Write A Caption: John Boehner

Sighing Boehner

A photo posted by Luke Russert (@lukerussert) on Jan 7, 2015 at 12:02pm PST

It is unbelievable how orange John Boehner is in this picture.

Quote of the Day: Chuck Todd Edition

"Nobody's going to mistake Donald Trump for a presidential candidate ... other than Donald Trump."

Chuck Todd, on Meet The Press.

Good News For the Budget Deficit

So much for President Barack Obama being a tax or spend liberal and Obamacare adding crushing debt.

Tweet of the Day

Nice burn delivered to Gov. Bobby Jindal on Twitter. It is hard to believe Jindal is a former Rhodes Scholar. At some point Jindal became an extremist Republican and shut off his other brain functions.

Friday Cat Blogging

A domestic cat snuck into a St. Petersburg, Russia zoo in search for food. The domestic cat became friends with a lynx. The two are now living together in an exhibit.

Fox No News

The news anchors get name placeholders for their desks for the State Of the U.ion. Shepard Smith notice his just said "Fox". Smith has a suspicion the Obama administration did this on purpose. You think?

Mitt Romney: Fake Working Class Hero

New York Mayor Bill De Blasio calls bullshit on Mitt Romney's plans to run as an anti-poverty Republican in 2016.

“Doing it in such a ham-handed manner in what appears to be a deathbed conversion is a strange way to suddenly come out of the box with it, and I find it disingenuous, and I think a lot of other people will too,” de Blasio told Politico in an interview over the weekend. “This is a guy who was pretty brazenly uninterested in addressing income inequality in 2012.”

“It is very telling that a guy who’s trying to find his way back to political relevance will grab onto it,” de Blasio said.

Mitt Romney positioning himself as a working class politico is hysterical. Does Romney really expect people to forget his famous 47 percent quote.

Romney: There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that 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. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. And I mean, the president starts off with 48, 49, 48—he starts off with a huge number. These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax. So our message of low taxes doesn't connect. And he'll be out there talking about tax cuts for the rich. I mean that's what they sell every four years. And so my job is not to worry about those people—I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. What I have to do is convince the 5 to 10 percent in the center that are independents that are thoughtful, that look at voting one way or the other depending upon in some cases emotion, whether they like the guy or not, what it looks like. I mean, when you ask those people…we do all these polls—I find it amazing—we poll all these people, see where you stand on the polls, but 45 percent of the people will go with a Republican, and 48 or 4…

Romney can't call poor people freeloaders and then expect to be able to pander to them. It just isn't going ti work.

In related news: Republican Rep. Charlie Dent (PA) tells MSNBC Romney will lose if he runs in 2016.

Dubious Rubio on Social Media

Mysterious Marco Rubio parody accounts have started on Facebook and Twitter. A parody of Sen. Marco Rubio may seem redundant. Rubio does a great job of making himself seem silly. The accounts are fun and lively. Dubious Rubio has challenged Sen. Rand Paul to a hip hop freestyle battle on the Senate floor.

Dubious Rubio on Twitter.

Dubious Rubio on Facebook.

PS: Don't talk about science or mention to Dubious Rubio that he is going bald. He gets very touchy about that.

Quote of the Day: Martin Luther King Jr. Edition

Chris Kyle's Own Words

Chris Kyle was a seriously flawed individual. Kyle was also known to be a public pathological liar.

Kyle claimed he punched out Jesse Ventura. A court ruling revealed that the incident never took place. Kyle's widow has to pay Ventura a 1.845 million for libel.

Kyle claimed he went to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and killed 30 armed looters from a rooftop. Police told reporters they never heard of any sniper related homicides. The story is pure bullshit.

The real Chris Kyle was a guy who bragged about shooting Iraqis. How much of his war experience is true is up for debate.

A man who grew-up in Texas and served 4 tours in Iraq isn't going to have an enlightened view of Iraqis. Kyle's unfortunate racism is almost expected. That doesn't explain or excuse his pathological lying.

Update: Another sickening quote from Chris Kyle.

Chris Kyle, a US navy Seal from Texas, was deployed to Iraq in 2003 and claimed to have killed more than 255 people during his six-year military career. In his memoir, Kyle reportedly described killing as “fun”, something he “loved”; he was unwavering in his belief that everyone he shot was a “bad guy”. “I hate the damn savages,” he wrote. “I couldn’t give a flying fuck about the Iraqis.” He bragged about murdering looters during Hurricane Katrina, though that was never substantiated.

Chris Kyle should not be anyone's role model.

Write A Caption: Rick Scott & Pitbull

Now why didn't I get an invitation for this? Kathleen McGrory reports that Gov. Rick Scott helped rapper Pitfall celebrate his birthday. Perhaps Scott talked to Pitbull about how the hip hop artist got porn Kennedy Leigh to be in his music video for Don't Stop the Party.

The elected officials will join Pitbull around 11 a.m. at the Sports Leadership and Management Academy, a charter school in Miami. Pitbull helped open the academy, and is expected to announce plans for expansion, according to a press release.

Obviously, Scott wants a photo-op to make himself appear cool. Good luck with that. In Pitbull's defense, he has said interesting things about felons losing voting rights and the treatment of blacks in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The Pandoras Music Goodies

@kimshattuck @melanievammen @karenbasset @sheriweinstein1 #hepandoras #therealrealpandoras #enigmarecords #restlessrecords

A photo posted by The Pandoras (@the.pandoras) on Dec 28, 2014 at 7:16pm PST

I have been listening to a lot of Pandoras lately. I thought I would post some stuff.

When You're in Love" (Nothing Else Matters) was performed live in Sierra Madre, CA in 4/88.

An incredible performance of Run Down Love Battery. Power is lost during a portion of the song and it is just vocals and drums. The Pandoras play their way through the song and the power comes back in time for the guitar solo.

Paula Pierce, Kim Shattuck and Sheri Kaplin doing karoake of Walk Like An Egyptian and Paula Abdul's Straight Up. The video is NSFW. Paula and Kim get very touchy feely.

Dark November was the last song Paula Pierce ever recorded. This song may never get an official release. The Pandoras have already broken-up and Pierce recorded this as a solo demo.

Surviving Pandoras members are very active on the band's Facebook group. You can also find the Pandoras on Instagram and Twitter.

Arsalan Iftikhar's Thank You Letter To Don Lemon

Fox News anchors work heard to be ignorant and offensive. For Don Lemon, it just comes naturally. Lemon unsurprisingly placed his foot in his mouth when he asked Muslim civil rights attorney Arsalan Iftikhar if he supported ISIS.

“Again in August, 16 percent of French citizens support ISIS,” Lemon pressed. “Would you describe those who support ISIS as Islamic extremists? Do you support ISIS?”

The question stunned Iftikhar.

“Wait,” he replied. “Did you just ask me if I support ISIS? I just answered your question. I said that obviously these 16 percent of people support the ideology, but again, I don’t think that would necessarily extrapolate to supporting of killing of innocent people.”

Imagine asking a German civil rights lawyer if he supports the Nazi Party. That gives you an idea of how tasteless Lemon's question was to Iftikhar.

In Islamic Monthly, Iftikhar thanked Lemon in an open letter. Get ready for the snark.

“Now to be completely honest with you,” Iftikhar wrote, “I totally thought that I had misheard him because surely there was no respectable journalist in the world who would ask a Muslim human rights lawyer whether he supports an organization which violates human rights each and every day.”

“But then I remembered that I was dealing with Don Lemon,” he said.

Just reading that made me flinch. Iftikhar delivered a serious burn to Lemon. Unfortunately for Lemon, Iftikhar is just getting warmed up.

Iftikhar wrote, “In less than 24 hours, there were nearly 5,000 media articles written condemning Don Lemon for his asinine question in major publications such as BuzzFeed, Deadspin, The Hollywood Reporter, USA Today and more. Most of these articles called the ISIS question just the latest in a series of major Don Lemon on-air gaffes; including his previous theory about Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 perhaps flying into a “black hole” or once asking an alleged Bill Cosby rape victim why she didn’t bite off the comedian’s penis whilst being allegedly raped by him.”

Iftikhar finishes off Lemon with these paragraphs.

“I can honestly say that I have never become more ‘famous’ than after this latest Don Lemon gaffe,” Iftikhar said, before implying that Lemon has perhaps brought enough embarrassment on CNN that he may be following the likes of Ed Henry over to a different news network.

“It is a sincere honor to be added to the litany of famous ‘Malaysian-black-hole-penis-biting’ Don Lemon media gaffes which can be added to his audition tape for his next job at FOX News Channel,” Iftikhar wrote.

“So from the bottom of my heart,” he concluded, “I want to publicly thank Don Lemon for making me famous with his patently offensive racist dumb-ass question.”

Let's recap Lemon's other lowlights.

Lemon was actually stupid enough to ask Mary Schiavo, the former Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Transportation, if Airlines Flight 370 disappeared in a black hole. Lemon finds a way to trivialize a tragic plane disappearance.

Lemon projected blame on alleged Bill Cosby rape victim, Joan Tarshis, for not defending herself. If you wonder why more women don't come forward about being rape than just watch this interview.

Lemon: Can I ask you this, because—and please, I don't mean to be crude, OK?

Tarshis: Yeah.

Lemon: Because I know some of you—and you said this last night, that he—you lied to him and said, "I have an infection, and if you rape me, or if you do—if you have intercourse with me, then you will probably get it and give it to your wife."

Tarshis: Right.

Lemon: And you said he made you perform oral sex.

Tarshis: Right.

Lemon: You—you know, there are ways not to perform oral sex if you didn't want to do it.

Tarshis: Oh. Um, I was kind of stoned at the time, and quite honestly, that didn't even enter my mind. Now I wish it would have.

Lemon: Right. Meaning the using of the teeth, right?

Tarshis: Yes, that's what I'm thinking you're ...

Lemon: As a weapon.

Tarshis: Yeah, I didn't even think of it.

Lemon didn't have to ask that.

Jeb Bush Doesn't Love Anal Sex

A man on a mission like Jeb Bush probably sticks to the missionary position. In a 1994 Miami Herald op-ed, the Jebster went full Rick Santorum on the issue of sodomy.

In the editorial, published in the Miami Herald that summer, Bush drew a parallel between legal protection for gays and the question, "[Should] sodomy be elevated to the same constitutional status as race and religion? My answer is No."

"The statement that the governor must stand up for all people on all matters is just silly," Bush wrote, arguing that government does not defend every Floridian "with equal verve and enthusiasm." He listed a string of examples: "Polluters, pedophiles, pornographers, drunk drivers, and developers without proper permits."

Jeb went on to be a governor that doesn't represent all people equally. That isn't surprising. Bush is attempting to rebrand himself as less homophobic. So far his efforts have been less than stellar.

I'm curious. Does Jeb Bush feel that heterosexual couples should not allowed to legally practice anal sex in their bedrooms? These heterosexual couple are in what Bush and other Republicans would call a traditional marriage. Bush wrote that sodomy doesn't require legal protection.

For the record: the Supreme Court made it clear that anal sex is protected.

The Lawrence v. Texas ruling found that the Texas anti-sodomy law violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Short answer: you can't prosecute gay couple for engaging in anal sex and allow straight couple to engage in the same sexual activity.

Laws like this happen when elected leaders feel they can pick and choose what laws they will enforce. Jeb Bush is such an elected official. Bush would later sign Terri's Law. The Florida Supreme Court found it unconstitutional on the ground that Bush and the Florida legislature illegally overruled the judicial branch.

Bush's 1994 op-ed revealed a man who will only enforce the laws that agree with his worldview.

Quote of the Day: Erick Erickson Sexism Edition

This is Erick Erickson's disgusting idea of a joke. In the past, Erickson has gone as far defending Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" comments.

In Erickson's worldview, a Congressman defending certain rape as "legitimate" is better than a law that makes it easier for people to acquire private health insurance. What a wonderful guy.

Quote of the Day

“If the quaterback throws the ball in the endzone and the Wide Receiver catches it……. It’s a touchdown.”

John Madden

I'm glad John Madden cleared up that whole the receiver's job is the score touchdown nonsense for us.

Has the Westboro Baptist Church Read the Bible?

John Fugelsang was happy to point out to the Westboro Baptist Church that Jesus Christ wasn't in the Old Testament. Christ also made no mention of homosexuality in the New Testament.

Facts aren't going to stop the Westboro Baptist Church from getting its hate on.