Palin Kicked Off Fox News

Sarah Palin, former part-time Temp-Governor of Alaska, has ended her relationship with Fox News. Mrs. Palin impersonated a political commentator on the cable news outlet with the same authority she brought to the 2008 GOP presidential campaign, and Fox was tired of looking like John McCain.

Sarah Palin was on Fox for three years, a year longer than she was Alaska’s governor, but may draw on her other past experience in future endeavors. The former Miss Wasilla would be a great spokesmodel for products like Naughty Monkey high-heeled shoes or Bushmaster assault rifles. And Mrs. P, who now has a home studio, was once was a sportscaster on an Anchorage TV station. Here’s an aircheck we’re submitting to ESPN:

Pay Congress What It’s Worth. Nothing.

House Speaker John Boehner (R, OH-8) has put the 113th United States Congress on notice: No work no pay. Pass the budget or you won’t get a paycheck.

This is the same John Boehner who was House Speaker last year, during the 112th Congress, the least productive Congress in 60 years. So does this mean we can get our money back from that Do-Nothing Congress?

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When Is a Gun Not a Gun?

Q: When is a gun not a gun?

A: When it’s a hammer.

That’s what Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert (R, TX-1) thinks, anyway. Asked about proposed legislation to restrict the sale of assault weapons, military-style arms like those used in recent mass killings, Mr. Gohmert replied:

“I refuse to play the game of ‘assault weapon.’ That’s any weapon. It’s a hammer. It’s the machetes. In Rwanda that killed 800,000 people, an article that came out this week, the massive number that are killed with hammers.”

Louie Gohmert is an authority on hammers, being dumber than a sack of them. Perhaps he’ll be named Chair of the House Subcommittee on Hand Tool Terrorism.

Firearms kill thousands of Americans each year; blunt objects kill hundreds, but we don’t know how many are committed with hammers, perhaps dozens. We expect Mr. Gohmert to hold fact-finding hearings about that in the new Congressional session.

More:

“Republican Congressman Claims Hammers Could Be Outlawed Under Assault Weapons Ban,” Scott Keyes, Think Progress

“Gohmert: ‘Any weapon’ is an assault weapon,” Justin Sink, The Hill

“Conservatives demand hammer control,” Alex Seitz-Wald, Salon

Related:

“Louie Gohmert: Aurora Shootings Result Of ‘Ongoing Attacks On Judeo-Christian Beliefs,’” Jennifer Bendery, Huffington Post

“Former NRA president compares banning guns to racism,” Jillian Rayfield, Salon

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GOP Extortionists Push Hostages to Edge of Fiscal Cliff

Republicans in the House of Representatives, angry that a pending deal would tax their millionaire masters, are holding America’s working families hostage and threatening to heave them off that Fiscal Cliff. We suspect their rage is really because this crisis (of their own making) forces them to watch college bowl games on TV instead of on the 50 yard line with their wealthy donors.

More:

“G.O.P. Anger Over Tax Deal Endangers Final Passage,” Jennifer Steinhauer and Jonathan Weisman, New York Times

“Cliff deal hits a new snag with House Republicans,” Rosalind Helderman, Ed O’Keefe and Jerry Markon, Washington Post

“House GOP threatens to scuttle fiscal cliff deal,”  Ryu Spaeth, The Week

“Fiscal cliff reveals how dysfunctional Republican nihilism makes US politics,” Michael  Cohen, The Guardian

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Mark Sanford’s Path to Congress

Disgraced Republican adulterer and ex-Governor Mark Sanford plans to run for Congress, but his path will be steeper than the Appalachian Trail. For one thing, his ex-wife may enter the race, and she has a lot more good will. On the other hand, Mr. Sanford has lots more experience in foreign affairs.

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Romney Takes a Ride

Ex-Financier Mitt Romney, failed Republican presidential candidate and son of American Motors president George Romney, has moved to his beach house in La Jolla, California, the one with the elevator for his cars.

“The son of Detroit — who boasted of the Cadillacs he owned as a sign of support for the U.S. auto industry during the campaign — was spotted driving a new black Audi Q7, a luxury sport-utility vehicle manufactured in Slovakia.”

– ”A detached Romney tends wounds in seclusion after failed White House bid,”  Philip Rucker, Washington Post

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And Now a Word From Karl Rove

Karl Rove, formerly Bush’s Brain, spent the last four years milking billionaires to fund huge PACs to defeat the Democratic president and congressional candidates. He spent the  last year spending all that loot. Post-election return on investment for his American Crossroads Super-PAC? 1.29%. No wonder he can’t handle the truth.

He also can’t handle the paperwork. His Crossroads GPS organization never filed as a charitable organization in its home state of Virginia, as required by law. Crossroads GPS raised and spent tens of millions of dollars. Fee to register with Virginia’s Office of Charitable and Regulatory Programs: $325.

“Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS Never Filed Legally Required Registration,” Josh Israel, Think Progress

‘Math You Do As A Republican To Make Yourself Feel Better’

Carl Rove argued with Fox News number-crunchers on election night when they declared President Obama the victor, so snippy Megyn Kelly asked Carl a question about his own numbers:

“Is that math you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better, or is it real?”

Now it’s time to ask the same question about the Ryan Budget. The GOP tried to solve problems with trickle-down math before, most recently under our MBA President, George W. Bush. That  Republican Math added up to The Great Recession, and America can’t recover from it with more Republican Math.

The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service recently reviewed 65 years worth of Republican Math and found that “Supply Side” trickle-down didn’t work. Carl Rove didn’t argue with the facts then; Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans did. They tried to suppress the CRS study but you can read it here.

More:

“Karl Rove’s Math that mades Republicans Feel Better until Reality Set In (Daily Show Video),” Juan Cole, Informed Comment

“Rove’s War with Fox’s Nerds: The Backstory,” Elspeth Reeve, The Atlantic Wire

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President Romney Demands Financial Disclosure

The Transition Team website for President-Elect Willard Mitt Romney had a sneak preview yesterday, and Political Wire’s Taegan Goddard saved a few screenshots before it went dark again. Looking for a job in the Romney Administration? “Government service is not for everyone,” warns the site, which also cautions:

“The financial holdings and sources of income for most applicants under serious consideration must be disclosed for review for possible conflicts of interest, and any conflicts must be remedied by divestiture, creation of special trusts, etc.”

This from a man who refused to release his own tax information.

Like his economic policies (tax cuts for the rich, corporate deregulation), Mr. Romney appears to have cribbed this from George W. Bush. The Bush transition site language is identical.

This is sad news for Rafalca Romney, a galloping favorite for Cayman Islands Ambassador. Told to turn over tax returns, Rafalca replied “Whoa!”

Romney to the Rescue!

At a campaign stop storm relief event last Tuesday in Kettering, Ohio, ex-financier Mitt Romney rolled up his sleeves, hitched up his blue jeans, and accepted donated cans of soup and bottles of Gatorade on behalf of Hurricane Sandy victims on the East Coast. Of course, Mr. Romney’s campaign really bought $5,000 worth of those groceries at Walmart, and the Red Cross and other aid agencies discourage such well-intentioned but unhelpful in-kind donations.