Video: Crazy Allen West Weasels on His ‘Members of the Communist Party’ in Congress Remark

Posted on April 21, 2012 by admin

I used to think crapshit crazy Rep. Allen West (R-Ozone) was a sincere Teabagger when he made his laughably dumb accusations against political opponents. The former US Army Lt. Colonel, who was relieved of his command, fined $5,000, and retired from the service for staging a mock execution in Iraq, blatantly violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice, obviously had a record of profound nutballery which fit right in with the screwy Tea Party ethos. But now I think he’s a just a sly sociopath, and he’s using his national media play to advance his ego and ambition. This latest nonsense of calling members of the Democratic Progressive Caucus Communists was, I think, calculated — I wouldn’t be surprised if he planted the question. I think that because he fired off a fundraising letter immediately after making the ‘Commie’ remark, hilariously attacking the ‘liberal’ media that allows him airtime for his creepy crapola. The reality is that West is going to have a hard time getting re-elected from Florida’s 22nd Congressional District — he hasn’t done a whole lot for the people there, being too busy promoting himself as a national figure by making outrageous remarks to do his job, and the low-cash national GOP is loath to throw much money into his race — he’s too far gone even for them. That means West needs piles of money to have a chance at re-election. Expect more of these kinds of attention-getting smears in the future, and expect him to lose the election in 2012 unless a Big Money contributor comes forth to underwrite his bid with negative ‘Citizens United’ ads against his opponent.

“I believe there’s about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party that are members of the Communist Party.”
— Rep. Allen West on April 10, 2012, as quoted by Think Progress.

“There is a very thin line between communism, progressivism, Marxism, Socialism… It’s about nationalizing production, it’s about creating and expanding the welfare state, it’s about this idea of social and economic justice… it is also about the creation of a secular state.”
— Rep. Allen West, weaseling on his “there are 78 to 81 … members of the Communist Party’ in Congress remark, as quoted by Eric W. Dolan in “Rep. Allen West: Thin line between communism and progressivism,” The Raw Story, April 17, 2012.

[Note: Someone should tell West we ARE a secular state and were founded as one. It’s in the Constitution that West doesn’t have time to read, likely because he’s too busy promoting himself and ignoring his duties as a congressman]

The original accusation by West on video:

The historically inaccurate (of course) weasel tries to ‘walk it back’ without apologizing:

[Note: Among other many other contradictions in this truckload of fringe-right malarkey, apparently West has never heard of the anti-Communist Palmer Raids that started under the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. Remember, kids, never get your history from a sociopathic right-winger.]

Of course, like fellow sociopath Joe McCarthy, West refuses to name names on CNN:

Florida Democrats respond to West’s ludicrous bullshit:

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Today’s Music: The Hawks (with Levon Helm), “Further On Up the Road” (1961)

Posted on April 21, 2012 by admin

R.I.P., Levon. Here he is on vocals and drums with his first recorded group, “The Hawks.”


H/T to Mat Wilson.

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Three Reasons Why Romney Will Lose

Posted on April 20, 2012 by admin

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Yet Another ‘Vacant’ Romney Flub

Posted on April 20, 2012 by admin

The Romney campaign’s like a magnet to dumb flubs. Speaking at a shuttered Ohio factory with a banner behind him that read, “Obama Isn’t Working,” Romney once again lobbed one far short of the basket. Intended to show that Obama’s policies led to the closing of the factory, the truth came out that the plant actually failed under the Dubya debacle, so it really should have read, “Bush Didn’t Work.” (And it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if Bain Capital was ultimately behind the closing.) No doubt Mitt’s handlers figure the kind of people who would vote for their man wouldn’t care, which is their biggest problem — there aren’t enough of them win an election. These are the same staffers who set up his ‘7-11 cookie meet-and-greet’ in Pennsylvania that ended in disaster (don’t they know Mitt’s foot is never far from his mouth when dealing with small groups of voters by now?) and refuse to renounce the repulsive Ted Nugent’s endorsement, even after the NRA itself has purged him from its website. Even Mitt’s millionaire contributors can’t overcome a thousand cuts like this.

Did Romney Choose the Wrong Vacant Factory?

Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire
April 19, 2012

Mitt Romney used a shuttered drywall plant in Ohio as a backdrop for his message that President Obama has failed to create jobs, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

The only problem: The plant closed four years ago during President George W. Bush’s administration.

Copyright 2012 Taegan Goddard.

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Today’s Music: Les Elgart Orchestra, “Bandstand Boogie” (the “American Bandstand” Theme Song)

Posted on April 20, 2012 by admin

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The Death of Dick Clark

Posted on April 20, 2012 by admin

“American Bandstand” host (1956 to 1987) and all-around show biz legend Dick Clark passed on to that great Sugar Shack in the Sky two days ago from a heart attack, according to the AP. He was 82 and his transition out of this existence reminded me of an anecdote my brother once told me. Seems he was on business flight about thirty years ago and he sat down next to a well-dressed man reading a magazine who looked vaguely familiar. After a while, they exchanged small talk and he realized he was talking to Dick Clark. Knowing that the worst thing you can do to a celebrity is act like a fan when they’re trapped in the airplane seat next to you, he merely confirmed the man was ‘the’ Dick Clark by asking him, and then returned to inconsequential chit-chat. When the jet landed, my brother got out of his seat and entered the aisle, turning around to shake Clark’s hand before deplaning. That’s when he received a mild jolt, as he was looking down at the top of Dick Clark’s head. My brother is of average height and he felt like Wilt Chamberlain next to Mr. Rockin’ New Year’s Eve, who might have been barely 5’ 5” in his bare feet. He leaned down to shake hands with Clark, and that’s the end of the story, but it did get me to thinking — look at the videos below: Dick Clark must have had some mighty risers in his shoes. That said, R.I.P. to the ‘World’s Oldest Teenager’ and the man who helped integrate the rock music business by bringing black performers on his show in the ’50s instead of featuring white cover artists as most DJs of time did.

Interviewing Sam Cooke in 1964:

Interviewing The Beach Boys in 1964:

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And the Death of Facts

Posted on April 20, 2012 by admin

One of the funniest pieces I’ve read in a while –funny because it’s sadly true.

Facts, 360 B.C.-A.D. 2012

In memoriam: After years of health problems, Facts has finally died.

By Rex W. Huppke
Chicago Tribune reporter
April 19, 2012

A quick review of the long and illustrious career of Facts reveals some of the world’s most cherished absolutes: Gravity makes things fall down; 2 + 2 = 4; the sky is blue.

But for many, Facts’ most memorable moments came in simple day-to-day realities, from a child’s certainty of its mother’s love to the comforting knowledge that a favorite television show would start promptly at 8 p.m.

Over the centuries, Facts became such a prevalent part of most people’s lives that Irish philosopher Edmund Burke once said: “Facts are to the mind what food is to the body.”

To the shock of most sentient beings, Facts died Wednesday, April 18, after a long battle for relevancy with the 24-hour news cycle, blogs and the Internet. Though few expected Facts to pull out of its years-long downward spiral, the official cause of death was from injuries suffered last week when Florida Republican Rep. Allen West steadfastly declared that as many as 81 of his fellow members of theU.S. House of Representatives are communists.

Facts held on for several days after that assault — brought on without a scrap of evidence or reason — before expiring peacefully at its home in a high school physics book. Facts was 2,372.

“It’s very depressing,” said Mary Poovey, a professor of English at New York University and author of “A History of the Modern Fact.” “I think the thing Americans ought to miss most about facts is the lack of agreement that there are facts. This means we will never reach consensus about anything. Tax policies, presidential candidates. We’ll never agree on anything.”

Facts was born in ancient Greece, the brainchild of famed philosopher Aristotle. Poovey said that in its youth, Facts was viewed as “universal principles that everybody agrees on” or “shared assumptions.”

But in the late 16th century, English philosopher and scientist Sir Francis Bacon took Facts under his wing and began to develop a new way of thinking.

“There was a shift of the word ‘fact’ to refer to empirical observations,” Poovey said.

Facts became concrete observations based on evidence. It was growing up.

Through the 19th and 20th centuries, Facts reached adulthood as the world underwent a shift toward proving things true through the principles of physics and mathematical modeling. There was respect for scientists as arbiters of the truth, and Facts itself reached the peak of its power.

But those halcyon days would not last.

Read the rest, and the links, here.

Copyright 2012 Chicago Tribune.

Posted in 2012 Election, Conservatives, Humor, Idiots, Politics, Republicans, Teabaggers, Wingnuts | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Tweets By Twits

Posted on April 20, 2012 by admin

These exchanges make me glad I’m not part of the Twitterverse.  The incredible thing is that none of the Tweety Birds in these threads attempted to correct the original mistake, instead risibly compounding the error.  Excerpted from Buzzfeed’s “Top 10 Most Unforgivable Twitter Spelling Mistakes”:

1. Must be relatives of Mitt Romney:

2. Good idea — never take life for your Pet Rock:

3. Actually, a grade school-level review of the English language would do more good:

4. I didn’t check; are these the same ‘collage’-bound kids as above?

5. Perhaps this is why they never learned how to spel gud — too much time spent sniffing each other’s colons:

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The Band’s Levon Helm Dead at 71

Posted on April 19, 2012 by admin

RIP, Levon. Here’s a report from CNN:

Levon Helm, co-founder of The Band, dead at 71

By Todd Leopold
CNN
updated 4:23 PM EDT, Thu April 19, 2012

(CNN) — Levon Helm, the drummer, multi-instrumentalist and singer for The Band who kept the band’s heart for more than three decades, died “peacefully” Thursday afternoon, according to his record label, Vanguard Records. He was 71.

“He was surrounded by family, friends and band mates and will be remembered by all he touched as a brilliant musician and a beautiful soul,” the record label’s statement said.

A statement from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which inducted Helm in 1994, called him the backbone of The Band.

“As a member of the one of the most influential rock and roll groups, The Band, Levon Helm produced music that was as much timeless as it was timely,” it said. “In the late 1960s and early 1970s when the country was divided, The Band still projected a sense of unity and brought generations of fans together from all over the world.”

Helm had a voice unlike any other in rock music: definitively Southern, soulful and gritty, an oak-barreled whiskey that sometimes went down with a fiery kick.

Read the rest here.

Copyright 2012 CNN.

Here’s The Band playing “The Weight,” with the Staples Singers and Levon Helm singing and drumming, from the film, “The Last Waltz”:

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Today’s Quotes: Paul Ryan’s Cognitive Dissonance on Christianity and Ayn Rand

Posted on April 19, 2012 by admin

“House Budget Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) says his Catholic faith helped shape the Republican budget plan by stressing local control and concern for the poor, according to an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network released Tuesday [April 10, 2012].”
— Deacon Greg Kandra, “Paul Ryan: My Catholic Faith Helped Shape Budget Plan,” The Deacon’s Bench, April 11, 2012.

“Rep. Paul Ryan – the Republican choice to address the nation following the State of the Union and author of the Republican budget – credits Ayn Rand as the reason he got in to politics, and he requires all his staff and interns to read her books.”
— American Values Network, “Ayn Rand & GOP Budget vs. Judeo-Christian Morality”

“[Faith] is a sign of a psychological weakness … I regard it as evil to place your emotions, your desire, above the evidence of what your mind knows. That’s what you’re doing with the idea of God.”
— Ayn Rand, from an interview with Phil Donahue in the 1970s.

“Through our civic organizations, through our churches, through our charities — through all of our different groups where we interact with people as a community — that’s how we advance the common good.”
— Rep. Paul Ryan, quoted in “Christian Debate: Was Jesus For Small Government?” NPR.org, April 16, 2012.

“What I am fighting is the idea that charity is a moral duty and a primary virtue.”
— Ayn Rand, from an interview in Playboy magazine, March 1964.

“Ayn Rand more than anyone else did a fantastic job of explaining the morality of capitalism, the morality of individualism…it is the morality of what is going on right now and how it offends the morality of individuals working toward their own free will that is under attack and it is that that I think Ayn Rand would be commenting on that we need more than ever.”
— Rep. Paul Ryan

Mike Wallace: “You say you don’t like the kind of altruism by which we live. You like a certain kind of Ayn Randist selfishness.”
Ayn Rand: “ ‘Don’t like’ is too weak a word, I consider it evil.”
— From “The Mike Wallace Interview” CBS News, 1959.

“The whole damned history of the world is a story of the struggle between the selfish and the unselfish! … All the bad around us is bred by selfishness. Sometimes selfishness even gets to be a cause, an organized force, even a government. Then it’s called Fascism.”
— Garson Kanin, “Born Yesterday.”

“[Under Ayn Rand’s Objectivist philosophy]: No government except the police, courts of law, and the armed services. No regulation of anything by any government. No Medicare or Medicaid. No Social Security. No public schools. No public hospitals. No public anything, in fact. Just individuals, each looking out for himself, not asking for help or giving help to anyone.”
— Gary Weiss, “The Horrors of an Ayn Rand World: Why We Must Fight for America’s Soul,” AlterNet.org, March 26, 2012.

“I give out Atlas Shrugged as Christmas presents, and I make all my interns read it.”
— Rep. Paul Ryan. [He gives out “Atlas Shrugged” as Christmas presents? Whew, talk about cognitive dissonance.]

“Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.”
— Matthew 10:21 (KJV)

“It is immoral if it is placed above love of oneself.”
— Ayn Rand, from “The Mike Wallace Interview,” CBS News, 1959.

2012 RS Janes. www.bigfishink.com

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