Another week, another wrap-up. The problem is that this past week feels like déjà vu all over again as the news cycle spit out one story after another about the “scandals” of Benghazi the IRS and even “umbrella gate.” Yeah, ‘umbrella gate’ — in which the far right has lost what remains of its senses by throwing yet another hissy fit over a Marine holding an umbrella for the President as he delivered a speech during the rain.… [Read more]
Dear Mrs. Vera,
Is there any way to stop Karl Rove from making-up stuff?
Regards,
Andrea “Tokyo Rose” Breitbart
Dear Endora Bombay,
Thank you for your inquiry into the chicken-egg philosophical mystery of cracked Super-Liars. I normally write this column while waiting for hours in the wind and rain for a series of busses that take me away from my house then eventually back to it so, often, this column can be quite wordy, but thanks to your question and the 22-Fillmore being less than a block away, I’m going to wrap up early and just go with “no”.… [Read more]
The rhetoric that is coming out of Washington DC is so loud that the Republicans in House of Representatives and Senate cannot hear the American people. It seems there is nothing more important than stopping President Barack Obama from accomplishing anything. This, of course, comes at a time in American history when ideology is more important than jobs, unnecessary gun deaths and poverty, all of which affect the American economy.… [Read more]
The continuing Benghazi debacle on Capitol Hill has all the marks of a Cecil B. DeMille Hollywood blockbuster. Starring the Marx Brothers.
“Impeachment,” hinted Sen. James “Lousy Okie Pilot” Inhofe (R-Okla.) as he made another pass at Runway ‘X’ and as construction workers scurried to safety. Inhofe is still mad at the Federal Aviation Administration for questioning his airmanship skills.… [Read more]
After this week’s congressional election between Mark Sanford and Elizabeth Colbert-Busch it is hard to think of the Republican Party standing for anything. The Grand Old Party of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Eisenhower has fallen to new lows in the election of often disgraced Mark Sanford, but it is the South, and politics below the Mason Dixon line is far from mainstream in any sense of the word.… [Read more]
So, just who is this Tea Party-approved Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), anyhow? When we first saw his picture, we thought we were looking at Joe McCarthy.… [Read more]
How many times must the GOP and its laughable public relations firm, Fox News, be wrong before they realise that it’s a good idea to remain silent?
When an announcement came from the office of the Israeli President, Shimon Peres, on Monday that President Obama will receive the Presidential Medal of Distinction – the first time ever that Israel has given this honour to a sitting US president – I wondered just what will it take?… [Read more]
In the months following the disastrous November elections, the Republican Party has engaged in a great deal of public debate and internally directed criticism in an effort to identify what went wrong and how to redirect party efforts so that they may regain the initiative. A schism between the Tea Party and the establishment wing of the GOP, always hovering just beneath the surface, erupted into a near civil war, with intra-party conflict peaking during the Fiscal Cliff crisis.… [Read more]
Until we read Brian Tashman’s recent article at Right Wing Watch about Phyllis Schlafly’s latest outrage — a condemnation of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta over his recent ruling which will permit women in combat – we weren’t even certain that this overblown, walking contradiction is still alive!… [Read more]
In a nation of immigrants, since the first landed on Plymouth Rock, each wave of new wannabe Americans were all too keen to slam the door behind them. The early natives probably weren’t happy with our forefathers trying to swindle and exterminate them from their land. The early immigrants came waving their bibles; these days, if your name is Jesus, they want to see your Green Card hoping to deport you.… [Read more]
To threaten the life of The President of the United States is a federal offense. To do so would be considered treasonous only in extreme cases but, at the very least, it’s a Class D Felony. And Michael O’Neal — the current Speaker of the Kansas State House of Representatives — has threatened President Obama’s life – not in deed but in word.… [Read more]
It’s probably a good thing the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus doesn’t employ one John Boehner of Cincinnati as a lion tamer. In a day when our children’s safe learning environment is trumped by somebody’s archaic Eighteenth century delusion of “firearms freedom,” our Speaker of the House again gets ineptly lashed by his own whip instead of convincing an unruly pride of big-toothed felines.… [Read more]
“I’m shocked! Shocked, shocked to find there is gambling going on in here.” – Claude Rains, Casablanca, 1942.
I’m still in shock, and in politics I lost my virginity more than a few decades ago (along with the “other” one.) Congress working a Federal holiday. House Speaker John Boehner (R) must have had to pull back from the bar early in tears on that Amateur Night Monday to greet the challenge of herding House cats and have a clear eye to look out for Überconservative tea drunks with steely knives from Solingen.… [Read more]
“We’ll always have Paris.” – Humphrey Bogart, Casablanca, 1942
It’s New Year’s Day, and we all noted that Congress managed to do nothing on New Year’s Eve. At least they are being consistent. What’s the objective? Single-digit public approval? As in a beach limbo, “How low can you go?”
There’s a standing tradition for columnists to record, and often lampoon, a “year in review” piece.… [Read more]
In a Friday morning of “press conferences” (sans press questions), House Speaker John Boehner shot himself in the foot. Bullseye!
As for the inept amateur standup comedy act called John Boehner, he appeared to try to explain why his inadequate “Plan B[umbling]” flopped in his own caucus. Our Cat Herder from Cincinnati narrowly survived being made to walk the plank Thursday night after failing to sell his scheme to unruly, tea drunk, über-conservative Republican cast members of Mutiny on the Top 1% Bounty. … [Read more]
“I don’t know of anyone who needs a 30-round magazine to go hunting.” - Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)
I do. Remember Sarah Palin’s inept caribou hunt on cable TV? I’m certain that if “Mama Grizzly” was being charged by a real, live, furry, upscale Sub-Zero megabuck gourmet refrigerator-sized bear, Snowbilly Grifter Palin would be more preoccupied soaking her Tena Twist embarrassing leak panty liner than playing a crossdressing Rambo with her Bushmaster 5.56mm Accessorizing Barbie assault rifle. … [Read more]
As a writer I love words and language. I like the force of words, how they echo in the mind long after they’ve registered. I never take for granted how powerful words can be, so when people pervert language to delude and mislead, I know stupid things can happen.
There is one long trail of stupid running behind Republican pollster Frank Luntz, aptly described as the godfather of the conservative spin machine.… [Read more]
John Boehner is no longer orange but is now oh, so blue. As you probably know, Mr. Boehner is the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and the legislative body he leads is the only one empowered by The Constitution to initiate bills to raise revenue. Mr. Boehner is blue because his fervent hope that President Obama would have been defeated in his bid for a second term has been dashed.… [Read more]
Political strategists come and go like football coaches, sliding into obscurity when their team loses, but this guy? Karl Rove? He’s been doing this since the 1970s! In all that time, he’s invented more dirty tricks than Nixon! Hell — he practically coined the phrase, “that’s our story and we’re sticking to it.”… [Read more]
“This evil organization will not tolerate failure!” ~ Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery
As a political columnist, I perversely relish morning-after losing side recriminations. As the old ABC Wide World of Sports intro script went: “And the agony of defeat,” whilst showing a clip of why sane people don’t generally tend to take up ski jumping.… [Read more]
