Season Two

Welcome, Betsy

The Senate confirmed Betsy DeVos as the Secretary of Edumukatshun after Vice President Mike Pence broke the tie.

New Cartoon 11-27-2016

Relevant text and link:

"Donald Trump refused to say that he'd respect the results of this election. That's a direct threat to our democracy! " ~ Hillary Clinton 10/24/16

Hillary Clinton’s Team to Join Wisconsin Recount Pushed by Jill Stein

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/26/us/politics/clinton-camp-will-join-push-for-wisconsin-ballot-recount.html?_r=0

Texan and the President at Dead Heat - no, the other Texan

Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul earns 38% of the vote to President Obama’s 39% in the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters. Fourteen percent (14%) like some other candidate, and eight percent (8%) remain undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

I would throw in something about 'electability' or something about his age... or the fact there's nothing short of a main stream media black out of this man... but a poll is considered 'news', and he's tied with Obama at this point.

Even if that poll was conducted on land line telephones....

A Warning to the Left

The Left is so busy making jokes, it has no idea about the tsunami that is about to wipe them out. They're not worried. They're barely aware. "Look, Michelle Bachmann is eating a corn dog! Rick Perry is a Nazi! *giggle*"

This time next year the movement to defeat Obama will reach evangelical proportions. Progressives have no sway, no ideas except "It's All Bush's Fault". Surely enough of the historic Independent, Young and Black Voter Bases will stay home this time. It will not matter if the GOP candidate says something stupid every day for a year or if they have no economic plan or if they get reamed by gotcha journalists or if they constantly get Elvis and Thomas Jefferson mixed up. People are too face-to-face with the reality of... reality. We're in a Depression.

Too many people are ready to do anything, accept anything other than the way things are now. The Fear and Jesus that the GOP is selling is exactly what will get them elected. Anyone who thinks otherwise is lost in some self-delusional Late-Night-Monologue American Apathy.

Right now I see the Left giggling over the oh-so-crazy antics of the GOP candidate until late Election Night when those one or two or three states that made all the difference in 2008 will flip to the other side and about 1:30am, and only then will those still awake at the balloon drop party will realize it's all over.

This is precisely the state of mind that bewilders me: The 'Progressive', "we're so full of our phony moral and intellectual superiority, but at least the other side is even more full of crap than we are..."

This Elizabeth Kubler Ross method of slow acceptance of the decline in quality of life that we twist around in our heads as amusing social insight.

The Rachel-Maddow-boy-isn't-it-funny-that-these-dumb-rightwingers-are-always-kicking-our-political-ass way of thinking. Somewhere Jon Stewart is already trying to pre-write an Election Night Obama Defeat into some self-serving all-night comedy special.

It is this way of thinking that puts people to sleep giggling over Bill Maher's don't-worry-be-happy political uselessness - and wake up the next day to find that the vampires got in and the virgins were handed over to them without as much as a loud fart - and who knows how long it will it take to look back and realize we all have no one to blame but -- wait for it -- ourselves.

How long do they intend to fool ourselves with this belief that the "crazy right-wing opposition" can be just shooed away by making fun of them? They started their re-emergence the day after Obama was nominated and, whether you know it or not or whether Seth Meyers says so or not, they own it all now.

The people who don't think the GOP will win are the same people who get screamingly hostile when you ask them how things are really better now, or how they will be better, or why Obama should win, or why he should want to win, or any real way they can actually change and help him make this a better country instead of treating him like an overworked, undertipped waiter who gives unsatisfactory service.

GOP As Visualized by Simpsons Characters

Found this on the internet - don't know who to give thanks to.

BREAKING: BACHMANN EATS CORNDOG!

Dear Candidate and 15 second frontrunner of the GOP Presidential race, Don't ever be photographed eating... anything. Ever. Not waffles, and especially not... a foot long...

Sheeeeiiitttt, will you please fire your handler? Why? Because I'm going to be using this as a stock photo of you pretty much here on out. Okay?

It's actually better than this one I found of Rick Perry today...

Right Hand! Damn it.

One Leaves, Another Enters

Tim Pawlenty, sensible candidate - and obvious VP choice for the primary winner, dropped out - sensing that moderates have no place in this race. And proving that point, Rick Perry came into it.

Which means that Mr. Obama got his birthday wish... he gets to run against George W. Bush in the general!

Straw In Iowa or Needle in a Haystack?

The Iowa straw poll is a vote by attendees of a fundraiser for the Iowa Republican party and dates all the way back to the pioneering days of 1979.

Anyone who can pay the $30 for the ticket and is over 18 can vote.

Participants do not need to be Republicans but they do have to be residents of the state or students attending university in Iowa. Or at least make up a good story first.

It is seen as a good indicator of who is in the lead to win the Republican nomination to become the party's candidate for the presidential election, except that, in fact it's only predicted the outcome in two out of five times. Other than that - this is big news!

So, with that knowledge - Holy Crap, Ron Paul came in Second! Bachmann's 4,823 votes narrowly defeatedt, Ron Paul, who had 4,671!

Oh, and Sarah Palin II got first... but RON PAUL, Dude!

And, George W. Bush, er, sorry, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, officially announced today to take the wind out of Michele's win. And Tim Pawlenty beat Mitt Romney who is playing Iowa like Rudy Giuliani did in 2007 -- meaning he isn't.

No Confidence

In a new poll [Washington Post] , "Nearly three-quarters of Americans polled said they have little or no confidence in Washington to repair the economy. Confidence is down 21 percentage points from October 2010 and is less than half its 2002 levels. Roughly four in 10 have no confidence at all in the federal government when it comes to dealing with the economy, the poll indicates." So, what? The other 25% in the poll thinks the government will get help from Jesus to fix everything? Or is that only Governor Rick Santorum?

Remember, polls aren't accurate and aren't news. They're only an attempt to see which way the wind is blowing. Right now, that wind is hot and swirling.

Who's this good for? No one. It surly isn't good for Mr. Obama - but I don't think he really wants the job anyway. I wouldn't. And at this point in the game, he can't blame Bush anymore... at least, it's a pretty weak sauce to campaign on for re-election. And the Congressional Democrats should be taken out on a rail -- by the faithful Democrats who elected them! They've turned out to be so completely ineffectual I'm wondering if they are keeping their jobs just for the good health care? And the Republicans aren't any better. I see them getting the Senate in the next election -- but after they are seen as limp and open up new trade routes to create loopholes for corporation donors who use the chance to export more jobs and get a tax break because of it -- the Democrats will be running back in. I see sweeps in the next couple elections. Anger and reactionary sweep back to the other team. Teeter-Totter Ballot Boxes.

And how am I coming to that conclusion -- I look to the past to forecast the future. 2006 - Nancy and Harry come in to neuter Bush. 2008, Democrats sweep and take it all - rack up a huge bill with Stimulus One Slush Fund for Re-election and ObamaCare, and piss off so many people, you birth the Tea Party and get a hard swing to the right with the John Boehner House, and damn near lost the Senate. 2012 -- The Republicans can put anyone up against Mr. Obama right now. The Jimmy Carter comparison whispers aren't coming from the GOP - they're coming from Mr. Obama's biggest supporters!

Let me add a question that is swirling around the internet - "You come home from work and find there has been a sewer backup and you have sewage up to your ceilings. What do you do……raise the ceilings, or pump out the crap?"

They're all crap - and they need to go. All of them! Here's the solution -- You get rid of YOUR incumbent, and I'll get rid of mine. And the bonus is, if you're a Democrat or Republican you can still vote with your heart by voting in something only the AARP crowd does: Vote in the Primary.

Ron Paul News

Republican Ron Paul said on Tuesday he will not seek re-election to the House of Representatives in order to focus on his uphill presidential bid.

In other words, he's retiring.

Paul, 75, who has served more than 20 years in the House, told his hometown Texas newspaper "The Facts" that he would step down from Congress to devote all his attention to winning the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

"I felt it was better that I concentrate on one election," Paul said. "It's about that time when I should change tactics."

This is his third bid for the White House. He ran as the Libertarian candidate in 1988 and as a Republican in 2008, when he failed to win the nomination despite a devoted following attracted by his support for limited government, reduced federal spending and a noninterventionist foreign policy. Funny how those topics seem to be a smidge more relevant than flag burning, or 'Change.'

He is a TAD of an underdog again in a 2012. Ex-Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and House member Michele Bachmann are leading, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty is too busy trying to sneak into the spotlight, while Newt is - is he still in this?

Paul was first elected to Congress in a 1976 special election, but lost the ensuing general election. He won the seat back two years later but left for an unsuccessful Senate bid in 1984 before returning to Congress in 1996.

Newt Has Been Newtered

Gingrich’s Senior Campaign Aides Resign

Newt Gingrich’s campaign manager and a half-dozen senior advisers have taken their ball and have gone home.

To say it's a 'minor setback' is akin to waiting for the fish to bite in the Dead Sea.

The campaign manager, Rob Johnson, along with advisers in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, joined together to step down after a period of deep internal disagreements about the direction of the campaign. In other words, he was a pain in the ass who wouldn't listen to reason.

Mr. Gingrich, the former House speaker who has been fighting to regain his political footing after a rough campaign announcement last month, had been absent from the campaign trail for about two weeks on what aides had described as a pre-planned vacation. He made his first return to the campaign trail on Wednesday in New Hampshire, one day before the resignations were announced.

Or, perhaps he just wasn't getting the kind of money Mitt was, and the attention Palin is - and she's not even running.

Someone feel free to Photoshop "Newt 2012" on the picture. Or just imagine it.

PS - Newt had a vasectomy. He's been neutered.

Palin's Short Bus Tour

Some of you have been asking what's up with Sarah? Is she running? What's up with the used McCain bus? Shouldn't that bus be shorter?

Well, gang, like Trump before her - she's playing a game, and the media are lapping it up, while being completely confounded by it. This cartoon nails it.

Wonder how her book sales are doing during this summer vacation of hers?

Tea Bag Hat Thrown into Ring

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), a staunch conservative and the founder of the House Tea Party Caucus, will form a presidential exploratory committee in June. Maybe even sooner.

The 2012 GOP scorecard is beginning to fill up.

Bachmann was born in Iowa, where the first presidential caucuses will take place.

A Hat In the Ring

Tim Pawlenty Exploratory Committee for President of the United States Visual Announcement from Tim Pawlenty on Vimeo.

Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty announced the formation of a presidential exploratory committee this afternoon , the first major step toward an official 2012 run.

The announcement, which came in the form of a two-minute web video posted on Facebook at 3 p.m. eastern time, focused heavily on Pawlenty’s humble roots and his plan to restore the country.

“There is a brighter future for America,” says Pawlenty in a slickly-produced video packed full of patriotic music and symbolic images. “We know what we need to do: grow jobs, limit government spending and tackle entitlements.”

In the video [above], Pawlenty also sought to align himself with the likes of past presidents like Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln; “We the people of the United State will take back our government,” he says.

"Take it back?" I hate that cliché! To give back, to take it back? Take back *what* exactly? From whom?

PS, Not happy with the overt religious images, and way too much hockey to play with the latino vote. You better form up a soccer team, Tim.

He Turned Me into a Newt

Gingrich to Make It Official: He's 'Exploring' Presidential Bid

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is taking the first formal steps toward launching a presidential campaign.

No surprise to Blaspheme's readers. We've been reporting that he's been hanging out in Iowa... a lot.

A senior Republican official confirmed the news, first reported by ABC.

Legally, Gingrich does not need to form a committee to begin the "exploratory" phase of a presidential campaign. The Federal Election Commission requires only that he begin tracking his donations and report them when he forms a full-fledged presidential committee.

To all you folks out there yelling and screaming and jumping on chairs - I seriously doubt that candidate Gingrich has a chance at the nomination. He has more baggage than an the Orlando Airport carousel. What with his family values kind of not-parallel with the rest of the party image.

Between the hard-core Republicans and hard-core Progressives who absolutely hate Newt, he's nothing more than a potential punching bag on the debate stage, and to this author, may very well may be a wringer.

Now that said -- he'd be a PERFECT Veep candidate for the GOP!

The Future

So, er, we have that to look forward to.

Voting Time

What's fun about today is that it sets up the gridlock for 2 years, and the next 2 years of the endless campaign. Today is about nothing more than November 2, 2012. We're setting the narrative which is nothing more than a prelude to that election night.

And everyone hates prequels.

Well, here's some inspiration, "

"Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting."

~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

And here's a more realistic take on the issue,

“I don't vote. Two reasons. First of all it's meaningless; this country was bought and sold a long time ago. The sh*t they shovel around every 4 years *pfff* doesn't mean a f*cking thing.

Secondly, I believe if you vote, you have no right to complain. People like to twist that around – they say, 'If you don't vote, you have no right to complain', but where's the logic in that? If you vote and you elect dishonest, incompetent people into office who screw everything up, you are responsible for what they have done. You caused the problem; you voted them in; you have no right to complain.

I, on the other hand, who did not vote, who in fact did not even leave the house on election day, am in no way responsible for what these people have done and have every right to complain about the mess you created that I had nothing to do with.”

~George Carlin

Sunday Comics: Week in Review

We made it. Finish line. The end of the week. The power is still on, and the Zombie Apocalypse is on AMC and not on my street -- that's a half truth, as it's Halloween. We can still ward off the zombies and Batmen, and the Princess Fairy Ballerinas with small packets of High Fructose Corn Syrup rather than Remington lead.
Meantime, on the Mall of America - the one in DC, not Minnesota, two comedian political commentators are holding a rally. Jon Stewart's Speech Today

Full text HTML -

Best reaction from YouTube comments:

"This is the kind of speech you want to see quoted in future history books.

And these beautiful words were not given by a world leader, president, or congressman. They were given by a stand-up comedian who has a comedy show on TV.

We are at a strange time in the kingdom, when the wisest, sanest, most rational voice of them all is that of the court jester."

Meantime - here's your digital button to display on 4 square, facebook, or what have - you.

Meantime Linus sits in his pumpkin patch waiting for real reason to rise out of there and give him presents. Or is The Great Pumpkin supposed to be a deity? Either way, rational Linus gets duped every year. And they call Charlie Brown a loser. Maybe Peanuts are deeper than we give them credit?
Still doesn't change the fact the Democrats are in for a bloodbath on Tuesday.
But, hilariously, it's not the Democrats who are going to lose - it's ALL of US! I particularly like this cartoon, and I would even say it's one of my favorites of the year.Finally, this was found on a wall.
Thank good peer reviewed science we made it. Hope to see you at the end of next week.

PS - Back in the day, the Halloween Hours were posted. It was After Dinner (5:30 to 7:30) Before Bed.
Now, I've heard of people taking the kiddies out as early as 2:00 PM? WTF? Come on! I'm not answering the door at 2 PM unless you have a warrant. And, look, teenagers, you can come and have my small packet of M&M's - that's fine. Respect the light on - I'm playing, Light off - I'm not. We cool?

But you know what pisses me off the most? It's parents Trick-or-Treating with babies. Not that I don't want to see your little angel dressed up as the Bride of Frankenstein -- it's that you're asking me to give you candy... for the baby? Seriously?

No. Because you, the parent are going to eat it, or much worse, you'll give it to that child.

The Delusion

If were to actually ask a conservative, a real one, about the Bush years, you might be surprised and get an honest answer - that the Republicans f*cked everything up. They will blame Bush for spending recklessly, and expanding the wars - and TARP. Occasionally you'll even get an ear full about the Patriot Act. Some will bitch about Cheney opening up the treasury for all his buddies, others will complain about McCain. The real conservatives will explain it's all these things why they got their ass handed to them in 2006 and 2008. They did a lousy job when it was their job.

However, listening to the stories and the narrative being written right now, the Democrats have not owed up or even contemplated why they're about to get slaughtered. And this as their aids are laying out the plastic sheeting in anticipation of their bloodbath.

Which, seemingly, shouldn't make any sense at all. The Republicans were (practically) unable to stop the Pelosi/Reed/Obama agendas and projects. They passed: The stimulus, expanded bailouts, financial reform, Cash for Clunkers, the student loan takeover, and Health Insurance Reform.

Obama pulled the reckless reigns of foreign policy from the idiot cowboy and won the Nobel Prize for his amazing turn around in policy -- or something like that. Mr. Obama handled a major disaster in Louisiana completely differently than the Fortunate Son, and now the Democrats are so powerful they can get bills that haven’t even been read, they've appointed numerous czars that are above recall and oversight, oh, and they can spend like there’s no tomorrow - with zero consequences.

Guess who’s been running on this agenda? Yeah, the displaced and rebuked un-electable Republicans. And isn't it strange that the Democrats aren't even mentioning their records, or even running away from them at this point?

"My name may not be on the ballot, but our agenda for moving forward is on the ballot, and I need everybody to turn out." -- Barack Obama

Last night Jon Stewart should have told him to quit saying this, as it's a rally cry for his enemies.

My point is, rather than realizing that their Rahming of a slipshod agenda through America's oversized gut was their undoing, they're too busy blaming everything and everyone else - from foreign money, to Bush (still), and that Obama being too nice, or the laziest - that the American people are irrational and racist....

And now they're already bullsh*tting themselves that the Republican landslide is going to be a GOOD thing for Obama and his agenda.

“Delusion arises from anger. The mind is bewildered by delusion. Reasoning is destroyed when the mind is bewildered. One falls down when reasoning is destroyed.” ~Bhagavad Gita

The real fun will be when the n00b Republicans announce, casually, on week six that they, "...had no idea the enormity of the problem..." and snuggle into the lobbyists and the backslapping backroom deals that all that came before them ALL fell into. THAT's when things are going to get really funny.