Hillary Rocked Both Houses of Congress

I was so glad to see Hillary Clinton so fiesty with Congress after her recent illness. Of course the Tea Party didn't cut her any slack - she was grilled mercilessly by Congressmen and Senators over the Benghazi incident. Chris Matthews compared her to Gulliver among the Lilliputians, a giant among the little people, in Jonathan Swift's famous novel. Their questions were really ad hominem attacks used to boost their own pitiful careers with an ever-diminishing GOP. The Good Old Boys belched out Fox News talking points that bore little resemblance to reality. "Read the report," Hillary kept saying to them, because it was obvious they hadn't read anything, and were playing "gotcha" more than trying to get to the bottom of the murders of four government officials.

Poseurs like John McCain were especially egregious. He has been using Benghazi since before the election to help himself to another committee chairmanship (Harry Reid nixed that idea) and to wring out more air-time on Sunday morning talk shows. He pretended that Benghazi is somehow different from every other overseas attack, as if this time we should have known from the first moment everything that happened and why. McCain, who has more top secret security clearance than almost anyone, surely knows better. His performance was disingenuous faux-outrage. By contrast Hillary appeared dignified and full of common sense.

The joke of the day was when Senator Rand Paul said if he had been President, he would have fired Hillary for not reading every telegram from Benghazi. President? Delusions of grandeur much? Not to mention the fact that if George W. Bush had read all his telegrams and reports from, say, FBI agents here in the United States, then 911 need not have happened either. Right, Senator Paul? 3000 people died in that attack, plus thousands more over the course of two wars longer than any our military has ever engaged. But please, Senator Paul, proceed with your delusional life. We all know Hillary is much more likely to be President someday, not you.

More Quotes and Tweets from her Day on the Hill:
Snark Amendment: Hillary Kicks Butt on Benghazi


With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk last night who decided to kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, Senator.

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Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Biden Won All the Way

It was just beautiful - Biden gave the young upstart a smackdown and he did it with a smile. It was just what the Democratic base needed. Thanks, Joe!

Complete Transcript of the VP Debate

From The New York Times

Mr. Ryan was no Dan Quayle, but he did make the mistake of mentioning John F. Kennedy in an argument over whether tax cuts recharge the economy. Mr. Biden flashed a Cheshire Cat grin and said to Ryan, after waiting a beat to let the moment sink in, “So, now you’re Jack Kennedy?”

The vice presidential debate on Tuesday was supposed to be a reboot for the Obama campaign after the president’s dismal performance at his debate with the Republican nominee for president, Mitt Romney, last week. Mr. Biden, clearly delighted to come to President Obama’s rescue, relished his role, addressing his opponent as “my friend” but dismissing his arguments as “malarkey.” He laughed at Mr. Ryan’s remarks so often and so heartily that at times he seemed like a guest at a comedy club roast, not a vice president debating the fate of the nation with his opponent.

. . . For Mr. Biden especially, the night was his chance to relive past debates and unleash his inner barroom brawler. He had to be contained and courteous when he debated Sarah Palin four years ago, lest he look like a bully. This time he let loose. And unlike the courtly Mr. Bentsen in 1988, Mr. Biden turned his temperature up, singeing the young man across the table with patronizing grins, but mostly withering retorts. His interruptive barrage was as relentless as his silent mugging for the camera.

Romney Skewered by SNL Snark!!!

gif by moonxyiptsz tumblr

This is laugh-out-loud funny, so enjoy and Happy Friday! The guy who plays Romney, Jason Sudeikis is perfect, LOL. Also, I added the list of the "corrections" that Fox and Friends had to make just for one morning, LOL. It scrolls by too fast to see on the video.



The Bible was not a movie first.

Stalactites is not a childhood disease.

Iowa City never elected Mayor McCheese.

Allegra is not a religion.

Jeremy Lin was traded, not deported.

The sun and the moon do not high-five as they pass each other.

Vaginas don’t look like that.

A dead person’s skull does not contain their memories.

Ron Paul is one person.

Not all cats are gay.

The Atlanta Hawks are a team, not an infestation.

Ellen DeGeneres never married a car.

Benedict Arnold was not a character on Diff’rent Strokes.

A wind turbine has never cut off the head of a pretty girl in a convertible.

The Tasmanian Devil is not the president of Tasmania.

Star Wars is essentially a work of fiction.

Al Gore never claimed to invent Nintendo.

Hawaii does not rotate every six months.

Neil Armstrong was not the first person to moon someone.

The Keystone Pipeline is not filled with Keystone Light.

Swiss banks are not “full of holes.”

Camp David doesn’t have a sister camp called Camp Denise.

Oogielove is not a sexually transmitted disease.

They did not name Mars after the Mars Rover.

Monica Lewinsky was never in an internment camp.

Six comes after five.

Kim Jong-Un is not the CEO of Yahoo.

Left-handed people cannot read your thoughts.

Lobsters are not “ocean spiders.”

Cat Fancy is a magazine, not a man/cat dating website.

The U.S. Postal Service never released a Kesha stamp.

“F” is not a blood type.

Parsley is not one of the Spice Girls.

Bolt is not a new action movie starring John C. Reilly.

LIBOR is not a giant praying mantis.

Old Navy is not one of the armed forces.

The letters in “Massachusetts” cannot be rearranged to spell “same sex marriage.”

Crabs don’t breastfeed.

Animal Planet is not an acceptable nickname for Telemundo.

Marco Rubio does not play for the Timberwolves.

Al-Jazeera is not the co-host of “Tool Time.”

Babies never “skip ahead” to being 10.

Angela Merkel is not a palindrome.

You can’t outrun polio.

The Negro League is not “back and better than ever.”

Latin Inches is not the Mexican metric system.

The Russian national anthem is not the U.S. national anthem played backwards.

Rocky never fought Lassie.

John Kerry Zings Mitt Romney with Delicious Snark

Complete Transcript of John Kerry's Speech





We’ve all learned Mitt Romney doesn’t know much about foreign policy. But he has all these ‘‘neocon advisors’’ who know all the wrong things about foreign policy. He would rely on them - after all, he’s the great outsourcer.

But I say to you: This is not the time to outsource the job of commander in chief.

~~~

Despite what you heard in Tampa, an exceptional country does care about the rise of the oceans and the future of the planet. That is a responsibility from the Scriptures - and that too is a responsibility of the leader of the free world. The only thing exceptional about today’s Republicans is that - almost without exception - they oppose everything that has made America exceptional in the first place.

~~~

It isn't fair to say Mitt Romney doesn't have a position on Afghanistan. He has every position.

He was against setting a date for withdrawal—then he said it was right—and then he left the impression that maybe it was wrong to leave this soon. He said it was "tragic" to leave Iraq, and then he said it was fine. He said we should've intervened in Libya sooner. Then he ran down a hallway to duck reporters' questions. Then he said the intervention was too aggressive. Then he said the world was a "better place" because the intervention succeeded.
Talk about being for it before you were against it!

~~~

"Ask Osama bin Laden if he's better off now than he was four years ago."

~~~

"For Mitt Romney, an overseas trip is what you call it when you trip all over yourself overseas. It wasn’t a goodwill mission - it was a blooper reel."

But a Romney - Ryan foreign policy would be anything but funny.

~~~

“[Romney] even blurted out the preposterous notion that Russia is our “number one geopolitical foe.”Folks: Sarah Palin said she could see Russia from Alaska; Mitt Romney talks like he’s only seen Russia by watching Rocky IV.”

~~~

Mitt Romney: out of touch at home, out of his depth abroad and out of the mainstream.

~~~

No nominee for president should ever fail in the midst of a war to pay tribute to our troops overseas in his acceptance speech. Mitt Romney was talking about America. They are on the front lines every day defending America, and they deserve our thanks.

Tim Pawlenty Admits Giving Romney "A Bunch" of Tax Returns

Mahahahahahahahaha!!!!! This made my day!!!

Found Via Scott Wooledge

Tim Pawlenty, ex-governor of Minnesota, who was also courted by the Romney campaign to be Veep before they chose Paul Ryan, had a deer-in-the-headlights moment on ABC's This Week when George Stephanopoulos asked how many tax returns Pawlenty provided to the Romney camp while being vetted for Vice President. After a long, long pause, he said:

Via ABC News

PAWLENTY: There were several years, I believe. Well, we don’t get into the details of the vetting process, but I gave them a bunch of tax returns. I don’t remember the exact number of years.

Ha! So we can assume that Paul Ryan also had to turn over tax returns, which begs the question why it's fair game for Veep Vetting but not for Presidential selection? When will Romney release his tax returns to the American people? This isn't going away.

President Halts Deportation While Republican Heads Explode

Wonderful Day!!!

On Friday afternoon, Obama announced an executive decision that will halt the deportation of "Dreamers" - illegal immigrants who were brought to this country as children and who are now working or in school. He spoke in the White House Rose Garden about the fact that Congress and the Republicans have stalled out on the "Dream Act" that would have granted these young people a path to citizenship.

From CNN:

Those who might benefit from the change expressed joy and relief, with celebratory demonstrations forming outside the White House and elsewhere.

Pedro Ramirez, a student who has campaigned for such a move, said he was "definitely speechless," then added: "It's great news."

In a Rose Garden address Friday afternoon, President Barack Obama said the changes caused by his executive order will make immigration policy "more fair, more efficient and more just."

"This is not amnesty. This is not immunity. This is not a path to citizenship. It's not a permanent fix," Obama said to take on conservative criticism of the step. "This is a temporary stopgap measure."

Noting children of illegal immigrants "study in our schools, play in our neighborhoods, befriend our kids, pledge allegiance to our flag," Obama said, "it makes no sense to expel talented young people who are, for all intents and purposes, Americans."

This is the President at his finest playing multi-dimensional chess. The Latinos are jubilant that they can keep their jobs and finish their education; their families now have more hope than ever and a reason to stay politically active; the Democrats are thrilled that Obama is fired up about something that will also shore up the Latino vote; and Republican heads began to explode before he even finished his speech.

Chief Joe Arpaio, notorious birther, was sitting there on CNN even before the President began his speech, muttering to Wolf Blitzer that it wouldn't make his job any easier in Arizona and moaning "Why did he (Obama) have to go and do this? Why didn't he wait on the Surpreme Court?" referring to the fact that the Surpreme Court is about to rule as early as next week on Arizona's controversial law Senate Bill 1070 which would allow Arizona to have an "illegals round-up."

From USA Today

"The governor is optimistic that the heart of SB 1070 will be upheld and implemented," (Jan) Brewer spokesman Matthew Benson said. "The governor thought this was an appropriate time to revisit the issue and make sure Arizona law enforcement is as prepared as possible for partial or full implementation of the law."
SB 1070, among other things, makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally and requires an officer engaged in a lawful stop, detention or arrest to, when practical, ask about a person's legal status when reasonable suspicion exists that the person is in the U.S. illegally.
Federal courts halted that part and four other key parts of the law from being enforced. Brewer appealed to the Supreme Court to allow the entire law to go into effect.

Take that, Jan Brewer! :) Call off the police!

And take that, Mitt Romney - now Grandma won't have to "deport herself" back to Mexico, Honduras, or Cuba, as he talked about during the January Republican Debates. That was his far-right position pandering to the extremists, and it never sounded humane or convincing coming from Romney. Romney's etch-a-sketch will be shaking weekend as he tries to get back to the center and earn some goodwill from the 20% of Latinos who don't already see Obama as a better candidate.

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, often mentioned as a possible VP for Romney, had some praise for Obama's move, but noted that it was only a stop-gap measure in effect for the next two years. He can hardly attack it too strongly or risk the censure of his own Latino constituents.

“Today’s announcement will be welcome news for many of these kids desperate for an answer, but it is a short-term answer to a long term problem. And by once again ignoring the Constitution and going around Congress, this short-term policy will make it harder to find a balanced and responsible long-term one.”

This actually puts Romney and Rubio on the outs with the Immigration Hawks like Brewer and Arpaio, along with many other Tea Party and Birther types.
From Washington Post - Republicans Struggle to Respond

The problem with that strategy is members of Congress like Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa).
King, one of the most outspoken Republicans on the issue of border security and illegal immigration, is now saying he will sue the Obama administration over the policy. While he agrees with Romney and Rubio that this raises issues of congressional prerogatives, he’s taking it a big step further.
“I’m prepared to bring a suit and seek a court order to stop implementation of this policy,” King said on Mike Huckabee’s radio show.
Other immigration hawks in the GOP were also quick to decry the decision.
“It rewards law-breaking,” said Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.). “And it’s deeply unfair to those who came to this country legally.”
The fact is that there are all manner of conservative members of Congress who are more than happy to prosecute this issue in the coming hours and days — even as Romney would rather not.

Need more proof that Republican heads are 'splodin'?

How about this - a rude reporter for the conservative website Daily Caller broke Press Corp etiquette by shouting out President Obama as he was speaking. The President was steaming mad and told him off, then walked away at the end without answering any questions. Hopefully that jerk will never darken the White House Rose Garden again, and I noticed by the end of the speech that he seemed to have an entourage of Secret Service Agents standing right behind him. So long, guy.

Just fun times all around for political watchers and especially Democrats.

Via Daily Kos

just know that Neil Munro, a reporter for the right-wag Daily Caller, attempted to interrupt President Obama while he was making an announcement on his new immigration policy this afternoon. The President wasn't having any of it, smacking down Munro and then telling him, "The next time I prefer you let me finish my statements before you ask a question."

Paul Krugman Demolishes the Ryan Plan

Remember Eric Fehrnstrom, the hapless surrogate for Mitt Romney who made the etch-a-sketch gaffe? Well, today he was out of his depth once again on ABC's "This Week" trying to debate economics with the master, Paul Krugman, who deftly squashed the idea that the Paul Ryan budget makes economic sense, referring to it as a "fraud" and "imaginary."




And what's so delicious is that George Will also pushes and gets Fehrnstrom to admit that Romney backs the scorched-earth Ryan Plan. You'll recall that last weekend, the conservative Will expressed frustration with Romney for cozying up to "bloviating ignoramus" Trump, for which The Donald called him the "most overrated journalist alive." George got a little revenge today, helping to put Fehrnstrom on the hot seat so that Krugman could move in for the coup de grace. Politics really does make strange bedfellows these days. Who knew that George Will and Paul Krugman could be a tag-team?




Read and learn, children. This is how we do it:
Transcript from Crooks and Liars:

KRUGMAN: Well, the economy is weak. It's not terrible, but it's weak. The bitter irony here has to be for Obama, certainly for people like me, is that if the Republican answer is "let's slash spending, let's have low taxes," that's actually the policy we've been following. It's amazing, actually. Especially if you look at the last couple of years, what we've actually seen is sharply...

(CROSSTALK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me show you -- we have a chart in your blog this morning.

KRUGMAN: Yeah, this is...

STEPHANOPOULOS: We created it. It shows the point you're making.

KRUGMAN: Yeah, this is real government spending, so it's federal, state and local combined, deflated, you know, adjusted for population growth and inflation, and it is plunging. It's plunging mostly because of cutbacks at the state and local level, because the aid that they were receiving in the stimulus has run out, but also because unemployment benefits have been expiring because Congress won't -- you know, Republicans in Congress won't extend them.

So in effect - and, by the way, if you extend that chart backwards, there's been nothing like this since the demobilization after the Korean War. We're actually practicing government austerity on a scale that we haven't seen in 60 years. It's not the president's policy. In effect, we've already got the policies that Republicans say they will impose if they take the election, and yet, of course, it may lead to the defeat of this president.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And that's the point Stephanie was making, so bringing it back to you, what would Governor Romney do right now -- not in the future -- right now, to get the economy moving again?

FEHRNSTROM: Well, it's not just, as Paul says, tax policy. That's part of it, of course, but it's also spending policy, it's regulatory policy. It's confronting China on their unfair trade practices. It's -- it's a whole -- it's labor policy, George.
The governor has laid out very detailed plans. People can go to mittromney.com and learn about them for themselves. But I think what we really have here...

(CROSSTALK)

KRUGMAN: ... ...I know from detailed plans and there is nothing there. There is not...

CUTTER: ... he's going to deregulate Wall Street, which we know how that turns out. We're going to go back to risky financial deals that crashed our economy. And on China, you know, we've been hearing this blustering on China for quite a while now. What exactly is the governor going to do? There's...

(CROSSTALK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: ... I want to bring in George Will.

FEHRNSTROM:  He'll do what this president has failed to do in China, which is to declare that China is a currency manipulator. Look, we're all in favor of free trade. In fact, we don't think this president has done enough to reinvigorate trade talks -- trade talks with our friends, but China is -- is robbing us blind. They're stealing...

(CROSSTALK)

KRUGMAN: I was very much for that. I've been demanding that we declare -- but the window for that has passed. Right now, the Chinese economy is tanking. So if you were thinking you were going to get a big boost out of beating up on the Chinese now, two years ago I thought was really a good time to do that. But my god, now that is totally out of date.




WILL: On another matter, I didn't hear a robust answer to George's question. Where does the governor stand, Governor Romney, on the Ryan plan? Does he endorse it?

FEHRNSTROM: Oh, he's for -- he's for -- he's for the Ryan plan. He believes it goes in the right direction. The governor has also put forward a plan to reduce spending by $500 billion by the year 2016. In fact, he's put details on the table about how exactly he would achieve that. So to say he doesn't have a plan to -- a plan to restrain government spending is just not true.

KRUGMAN: Can I say, the Ryan plan -- and I guess this is what counts as a personal attack -- but it isn't. It's not an attack on the person; it's an attack on the plan. The plan's a fraud. The plan is a big bunch of tax cuts, some specified spending cuts, basically for poor people, and then a huge magic asterisk which is supposed to turn into a deficit reduction plan, but, in fact, if you look what's actually in it, it's a deficit-increasing plan.

And so to say that -- just tell the truth that there is really no plan there, neither from Ryan, nor from Governor Romney, is just the truth. That's not -- if that's -- if that's being harsh and partisan, gosh, then I guess the truth is anti-bipartisanship.

FEHRNSTROM: So may I ask you, Paul, do you prefer the president's plan? KRUGMAN: Oh, yeah. I mean, the president -- at least it's -- you know, I don't approve of everything, but there are no gigantic mystery numbers in his stuff. We do know what he's talking about. His numbers are -- you know, all economic forecasts are wrong, but his are not -- are not insane.

These are -- these are just imaginary.