Music Break: All In All, A Good Week For Progressives

HERE'S WEEZER'S 'ISLAND IN THE SUN' ... to chill out:

This Must Be A Proud Moment For Lady Alex ...

AFTER 21 YEARS, THE INDOMITABLE MYANMAR OPPOSITION LEADER, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, a symbol to the whole world of courageous, principled, non-violent opposition to military repression and brutal totalitarianism, finally gets to claim her 1991 Nobel Peace Prize — in person. It's been a long time coming — much too long, even heeding Dr. King's wisdom, that "the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice." Yet, it is moments like these that give us the strength to persevere and the faith to believe that, eventually, at long last, justice will out.

President Obama To 'EL LOCO' Gallardo (Span. For 'Willard'): OLé! OLé!! OLé!!!

AS OUR BRILLIANT LADY ALEX DESCRIBED IT, "it was a MASTERFUL stroke." In one sweeping maneuver, President Obama sucked all the oxygen out of Mitt Romney's bus tour, boxing him into an immigration policy corner (Recuerden "self-deportation"!), neutralized right wing cubano Marco Rubio's fledgling bullshit plan to replace the Dream Act, and dared the treasonous obstructionist Republican Congress to challenge his unilateral shift in immigration policy.

The hapless Marco Rubio complained that he wasn't "consulted," Mitt Romney said it makes immigration  "reform" more difficult (Excuse me!? WHAT immigration "reform"?! "Self-deportation"!?!), and the GOP traitors in Congress made the usual vitriolic accusations of "amnesty," a "magnet" for illegal border crossing/invasion, and taking jobs away from "Americans" — like the plutocrats and corporations bankrolling the GOP that ship jobs overseas, or Romney killing millions of jobs by touting "let Detroit go bankrupt," or the traitors in the GOP Congress killing jobs bills that would create millions of critical infrastructure and public sector jobs — you know: firefighters, cops and teachers — as well as a measure to give corporations tax incentives to keep jobs in this country.

Go ahead, Romney The Liar, GOP Traitors, and wingnuts ALL: Make President Obama's day.

Dylan Ratigan Can't Leave Soon Enough

AND TO HIS PANEL, ARI MELBER, TOURE, AND ESPECIALLY KRISTAL BALL: SHAME ON YOU! Given the context of the President's rude interruption by a Daily Caller wingnut in the Rose Garden while announcing a major policy initiative affecting millions of Latinos, Dylan's mockery of that exchange, as I watched it, was incredibly offensive and in poor taste. Using his three giggling panelists as props to interrupt and talk over Martin Bashir, Ratigan basically mocked the Rose Garden incident again by re-enacting his version of it. It was in incredibly poor taste.

Second, Ratigan feeds his vitriolic hatred for President Obama, by suggesting this major policy initiative was "Panderin'" then lumped him together with Romney in a clear case of false equivalence — Dylan's middle name, the hypocrite — which has a name: sophistry. He does it all the F-ing time and NONE of you ever call him on it! Toure finally spoke up, explaining what I just did. Then Dylan launched into his long-winded nonsensical excuses, which Lawrence would call gibberish, and at least you, Kristal, should have the derring-do and cojones to interrupt your obnoxious host with one word: BULLSHIT. (It never ceases to amaze me how progressives allow themselves to be reduced to CIPHERS on Ratigan's show.)

Good riddance, Dylan. Parting word of advice: You'll get a lot farther if you learn to be honest with yourself and whatever audience you're trying to reach. When you speak the plain truth you won't need to behave like such a boorish, Daily Caller-ish windbag.

'EL LOCO' ROMNEY GIBBERISH: WWII VETS, A TORCH ... HUH?!

LAWRENCE, WHO'S GOT MITT'S NUMBER, DISSECTS A "REPUBLICAN DRAFT-DODGER" who may well be clinically insane. Any reasonable person who watches this individual LIE PATHOLOGICALLY doesn't have to be a psychiatrist to get the uneasy feeling Mitt Romney is not 'all there' upstairs. Memo to the MSM/Beltway Media: DO YOUR F-ING JOBS!!

Iowa Cafe Owner Becomes "EL DERANGE-O LOCO" Mitt Romney's Latest Victim

NOW THIS IS WHAT I CALL SUPERB TEXTBOOK RETAIL POLITICS. Just listen to Iowa cafe owner Dianne Bauer venting about how Mitt treats "us, little people":

And that's where Mitt's latest EPIC FAIL in his "out-of-touch" projection/quest to come across as a "regular guy" occurred when he could not identify "that chocolate goody" on the table as a DONUT!

Has Mormonism Made Mitt Romney A PATHOLOGICAL LIAR — Or Is He A SOCIOPATH?

AS AN INCREASINGLY ALARMED OBSERVER of the most psychologically flawed and temperamentally unfit major party candidate for president since Richard Nixon, my honest opinion of Mitt Romney to this question is, BOTH. Everything we know about Romney tells us his religion is central to who he is, to his core. At the same time, his political history of pathological lying, flip-flopping on every issue, recanting statements mere hours, sometimes minutes, after they're made, the constant, shameless dismissal ("what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander" — weird) repetition of the few lies the press actually queried him about — all of this was rather breezily and deceptively condensed by the Beltway Media as "Mitt Romney has no core."

What does that mean?! According to Lady Alex's "intrepids," it means Mitt Romney is just another cynical politician who will do anything, say anything to get elected. But it runs deeper than that, and they all know it. There is a difference between a politician who spins, twists the truth in his or her favor, or exaggerates, which they all do, and someone who shamelessly, relentlessly, incessantly, pathologically — LIES.

Dr. Justin Frank, a Washington clinical psychoanalyst and professor of psychiatry at George Washington University Medical School, wrote a cautionary, provocative piece for TIME as part of his "On The Couch" series (ignored by the Beltway Media, naturally), in which he postulates that "the root of Mitt Romney's comfort with lying" is rooted in his Mormon faith: (Emphasis mine.)

I found myself discussing this situation with several colleagues, and we agreed that Romney doesn’t lie. Let me repeat: Mitt Romney doesn’t lie. He is telling the truth as he sees it — and truth it is, the facts notwithstanding. This is not simply a case of Hamlet arguing about point of view, saying, “For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” This is about a conflict between evidence and faith. There is a long tradition in the Mormon belief system in which evidence takes second place to faith. Examples abound, as when two Mormon elders who were questioned about the inconsistency in passages from the Book of Mormon said, “We know the Book of Mormon is true and that it contains the Word of God even in the face of evidence that appears contradictory,” according to The Mormon Missionaries by former Mormon Janice Hutchison. Thus there are no lies, only faith-based certainty that translates as truth for which no apology is needed, since what was said was not a lie.

Children learn to lie at different times in their development, but almost always by the age of 10. Their lies help establish them as separate from their parents, especially if the parents believe them. And one doesn’t have to be a Mormon to lie — just look at John Edwards or former Nevada Senator John Ensign. But in the Mormon Church, there was a decision to accept authority as true — whether or not evidence supported it. Hence Joseph Smith, the founder of the faith in 1820, claimed he was illiterate and received the Book of Mormon directly from God. But he could read, and read very well.

This unwavering faith is central to Romney’s comfort in deflecting any examples that the press might bring up of his lying. Further, it allows him to repeat lies again and again — both personally and in political advertising — because to him they are not lies at all. I’m reminded of that old epigram from the 1960s: “My mind is made up; don’t confuse me with the facts.” That may be all good and well in many offices, but it’s not so good in the Oval Office.

Yet short of indicting all of Mormonism as a religion which breeds and encourages liars — a charge that could be leveled at every religion, with any literal reading of their holy books —I'm inclined to believe, based on my gut-check, personal observations of this perennial candidate for the world's most powerful office, that there's more at work here, which is disturbing in polite corporate media company, because it goes to the heart of Mitt Romney's mental stability and fitness for the office of president. Here is the best summation I've read of the question of Romney's possible sociopathy, focusing on three discrete and weird, or disturbing (depending on how you view them) incidents in Mitt Romney's past. He certainly meets the profile of a sociopath.

So, as discussed by Dr. Franks, not only is Romney's secretiveness about his religion disturbing as a likely source of his pathological lying; my gut also tells me he is a sociopath that is fundamentally, psychologically unfit to be president of the United States. That he is this close to becoming president should frighten the bejeezus out of 80% of the population that is essentially sane. I keep coming back to that right upper lip curl of contempt and ingrained cruelty, and to James Lipton's observation of the eyes that don't smile. My political instincts tell me this guy is really, really bad news. And he's skating along inside a bubble of secrecy that, for whatever backroom corporate deals cut, the press dare not burst. That, by itself, is unsettling. And my gut political instincts rarely let me down.

Elizabeth Warren Is AWESOME: Chris, Well ... Not So Much

CHRIS MATTHEWS CALLS HER "A NICE LADY"!?!! WHAT THE HELL KINDA DEMON WEED have you been smokin', pal?! You can manage "you're great!" for Hogan Gidley but all you can muster for the AWESOME, SUPER-IMPRESSIVE Elizabeth Warren is "NICE LADY"?!? Good thing you're in D.C. otherwise Lady Alex might go looking to head-butt you with her kangaroo head!

Wingnut Reverse Psychology WON'T WORK With The ROMBOT IMBECILE

MR. DESPICABLE FILTHTY RICH CULT RELIGIONIST Mitt Romney has the AUDACITY to run around the country reading the wingnut Rovian reverse psychology —noticed that a MORON like Donald Trump used the term against Wolf Blitzer, meaning he's still dumb but familiar with the talking points — or should I say, mangling the script, and hoping the American people can't pick up on being condescended to and looked down upon as so many, unpleasant, non-Mormon rabble!!?

Here's a SCUMBAG who, as Chris Matthews so aptly put it, speaks LIKE A CONEHEAD, ALIEN ENGLISH — e.g., he says "aircraft" instead of "plane" like the rest of us; "fireMEN" and "policeMEN" instead of "firefighters" and "police officers" no P.C. here, Romney's so fucking out of touch he doesn't realize women have populated these critical public service professions for DECADES; says "sport" instead of "sports", surprised he hasn't referred to football as "athletics"; and tells cringe-inducing UNFUNNY, CRUEL "jokes" about his fondness for "firing people" and readiness to place bets (trying to impress regular guy casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, I guess) of $10,000.

Yeah, Mitt's "in touch" with the PEOPLE, all right. So he had the UNMITIGATED GALL to mock President Obama for wanting MORE "firemen, MORE policemen, MORE TEACHERS. IT'S TIME FOR US TO CUT DOWN ON GOVERNMENT"!? Meanwhile, large swaths of Colorado and New Mexico forests are burning out of control. What's your solution, Mitt? An EMERGENCY APPROPRIATION to rehire the firefighters who were FIRED for lack of federal government funding?!

Meanwhile Romney surrogate John Sununu LIES that there is "WISDOM" in teacher firings and layoffs, when in fact just the DEMOGRAPHIC growth of the student population nationally demands MORE teachers to avert an educational DISASTER with severe teacher shortages, larger classroom sizes, and a precipitous decline in the quality of education. On a related note, the crime-ridden City of Camden, NJ rehired 55 of 167 police officers laid off under Gov.Christie's austerity cuts, then another 19 police officers under a FEDERAL GRANT PROGRAM.

The Reverend Al has done yeoman's work bringing the FACTS to the people in his Politics Nation show on MSNBC. Check it out:

BROTHER DYSON TELLS IT LIKE IT IS: REPUBLICANS SABOTAGE ECONOMY

HE EVEN PLAYS A CLIP OF BILL MAHER as a message to Steve Capus, et al that their best efforts to sanitize and WHITEWASH the language on behalf of their candidate, Mitt Romney, isn't working with the voters. SABOTAGE = TREASON. Any questions, WINGNUTS?!

Memo To Beltway Media: No WAVE Election, IDIOTS!

THE GUY WHO LOOKS LIKE LENIN COMFORTABLY RETAINS Gabby Giffords' seat in a commie traitor REPUBLICAN RED district in a reliably CTRR state, Arizona!? Please try to curb your disappointment, ASSHOLES! (Come to think of it, Chuckles Toddy looks like a younger Lenin, too. Hmm ...)

Lady Alex Real-Life Funnies: GAME CHANGER's Revenge!

AND NICOLLE IS RETURNING FOR ANOTHER ROUND: Texting Mark Halperin!

Quotable: Lady Alex, Said And Done

“I should have a picture of Chris Matthews on my desk … I adore — I don’t think adore is a strong enough word for him. He has been an incredible supporter of the show, and he is very influential in terms of the heights we aspire to.” ~ Lady Alex, being unwittingly funny, to POLITICO.

For what it’s worth, we put in a good word for you, Alex. Sometimes Chris listens to us … believe it or not.

ADIOS, DYLAN ... HULLOOOO, MARTIN!

WE WISH DYLAN WELL ... I GUESS NO ONE UNDERSTOOD HIM EXCEPT HIS BUDDIES DEEPAK, JIMMY, ARI, TOURE, KAREN, IMOGEN, et al (can't remember the wingnuts), and, of course, MARTIN. It's too bad, because I had my popcorn on standby for when Martin finally gets up off his desk (in that awkward split-screen where Dylan lobs passive-aggressive insults at Martin), walks over to Dylan's side of the split screen, and knocks him off-camera with a flying tackle.

Martin would've taken Dylan, too. Though smaller, legend has it he was a tough semi-pro rugby player, with the scars to prove it. Now, set to inherit Dylan's hour as the perfect set-up man for Chris — I predict a hard-hittin' progressive ratings boost right off the bat — Martin must stand down. All the while, enduring the slings and arrows of Dylan's final days, and avoid getting into a rumble through incessant provocations. Memo To The Suits: If you move Chris Hayes to Martin's slot, not only will the intellectual brain-power of your daily lineup increase tenfold, but so will your ratings. Your audience is a lot SMARTER than you EMPTY SUITS give us credit for!

In Step With Bill Maher, Accidental Historian

COUNT ON BILL MAHER to give wingnuts at our favorite wingnut rag, The Daily Caller, weekly conniption fits over his comedic "seriousness," which is the ultimate oxymoron:

It’s been some time since a United States citizen was tried and convicted of treason,  a crime that carries some serious penalties, according to the U.S. Code:

Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

Perhaps HBO “Real Time” host Bill Maher doesn’t realize the seriousness of such a charge. On his Friday program, Maher elaborated on the suggestion he made in a tweet that President Barack Obama’s opponents are guilty of treason for blocking his economic initiatives.

And your point is? Here's what Bill Maher said that had the DC's Poor, Jeff's panties all in a wad:


Treason is indeed a serious charge — and a serious case can be made that Republicans are committing treason against the United States of America. Whether such a charge could be brought against members of Congress, in both chambers, is not beyond the realm of existing law and historical practice, i.e., possibility. Even if a charge of treason, the ultimate crime against the United States, doesn't stick, there are other lesser, but severe, remedies available to Congress of expulsion and censure. In fact, in the institution's history, TWO U.S. senators have been charged with treason: William Blount (R-TN) in 1797, and John Smith (R-OH) in 1808.

SIDEBAR: Interestingly, both carry that fateful "R" party brand, although it should be noted that the "Republicans" (later the Democratic-Republicans) were the "Democrats" of the day, versus the "Whigs" (Federalists) that evolved into Lincoln's Republican Party. But this is of limited truth-in-labeling historical significance, since today's Democratic Party are descendants and inheritors of Teddy Roosevelt's Progressive Republicans, while today's Republican Party transmogrified into the evil Zombie faction of the "Dixiecrat Democrats" that had been a remnant of postbellum virulent anti-Lincoln-Republican politics, which never recognized the victory of North over South and is still fighting the Civil War on the political and economic spheres.

Come to think of it, even the South's obsessive extractionist [energy] and agricultural economy and its systematic weakening of our northern manufacturing base follows the same historical pattern. The southern Republican Party's ideological — I would argue, also cultural and historic — posture to let our auto manufacturing crown jewels in Detroit DIE, from its titular leader, Mitt Romney, to the House and Senate leadership, governors, and rank-and-file, is a natural "states' rights" response to these cultural and historical patterns. We should not forget, or minimize, how ingrained southern heroic Civil War military culture (or as it's typically referenced in the South, "the war between the states"), "Old Dixie" Confederacy, is celebrated in the South, even in Brazil, where proud descendants of unbowed "Confederados" who emigrated there rather than accept defeat and surrender to the North, celebrate their colorful history.

Viewed through this historical and cultural lens, the southern Republican Party's nearly monolithic stance against the so-called Detroit "bailout" wasn't as insane as it appeared to the rest of us. Given the fact that the greatest number of senators expelled from the Senate (the institution's maximum sanction for a finding of treason; seven expelled, one later reversed) was on the charge of "support for the Confederate rebellion," or giving aid and comfort to the enemy in times of war, a charge technically akin to treason, its application to members of a certain political party during wartime is hardly an American history rarity.

Of the two senators charged with treason in the Senate: Blount was accused of "Anti-Spanish Conspiracy; Treason" seeking the aid of a United States government interpreter to seize Spanish Florida and Louisiana with British and Indian help, in order to transfer those territories to Great Britain; Smith was charged with "Disloyalty/Treason" for being implicated in the murky Aaron Burr plot to lead the western territories in rebellion. Ironically, Senator Blount acquired the ignoble title of being the first U.S. senator ever expelled from the Senate, while Smith beat the rap, avoiding expulsion by a 19 to 10 vote, less than the necessary two-thirds majority. Smith resigned two weeks after the vote, at request of the Ohio legislature. (His counsel was Francis Scott Key, who penned the lyrics in poetry of the Star Spangled Banner — ah, the tangled webs History weaves.)

Consider the following TREASON scenario against Republicans. We already know that on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009 House and Senate Republicans held a private dinner —

..."in which they plotted a campaign of obstruction against newly installed president Barack Obama. During a lengthy discussion, the senior GOP members worked out a plan to repeatedly block Obama over the coming four years to try to ensure he would not be re-elected. The disclosures — described as "appalling and sad" by Obama's chief strategist David Axelrod — undermine Republican claims that the president alone is to blame for the partisan deadlock in Washington."

Progressives would say, and this is our constant beef against President Obama and his team — that they're not tough enough for Chicago (!) no less — "appalling and sad" is the understatement of the year for a cabal of opposition party conspirators plotting from the very beginning, at the height of our Republican-created 21st century depression, that they would not work with this president on any of his policy initiatives, but rather obstruct and block him at every turn for the sole stated purpose (by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell from the southern state of Kentucky) of ensuring that he is not re-elected. The only missing ingredient for an outright charge of treason is the disclosure of followup meetings in which specific Republicans specifically strategize to block the President's economic policy initiatives in order to deny him a political "win."

In peacetime and normal, good economic times, this obstructionist strategy might be viewed simply by the POLITICOs who lap it up, as cutthroat, hyper-partisan obstructionist politics. Given that this is a time of war, as we fight two, arguably three wars simultaneously, that we are living through a second economic depression, as defined by Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, and considering that the strength or weakness of our economy is the single most critical national security threat we face — then, any attempt by any person, politician, or political party to deliberately undermine our economic recovery and block policy legislative initiatives which have been deemed by impartial consensus among economists (e.g., President Obama's blocked jobs bill will create 2 million jobs) to strengthem our economy, any such attempt to block our economic recovery, therefore endagering our national security, for purely partisan political purposes is, by definition, treason.

 I've often felt that all great comedy is unrevealed truth. Bill Maher is a great comedian.

SIDEBAR II: One senator, Reed Smoot (R-UT), was actually charged with "MORMONISM" in 1907, but escaped expulsion. According to a Senate historical note: "After an investigation spanning two years, the Committee on Privileges and Elections reported that Smoot was not entitled to his seat because he was a leader in a religion that advocated polygamy and a union of church and state, contrary to the U.S. Constitution. By a vote of 27 to 43, however, the Senate failed to expel him, finding that he satisfied the constitutional requirements for serving as a senator."

So, essentially, prejudice against the Mormon religion was an early 20th century bellwether of our shifting morays for not only what does or does not constitute marriage (polygamy), but whether Mormonism itself was a violation of the constitutional separation of church and state. Anti-polygamy laws were enacted and remain in place today, just as laws criminalyzing homosexuality have been struck down. The fact Smoot survived expulsion, while upholding the concept of religious freedom, did not speak well for the then-Mormon tolerance of polygamy, nor for the separation of church and state. (Another entry in the tangled web of History. Now this is what I call FASCINATING!)