Democrats split their choice for worst president among Bush and Nixon, while Republicans went solidly for Obama
How could this possibly be? The record overwhelmingly supports the proposition that George W. Bush was easily the most inept president since the war:
A pair of Californians squared off on CNN Sunday morning. Watch as liberal radio/TV host Stephanie Miller demonstrates how to talk to Republicans in this exchange with failed U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorini about the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision and Fiorini’s party’s war on women.
Note that this quote, which has been cited in these pages in another context, sets up the arrival of fascism as certain — not “if” but “when” fascism comes. As the United States marks its 238th birthday, that “when” appears to be imminent. The country is under assault from an enemy within, a hodgepodge insurgency of neo-Confederates, Christo-fascists and Ayn Randian anarchists funded and driven by soulless oligarchs who will not stop until the American dream is dead and this once great nation has become a Third World country.
Bonnie says, ‘Please don’t terrorize me with your stupid fireworks!’
Using fireworks near animals is both cruel and inhumane as explosive fireworks cause animals immense fear and stress.
— Voice for the Voiceless
Tell that to Bonnie. She’s our 9-year-old mixed-breed terrier who gets completely freaked by fireworks on the Fourth of July. In Miami on the Fourth the streets and night skies are filled with the sound, fury and cordite stench of illegal fireworks ignited by “patriots.”
Tampa Bay Online describes the legal loophole that allows Floridians to behave like asses on the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Patriotism as pest control: Florida’s weird fireworks law
BY JAMES L. ROSICA
Tribune/Scripps Capital Bureau
Published: June 29, 2014 | Updated: June 29, 2014 at 10:10 AMTALLAHASSEE — The coming of Independence Day means fireworks season — and the beginning of the institutionalized charade behind their sale in Florida.
In the Sunshine State, one does not buy a bottle rocket for recreation; one buys it to scare birds away from farms and fisheries.
That’s right: Explosives for pest control.
In a gambit to lay the groundwork for impeachment, the GOP leadership has announced plans to sue Pres. Obama on grounds that he has abused his authority by issuing executive orders to implement policies.
In support of the lawsuit, the usual suspects on the right have been making outrageous claims about the number of executive orders the president has issued — the most extravagant of which asserts that he’s issued more than 900 so-called EOs. The actual number is much lower, fewer than 200, so far. By contrast, George W. Bush signed 291 EOs.
Not surprisingly, the U.S. president who issued the most executive orders was Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat who served four terms. Republican presidents have issued more than their share of EOs, too, of course. In their single terms, Republicans Theodore Roosevelt issued 1,081 EOs, Calvin Coolidge issued 1,203 orders and Herbert Hoover issued 968. Richard Nixon issued 346 EOs in his five years in office, and tea-party patron saint Ronald Reagan issued 381 executive orders during his two terms.
The chart below shows the exact numbers for all presidents going back to 1901. To see a complete list going back to Pres. Washington, visit the American Presidency Project.
Here’s one for the Kremlin watchers. Why did Fox News Pres. Roger Ailes decide to go after Dick Cheney’s record of deception and ineptitude about the invasion of Iraq? Sources say that daily talking points are largely determined by Ailes and delivered by his minions in morning meetings to Foxbots like Megyn Kelly. During an interview with Cheney yesterday, Kelly put Cheney on defense about his record of lies and failures about Iraq, which she described in unvarnished and shockingly reality-based terms.
Cheney and his daughter Liz — last seen dropping out of the U.S. Senate race in the Cheney fiefdom of Wyoming after polls showed she was 50 points behind the incumbent, ultra right-wing GOP Sen. Mike Enzi — have launched yet another anti-Obama organization. As part of the rollout, in an op-ed in the Wall St. Journal, which, like Fox, is owned by Rupert Murdoch, Dick Cheney criticized the President, saying, “Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many.”
In response to that, on Fox yesterday, Kelly asked him:
Marriage equality is now the law in the Pacific Coast states and Hawaii, the Northeast, New Mexico and four states in the Midwest.
To access an interactive version of this map on the Mother Jones website that provides status and updates on laws state-by-state, click here.
I wanted to buy a book a few months ago for a relative who was hospitalized in a city about 40 miles north and who wasn’t a TV watcher. I figured I’d stop off at the mall or a shopping center as I drove up and pick up some books and magazines.
Except there were no bookstores. While I had been floating along, ordering books from Amazon because they were cheap or putting them on my Amazon wish list and waiting for the prices to come down, book shops all around me were going out of business. Instead of finding some cool books and artsy, interesting magazines, I had to stop at a grocery store to buy a lame edition of O Magazine by Oprah. I believe it went unread.
If you watch the Colbert Report, you know that the responsible thing to do right now is to boycott Amazon. The massive “Don’t Be Evil” online seller is engaged in a very evil battle with traditional publishers to control pricing and set off a dumbing down process that will likely promote self-publishing as an Amazon work-around.
Note to Prof. Dave Brat, the newly nominated tea party candidate for the Virginia district currently held by Majority Leader Eric Cantor: College professors get to choose topics for discussion in class, but candidates — just like elected officials — must be able to answer whatever questions the media throws their way.
Brat made a poor showing today in one of his first national interviews:
Remember when she was armed, dangerous, in flannel?
Well now she’s assumed the news reporter’s mantel.
So we can be perpetually annoyed
By someone who’s actually unemployed.
Just tune in to the new Sarah Palin Channel.
