Radical reality-denying rightist Congressman Steve “Never Heard of Anyone Getting Pregnant by Statutory Rape” King (R-IA-4) was recently on a call-in talk show and had this conversation:

CALLER: When I see the First Lady and the beautiful girls going off to the Bahamas waving goodbye to us, it’s really hard to stomach. When we’re tightening our belts, either all of us should do it or none of us should do it. This, I am pretty tolerant, I always have been, I usually shut my mouth. This is not acceptable.

KING: Carla, you’re on point and on the mark all the way through. […] You’re right on the president. He needs to show some austerity himself. Instead he wanted to tell America how bad it was going to be. […] We’ve got the president doing these things. He sent the daughters to spring break in Mexico a year ago. That was at our expense, too. And now to the Bahamas at one of the most expensive places there. That is the wrong image to be coming out of the White House.

A couple of corrections for the underformed nutburger of a Congressman. First, Obama did not “send his daughters to spring break in Mexico.” One daughter (Malia) was allowed to…

…join a school trip to Oaxaca [, Mexico], where students volunteered at an orphanage, visited archaeological sites and sipped vanilla milkshakes on the honey-colored town plaza.

The school has done such trips for years.

Second, the Obamas pay for their own vacations and school field trips. The government pays for security, as it should. And notice that King isn’t complaining about that—for good reason. Imagine the PR disaster he would endure should any member of the First Family get hurt.

King believes Obama “needs to show some austerity himself” because he was telling “America how bad it was going to be.” Obama has pointed out how the sequestration cuts will hurt Americans, but so have a bunch of Republicans Congresscritters—you know, the the ones whining about losing tax payer-funded economic subsidies to their districts.

How odd that King’s calls for Obama to show austerity.

Obama makes a fair amount of money. He is wealthier than most Americans. Oh…and he is the leader of the free fucking world. He certainly has the money (and credit line) to allow his child to go on a school trip to Mexico, or to send his family on the occasional vacation, like the trip to the Bahamas.

So what’s gotten up Rep. King’s ass that makes him think that the President shouldn’t use his own money how he wants to use it? Isn’t that the American way?

You know who would agree with King that Obama should renounce the trappings of wealth and live the life of a commoner?

Karl Marx.

Once again, I call upon the major newspapers of this country to investigate these members of Congress to find out if they are pro-America or FUCKING SOCIALISTS!

The sequestration cuts to the FAA are forcing the agency to close 150 control towers at low-volume airports (including 5 in Washington state). As a consequence, some Republicans are discovering their inner socialist.

Exhibit 1: Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL-15).

What really bothers Rep. Ross is that Flordia’s Lakeland Linder Regional Airport will lose its control tower. The airport is a relatively low-volume airport, except for one week each summer, during the annual Sun ‘n Fun aviation convention, in which it becomes one of the busiest airports in the world. To put the traffic volume in context, Lakeland Linder has an average of 208 aircraft operations/day making it is slightly less busy than the Tacoma Narrows Airport ( 216/day) and the Renton Municipal Airport (221/day, where the 737 is manufactured).

Ross whines (my emphasis):

The state’s largest convention, SUN ‘n FUN, which is held in April at Lakeland Linder Airport, not only provides incredible economic value to Lakeland, but it serves our children by investing $1.4 million dollars annually in education. It is unacceptable to close this important control tower. Sun N Fun will now have to pay the FAA $284,000 in order to keep this control tower functioning during the convention. This is more money that they must raise that will not go to help our children who are struggling in school.

Really? He wants to keep the control tower so that my tax dollars and your tax dollars will subsidizing the local school systems in Florida’s 15th Congressional District?

FUCKING SOCIALIST!!!!

Exhibit 2: Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX-27). He is…

deeply troubled by the proposed actions of the FAA regarding smaller airports, like the one in Victoria, Texas, as they have long played a vital role in local economies across the country.

At 125 aircraft operations/day Victoria Regional Airport, it isn’t even as busy as Olympia Regional Airport (131/day).

No doubt the airport does play an important role in the economy, but why should my tax dollars be subsidizing the economy of the Texas 27th Congressional District?!?

You’d have to be a FUCKING SOCIALIST to want that kind of Big Government solution to a regional problem!

Exhibit 3: Michele Bachman (R-MN-6):

One-el Michele frets over airport tower closures:

I am deeply disappointed with the FAA’s decision to close the air traffic control towers at the Anoka County-Blaine Airport and St. Cloud Regional Airport. Throughout this decision-making process, I have been in touch with FAA and DOT officials urging them to focus first on eliminating waste and trimming non-essential items in the FAA’s budget before they even consider shutting down essential safety operations.

Wait. WE have to pay for safety in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District? Can’t the regional or local government do that even better?

Yeah…the Anoka County-Blaine Airport is goddamn busy with an average of 536 operations/day, but It isn’t the Anoka FEDERAL airport. What part of “COUNTY” doesn’t Michele understand?

And St. Cloud Regional Airport?!? Give me a fucking break. At 87 operations/day it hardly warrants a paved runway (and federally subsidized, no doubt), let alone a labor-intensive control tower. St. Cloud is nothing compared to Yakima’s McAllister Field (126/day) and Spokane’s Felts Field Airport (156/day).

I have to ask…where in the Constitution does it put the federal government in charge of county safety? Clearly you can only justify this by abusing The Commerce Clause.

You know, I think the major newspapers of the country need to investigate these members of Congress to find out if they are pro-America or FUCKING SOCIALISTS!

BTW: those five Washington state airports whose control towers will be shut down? Renton Municipal, Olympia Regional, Tacoma Narrows, Felts Field, and McAllister Field.

Please join us tonight for an evening of politics over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier for Dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings over the next week. The Tri-Cities chapter also meets tonight. On Wednesday, the Burien and Bellingham chapters meet. On Thursday the Woodinville chapter meets. And on Monday, the Aberdeen, Yakima, South Bellevue and Olympia chapters meet.

With 205 chapters of Living Liberally, including fifteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.

Letterman: Biden one-ups Clinton on gay marriage.

Young Turks: Can Colbert’s sister defeat Mark “Hiking the Appalachian Trail” Sanford?

White House: West Wing Week.

The Makeover:

• Young Turks: GOP insultingly wonders why minorities don’t like them.
• Sharpton: The ‘narrow minded, stuffy old White Men’ of the GOP respond to Reince Preibus.
• Bill Press on the G.O.P. “makeover”.
• Lawrence O’Donnell: State Republicans ignore national ‘minority push’, double down on voter suppression.
• Sharpton: GOP’s talk of change is all hot air

Maddow: Obama receives Israel’s highest civilian distinction.

Pap: FAUX News is coming to your child’s public school classroom.

Obama to designate San Juan Islands National Monument:

Thom: The Good, The Bad, and The Very, Very Ugly.

Liberal Viewer: Deportation over a barking dog?

Michael Shure: Hillary dominates for 2016.

This IS your Grandfather’s CPAC:

• Susie Sampson’s Teaparty Report: CPAC.
• Thom: CPAC race panel “goes wild”.
• Michael Brooks: Why are Republicans going extinct?
• Young Turks: Slavery defender at CPAC gets pat on back.
• Sam Seder: Tea Party panel turns racist at CPAC.
• Red State Update: CPAC, New Pope, Rob Portman, and Michael Moore.
• Ann Telnaes: Sen. Ted Cruz delivers keynote CPAC address.
• Young Turks: Republicans lose War on Gay Marriage at CPAC.

Young Turks: A G.O.P. catfight!

Ann Telnaes: A new coat of paint for Gitmo.

Maddow: Misstated positions betray lack of seriousness on policy.

Shuster: Paul Ryan’s budget slashes social programs and cuts taxes for millionaires.

Thom: More Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Mark Fiore: Deficit Hawk Man!

The Tenth Anniversary:

• Sam Seder with Becky Bond: Reliving Iraq 10 years ago.
• Young Turks: FAUX News uber-fail on Iraq Invasion.
• Maddow: Bush administration officials unrepentant over Iraq War.
• Lawrence O’Donnell: Crimes against humanity.
• Sam Seder: Re-living George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq
• Young Turks: Dying Veteran’s last letter to Bush and Cheney.
• Sharpton: After 10 years, Republicans still denying the criminality of a falsified invasion
• Rummy tweets asking for respect & gratitude for him & fellow Iraq war criminals
• Thom: Time for our media to offer us—and the people of Iraq—an apology.
• Sam Seder: Media fails on who was right and who was wrong in Iraq Invasion.
• Young Turks: Was it worth it?

Tina Fey channels a certain half-term Governor.

Young Turks: Trump versus Malkin for battle of the clowns.

Andy Cobb: CNN Do-Over:

Ann Telnaes: Republicans rethink gay marriage.

Bachmann Bluster Overdrive:

• Alex Wagner: Michele Bachmann’s big fat food stamp lie.
• Sharpton: In 2013, Bachmann still vows to tear down Obamacare.
• Michele Bachman is in trouble.
• Maddow: House Tea Party caucus appears to be dead.
• Recovery Act:Latest in Michele Bachmann’s infrastructure hypocrisy

Netanyahu sets US conservatives straight on ‘anti-Israel’ Obama.

Young Turks: Newt and Santorum for president?

Thom: The effect of the sequester on small businesses.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Please join us tonight, on this 10th anniversary of the Iraq War, for an evening of politics over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier for Dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out another DL meeting over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter also meets. The Longview and South Seattle chapters meet on Wednesday. And for Thursday, the Spokane chapter and Drinking Liberally Tacoma meet.

With 205 chapters of Living Liberally, including fifteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.

The RNC has released their Campaign 2012 Postmortem. It’s full of fun, and sometimes delusional, stuff.

Here is what they said about polling:

The RNC should convene a quarterly summit by April 15, 2013, of leading GOP pollsters to discuss the current political environment and debate assumptions, sampling, screening, and weighting of samples in an attempt to generate more accurate and consistent data across multiple committees and campaigns.

Not a bad idea. If they do it honestly, they’ll likely come to the conclusion that any “likely voter” adjustment that changes results very far from a simple registered voter model should probably be rejected. I think they are getting at that with this point:

“Likely Voter” screening data collected by various firms in 2012 should be re-examined to see which voters eventually voted and which did not, allowing a validation of the most predictive screening questions and likely voter scales. Special attention needs to be given to this question to ensure that we are not screening out casual interest voters who nevertheless show up on Election Day. Screeners that are too robust, particularly during presidential cycles, have the potential to skew results to the favor of our candidates because they exclude too many young and minority voters.

I find much amusement in this confession.

You may recall that during the heat of the election season, there was a rather sudden and surprisingly unified right wing movement to label most mainstream pollsters as biased. Every time a poll came out showing Obama in the lead in a swing state, the representatives of the right wing spin machine went into tirades bordering on apoplexy attempting to discredit the poll by pointing out the poll’s many “flaws”.

When the report mentions “not screening out casual interest voters who nevertheless show up….”, it is an implicit admission that their obsession with better “likely voter” screens was largely unjustified.

From the hand of the propagandists (like Karl Rove and Dick Morris), it was transformed into a full right wing talking point, to be parroted with religious zealotry and absolute certainty by the brainwashed wingding masses. We saw some of the fruits of this process being spewed in the HA comment threads. Indeed, it became daily, if not hourly, masturbation for “Serial Conservative.” Collectively, from Karl Rove and Dick Morris, right down to “Serial Conservative”, they were deep into denial-of-reality territory.

In the end, the mainstream polls were, on average, pretty darned good.

At the time, I thought most of the propagandists didn’t really believe their own bullshit. Rather it was a big propaganda campaign to help with turnout, and instill doubt in Obama supporters. (And it DID do that. One of the remarkable things that happened to me after the election was learning about numerous friends, acquaintances, and colleagues who, unbeknownst to me, were following the analyses on HA. I was told many times after the election that those analyses provided great comfort.) Following the election, there were various clues that the propagandists, in fact, came to believe their own bullshit. They became victims of their own groupthink.

Oh…and on “groupthink” the report said this:

Groupthink is a Loser
1. Our friends and allies must realize that the Party is at its best as the Party of ideas, and healthy debate of those ideas is fundamentally good for the Republican Party.

They haven’t quite gotten this one right. There was no shortage of “ideas” from the right wing during the 2012 election cycle. No…that wasn’t specifically the problem. What they lacked was an ability to operate from the perspective of reality. Here’s what the report should have said: “We need to inform our ideas based on objective, realistic assessments of the world.”

Their response to the polling went beyond wishful thinking and simple confirmation bias…it was a deeply fatal case of reality denial.

Thom: Conservatives are the new Taliban.

Ann Telnaes: Jeb Bush thinks history will be kind to his brother.

Sam Seder: Are Ron Paul’s gold investments being wiped out?

Scott Prouty…The Man Behind the 47% Video:

• Bashir: Scott Prouty
• Maddow: Scott Prouty, I
• Maddow: Scott Prouty, II
• Ed: The Interview, Part I
• Ed: The Interview, Part II
• Ed: The Interview, Part III
• Ed: The Interview, Part IV
• Ed: The Interview, Part V
• Matt Binder: Bill Clinton inspired Romney 47% videographer.

White House: West Wing Week.

Maddow: Ground Hog Day again:

Thom: Republicans have finally found voter fraud…in Ohio.

Mark Fiore: Mr. Blasty goes to Washington.

Ezra Klein: MD kills death penalty.

Sam Seder: The politics of social security cuts.

Thom: The Good, The Bad, and The Very, Very Ugly.

Sam Seder: Mitch McConnell is feeling the heat over gun legislation.

Liberal Viewer: FAUX News spin on bin Laden’s son-in-law.

Rob Portman’s Change of Heart:

• Sam Seder: Republican is against gay rights until it is HIS son.
• Young Turks: Sen. Portman’s big shift.
• SlateTV: Sen. Rob Portman has a change of heart.
• Sam Seder: If only Rob Portman’s son was about to go on Social Security!

The Onion Week in Review.

Pap: Right wing hate groups turn violent.

Sam Seder: Katherine Harris updates Sam on Michele Bachmann and things:

Alex Wagner and friends: The Patty Murray budged versus the Paul Ryan budget.

The CPAC Comedy Show:

• Young Turks: Lapierre’s paranoid CPAC fantasies
• Ed and Pap: a cabal of crazies…
• John Fugelsang and a panel of Democrats on CPAC.
• Alex Wagner and friends: Republican still living in the past.
• Young Turks: No new ideas! Really.
• Al Sharpton: The Conservative Party of the Year!
• Ann Telnaes: CPAC looks to the future.
• Young Turks: The Biggest Fail at CPAC.

Tina Dupuy: Jeb Bush says there is no Bush baggage.

Sam Seder: Ted Cruz vs. Dianne Feinstein on assault weapons ban.

Young Turks: Republican–we won’t vote for the Black guy in the White House.

Thom with some Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Please join us this evening for some politics over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier for Dinner.

Can’t make it to tonight? Check out another meeting of Drinking Liberally over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities and Vancouver, WA chapters meet. On Wednesday, the Bellingham chapter meets. On Thursday Drinking Liberally Bremerton meets. Finally, next Monday, the Aberdeen, Yakima and Olympia chapters meet.

With 206 chapters of Living Liberally, including fifteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.

Thom: more Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Ann Telnaes: Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Drone.

Ed: Voter fraud is perpetuated by Republicans.

Aqua Buddha Filibuster:

• Jon: “What the who?”
• O’Donnell: What Cukoo Sen. Paul said during his filibuster.
• Young Turks: Rand Paul—winner or loser?
• Sam Seder: Like a broken clock, Rand Paul is right on drones
• O’Donnell: Paul’s empty headed stunt filled with infantile fantasies.
• Rand Paul’s filibuster in 2 minutes.
• Young Turks: Rand Paul’s filibuster angers the establishment.

Thom with The Good, The Bad, and The Very, Very Ugly.

Do Republicans even care about how sequester cuts affect people?

Maddow: Republicans scapegoat MSNBC for their 2012 failures:

Young Turks: U.S. sponsored death squads in Iraq.

Bill-O The Clown Bizarre Melt-Down:

• Sam Seder: Bill-O the Clown has a melt down.
• Maddow: Bill-O rules for anger management.
• Ed: Bill-O’s body language.
• Bill-O flips his lid on Alan Colmes
• Young Turks: Bill-O the Clown freak-out.
• Sharpton: Bill-O apologizes for his meltdown.

Sharpton: Jomes O’Keefe to pay $100K for his false ACORN smears.

A Twitter conversation with Sarah Palin.

White House: West Wing Week.

Voting Rights Act:

• Jon on The end of racism.
• Mark Fiore: All in the Scalia.
• Stephen on Scalia’s voting right act defense.

Maddow: Rare terrorist suspect arrest.

Young Turks: Florida Gov. Rick Scott admits he was wrong and Obama was right.

Red State Update: Obama will suck you into the ground.

President Jeb:

• Young Turks: Jeb Bush disagrees with himself.
• Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: More Bush!

Maddow: Obama invites a pack of hyenas to dinner.

Ed: The world according to Cheney.

#GOPSequester: Defenseless.

Ed: Obama signs VAWA.

O’Donnell: Hillary Clinton leads everyone for 2016.

Liberal Viewer: Can Republicans steal marijuana issue?.

Romney Resurfaces:

• ONN: Mitt Romney blames his loss on successfully communicating his message to minorities.
• Ann Telnaes: Ann Romney reflects on the election loss.

Sam Seder: Jeb Bush snakes his way to 2016.

Will DeGra: Mississippi and the 13th Amendment:

Stephen on Obama’s outrageous record on Israel.

Maddow: Big tobacco’s disinformation strategy.

Ann Telnaes: Dow closes at an all time high.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Please join us for an evening of politics over a pint because, you know, sequestration and stuff, at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier for Dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter also meets. On Thursday, the Spokane chapter and Drinking Liberally Tacoma meet.

With 205 chapters of Living Liberally, including fifteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.

Zina Saunders: Idiots with Guns.

Maddow: Make your own assault rifle.

Thom: Hanford nuclear waste on its way to the Columbia.

Voting Rights and Racial Entitlements:

• Sam Seder and Ari Burman: Will Republicans destroy the Voting Rights Act.
• Ann Telnaes: Your wasted vote.
• Ed: Scalia’s shameful comment.
• Pap: The Republican war on voting makes it to the Supreme Court.
• Young Turks: Scalia’s “Racial entitlement”.
• Thom and Pap: Should Scalia hang up his robe?
• Ann Telnaes: Courting history.

Barely Political: The Sasha and Melia show.

Thom: The Good, The Bad, and The Very, Very Ugly.

Young Turks: A stung Hannity goes after Rep. Ellison.

Sea Quest ER!

• Maddow: Congress blows sequestration, takes long weekend.
• The sequester explained.
• Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: What is the Sequester?
• Sharpton: Republicans pass the buck.
• Obama on the Sequester.
• Maddow: Cuts threaten America’s standing….
• Stephen on The Sequester.
• Mark Fiore: Starve the beast.

Rep. Ellison (D-MN) attacks Sean Hannity on his show (via TalkingPointsMemo).

White House: West Wing Week.

Jon: Merger Mania.

Going Drone:

• Ann Telnaes: Drones? What drones?
• Liberal Viewer: Limit on Obama’s flying killer robots.

Ed: Michele Bachmann is very proud that she didn’t get anything wrong….

Hanford: 6 leaking tanks.

Young Turks: Louie “Guber” Gohmert.

Seattle Police using crime prediction software.

Jimmy Kimmel: Unnecessary censorship.

WoodwardGate:

• Sam Seder: Bob Woodward threatened by WH advisor’s…kindness?
• Young Turks: “Threat”.
• Bill Press calls Bob a HorsesAss!
• Ed: The Right Wing’s brand new hero!
• Jon: Ginned up controversy.

Maddow: Michigan gives up on democracy.

Thom: The NRA’s latest conspiracy theory.

Wrestlers have a message for Glenn Beck (via Indecision Forever).

Young Turks: Congress finally passes the Violence Against Women Act.

Conan: The final benediction.

Young Turks: Is Hannity the Worst Journalist Ever?

Thom: More Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

We’ve waited and waited for this announcement. I mean, here we are half way through the current legislative session, but the Washington state Supreme Court has finally ruled on the 2/3 majority laws, brought to you by our state’s top Initiative Whore, Tim “Biggest Lie of My Life” Eyman.

The ruling: by a 6-3 majority, the court upheld a lower court’s finding that 2/3s laws are unconstitutional.

I’ve not read the ruling yet, but I strongly suspect it will highlight the major argument put forth by Goldy and other bloggers here: ENGLISH. If you read the state Constitution and understand the English language, it’s kind of a no-brainer.

Once again, an Eyman initiative–in this case, several similar versions of the same basic initiative–is found to be unconstitutional.

It’s Tuesday…so please join us for an evening of politics over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier for Dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings over the next week. The Tri-Cities chapter also meets tonight. On Wednesday, the Burien and Bellingham chapters meet. On Thursday the Woodinville chapter meets. And on Monday, the Aberdeen, Yakima, South Bellevue and Olympia chapters meet.

With 206 chapters of Living Liberally, including fourteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.

Thom: The Good, The Bad, and The Very, Very Ugly.

Jon takes down Graham and McCain for holding up hagel nomination over fake Benghazi outrage (via Crooks and Liars):

Young Turks: FAUX News’ crazy Al Jazeera theory.

Haggeling:

• Stephen on “Friends of Hamas”.
• Sam Seder: How “Friends of Hamas” joke became wingnut reality.
• Ann Telnaes: John McCain’s Iraq war fairy tale.

Maddow: Half of Michigan Blacks disenfranchised by GOP war on Democracy.

Young Turks: The GOP cat fight, staring Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove.

Thom: More Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Sharpton: Is wacko Sen. Ted Cruz the new GOP savior?

Washington’s own Fukushima.

Thom: The establishment GOP versus the grassroots GOP.

Maddow: Indiana bill would force women to endure TWO transvaginal ultrasounds, before and after abortion:

Ed: Republicans are demonstrably out of touch with America.

Young Turks: How crazy is Sen. Ted Cruz?

Stephen on his sister.

Seattle Labor mobilizes for immigration reform.

Sam Seder: The Donald threatens blogger over Dump Trump petition.

Young Turks: Drunk tweets from Scott Brown?

White House: West Wing Week.

Greenman: Dark Snow Project.

Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: The week in intelligence.

Young Turks: Seven Craziest bills in the nation:

Maddow: No stigma for Sen. Ted Cruz for his McCarthy ways.

Pope Affairs:

• Red State Update: The Pope quits.
• Mark Fiore: Pick-a-Pope.

Sharpton: Obama’s approval up; GOP still hell-bent on destroying him.

Stephen: Horse meat (via Slog).

#StopTheSequester.

Thom: Single biggest driver if income inequality.

Lawrence O’Donnell: Who will be the next Republican savior-o-the-month?

Sam Seder: MO GOP lawmaker proposes making it a felony to propose gun control legislation.

Ann Telnaes: Congress takes a recess.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Via The Spokesman–Review:

Spokane City Councilman Mike Fagan, in a fundraising letter for his anti-tax efforts, called Washington Gov. Jay Inslee “a lying whore.”

Fagan, and his co-lying whores, accused Gov. Jay Inslee (D) of lying about vetoing “any tax increase”:

“Candidate Inslee repeatedly promised to veto any tax increase. He said no way to higher transportation taxes in 2013….What a lying whore he turned out to be. In recent weeks, he’s made it clear he’ll sign any tax increase the Legislature unilaterally imposes.”

Holy shit…there are a couple of lies in this brief excerpt alone!

Prior to accusing someone of lying about some action (like not vetoing a tax increase) one really ought to wait until they take the action that contradicts their words. Inslee has not signed any tax increases into law. It is possible that Fagan is a victim of childhood lead consumption and, therefore, doesn’t have the IQ to really understand this distinction (if so, I’d blame his father). However given that two other people signed the letter—his father, Jack Fagan, and admitted liar and initiative whore, Tim “Biggest Lie of My Life” Eyman, it seems more likely at least one of them was aware that Inslee has taken no such contrary action.

Fucking liars!

Secondly, Inslee did not promise to veto “any tax increase.” This is so easily debunked, that even The Seattle Times gets a piece of the action of making liars out of the Fagans and Eyman:

While running against GOP gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna last year, Inslee said, “I would veto anything that heads the wrong direction and the wrong direction is new taxes in the state of Washington.”

However, Inslee never ruled out increasing taxes for transportation and did say he supports sending a tax measure to the ballot to raise money for transportation.

He also has opposed new taxes, although he’s been open to extending existing taxes.

Man…what a bunch of Fucking Liars!

And given that Fagan was lying in order to raise money…that pretty much makes him and is co-liars LYING WHORES.

Fagan and his co-lying whores have even embarrassed the state Republican party:

“There is no question that’s beyond the pale and is uncalled for. No matter what the issue is, it’s uncalled for, and I would condemn such a thing,” GOP Chairman Kirby Wilbur said.

Eyman promises no apologies:

“Kirby Wilbur, thanks for the advice, but no he (Inslee) doesn’t deserve an apology,” Eyman said.

Queue the tearful, “Second biggest lie of my life” apology from the lying whore in three, two….