Elizabeth Warren, Part Deux

I DON'T KNOW WHAT KIND OF "MESSAGE" THE DEMOCRATIC consultant class was trying to convey to Elizabeth Warren during the DNC, but when she left giving these shadowy strategists a thumbs-up and "message received" the resulting reboot unveiled in her first debate with Scott Brown, from where I'm sitting, was less than stellar. See, when these shadowy DNC Einsteins say Warren was coming across as "preachy" I'm reminded of alleged "wise" old Dems with unsolicited foolish and sexist advice. My point is, what cred do these anonymous backbiters have, calling Warren "preachy"?

Think about it. Who speaks like this about strong, assertive women? Ans: Old, white, flaccid males of a certain age, whose better days are behind them. Just a wild guess. But Warren's general passivity in the debate seemed out of character. I wonder what Karen Finney, who knows the type, prolly been harassed by them, thinks of this. Bottom line: Without closely scrutinizing Warren's campaign, my sense is she got bad advice from a bunch of over-the-hill self-important white guys. She should go back to being herself, and let the voters decide who's being "preachy." And Steph, I wish it were so, but no, she didn't kick Brown's ass last night.

What the hell do I know, anyway.

Memo To Rachel: You And Elizabeth Warren Need To Talk

RACHEL, I DON'T KNOW IF YOU HAD A CHANCE TO WATCH THE BROWN-WARREN debate, but Professor Warren's seeming passivity and lack of specificity was somewhat frustrating. She held her own against Brown, but NOT ONCE did she mention the fact you've been pounding for MONTHS on your show, that Brown is Wall Street's favorite Senator of ALL! Meanwhile he was thumping his chest repeatedly with some nonsense about being the Senate's "second most bipartisan" (who's the first?) senator. That would have been a perfect opportunity for Warren to come back with: "That may be true, but you're the Senate's FIRST MOST POPULAR RECIPIENT OF WALL STREET LARGESSE!" (And then she could have pivoted to make the larger point about what's wrong with Washington, where the little guy doesn't get a break because so many senators are bought and paid for by special interests and lobbyists. It was a missed opportunity.)

Why didn't she do it? Also, he said given the chance he'd have voted for the Lilly Ledbetter equal pay bill, and she said he voted AGAINST equal pay for women, but didn't specify what it was he voted against, which left me wondering. She could have done more knocking his voting record; as well as how many times he voted with the Republican minority to uphold filibusters. Etc. It was an OK performance, but I was disappointed. I hope you convey some of these constructive critiques to Elizabeth. Scottie Brown is a buffoon, and by rights she should have creamed him. Instead, she let him escape with a whole lotta shit.

THE ORANGE MITT-MAN (THEORY) ...

ADDRESSING A LATINO AUDIENCE WITH HIS USUAL DISDAIN AND CONDESCENSION, Mitt Romney painted himself Boehner Burnt Orange, but had a major makeup malfunction when he failed to apply the Republican war paint evenly (see photo below). It was piss-poor white Mormonic stereotyping of the ethnically and culturally diverse Latino community, which assumed all Latinos come in one skin tone and body size. Consider the typical Mitt-like Latino politician to the left of Romney (below), with the splotchy white skin, liver spots, and several pre-cancerous lesions.

In a WEIRDLY supernatural SATANIC PROPHECY, Mitt Romney's Luciferean visage appears on the album cover of a band called THE ORANGE MAN THEORY with the song entitled, "SATAN TOLD ME I'M RIGHT." (Cue the chilling "OMEN" soundtrack. Gotta admit, this is kinda creepy.)

Tea Party Remedial ED: To Make Yer WIDDLE Brains Explode!

POP, POP, POP, GO THE TEABAGGER BRAINS ... Some of your own party denizens are SO DISGUSTED with the OFF-THE-CLIFF RIGHT WING DEATH SPIRAL of the Republican Party being dragged down and out by YE TEABAGGERS, ignorant, misinformed misinterpreters of YOUR OWN HISTORY (!) (Thank you very, VERY MUCH!) — that they've formed "REPUBLICANS FOR OBAMA:" Says their Mission Statement: (Save yourselves, TEABAGGERS! SIGN UP!)

"The Republican party isn't what it used to be. Our leaders and our most vocal activists have written moderates out of the party and have refused to work with the other side, to the detriment of the nation. Center-right presidents such as Reagan, Bush Sr., Ford, Nixon and Eisenhower would have no chance being nominated today.

Unfortunately, Mitt Romney has not proven to be able to stand up to our party's most extreme elements. Instead, he has fallen for the "one-size-fits-all" mentality that tax cuts for the already-wealthy will solve all of our problems, and has no workable plans to solve the challenges we face.

President Obama has shown himself to be a common-sense centrist. He has cut taxes when necessary, has taken steps to protect the environment, and has aggressively pursued Islamic extremists who threaten America. Most notably, he has reformed our healthcare system by signing a Republican-inspired healthcare plan into law. In most other points in our party's history, Obama would fit in well as a Republican."

Neil Young, Eternal Hippie, Musical Genius: Long May You Run

TODAY'S NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE HAS A GREAT PROFILE of the serendipitous Neil Young, among the greatest rockers of all time, whose rich, unforgettable career spanned some four decades. Neil, who lives in relative seclusion with his family on his expansive California ranch, granted a rare interview on the occasion of the imminent publication of his autobiography, “Waging Heavy Peace.”

One building on his ranch houses his model train collection; another his vintage cars. After some health issues, including an aneurysm, Neil has been clean of pot and sober for a year: “The straighter I am, the more alert I am, the less I know myself and the harder it is to recognize myself. I need a little grounding in something and I am looking for it everywhere.”

“... Old Black, his painted-over Gibson Les Paul guitar. Young, born in 1945, is the older brother to Old Black, made in 1952. Through the years, Old Black has been souped up, tweaked and rebuilt, but it has never been replaced as his musical partner. When he plays it, he often looks and sounds furious.

In our crisscrossing the ranch, at one point we stopped in an outdoor graveyard of old cars, a white-trash tableau of desiccated, rusting sheet metal. He stroked the giant fin of a ’59 Lincoln and said it may yet roar to life. “Every car is full of stories. Who rode in ’em, where they went, where they ended up, how they got here.”

Here's Neil Young and his reliable partner, Old Black, playing, very appropriately given the quote above, one of his greatest, most beautiful, and memorable tunes: Long May You Run!

Memo To The Rev: Where's Your 'Street Smarts', Pal

JUST LIKE THAT GREAT FOLKSY DEMOCRAT 'MUDCAT' SAUNDERS SAID in a previous segment, you and he have what Romney lacks, except, it seems, when a pretty face flips you. I refer specifically to Erin McPike of RealClearPolitics, a CONSERVATIVE website; and she's covering Mitt Romney. Aside from the annoying snarky grin she sports on your show and MSNBC generally, a Mark Halperin fellow traveler (?) perhaps, Erin seldom HAS ANY USEFUL INFORMATION TO IMPART.

See, Rev, I don't care if she's a Republican so long as she's a reporter FIRST. The fact is, we're not stupid, and her skating is getting REALLY OLD REALLY FAST. Whatever her reasons — most likely she doesn't want to compromise her sources, or worse, her bias prompts her to try sneaking in Romney propaganda in the outrageous Halperin mode, but maybe feels somewhat constrained — I have a one-word description for Erin: GUARDED. That won't do, Rev. I like a pretty face as much as the next guy, but MSNBC ain't FOX, if you catch my drift, and Erin sure ain't Lady Alex! Rev, you're insulting our intelligence by foisting Erin on us who, time and again, has NOTHING MUCH to say or report.

And Rev, speaking of 'street smarts', here's a FREE TIP: How to spot a REPUBLICAN woman at, say, the DNC, or MSNBC: Nine times out of ten, she's the one wearing the string of pearls — not a locket, or more colorful neckwear; but pearls — like Susan Page, Andrea Mitchell, and of course, Erin. It's a dead giveaway. Srsly.

New York Times, Bringing Up The Rear: Mitt Romney, Class Warrior

THE NEWSPAPER OF RECORD HAS SPOKEN. Welcome to the fold, slo-pokes.

Mitt Romney, Class Warrior (Emphasis mine.)

It turns out that Mitt Romney was right. There is class warfare being waged in the 2012 campaign. It is Mr. Romney who is waging it, not President Obama, and he’s stood the whole idea on its head.

When you think of class warfare, you probably think of inciting anger, resentment and jealousy among the have-nots against the haves. That’s what Mr. Romney has accused Mr. Obama of doing, but those charges have always been false. The truth is that Mr. Romney has been trying to incite the anger of a small slice of the richest Americans who need no government assistance but get it anyway, against the working poor, older Americans, the disabled workers and veterans, and even a significant chunk of middle-class Americans.

That was the message of remarks that Mr. Romney made in May at a private fund-raiser held at a private equity manager’s estate in Florida, a moment when he thought he was safe from annoying reporters and cameramen, and other Americans who are not rich enough to have bought a ticket to the event.

A video made public on Monday by the magazine Mother Jones showed a Mitt Romney who felt free to speak candidly about his campaign and how he would conduct a presidency. In that safe zone, Mr. Romney spoke with a bone-chilling cynicism and a revolting smugness. If he is elected, he said, capital will come back and “we’ll see — without actually doing anything — we’ll actually get a boost in the economy.” That’s the state of trickle-down economics in the 21st century.

Gone was the pretense that he will be a president of all Americans. Mr. Romney rather neatly divided the country between the people who matter and the 47 percent he does not care about.

To Mr. Romney, that 47 percent consists of people who do not make enough money to be required to pay federal income tax. They are freeloaders, he said, “who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.” It is not his job, he said, as a candidate nor apparently as president if he is elected, “to worry about those people.”

By his definition, those undeserving freeloaders include workers in low-paying, menial jobs (sometimes more than one job) who don’t even earn $9,750 a year, the amount at which they would start to owe federal income tax. Also included are older Americans whose Social Security pensions are too low to be taxed, disabled veterans and people who were maimed on the job.

This group also includes some middle-income Americans who make, say, $50,000 a year but are not required to pay taxes after they take advantage of child credits, marriage penalty relief and other tax breaks, many of which are part of the Bush-era tax cuts that Mr. Romney backs with a blind ideological fervor.

But, of course, Mr. Romney was not talking about the Americans who make so much money that they are able to avoid paying any tax at all or who, like him, are able to shelter their incomes in overseas banks or tax loopholes that permit them to pretend that ordinary income comes from investment and thus pay lower taxes. Mr. Romney has been paying, by his own account, about 13 percent to 15 percent of his enormous income in federal income taxes. Just compare that with your own tax return.

Everything about Mr. Romney’s characterization of this mythical slice of lazy, shiftless Americans was wrong. A vast majority of Americans pay federal taxes, either income tax or payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare — or both — as well as other federal fees. They also pay state and local taxes and sales taxes.

The government’s revenue problem does not start with the poor but with the richest people, through the Bush tax cuts and other changes. The tax cuts for the richest people should expire now, and the middle-class cuts should do so eventually. But that will not happen as long as people like Mr. Romney protect the rich by turning the working poor and middle class into the enemy.

Mr. Romney may have been talking about electoral tactics: those people are going to vote for Mr. Obama, so let’s concentrate on our kind of people. It’s also possible that he was mouthing the words of the extreme right without really believing them. But all the possible explanations say terrible things about Mr. Romney’s character.

The right wing has long been whining about people who don’t pay taxes and who, therefore, don’t deserve a say in government. They have it backward. The shame is not that those people don’t pay income taxes. The shame is how many poor people there are when the top 1 percent can amass uncountable fortunes fed by tax breaks and can donate tens of millions of dollars to political candidates to keep it that way.

Memo To Mitt 'The Odious Twit': Have You Heard Of The FUBAR Political Rule?!

HERE 'TIS, GRAPHICALLY REPRESENTED WITH YOUR CAMPAIGN LOGO. YA JUST CAN'T SHOVE the Aquafresh back in the tube, pal.

SMILE! ... YOU'RE ON CANDID CAMERA!!!

OOOH, LOOKS LIKE MITT'S HAVING A BAD HAIR DAY, TOO ...

More BAD NEWS For Romney CLOWN Attack ...

NEW PEW POLL SHOWS STRONG PUBLIC DISAPPROVAL OF ROMNEY's politicization of the murder of our Ambassador and three other diplomats in Libya, with strong approval for the President's handling of the attacks and killings of our diplomats. UH-OH. The American electorate may be the most MISINFORMED in history, but when they get their facts straight, they're NOT stupid:

About four-in-ten Americans (43%) have followed news about the attacks on U.S. embassies in the Middle East and the killing of an American ambassador very closely, making it by far the most closely followed foreign news story of the year.

Those who have followed this story have much more positive opinions about Barack Obama’s handling of the situation than Mitt Romney’s comments on the crisis. Nearly half (45%) approve of Obama’s handling of the recent attacks on U.S. embassies and the killing of the U.S. ambassador in Libya; 36% disapprove of Obama’s handling of this situation.

In contrast, only about a quarter (26%) of those who have tracked news on turmoil in the Middle East approve of Romney’s comments on the situation; nearly half (48%) disapprove.

BEST ONE-LINERS DESCRIBING ROMNEY MELTDOWN

The Real Romney Captured on Tape Turns Out to Be a Sneering Plutocrat, By Jonathan Chait

Thurston Howell Romney: a country-club fantasy, By DAVID BROOKS

Today, Mitt Romney Lost the Election, By Josh Barro (Bloomberg)

Romney in panic mode, Salon

... To which the Romney camp, rather than apologize, retooled by rolling out their latest self-explanatory campaign poster: 

Elizabeth Warren Is SURGING!

AS MASSACHUSETTS 'PROLES' ARE GETTING RESTIVE. I THINK THERE ARE TWO THINGS AT WORK HERE: 'BEAM ME UP' SCOTTIE BROWN, the bow-legged man — imagine watching Scottie and 'Magic Underwear' Mitt walking side-by-side: What a weird, bizarro HOWLER! — who consorts with KINGS, QUEENS, AND PRIME MINISTERS was (1) whacked by a SPECTACULAR Warren speech at the AWESOME DNC CONVENTION:

And (2) The voters of Massachusetts, or 'PROLES', i.e., "those people" as they're know at Romney DISASTER HEADQUARTERS in Boston, are FED UP of being UNDER OCCUPATION by the MOST REPUGNANT REPUBLICAN campaign since Pat Buchanan howled "LOCK AND LOAD" and vowed to wage a "CULTURE WAR" that would take back America "street by street." We hear echoes of this in the Romney campaign when he yelps in his high-pitched chihuahua stump voice, "I want my country back!"

Elizabeth Warren is the genuine article, who is SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER. And this year, the voters are hankering to blow away the smoke, and shatter the mirrors, and elect AWESOME candidates like Elizabeth Warren.

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT ON ROMNEY'S CRAVEN LIE

MITT ROMNEY, THIS LOATHSOME, DESPICABLE EXCUSE FOR A HUMAN, HAS IT WRONG THAT 47 PERCENT OF AMERICANS DON'T PAY TAXES. HERE's Ezra Klein, setting the record straight: (Emphasis mine.)

— 53.6 percent of households pay the federal income tax. Presumably Romney is okay with these folks.

— 28.3 percent of households pay no federal income tax, but they do pay the payroll tax. That means they don’t need Mitt Romney to convince them to “take personal responsibility and care for their lives.” They already have jobs.

Most of the households in this group don’t pay any federal income tax because they qualify for enough deductions that their income tax liability has shrunk to zero. See this Tax Policy Center report for more, which gives an example of “a couple with two children earning less than $26,400. They get an $11,600 standard deduction and four exemptions of $3,700, and that takes their liability to zero.” Indeed, it’s worth noting that many of these deductions and credits were part of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, which Romney wants to extend.

— 10.3 percent of households pay no federal income tax because they’re retired and elderly. Many retirees aren’t taxed on their Social Security benefits, which they earned by paying into the system over many years. If Mitt Romney secretly thinks that these households are all irresponsible freeloaders, he has a weird way of showing it, as he keeps insisting that he doesn’t want to cut Medicare or Social Security benefits for those over the age of 65.

— That leaves 6.9 percent of households which are non-elderly and have incomes less than $20,000 per year and aren’t paying the payroll tax. These poorer households pay neither income taxes nor payroll taxes. Perhaps Romney thinks that they should all pay more in federal taxes. It’s hard to say. But this is also a much smaller fraction of Americans. [YOU CAN SAY IT EZRA; THEY'RE THE POOREST OF THE POOR IN THIS, THE RICHEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, IS A DISGRACE! FIFTY YEARS AGO, BOBBY KENNEDY, THE VERY ANTITHESIS OF ROMNEY AND THE REPUBLICANS, SAID IT. AND THIS SCUMBAG ROMNEY IS WHAT WE'VE COME TO  — BLAMING THEM?!] Meanwhile, just as a reminder, the vast majority of Americans still pay state and local taxes — in fact, these taxes tend to be more regressive. When you add up all the different types of taxes, most income groups in the United States tend to pay an amount that’s roughly commensurate with their share of the national income.

REAL Romney, What He REALLY Thinks of HALF The Voters ... BEHIND CLOSED DOORS!? (OOPS)

THIS IS FOR YOU, LOW-INFORMATION PUBLIC, SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING A VOTE AGAINST YOUR OWN SELF-INTEREST, for 'Mitt The ODIOUS Twit': Here's how CONTEMPTUOUSLY Romney looks down his nose at YOU. The folks who are voting for President Obama, of course, are exempted. They're smart and grounded in reality. But according to Romney, we're ALL BUMS dependent on the government, including his SINGLE BIGGEST (AND DUMBEST) CONSTITUENCY, senior citizens, who get Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Are you paying attention, seniors?! One last thing: This RATBASTARD, this DISDAINFUL, ARROGANT SCUMBAG has the UNMITIGATED GALL to say we don't pay taxes while he's been twisting himself into a pretzel to keep his under-13% tax returns with all those foreign tax shelters from review by US FUCKING FORTY-SEVEN PERCENT WORKING STIFF AMERICANS! Here's the secret video obtained by Mother Jones Magazine, of a swank Romney fundraiser thrown by a fellow VULTURE CAPITALIST:

Paulie MUNSTER Demands To Be "Unleashed" ...

WAS GRANTED HIS WISH AFTER HE BIT SENIOR ADVISOR ERIC FEHRNSTROM (OF ETCH-A-SKETCH FAME), who then flew into a rage and flung the Romney HQ soda vendor across the lunch room with apparent supernatural strength. Said one campaign insider, "It's hard to keep him on a LEASH with all the red meat we're tossing to the crowds." OOH, we're SO SKEERT of lettin' Ryan be Ryan, with all those lead balloons they're hiding from us ...

Musical Interlude: Gotye — Somebody That I Used To Know

A YOUTUBE ORCHESTRA REMIX OF INDIE ARTIST GOTYE'S "SOMEBODY ..."

Does This UGLY Mutha Look Like A Veep To You?!

THIS DUDE, PAULIE 'THE NOSE' RYAN, SHOULD TEAM UP WITH JOE PESCI TO MAKE A FILM ABOUT IRISH and Italian Mob rivalries. Set in Boston. Directed by Clint Eastwood. With a subplot involving a CULT of rich, secretive Mormons looking to launder their Mob investments through Caymans and Swiss laundromats.

One thing Monica 'The Wingnut 'Ho' Crowley and NYT columnist Maureen Dowd have in common is TRULY HIDEOUS taste in men:

Romney Explains His Hollow Core And Lack Of Decency ...

SIMPSONS-STYLE. AND BELOW A DRAMATIC RE-ENACTMENT OF HIS PSYCHOTIC MELTDOWN this week. (Better for the voters sooner than later.)