Political Hippo Circle Jerk - America, farg YEAH!

[phillymic2000]

even the smart republicans are dumb....hence the reason they so often vote against their own self interests

at least when the left does it its rich motherfargers like me who vote for people who will probably in the end take more of my money but who also will more likely give it to people and places who need it more than me

the rights version of that is to vote for someone who will make them poorer but thats ok as long as they are curb stomping a brown person in the process

IGY your racism is priceless.

If you're so desperate to make the world a better place, start donating your time and money more often, rather than sitting on CF bitching about the Eagles/Phillies and how the right is so racist.

every year i donate more money to causes than you make in three....and ill stop bitching about you people when you stop being hatemongers

So Igy donates money and isn't a hatemonger himself  at the hatermonger comment.

[ice grillin you]

the MA dems are hard core union guys who are to the right on eevry single social issue but vote in line with their local....its why ohio is a swing state every year and why everyone on the right wants to destroy unions because if they do the dems might never win another election

[ice grillin you]

even the smart republicans are dumb....hence the reason they so often vote against their own self interests

at least when the left does it its rich motherfargers like me who vote for people who will probably in the end take more of my money but who also will more likely give it to people and places who need it more than me

the rights version of that is to vote for someone who will make them poorer but thats ok as long as they are curb stomping a brown person in the process

IGY your racism is priceless.

If you're so desperate to make the world a better place, start donating your time and money more often, rather than sitting on CF bitching about the Eagles/Phillies and how the right is so racist.

every year i donate more money to causes than you make in three....and ill stop bitching about you people when you stop being hatemongers

So Igy donates money and isn't a hatemonger himself  at the hatermonger comment.

if hating on people who hate on minorities women the poor the non christian and pretty much anyone who isnt exactly like them then i plead guilty

[rjs246]

this is what makes the tea party so ridiculous....they are poor uneducated stiffs yet vote for billionaires and mock movements like the 99% when they should be in step with them...

This is actually not accurate at all. The majority of people who associate themselves with the Tea Party are educated and relatively wealthy (according to a few demographic studies that were done last year).

Your assessment, however, is spot on for the larger Republican party. If you're poor, uneducated, white and live anywhere outside of the Northeast / Iron Belt you're more or less guaranteed to be a Republican. Despite the fact that the Republican party's policies do absolutely nothing to support you and your well being. Because the GOP managed to get a stranglehold on religion the poor (who tend to be way more religious) flock to them for social reasons. Somehow the GOP has managed to attract the wealthy through regressive economic policies AND the poor through rigorous religious dogma, despite the fact that their interests collide in almost every instance when it comes to actual policy. Pretty impressive when you think about it.

Wrong, don't forget the farmers and a lot of folks in MA. I live out in the country now and there are plenty of folks that are dems.

I was clearly speaking in hyperbole. 'Guaranteed to be a Republican' is not meant to be literal. So let me rephrase... "If you're poor, uneducated, white and live anywhere ouside of the Northeast/Rust Belt there's a 65-70% chance that you're a Repblican."  That better? (To IGY's point, I included the Rust Belt expressly because of the union influence.)

You make a good point about the farmers, though. Subsidies for corn farmers especially are so outrageously out of control that corn farmers are pretty financially incentivized to vote for more government.

[Munson]

Unions are also the only significant amount of money going into politics that isn't from the 1%. If they kill them, then truly the only thing the 99% would have left is a vote. And we've already seen Citigroup wants to get rid of that..

[General_Failure]

Obama orders U.S. troops to help chase down African 'army' leader

President Barack Obama is sending about 100 U.S. troops to Africa to help hunt down the leaders of the notoriously violent Lord's Resistance Army in and around Uganda.

"I have authorized a small number of combat-equipped U.S. forces to deploy to central Africa to provide assistance to regional forces that are working toward the removal of Joseph Kony from the battlefield," Obama said in letter sent Friday to House Speaker John Boehner and Daniel Inouye, the president pro tempore of the Senate. Kony is the head of the Lord's Resistance Army.

[Sgt PSN]

Obama orders U.S. troops to help chase down African 'army' leader

President Barack Obama is sending about 100 U.S. troops to Africa to help hunt down the leaders of the notoriously violent Lord's Resistance Army in and around Uganda.

"I have authorized a small number of combat-equipped U.S. forces to deploy to central Africa to provide assistance to regional forces that are working toward the removal of Joseph Kony from the battlefield," Obama said in letter sent Friday to House Speaker John Boehner and Daniel Inouye, the president pro tempore of the Senate. Kony is the head of the Lord's Resistance Army.

Black on Black crime.

[Diomedes]

You left out at least one "on black," by my count.

[General_Failure]

A half of one, anyway.

[Rome]

Long ties to Koch brothers key to Cain's campaign

AP

By RYAN J. FOLEY - Associated Press | AP – 8 hrs ago


IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain has cast himself as the outsider, the pizza magnate with real-world experience who will bring fresh ideas to the nation's capital. But Cain's economic ideas, support and organization have close ties to two billionaire brothers who bankroll right-leaning causes through their group Americans for Prosperity.

Cain's campaign manager and a number of aides have worked for Americans for Prosperity, or AFP, the advocacy group founded with support from billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, which lobbies for lower taxes and less government regulation and spending. Cain credits a businessman who served on an AFP advisory board with helping devise his "9-9-9" plan to rewrite the nation's tax code. And his years of speaking at AFP events have given the businessman and radio host a network of loyal grassroots fans.

The once little-known businessman's political activities are getting fresh scrutiny these days since he soared to the top of some national polls.

His links to the Koch brothers could undercut his outsider, non-political image among people who detest politics as usual and candidates connected with the party machine.

AFP tapped Cain as the public face of its "Prosperity Expansion Project," and he traveled the country in 2005 and 2006 speaking to activists who were starting state-based AFP chapters from Wisconsin to Virginia. Through his AFP work he met Mark Block, a longtime Wisconsin Republican operative hired to lead that state's AFP chapter in 2005 as he rebounded from an earlier campaign scandal that derailed his career.

Block and Cain sometimes traveled together as they built up AFP: Cain was the charismatic speaker preaching the ills of big government; Block was the operative helping with nuts and bolts.

When President Barack Obama's election helped spawn the tea party, Cain was positioned to take advantage. He became a draw at growing AFP-backed rallies, impressing activists with a mix of humor and hard-hitting rhetoric against Obama's stimulus, health care and budget policies.

Block is now Cain's campaign manager. Other aides who had done AFP work were also brought on board.

Cain's spokeswoman Ellen Carmichael, who recently left the campaign, was an AFP coordinator in Louisiana. His campaign's outside law firm is representing AFP in a case challenging Wisconsin campaign finance regulations. At least six other current and former paid employees and consultants for Cain's campaign have worked for AFP in various capacities.

And Cain has credited Rich Lowrie, a Cleveland businessman who served on AFP's board of advisors from 2005 to 2008, with being a key economic adviser and with helping to develop his plan to cut the corporate tax rate to 9 percent, impose a national sales tax of 9 percent and set a flat income tax rate of 9 percent

"He's got a national network now that perhaps he wouldn't have had 15 or 20 years ago because of his work with AFP," said Republican Party of Wisconsin Vice Chair Brian Schimming, who has introduced Cain at events in Wisconsin. "For a presidential candidate, that's obviously helpful to have."

He said Cain was smart to hire Block.

Cain's recent victories in straw polls in Florida and Minnesota highlight the importance of organizing supporters and Block, who has a deep network in the tea party, "gets that side of it," Schimming said.

But Block has had his problems as well. He settled a suit in 2001 accusing him of illegally coordinating a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice's re-election with an outside group. Block agreed to pay $15,000 and sit out of politics for three years.

While Cain is quick to promote his career at the helm of the Godfather's Pizza chain, his ties to AFP aren't something the candidate appears eager to highlight. Cain does not include his AFP work on his biography on his website, but spokesman J.D. Gordon said Sunday that Cain was "proud of his business record" and his association with the group.

"He has made a lot of important connections through AFP," Gordon said, pointing to Block and Lowrie, among others.

And Cain continues to work with the group.

While several other candidates will be at an Iowa Republican Party dinner on Nov. 4, Cain is scheduled to be in Washington mingling with activists at AFP's annual "Defending the American Dream" summit. He is the only confirmed presidential candidate for the event.

AFP spokesman Levi Russell said Cain has spoken at dozens of AFP rallies and events over the years to support a number of the group's activities. AFP has often covered his travel expenses or paid a "pretty modest honorarium" but he has not been paid since becoming a presidential candidate, he said.

"He's a dynamic, pro-business speaker that connects well with our activists," Russell said. "AFP is a very large organization, and there is a natural overlap between Cain's message of fiscal responsibility and the basic principles that AFP advocates for."

A spokeswoman for the Koch brothers did not respond to The Associated Press's request for comment on Cain.

To some liberals, Cain's rise with the help of AFP shows the incredible influence that outside groups controlled by super-wealthy individuals with specific agendas can have on the political process.

"Herman Cain is the first presidential corporate spokes-candidate," said Scot Ross, a liberal activist who leads One Wisconsin Now, which has often mocked AFP as a front group for corporate interests. "The best way to have your issues talked about in the issue debate is to have a candidate in your pocket with snappy comebacks and easily branded policy papers which mask how destructive they would be."

AFP's agenda also includes weakening private and public sector unions, opposing environmental regulations and undoing Obama's health care reform law, among other policies. But before the tea party and Obama, Cain worked with AFP on more local issues.

In 2006, he campaigned all over Wisconsin in support of a proposed constitutional amendment that would have limited state government spending. A slew of officials and analysts said the plan would have ultimately devastated government services, and the Republican-controlled Legislature eventually backed off it.

In a statement announcing Cain's tour, AFP sent out a press release touting his "in-depth understanding of the battle to control out-of-control government taxes and spending." Block promised that Cain was a speaker that activists would not want to miss.

[ice grillin you]

Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine went on Twitter earlier this afternoon to demand that Fox News stop playing his band's music. "Dear Fox News, don't play our music on your evil farging channel ever again. Thank you," he wrote. It is unclear what exactly prompted this public outburst. When reached by Rolling Stone, Levine's representative declined to comment.

Though it's very common for musicians to ask politicians to stop using their songs in campaigns – Tom Petty, Katrina and the Waves and David Byrne all dealt with this earlier this year – it's unusual to see an artist make this demand of a network, even one as highly politicized as Fox News. While musicians very seldom get paid performance royalties when their music is used on campaign stops, television networks are obligated to pay out royalties every time a song is used in a broadcast.

[Rome]

From the final battle at Sirte, Libya...





Just wow.

[Munson]

Yeah...look at the pressure that guy is putting on his ankles. I didn't realize SB is Libyan.

[Rome]

It looks like a scene from Desperado...

[Tomahawk]

I bet he's playing a Maroon 5 song