Rahm has a few words for the GOP Poll Leader

What Royal Wedding?

My seven-year-old stylist and I perused the David's Bridal website for (strictly DIY) hair style ideas.

She informed me that I should get "that" dress. Cost: One and one half mortgage payments.

"That's a LOT of money!" I said.

She sighed. "Yeah, you're paying for the fashion."

No, I'm not.

Our Weekly Podcast - The Professional Left CORRECTED

Links for this episode:

Blue Gal (for once) on David Effing Brooks.

Lawrence O'Donnell throws Orly Taitz off his show (h/t Heather).


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The Professional Left on the Radio (YouTube)

Driftglass and I had breakfast at the Heartland Cafe in Rogers Park, Chicago last Saturday (with the amazing Matt Filipowicz and his fiancee The Kate, a divinity student who KNITS, twins!!!). It was a surprise to us to get pulled to the stage to appear on the local radio program Live at The Heartland. Thanks to the crew for keeping DG off camera.

What percentage of success is just showing up?


________

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Thank you!!!

Blog Against Theocracy - The sins of the fathers

I've been really interested in this whole defund Planned Parenthood thing from the standpoint of stopping theocracy in America.   Mike Pence is a self-described evangelical Christian, and his insistence on defunding the non-abortion activities (he can't defund the abortion part because he doesn't fund it) of Planned Parenthood stinks of Levitican punishment for something with which he and his acolytes disagree.

Take note: I called them acolytes not constituents.   Pence is running for Governor of Indiana and needs his coffers filled from way beyond the Sixth Congressional District he "represents," and a number of his constituents, particularly women of child-bearing age and those who love those women, don't see Pence as a representative of their values.

from the "Mike Pence does not represent me" collection on Tumblr

I find it fascinating that the push for Theocracy so often dovetails with the sin of avarice.

Our Weekly Podcast - The Professional Left

Links for this episode:

Blue Gal on why threats to Medicare for younger people fail.

Susie Bright's memoir.

Susie Bright's podcast on Audible

Related to Blog against Theocracy: Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

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Tengrain is having a contest!

What will Michele Bachmann's new book look like?

click image for larger

A Listener Writes....

Dear Professional Left Podcast:

Should I be offended much by all that people are saying about Obama being "back" ??  I find it funny and suspicious that Obama suddenly became someone we might be able to like after he announced his reelection campaign.  It's amazing to me that people can talk about how awesome he is after he continuously hits them.  He isn't a centrist.  When you look at his record, he is a Rockefeller Republican.  All of what he has actually done is very much Rockefeller Republican.  Why is no one talking about how "Gee, isn't that interesting that he is suddenly telling us what we want to hear right when he needs our money..."  Seriously.  Look at what he is doing.  He isn't fighting for the liberals/progressives.  Why should we support him?  Who should we support?

A listener to the podcast

Dear Listener:

suddenly telling us what we want to hear right when he needs our money.

He's not telling us what we want to hear, he's telling us what Sherrod Brown told him to say.  And Sherrod Brown knows that no one will vote for Medicare killers.  

This is not about us.  We're irrelevant.  

But guess what?  Obama is irrelevant, too.  

We progressives have to be careful to remember that this is not about Obama, who will be gone in six years or less.  This is about us.  Are we going to be about how no one in the White House is good enough for us, or are we building something bigger and longer lasting than one administration?

I don't focus so much on Obama because frankly, as far as Presidents go he's all we've got.  It's not that he's better than Bush -- it's that in the long run he is just one more administration we've had to hold accountable to liberal values.  That is such as it ever was.  

I know it makes a lot of people on our side feel jolly to diss Barack as some sort of massive traitor.  But they're rewriting history because saying "Obama is a centrist ahole" is just as easy as saying "Fuck Bush" and it turns out those progressives don't have much else other than a constant state of aggrieved righteousness.   Obama was my FIFTH choice for the Democratic nomination.  Hillary was SIXTH.  

Sigh.  So it's not about who should we support but WHAT.  Union issues, elder care, education, infrastructure.  Pick something, make it local, write to your paper (because old people still read tree killing stuff and they vote) write a blog, give money, shout in the streets, fight the power.  And remember that the muckrakers did all that a hundred years ago and oh, don't get me started on what a fucking corporate shill Woodrow Wilson was. 

Best, and thanks for your letter,

Fran / BG

Careless Whisper with @SusieBright!

She's actually inviting me to turn around and get uninhibited by the spore flower from "This Side of Paradise", Star Trek TOS FTW!!!

Okay the truth. I found out that Susie Bright was going to be on book tour in Chicago and then next up in St. Louis, and that she would hafta drive right through our proverbial cornfield to get from one to the next. Driftglass drove her down from Chicago (Yeah he could just retire from blogging now but I won't let him.)  and we put her up for the night and fed her. This is at Augie's Front Burner, a local restaurant that I chose.

It was so funny because Susie spent the time before dinner looking up restaurants on Yelp and cracked up about ponyshoes. For those of you unfamiliar a ponyshoe is a smaller version of a horseshoe, which is a local dish consisting of an open-faced sammich consisting of...

Texas toast topped with

Meat

topped with

French Fries

topped with

WHITE CHEESE SAUCE.


If you see Jesus in the cheese sauce, call your server back to the table and also have the chef come out and share the blessing.

Susie thought the idea of ponyshoes was a hoot.    

We love her.  And her book is awesome.

Our Weekly Podcast - The Professional Left

Link for this episode:

Harold Ford Jr. has trouble with Math

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Bonus Podcast: DG and BG on Mad as Hell in America

This was really fun. Thanks to Adam Klugman, and don't forget you can listen to Adam's show at Mad as Hell in America.

If you need a happy story today

My youngest, who by all accounts is THE social whirlwind of her First Grade, told me what happened in school yesterday:

Well, I went to school and guess what?  LaKesha has the exact same coat as me!  And so she said, "do you wanna be twins?"

School desegregation is a good thing.

And the babies above are actual twins.  God is love, people.

Paul Ryan as Marie Antoinette

Our Weekly Podcast - The Professional Left

Links for this episode:

Ronald Reagan’s state’s rights dog whistle in Mississippi

Poll of Mississippi Republicans on interracial marriage

And if you think we’re overreaching on the fundamentalist Christian / Racist link, read this.

And here's Melissa Harris Perry on The Rachel Maddow Show:

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

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Questions for Michele Bachmann

If you get your wish and defund and repeal ObamaCare what about the $250.00 that was sent to seniors in the donut hole last year? Do they have to send it back?

Will you cancel the 50% discount ObamaCare gives on generic drugs for which seniors in the donut hole are eligible? Will they have to go back to paying full price or do without medication for which there is no coverage?

Are you insistent that the donut hole continue past 2020, since ObamaCare eliminates the donut hole gradually by that date?

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that more than a quarter of Part D participants stop following their prescribed regimen of drugs when they hit the donut hole.

The day will come when they will regret calling it "ObamaCare." That day is when voters see the real benefit of it, and you continue advocating for taking it away.

Driftglass and Blue Gal on broadcast radio

Driftglass and I will be on 'Mad as Hell in America' with Adam Klugman, Saturday evening.  We're scheduled to be on the second half of the second hour of the show (around 7:30 pm Eastern Time, 4:30 pm Pacific) talking about, oh, I dunno, politics and stuff.  :D

Adam's a great guy who just started this show in Portland a few weeks ago.  We're honored to be on because DG and I know for a fact that America needs more progressive broadcast radio!  You can listen livestream style on the show's website.

Buh Bye, Glenn Beck

For the full story and lots of turd polishing (h/t The Daily Show) from Ailes, see Stop Beck, which did most of the heavy lifting on shaming his advertisers.

Anybody who compares Beck's departure to Olbermann's gets their dick cut off in Photoshop by me personally. Got that?

Mrs. Gingrich's Diary goes audio! (2:52)

DG and I are playing with some different formats for an upcoming project (watch this space) and here's a sample. This does not replace the podcast; but we're thinking of doing a very short comedy show in the middle of the week with three minute skits.

This audio is based on the Mrs. Gingrich's Diary project, which grew out of the fact that for a time, @MrsGingrich3 on twitter was suspended because they thought I was impersonating the real thing. As if.

Our Weekly Podcast - The Professional Left

Links for this week:

The Florida Uterus story

Eric Cantor thinks he can pass a bill all by himself.

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