My 98 Was 87 On A Record Yo

My Super Bowl prediction just came in – Seahawks by whatever:

Also, Johnny Schnatts can bite me.

Clowns All The Way Down

President Obama’s State of the Union address is upon us, and so is the Insane Clown Posse (Congressional Detach(ed)ment.  Let’s check the starting lineup:

The response, a once careful attempt at stagecraft fashioned under the close watch of party chiefs to be as uniform and on message as possible, has given way to political free agency…

For example, Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, plans to spend part of Tuesday in a television studio off Capitol Hill recording his own unsanctioned rebuttal to Mr. Obama’s address that night. His staff plans to blast the video to news outlets around the world, and to the hundreds of thousands of people the senator reaches online through Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat.

Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, will have top billing for the newest — and to some Republicans the most unwelcome — post-State of the Union event, the official Tea Party response.

Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, not content to wait until Tuesday, got rolling last week when he released a statement in which he demanded that Mr. Obama answer accusations on a variety of issues, including National Security Agency surveillance and the Affordable Care Act. He then followed up with a letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. asking for a special prosecutor to look into accusations of political persecution by the Internal Revenue Service.

Competing with them for the soapbox will be Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, the fourth-ranking Republican in the House, who is to deliver the party’s official response.

OK, so they’re going with four different ways of sticking fingers in ears and going “Lalalalalalalalala,” but something’s missing.  Right on cue, here comes the FerengiMedia™ to round out the starting five:

Eager to dispel claims that President Barack Obama is engaging in “class warfare” as he heads into his State of the Union address next week, the White House is de-emphasizing phrases focusing on economic disparity and turning instead to messages about creating paths of opportunity for the poor and middle class.

The adjustment reflects an awareness that Obama’s earlier language put him at risk of being perceived as divisive and exposed him to criticism that his rhetoric was exploiting the gap between haves and have-nots.

On Dec. 4 Obama delivered a sweeping economic address where he declared that “increasing inequality is most pronounced in our country, and it challenges the very essence of who we are as a people.” He used the word “inequality” 26 times in his speech that day.

A month later the word has all but disappeared at the White House. In his most recent remarks about his economic agenda, the president made no mention of chasms between rich and poor. Rather, he stressed policies that help move low income people into the middle class.

Shorter Yahoo News (accurately named, dont’cha think?): “Don’t let him fool you – he’s still a-comin’ to steal from you to give to the OTHERS!”

Vegas would LOVE this bunch – they can double down (or is that quadruple down in this case?) like nobody’s business.

D’ownfall

Looks like karma has caught up with 1% fluffer Dinesh D’Souza – AGAIN!:

Dinesh D’Souza, a conservative commentator and best-selling author, has been indicted by a federal grand jury for arranging excessive campaign contributions to a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

The candidate was Wendy Long, a Republican who sought to unseat Democratic incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand as New York’s junior senator in 2012, according to a person familiar with the case.

A lawyer for D’Souza said his actions were “at worst,” an act of misguided friendship.

D’Souza was charged in an indictment made public on Thursday with one count of making illegal contributions in the names of others and one count of causing false statements to be made.

The indictment said D’Souza directed individuals to contribute a total $20,000 to the campaign of an unnamed Senate candidate in 2012 and then reimbursed them for their contributions.

***

Gillibrand, a 1988 Dartmouth graduate, ended up winning re-election to her first full term, collecting close to 72 percent of the vote.

In late 2012, D’Souza resigned his post as president of King’s College, a small Christian college in New York City, after admitting he had become engaged to a woman even though he was legally married, although separated from his wife. He has been an outspoken defender of traditional marriage.

This guy is like the Energizer bunny of stupid.  He just keeps going, and going, and going…and you have to love (and by love I mean despise) the lawyer’s attempt to pass this off:

“Mr. D’Souza did not act with any corrupt or criminal intent whatsoever. He and the candidate have been friends since their college days, and at worst, this was an act of misguided friendship by D’Souza,” Brafman said.

So, he just happened, out of the goodness of his heart, to pay people to contribute to his candidate of choice, then repaid them for their contributions (thereby making himself the sole and illegal source of those contributions) in violation of campaign finance law, but he really didn’t mean it?  Besides the fact that “I didn’t mean it” stops working as an excuse for most sentient people in early childhood, this is just stupid.  I don’t think his pivot from “I didn’t mean it” to “I didn’t know it was against the law” is going to be particularly helpful.

I Didn’t Know There Was A Secretary Of Basketball

…but apparently there is:

I guess we’re all undercover Administration employees – no wonder the Republicans don’t want to work on UI – they think we’re all working!