Coal Industry Front Group to Miner's Widow: "Everyone Wants Free Money!"

By GottaLaff

Marlene Griffith lost her husband, William Griffith, in the now infamous coal mine explosion in West Virginia. She is suing Massey Energy. The Griffiths were married nearly 33 years.

But before they could celebrate their anniversary, Massey's negligence created an unspeakably horrific nightmare that could have been prevented, one that Marlene will have to live and relive with forever.

Here is how Nathan Coffey responded. His Twitter page has since been deleted:


This would be the same Nathan Coffey who is the Public Affairs Coordinator of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). What's ALEC? Glad you asked, but you won't be:

ALEC, founded in 1973 by conservative activist Paul Weyrich, is a DC-based front group which helps state lawmakers craft corporate-friendly legislation. State-based schemes aimed at deregulation are often conceived and coordinated out of ALEC. It is funded by some of the biggest corporations in America, including Koch Industries, Wal-Mart, and AT&T, as well as by the coal industry.

Coffey was right about one thing. "Everyone" wants free money.

Tuh-Weet! Joe Scarborough v. liberal Tweeters edition

By GottaLaff

Sometimes scrolling through Twitter is like listening in on phone conversations. For example:

A Tweeter posted messages to Contessa Brewer, David Shuster, Alex Witt, and Jack Cafferty. Here are a few of them:

These lawmakers are a joke, most of them lawyers, so what does that tell us? They are the best "actors", no credibility.

Pres. O is taking his message to the PEOPLE who voted for him, NOT lawmakers who can't find their butts!!

These lawmakers are a joke, they DE-REGULATED the industry, NOW they put the blame on Geithner for their lawmaking stupidity, NOW?

Then I see a reply Tweet by our favorite Tee Vee Machine host, Joe Scarborough:

Congratulations. You now sound like Bush supporters who attacked me over the past 8 years. You put party over country. Way to go.

He follows this up with a general Tweet (not directed at anyone in particular):

Obama supporters who attack me now sound like Bush supporters who also defended his shameless fiscal policies. The more things change...

And then to another Tweeter who said, "I'm sure you've never been guilty of blind partisanship. I mean ur lifetime ACU rating wasn't 100%, but only 95%", Joe responds:

I am conservative. This shocks you? But I also held my party to the same standard as the other. That's why I challenged Newt.

Joe posted another one after that:

Someone answer please: why IS everyone in the White House giggling these days? Are we missing the joke?

Check out the mirror if you're looking for jokes, Joe.

A little later, he added this, in response to some other Tweet:

Is there no middle ground between saying the US will be in an eternal depression w/o the Stimulus and giggling inappropriately.

Joe is referring to the parts of the "60 Minutes" Obama interview I posted about here and here.

Another Tweeter caught Joe's Tweets and responded:

@JoeNBC You're calling Obama's fiscal policies "shameless" after a whole 2 months. Par for the course for you.

And one more Tweeter wrote:

@JoeNBC "We" aren't missing anything Joe and you did an awful lot of giggling this morning also.

Here's Joe's classy answer:

You are missing way too much. But just like GOP members who blindly followed Bush, you now follow Pres Obama. Wow. What an intellect.

Pot. Kettle.

The sniping continued as more jumped into the conversations. I noticed that most of the Tweeters he jumped on were black housewives. I don't know if that was a coincidence or not, but I did take notice.

Unreliable sources: Howard Kurtz blurts

By GottaLaff

Via Froomkin:

Washington Post media columnist Howard Kurtz asks this morning, apparently quite seriously:

"It is well past time to ask the question: What has Barack Obama really accomplished as president, anyway? . . . How long are we supposed to wait for the change we've been waiting for?"

What has President Obama accomplished? Is this fool serious?

Here's a question for you, Howie: How long are we supposed to wait for you to get canned?

RNC Chair Candidate Blackwell: GOP Must Defeat Job-Creating Stimulus Because It Will Ruin GOP’s Election Chances

By GottaLaff

Country first!

In an article published on Townhall today, RNC Chairman candidate and former Ohio governor Ken Blackwell urges congressional conservatives to oppose the reinvestment and recovery stimulus plan promoted by President-elect Obama. Though he offers standard conservative arguments against the plan — including a screed against the growth of “big government” — Blackwell seemed most concerned about the political benefit Democrats might see from successfully boosting the economy. [...]

While only a few details are known, one overlooked issue is that it could create a major electoral advantage for Democrats at taxpayer expense. That would be unacceptable for what is being touted as a nonpartisan measure, and gives Republicans yet another reason to oppose it if not restructured. […]

But most federal employees, that are not political appointees, vote Democrat. Since Washington, DC is the seat of government, whenever new federal bureaucrats are created many live in Maryland and Virginia. In 2008, Virginia went Democrat for the first time since 1964, and Mr. Obama won it by 130,000 votes. Creating 600,000 new jobs might help cement Virginia in the Democrat column, making it harder for Republicans to retake the White House.

It's good to know that Republicans care more about themselves than they do about repairing the nearly irreparable damage that their abysmal failure of a president has done to America.

The bottom line is that, in an economy that lost 1.2 million jobs last year, Blackwell’s biggest concern is to block the creation of new jobs because those newly-employed Americans might vote Democratic.

How Rovian of him... meaning about as self-servingly corrosive to what's left of this country as one would expect of someone aiming for RNC chair.

Poll-itics: Lieberman Approval Hits New Low

By GottaLaff

Nobody's doing all that well, but Traitor Joe is getting down there:

The latest Quinnipiac poll in Connecticut finds the state's U.S. Senators get their lowest approval ratings ever: Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) has a 38% approval rating while Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) is at a lackluster 47%.

Couldn't happen to a bigger jerk. I'm surprised the number is that high.

Bush's New Rule: Abortion, artificial insemination, birth control subject to 'right of conscience'

By GottaLaff

We have fewer than 50 days left until Obama is sworn in, and the talking heads on the Tee Vee Machine have been wondering out loud what further damage Bush the Cretin could do. Here's a stupefyingly appalling, jaw-dropping example of another toxic power play:

The outgoing Bush administration is planning to announce a broad new "right of conscience" rule permitting medical facilities, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare workers to refuse to participate in any procedure they find morally objectionable, including abortion and possibly even artificial insemination and birth control.

For more than 30 years, federal law has dictated that doctors and nurses may refuse to perform abortions. The new rule would go further by making clear that healthcare workers also may refuse to provide information or advice to patients who might want an abortion.

It also seeks to cover more employees. For example, in addition to a surgeon and a nurse in an operating room, the rule would extend to "an employee whose task it is to clean the instruments," the draft rule said.

The "conscience" rule could set the stage for an abortion controversy in the early months of Barack Obama's administration.

There now. Isn't that a super duper special reminder of what the Chimpenfuhrer has up his sleeve?

While the rule could eventually be overturned by the new administration, the process might open a wound that could take months of wrangling to close again.

Health and Human Services Department officials said the rule would apply to "any entity" that receives federal funds. It estimated 584,000 entities could be covered, including 4,800 hospitals, 234,000 doctor's offices and 58,000 pharmacies.

Proponents, including the Christian Medical Assn. and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, say the rule is not limited to abortion. It will protect doctors who do not wish to prescribe birth control or to provide artificial insemination, said Dr. David Stevens, president of CMA.

"The real battle line is the morning-after pill," he said. "This prevents the embryo from implanting. This involves moral complicity. Doctors should not be required to dispense a medication they have a moral objection to."

Critics of the rule say it will sacrifice patients' health to the religious beliefs of providers.

Gee, ya think?

Judith Waxman, a lawyer for the National Women's Law Center, said Leavitt's office has extended the law far beyond what was understood. "This goes way beyond abortion," she said. It could reach disputes over contraception, sperm donations and end-of-life care.

"This kind of rule could wreak havoc in a hospital if any employee can declare they are not willing to do certain parts of their job," she said.

During his interview with Charles Gibson, Bush said:

"The president ends up carrying a lot of people's grief in his soul."

Au contraire. The grief is all ours.

VIDEO-- Dennis Miller says that "great dame" Palin is hated for having a "great sex life"

By GottaLaff


Dennis Miller's on a roll here. He humiliates himself on national television, again. With Billo, again. In a mere 46 seconds, he manages to reduce his already degraded image to that of a used gym towel. This irrelevant excuse for a talking head obviously has some unresolved personal issues.

I've got news for Formerly Funny Dennis: The last thing I consider upon being exposed to the stunted emotional development of Sarah Palin is what she does with Bobsled Todd in the little spare time they share behind closed doors:

She’s a great dame. People are fascinated by her because the Left hate her. I think the Left hate her — mostly women on the Left hate her — because to me from outside in it appears that she has a great sex life, all right? I think she has non-neurotic sex with that Todd Palin guy. … I think that snow mobile looks like mechanized foreplay to me and that’s why people are fascinated.

Hmmm. Shades of Rich Lowry. Stop your panting, Dennis. Your wife can smell your hot breath from across the room.

Crawling out of the woodwork

By GottaLaff

It's time for another TPC department! From the Department of They're Already Crawling Out of the Woodwork. Josh Marshall:

Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) says Obama is planning to create a American Gestapo.

"It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he's the one who proposed this national security force. I'm just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may -- may not, I hope not -- but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism. That's exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it's exactly what the Soviet Union did. When he's proposing to have a national security force that's answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he's showing me signs of being Marxist."

"A bit crazy and off base"? More like rubber room material, Paul "screw loose" Broun. Forget "crawling out of the woodwork". More like, crawling out from under a rock.

Way to welcome the new prez.

Joe the Opportunist

By GottaLaff

Guy who resembles Sam the Fake Plumber

Unbelievable. Maybe he go on American Idol, or in his case, American Jerk, and have Simon destroy his big, fat, oversized, unworthy ego:

Politico breaks the news: "Move over Sanjaya and tell William Hung the news: Joe the Plumber is being pursued for a major record deal and could come out with a country album as early as Inauguration Day."

"'Joe' – aka Samuel Wurzelbacher, a Holland, Ohio, pipe-and-toilet man – just signed with a Nashville public relations and management firm to handle interview requests and media appearances, as well create new career opportunities, including a shift out of the plumbing trade into stage and studio performances."

Spread the wealth, Sam the Exploiter. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to stick a fork in my eye.

Matt Taibbi: The Return of Rove

By GottaLaff

Read. Now. Excerpts:

One is tempted to call this brilliant tactics, except that it isn't brilliant, any more than pointing a gun at a Korean store owner is a "brilliant" way to make $135. One of the most remarkable aspects of Rove's career is the way the media consistently respond to being lied to, pissed on and manipulated by Rove: They stroke his already swollen gonads even more, hailing him as a singular political genius. [...]

Rove is not a genius, or even very clever: He's totally and completely immoral. It doesn't take genius to claim, as Rove ludicrously did last fall, that it was the Democrats in Congress and not George W. Bush who pushed the Iraq War resolution in 2002. It doesn't take brains to compare a triple-amputee war veteran to Osama bin Laden; you just have to be a mean, rotten cocksucker.

The reason Rove continues to survive is the same reason that Johnnie Cochran was called a genius for keeping a double-murderer on the golf course — because this generation of Americans has become so steeped in greed and social Darwinism that it can no longer distinguish between cheating and achieving, between enterprise and crime, and can't bring itself to criticize winners any more than it knows how to be nice to losers. He survives because an increasing number of Americans secretly agree with Rove's vision of rules, laws and "the truth" as quaint, faintly embarrassing rituals that only a sucker would let hold him back.

Rove's comeback is evidence that the attack on our civic institutions in the Bush years wasn't an isolated incident, something we can pin on a specific group of now-deposed politicians. It's a trend, a thing that grows in direct proportion to our greed and ignorance. We may be a country at war, facing one of the greatest financial meltdowns of all time. But in the end, the thing that could be our undoing is the kind of generalized boredom with legality and honor that empowers Rovian behavior. If we let it.

The truth hurts.

A Commenter wants us "left loons" to explain our support of "Barry Hussein Obama"

By GottaLaff

Maybe you'd like to help "Anonymous" understand our p.o.v. This Gramm-pa McCain advocate is asking us for clarification:

I find it hard to understand how you far left loons can ignore all the assoctiations of your messiah barry hussein obama. If one of you brainwashed turds could explain it to the normal american I think we would appreciate it. His 95% taxcut is a complete lie. Ayers, Wright, and the Chicago slumlord is enough to make anyone question something wouldn't it? But this bias liberal media is such a patsy for barry it makes me sick. Also you blame the republicans for everything, but forget that it was people like chris dodd, barney frank and the other democrats that defended fannie and freddies positions until the collapse. Apparently 49% of the people are stupid enough to vote for obama and I just don't get, please explain.

Well, gee, "Anonymous", since you asked, I'm pretty sure a few of us will be more than happy to accommodate you. After all, you did say "please"... after calling us "loons" and "turds". Who of us could ever refuse a polite, dignified, inoffensive request like that?

Your turn. Oh, and make sure you set an example by capitalizing proper names and using apostrophes when appropriate. Anonymous might learn something about being literate in future tirades.

OOPS! Gramm-pa McCain aided lobbyist/developer's bargain-price purchase of Fort Ord land

By GottaLaff

It never ends (via The Monterey County Herald) (go here for enlargements of documents):

An Arizona businessman with help from Sen. John McCain's office paid the federal government a mere fraction of the market value when he bought a Fort Ord land parcel in 1999, an Army appraisal obtained by The Herald shows.

Donald R. Diamond, an 80-year-old real estate developer, lobbyist and top fundraiser for McCain's presidential campaign, bought the land for $250,000, though it was valued at $7.2 million, according to Pentagon appraisals made three years before the sale.

He held on to the parcel for a little more than two years before selling it and the buildings on it for an estimated profit of more than $18 million.

Read that again: Pentagaon appraisals. The military, Gramm-pa POW? Yes, the military, the Army, appraised the land. Are you going to call them terrorists, too?

When negotiating with the Army over the no-bid sale, Diamond had more than one advantage on other potential buyers. He held a lease on the land that would have made it difficult for the Army to find another buyer. When Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, later criticized the Army for "giving away" Fort Ord land during the 1990s, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army Paul "PJ" Johnson said, "That was a very complicated realignment and closure at Fort Ord."

But it was McCain's office, as reported earlier this year by The New York Times and The Herald, that Diamond credited with helping smooth out problems he encountered. At the time, McCain served on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The appraisal documents were obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request. Diamond and McCain's Senate office declined to comment for this story.

Of course they did. They don't talk to the press, just ask IWRC* Palin. Never mind, she won't answer. It gets better:

Under oath in a taped interview as part of the Bakewell lawsuit, Diamond said McCain came to his assistance after the purchase negotiations became "bogged down."

"I asked him if he could help expedite it," Diamond said.

Although McCain's Senate office did not respond to questions from The Herald, earlier this year a McCain spokeswoman told The New York Times that the senator "had done nothing for Mr. Diamond that he would not do for any other Arizona citizen."

But Diamond is no ordinary constituent.

Besides being a leading developer in McCain's home state, he is a pro-Israel lobbyist in Washington, D.C., and is among the elite "innovators" group whose members have individually raised $500,000 or more for McCain's presidential bid, according to the candidate's campaign Web site.

Diamond served as national finance co-chairman for McCain's presidential exploratory committee, and in court documents he describes himself as a longtime friend of the Republican senator.

Farr found it more than a little unusual an Arizona senator would become involved in a land deal in California.

"This, to me, was just sort of out of the box," Farr said recently. "Senators don't usually mess around in other states."

Diamond said McCain assigned Ann Sauer, a senior aide to McCain, to the case.

Sauer was well known around the Pentagon and previously worked as a staff member for the Senate Armed Services Committee. She is a vice president in charge of Washington operations for Lockheed Martin Corp.

Who's going to pick this story up? Keith? Rachel?

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

Gramm-pa McCain's Terrible, Horrible, No good, Very Bad Temper 101

By GottaLaff

I've posted about Gramm-pa McCain's temper often. But here we have Gramm-pa's Volatile Temper for Dummeez all in one post, courtesy of "Make-Believe Maverick", The Real McCain, and yours truly:

McCain is sensitive about his physical appearance, especially his height. The candidate is only five-feet-nine, making him the shortest party nominee since Michael Dukakis. On the night he was elected senator in 1986, McCain exploded after discovering that the stage setup for his victory speech was too low; television viewers saw his head bobbing at the bottom of the screen, his chin frequently cropped from view. Enraged, McCain tracked down the young Republican who had set up the podium, prodding the volunteer in the chest while screaming that he was an "incompetent little shit." Jon Hinz, the director of the Arizona GOP, separated the senator from the young man, promising to get him a milk crate to stand on for his next public appearance.

Talk about a "short" temper. See what I did there? Didja catch that short joke? I wonder if he sits on telephone books when he goes to the Early Bird Special at Denny's. Moving on. This next part is the story our own Cliff Schecter broke in his book, The Real McCain:

During his 1992 campaign, at the end of a long day, McCain's wife, Cindy, mussed his receding hair and needled him playfully that he was "getting a little thin up there." McCain reportedly blew his top, cutting his wife down with the kind of language that had gotten him hauled into court as a high schooler: "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt." Even though the incident was witnessed by three reporters, the McCain campaign denies it took place.

They've tried everything they could to discredit Cliff. Aren't they an honest and transparent bunch? Now imagine what it would be like to have this person's finger on the Big Red Nuclear Button:

In 1992, McCain got into a heated exchange with Sen. Chuck Grassley over the fate of missing American servicemen in Vietnam. "Are you calling me stupid?" Grassley demanded. "No, I'm calling you a fucking jerk!" yelled McCain. Sen. Bob Kerrey later told reporters that he feared McCain was "going to head-butt Grassley and drive the cartilage in his nose into his brain." The two were separated before they came to blows. Several years later, during another debate over servicemen missing in action, an elderly mother of an MIA soldier rolled up to McCain in her wheelchair to speak to him about her son's case. According to witnesses, McCain grew enraged, raising his hand as if to strike her before pushing her wheelchair away.

McCain has called Paul Weyrich, who helped steer the Republican Party to the right, a "pompous self-serving son of a bitch" who "possesses the attributes of a Dickensian villain." In 1999, he told Sen. Pete Domenici, the Republican chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, that "only an asshole would put together a budget like this."

Last year, after barging into a bipartisan meeting on immigration legislation and attempting to seize the reins, McCain was called out by fellow GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. "Wait a second here," Cornyn said. "I've been sitting in here for all of these negotiations and you just parachute in here on the last day. You're out of line." McCain exploded: "Fuck you! I know more about this than anyone in the room." The incident foreshadowed McCain's 11th-hour theatrics in September, when he abruptly "suspended" his campaign and inserted himself into the Wall Street bailout debate at the last minute, just as congressional leaders were attempting to finalize a bipartisan agreement.

At least three of McCain's GOP colleagues have gone on record to say that they consider him temperamentally unsuited to be commander in chief. Smith, the former senator from New Hampshire, has said that McCain's "temper would place this country at risk in international affairs, and the world perhaps in danger. In my mind, it should disqualify him." Sen. Domenici of New Mexico has said he doesn't "want this guy anywhere near a trigger." And Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi weighed in that "the thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hotheaded."

McCain's frequently inappropriate humor has also led many to question his self-control. In 1998, the senator told a joke about President Clinton's teenage daughter at a GOP fundraiser. "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?" McCain asked. "Because her father is Janet Reno!"

I did an entire post on his vile, hostile, mysogenistic "sense of humor".

Let's not leave out one more instance of Gramm-pa's instability, via The Real McCain:

Two former reporters covering McCain, one who witnessed the following events and one who confirmed the facts provided by the first, relayed it to me as follows: In 2006, the Arizona Republican congressional delegation had a strategy meeting. McCain repeatedly addressed two new members, congressmen Trent Franks and Rick Renzi, as ‘boy.’ Finally, Renzi, a former college linebacker, rose from his chair and said to McCain, “You call me that one more time and I’ll kick your old ass.” McCain lunged at Renzi, punches were thrown, and the two had to be physically separated.

There you have it, all in one place. Consider this your own, personal WikiGramm-paTemperPedia.

Droopy Lieberman whines, er, speaks

By GottaLaff

First it's Fredhorn Leghorn, now it's Droopy. Doesn't all that whining hurt his Shar Pei* ears?

"George Washington in his farewell dress?" Did he really just say that?

And why does he continue to call himself a Democrat?

He says he's in a unique position to share something because he's a Democrat. He's sharing that "Democrats are trying to convince people that John McCain is someone else. Don't be fooled! Beware of the scary Democrats! God only made one John McCain and he is his own man!"

Were you fooled? I wasn't. I knew very well, long before the Democrats told me, that he was a partisan, right-wing, hypocritical, hostile, angry, lying, lobbyist-loving war monger.

Droopy Joe says J Sid is not partisan. Droopy Joe is whining in a very shrill way. Shrill + whining. Ba-a-ad combo.

Newsflash! Sarah Palin is a reformer!. Droopy Joe says so. McCain/Palin is the real ticket for change, not Obama. They're so mavericky! If the Republican party is so rabid about change, why haven't they done anything changey for the past 12 years?

Oh, and the surge is working.

Stop whining! Oh, please, please, stop whining.

*Apologies to Shar Peis everywhere.

People in glass mansions shouldn't throw infantile retorts

By GottaLaff

[Laffy Note: If you want to keep this story going, please Reddit/Digg/Stumbleupon this post by clicking on Share below the post]

John Sidney McCain's Big Pithy Retort to his inanely out-of-touch, memory-challenged ("I think - I'll have my staff get to you...It's condominiums where - I'll have them get to you.") moment: "Oh... Oh yeah? Well, everything you say bounces off me and back on to you, 'cause I'm the sponge and you're the glue! Ha!" That's some comeback, Wittle J Sid.

[T]he press should focus on Obama's house. "It's a frickin' mansion. He doesn't tell people that. You have a mansion you bought in a shady deal with a convicted felon." Says an Obama aide: "It's his Bush grocery scanner moment - but far worse." [...] "That's fair game now," [a McCain spokesman] said. "You are going to see more of that now that this issue has been joined. You'll see more of the Rezko matter from us."

Damage control much? And they're going back to Rezko? Really?

"The reality is they have some investment properties and stuff. It's not as if he lives in ten houses. That's just not the case," Rogers said. "The reality is they have four that actually could be considered houses they could use."

Those four include an apartment in Arlington, a ranch in Sedona, and two condos, in California and Phoenix, he said. The others include "some investment properties and things like that."

Let's see how other Americans invest their money-- oh wait, they don't have any. Here are some examples now! (Is living in 4 boxes elitist?):

He also added: "This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison," referring to the prisoner of war camp that McCain was in during the Vietnam War. [...] "In terms of who's an elitist, I think people have made a judgment that John McCain is not an arugula-eating, pointy headed professor-type based on his life story."

Oh no, seriously? They're actually going for the P.O.W. angle on this one? Oh, please, please keep doing that. We arugula-eating, pointy headed professor types would love to see how you tie that to your insignificant four (he thinks) houses and six (he believes) investment properties. While J Sid is rolling in dough, there are a whole lot of veterans who are rolling in wheelchairs. For life.

Now Ambinder's take:

So Obama and the Democrats must use this moment to convince Americans in real time to think differently about McCain. That's one reason their new ad airs on national cable. Cable ads aren't persuasion ads; they're agenda-setting ads.

If McCain's gaffe had been somehow age-related, then they'd have an easier time. The groundwork for the impression already exists.

(Although... Obama's team does accuse McCain of not being able to "remember" how many houses he has...hmm.)

Hmmm. Jugular time.