Snark in Pictures ~ Holiday 2013

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Simpson's Mr. Burns Explains Fiscal Cliff

LOL - Check out the signs in front of Republican Party Headquarters, too, LOL.

Businessmen Backpeddling on Obamacare Threats

Some blabber-mouth business people in the restaurant world have been in the news threatening to raise prices, cut employee hours, and somehow weasel out of giving their workers health insurance promised to them by Obamacare. But after a backlash in the media and at the grassroots level, they are starting to eat their words.

CBS News

Papa John's founder and CEO John Schnatter wrote Tuesday that the media had it all wrong in its reporting on his comments on how the national health care law known widely as "Obamacare" will negatively impact his business.

"Many in the media reported that I said Papa John's is going to close stores and cut jobs because of Obamacare," he wrote in the Huffington Post. "I never said that. The fact is we are going to open over hundreds of stores this year and next and increase employment by over 5,000 jobs worldwide. And, we have no plans to cut team hours as a result of the Affordable Care Act."

Schnatter, who supported and fundraised for Mitt Romney in the presidential election, went on to say that while his company is still researching the impact of the law, "we will honor this law, as we do all laws, and continue to offer 100% of Papa John's corporate employees and workers in company-owned stores health insurance as we have since the company was founded in 1984."

. . . Not addressed in the post are Schnatter's reported comments on a conference call that "Our best estimate is that the Obamacare will cost 11 to 14 cents per pizza, or 15 to 20 cents per order from a corporate basis."

"If Obamacare is in fact not repealed, we will find tactics to shallow out any Obamacare costs and core strategies to pass that cost onto consumers in order to protect our shareholders best interests," he reportedly added.

Huffington Post

Don't expect to hear more about an Obamacare surcharge from Denny's franchisee John Metz.

Denny's chief executive John Miller privately reached out to Metz to express his "disappointment" with the Florida franchisee's controversial statements about Obamacare, which sparked a wave of backlash for the national restaurant chain over the past few days. Metz released a statement Monday night expressing "regret" over his statements.

"We recognize his right to speak on issues, but registered our disappointment that his comments have been interpreted as the company’s position," Miller said in an email to The Huffington Post.

Miller is rushing to put out the fire sparked by Metz's controversial proposal to charge restaurant customers a 5 percent Obamacare fee. "Customers have two choices: They can either pay it and tip 15 or 20 percent, or if they really feel so inclined, they can reduce the amount of tip they give to the server," Metz told HuffPost in an interview last week.

Some Denny's franchisees have since dealt with angry customers, calls for a boycott and declining sales. A spokeswoman for Metz said he will not conduct more interviews.

Elizabeth Warren For the Middle Class

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Elizabeth Warren is a Harvard Law Professor who is running for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts. She was especially uplifting to the Occupy Wall Street Movement last year, giving an inspirational speech that inspired millions. She was on track to be Head of Consumer Protection for the Obama Administration, but the Republicans blocked her confirmation so long that President Obama had to choose someone else.

But Warren rose again as a strong Senate candidate in Massachusetts, and just this week the Progressive Change Campaign Committee raised a million dollars for her campaign.


Complete Transcript of Elizabeth Warren's Speech Here

I grew up in an America that invested in its kids and built a strong middle class; that allowed millions of children to rise from poverty and establish secure lives. An America that created Social Security and Medicare so that seniors could live with dignity; an America in which each generation built something solid so that the next generation could build something better.

But for many years now, our middle class has been chipped, squeezed, and hammered. Talk to the construction worker I met from Malden, Massachusetts, who went nine months without finding work. Talk to the head of a manufacturing company in Franklin trying to protect jobs but worried about rising costs. Talk to the student in Worcester who worked hard to finish his college degree, and now he's drowning in debt. Their fight is my fight, and it's Barack Obama's fight too.

~~~~~~~

These folks don't resent that someone else makes more money. We're Americans. We celebrate success. We just don't want the game to be rigged. We've fought to level the playing field before. About a century ago, when corrosive greed threatened our economy and our way of life, the American people came together under the leadership of Teddy Roosevelt and other progressives, to bring our nation back from the brink.

~~~~~~~

Americans are fighters. We are tough, resourceful and creative. If we have the chance to fight on a level playing field—where everyone pays a fair share and everyone has a real shot—then no one can stop us. President Obama gets it because he's spent his life fighting for the middle class. And now he's fighting to level that playing field—because we know that the economy doesn't grow from the top down, but from the middle class out and the bottom up. That's how we create jobs and reduce the debt.

~~~~~~~

The Republican vision is clear: "I've got mine, the rest of you are on your own."

Republicans say they don't believe in government. Sure they do. They believe in government to help themselves and their powerful friends. After all, Mitt Romney's the guy who said corporations are people.

No, Governor Romney, corporations are not people. People have hearts, they have kids, they get jobs, they get sick, they cry, they dance. They live, they love, and they die. And that matters. That matters because we don't run this country for corporations, we run it for people. And that's why we need Barack Obama.

~~~~~~~

He believes in a country where everyone is held accountable. Where no one can steal your purse on Main Street or your pension on Wall Street. President Obama believes in a country where we invest in education, in roads and bridges, in science, and in the future, so we can create new opportunities, so the next kid can make it big, and the kid after that, and the kid after that. That's what president Obama believes.

~~~~~~~

I grew up in the Methodist Church and taught Sunday school. One of my favorite passages of scripture is: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Matthew 25:40. The passage teaches about God in each of us, that we are bound to each other and called to act. Not to sit, not to wait, but to act—all of us together.

Funniest Quote from the DNC First Night

"If Mitt was Santa Claus, he'd fire the reindeer and outsource the elves."
~ Ex-Governor Ted Strickland, D-Ohio


The whole speech is a barn burner ~ Enjoy!!!

Paul Ryan Gave Us a Pack of Lies

Journalists and pundits across political lines agree that Paul Ryan was lying to the American People last night.

Transcript of Paul Ryan's Speech

Even Fox News Admitted:

. . . to anyone paying the slightest bit of attention to facts, Ryan’s speech was an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech. On this measure, while it was Romney who ran the Olympics, Ryan earned the gold.

For all their smarmy kissing-up to the Romney/Ryan camp that CNN has done this week, such as the icky-sweet interview Wolf Blitzer had with the five strapping Romney sons - ack - last night even the CNN team had to admit Ryan was Lyin' - although they explained it as "motivation."

Via Talking Points Memo

Blitzer: So there he is, the republican vice presidential nominee and his beautiful family there. His mom is up there. This is exactly what this crowd of republicans here certainly republicans all across the country were hoping for. He delivered a powerful speech. Erin, a powerful speech. Although I marked at least seven or eight points I’m sure the fact checkers will have some opportunities to dispute if they want to go forward, I’m sure they will. As far as mitt romney’s campaign is concerned, paul ryan on this night delivered.

Burnett: That’s right. Certainly so. We were jotting down points. There will be issues with some of the facts. But it motivated people. He’s a man who says I care deeply about every single word. I want to do a good job. And he delivered on that. Precise, clear, and passionate.

Yes, Erin, sometimes liars are "passionate" about their lying so they can "motivate" people. Think Richard Nixon or Bernie Madoff or Ted Bundy or Dick Cheney or Jerry Sandusky.

The bottom line is, we shouldn't elect a liar and possible sociopath to be one heartbeat away from the Presidency. We need people who will tell us the truth, and not a pack of lies so they can fool us into submission with all their plans.

The Six Worst Lies in Paul Ryan's Speech
~ Think Progress

Pants on Fire: The The False Truths Paul Ryan Told During The RNC (LIST)
~ Global Grind

The Lies People Are Willing to Accept From VP Nominee Paul Ryan
~ Hyper Vocal

Paul Ryan's speech: a round-up of his most audacious untruths
~ Guardian UK



As for Ryan, it’s scary that he could lie so brazenly to the millions of people around the country who tuned in to watch the Republican National Convention. But what’s scarier? That quite a few of those millions will have hung on to and believed every word he said.
~ Tracy Bloom on Truth Dig

The sanctimonious V.P. nominee seems to have forgotten the Fourth Commandment: “Thou shalt not lie.” Ryan believes he can say anything and get away with it.
~ Joan Walsh on Salon

But really, the proper response to a speech like [Paul Ryan’s] isn’t to carefully analyze the logic, or to find instances of hypocrisy; it’s to call the speaker out for telling flat-out lies to the American people. Paul Ryan has had what I’ve long thought was an undeserved good reputation among many in the press and in Washington. It shouldn’t survive tonight’s speech.
~ Jonathan Bernstein in Washington Post

Ryan talked about moral creed, but his budget slashes programs aimed at protecting those that he said we have an obligation to protect. If that is the Romney/Ryan American dream, then voters -- young, old, middle class, African-American, Latinos and women -- would do well to say thanks, but we'll keep our hope and change even if it takes four more years to get there.
~ CNN

Ryan actually pushed the envelope, peddling new fantasies, like the spin that says: “Obamacare comes to more than 2,000 pages of rules, mandates, taxes, fees, and fines that have no place in a free country."
This will come to news as news to Britain, Canada, Germany and other American allies that somehow keep the light of liberty shining even as they guarantee all citizens access to quality healthcare.
~ John Nichols on The Nation

So the Democrats have to raise their game. They’ve never had to encounter this kind of buttery demagoguery before. Their campaign is going to have to be almost as much against Ryan as against Romney. (Does anyone think Romney’s speech is going to be more effective to the intended audience? I’d be awfully surprised if it is.) They have to rebut his lies, and they have to do it without sounding bitter or afraid or superior or haughty. That’s not easy to do. But it’s the challenge of this campaign. If they can’t win the Ryan war, they’re done.
~ Michael Tomasky on Daily Beast

But here's the thing: Most of the millions of people who watched the speech on television tonight do not read fact-checks or obsessively consume news 15 hours a day, and will never know how much Ryan's case against Obama relied on lies and deception. Ryan's pants are on fire, but all America saw was a barn-burner.
~ Dan Amira on New York Magazine

Obama Ad Tackles Romney's Offshore Accounts

This new ad is awesome! How many ordinary Americans know someone with offshore accounts? I would wager about One Percent of us do. ;) And in case you aren't familiar with the Cayman Islands, I've thrown in a video about them. "Service is excellent."

Economic News: Major Banks Downgraded as Stocks Fall

There is no good economic news. The only bright side is that people were too focused on the Supreme Court and the Sandusky Trial to let this bother them. *sigh* That is a sad state of affairs.
For the preoccupied, this is how it all unfolded over the past few days: Ben Bernanke, Head of the Federal Reserve, held a press conference on Wednesday in which he basically said our economy is going sideways and he's not going to do too much about it except keep the interest rates near zero. The Stock Market reacted today by going down . . . down . . . down. Then to top that off, Moodys announced late in the day that they were downgrading nearly every major bank In THE WORLD.

That can't be good.

About Bernanke, from Wall Street Journal:

During his press conference Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said monetary policy had been helping the general public. In particular, borrowers are benefiting from extremely low interest rates.
. . . Policy makers hope cheap borrowing will spur businesses and consumers to finance big purchases to boost demand.
What tends to be glossed over is the flip side to the Fed’s zero-rate strategy: Savers are getting whacked. And while some portion of interest earned is left to accumulate in savings account, any loss of income is a drag on consumer spending and consumers’ sense of financial well-being.

Bernanke mainly said that the Fed would act more aggresively if things got worse, implying that the economy will certainly get worse. That was not the optimistic message that markets wanted to hear, according to Nasdaq:

"Growth in employment has slowed in recent months," the Fed said in its policy statement, adding that "household spending appears to be growing at a somewhat slower pace than earlier in the year" and that financial strains from overseas posed "significant downside risks to the economic outlook."
Investors were initially disappointed the Fed didn't take more aggressive action Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the day down 12.94 points, or 0.1%, to 12824.39, after at one point dropping by nearly 100 points.

Bloomberg: Stocks Tumble Due to Global Slowdown

U.S. stocks tumbled, while commodities entered a bear market, after signals of a global slowdown in manufacturing added to disappointing housing and labor market data at the world’s largest economy.
Stocks from Hong Kong to London and Sao Paulo slumped on concern about a global slowdown. Data showed euro-area manufacturing shrank at the fastest pace in three years and a Chinese output gauge indicated contraction. More Americans than forecast filed claims for jobless benefits, manufacturing in the Philadelphia region shrank and sales of existing homes fell.
The reports came out a day after the Federal Reserve lowered its growth and employment estimates while signaling it may add to its record stimulus. The central bank yesterday extended its so-called Operation Twist program to replace short- term bonds with longer-term debt, disappointing some investors who expected more asset purchases. Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan today said the U.S. economy “looks very sluggish.”

Reuters: Moody's Downgrades 15 Banks

Financial markets have been bracing for the credit rating actions since February, when Moody's Investors Service said it had launched a review of 17 banks with global capital markets operations. These companies face diminished profitability and growth prospects due to difficult operating conditions, increased regulation and other factors, Moody's said.
. . . "The biggest surprise is the three-notch downgrade of Credit Suisse, which no one was looking for," said Mark Grant, managing director at Southwest Securities Inc. "In fact, it was Morgan Stanley that was supposed to be downgraded by that amount and Morgan received only two notches of cuts."
. . . Bank stocks fell on Thursday as investors prepared for an announcement, which leaked to the market as Moody's informed banks that it was coming, according to sources.
Morgan Stanley shares declined nearly 1.7 percent to $13.96 (8.94 pounds), while Bank of America shares fell nearly 4 percent to $7.82. The KBW Banks Index was down 2.3 percent.
But after suffering only a two-notch cut, instead of three as anticipated, Morgan Stanley shares rose about 3 percent in after-hours trade.

In addition to Morgan Stanley, downgraded by two notches were Barclays, BNP Paribas, Royal Bank of Canada, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase, Credit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, and UBS. Falling one notch were Bank of America, HSBC Holdings, Royal Bank of Scotland and Societe Generale.
Nomura and Macquarie were included in an original list of global banks, but have already been downgraded.

Economy Strains While "Constipation Congress" Ignores Business

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 274.88 points on Friday after the government released a lackluster unemployment report. Employment didn't fall, but it didn't go up much either.

This isn't good news for President Obama, and Mitt Romney and his surrogates will blame the weak economy on the Obama administration.

But what about members of Congress who get nothing done because they are stymied by constant filibusters, rants, nonsensical abortion laws, and other trivia from the Republicans?

In a speech in Manchester, New Hampshire, Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley of Maryland coined a colorful new term today: "Constipation Congress." And he had a few other piquant things to say as well. Washington Post reports:

“We have a constipation Congress. These Republican obstructionists wouldn’t pass gas if they thought it might help our president heal our economy...

Job creation is up. Unemployment is down. And while we still have a lot more work to do, because of President Obama’s leadership General Motors is alive and hiring and Osama bin Laden is not!

Could our nation’s jobs recovery be happening faster? Sure it could. but that would require compromise, practicality, and a focus on the common good — three concepts which the newly radicalized tea party Republican Congress is now totally incapable of grasping."

O'Malley's speech goes along with President Obama's Weekly Address entitled "It's Time for Congress to Get to Work," Obama also put the blame on the stonewalling of Congress on nearly every issue, but especially jobs programs.

Right now, this country is still fighting our way back from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The economy is growing again, but it’s not growing fast enough. Our businesses have created almost 4.3 million new jobs over the last twenty-seven months, but as we learned in this week’s jobs report, we’re not creating them fast enough. And just like last year at this time, our economy faces some serious headwinds. Gas prices are starting to come down again, but when they spiked over the last few months, it hit people’s wallets pretty hard. The crisis in Europe’s economy has cast a shadow on our own. And all of this makes it even more challenging to fully recover and lay the foundation for an economy that’s built to last.

But from the moment we first took action to prevent another depression, we knew the road to recovery wouldn’t be easy. We knew it would take time, that there would be ups and downs along the way. But we also knew that if we were willing to act wisely, and boldly, and together; if we were willing to keep at it, and never quit, we would come back stronger.

. . . I sent Congress a jobs bill last September full of the kinds of bipartisan ideas that would have put our fellow Americans back to work and helped reinforce our economy against those outside shocks. I sent them a plan that would have reduced the deficit by $4 trillion in a way that’s balanced – that pays for the job-creating investments we need by cutting unnecessary spending and asking the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more in taxes.

Since then, Congress has only passed a few parts of that jobs bill, like a tax cut that’s allowing working Americans to keep more of your paycheck every week. That was important. But Congress hasn’t acted on enough of the other ideas in that bill that would make a difference and help create jobs right now. And there’s no excuse for that. Not when so many people are looking for work. Not when so many people are struggling to pay the bills.

So my message to Congress is, get to work.