As to Goldy’s post this morning, I have not had sex with Larry Craig, but on the other hand, anonymous bathroom sex isn’t my thing.
* It’s so rare that you get a statement that converges so much of the bullshit that’s been going around into one delightful package.
* Bill O’Reilly has a new book out for kids. And if you’re having trouble reading the tiny tiny font, Keith Olbermann channels Fiorello LaGuardia and reads the comics for you.
* Y’all probably heard that Hillary Clinton’s Rochester, NH campaign office was taken hostage last week. What you might have missed is the freeper reaction.
* So, naming a bear Muhammad is a grave offense? Geez.
* Is Obama a Muslim version of the Manchurian Candidate? Well the fact that he’s a Christian, and that’s insane might lead you to a solid no. But for one of the nation’s most important newspapers, it’s still an open question.
* But the biggest bullshit is the fact that you don’t know what’s going on in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Locally:
* A local crazy man got to open the Republican debate.
* Doc Hastings sure doesn’t like poor children.
* Faith and Freedom need money.
* Did anyone on this blog mention the special session was bullshit?
This is an open thread
What, nothing about what the latest NIE says regarding Iran and nukes?
Pay your Debt McDermott!
You missed that one Goldy!
I agree the Special Session was Bullshit, it did absolutely NOTHING to lower the Massive Property Tax Burden in this state.
1% without eliminating the Banking, is just more smoke and mirrors!
Nice try but no banana
Pay your debt Redneck!
@2 Why the hell should Democrats pay their debts to Republicans when Republicans don’t pay their debts to Democrats? We’re tired of this one-sided bullshit. Jim’s not gonna pay until Redneck pays. That’s final.
And when is Gingrich going to pay his debt to society by serving the 20 years in federal stir that he deserves?
A woman is sent to prison because HER CLASS named the bear Muhammed. Her crime was permitting her class to do so. Naturally you get the story wrong.
Anyway, there were mobs of muslims in the street calling for her execution.
And your response is, “geez.”
Speaks volumes about your character and the fucking ACLU-supporting hypocrites on this site.
Carl, you may think the special session was bullshit, but not doing it could have put Rossi in the governor’s mansion. Do you want that?
The property tax cap should be a non-issue. It’s the mother of all red herrings. A distraction, a sideshow. It’s like trying to get stored solar energy out of coal; we should cut out the middleman and go straight to the source.
Forget the property tax; we need to pour our energies into reforming the whole regressive patchwork Rube Goldberg tax system by enacting an income tax. Raising the property taxes of senior citizens and the working class does nothing to make the richest 20% carry their fair share of the freight. It only makes the poor that much poorer.
@8 They’re as batshit crazy as you are.
Yo PStupid, “my word is my bond” (total shit), Mr. “i am puddy, not” (more crap):
Darth Cheney made Chimpy sit on that NIE for damn near a year. DC is a master bullshit artist. He knows he has take some time spewing his lies and let the crapola and the fear stew in the minds of his minions.
i.e. binge consumers of right wing bullshit like you and DOOFUS.
You know Maria Cantwell is having a bad week when her aide makes Larry Craig look comparatively good (i.e., no allegations of attempted gay sex with minors).
@11 With this latest revelation, the convening of war crimes trials becomes more imperative every day.
In the bullshit category,
“PSE seeking increase in rates
“By Brian Alexander
“Seattle Times staff reporter
“Puget Sound Energy is asking state regulators to allow it to raise electric and natural-gas rates late next year ….
“Money from the rate increases would pay for infrastructure investments as well as energy-related costs.
“Over the next several years, Puget Sound Energy expects to invest about $1 billion per year to upgrade and expand energy-delivery infrastructure and to acquire new power supplies ….”
Quoted under fair use; for complete article and/or copyright info see http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....se04m.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: The reason this is bullshit is because paying for infrastructure investments is the responsibility of shareholders, not ratepayers. If the customers are forced, through rate increases, to put up money for power plants and infrastructure then they should get pro rata shares of stock.
All utility companies try to pull this shit when they file rate increase requests with the state Utilities and Transportation Commission. For example, a few years ago the phone company requested a $225 million rate increase, but UTC disallowed the $200 million destined for capital spending.
So far as I know, no utility company in this state has gotten away with it in modern times. Why they keep trying is a mystery. Maybe they think Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna will order the Public Counsel, who represents the public in rate hearings, to play ball with PSE’s request. Even if he does, it makes no difference; the Commission is independent, and is appointed by the Governor, and has a Democratic majority. So PSE’s ratepayers probably will be protected from this predation.
But it should piss you off that they have the audacity to even try it.
What utility companies are entitled to is a reasonable return on equity (sometimes called “return on investment”). This is the shareholders’ profit in exchange for putting up their money as capital, and is based on market interest rates. Utility stocks are typically low risk investments that pay yields better than CDs, but whose total return is below that of riskier investments. ROE tends to be in the 9% to 10% range, or thereabouts. That’s reasonable compensation for the business risks taken.
When a utility invests more money in capital plant and equipment or infrastructure, they’re entitled to ROE on the increased investment. This extra ROE has to come from ratepayers, but it doesn’t always imply higher rates. New capital investments often are required by a larger customer base driven by population growth, in which case much of the money should (and does) come from new customers.
Part of what PSE wants to do is repair damage from last year’s winter storms and strengthen their system against such storms in the future. This is a legitimate reason for capital spending, but this type of casualty loss is a business risk properly borne by the company’s insurers and investors, not its ratepayers, and therefore is not a valid excuse for a rate increase (except for the ROE already mentioned).
I realize that utility accounting and the law of utility regulation is arcane and perhaps confusing. But I can make it easily understandable: Making ratepayers instead of investors bear the costs of capital spending and business risks is corporate socialism. For you wingnuts, that’s spelled S-O-S-H-A-L-I-Z-M.
What’s especially odious about it is, not only do they want customers to put up capital, they also want to charge them ROE on their own money! Jeee-zuzzzz-fucking-cripes … businessmen have no shame. No shame.
You wonder where they find lawyers capable of presenting this crap to the Commission with a straight face …
Where the fuck is your coverage of CANTWELL’S KID FUCKER?
I think you spell hypocrisy: GOLDSTEIN
I’ll support an income tax IF and ONLY if, you all TOTALLY get rid of the sales tax, like in Oregon.
Republicans:
When congressional underaged pages are solicited by a Republican congressman and protected by other republican congresscritters – no comment, close ranks.
When a Senator – Vitter – hires hookers in DC. No comment, abject apology, close ranks.
when a senator – Craig – solicits anonymous sex in a bathroom – no comment, try to kick him out with as little publicity as possible.
when a minor aide to a Democratic Senator solicits a minor – Horrors!!
They are all bad – but Republicans have a genuine double standard. That – and they claim to be the party of moral values.
What a bunch of hypocrits!! Moral values = corruption (Abramoff and other lobbyists) and sex scandals for republicans. Hypocrisy thy name is Republican.
Fuck you
The Mortal Sin
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: the single greatest offense, to liberals, is hypocrisy. Especially when it’s on the other side.
I’ve run across the “Republican sex scandals” list far, far too many times, and it never fails to disgust me. There is absolutely no correlation between party affiliation and sex crimes and other forms of deviancy.
The idea, of course, is that the Republicans are the party of “family values,” so any hint of any sort of sexual impropriety is horribly inappropriate.
The converse of this argument is rather entertaining, though: the Democrats are, apparently, expected to be depraved libertines, so for them it’s “anything goes.” We shouldn’t expect anything better from them, so it’s no big deal when they get caught with their pants down.
…Shame.
As a whole, Republicans feel it. When they get busted, they tend to feel it a lot, and act accordingly.
And if they don’t, then their fellow Republicans take care of it for him (it’s usually a him), and shun and turn on him.
A few examples: Larry Craig is a pariah. No one feels the slightest sympathy for Duke Cunningham. And Mark Foley is universally loathed.
On the other hand, Gerry Studds was not only forgiven his offenses against an underage page (taking him abroad, getting him liquored up, then sodomizing him in a country where the age of consent made it all legal). Barney Frank’s significant other was a male prostitute who operated out of Frank’s townhouse. Bill Clinton violated sexual-harassment standards and had an affair with an underling — often in his office during business hours. New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey hired his secret gay lover for a high-profile Homeland Security job — despite the fact that 1) the guy was utterly unqualified for the job and 2) wasn’t even an American citizen. Ted Kennedy let a woman drown and covered it up for hours, then tried to concoct a story that did not make him out to be the utter scumbag he is.
It is no wonder that one of the most common epithets hurled at these men for their deeds is “shameless.” They, indeed, have no shame. Studds was defiant at his censure. Frank has never admitted any wrongdoing with “Hot Bottom.” Clinton… well, he’s Clinton. McGreevey tried to defend himself by embracing his homosexuality — “I am a gay American” — and hoped that would immunize him from putting his boy-toy on the state payroll in a VERY important office for a six-figure salary. And Ted Kennedy… well, he’s the role model Bill Clinton tries to emulate, but there’s nothing like the original.
So, yeah, you can argue that Republican sex scandals are worse, because they usually involve hypocrisy. But I think it’s fair enough to point out the implication that people just expect Democrats to do the same sort of things… they just don’t expect any better, and the Democrats never promised to not be reprehensible, despicable scumbags after all.
@15 This is a liberal blog. You want to read wingnut propaganda? Go here. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/
15, 18 – klake is off his meds again
4 GS
I’m really looking forward to Dino Rossi running in 2008 saying, “Sure, the Governor and the Legislature lowered the rate back to 1%, but what about Banked Authority? That’s an outrage!”
He’ll sure get everyone worked up about that…not.
18 WHoever
I love this. So many Republican habits, memes, and lies; so little time.
Habit:
Violating copyright by cutting and pasting whole articles without permission. After all, when another writer sweats over his stuff, why not steal it outright?
Meme:
Shame.As a whole, Republicans feel it. When they get busted, they tend to feel it a lot, and act accordingly.
HA! Not that any convincing proof is offered, and this is exactly the opposite of the plain truth that we see every day.
Larry Craig is a pariah.
Wrong. He still sings with the boys, and what has befallen him (inflicted by the GOP, I mean) since he defied his party to stay on in his Senate seat? Not a goddamned thing.
No one feels the slightest sympathy for Duke Cunningham.
Wrong, although it is true that no Democrat does. Duke Cunningham stonewalled until he was convicted. The only reason he’s not in his seat now is because he stepped down. Tom DeLay thought he was God. http://www.thehill.com/thehill.....delay.html
So, you think (not you, I mean, but the guy whose words you stole) that no Republican has “sympathy” for Duke? Riiiiight.
Mark Foley is universally loathed.
Wrong, but another good one. The (GOP) House leadership and the (GOP) Ethics Committee alike sat on the news of Foley’s escapades for years while he kept right on driving young interns around town and to dinner and e-mailed them for pictures of their penises. He was powerful and was in a safe district. Hell, he chaired the NRCC. The GOP loved Mark Foley until it was inconvenient.
Lies:
First, I never cease to be surprised that you guys can bring up Gerry Studds without mentioning Dan Crane. They each had a consensual relationship with 17-year-old pages. The page who dated Studds was sufficiently old to consent to their relationship in the state where they dated, not in some foreign country.
And far from suffering no penalty from the Democratic leadership, Studds (along with Crane) was censured by the House and lost his subcommittee chairmanship. His constitutents, on the other hand, knew he was gay, knew his relationship was consensual, and elected him to something like six more terms.
Of course you have to go back more than twenty years to find suitable Democratic straw men for your stolen rant.
If you want to see the extent of Republican malfeasance, corruption, and wrongdoing since 2001 (or in some cases the late 1990s), check out the Grand Old Docket (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/grandolddocket.php)
Jack Abramoff Scandal
Pleaded Guilty
Jack Abramoff
Italia Federici
J. Steven Griles
Will Heaton
Adam Kidan
Bob Ney
Tony Rudy
Michael Scanlon
Roger Stillwell
Neil Volz
Mark Zachares
Convicted
David Safavian
Under Investigation
John Doolittle
Tom Feeney
Named, Not Charged
Ed Buckham
Duke Cunningham Scandal
Pleaded Guilty
Richard Berglund
Duke Cunningham
Mitchell Wade
Thomas Kontogiannis
Robert Fromm
Convicted
Brent Wilkes
Indicted
Kyle “Dusty” Foggo
John Michael
Brent Wilkes
…and more!
It’s fine to talk about the “massive” property tax burden as long as we are honest.
What’s the total tax take as a function of income around here?
Where do we rank?
xotllM gfb7n0ghn60s9d7f34n30bnit5
Roger Rabbit Turded: “And when is Gingrich going to pay his debt to society by serving the 20 years in federal stir that he deserves?”
When was he indicted?
Ohhhh, Pelletizer (TM) is speculating is standard BULLSHITTIUM again!
Daddy Love: Impressive list.
At least these guys didn’t plead the 5th or leave the country.