Archive for buh bye now

Former Fla Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer sentenced to 18 months in state prison

jim greer elvis

Jim Greer was one of the former Florida GOP leaders who said that voter suppression was the reason for new election law.

Greer was also accused of stealing a couple of hundred thou from the Republican party using a phony campaign fundraising operation. The Palm Beach Post reported that he was suing them right back, saying GOP leaders knew what he was doing and voiced no objection.

Now the Tampa Bay Times is reporting that Greer has been sentenced to 18 months in state prison plus one year of probation.

It turns out that in February, he pleaded guilty to four counts of theft and one count of money laundering:

[H]e had created a company called Victory Strategies to siphon to himself and an associate some $200,000 of party donations.

You’re now a convicted felon, sir,” Circuit Judge Marc Lubet told Greer Wednesday, adding that he had “egregiously violated a position of trust.”

owee

Per the Times, Greer became the party head in January 2007, former governor Charlie Crist’s personal pick. Yes, that former governor Charlie Crist, the one who may run again, but this time as a Democrat. In fact, Crist tried hard to convince us he really is a real Democrat. Not that I wouldn’t support him if he ended up being the Democratic candidate, but my heart sure wouldn’t be in it.

But I digress.

I particularly liked these sentences describing Greer’s past:

He was a regular at strip clubs and bars. Both his weddings were lavish. He …quickly worked to make friends with people he identified as politically valuable… [H]is gatherings typically had some of the area’s best snacks and booze. He often dressed as Elvis and belted out songs by the King… He wanted people to call him Chairman. He wanted to drink bourbon only from bottles with personalized labels.

Jim, you sound like a real attractive guy:

CNNotSoMuch: Soledad O’Brien leaving morning show, free to produce content for other networks

the dame's got moxie lady

Soledad O’Brien will leave CNN’s morning show soon, but she will still have a limited role there producing documentaries. She will no longer be exclusive to CNN and will no longer have a morning show on the network. That means she is free to produce content, take hosting jobs, and do reporting work at other networks.

New York Times:

Ms. O’Brien will go from being an anchor to an outside producer. She may have had little choice in the matter: the new head of CNN Worldwide, Jeff Zucker, decided even before he started the job in January that he wanted to replace Ms. O’Brien’s morning show…

soledad o'brien

O’Brien has been doing some great stuff lately, including some hardcore interviews, one of the few out there who is unafraid to confront or challenge her guests. For example:

Video- Soledad O’Brien To Former RNC Chair: Do Minorities Not Know You, Or Do They Just Not Like You?

Video- Soledad O’Brien Thumps GOP Congressman Over His Opposition To Hurricane Sandy Relief

VIDEO: Fla Gov. Rick Scott ducks gun safety questions from CNN’s Soledad O’Brien

VIDEO- Soledad O’Brien to GOP Senator: “Why are you trying to balance budget on people making under $23,000 a year?”

VIDEO: Soledad O’Brien grills GOP Rep. Joe Heck on his bizarre quasi-defense of Susan Rice

VIDEO: Rudy Giuliani refuses to answer question in heated exchange with Soledad O’Brien over Benghazi

Video- Soledad O’Brien Spars With Coot Sununu Over “Act of Terror” On Libya

VIDEO- GOP Rep. Peter King: Pres. Obama apologized for America. ” I don’t care what fact check says!”

VIDEO: Soledad O’Brien to Romney surrogate John Sununu: No GOP talking points or name-calling.

You get the idea.

you got spunk

VIDEO– Mitch McConnell: “They want to take me out.”

mitch mcconnell make obama one term president

“This is not Bill Clinton. There’s no indication [Obama's] moving to the political center. … Obviously he wasn’t my first choice, but he won. And I’m prepared to do things that I think are correct for the country, but it’s going to require the president to move to the middle.”

“Now, the reason you’re here today is cause they want to take me out. This is the only race, as I indicated, in the country with any national significance. And that’s why we’re up and running this far in advance.”

I wouldn’t want to take Mitch McConnell out. No. Way. Well, maybe if he offered to pay for the meal and a really good wine, but … Wait, hang on, I’m hearing something come through my imaginary ear piece. What’s that? He’s not talking about that kind of taking out?

Ohhh, got it. McConnell was referring to primary challenges, and a Democratic one, in an attempt to boot him out in the coming elections. My bad.

McConnell said as much at a gathering of about 60 supporters at his headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky. This was awfully amusing considering how clear he made his own intentions to take President Obama out:

karma police

Via The Hill:

And he balked at the idea of deep rifts in the Republican Party, charging that Democrats have just as many differences, but because “the Democratic Senate hadn’t done anything,” those differences have not yet been revealed.

Oh, there are rifts, Mitch. Trust us.

UPDATE– Here’s another one: Rove’s Move Into Republican Primaries Enrages Tea Party

Palin to Fox News: Buh-bye.

palin bye fox

Knock knock.

Who’s there?

CNN.

CNN who?

CNN could very well be stupid enough and desperate enough to hire Former Half-Gov Jobless McLipSchmutz now that she’s out of work.

Via Real Clear Politics:

After a three-year run as a paid contributor to the nation’s highest-rated cable news channel, Sarah Palin and FOX News have cut ties, according to a source close to the former Alaska governor.

It’s my understanding that Gov. Palin was offered a contract by FOX, and she decided not to renew the arrangement,” the source close to Palin told RCP. “She remains focused on broadening her message of common-sense conservatism across the country and will be expanding her voice in the national discussion.”

I didn’t think her message could get much broader… and by “broad” I mean broad comedy.

Wait, she turned Fox down? When someone as embarrassing and unprofessional as Sarah Palin turns you down, you know you’re in trouble. Then again, this is the network that rehired Karl Rove even after his Election Night debacle.

So do you think now that she’s unemployed, she’ll apply for government assistance?

As for expanding her voice, there is no way in the world that voice could possibly get any bigger, broader, louder, screechier, expandier, or more annoying…

WTF indeed. And yes, yes you are the idiot.

Even Dancing with the Stars couldn’t keep Tom DeLay from prison

delay

Your Daily Dose of BuzzFlash at Truthout, via my pal Mark Karlin:

You can’t get anymore joyful than hearing that Tom DeLay, a firm believer in the health benefits of Dioxin and last seen publicly shimmying his booty in satin bolero pants on “Dancing with the Stars,” has just been sentenced to three years in prison. As The Huffington Post reports:

Former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, once considered among the nation’s most powerful and feared lawmakers, was sentenced to three years in prison Monday for a scheme to influence elections that already cost him his job, leadership post and millions of dollars in legal fees.

The sentence comes after a jury in November convicted DeLay, a Houston-area Republican, on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering for using a political action committee to illegally send corporate donations to Texas House candidates in 2002.

[...]

I recall an aide of DeLay being quoted as saying that (paraphrased) “You don’t just kick a Democrat when he’s down, you roll him in a carpet and toss him over the cliff.”  That was how DeLay played: down, mean, merciless, dirty, and well-oiled with “K Street Project” money.  The former Texas bug exterminator (we are not making this up) could bite a copperhead snake’s head off and swallow it down with a martini.

More here.

tom delay dancing with the stars

VIDEO– Desperate Karl Rove: Obama campaign suppressed the vote. Fox’s Megyn Kelly: “But he won, Karl, he won.”

Link

As I’ve written over and over again, Republicans are masters of that old Rovian tactic called projection. If you’re not familiar with the term, it’s taking your candidate’s (or anyone’s) weaknesses and attributing them to the opposition.

Now a very desperate, very laughable Karl Rove is projecting again, but this time nobody’s buying it. He sank to a new low (Is that even possible?), pathetically accusing Team Obama of — wait for it– voter suppression. Yes, you read that right. Watch him sliming his way to irrelevance on Fox:

As Think Progress points out, President Obama got more popular and electoral votes than Willard M. Romney and “grew his margins within certain voting blocks.” Some disenfranchisement, huh?

Rove dug himself into another Fox hole. This happened:

And this, via BuzzFlash’s Andrew Kaczynski:

When Fox mocks you, you know you’re in trouble.

VIDEO: More on the news made during an interview that Paul Ryan cut short.

 

The other day I posted a video of Paul Ryan throwing a bit of a tantrum and cutting short an interview with an award-winning local reporter who pressed him on taxes.

In that post, I wrote about one sentence that Tantrumy Paul inadvertently blurted out that caught my attention:

“I don’t even think President Obama is proposing more gun laws.”

That remark caught someone else’s attention, too, and she called it “news”. I agree! Paul Ryan defended President Obama while making it clear that the NRA is supporting the GOP candidate, their own Republican candidate, who has a schizophrenic gun rights record, while Obama’s record is that of not taking away guns.

And that same someone else caught yet another scoop by that reporter than I overlooked. Rachel Maddow noticed that Ryan callously asserted that poor people in inner cities are lacking “good discipline and good character.” And according to Ryan, teaching them how to remedy those character defects is how they can climb out of poverty. Right. got it.

No wonder his people cut the interview short. Rachel takes it from here:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

“Are all people who are poor, only poor because they have not been taught good character? Or is it only poor people in the inner cities who are poor because they don’t have good character? They don’t have good discipline, they need to be taught that. You watching at home, do you not make a lot of money? Was there a time you did not have a lot of money? Is that because you have bad character? If I were the Romney/Ryan campaign, I would probably try to trash that reporter…”

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