Larry Flynt Offers $1Million For Proof "Outing" Ben Carson's Top Advisor

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Just when you think that things in the GOP clown car cannot possibly get any more crazy, another shoe drops.  Now, adding the the circus atmosphere, porn magnate Larry Flynt has published an open letter - see the image above - accusing GOP idiot savant, Ben Carson of hypocrisy based on Carson's attacks on gays even as his top advisor, Armstrong Williams, may be gay and has a possible history of sexually harassing males.  Adding to the fun, Flynt has offered $1 Million to anyone who can provide proof that  Williams is a "predator" who harasses men.   Here are highlights from Hollywood Reporter:

In an open letter set to be published Monday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Larry Flynt is offering "between $50,000 and $1 million" to anyone with proof that a top adviser to Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson is guilty of sexual harassment.

"Dr. Carson, Heal Thyself!" the Hustler publisher begins in the paid ad, then goes on to describe a nearly 20-year-old lawsuit against Armstrong Williams, a conservative radio personality whom Carson has described as being part of a "package deal" should he be elected president. 

"Armstrong Williams, your brother in faith and the person you say you trust more than anyone else outside of your immediate family," Flynt writes, "settled a lawsuit out of court after affidavits provided allegations that he initiated unwanted sexual advances toward other men."

In 1998, Williams was accused by former personal trainer Stephen Gregory of more than 50 separate incidents of sexual harassment. In the filing, Gregory says that Williams repeatedly "kissed him on the mouth, grabbed his buttocks and genitals and climbed into bed with him on business trips."

When Gregory refused the advances, Gregory claimed in the suit, Williams retaliated by firing him. Gregory sought $200,000 in damages but ultimately settled with Williams out of court.

In his letter, Flynt accuses Carson of being "a hypocrite" for associating with Williams. "You have linked gays with bestiality and the North American Man/Boy Love Association. You have opposed same-sex marriage, accusing marriage equality advocates of 'directly attacking the relationship between God and his people,'" Flynt asserts (accurately). "Yet, you have partnered with an accused sexual predator."

Flynt says he will pay for "confirmable information" relating to the "curious relationship" between Williams and Gregory.

Flynt has a long history of offering hefty cash payouts to prove conservative politicians are guilty of unlawful, unsavory and hypocritical behavior. At the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, he offered $1 million for evidence that Bill Clinton's Republican foes had committed acts of adultery. In 2012, he put up a similar bounty for stories of "infidelity, sexual impropriety or corruption” involving members of Congress.

Carson's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Paul Ryan: I'll Be Speaker But Only If the Neanderthals Supports Me

I have no love for Paul "Reverse Robin Hood" Ryan.  That said, the man isn't stupid (even if he is otherwise horrible) since he has told the House Republicans that he will throw his hat into the ring for the position of Speaker of the House only if all of the elements of the Republican conference support him.  Ryan has no desire to step into the nightmare that drove John Boehner into resigning.  The big question, therefore, is whether or not the lunatic Christofascist/Tea Party elements of the House GOP will swear fealty to Ryan.  Ryan has given them until Friday to decide.  Politico looks at the ongoing circus within the Republican Party.  Here are excerpts:

Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, who for years has resisted a move into House Republican leadership, said Tuesday night he would serve as House speaker if he is the party's "unity candidate."

Ryan, the Ways and Means Committee chairman, wants to know by Friday if the 247 members of the House Republican Conference support him. If not, he is "happy" to continue as chairman of the powerful tax-writing panel, the 45-year-old lawmaker said.

The Wisconsin Republican laid out a series of "requests" to his GOP colleagues on Tuesday night, including a demand that the major factions within the Republican Conference endorse him before he agrees to seek the speakership. Ryan is clearly trying to shift the onus of his decision onto the House Freedom Caucus, a group of hardline conservatives that repeatedly sought to undermine Speaker John Boehner.

Ryan wants the group to refrain from any attempts to remove him from the speaker's chair if he makes a decision they disagree with, though it's not at all clear Freedom Caucus will agree.

"I have left this decision in their hands, and should they agree with these requests, then I am happy and I am willing to get to work."

Ryan added: "This is not a job I ever wanted or I ever sought. I am in the job I've always wanted here in the Congress. I came to the conclusion that this is a very dire moment, not just for Congress, not just for the Republican Party, but for our country. I think our country is in desperate need of leadership."

Ryan described himself as "reluctant" to be speaker and said there were some parts of the job he dreaded. But he said would take on the post if the three major groups inside the GOP conference — the Republican Study Committee, the moderate Tuesday Group, and the Freedom Caucus — all endorse him by Friday.

Ryan also wants Republicans to alter the procedure for "vacating the chair," which is essentially a referendum to remove the speaker from office. Conservatives threatened to force such a vote against Boehner earlier this summer, and Ryan believes it's destructive. 

The Wisconsin Republican is calling on the next speaker to be more visionary. Ryan agreed with Freedom Caucus members and a large bloc of the GOP in supporting changes to rules and procedures to empower rank-and-file members. But he said those decisions must be made together.

As Think Progress notes, the Neanderthals spittle flecked "real Americans" in the GOP are not reacting well to Ryan's demands:

How the Freedom Caucus, and the right-wing, is reacting to Paul Ryan’s demands

Not well.   Many members of the Freedom Caucus are already publicly rejecting Paul Ryan and his demands.

There are 40 members of the Freedom Caucus so the ultimate outcome is still in doubt. They will be under severe pressure from the Republican establishment to reverse course and support Ryan. But the early signs for Ryan are not positive. 

Like Paul Ryan, Cuccinelli Claims Alliegance to Catholic Teaching But Embraces Ayn Rand Instead

As a former Roman Catholic who left Catholicism is utter disgust after the sex abuse scandal first exploded in Boston in 2002, I continue to be both amazed and disgusted by Republican politicians who wrap themselves in religiosity, claim to supportive of the Catholic social gospel, yet then embrace a cold, ruthless and heartless capitalism and demonstrate that they view much of humanity as disposable human garbage.   Paul Ryan, who wanted to gut social programs and destroy the social safety net is but one example.  Indeed, Ryan was even condemned by the generally bankrupt Catholic Church hierarchy which found Ryan's ruthless slashing of the social safety net to be utterly inconsistent with Catholic social teachings.  Here in Virginia, we have another similar hypocrite who embraces his Catholicism for show and political display, but who champions policies diametrically opposed to the true Catholic social gospel.  Here are highlights from a piece in National Review:

What book would he write about if he had to write a college-admissions essay?  .   .   .  .  Ultimately, he picks Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.

Rand, Cuccinelli says, “captured an awful lot of the battle for our government that’s going on right now” and saw “the natural course of bigger government, [the problem of] relying on it for everything, and the control it takes over everything as it goes down that path.” Cuccinelli observes that “we’re having a debate about that right now in this country, about whether that’s the right way to go or not.”

Ultimately, Cuccinelli is opposed to freedom, or at least freedom for any one other than Christofascists such as those who are epitomized by the hate merchants at The Family Foundation and angry white Tea Party extremists.  As for the social gospel, he's against expanded health care, he supports strict voter ID laws to disenfranchise minorities, and he wants women basically kept   barefoot and pregnant in the home, and, of course, he wants gays criminalized and subjected to felony charges under Virginia's unconstitutional sodomy statute.  

Are Taxpayers Paying for Cuccinelli's Campaign Driver?

In his soon to be released book, uncrowned GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli reiterates the mindset of Mitt Romney which views 47% of citizens as mooching leaches and echos failed VP candidate Paul Ryan remarks about "takers."  But if there's anyone who is a taker, it is Cuccinelli himself who has refused to resign from his position as Attorney General even as he campaigns full time.   He wants every Virginian to help pay for his campaign by paying his a salary for a job his isn't doing.  He wants us to support all those children he's fathered trying to convince himself of his heterosexuality.  But now we find out that it isn't just Kookinelli himself that taxpayers are being forced to pay while performing campaign activities.  Even his campaign driver is on the Commonwealth's payroll as revealed by The Richmonder.  Kookinelli is both a hypocrite and a "taker" of the first order.  It is long past time that he and all of his campaign workers of the state payroll resign.  Here are highlights from The Richmonder:

Last week the Richmond Times Dispatch breathlessly reported how Ken Cuccinelli helped a trucker who wasn't aware her rig had caught fire. In their eagerness to do a puff piece on Cuccinelli, the Richmond Times Dispatch missed a few small details, like who exactly is Cuccinelli's driver and who pays for his salary and benefits?

The RTD helpfully provides the young man's name--Cory Chenard--but no other details. Thankfully there is this thing called Google, and when I googled "Cory Chenard," Google took me straight to Mr. Chenard's Linked In profile. It's an interesting profile for a driver, so much so I've saved a copy of it and I'm placing the images in this blog post  [see image above].

Take a moment and read over the profile and ask yourself the following question: is this the profile of a professional driver or chauffeur, or is this the profile of an experienced campaign operative?

Here's some things that leap out at me:

1. Mr. Chenard describes himself as a "Political Entrepreneur," not as a driver or chauffeur.

2. He lists a wide variety of political job experiences, but no driving experience.

3. He does not list driving or having a chauffeur's license--maybe he has one, but he doesn't list one.

If you ask me, this is the profile of a political campaign worker serving as the candidate's "body guy," a kind of on-the-road assistant. Ken Cuccinelli's day job (which he shamelessly neglects in order to campaign) is being the Attorney General of Virginia. Is there anything in Mr. Chenard's profile that suggests he is competent to offer Cuccinelli advice on complex legal matters? No, there isn't, so what kind of advice and assistance does it appear that Mr. Chenard is there to provide?

He looks to me like an experienced and pretty well-qualified campaign worker, which begs the central question of this post: why is the State of Virginia paying one of Ken Cuccinelli's campaign workers a salary and benefits?

Some may ask why Cuccinelli needs a driver to chauffeur him around; allow me to clue those of you who have never worked on a campaign in. Cuccinelli needs a driver so he can convert drive time into "call time," time set aside to call and solicit potential donors. Cuccinelli is almost certainly using a state employee to transport himself to campaign events and to help with political fundraising, all on the taxpayer's dime.

Is it any wonder that some people are calling him "Moochinelli"?

It is also telling that Kookinelli - or Moochinelli - co-wrote his soon to be released book with another individual on the state payroll:

Brian J. Gottstein
Director of Communication
bgottstein@oag.state.va.us
(804) 786-5874

Yes, Kookinelli knows all about moochers and leaches.  He's blazing a new trail in ways to f*ck over Virginia taxpayers.  He must think the rest of us are ignorant cretins as he laughs driving down the highway campaigning on the taxpayers' dime.  He needs to be brought up on ethics charges.

Paul Ryan: Let's Reduce Poverty... By Slashing Poverty Programs

In one of his first policy speeches, Paul Ryan confirmed the reverse Robin Hood mindset that many have accused him of previously based on his GOP budget proposal.  Today Ryan said he and Mitt Romney would restore upward social mobility for the poor by dismantling anti-poverty programs.  They'd either pull themselves up by the bootstraps or perish.  Needless to say, the revenue savings resulting from leaving the poor and disadvantage to their own devices to either survive or die would likely go toward funding the large tax cuts for the wealthy that are so near and dear to Ryan's and Romney's ice cold hearts.  A piece in Huffington Post looks at Ryan's speech which ought to strike terror among those who are poor and disadvantaged and those who advocate on their behalf.   Here are some highlights:

In his first policy speech since becoming the Republican vice presidential nominee, Paul Ryan said he and Mitt Romney will restore upward mobility and fight poverty in part by limiting the federal government's commitment to safety net programs.

"Upward mobility is the central promise of life in America," Ryan said. "But right now, America’s engines of upward mobility aren't working the way they should. Mitt Romney and I are running because we believe that Americans are better off in a dynamic, free-enterprise-based economy that fosters economic growth, opportunity and upward mobility instead of a stagnant, government-directed economy that stifles job creation and fosters government dependency."

Ryan noted that Americans born into poor families are more likely to stay poor as adults than Americans born into wealthy families.

A Romney administration, Ryan said, would help restore mobility by turning the open-ended commitments of federal anti-poverty programs into "block grants" -- fixed chunks of money the federal government sends to states each year regardless of the amount of need. States, in turn, get more leeway to design their own programs.

As a congressman, Ryan has authored several proposals to slash spending on programs for poor people by turning them into block grants. According to an analysis by the centrist Urban Institute, Ryan's proposal to repeal health care reform and block grant Medicaid, which provides health insurance to people below near-poverty income levels, would reduce federal spending by $1.7 trillion and Medicaid enrollment by 50 percent, resulting in a loss of insurance for 35.7 million Americans.

Ryan also proposed dramatic cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as food stamps, in place of looming cuts to defense spending. 

Ryan also said government spending discourages people from giving to charity. "Debt on this scale is destructive in so many ways, and one of them is that it crowds out civil society by drawing resources away from private giving."

Economists at the St. Louis Federal Reserve found in 2009 that increased government spending can have a limited negative effect on charitable donations, but also that growth in charitable giving had paralleled growth in government spending over the past 40 years (PDF).

About the only thing that Ryan hasn't proposed is bring back debtors ' prisons.  It is little wonder that even the generally morally bankrupt Catholic Bishops have condemned Ryan's proposals as the antithesis of the Church's social gospel teachings.   How anyone this cold and callous towards others can claim to be a devote Catholic or Christian is mind boggling.  But such is the sick status of today's GOP.

Quote of the Day: Tom Morello on Paul Ryan

Mitt Romney's newly tapped VP running mate, Paul Ryan, has said that his favorite band is Rage Against the Machine.  Rather than being flattered, band member Tom Morello basically ripped Ryan a new one and said that Ryan is the embodiment of what the band rages against.  Rolling Stone has the piece written by Morello.  Here are some excerpts:

Paul Ryan's love of Rage Against the Machine is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades. Charles Manson loved the Beatles but didn't understand them. Governor Chris Christie loves Bruce Springsteen but doesn't understand him. And Paul Ryan is clueless about his favorite band, Rage Against the Machine.

Ryan claims that he likes Rage's sound, but not the lyrics. Well, I don't care for Paul Ryan's sound or his lyrics. He can like whatever bands he wants, but his guiding vision of shifting revenue more radically to the one percent is antithetical to the message of Rage.

I wonder what Ryan's favorite Rage song is? Is it the one where we condemn the genocide of Native Americans? The one lambasting American imperialism? Our cover of "Fuck the Police"? Or is it the one where we call on the people to seize the means of production? So many excellent choices to jam out to at Young Republican meetings!

Don't mistake me, I clearly see that Ryan has a whole lotta "rage" in him: A rage against women, a rage against immigrants, a rage against workers, a rage against gays, a rage against the poor, a rage against the environment. Basically the only thing he's not raging against is the privileged elite he's groveling in front of for campaign contributions.

You see, the super rich must rationalize having more than they could ever spend while millions of children in the U.S. go to bed hungry every night. So, when they look themselves in the mirror, they convince themselves that "Those people are undeserving. They're . . . lesser." Some of these guys on the extreme right are more cynical than Paul Ryan, but he seems to really believe in this stuff. This unbridled rage against those who have the least is a cornerstone of the Romney-Ryan ticket.

Ouch!!!  But Morello is right when he summarizes the GOP concept of making countless Americans "lesser" and therefore subhuman and disposable.  The mind set is frighteningly similar to how the Nazi made the Jews subhuman and, therefore, disposable.  What makes the picture even worse is that those who most loudly proclaim themselves to be godly Christians are the GOP shock forces who are leading the charge to label other citizens as lesser and undeserving of basic rights and liberties.

On a hilarious note, at yesterday's Out in the Park event there was a young gay man who could be Ryan's twin.

Eric Cantor's Disingenuous Call for a More Tolerant GOP

Lest there be any mistake about my views, I view Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor to be a lying, sleazy, disingenuous snake.  Indeed, he's a down right embarrassment to the Commonwealth of Virginia.   I believe that Cantor will stoop to any levels to further his own ego maniacal ambitions.  Now, apparently because he is facing a credible challenger in his re-election effort, Cantor is bizarrely making statements that the Republican Party needs to be "more accepting of diversity."   Not that his past actions are even remotely consistent with his current song and dance which I suspect is aimed at making him look less extreme to voters who may be tiring of someone out of even the run of the mill GOP main stream in Virginia.  Think Progress looks at Cantor's newly found faux concern about "accepting diversity."  Here are excerpts:

As the only Jewish Republican in the House of Representatives, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) says he values religious and personal liberty.

 But Cantor also happens to have a long, anti-gay record. And through that lens, his newly-announced support for broadening the Republican party to be more religiously and LGBT inclusive is surprising, and not quite believable.

Despite the fact that Cantor wrote a book saying the “bigoted and intolerant” Republican Party was a “myth,” in a recent interview with BuzzFeed, Cantor said that he thinks Republicans, as the party of freedom, need to have more “acceptance of diversity”:

“I think an even bigger issue than that, from a cultural standpoint, is the acceptance of diversity. And the acceptance of diversity of opinion,” Cantor said, explaining that while he may have is own personal opinions on morality or religion, “at some point we’re all here as Americans and we all have to be appreciative of other people’s views.”
“And it’s that tolerance, I think that that tolerance is something that enables people to be passionate about their positions. And if you’re for gay marriage, this country allows you to express your views. Some states support it and allow it, and others don’t. But its ok to have that difference of opinion in that,” he said.

When asked if the Republican Party specifically needs to do a better job of accepting opinions on gay marriage and other cultural issues that do not align with party orthodoxy, Cantor said “absolutely.”

[Cantor] has not supported any major legislation that would have made the lives of gay people in any way less challenging: He voted against the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, he voted not to protect LGBT employees from discrimination in the office, and he voted against extending hate crimes protections to include LGBT victims.  Two pieces of legislation Cantor did support: Defunding needle exchange programs that reduce the spread of HIV and adding an amendment to the constitution banning same-sex marriage.

Actions speak louder than words - especially in an election year where Cantor's views are more extreme than all bu the Tea Party and the Bible beating Christofascists in the Virginia GOP.  Cantor needs to win over some moderates and independents and I believe these statements are nothing more than attempts to dupe such voters into supporting him.  I'd also add that among my Jewish friends not a one of them agrees with Cantors positions on any subject.

The Bain of Romney's Exitence - Continued

Watching the news and listening to Mitt Romney dodge and weave from all the facts, including video tapes of himself saying things utterly inconsistent with his current claims of departure from Bain Capital in 1999,  the man looks incredibly sleazy and dishonest even for a politician.  Indeed, if Romney says it's raining outside, one might be wise to look out the window to double check.  Even then, if his statement was untrue, Romney would likely quibble that it was raining somewhere in the world so that he wasn't really lying.  Andrew Sullivan sums things up well here:

It was hidden in plain sight as a Bain press release in July 1999. Here's how it described Romney's position at Bain when he says he had no responsibility whatever, despite remaining CEO, Chairman and Sole Owner as far as forms filed with SEC testify:

Bain Capital CEO W. Mitt Romney, currently on a part-time leave of absence to head the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee for the 2002 Games said ...

So Bain now contradicts Romney.
 
So this much is now obvious.

1. Romney didn't quit Bain in 1999 for good, as he claims. He remained the CEO throughout, as SEC files show, and as the Boston Globe reported back in 2002.

2. He stayed active in Bain, but at a much reduced level, the entire time.

3. In any case, everything that occurred at Bain up to 2002 is completely fair game for criticism, since he was the formal CEO at the time and therefore responsible for the whole company. The SEC filings are dispositive. He has been lying about this in order to deflect some very dangerous stories about Bain in that period which shows it is knee deep in outsourcing and off-shoring, and because his signature is on a filing with respect to a company that Bain owned that disposed of aborted babies.

Romney basically said what was the most convenient for his self-interest at every juncture - and finally all the contradictions and changing stories caught up with him. When you have it both ways on policy matters - we'll increase defense spending, lower taxes even further, and cut the debt! - you only look shifty. When you have it both ways on the simple facts about your life, you look like an opportunistic liar.

That term seems to describe Romney in sum: an opportunistic liar.  The irony, of course, is like most in the GOP and far right, Romney claims to be religious and pious.  His actions and dishonest show how little he actually cares about his religion's condemnation of lying.  Like so much that this blog seeks to expose and skewer, it's all about the hypocrisy.  Ultimately the question becomes whether there's anything Romney will not lie about? 

Mitt Romney's Tax Havens - How Do You Say Hypocrite?

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Mitt Romney talks a good game - at least if one doesn't know the real facts.  But his actions speak far louder.  Click the image above to see some of the ways Romney has avoided or reduced paying taxes.

Romney Invested in Firm That Disposed of Aborted Fetuses

Romney is doing his best to claim that he's the presidential candidate who knows how to create jobs - including jobs that involve disposing of aborted fetuses.  Or so reports Mother Jones based on government documents (the documents also indicate that Romney left Bain Capital far latter than he has claimed).  One can only wonder how this news will play out among the Kool-Aid drinking Christianist element of the GOP base.  Personally, the more I read about Romney, I suspect that he'd invest in a whore house if he thought it would make him a buck.  Yes, he might use a front entity to do so, but one need only follow the money to its source.  Likewise, Romney will fire any number of individuals regardless of the consequences to the families of those suddenly finding themselves unemployed.  I hate to say it, but the man is a money grubbing liar.  Here are highlights:

Earlier this year, Mitt Romney nearly landed in a politically perilous controversy when the Huffington Post reported that in 1999 the GOP presidential candidate had been part of an investment group that invested $75 million in Stericycle, a medical-waste disposal firm that has been attacked by anti-abortion groups for disposing aborted fetuses collected from family planning clinics.  .  .  . But Bain Capital, the private equity firm Romney founded, tamped down the controversy. The company said Romney left the firm in February 1999 to run the troubled 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and likely had nothing to with the deal.

But documents filed by Bain and Stericycle with the Securities and Exchange Commission—and obtained by Mother Jones—list Romney as an active participant in the investment. And this deal helped Stericycle, a company with a poor safety record, grow, while yielding tens of millions of dollars in profits for Romney and his partners. The documents—one of which was signed by Romney—also contradict the official account of Romney's exit from Bain.

The Stericycle deal—the abortion connection aside—is relevant because of questions regarding the timing of Romney's departure from the private equity firm he founded. Responding to a recent Washington Post story reporting that Bain-acquired companies outsourced jobs, the Romney campaign insisted that Romney exited Bain in February 1999, a month or more before Bain took over two of the companies named in the Post's article. The SEC documents undercut that defense, indicating that Romney still played a role in Bain investments until at least the end of 1999.

The SEC filing lists assorted Bain-related entities that were part of the deal, including Bain Capital (BCI), Bain Capital Partners VI (BCP VI), Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors (a Bermuda-based Bain affiliate), and Brookside Capital Investors (a Bain offshoot). And it notes that Romney was the "sole shareholder, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of BCI, BCP VI Inc., Brookside Inc. and Sankaty Ltd."

Another SEC document filed November 30, 1999, by Stericycle also names Romney as an individual who holds "voting and dispositive power" with respect to the stock owned by Bain. If Romney had fully retired from the private equity firm he founded, why would he be the only Bain executive named as the person in control of this large amount of Stericycle stock?

It was not until six years later that anti-abortion activists would target Stericycle for collecting medical waste at abortion clinics. This campaign has compared Stericycle to German firms that provided assistance to the Nazis during the Holocaust.

All of this undermines Bain's contention that Romney, though he maintained an ownership interest in the firm and its funds, had nothing to do with the firm's activities after February 1999. The Stericycle deal may raise red flags for anti-abortion activists. But it also raises questions about the true timing of Romney's departure from Bain and casts doubt on claims by the company and the Romney campaign that he had nothing to do with Bain business after February 1999.

Michele Bachmann: Swiss Citizen Since 1978

The ever insane and modern day Pharisee Michele Bachmann likes to question Barack Obama's citizenship and eligibility to hold the office of president, yet Ms. Bachmann has some citizenship issues of her own.  Such as her own Swiss citizenship that has apparently existed for 34 years.  If she wants to hold herself out as uber-American patriot, perhaps she should relinquish her own foreign citizenship.  That, course, would mean not being a hypocrite, so don't expect to see that happen anytime soon unless Bachmann is pressured by the Kool-Aid drinking GOP base.  Politico looks at Ms. Bachmann's heretofore undisclosed Swiss citizenship.  Here are highlights: 

Rep. Michele Bachmann tried to downplay her dual U.S.-Swiss citizenship Wednesday, releasing a statement that asserts she has actually been a dual citizen since 1978.  “I automatically became a dual citizen of the United States and Switzerland in 1978 when I married my husband, Marcus. Marcus is a dual American and Swiss citizen because he is the son of Swiss immigrants. As a family, we just recently updated our documents,” the Minnesota Republican and former presidential candidate said in a statement. “This is a non-story.”

According to her version of events, Bachmann has known she was a Swiss citizen for approximately 34 years. However, she never disclosed her citizenship while running for Congress and president of the United States.  Her office said that such a disclosure was not necessary.

Her statement that she has been a citizen since 1978 is based off a technicality - at the time of her marriage, automatic citizenship was granted to those who married Swiss citizens. However, Marcus Bachmann, her husband, did not register their marriage with Swiss authorities until this year - meaning that the Swiss government was not aware of it until recently.

Bachmann, who serves on the House Intelligence Committee, is now running for reelection in Minnesota’s 6^th Congressional District.  “This is simply another distraction,” said a spokesperson for Democratic challenger Jim Graves on Wednesday. “The Graves family is not interested in dual citizenship and they are proud to be Americans.”

Newt Gingrich's Disingenuous Forgiveness Ploy

Under Christian belief - and certainly Catholic belief which Newt Gingrich now pretends to embrace - forgiveness requires true contrition. And not just contrition that one got caught. Newt Gingrich is using the forgiveness ploy to convince the cretins among the Christianist elements in South Carolina to vote for him even though his past deeds are things these mental midgets ought to abhor. From his sleazy money making deals to his serial adultery and multiple marriages, there's little in my book to show Newt's sorry for anything other than his tawdry history is being dragged out for the world to see. Will the idiots of the Christian Right fall for this ploy? Kathleen Parker has a column in the Washington Post that looks at Gingrich's disingenuous game plan. Here are highlights:

Newt Gingrich’s standing ovation Thursday night, when he attacked CNN moderator John King for asking about allegations that Gingrich wanted an “open marriage” with his second wife, told us little about South Carolina but much about human nature.

The query, for which King has been exhaustively critiqued, was both necessary and inevitable. Forget the elephant in the living room; it was the herd in the powder room.

Just as King had no choice but to ask, Gingrich answered in the only way he could — by attacking the questioner. Shooting the messenger is a time-honored method of spin control among royals and their imitators. Gingrich’s bilious reproach was an oratorical defenestration. King’s audacity was “despicable,” he intoned, and the crowd roared.

Suddenly, Gingrich’s questionable past was forgotten, and whatever ire his record might have inspired was redirected at The Media . . . He correctly counted on the empathy of his fellow man, if not necessarily womankind, and won the moment.

But a moment is just that, and projection of the sort experienced by the Charleston, S.C., audience can be fraught with peril. Over-identification clouds judgment, and, though we are all sinners, we are not all running for president of the United States. Gingrich’s sins of the flesh ultimately are of less importance than the narcissism and grandiosity that compel his actions.

Voters would do well to think less of what they would do in his shoes than what Gingrich will do, should he win the prize. As the reality of his astonishing self-regard sinks in and one imagines where his unflagging certitude might lead, it is less easy to identify with the weeds in his garden. As projection falters, empathy finds no place to land.

If we thought the delusion Chimperator George Bush thought he was inspired to make what proved disastrous decisions not the least of which was to launch the fool's errand in Iraq, just imagine what the uncontrolled ego of Gingrich might bring to pass. Personally, the man is not only amoral, but frightening in his delusions and demagoguery.

Newt Gingrich's Hypocrisy and Phony Moralizing

I've noted before that in my view Newt Gingrich is the king of the hypocrites - as are the mental cretins among the Christianist and Tea Party base of the Republican Party who have embraced a serial adulterer who we now know asked for an "open marriage" six years after he had been having sex with a congressional aide. Fittingly, Gingrich epitomizes so much of what is wrong with today's GOP and the sickness of the "Christian Right" which is generally neither Christian or right on morality and other issues. The New York Times has a great take down of Gingrich as it's main editorial today. Here are a few highlights:

Multiple marriages and even adultery are not automatic disqualifications for the presidency. If they were, the country would have a very different roster of former presidents and candidates. But when a political party decides that moralizing about personal conduct is as important as public policy, it inevitably makes some of its leaders vulnerable to the worst charges of hypocrisy.

In this political cycle, it is Newt Gingrich who has been unable to escape the toxic combination of infidelity and sermonizing. The stories about his three marriages have been known for years, but every time he seems to have escaped the wrath of Republican voters, they rise again.

On Thursday, they were resurrected by his second wife, Marianne, who told ABC News that he had sought an “open marriage” arrangement in 1999 so that he could have her blessing to conduct an affair while remaining married to her. She refused, the couple divorced, and the woman he had been seeing is now his third wife, Callista Gingrich . . . .

Marianne Gingrich’s most devastating memory is that the day after his request, Mr. Gingrich gave a speech entitled, “The Demise of American Culture.” Among other things, he said in the speech that the elimination of prayer in schools had left American teenagers morally adrift.

Thirteen years later, campaigning for president, Mr. Gingrich is still trying to tell Americans how to run their lives. He supports a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. He accuses Mitt Romney of being insufficiently anti-abortion, even pointing out that Mr. Romney expanded access to abortion pills. He lectures black people about valuing jobs and children in the purgatory of housing projects for lacking a work ethic. He signed a personal pledge to, at long last, “uphold the institution of marriage through personal fidelity to my spouse.”

For too many Republicans, it’s not enough that Americans are free to pray in the house of worship of their choice; they want all children to be required to pray in school. They want to impose their own ideas about sexuality and abortion on everyone. And they love to accuse Democrats of being insufficiently pious. (

When Republican officials then get caught violating one of the Ten Commandments, they make an enormous show of contrition and repentance and ask for the public’s forgiveness. But as the hypocrisy level continues to rise, that forgiveness may become much harder to provide.

The Hypocrisy of Eric Cantor

Virginia has much to embarrass the state on the national stage, not the least of which are local nutcase and bigot, Pat Robertson, and of course the theocratic loons at Liberty University and Liberty Counsel in Lynchburg. Then in the political realm we have Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell and Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli. Currently drawing the most attention, however, is Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor, who continues to lick the boots of the Tea Party and the Christofascists of the GOP base who likely despise the man because he's Jewish yet put up with him for now since he's acting as their water carrier in his self-absorbed quest for power. What is really ass backwards is the fact that (1) Cantor will invest money in Iraq where it's like flushing money down a toilet but not here in the USA, and (2) Virginia is one of the largest recipients of federal government spending which means that if Cantor succeeds in slashing spending Virginians will be among the hardest hit. I suspect most whores have more integrity than Cantor. Thing Progress looks at Cantor's willingness to squander money overseas but not invest in America:

Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) voted for over $120 billion to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan, funds that were used to construct and repair schools, roads, bridges, and other critical infrastructure.

Now,Cantor is opposing President Obama’s proposal to spend $30 billion to modernize 35,000 American schools. Reuters has the story: U.S. House Republican Leader Eric Cantor said on Monday he will not support President Barack Obama’s proposal to renovate U.S. schools as part of the administration’s bill to spur job growth. He added that Obama should focus instead on cutting federal regulations . . .

Construction and building projects generally create about 10,000 jobs per billion spent. At a time of high unemployment, the funding that Cantor opposes would create about 300,000 jobs. Economist Jared Berstein explains that funding to modernize schools is “a smart way to get a lot of people who really need jobs back to work, fix a critical part of our institutional infrastructure, save energy costs, provide kids with a better, healthier learning environment, and do so in way that everyone can see and feel good about each morning when they drop their kids at school.”

Contact your member of Congress HERE and tell them that it is time to rebuild America now rather than foreign nations.

Karl "Protect Marriage" Rove Granted Divorce

The hypocrisy of the "family values" Republicans literally seems to know no bounds. As Politico is reporting, Karl Rove, who time and time again used gay baiting anti-gay marriage ploys to turn out the Christo-fascists of the GOP base at election time has shown how much he honors the "sanctity of marriage" - he just got a divorce from his wife of 24 years. And, unlike me, he doesn't have a legitimate reasons - such as being gay - for his divorce. He apparently simply got tired of his wife. It's yet another example of Republicans wanting others to do as they say and not as they actually do themselves. I've always found Rove despicable and this news only enhances my sense of disgust. Here are highlights from Politico:

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Karl Rove, former senior adviser to President George W. Bush, has been granted a divorce in Texas after 24 years of marriage, family spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
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“Karl Rove and his wife, Darby, were granted a divorce last week," said Perino. "The couple came to the decision mutually and amicably, and they maintain a close relationship and a strong friendship. There will be no further comment, and the family requests that its privacy be respected.”
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A family friend told POLITICO: “After 24 years of marriage, many of which were spent under incredible stress and strain during the White House years, the Roves came to a mutual decision that they would end the marriage. They did spend Christmas together with their son, and they plan to spend time together in the future. They maintain a strong friendship, and they both feel that that friendship is a source of comfort and inspiration for their friends and family.”
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To me, it all sounds a bit bizarre. Is Karl not telling us something? Glenn Greenwald at Salon has some equally to the point comments on Rove's hypocrisy. Here are some highlights:

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Karl Rove is an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage, citing "5,000 years of understanding the institution of marriage" as his justification. He also famously engineered multiple referenda to incorporate a ban on same-sex marriage into various states' constitutions in 2004 in order to ensure that so-called ""Christian conservatives" and "value voters" who believe in "traditional marriage laws" would turn out and help re-elect George W. Bush. Yet, like so many of his like-minded pious comrades, Rove seems far better at preaching the virtues of "traditional marriage" to others and exploiting them for political gain than he does adhering to those principles in his own life.
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[T]hose like Rove who have devoted endless efforts to barring gay citizens from marrying on the ground that our laws must enshrine Christian concepts of "traditional marriage" continuously take advantage of laws that enable them to end their own marriages on a whim, and even enter new marriages with their so-called "second, third and fourth wives," which only seems to intensify their "traditional marriage" preaching.
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If Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh and their friends and followers actually were required by law to stay married to their wives -- the way that "traditional marriage" was generally supposed to work -- the movement to have our secular laws conform to "traditional marriage" principles would almost certainly die a quick, quiet and well-deserved death.

Yet Another Adulterous "Family Values" Republican

It seems not a week goes by that some Republican elected official who proclaims that "family values" and marriage must be "protected" turns out to be "dipping his pen" in some inappropriate ink well so to speak. This time the offender is Tennessee State Sen. Paul Stanley (pictured at left) who has been having an adulterous affair with a woman who is not his wife. Meanwhile, Mr. Stanley has hypocritically been introducing legislation that would ban unmarried couples - apparently gay or straight - from adopting children and campaigning on a family values platform. As seems to be the increasingly norm for GOP homophobes, Stanley was not practicing what he was preaching. Here are some highlights from the Nashville Post:

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So it looks as though, once again, Mary Mancini’s law of politics has been proved correct. Those who moralize most strenuously about their moral code are the ones most often found violating it. State Sen. Paul Stanley was the sponsor of one of the more ambitious pieces of socially conservative legislation this session. Senate Bill 78’s stated aim was to keep cohabiting, unmarried couples from adopting children. Of course, the true aim was to write into law a ban on homosexual adoption.

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Sen. Paul Stanley was the face of the fight against gay adoption. His reasons for being against gay adoption were cliche. The nuclear two parent family was the ideal. “Our responsibility is to put these children in the best homes in the ideal environment. It’s not always the perfect environment. The ideal environment is a married couple that are able to bring them up in a great home life. And, if they’re not married, a lot of times there’s just not the commitment to one another.

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Now, instead of using cliches in his arguments, now he is one. Today, we learned that Stanley was the victim of an extortion attempt by the boyfriend of a women, a legislative intern, who is alleged to have had a sexual relationship with the Senator. The relationship has not been proven, of course, and the Senator has not confessed — but he hasn’t denied a relationship either.

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Instead of proclaiming his innocence and his martial fidelity on camera to get in front of the story, he hid behind a written statement. While the words in his statement say innocent, his actions say guilty. If Stanley did transgress in any way with this woman, if he put himself in the position to be blackmailed, he should not be sending out statements calling himself a victim. He should not be simply resigning his committee chairmanship. He should be resigning from his seat in the state Senate.

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The GOP has definitely become the party of hypocrites, religious fanatics and Neanderthals.

Florida Republican Guilty In Washroom Sex Case

This was too good to pass up. One more GOP closet case goes down, convicted by a jury of his peers. To say that Bob Allen is a stupid ass doesn't even begin to describe the matter. I continue to be amazed how it's the loudest homophobes who are just dying to have some gay sex. While I feel sorry for his family members, this guy deserves to be humiliated given his anti-gay voting record. I especially like the excuse that he solicited gay sex because he was afraid of blacks: I was afraid of the black men - - so I wanted to suck c**k? What the F***! Here are highlights from 365gay.com (http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/11/111007allen.htm):

(Tampa, Florida) State Rep. Bob Allen (R) has been convicted of offering an undercover male police officer cash for sex. Allen, a longtime foe of LGBT rights in Florida, will be sentenced next Thursday. He could be facing 60 days in the county jail and a $500. fine. Republicans in the legislature said the conviction will allow them to move forward with plans to remove Allen from office.

Following the verdict his attorney accused the prosecution of misconduct and said he will seek a new trial. Allen was busted in July during a sting at a men's washroom at Veteran's Memorial Park in Titusville, Florida. In taped statements made by Allen to police following his arrest and released by the force Allen admits to soliciting the male officer but claims that it was the result of being nervous by the high number of black men in the park.

Ironically, Allen was the Police Union's 2007 Lawmaker of the Year. In the last session of the Florida legislature he sponsored a failed bill that would have tightened the state's prohibition on public sex. He also has been a supporter of amending the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage and has opposed a bill to curb bullying of gay students.