US Politics Thread |OT| THE DARKEST TIMELINE

[Phoenix Dark]

Actually, the numbers over the past several months (excluding this month's) have shown job growth exceeding any drop in unemployment. This means people who previously gave up have returned to the work force.

The participation rate dropped this month, with 800k people leaving the work force. Obviously a lot of this has to do with baby boomer retirements and perhaps also some folks quitting to start their own businesses (CBO's Obamacare report comes to mind) but a large group of them, if not the most, are people who have given up on finding a job.

We're fucked dude.

[Great Rumbler]

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) intends to form a select committee to investigate the 2012 Benghazi attacks, he announced Friday.

"[T]he House will vote to establish a new select committee to investigate the attack, provide the necessary accountability, and ensure justice is finally served," the Speaker said in a statement.

The move was prompted by a recently-unearthed White House internal email at the time about how to discuss the issue. The email didn't contain evidence of a cover-up but for Republicans -- who insist then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did something wrong -- the issue has become a cause célèbre.

Boehner added: "The administration's withholding of documents – emails showing greater White House involvement in misleading the American people – is a flagrant violation of trust and undermines the basic principles of oversight upon which our system of government is built. And it forces us to ask the question, what else about Benghazi is the Obama administration still hiding from the American people?"

The panel may be led by second-term Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), said a senior House Republican leadership aide, who said the recent emails were "the straw that broke the camel's back" for Boehner.

[Human Snorenado]

Actually, the numbers over the past several months (excluding this month's) have shown job growth exceeding any drop in unemployment. This means people who previously gave up have returned to the work force.

The participation rate dropped this month, with 800k people leaving the work force. Obviously a lot of this has to do with baby boomer retirements and perhaps also some folks quitting to start their own businesses (CBO's Obamacare report comes to mind) but a large group of them, if not the most, are people who have given up on finding a job.

We're fucked dude.

"Fucked" is strong language. "Still hip deep in shit" is probably more accurate.

[brob]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/05/This-Town-Needs-A-Better-Class-Of-Racist/361443/

The problem with Bundy isn't that he is a racist but that he is an oafish racist. The elegant racist knows how to injure non-white people while never summoning the specter of white guilt.

I don't really follow american politics or NBA, but this article does a good job of showing how the polite veneer of political correctness centers around the problem of white guilt as opposed to the problem of racism. Figured it would fit in this thread.

[Phoenix Dark]

I want to be Ta-Nehisi Coates when I grow up.

[Oblivion]

[Brehvolution]

[Joe Molotov]

Time to finish the fight! #benghazi #tcot

[Phoenix Dark]

edit: wrong thread

[Joe Molotov]

But how does it tie into Benghazi, PD? Was Obama at the glory hole while Americans were being killed? What do you know, and when did you know it??!!

[thisismyusername]

OMG...

Start with this

>>edit to remove quote<<

#icant

Please, someone, explain this line of logic to me. How it is not a good thing to raise the minimum wage to a livable standard, no matter your age? The douches that fire people would do it anyway no matter what policy that "taxes" them happened to be.

[Joe Molotov]

Please, someone, explain this line of logic to me.

The line of thinking goes:
Raising minimum wage = Everything costs more because businesses just raise their prices to account for increased salaries = People making minimum wage are just as poor now as they were before because stuff costs more + People making slightly more than minimum wage before the hike won't get a raise and now will just be making minimum wage, so they'll be "poorer" than they were before since everything costs more = Just let the invisible hand decide how much you should make and quit complaining

[thisismyusername]

That's what I was thinking.

I keep going "but why wouldn't you want to help those that are working below minimum wage level at least have a decent standard of living?  " and they keep going "because blah blah blah" and I'm at this point of *dismiss*

[Mandark]

Theory is that businesses hire people at wages which are equal to what the business thinks they're worth, ie how much they'll increase revenue.

If a fast-food franchisee thinks that an extra person to work the register would be worth six bucks an hour of increased business, they'll hire someone for six bucks an hour.  If the government says they need to pay someone at least ten dollars, then they just won't hire that extra person, and take less business but higher profit.  So by trying to increase wages, the government would wind up costing a bunch of people their jobs.

It's hard to measure empirically (like basically everything in the social sciences), but I think most studies show a small effect on employment and some studies show no effect.  The minimum wage keeps coming up not so much cause it's a great tool to help poor people, but because it's politically feasible.

[benjipwns]

(Image removed from quote.)

What a partisan hack job. Everyone knows Clinton was responsible for 9/11.

[thisismyusername]

Also: employment will stagnate because businesses will be able to afford fewer employees.

So, basically to solve the recessions employment problem, people should be treated like shit?

I mean the major problem for me and why I'm a proponent of the minimum wage raising is that a bunch of jobs are either paying the state (which is below federal in some states) minimum and even that isn't enough to make ends-meet/live comfortable on. I can see the line of "oh well it won't increase jobs, it won't raise the poverty" etc. but why would you honestly oppose something that could possibly help?

[Trent Dole]

Prices of goods and services steadily rise year over year, base wages need to as well in order for people to be able to survive really.

[Human Snorenado]

Prices of goods and services steadily rise year over year, base wages need to as well in order for people to be able to survive really.

Then why hasn't everyone died over the last 30+ years as wages have stagnated?

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Answer: instead of households having one main earner, now both spouses work, and instead of having one job, people often have multiple jobs. Also, people maxed out credit cards, then dipped into the equity of their houses to help survive. Fortunately, the last solution appears to be cloning ourselves like in Multiplicity, so I'm optimistic!

[close]

[benjipwns]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/02/don-t-run-for-president-hillary-become-a-post-president-instead.html

I know as much as anyone how much her most fervent supporters want Hillary Clinton to run for president. On the opening night of the Women in the World Summit the mere mention of the possibility had the audience on their feet. The fan base is there, and constituencies beyond it.

But should she do it? Would the bravest and best decision be for her to skip it? In the 2008 campaign the chronic negativity of the ladies and gentlemen of the press was relentless, and the gouging of Hillary was wholly unrelated to either her record or her behavior. It was just that her story had gotten old. It required new angles, or, heaven forbid, new facts, to make it interesting—whereas Barack Obama was a story that wrote itself.

The first black president was a hotter plot line than the first woman president. Bad luck for Hillary. Obama stole her exceptionalism, leaving the press only with the hair, the alleged cackling laugh, and the over-familiar back-story, which meant dogging Bill around, hoping he’d lose it once in a while. (He obliged.)               

I joined the Hillary bus for a Newsweek story in 2008 I was fascinated how little attention in their copy the traveling reporters actually paid to anything she said when she got out. They were too busy filing recaps of blogs by commentators who weren’t there. Suddenly there would be media uproar about some killer soundbite from Hillary that someone had gotten traction for that in context wasn’t controversial at all. Remember that shit-storm when she said MLK’s dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act?

...

It led the news then with a new Hillary-as-racist meme that went on for a week. Five years later the ADD of the political press corps has only deepened. 

Does Hillary really want more of this? Being president you may have more power than anyone else in the country, but you quickly discover that you have much, much less than you thought you’d have going in. You’re hamstrung in ways you never dreamed of. That’s truer now than it’s ever been. It’s not that you can’t get anything done. It’s that what you can get done is so paltry compared to what you wanted and expected to get done. You are doomed to disappoint the people who elected you. You’ll disappoint yourself. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg of stress that awaits you.

So knowing all this, why indeed would Hillary run? It's now clear that given the vile toxicity of the campaign experience and the grueling gridlock of the Oval Office itself, the only reason to run for the highest political office in the land is not the presidency but the post-presidency. The post-presidency, as Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton have proved, is a win-win. Money, Nobels, the ability to leverage your global celebrity for any cause or hobbyhorse you wish, plus freedom to grab the mike whenever the urge takes you without any terminal repercussions. No longer being President does wonders for your morale. Even the Bushes have seemed happier out from under it. Big George went parachute jumping. Little George medicates memories of his Iraq mistake by painting not-bad pictures.

For Obama and Michelle it will be fantastic, because they are young enough to have a long, massive, wildly interesting presidential afterlife. While sitting presidents become more and more despised, ex-presidents become more and more popular.

...

Now that Chelsea is pregnant, and life for Hillary can get so deeply familial and pleasant, she can have her glory-filled post-presidency now, without actually having to deal with the miseries of the office itself. She is as adored as any ex-president already, she is making a ton of money, and she can expand the real passion of her life, her global mission to promote women’s rights, education, and political participation. The spotlight follows her and always will. If she becomes president at 68 it will be another press onslaught from hell and such a hog-tied two terms, only the festive delights of hip replacement surgery will await her by the time she gets out. Leave the presidency to the people who don't know what she knows all too well: what it’s really like.

[Great Rumbler]

Also: employment will stagnate because businesses will be able to afford fewer employees.

Except that an increased minimum wage will result in a lot of those employers making bigger profits because their customers have more money to spend.

[Phoenix Dark]

Also: employment will stagnate because businesses will be able to afford fewer employees.

Instead employment is stagnating because businesses are hiring fewer people to maximize productivity and profit. I don't see that changing if we had a higher minimum wage. I support a raise of course, I'm just saying that it doesn't really address the problem: lower consumer spending and businesses sitting on cash.

Although, you could argue that a minimum wage would increase consumer spending.

[Great Rumbler]

Re: Benghazi:

[Phoenix Dark]

man I wish these were a bunch of black guys brandishing guns and threatening government officials
http://www.westernjournalism.com/harry-reid-civil-war/

[Great Rumbler]

man I wish these were a bunch of black guys brandishing guns and threatening government officials
http://www.westernjournalism.com/harry-reid-civil-war/

Fox News flipped out for weeks when two Black Panthers held a door open for an old white woman at a polling site.

Edit: That website is literally brain poison, by the way.

[The USA]

Re: Benghazi:

Let's first try to understand how Obummer's van driver is promoted to editing talking points involving dead Americans.

[Joe Molotov]

Lack of a double chin. #struggle #skinnyprivilege

[The USA]

Lack of a double chin. #struggle #skinnyprivilege

Benghazi scandal: When will Team Obama tell truth about night my nephew was killed?
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/05/02/benghazi-scandal-when-will-team-obama-tell-truth-about-night-my-nephew-was/

[benjipwns]

"I have evidence that, not only are they hiding it, there is an intent to hide it," Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) told Greta van Susteren on FOX News. "I can't disclose that evidence yet, but I have evidence that there was a systematic, intentional decision to withhold certain documents from Congress. And we're just sick of it. So we're gonna have him come explain why we're getting documents 20 months late."

"If you want to have Greg Hicks and the station chief from Tripoli and Hillary Clinton all sitting at the same table, you need to have a committee that has the power to do that. And a select committee would have that power," Gowdy said on Friday.

Gowdy is being considered to chair the upcoming select committee that will investigate the Benghazi attacks.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2014/05/03/lt_col_ralph_peters_wh_worried_more_about_obamas_reelection_than_lives_of_benghazi_victims.html

LT. COL. RALPH PETERS: It's right to subpoena them, I got that because you do anything you can to pry this Stalinistic administration open. I mean it's so Orwellian how this administration just lies and sticks to the lies and stonewalls, and as you observed the media is often complicit with. Sometimes you have to step back. And when I step back and look at the myriad of problems to do with Benghazi, things done, not done, should have been redone.

The bottom line here is what we have on the night when it was going down, a presidential administration, all of the presidents men and women in the White House worried not about how to save those Americans on the ground in Benghazi, but putting priority on saving the presidents campaign for reelection and that is incredibly shameful. I don't know anything like that has happened in American history.

Ralph Peters is slowly becoming my favorite expert. In some respects, he reminds me of my mother in that way.

[benjipwns]

http://www.journalnow.com/news/local/gop-candidate-was-once-a-female-impersonator/article_a1029862-5a82-5752-90e4-eac7155bce1e.html

Steve Wiles, a Republican state Senate candidate who supports North Carolina’s constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage, once worked as a female impersonator at a gay nightclub in Winston-Salem and was gay at the time, according to a co-owner of the nightclub and a former employee.

Wiles, 34, was in his early 20s when he worked at the now-defunct nightclub, Club Odyssey, according to co-owner Randy Duggins and former employee Gray Tomlinson.

“He is Mona Sinclair,” Duggins said, referring to Wiles’ female persona. 

Wiles’ responses over the past three weeks have ranged from categorical denial to tacit admission.

“I have already apologized to the people who matter most to me for the things I did when I was young,” Wiles said this week, declining to clarify for what he has apologized.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/02/alabamas-chief-justice-buddha-didnt-create-us-so-first-amendment-only-protects-christians/

Speaking at the Pastor for Life Luncheon, which was sponsored by Pro-Life Mississippi, Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court declared that the First Amendment only applies to Christians because “Buddha didn’t create us, Mohammed didn’t create us, it was the God of the Holy Scriptures” who created us.

“They didn’t bring the Koran over on the pilgrim ship,” he continued. “Let’s get real, let’s go back and learn our history. Let’s stop playing games.”

He then noted that he loves talking to lawyers, because he is a lawyer who went to “a secular law school,” so he knows that “in the law, [talking about God] just isn’t politically correct.” He claimed that this is why America has “lost its way,” and that he would be publishing a pamphlet “this week, maybe next” that contained copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, thereby proving that all the people “who found this nation — black, white, all people, all religions, all faiths” knew that America was “about God.”

Chief Justice Moore later defined “life” via Blackstone’s Law — a book that American lawyers have “sadly forgotten” — as beginning when “the baby kicks.” “Today,” he said, “our courts say it’s not alive ’til the head comes out.”

“Now,” he continued, “if technology’s supposed to increase our knowledge, how did we become so stupid?” Discussing Thomas Jefferson’s use of “life” in the Declaration of Independence, he said that “when [Jefferson] put ‘life’ in there, it was in the womb — we know it begins at conception. Why aren’t we going the right way instead of the wrong way?”

He later said the “pursuit of happiness” meant following God’s law, because “you can’t be happy unless you follow God’s law, and if you follow God’s law, you can’t help but be happy.”

“It’s all about God,” he continued. “We’ve made ‘life’ a decision taken by man,” he said, and “taken ‘liberty,’ and converted it to ‘licentiousness. We’ve taken ‘pursuit of happiness,’ and reduced it to materialism.”

[The USA]

"I have evidence that, not only are they hiding it, there is an intent to hide it," Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) told Greta van Susteren on FOX News. "I can't disclose that evidence yet, but I have evidence that there was a systematic, intentional decision to withhold certain documents from Congress. And we're just sick of it. So we're gonna have him come explain why we're getting documents 20 months late."

"If you want to have Greg Hicks and the station chief from Tripoli and Hillary Clinton all sitting at the same table, you need to have a committee that has the power to do that. And a select committee would have that power," Gowdy said on Friday.

Gowdy is being considered to chair the upcoming select committee that will investigate the Benghazi attacks.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2014/05/03/lt_col_ralph_peters_wh_worried_more_about_obamas_reelection_than_lives_of_benghazi_victims.html

LT. COL. RALPH PETERS: It's right to subpoena them, I got that because you do anything you can to pry this Stalinistic administration open. I mean it's so Orwellian how this administration just lies and sticks to the lies and stonewalls, and as you observed the media is often complicit with. Sometimes you have to step back. And when I step back and look at the myriad of problems to do with Benghazi, things done, not done, should have been redone.

The bottom line here is what we have on the night when it was going down, a presidential administration, all of the presidents men and women in the White House worried not about how to save those Americans on the ground in Benghazi, but putting priority on saving the presidents campaign for reelection and that is incredibly shameful. I don't know anything like that has happened in American history.

Ralph Peters is slowly becoming my favorite expert. In some respects, he reminds me of my mother in that way.

Trey Gowdy has my exact hair style.

[Great Rumbler]

I just wish conservatives and the GOP would stop using four dead Americans as political props, but they've been doing it for twenty months without showing any signs of stopping so I guess that's wishful thinking on my part.

[helios]

Diamond Joe is now canon

[Joe Molotov]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/02/alabamas-chief-justice-buddha-didnt-create-us-so-first-amendment-only-protects-christians/

Speaking at the Pastor for Life Luncheon, which was sponsored by Pro-Life Mississippi, Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court declared that the First Amendment only applies to Christians because “Buddha didn’t create us, Mohammed didn’t create us, it was the God of the Holy Scriptures” who created us.

“They didn’t bring the Koran over on the pilgrim ship,” he continued. “Let’s get real, let’s go back and learn our history. Let’s stop playing games.”

He then noted that he loves talking to lawyers, because he is a lawyer who went to “a secular law school,” so he knows that “in the law, [talking about God] just isn’t politically correct.” He claimed that this is why America has “lost its way,” and that he would be publishing a pamphlet “this week, maybe next” that contained copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, thereby proving that all the people “who found this nation — black, white, all people, all religions, all faiths” knew that America was “about God.”

Chief Justice Moore later defined “life” via Blackstone’s Law — a book that American lawyers have “sadly forgotten” — as beginning when “the baby kicks.” “Today,” he said, “our courts say it’s not alive ’til the head comes out.”

“Now,” he continued, “if technology’s supposed to increase our knowledge, how did we become so stupid?” Discussing Thomas Jefferson’s use of “life” in the Declaration of Independence, he said that “when [Jefferson] put ‘life’ in there, it was in the womb — we know it begins at conception. Why aren’t we going the right way instead of the wrong way?”

He later said the “pursuit of happiness” meant following God’s law, because “you can’t be happy unless you follow God’s law, and if you follow God’s law, you can’t help but be happy.”

“It’s all about God,” he continued. “We’ve made ‘life’ a decision taken by man,” he said, and “taken ‘liberty,’ and converted it to ‘licentiousness. We’ve taken ‘pursuit of happiness,’ and reduced it to materialism.”

All they had on the Mayflower was guns, Bibles, and tricorn hats, so that's all we need!

[TakingBackSunday]

oh my god that video

biden please run in 2016

[The USA]

I just wish conservatives and the GOP would stop using four dead Americans as political props, but they've been doing it for twenty months without showing any signs of stopping so I guess that's wishful thinking on my part.

Really? I think it's about time the GOP started getting serious about Benghazi. I think there was a period of at least 3-4 months when I didn't even hear that word on Fox News.
That's inexcusable.

[Phoenix Dark]

GOP Candidate Opposed To Marriage Equality Once Worked As A Drag Queen

A Republican state senate candidate who supported North Carolina's ban on gay marriage once worked as a female impersonator at a gay nightclub, the Winston-Salem Journal reported Saturday.

Real estate agent Steve Wiles, 34, went by "Mona Sinclair" when he worked at the now-closed Club Odyssey in the early 2000s, according to the club's co-owner and another former employee. Wiles' former co-workers claim he was gay at the time and was a frequent visitor at the nightclub before he began working there.

Wiles denied that he worked as Mona Sinclair in interviews with the Winston-Salem Journal, and responded "no" when the newspaper asked whether he was gay.

But Wiles also appears as Mona Sinclair in a cached version of the Miss Gay America website. The cached webpage said that Wiles was suspended from the organization for "conduct unbecoming to a promoter of the Miss Gay America pageant system.”

Wiles campaigned for North Carolina's constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in 2012, according to the Winston Salem-Journal.

The state senate candidate spoke to Business Insider after the Winston-Salem Journal report was published and argued that he doesn't believe being against gay marriage is equal to being anti-gay.

"I don't really understand how you can separate the fact that marriage is a religious institution," he said.

As for whether he considers himself an ex-gay, Wiles told Business Insider he didn't want to comment on that. He said that he views his past as a drag queen as an "embarrassment," but told Business Insider that it wouldn't stop his campaign.

"I learned a lot of lessons, some of them, well most of them, the hard way," he told the website. "That's generally how I learned, but I did learn from my mistakes. That's something that I wish I could say for some of my GOP rivals."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/gop-candidate-opposes-marriage-equality-worked-as-female-impersonator

[Human Snorenado]

wtf kind of drag queen has a name as boring as "Mona Sinclair?"

[Joe Molotov]

wtf kind of drag queen has a name as boring as "Mona Sinclair?"

GOP drag queens

Probably only had buttsex in the missionary position too. 

[Dickie Dee]

KEENE, N.H. — In most places, the parking enforcement officer reflects the municipal compact. Armed only with a gadget that can spit out a ticket at the forgotten drop of a dime, the officer quietly serves civic and commercial life by ensuring that meters are fed.

In most places, yes. But not here in charming Keene, where parking officers figure in a philosophical tug of war between a small band of activists who live by the motto “Free Keene,” and the great majority of residents who were unaware that their city was in bondage.

Keene’s two parking officers, both women, are often videotaped by young adults known as “Robin Hooders.” They track the whereabouts of the officers by two-way radio, feed expired meters before $5 tickets can be written, and leave a business card saying that “we saved you from the king’s tariff.”

 

[Joe Molotov]

Meter Maid-chan, why are you so tsundere towards Freedom, desu~!?

[Joe Molotov]

ABDUL-JABBAR: Well, this is a problem. I did a little bit of research, more whites believe in ghosts than believe in racism. That's why we don't have -- that why we have shows like Ghostbusters and don't have shows like Racistbuster. You know, it's something that's still part of our culture and people hold on to some of these ideas and practices just out of habit and saying that well that's the way it always was. But things have to change.

[Father_Brain]

wtf kind of drag queen has a name as boring as "Mona Sinclair?"

hey, coming up with witty pun names is hard. Most of the Drag Race queens these days don't even bother with it

[Howard Alan Treesong]

wtf kind of drag queen has a name as boring as "Mona Sinclair?"

Moaner Sinxxlair

[Great Rumbler]

ABDUL-JABBAR: Well, this is a problem. I did a little bit of research, more whites believe in ghosts than believe in racism. That's why we don't have -- that why we have shows like Ghostbusters and don't have shows like Racistbuster. You know, it's something that's still part of our culture and people hold on to some of these ideas and practices just out of habit and saying that well that's the way it always was. But things have to change.

[Dickie Dee]

 

[benjipwns]

Looks like this is expanding: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/05/04/va-healthcare-delays-treatment-phoenix-cheyenne-deaths/8602117/

A VA investigation of one of its outpatient clinics in Colorado reveals how ingrained delays in medical care may be for an agency struggling to rapidly treat nearly 9 million veterans a year amid allegations that dozens have died because of delays.

Clerks at the Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Fort Collins were instructed last year how to falsify appointment records so it appeared the small staff of doctors was seeing patients within the agency's goal of 14 days, according to the investigation.

A copy of the findings by the VA's Office of Medical Inspector was provided to USA TODAY.

Many of the 6,300 veterans treated at the outpatient clinic waited months to be seen. If the clerical staff allowed records to reflect that veterans waited longer than 14 days, they were punished by being placed on a "bad boy list," the report shows.

"Employees reported that scheduling was 'fixed,' " the findings say.

After the VA endured a year of criticism that it took too long to deliver earned compensation to disabled veterans, the agency faces a new wave of attacks over slow medical care.

Department officials revealed last month that 23 deaths of veterans were linked to delayed cancer screenings dating back four years. More recently, a retired doctor, Sam Foote, alleged that 40 other veterans died because of treatment delays at a VA hospital in Phoenix. VA officials say there's no evidence so far to support those claims, but the hospital administrator was placed on leave pending an investigation by the agency's inspector general.

...

A key allegation by the whistle-blowing retired doctor in Phoenix is that staff members manipulated records to hide delays. The same practice was found by the VA Office of Medical Inspector at the clinic in Fort Collins.

While investigators found that VA policies were violated, local medical leaders concluded that the violations were less intentional than the result of confusion and no disciplinary action was taken, says a VA statement released Saturday. Retraining and weekly audits were implemented, the statement says.

[benjipwns]

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-finkelstein/2014/05/05/what-if-fox-news-instead-msnbc-had-pulled-cinco-de-mayo-stunt

¡Ay caramba! Imagine the cries of offensive ethnic stereotyping or worse if Fox News had observed Cinco de Mayo by having one of its yanqui persons of pallor stagger across the set in a sombrero while chugging from a bottle of tequila?

But it happened on MSNBC, so the PC police probably won't make a peep.  At today's transition from Way Too Early to Morning Joe, there pranced producer Louis Burgdorf with his Halloween-store sombrero and pint bottle.  WTE host Thomas Roberts encouraged Burgdorf "to drink the whole thing and eat the worm," meaning either it was mezcal not tequila or Roberts just doesn't know his south-of-the-border booze.  View the video after the jump.

If this had happened, say, on Fox and Friends, MSNBC might have had to interrupt its Donald Sterling coverage with a Breaking News report on the racist outrage at Fox News, and La Raza would have had a picket line up before the end of the program!

Note the screen graphic on Cinco de Mayo: "Mexican Heritage Celebration," and consider the PC outrage, had this been Fox News, to have reduced Mexican heritage to this.  All that was missing was a rehash of Jimmy Carter's Montezuma's Revenge crack!

[Great Rumbler]

[benjipwns]

I think that's my absolute favorite five second film by far.

[Joe Molotov]

I think that's my absolute favorite five second film by far.

Also 100% accurate.

[Brehvolution]

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/gop-army-col-blasts-party-for-focus-on-benghazi-over-cheneys-war-crimes/

After asserting that he remains a member of the Republican Party, Wilkerson said that he does find it concerning that the GOP focuses on Benghazi over more pressing issues.

“I find it an enormous problem that they go after something like this, Benghazi – tragedy that it was – and they don’t go after something that is a colossal tragedy like the war crimes of Richard Bruce Cheney,” he insisted.

[Great Rumbler]

Scorched earth destruction:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/jon-stewart-mocks-hypocritical-outrage-benghazi

[Great Rumbler]

Remember when American embassies and stations in Beirut were attacked several times over the course of 18 months and hundreds of Americans, including high-ranking officials were killed, and there was one serious investigation that offered real insight into the problem and what could be done to correct and nobody screamed for Reagan to be impeached? Apparently, not many people do!

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2014/05/ronald-reagans-benghazi.html

[Oblivion]

Remember when American embassies and stations in Beirut were attacked several times over the course of 18 months and hundreds of Americans, including high-ranking officials were killed, and there was one serious investigation that offered real insight into the problem and what could be done to correct and nobody screamed for Reagan to be impeached? Apparently, not many people do!

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2014/05/ronald-reagans-benghazi.html

There's something off about this piece. Why would terrorists dare attack our embassies when a REPUBLICAN was president of the United States? They didn't just do it once, but SEVERAL times. There's only two possibilities that would explain such a situation:

A) Ronald Reagan was not a Republican president

or

B) Because it is physically impossible for terrorists to mount an attack against the United States when there's a Republican president in charge, it therefore means there were in fact, no terrorist attacks.

[ToxicAdam]

Why no outrage? Because George Schulz (secretary of state, at the time) wasn't a potential presidential candidate. That's the whole rub here.

Also, attacks on US embassies were very frequent in the late 70's and early 80's. The public was (probably) pretty numb to them at the time.

 http://www.motherjones.com/files/images/diplomatic-attacks4.png

 

[benjipwns]

http://www.motherjones.com/files/images/diplomatic-attacks4.png

And look at that, zero for Obama in 2012 all because he refused to call it an attack instead saying it was a peaceful protest over a youtube video nobody saw beforehand.

[benjipwns]

Don't even need to wait for Poppa Bear, Greta takes out the "comedy" trash on her own:
http://gretawire.foxnewsinsider.com/2014/05/06/note-to-jon-stewart-who-i-think-is-very-smart-and-very-clever-but-like-the-rest-of-us-not-always-right-but-a-comedian-has-of-course-way-more-lattitude/

Last night Jon Stewart opened his show with a segment about Fox News Channel’s aggressive coverage of Benghazi. 

Stewart’s criticism of Fox News Channel is that Fox News Channel is more aggressive about President Obama and Benghazi than it ever was about President Bush and Iraq. 

Besides the obvious — that almost all the Democrats in Congress voted for the war in Iraq and other media reporting – is my simple note to Stewart: 2 wrongs don’t make a right. 

Endless annihilation of Stewart's butthurt whining in the comments:

ResQMee • a day ago
Stewart sounds a little nervous about this Congressional probe.

3ButterflyKisses • a day ago
I have never watched Jon Stewart in my life, nor do I have a desire to. I also didn't watch Fox during the Iraq war. What I do know is the Main Stream Media went after Bush with a vengeance and now the MSM is doing what Stewart accuses Fox of doing, of ignoring one President, (Obama) while aggressively going after another (Bush). Can one not see the hypocrisy of what Stewart said last night? It was fine with Stewart the MSM aggressively went after Bush, but now ignores all things Obama? All Stewart did was show us he is another Obama lap dog and will do what lap dogs do - protect their master.

2bshur • a day ago
Bush never abandoned anyone to die nor did he lie and fabricate a story to cover his butt to win an election. What Obama and Clinton did was show extreme negligence, dereliction of duty and they have obstructed justice on a level far greater than that which happened during Watergate. At least Nixon had the sense and decency to step down so we could move forward.

Informed&Concerned • a day ago
Stewart will have egg on his face when it is revealed that the "INTELLIGENCE FAILURE" he so glibly refers to originated at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

alapatriot • a day ago
Perchance he could look at his own network and not be so concerned about the industry leader. Maybe Fox is leading for a reason. Do you suppose it is because, for the most part, Fox employs journalists and professionals, not comedians and ministers without Divinity degrees?

[Mandark]

Over the last decade I've probably read Krugman's actual NYT column half a dozen times or less.  I think it's a pretty crappy format and just read his blog instead.  Much prefer these NYRB ostensible book reviews that everyone knows are just long opinion pieces.

[benjipwns]

I don't read French very well, but I saw commented elsewhere that this book was basically ignored in France, contrary to all the endless knobslobbering in the American media. I don't get it either but I don't get a lot of things as regularly proven.

[Mandark]

endless knobslobbering in the American media

Philosophically appropriate "umad" smiley here please, Esch.