Bless you, Mitt Romney. Please keep doing conference calls with your donors. An annual reunion isn't nearly enough, I think to stay really connected you should do conference calls once a week. And please, get out there on the speaking circuit, the country needs to hear your voice. A lot. When it comes to the 2016 Presidential race, I don’t care whether you endorse someone in the primary fight, but it would be so great for you to go out and campaign for the nominee. Maybe you and George W. Bush could hit the road together, doing a barnstorming bus tour through the swing states. If we’re really lucky, the nominee will be Paul Ryan.

I want to say 2 things about the whole Social Darwinist, “makers and takers”, Ayn Rand-style selfishness is a virtue/generosity weakens society, 47% of you (and especially you blacks and Hispanics and young women who want your contraceptives) are dependent leeches philosophy. The first is that it is clear that the Republicans really believe it. Whenever they don’t think anyone except their wealthy donors are paying attention, they lay it all out there, are very open about it. This is their core philosophy, their core values that we’re talking about here.

The second point is that the American people fundamentally reject those values. The nadir of Romney’s bid for the Presidency, the absolute low point when after things had been close so long it looked like we might be headed for an Obama blowout victory, was in the days after the release of the 47% video. Had Obama pressed that point in the first debate, we might have even had that blowout. The only reason Romney came as close as he did was his etch-a-sketch move to the middle, when he explicitly rejected the 47% values.

It’s not just African-Americans and Hispanics and young people who reject those ideas either. You might have noticed the swing states of Iowa and NH who voted for Obama. IA, PA, and FL- 3 states with the oldest populations in the country- went for the President. Mostly white Minnesota, which came surprisingly close to going for Bush in 2004 and where Romney spent money advertising went easily for Obama. Mostly white Maine, which has been a swing state in many past Presidential elections, wasn’t even close this year, including the more rural and Republican congressional district. This isn’t just demographics, folks: most Americans reject these kinds of ideas and values. If Romney had run openly on them, he would have been destroyed. By pretending to reject them he made the election closer, but he couldn’t hide his values entirely because his and Ryan’s budget reek of those kind of Ayn Randian values.

Central to the Republican defeat, in fact, was the tax and budget debate. Having embraced the Ryan budget, and then picked the author of it to be his running mate, they had to try and defend it but failed miserably. It was an incredibly extreme document from start to finish, weaning all those dependent seniors, children, veterans, disabled, and poor off of the public “teat” so that they wouldn’t be victims and dependent on government, and using all the money (literally all of it cut from those programs) to give massive new tax breaks to the wealthy on top of what they already have. And the more people learned about that budget, and the values behind it, the more they disliked it.

Having that values and budget issue out there hurt Republican Senate candidates badly as well. Charismatic, popular, moderate voting and sounding Scott Brown lost to Elizabeth Warren in part because of sticking to the Republican philosophy of not taxing the wealthy. The popular former Governor of Wisconsin lost to Tammy Baldwin in part because of having to defend that philosophy. House members in conservative Western states Montana and South Dakota were dragged down in their Senate races by the Ryan budget albatross hanging around their necks.

The American people in this election heard the generosity-breeds-dependency philosophy, and they heard Barack Obama and Elizabeth Warren and other Democrats say that we are all in this together, that we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, that we need to lift each other up. We won, convincingly, in spite of a tough economy and all the wealthy donor money spent us against.

So, Mitt- and Paul Ryan too!- stay out there in the debate, please. Keep giving speeches, keep doing conference calls, write some op-eds. Tell us some more about all the gifts Barack Obama is giving us undeserving types. Never stop speaking out, brothers Mitt and Paul. And Democrats will keep winning elections, as long as they fight for all those people Mitt and Paul like to mock.

Is this the start of something truly awful?

Authorities say a Phoenix man was arrested Thursday for the fatal shooting of his neighbor.

Phoenix Police Department spokesman Tommy Thompson said 50-year-old Gary Thomas Kelley was booked into the Maricopa County Jail on Thursday night and was charged with one count of murder and two counts of aggravated assault.

Officers were called to the scene of a shooting near 7th and Southern avenues around 1 p.m. and found 44-year-old Juan Varela wounded. He was transported to a local hospital, where he died.

According to Thompson, Kelley and Varela lived two houses apart for a number of years but have gotten into altercations during the past several years.

They reportedly quarreled again Thursday, during which Kelley used racial slurs towards Varela. A neighbor tells ABC15 he heard a man yelling racial slurs and asking the victim if he wanted to die. As the argument went on, Varela's brother Antonio walked over to the men and also exchanged words with Kelley.

Thompson said Juan Varela tried kicking Kelley, at which point he pulled out a gun and shot the victim on the sidewalk. Officers arrested Kelley at his home, where it appeared he had been drinking and was intoxicated.

Thompson said a search of the house turned up a gun believed to have been used in the fatal shooting.

Neighbors tell ABC15 they fear the shooting may have been the result of the debate over Arizona's new illegal immigration bill. A niece of the victim told ABC15 her uncle was born and raised in the U.S.

This might not be about anything related to SB 1070, but why would the neighbors make up the immigration law angle?

Until we get more information we won't speculate, but the fact that people could be blaming murder on the xenophobic immigration bill crafted by the admitted voter caging jerk Kris Kobach is just the beginning.

... Kris Kobach, chairman of the Kansas GOP, sent out a self-congratulatory litany of accomplishments. Among them was one particularly eye-catching item:

"To date, the Kansas GOP has identified and caged more voters in the last 11 months than the previous two years!" [...]

Not exactly a surprise, is it? This administration has set new records for greed and self-interest:

WASHINGTON — Shortly after leaving his job as U.S. energy secretary in early 2005, Spencer Abraham took a $60,000-a-year post as a director of Occidental Petroleum, which soon became the first firm in 20 years to ship oil to the U.S. from Libya.

Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge accepted director's fees and consulting work from several firms seeking contracts with his old agency.

Tommy Thompson, the former secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, has consulted, lobbied or worked as an employee for 42 companies since leaving office in January 2005.

All told, 17 of 24 former Bush Cabinet members have taken positions with at least 119 companies, including 65 firms that lobby the government and 40 that lobby the agencies they headed, a liberal-leaning watchdog group said in a report Monday.

Melanie Sloan, the executive director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said that the group's six-month investigation "has shown that most of these former Bush administration officials have cannily leveraged their time spent in the public sector'' and "made a mint on the backs of American taxpayers."

"It may be legal, but it is certainly not honorable," she said.

With the convicted-by-a-jury-of-his-peers Scooter Libby sentenced to 30 months in prison today, we knew that the question of a pardon would come up in tonight's GOP debate. Some of the candidates blew it off, but Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and Sam Brownback supported a pardon and completely misrepresented the facts of the case, stating that there was no underlying crime in the outing of Valerie Plame. Obviously, they got Victoria Toensing's talking points before the debate.

It's now proven that Libby's lies and obstruction hindered Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation making it impossible to find the truth behind the leak. Oh, and Tommy Thompson managed to sneak in a "Clinton did it" moment as well...

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AP Via Yahoo:

Note to Sen. Sam Brownback: In Packerland, it's not cool to diss Brett Favre.

The GOP presidential hopeful drew boos and groans Friday at the Wisconsin Republican Party convention when he used a football analogy to talk about the need to focus on families.

"This is fundamental blocking and tackling," he said. "This is your line in football. If you don't have a line, how many passes can Peyton Manning complete? Greatest quarterback, maybe, in NFL history."

Oops, wrong team to mention in Wisconsin, once described by Gov. Tommy Thompson as the place "where eagles soar, Harleys roar and Packers score."

Realizing what he had said, the Kansas Republican slumped at the podium and put his head in his hands.

"I'm not sure how I recover from this," Brownback said. "My point is we've got to rebuild the family. I'll get off this." Read more...

Ouch. That's gonna leave a mark....

Atrios:

WASHINGTON - Former Wisconsin governor and Republican presidential hopeful Tommy Thompson told Jewish activists Monday that making money is "part of the Jewish tradition," and something that he applauded.

Speaking to an audience at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington D.C., Thompson said that, "I'm in the private sector and for the first time in my life I'm earning money. You know that's sort of part of the Jewish tradition and I do not find anything wrong with that."

Thompson later apologized for the comments that had caused a stir in the audience, saying that he had meant it as a compliment, and had only wanted to highlight the "accomplishments" of the Jewish religion.

I don't know if you remember Reggie White's speech to the Wisconsin Legislature:

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White said the United States has gotten away from God, in part by allowing homosexuality to "run rampant."

HOMOSEXUALITY IS a sin, and the plight of gays and lesbians should not be compared to that of blacks, White told lawmakers.

Continue reading »

Yahoo News :

Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, who served as Health and Human Services Secretary in President Bush's first term, said Wednesday he intends to form a committee to explore a possible run for the White House in 2008.

[..]Thompson, who will turn 65 on Sunday, spent nearly four decades in politics and government, including 14 years as governor. He resigned as HHS secretary in December 2004 shortly after Bush won a second term. His tenure at HHS was marked by anthrax attacks, a flu vaccine shortage and passage of the Medicare prescription law. Read on...

There's a record of achievement to run on.

We're Number 24! Hit and Run

Happy World Press Freedom Day! To celebrate, take a gander at Freedom House's annual rankings [PDF] of press freedom around the globe. The U.S. has slipped a few notches down the chart to #24, tied with the recently totalitarian Latvia and Estonia, the liberty-lovin' Barbados, and some "countries" called Dominica and Canada. Explains the Freedom House press release:

While the United States remained one of the strongest performers in the survey, its numerical score declined due to a number of legal cases in which prosecutors sought to compel journalists to reveal sources or turn over notes or other material they had gathered in the course of investigations. Additionally, doubts concerning official influence over media content emerged with the disclosures that several political commentators received grants from federal agencies, and that the Bush administration had significantly increased the practice of distributing government-produced news segments.
"Even in established democracies, press freedom should not be taken for granted," said Freedom House Executive Director Jennifer Windsor. "It must be defended and nurtured."

Former Secretary of Health and Human Resources Tommy Thompson said today that the flu vaccine shortage thus demonstrated the kind of "careful, long-range planning" that the Bush Administration brings to bear on difficult problems. "One or two more vaccine shortages, and we'll be able to put away that so-called lockbox," Thompson boasted.

This

"Even in established democracies, press freedom should not be taken for granted," said Freedom House Executive Director Jennifer Windsor. "It must be defended and nurtured."

Bill Maher on Jeff Gannon

Video

HBO's Real Time with Bill Maherand his guests Lesley Stahl Robin Williams, Sen. Joe Biden, and former HHS Sec. Tommy Thompson

You knew Bill was going to be all over this story. Leslie Stahl actively particiated as well.

anyone linking to the video please use http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/02/19.html#a1644

via Wonkette :Network Analysis: Covering Jeff Gannon

Henry the Intern takes a wander through the news network transcripts and comes back with the number of segments and mentions of Jeff Gannon in the last month:

CNN: 18
MSNBC/NBC: 9
FNC/FOX: 2
PBS: 1
ABC: 0
CBS: 0