of Long Island.

The line of Range Rovers, BMWs, Porsche roadsters and one gleaming cherry red Ferrari began queuing outside of Revlon Chairman Ronald Perelman’s estate off Montauk Highway long before Romney arrived, as campaign aides and staffers in white polo shirts emblazoned with the logo of Perelman’s property — the Creeks — checked off names under tight security. …

A New York City donor a few cars back, who also would not give her name, said Romney needed to do a better job connecting. “I don’t think the common person is getting it,” she said from the passenger seat of a Range Rover stamped with East Hampton beach permits. “Nobody understands why Obama is hurting them.

“We’ve got the message,” she added. “But my college kid, the baby sitters, the nails ladies — everybody who’s got the right to vote — they don’t understand what’s going on. I just think if you’re lower income — one, you’re not as educated, two, they don’t understand how it works, they don’t understand how the systems work, they don’t understand the impact.”

Republicans also take a pass on their convention

Republicans love to point out Democrats, like Missouri's Claire McCaskill, who are skipping the Democratic National Convention for the sake of politics. That would be a potent line of attack if, you know, Republicans weren't being equally scared of being seen with their nominee. Linda McMahon, Senate, Connecticut [I]f McMahon wins the Aug. 14 Republican primary for retiring Sen. Joe Lieberman’s seat, she will not attend the Republican National Convention that begins in Tampa Aug. 27. “Our focus is going to be on campaigning in Connecticut,” said McMahon campaign spokeswoman Kate Duffy. Steve Obsitnik, Andrew Roraback, House, Connecticut Other high-profile GOP congressional candidates are also staying home, including Steve Obsitnik, who is running for Democratic Rep. Jim Himes' 4th District seat, and Andrew Roraback, who is running to represent the 5th District. Jon Hunstman, former presidential candidate, Utah Huntsman, who says he’s been at every convention since 1984 when he was a delegate for Ronald Reagan, told The Salt Lake Tribune in a statement that he’s been asked repeatedly whether he would attend the August convention in Tampa, Florida, but that he’s skipping it. "I will not be attending this year’s convention, nor any Republican convention in the future, until the party focuses on a bigger, bolder, more confident future for the United States — a future based on problem solving, inclusiveness, and a willingness to address the trust deficit, which is every bit as corrosive as our fiscal and economic deficits," Huntsman said. Presumably, the GOP is laughing back at Mr. Two Delegates. George Allen, Senate, Virginia "Since we are locked in a close race and can’t be in two places at once, the focus will continue to be listening and meeting with Virginia families, veterans, and small business leaders on the campaign trail," said Allen spokeswoman Emily Davis. Of course, Allen can't be both in California raising money and in Virginia "listening" to people either, but that didn't stop him. Dean Heller, Senate, Nevada Now an appointed U.S. senator, Heller said Thursday he's thinking of staying home again in 2012 to campaign for the Senate as he faces a tough race. Danny Rehberg, Senate, Montana A campaign spokesman said Rehberg would remain in Montana to focus on his campaign against the freshman senator rather than attend the convention in Tampa, Fla., in August. Heather Wilson, Senate, New Mexico Wilson spokesman Chris Sanchez said that the former congresswoman does not plan to attend the convention in August and will be campaigning in New Mexico at the time. Linda Lingle, Senate, Hawaii [S]he’s skipping the Republican National Convention in Florida on Aug. 27. A campaign spokesman told DC808 that Lingle will be “at home campaigning at that time.” The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has made Lingle’s 2008 appearance at the Republican National Convention a major theme in its criticisms of Lingle. The former governor is running on a platform of bipartisanship, but opponents argue she’s an unwavering Republican. As much attention as the media has showered on the handful of Democrats who are skipping their convention in North Carolina (McCaskill! McCaskill! McCaskill!), it looks like more Republicans are skipping theirs. Not that I blame anyone for doing so. Candidates most likely ARE better served by staying home and campaigning. Yet it's time the media stops pretending this is an Obama problem, and realize that candidates in tough districts or state—regardless of party—have genuinely better things to do.

Your weekend open thread

In the news this morning:

 * Take this health reform quiz and see how you score!

* While most Americans were celebrating the birth of a nation of patriots, the Republican nominee for president, who made much of his fortune sending American prosperity abroad and sheltering much of his wealth in offshore tax shelters, and Republican leaders in Washington, who would make the practice of firing teachers and police the policy of the state, eagerly awaited a jobs report they fervently hope will be bad for America. (see below)

Mitt Romney is in trouble. The American people do not like him or trust him. They intuitively sense that he’s not on their side. They are right. He is not. And it shows.

While the stampeding herd of the media were dramatically overstating the problems of the president, informing the nation about celebrity divorces rather than demanding that the Republican nominee stop hiding his tax returns for reasons that are obvious, Romney was failing to win the trust of the nation.

In the latest big lie of the far right, while the president was honoring American heroes at home on the Fourth of July, the right invented the fiction that the president was campaigning in France. Since the answer to the big lie is the big truth:

It is time to talk of patriotism and partisanship and a Republican Party that has lost its heart, its soul and its way. Ronald Reagan would be embarrassed by Republicans today. William F. Buckley would be angry and ashamed. The party of Reaganite optimism is now the party that hopes America fails and blames Americans first.

The Republican Party is now led by a man who insults his own father, a great man who believed the people have a right to know about those who would lead them. George Romney disclosed many years of his tax returns because he was proud of what he did, unlike Mitt Romney, who is not.

Mitt Romney says George Romney was wrong. The American people believe George Romney was right.

Never in the history of the republic has any great party been so passionately hopeful that America would fail as Republicans are today.

Never in the history of the nation has any great party dreaded good news for America the way Republicans do today.

Never in the history of America has any great party so callously and falsely blamed Americans who are jobless for being jobless, blamed Americans who are poor for being poor, blamed Americans who are hungry for being hungry or blamed Americans who are hurting for their hurt as Republicans do today.

Never in the history of the Congress has any leader done what the Republican Senate leader did, boasting that his great dream for America was not putting Americans to work, but politically destroying the president.

While then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) passed job-creating legislation in the Democratic House, Senate Republicans abused the filibuster even more than the bigot senators of the old segregated South in their drive to make America fail. Senate Republicans destroy America's hope for jobs with the same ferocity of their leader's hyper-partisan ambition to destroy the president.

Never in the history of the nation has any great party been led by a man who praises his own wealth with such conceit and claims this as his qualification for the presidency. Even leading Republicans have called him a vulture.

The party of Abe Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt is now the party of “no” that hopes America fails and blames Americans first.

* The jobs report for June was released today. "The economy added 80,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department reported Friday, after a revised increase of 77,000 in May. The unemployment rate remained at 8.2 percent."  Still slower than what the economy needs to recover, but not the devastating news hoped for by those on the right.

In Britain, the investigations into Barclays Bank manipulating the benchmark Libor rate have begun in earnest. Parliament approved an official inquiryinto the Libor scandal, though only at the Parliamentary level rather than an independent investigation. This came after a shouting match between the Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, and the shadow chancellor, Labour’s Ed Balls. Outside of Parliament, the Serious Fraud Office announced their own criminal investigations. So we’re on the road to seeing criminal prosecutions come out of the rate-rigging scandal.

Remember that Barclays is only bearing the full weight of scrutiny right now because they decided to cooperate with a Justice Department investigation. At least 12 and as many as 16 other banks are under scrutiny in the scandal, and that includes just about every major financial institution. The fallout from that DoJ investigation is that the Libor will get calculated in a new fashion:

Under the terms of the pact with the US’ Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Barclays agreed to a six-pronged plan to “encourage” benchmark publishers, such as the British Bankers’ Association, to improve the rate-setting process by increasing transparency and creating rigorous methodologies to determine submissions.

The pact is unusual because it requires Barclays to not only beef up its internal compliance systems but to take on a role as an advocate for increased oversight for the industry.

“We’re going to use every tool we can, whether it’s enforcement tools or rule-writing tools to try to benefit the American public and make sure markets are clean of fraud and manipulation,” said Gary Gensler, chairman of the CFTC.

Martin Wheatley, the UK regulator who has been asked by the UK government to lead a review of the legal framework for Libor and other rates, said his group would consider the CFTC’s demands. The BBA is conducting its own review and a person familiar with the progress said the settlement demands were “quite sensible” and could provide a template for reform.

It would certainly represent progress for the settlement to contain new standards to prevent future rate manipulation, but it would be harder to hold to them without some accountability for those who manipulated the rates. That’s why calls to purge the entire Barclay's board, which is simultaneously tied up with just about every other multinational corporate board, seem more appropriate.

*A worker in Florida got an earful from Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-FL) on Wednesday when he asked the congressman to support a bill that would raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour.

"Jesse Jackson, Jr. is passing a bill around to increase the minimum wage to 10 bucks an hour," the man tells Young in a video obtained by FLDemocracy. "Do you support that?"

"Probably not," Young replies.

"Ten bucks, that would give us a living wage," the constituent points out.

"How about getting a job?" Young snaps.

"I do have one, $8.50 an hour," the man insists.

"Why do you want that benefit?" Young grumbles. "Get a job."

"I do have a job, but it's not enough to get by on," the man explains as Young turns away.

In 2010, the Florida Republican voted for a cost-of-living pay increase for himself and other members of Congress. He currently makes the default yearly Congressional salary of $174,000.

You might be a Republican if....

An article (from SeattleBlog, by Vanessa Ho of the P.I.) turned up on our desk this morning, revealing the supposed favorites of those in each political party. Read on and tell us what you think:

You are probably a Republican if:

Your favorite coffee is Dunkin' Donuts

Your favorite car is a BMW

Your favorate sport is Major League Baseball

Your favorite TV network is The History Channel

Your favorite fast food comes from Subway

Your favorite gaming system is X-box

 

You are probably a Democrat if:

Your favorite coffee comes from Starbucks

Your favorite sport is NFL football

Your favorite car is a Jeep

Your favorite fast food comes from Wendy's

Your favorite TV Network is Animal Planet

Your favorite gaming system is Wii.

 

 We don't know who did the research on these statistics, and because it is a non-news Monday in the middle of the summer, we don't particularly care.  Personally, we would not step foot inside a Wendy's, we love baseball, eat often at Subway and couldn't care less about video games. But that's just us.  How about you?

This open thread is constitutional!

from Huffington Post:

Not all Republican state lawmakers took such a hardline against the ACA’s implementation. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Utah Gov. Gary Herbert plans to follow federal health care mandates for the time being, while refusing “to do something that is going to bust our budget” in the future.

Former Office of Management and Budget director and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who plans to step down at the end of his term, took what on the surface seems a more moderate approach. Daniels said he would leave the decision on a possible Medicaid expansion to future state legislators.

Some GOP lawmakers have expressed their view that compliance with some key aspects of the health care law is a way to ensure at least some state control over the process. As CBS News reports, Republican Colorado state legislator Bob Gardner argued that by moving forward on the creation of insurance exchanges “Colorado did the right thing by having a mechanism to do its best to impose a Colorado solution.”

In a similar statement, Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder expressed his belief that “working with our legislative leaders to establish the MiHealth Marketplace will allow Michiganders to make decisions regarding what will be covered as opposed to Washington, D.C., making those decisions for us.”

Washington AG and Republican Gubanatorial candidate Rob McKenna announced in a speech this week that it was not a good idea for Republicans to pour a lot of time and money into trying to get the law overturned. "McKenna notified media across the state that he would be speaking about the US Supreme Court’s decision to uphold most of the Affordable Care Act. McKenna was one of 26 state attorneys general who sued to block the Affordable Care Act. But when Stranger reporter ( and close personal friend to Blatherwatch) David “Goldy” Goldstein arrived for the press conference at McKenna’s downtown Seattle offices, a guard was waiting for him. Cameramen, radio people, and   reporters were granted free entry. Goldy was prevented from entering. "They are physically blocking me from entering," Goldy said by phone to The Stranger, seven minutes before the 11:30 a.m. press conference was scheduled to begin. A spokesman for McKenna, Dan Sytman, had told Goldy a few minutes before that Goldy wasn’t a journalist and then blocked him from entering. A McKenna staffer had also grabbed Goldy by the shoulders and turned him away from the door. "More about that here.

On the March 26th episode of The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly told American Constitution Society president Caroline Fredrickson that she was "going to lose" her argument that the individual mandate was a constitutionally-sound tax and "does not require people to buy health insurance."  At the end of the segment, O'Reilly vowed to replay the interview and "apologize for being an idiot" if the Supreme Court ruled in favor of upholding the mandate.

Bill, we are still waiting :)