The Canadians think us mad.

The Republican agenda revealed. Pretty much what you might expect.

Courtesy of Mother Jones:  

Reading between the lines, I gather that Republicans are starting to coalesce around a legislative agenda to celebrate their recent midterm victory: 

• Ban abortions after 20 weeks. 
• Wipe out all of Obama's new and pending EPA regulations. 
• Repeal Obamacare bit by bit. 
• Figure out a way to obstruct Loretta Lynch's nomination as Attorney General. 

Oh, there's still some desultory happy talk about tax reform and fast-track trade authority and other "areas of agreement," but that seems to be fading out. Poking a stick in President Obama's eye is very quickly becoming the order of the day.

I would like to forgive those who stayed home during this midterm election and refused to participate.

But I can't, for you have truly fucked us good.

P.S. Just for fun let's look back at when the Republicans had a reasonable agenda.

What ever happened to those guys?

Hell I would vote for those guys.

President Obama takes on the blame for the midterm shellacking. "The buck stops right here."

Courtesy of Politico:  

President Barack Obama is taking blame for the Democratic drubbing in last week’s midterm elections, saying “the buck stops right here at my desk.” 

“Whenever, as the head of the party, it doesn’t do well, I’ve got to take responsibility for it,” the president said in a wide-ranging interview aired Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation."

Obama also said one lesson from the midterms was that his party has to do a better job selling its policies. 

“We’ve got to reach out to the other side and, where possible, persuade,” he told host Bob Schieffer in the interview taped Friday at the White House before he left on a week-long trip to Asia. “I think there are times, there’s no doubt about it, where, you know, I think we have not been successful in going out there and letting people know what it is that we’re trying to do and why this is the right direction.” 

I think this is bullshit.

I think the President is being very magnanimous by taking on the blame for something that ultimately is the fault of timidity by the Democrats and candidates who believed that if they hid from their progressive ideas, and the successes of this President, that it would make them more attractive to the voters.

I think if Democrats would have walked out among their  constituents with their chests puffed out with pride over what they had accomplished and sold it with the same fervor that Republicans used to sell us the Iraq war, many of them could have emerged victorious.

And at least if they lost they could still look at themselves in the mirror and say that they stayed true to themselves, true to the President, and true to their party.

Please let's make Nate Silver wrong this time.

Courtesy of TPM:  

In his latest forecast, statistics whiz Nate Silver gives Republicans a roughly 60 percent chance of winning control of the Senate in the November elections. 

"Summing the probabilities of each race yields an estimate of 51 seats for Republicans. That makes them very slight favorites — perhaps somewhere in the neighborhood of 60-40 — to take control of the Senate, but also doesn't leave them much room for error," Silver wrote at FiveThirtyEight on Monday.

Midterms are where liberals historically drop the ball, but this time we simply cannot allow that to happen.

This election may be just as important as the presidential election, and we need to get our shit together and make damn sure we do not have a repeat of 2010 when the Tea Party helped send the dumbest politicians in this nation's history to Washington.

If the Republicans capture the Senate it is game over for President Obama, and you know they will not only obstruct everything he tries to do, but they will repeal Obamacare and more than likely decide that impeachment is not such a silly idea anymore either.

Sarah Palin slinging hashtags for pig mutilator Joni Ernst.

Courtesy of the Wasilla Wendigo's Facebook page: 

Todd and I are ‪#‎OnDutyForJoni‬ Ernst as she steps away from the Iowa campaign trail to continue her service to our country in uniform. Joni is a strong conservative running a positive, optimistic campaign for U.S. Senate in the Hawkeye State, and she’s had our full support for many months now.

Todd? Wait Todd is an Ernst supporter as well?

Wow, what a coincidence.

And BOY does he look enthusiastic about lending his support.

It's almost as if he really has no choice and is told who to support, what to say,  and when to get his damn picture taken.

However you cannot blame Palin for pulling hard on Toad's choke collar, after all Ernst might be the only Palin endorsee to stand an actual a chance of winning her race this election cycle.

P.S. What do you think Todd is thinking in that picture?

I feel a caption contest coming on.

Sarah Palin is a doing that endorsin' thing again.

Courtesy of the Klondike Kraken's Facebook page:

Thank you, Lamar Alexander, for the respect and integrity you’ve shown in your many years of public service in Washington. With the new challenges in D.C., the time has come for new leaders who are willing to stand up to the political establishments and the Obama administration and say, “no mas!” (This and "cojones" may be the Spanish words that Sarah Palin even knows. And I am sure that Spanish speakers really enjoy hearing her use them.) Unfortunately, advocating and voting for amnesty, cash for clunkers, bailouts, raising the debt ceiling, and many controversial Obama administration nominees has marred the incumbent’s record. It’s time for a change. (What? You were reasonable and voted with the President on occasion? Well then you fail the completely irrational Right Wing purity test, and you have to go.)

Joe Carr is the new voice Tennessee needs in the U.S. Senate! Joe is a citizen legislator who brings his small business experience to bear in the Tennessee General Assembly. He’s stood up to those in his own party, fighting to enact some of the toughest illegal immigration legislation in the country and working to make Tennessee the 4th most business friendly state in the nation. Joe knows that government is most often the problem, not the solution, and he will work to reduce the size of our federal bureaucracy and always use the Constitution as his guide. (So to sum up, Joe is an ideologue, hates Mexicans, and will work to obstruct any progress in Washington. Perfect!)

It’s a disappointment that after so many years in office Senator Alexander has refused to debate Joe Carr in this campaign.  (That might be because Carr is so far behind in the polls that Alexander can barely see him in his rear view mirror.) Really, it’s pretty unbelievable because the good people of Tennessee deserve to hear from both these candidates to know who will be on their side and who will choose the Washington status quo. 

The conservative grassroots patriots in Tennessee have clearly spoken. When I visited there earlier this month, I was impressed by all the energy and momentum behind Joe Carr. (And exactly where did you see that?) Please join me in supporting him as the Volunteer State’s next Senator! 

- Sarah Palin

Interestingly enough when Carr wanted to host a fundraiser he did NOT invite Sarah Palin. Instead he invited conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham.

Who was able to attract a whopping 500 Tea Party activists to a hotel in Nashville. Which as we know is probably about 450 more than Palin would have attracted.

The Teabaggers are enthused about their possibility to pulling off another upset after Eric Cantor was kicked to the curb last month. However Alexander is a cagier candidate and has been preparing for a challenge from the Right all along:

“He’s covering all his bases,” said John Geer, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville who conducted polling on the race. “He shows no serious weaknesses.”

But even if he did have a chance, with Palin now waving her shriveled monkey paw at him he is all but doomed.

So now that the curse has once again been unleashed the fun is in watching it slowly strangling the life out of whatever hope Carr once had of emerging victorious. 

Kind of like watching a Tea Party puppy slowing being swallowed by a snake.

Thanks to Obamacare, and despite the recent Hobby Lobby case, there has been a huge increase in the number of women with access to free birth control.

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

More than half of privately insured women are getting free birth control under President Barack Obama's health law, a major coverage shift that's likely to advance. 

This week the Supreme Court allowed some employers with religious scruples to opt out, but most companies appear to be going in the opposite direction. 

Recent data from the IMS Institute document a sharp change during 2013. The share of privately insured women who got their birth control pills without a copayment jumped to 56 percent, from 14 percent in 2012. The law's requirement that most health plans cover birth control as prevention, at no additional cost to women, took full effect in 2013. 

The average annual saving for women was $269. "It's a big number," said institute director Michael Kleinrock. The institute is the research arm of IMS Health, a Connecticut-based technology company that uses pharmacy records to track prescription drug sales. 

Many medical groups see a strong rationale for free birth control. Contraception can help make a woman's next pregnancy healthier by spacing births far enough apart, generally 18 months to two years. Closely spaced births carry a risk of such problems as prematurity, low birth weight, even autism. And even modest copays for medical care can discourage its use. 

"It's one of the most concrete ways that women have seen that the Affordable Care Act is helping them," said Amy Allina, deputy director of the National Women's Health Network, an advocacy that supports the law's requirement.

Damn right is helping women and I hope that they keep that in mind during these next midterm elections.

I have this fantasy of all that could be accomplished if the Democrats not only held onto the Senate but also captured the House.

Yes I know that it is about as likely as Scarlett Johansson showing up at my doorstep telling me that she wants to have my baby, but still a Liberal can dream can't he?

At the very least we need to hang onto the Senate, and hopefully the female vote will be there for Obama like he has been there for the female voter.

Oh, and the guys too of course.

Sarah Palin thanks everybody for finally paying attention to her. It's been SO very, very long.

Courtesy of the ambulatory bag of rank resentment's Facebook page:  

Thank you so much to every one who joined us yesterday in D.C. It was wonderful meeting so many energized folks at CPAC and many wonderful staff members. Keep the faith and work hard to make a difference! Sincere thanks to the NRA and ACU and all other event organizers who made the conference possible. God bless, and when we meet again next year, let's have an historic election victory to celebrate! 

- Sarah Palin

Yeah I wouldn't start blowing up balloons or renting out the party room yet you Tundra Twattle.

There is much that can happen in this next election cycle, and I am one to think that after 2010 that liberals are far less likely this go around to sit on their asses while conservatives grab up more seats in the Senate and the House.

Palin may be able to hypnotize the Right Wing mouth breathers with her road kill fright wigs and constantly fluctuating chesticles, but that shit does not fly with those of us who see right through the conservative spin jockeys and Fox News propagandists.

Yeah this election COULD be yet another chance for the Republican party to take a victory lap and once again proclaim that this country leans right of center, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Personally as a proud Liberal I would like very much to make Palin and her cohorts choke on their predictions of a low turnout from minorities, young people, and liberals in this next election cycle.

A prediction by the way that conservatives made for 2012 as well, only in that case there were even fewer white votes for Mitt Romney than for John McCain and Sarah Palin, and Obama won handily.

As for Sarah Palin and CPAC, well Palin's speech was almost as full of barbs directed at the Republican establishment as toward the Liberals and Obama.

In other words she wants victory, but that victory is NOT for the Republican party. That victory is for her twisted idea of what constitutes a REAL American. You know, an under educated conservative, who gets an erection during the national anthem, and masturbates while reading the Constitution.

And that is a candidate who cannot win in an election where there is a good turnout.

So what do you say America?

Wendy Davis and Greg Abbott win their party's nomination and will face off to become the next Texas Governor.

Courtesy of TPM:  

State Sen. Wendy Davis (D) and Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) won their respective nominations in the Texas gubernatorial race on Tuesday. 

The primaries were called for Davis and Abbott about an hour after polls closed. 

Davis is the first female Democratic nominee to be nominated for governor of Texas since Ann Richards. 

"And now it's time, it's time for each of us to work as hard as we can and to fight for the very future of this great state, thank you so much for your help," Davis said in her victory speech. "I'm looking forward to working with you on this journey. God bless you all, and God bless Texas."

There is really nothing surprising about this outcome however I decided to write this post because the other day I watched a commentator on MSNBC, Chris Cillizza, say that he did not see a victory for Wendy Davis moving forward.

His claim is that the slight inconsistencies in her personal story, that the Right Wing blew WAY out of proportion would undermine her campaign and that the best hope for Texas to go blue was in the future.

This infuriated me to no end.

Look I don't expect every pundit on MSNBC to be a cheerleader for Davis, or ANY Democratic candidate for that matter, but to unfairly handicap the race as un-winnable against an opponent who thought it was a good campaign decision to have Ted Nugent show up on stage with him is ridiculous.

Especially after others have pointed out that the biography snafu will unlikely have a much of an effect on the election outcome.

But look ultimately it is up to the fine folks of Texas to get motivated and prove people like Chris Cillizza and Fox News wrong.

I swear if I were there on election day I would be offering rides to the polls for those who could not get there on their own. But I'm not, so it is up to those who are to make this the biggest midterm turnout for Democrats in American history.

And not just in Texas, we need to get our people motivated and mobilized ALL over the country.

We do that and we will greatly improve our chances of making some serious and very necessary improvements in our government, and set the stage for a much better future.

And just to help build a fire under folks, remember who is shaking her fake water filled pom poms for the other side: 

It was a great night for conservatives in Texas last night – despite what the D.C. media would have you believe. Voters wisely selected many Tea Party candidates across the board. Congratulations to Greg Abbott, we’ll work hard to make sure he is the next Governor of Alaska’s little sister state. We were proud to support Katrina Pierson as well – a bold conservative woman who has overcome bigger challenges in life than election results. Katrina has a bright future ahead, and we know she will continue her fight for conservative values – after all, you don't need a title to make a difference. We need more bold women like Katrina in the GOP. 2014 is just underway, and together we’ll continue to give a leg up to grassroots conservatives, despite the odds, who embrace inspiration, ingenuity, and integrity. We’re just getting started! 

That's right the Queen of Mean is already starting her victory lap, so let's do everything we can to trip her up, shall we?