Some people can make these things up

NOTES FROM THE RIGHT WING  BOTTOM  FEEDERS:

Gayle Trotter, the conservative Washington D.C. lawyer who testified against stronger gun controls at yesterday's Senate hearing, asserted that she merely wanted to defend women against  attacks by intruders and crazed  husbands, even, we assume, if that meant keeping an assault weapon and a few hand grenades under  her pillow.

With the clock ticking on her 15 minutes of fame - and, doubtless  more business from howitzer owners  for her law firm - the soon-to-be whatshername recounted the plight of a distressed woman who was threatened by guys who broke into her house  as she  remained defenseless with a limited supply of bullets. As Lawrence O'Donnell  demonstrated in an interview with whatshername, she couldn't produce a shred of evidence that her scary story was true.  None of it. Pure fantasy.

And now we learn from Talking Points Memo that whatshername has a website called Independent Women's Forum  in which she argued against the Violence Against Women Act. She wrote on her website  that among other things, VAWA  "has the potential to encourage immigration fraud [!],   false allegations of abuse and denial of a rebuttal by the accused spouse..."

OK,  Gayle.  Your 15 minutes are up.

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Next: The past week brought us the three Republican musketeers who were the only senators to vote against the nomination of John Kerry as secretary of state.  According to Ted Cruz, one of the two Texans to oppose the decorated Vietnam veteran, there are doubts about Kerry's commitment to the military that would reveal  U.S. weakness to our opponents.  But we do wonder why Cruz, who was never in the service,  doesn't prove his own commitment by joining the forces in Afghanistan or at least  the Alamo.

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Oh, c'mon.  The Plain Dealer reports  that Republican State Rep.  Mike Dovilla  of Berea thinks there is interest in the legislature to revive the photo ID cause before  the 2014 mid-term election.    "We think there is broad support in the public," Dovilla told the PD.    Three problems with that:  Republicans  aren't thinking very much these days,  (2) the idea failed to gain support in 2011 even though it kept the lawmakers off the streets for many long hours debating it;  (3) despite the efforts by Secretary of State Jon Husted to purify the voters with various restrictions, there wasn't any proof in 2012 of the voter fraud that the GOP preaches from high on the mount.




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Jon Kyl Returns as a GOP Ill-Humor Man

Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl  continues to operate in a parallel universe when he tries to explain complex issues.  For example, Talking Points Memo reports that Kyl  blames President Obama for President Bush's failure to enact the White House's immigration reform bill in 2007.  One problem: As senator, Obama voted for the bill; Kyl  joined the filibuster against it.

Why do I get worked up about his nonsense?   Well,  I must remind myself that Kyl was the pathetic guy  who accused Planned Parenthood of devoting more than 90 pct.. of its activities  to abortions.   When the number splattered in his face (3 pct. is  more like it), a  Kyl spokseman said the senator's  comment was"not intended to be a factual statement".


Bulletin; 
Kyl is now suggesting that Obama should be impeached for his new immigration policy.    How can such a beautiful  state be corrupted by screwies like Kyl and, for that matter, Gov. Jan Brewer? And for that matter, Sheriff Joe Arpaio. And...that's more than  enough already. .

Romney hits Obama with the F-letter

AS A COLLEGE student, I filled a 24- page booklet for an ancient history essay exam, much of it in frantic gibberish. When the professor, a tall reserved lecturer, returned my work I was shocked to see that he had given it an F with no further assessment. I rushed into his office and demanded: "Wasn't there enough in all of those handwritten pages to merit a D?"

"Oh, there might have been," he said. "I stopped reading it after the third or fourth page. You were writing everything you know and hoping that the right answer was in there somewhere. That told me you were fishing and didn't know the answer."

Hurrumph...! End of discussion.

Which leads me to Mitt Romney, whom many people say is the Hollywood version of a president although he doesn't come close to resembling Michael Douglas, do you think? For one thing, Mitt's mechanics are bad, as when he begins to tell us everything he knows about everything. His head snaps to a fixed position, as his starched open collar white shirt remains motionless. For all of his good looks and studied body language, he's simply not there yet. But it's really what he says that casts him in a B movie. The dialogue is astonishingly weak.

Today, for example, appearing on the Today show, he gave President Obama an F. On everything. National security, foreign policy, leadership. He might have even accused Obama of being obese. I didn't get that far into the Talking Points Memo account. Somebody should mention to him that even though he is better looking than everyone else in the field, he will have to start making a little sense one of these days. Otherwise he will emerge as a handsome political hack to please all of those right-wing folks in Iowa. After that, he will discover that looks aren't everything.

Hubris, thy name is Mitch McConnell

(Twelfth of a series)

THAT GUY in the photo with thumbs-up glee is Sen.. Mitch McConnell of Ken-turkey. As the Senate minority leader, he is soooo proud that his GOP clan has just defeated a tax cut for the middle class. It's an historic moment for hypocritical Republicans who have built a constituency from promoting tax cuts. You'll be hearing a lot of such nonsense from wealthy political hacks like McConnell & Co. for at least two more years, so this photo will serve nicely as the party's brand. Clip and save. (Thanks to Talking Points Memo for posting this classic picture. )

Of traitors, medical bankruptcies & enemies lists

THE GARBAGE TRUCK is out on the curb so I want to gather up a few items before it pulls away:

The bus tour of a right-wing Iraq/Afghanistan coalition of veterans has produced this comment from a supporter of the Operation Free tour, Pennsylvania Republican State Sen. Daryl Metcaife, with dire warnings about those of us who support climate change legislation:

"As a veteran, I believe that any veteran lending their name, to promote the leftist propaganda of global warming and climate change, in an effort to control more of the wealth created in our economy, through cap and tax type policies, all in the name of national secruity, is a traitor to the oath he or she took to defend the Constitution of our great nation. Remember Benedict Arnold before giving credibility to a veteran who uses their service as a means to promote a leftist agenda. Drill Baby Drill!!!"

According to Think Progress, which gave us that gem from Metcaife, he served in the army from 1980 to 1984. (Weren't we Iraq's and Afghanistan's friend at the time?) Metcaife, the blog reported, also refused to support Domestic Violence Awareness Month in Pennsylvania because "the resolution referenced domestic abuse suffered by men, which Metcaife interpreted as part of a 'homosexual agenda." It figures.

For all of this nonsense (drumroll), Metcaife is the winner of today's Grumpy Abe Linguistic Lunacy (GALL) Award.

And what about Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Diana Furchgott-Roth , who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on medical debt and bankruptcy reform. She insisted that medical debt bankruptcies would soar under reforms. Buy when Sen. Al Franken asked her how many such bankruptcies have occurred in countries like Switzerland and France, which have universal health care, she said she didn't know but would get the figure for him.

He advised her that she needn't bother because the number was zero. The same for Germany, he said. When she responded that he was obviously referencing zeros, he responded:

"Well, you're very good. Very fast. The point is I think we need to go in that direction, not the opposite direction. Thank you. " (And thanks again to Think Progress, which is having a field day with its ear to the dumb comments on the Hill) "

Finally, from Talking Points Memo we hear: Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander is advising President Obama not to create an enemies list by feuding with Fox News and U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He said it would be comparable to the Nixon Administration.

Wow! Now they are comparing Obama to Nixon. Call the President a traitor, a socialist, a Nazi and all of those nasty other things, but to label him as Nixon is too much. Alexander may now be headed to the top of the enemies list.

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Anti-health reform mobs: Nullification next?

THE WORD FROM OTHERS:

The New York Review of Books has an essay by Michael Tomasky, the editor of Democracy: a Journal of Ideas, that has a sobering look at the growing clout of the Tea Party mentality that is partly fueled by racism. Saying that it's unlikely that the reaction would be as hatefully demonstrated if the Democrats had elected a white president. He writes:

"We can't measure this, and I'm not sure what good it would do us to know even if we could. What we do know is that this movement is backed by corporate millions, powerful media organizations, such as Fox News, and votes in Congress, and that it will be around for some time, advancing new scandals and lies. The next phase in all this, if health care passes, might well be 'nullification' lawsuits or resolutions in states that don't want to have to implement Obama's reform."

Tomasky notes that South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty have "intimated" that nullification would be the best course of action. (Sounds to me like the kind of stuff that was going around in South Carolina in the years leading up to the Civil War.)

THE BONUS ONUS remains very much alive, no matter where you look today. Even the Tribune Company, the mega-media owner of the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and TV stations, is arguing in bankruptcy court that its $66 billion in bonuses were important to

"incentivize"(God, how I hate the word!) its management. David Carr takes up this silliness in his The Media Equation column in the New York Times.

"Let's say that a group of corporate executives uses scads of debt to take over a struggling company, sells off some profitable assets, lays off thousands of employees while achieving miserable results. And then less than a year after saddling the company with $8 billion in debt, they opt for bankruptcy.

"You'd expect them to walk the plank, or at the least, spend a good stretch of time in the naughty corner. but you wouldn't expect the top 700 managers to collect $86 million in bonuses. But that's just what might happen at the Tribune Co.

(By the way the guy defending incentivization (!) is the Tribune Co.'s chief financial officer, Chandler Bigelow III. That's not the sort of name that would head a Laborers Union.)

Thanks to Talking Points Memo for alerting us to the judicial setback for the wacky California dentist/lawyer Orly Taitz, who has been one of the national ringleaders in challenging President Obama's birthplace. Taitz is a birther who has been challenging Obama's legitimacy wherever she could park her lawsuits. But U.S. District Judge Clay Land (Georgia Middle District) decided he had had enough of her nonsense and fined her $20,000 for misconduct. Should you question the logic behind the fine, here is, in part what he wrote:

When a lawyer files complaints and motions without a reasonable basis for believing that they are supported by existing law or a modification or extension of existing law, that lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law. When a lawyer uses the courts as a platform for a political agenda disconnected from any legitimate legal cause of action, that lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law. When a lawyer personally attacks opposing parties and disrespects the integrity of the judiciary, that lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law. When a lawyer recklessly accuses a judge of violating the Judicial Code of Conduct with no supporting evidence beyond her dissatisfaction with the judge's rulings, that lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law. When a lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law, that lawyer ceases to advance her cause or the ends of justice.