Another day another ghostwritten article with Sarah Palin's hoof print on it. Update!

Today's contribution comes from that Right Wing rag known as Breitbart.com, which is really only a small step up from having her post it on Facebook.

Essentially it is a post pimping a book by Peter Schweizer, who I am sure some of you will remember Palin hired as her "foreign policy adviser" back in 2011. (And what a bang up job he did.)

The book is about corruption, and buying favors, in Washington D.C., because you know nobody has ever made that connection before. Schweizer perhaps takes it a step further identifying this process as "mafia-style legislative tactics" and claiming that it is akin to paying "protection money" to insure that there will be no investigations for wrong doing into those companies that contribute. Once again a practice almost as old as Washington itself.

Of course since this IS coming from a Right Wing mouthpiece it tends to focus on President Obama and the Democrats: 

Schweizer interviewed former Chairman of Apache Corporation Ray Plank. Plank said campaign cash and lobbying contracts now function as “protection money” to keep lawmakers and regulators from going after you. 

“It’s what you expect from the mafia,” said Plank. “They basically come to you and say, ‘We are going to shove this bat up your ass and give you an enema. You better play ball.’ We saw a great deal of it. It’s an insidious blight.” 

There are left-wing progressives on Wall Street and in the high-tech world who bankrolled President Obama’s campaign because they love his radical agenda. But as Schweizer points out, many gave because they know they have to; if they don’t, Obama will come after them. 

That’s a lesson the Tea Party knows all too well. After the Tea Party’s historic 2010 midterm victory, Obama unleashed Attorney General Eric Holder to go after the oil and gas sector, which had given four times as much to Republicans as to Democrats. As Obama said in October 2010, “We are going to punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us.”

That last quote really bothered me, because it did NOT sound like anything the President would say. EVER.

So I found two different speeches the President gave in October 2010, one was a rally in Portland and the other was a speech with Harry Reid in Arizona. I combed through them carefully, and could find nothing that matched that quote exactly, nor anything that was very similar to it.

Now it is early in the morning here, and perhaps I just missed it, but like I said it doesn't sound like the President.

However it really doesn't matter, because the premise, at least in the President's case, does not add up.

If the idea is that people who donate a lot of money are safe from prosecution, then Schweizer, and his employer Sarah Palin, would have to explain what just happened to JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon.

Dimon was a huge contributor to numerous Democrats, including former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, as well as many prominent Republicans, and was very close to President Obama.

And yet the other day his company just agreed to a record setting settlement of 13 billion dollars for numerous civil suits filed against them, and are still under federal investigation. (I don't remember ANY investigations being launched against big businesses and unethical lenders during the Bush Administration. And not only that, but they relaxed regulations to the point that there were very few actions even considered illegal by them anymore.)

I cannot tell you how ironic I find it that these so-called conservatives are jumping all over Washington politicians now that there is a Democratic majority in the Senate, and a Democrat in the White House, for allegedly being corrupt, but said NOTHING during the eight years of the Bush-Cheney criminal enterprise.

Oh, but now that the Teabaggers are attempting to hijack the Republican party (On yesterday's Hardball Freedomwork's Matt Kibbe stated that fact out loud.), the Koch brothers are willing to sick Palin on the GOP as well: 

And what about the GOP establishment? Why haven’t they been able to clean up the extortion racket in Washington? You have to ask yourself, has the party machine fought this corruption or does it participate in it? As a senior House Republican told Fox News on Thursday, it’s “highly unlikely” Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) will be challenged because few have the muscle to match his ability to “raise money.”

Then the ghostwriter decides to insert a little of Palin's whining into the article for the sake of authenticity:

The fact that these strong-arm tactics take place in Washington doesn’t surprise me at all. I’ve fought this type of corruption my entire political career. And those who disagreed with me politically used thug-like tactics to try to bankrupt my family with frivolous lawsuits in Alaska, and it hasn’t stopped to this day.

And that may be the most Palin-like portion of this clearly professionally written, and duplicitous, article. 

The funny thing is that much of what the real author says are things that I agree with. Let's get corporate money out of politics, let's elect leaders that really represent their constituents, and let's make sure that big businesses are unable to buy their way out of trouble.

Hear, hear.

However then I remember that this is an article written for a political celebutard, by a ghostwriter hired by the Koch brothers (Perhaps the wealthiest, and more powerful political contributors in the country). And suddenly it occurs to me that I am simply reading propaganda, dipped in hypocrisy sauce, and promoted by a woman who quit her job in order to work as a flunky for wealthy puppet masters.

In other words, considering the source(s), this has no actual value to anybody.

It is simply camouflage, and an attempt at redirection, for those who only want you to notice a CERTAIN segment of Washington being corrupt, while missing out on the REAL puppeteers behind Washington politics. Remember, the politicians who the Tea Party is sending to Washington are there to shut down the government, and without government there is NO government oversight of business.

Personally I think I know who the REAL villains are (Koch brothers, Freedom Works, Heritage Foundation), and I will make sure to keep a very wary eye on everything that they do. And I have to say that it seems to me that their actions are becoming more desperate every day.

How else to explain taking the Palin out of mothballs and attempting to use her as the voice of reason concerning political corruption?

Update: Okay apparently the President DID say, “We are going to punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us.” However he did not use it in the context referred to by Palin's ghostwriter.

Here is the quote in context: 

In a radio interview that aired on Univision on Monday, Mr. Obama sought to assure Hispanics that he would push an immigration overhaul after the midterm elections, even though he has not been able to attract Republican support. 

“If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, ‘We’re going to punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us,’ if they don’t see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election, then I think it’s going to be harder and that’s why I think it’s so important that people focus on voting on November 2.” 

Referring specifically to Republicans such as Senator John McCain, who formerly supported an overhaul but now are stressing border security and supporting strict immigration laws like Arizona’s anti-illegal immigration measure, Mr. Obama said, “Those aren’t the kinds of folks who represent our core American values.”

So he was talking about immigration and Hispanic voters, and it had NOTHING to do with threatening big business and donors.

Of course this was directed at Right Wing readers, so they figured nobody would research their lies.

By the way, speaking of research, thanks to all of you who found that quote for me. Fortunately for us WE actually do our research.

Koch brother funded group uses free beer, Taco Bell, and gift cards to lure young people away from Obamacare.

Courtesy of the Miami Herald:  

As the battle over the healthcare law grinds on — Republicans no closer to victory than when they forced the government shutdown — a different fight was rising on a recent Saturday from inside Sharkey’s, a bar near the campus of Virginia Tech, 260 miles away. 

Lured by free beer, gift cards and the chance to win an iPad, 100 students heard a pitch from the young staffers of a group named Generation Opportunity: Obamacare is a bad deal, and you should opt out. 

With enrollment in the insurance marketplaces under way, and tens of millions of taxpayer dollars being spent on a public-awareness campaign, critics are aiming a provocative counter-effort at a critical population: millennials, age 18 to 29, who may not feel the need or have the money for insurance. 

Because if too few young, healthy people sign up, Obamacare will be denied the financial blood to support older, more needy participants. So the race is on for the attention of 2.7 million people deemed necessary to enroll in the first year for Obamacare to be successful. 

Generation Opportunity, which formed in 2011 and gets funding in part from the conservative Koch brothers, is about to embark on a tour of 20 college towns nationally, including a Nov. 9 stop at the University of Miami. The pitch is that you shouldn’t feel compelled by the government to buy insurance, and that it may be cheaper outside the marketplaces. 

A blueprint for an upcoming tailgate calls for games such as beer pong and cornhole, free Taco Bell and beer. Pictures of people signing petitions to opt out would be sent over Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. 

The group, and more recognizable conservative organizations such as Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, show how the fight has shifted from Congress to the grassroots. Young people are among the law’s most ardent supporters, but at the same time many are unaware of the benefits, providing an opening for critics. 

I knew this was coming.

The next best chance that the Republicans have to cripple the Affordable Care Act is to keep younger, healthier, participants from signing up. And with the deep pockets of some of these groups they could afford a hell of a lot of beer and Crunchwrap Supremes.

The Obama administration is going to have to really do some serious advertising, and possibly introduce some incentives of their own, to attract young participants.

Ultimately, much like very other desperate attempt, this petition thing will not do them much good. (After all what stops these kids from signing a petition, drinking their fill of beer, and then signing up for health insurance the next day?)

However I think it behooves all of us to keep a close watch on this kind of sneaky bullshit.

By the way the group responsible for this, "Generation Opportunity," are also the ones who brought us this ultra creep advertisement.

If ALL of their ideas are that bad perhaps the Obama administration won't have to try that hard to combat them after all.

Sarah Palin laments the "shenanigans" in D.C. and the loss of her candidate Steve Lonegan. Blames "far left lapdog media."

In Washington, Palin vibrantly plowing ahead while her purse carrier brings up the rear.

Courtesy of the Susie Sourgrape's ghostwritten Facebook post:

Todd and I were proud to stand with Mark Levin and other bold, patriotic warriors in support of Steve Lonegan in the New Jersey Senate race! Mayor Lonegan fought the good fight, and he and his supporters have not “finished the race,” they’ve just begun! The press has now called the race for Barack Obama’s celebrity stand-in, Cory Booker, but rest assured that Steve fought gallantly for every vote that would have led to American solvency and exceptionalism. Steve is a lucky guy to have a strong New Jersey wife and two great daughters who supported him through this campaign. We so enjoyed getting to know them, as their passion and love for this country inspired us. Looking at Steve’s life story should remind all of us to never be afraid to climb a mountain, no matter how high. Steve energized commonsense conservatives all across the country. And though it’s sad, it’s not surprising to see the far left lapdog media finally cover this race tonight (once their chosen one was deemed the victor, but not previously when voters deserved to hear of Lonegan’s successful small-government record and intentions to defend our republic). 

Tonight’s press coverage of the status quo antics in Washington, D.C. energize us further. Tonight’s New Jersey race was a win for Barack Obama, and the Senate deal in D.C. was a loss for the American people replete with more back-room deals, billion dollar corrupt earmark kickbacks, and weak leadership unwilling to stand up for the people who sent them to Washington. What happened in D.C. tonight reminds us of how hard we must fight in 2014 to return to a government of the people, by the people, for the people. These politicians work for us, and yet a new poll accurately reflects that just 13% of us feel as though this country that we love is on the right track. The way forward is to elect leaders who will listen to us; and if they don’t, we must hold them accountable on election day – no matter what party. Let’s commit to continue to be in the trenches fighting for those who stand on principle over politics, despite the odds. 

Friends, do not be discouraged by the shenanigans of D.C.’s permanent political class today. Be energized. We’re going to shake things up in 2014. Rest well tonight, for soon we must focus on important House and Senate races. Let’s start with Kentucky – which happens to be awfully close to South Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi – from sea to shining sea we will not give up. We’ve only just begun to fight. 

- Sarah Palin

Palin then links to this Fox News article entitled  "American taxpayers betrayed by chickenhearted RINOs."

Ya know I usually leave comments within the body of RAM's Facebook posts mocking her facts and poking Palin in the eye, but today I am simply going to let it stand.

Essentially because it is a thing of schadenfreude beauty.

Last night Palin got her cuckoo clock cleaned.

Not only did her chosen candidate from New Jersey, Steve Lonegan, get his ass beat, her current middle school crush Ted Cruz got bitchslapped by just about every Republican politician with access to a microphone. 

So yeah, Sarah Palin had a very, very bad night.

Which is exactly the kind of night that I hope she has over, and over again.

By the way as for that whole American taxpayers betrayed crap, this is what Senator Elizabeth Warren had to say about the shutdown's impact on them: 

"According to the S&P index, the government shutdown had delivered a powerful blow to the U.S. economy. By their estimates, $24 billion has been flushed down the drain for a completely unnecessary political stunt," Warren wrote in the email. "$24 billion dollars. How many children could have been back in Head Start classes? How many seniors could have had a hot lunch through Meals on Wheels? How many scientists could have gotten their research funded? How many bridges could have been repaired and trains upgraded?"

THAT is the reality of what these political "shenanigans" have actually done to this country. And if Palin and her constantly shrinking band of like minded imbeciles get their way it will happen again and again, until the voters finally sac up and throw these idiots out of office.

Because I can tell you the other side has certainly not changed their position one little bit: 

The President and CEO of the tea party group Freedomworks predicted that House Republicans who vote in favor of the latest plan to avert a debt default and re-open the federal government, will face primary challengers. 

"Absolutely," Freedomworks CEO and President Matt Kibbe said on CNN when asked if House Republicans would pay a "political price" for voting for the plan. "You're seeing that and a repopulation of the republican party."

Well 87 GOP House members voted to avert this catastrophe, so it looks like Kibbe has his work cut out for him.

Hey perhaps he can get Palin to endorse them? Certainly worked well for them so far.

After their year long plans to shutdown the government have been made public, the Koch brothers attempt to deny culpability. Too late!

Courtesy of the Atlantic: 

The Kochs appear to be distancing themselves from the movement they've helped to create. In a letter released Wednesday, Koch Industries' chief lobbyist, Philip Ellender, says the company does not favor the House's push to defund Obamacare as a condition of keeping the government open. Koch Industries would prefer to see Congress focus on fiscal issues: "We believe that Congress should, at a minimum, keep to sequester-level spending guidelines, and develop a plan for more significant and widespread spending reductions in the future," Ellender writes. 

Ellender's letter came in response to Democrats' attempts to pin the shutdown on the Kochs. Speaking on the Senate floor on Tuesday, Majority Leader Harry Reid said: "Very rich people in America who don’t believe in government have used Obamacare as a conduit to shut down the government .... This has been led by, according to the news article, a former attorney general of the United States, Ed Meese, and the Koch brothers, who have been raising and spending hundreds of millions of dollars to get us where we are right now," Reid said. He added, "By shutting down the government—and that is what has happened—we are satisfying the Koch brothers and Ed Meese, but millions of people in America are suffering." Reid cited a front-page New York Times article on Sunday that traced the government shutdown's origins in a network of right-wing pressure groups opposed to Obamacare, many of them funded by Charles and David Koch. 

But Ellender, in his letter, accuses Reid of distorting Koch's stance. "Koch believes that Obamacare will increase deficits, lead to an overall lowering of the standard of health care in America, and raise taxes," he writes. "However, Koch has not taken a position on the legislative tactic of tying the continuing resolution to defunding Obamacrare nor have we lobbied on legislative provisions defunding Obamacare." 

In addition to keeping spending at sequester levels, Ellender adds, "We also believe that Congress should work to rein-in rampant government spending so that it becomes no longer necessary to continually raise the debt ceiling." 

Even as the Kochs attempt to disavow the defund movement, their money has supported it. The brothers have given half a million dollars to Heritage Action, which toured the country rallying support for defunding Obamacare over the summer, Politico reported Wednesday. Heritage Action continues to insist the way to end the shutdown must be defund or nothing: Talk of a fiscal deal constitutes "losing focus," according to a Heritage Action blog post on Tuesday, and "the House should use its leverage to battle President Obama's failed health care law." The Koch-funded group Americans for Prosperity officially supports repealing Obamacare, not defunding it, but state chapters in New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, and Virginia have voiced support for defunding. 

Just like Victor Frankenstein, there comes a time in every madman'[s life when they realize that the creature they have created must die.

The question is, will it die quickly, or will take on a life of its own and ultimately leave a path of destruction in its wake?

Actually to be fair the destruction is already taking place:

During the impeachment of Bill Clinton, Republicans were pretty unpopular. After eight years of George W. Bush, same. But never in the history of Gallup polling has the party been more unpopular than it is right now.

Good job Koch brothers.  No really, good job!

Plans to shutdown the government in attempt to derail Obamacare were months in the making. Color me unsurprised.

Courtesy of The New York Times: 

To many Americans, the shutdown came out of nowhere. But interviews with a wide array of conservatives show that the confrontation that precipitated the crisis was the outgrowth of a long-running effort to undo the law, the Affordable Care Act, since its passage in 2010 — waged by a galaxy of conservative groups with more money, organized tactics and interconnections than is commonly known. 

With polls showing Americans deeply divided over the law, conservatives believe that the public is behind them. Although the law’s opponents say that shutting down the government was not their objective, the activists anticipated that a shutdown could occur — and worked with members of the Tea Party caucus in Congress who were excited about drawing a red line against a law they despise. 

A defunding “tool kit” created in early September included talking points for the question, “What happens when you shut down the government and you are blamed for it?” The suggested answer was the one House Republicans give today: “We are simply calling to fund the entire government except for the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare.” 

The current budget brinkmanship is just the latest development in a well-financed, broad-based assault on the health law, Mr. Obama’s signature legislative initiative. Groups like Tea Party Patriots, Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks are all immersed in the fight, as is Club for Growth, a business-backed nonprofit organization. Some, like Generation Opportunity and Young Americans for Liberty, both aimed at young adults, are upstarts. Heritage Action is new, too, founded in 2010 to advance the policy prescriptions of its sister group, the Heritage Foundation. 

The billionaire Koch brothers, Charles and David, have been deeply involved with financing the overall effort. A group linked to the Kochs, Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, disbursed more than $200 million last year to nonprofit organizations involved in the fight. Included was $5 million to Generation Opportunity, which created a buzz last month with an Internet advertisement showing a menacing Uncle Sam figure popping up between a woman’s legs during a gynecological exam. 

The groups have also sought to pressure vulnerable Republican members of Congress with scorecards keeping track of their health care votes; have burned faux “Obamacare cards” on college campuses; and have distributed scripts for phone calls to Congressional offices, sample letters to editors and Twitter and Facebook offerings for followers to present as their own.

I don't think this is particularly surprising to any of US who have been paying close attention to the behind the scenes manipulations by Freedomworks and the Koch brothers, or who remember that infamous secret meeting held, on the night of Obama's first inauguration,  by certain Tea Party and GOP types, which laid out their strategy for denying the President ANY POLICY that he wanted to get passed during what they believed would be his first and ONLY term as President.

Hell Freedomworks even advertised online what they would be willing to see done to stop this law from being enacted.

And this is what needs to be brought up EVERY time the media asks who should get the blame for this shutdown, or anybody attempts to suggest that it is the Democrats or President who is being unreasonable for allowing it to continue.

Fake giant Pandas having sex with Hillary Clinton. Is this the best the Right Wing can do against her?

Courtesy of Mother Jones:  

An internal investigation of FreedomWorks—the prominent conservative advocacy group and super-PAC—has focused on president Matt Kibbe's management of the organization, his use of its resources, and a controversial book deal he signed, according to former FreedomWorks officials who have met with the private lawyers conducting the probe. One potential topic for the inquiry is a promotional video produced last year under the supervision of Adam Brandon, executive vice president of the group and a Kibbe loyalist. The video included a scene in which a female intern wearing a panda suit simulates performing oral sex on Hillary Clinton. 

In one segment of the film, according to a former official who saw it, Brandon is seen waking from a nap at his desk. In what appears to be a dream or a nightmare, he wanders down a hallway and spots a giant panda on its knees with its head in the lap of a seated Hillary Clinton and apparently performing oral sex on the then-secretary of state. Two female interns at FreedomWorks were recruited to play the panda and Clinton. One intern wore a Hillary Clinton mask. The other wore a giant panda suit that FreedomWorks had used at protests to denounce progressives as panderers. Placing the panda in the video, a former FreedomWorks staffer says, was "an inside joke." 

Another FreedomWorks staffer who worked there at the time confirms that "Yes, this video was created." 

Days before the FreePAC event, the video was screened for staff. "My mouth was wide open," a former official recalls. "'What the hell is this?'" Several FreedomWorks staffers were outraged and stunned that Brandon, the group's second-in-command after Kibbe, had overseen the video's production, appeared in it, and intended to show this film at the conference, which would be attended by many social-conservative activists. They raised objections to the film. 

"How was that not some form of sexual harassment?" a former FreedomWorks official asks, noting that two female interns had been requested to act out a pretend sex scene. "And there were going to be thousands of Christian conservatives at this thing. This was a terrible lack of judgment." Brandon, a former FreedomWorks official says, defended the film, insisting it was creative and funny. But eventually a decision was made not to show the video at FreePAC. 

Armey says he didn't became aware of the film until months later: "I heard they had made an obscene video mocking Hillary Clinton." He says he was told the video showed Clinton having sex with an intern. "I asked another [FreedomWorks] guy if he had seen it," Armey recalls. "He said, 'I heard about it. I was traveling at the time. It was shown around the office.'" Armey adds, "There was a concern that this kind of behavior could land you in court. I was shocked at the ugly and bad taste." 

Dick Armey was "shocked?" Sure he was. You know that these assholes engage in this same kind misogynistic behavior all of the time behind closed doors, and in fact there were numerous reports of sexist attitudes toward female employees and "boorish behaviors."

Something like this tape does not happen in a vacuum and surely Dick Armey knew all about it.

The Mother Jones article goes on to quote a former staffer at FreedomWorks who predicts that the company will simply implode soon due to mismanagement.  You know I feel pretty much the same fate awaits the actual republican party as well.

By the way, does ANYBODY want to predict how long it will take that champion of woman's rights, that self identified victim of constant "sexist" comments, Sarah Palin, to speak out about this?

Yeah I don't expect a peep out of her either.

D.C. Douglas, the ex-Geico voice over actor VS the Teabaggers. Who you got?

This made me laugh so much I just had to share it.

By the way D.C. has since apologized for calling the nutjobs at Freedom Works "mentally retarded".

I think he meant to say "ignorant assholes" but it just came out wrong.