Where have you gone Mr. Baker?

"What did the President know and when did he know it?" was the phrase that made Howard Baker famous.  The former Tennessee Senator, Chief of Staff, and Presidential candidate was a member of a Congressional committee when a real Presidential scandal took place.  

Today, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, headed by Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) is desperately trying to find a Watergate type scandal in the form of the IRS targeting conservative and Tea Party 501(c)(4) groups for extra scrutiny when they attempted to get tax exempt status as "social welfare" groups.  The problem for Issa is that his committee has spent almost a year investigating this "scandal," only to find that there was no scandal, just some bureaucratic mismanagement.

In addition to Issa not finding what he hoped for, the FBI concluded its investigation and said the actions of the IRS did not warrant criminal charges.using words such as "incompetent, flawed, lazy, confused, and mismanaged," the FBI concluded that no criminal charges would be pursued.  The investigation also did not find any link to President Obama or the White House.

If we want to see what a real IRS scandal looks like, we have to hearken back to the days of Senator Howard Baker in the 1970s.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. did an excellent piece for the Huffington Post, in which he outlines how a "real" President uses the IRS to harass his enemies. In Obama and Nixon: A Historical Perspective, Kennedy summarizes some of the Nixon excesses.

"On September 27, 1970, Nixon ordered Haldeman to get the IRS to investigate my Uncle Ted who was then the presumed frontrunner in the 1972 presidential contest, sharing the field with Edmond Muskie and Hubert Humphrey who Nixon also ordered audited."

This certainly answers Howard's question as to what the President knew and when did he know it, as does the following.

"On October 6, 1971, Nixon ordered Haldeman to have the IRS audit Los Angeles Times publisher Otis Chandler who had transformed the Times from a right wing rag into a universally respected paper by recruiting top journalists from across the nation. Chandler and his very large family were close friends of my family and had spent the summer prior to my father's death running the Colorado River with us. "I want Otis Chandler's income tax," Nixon told Haldeman. Nixon then called his Attorney General and former law partner, John Mitchel, and ordered Mitchel to fire the Los Angeles Director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. "The fellow out there in the Immigration Services is a kike by the name of Rosenberg." The President explained to Mitchel, "He is to be out." Fulminating on, Nixon told Mitchel, "I want you to direct the most trusted person you have in the Immigration Service to look at all the activities of the Los Angeles Times... let me explain as a Californian, I know everybody in California hires them... Otis Chandler... I want him checked with regard to his gardener. I understand he is a wetback. Is that clear?" When the Attorney General replied, "Yes, sir." Nixon crowed triumphantly, "We're going after the Chandlers! Every one, individually and collectively, their income taxes... every one of those sons of bitches."

Now that's a scandal!!  Nixon may be long gone, but his utter disregard for the law ("When the President does it, that means it's not illegal") is what makes a Presidential scandal. 

Obama can't even hold a candle to Nixon when it comes to arrogance and disregard for the law.  Obama's truthful answers to Baker's multi-part question just aren't Nixonian.  "What did the President know?"  Nothing.  "When did he know it?"  When he saw it in press reports.  Nixon would send someone to Congress to lie about what HE knew and Nixon never read anything in the news, because he hated everyone in the press.  (Although, if he were alive today, bet you he'd be tuned in to Fox News.)

For those of you who say, "well, he should have known," we have news for you.  If you assign an obligation on the President to know what every low to mid level career, non-political civil servant  is doing, you have a gross misconception of what the Presidency is all about. 

Nixon never would have left to chance or relied on a low level guy in the IRS to implement his vendettas.  He gets the Attorney General or his Chief of Staff  to lean on the head of an agency and pass them an envelope with the exacts names, addresses, and social security numbers of the people he wants to screw.  

Since it is apparently in vogue for some conservatives (see Rudy's man crush on Putin) to praise a thug and strongman like Vlad Putin, maybe it's time they can look back admirably at Richard Nixon, and say "C'mon Obama if you had any real balls, you woulda called up the IRS yourself and told them to put the thumb screws on your enemies.  Why don't you just go back to wearing your "mom" jeans and throwing like a girl on opening day of baseball season."

Let's get a guy like Nixon back in the White House, so 88 year old Howard Baker can make a cameo appearance at some Congressional committee and famously ask, for one last time, "What did the President know, and when did he know it?"  

OVC Oscar picks

Buzz and I have been hard at work screening movies in the back of the ole VW Microbus, and with the help of the Univac 3000, we are ready to make some fearless predictions.

The 86th Annual Academy Awards will air live from the Thomas Dolby Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday night on ABC starting at 7pm EST.  Why a Hollywood theater would choose to name itself after a washed up British musician from the 1980s is beyond me, but Buzz is looking into it.

Best Picture

Since 2009, the Academy has been nominating up to 10 movies for best picture.  Up until that time, and since way back in the early days of the awards, they only nominated five, so that probably explains why none of the Police Academy movies were ever nominated.  They were on the cusp, so they didn't make it in the days of only five nominations.  I guess it also explains the Steve Guttenberg snubs.

This year nine pictures were nominated (again if Police Academy 8 were released last year, we're sure there would have been ten nominees.)  The nominees are "American Hustle," "Captain Phillips," "Dallas Buyers Club," "Gravity," "Her," "Nebraska," "Philomena," "12 Years a Slave," and "The Wolf of Wall Street."

"American Hustle" is loosely based on the late 1970s early 1980s ABSCAM sting operation, wherein the FBI tried to entrap a number of politicians by using a convicted con artist to hook politicians up with a phony "Arab Sheikh" in order for the Skeikh to bribe the politicians to receive political favors. Clearly the best part of this movie is Amy Adams in her revealing 1970s outfits, and her acting aint that bad either.  We also loved Jeremy Renner as Mayor Carmine Polito

"Captain Phillips" is the story of an American container ship that gets hijacked by Somali pirates off the coast of Africa.This is also based on a true story, although from what we understand although Tom Hanks' Captain Phillips is a warm, caring, sympathetic character, the real Captain Phillips was a bit of an ass.  You know how this movie is gonna end even if you don't remember it from the headlines of a few years ago.  It's all over when you hear the call for the Navy Seals.  Kick ass, pirates dead, Captain Phillips safe.  But even though you know it's coming, the climactic scene still blows you away.

"Dallas Buyers Club" is also based on a true story.  It follows the life of a rodeo star Ron Woodruf, portrayed by Matthew McConaughey after he is diagnosed with AIDS in the mid 1980s.  Woodruf is basically told that he's gonna be dead in 30 days, so he seeks treatment in Mexico and ends up surviving and controlling his illness.  He then sets up a "buyers club" where he sells smuggled drugs in from Mexico to help treat AIDS patients who have given up on the American Medical system.  He battles with the FDA and American doctors, but his smuggled drugs work better than the traditional hospital treatments at the time.

"Gravity" is a 90 minute space odyssey which is about 80 minutes too long.  Although the concept is kinda kool and the cinematography is really good, how long do you really want to watch Sandra Bullock "lost in space."

"Her" is a movie Joaquin Phoenix plays a dork who works in a place where he writes romantic "letters for hire."  This first class nerd falls in love with a sexy voiced (Scarlett Johansson) computer operating system.  Yes, that is really that plot.  Although the movie does have it's endearing moments, it's hard to get over the really stupid storyline.

"Nebraska" is the story of an old man's (Bruce Dern) quest for a million dollar sweepstakes prize.  The Montana guy has to get to Nebraska to claim the prize he thinks he won, which he didn't.  Buzz and I have agreed that the only way we would travel to Nebraska was to claim a million dollar plus prize, but we'd be damn sure it really existed before we gassed up the Micro bus.  We had considered going there to see Johnny Carson's birthplace, but then found out he was really born in Iowa.

"Philomena," contrary to popular belief is not just the name you make up to tease your little brother Phil when you were in grade school, but it actually is a movie starring Judi Dench.  It follows her quest to find her child who she gave up for adoption to the local convent.  She begins that search 50 years after she gave up the child.  This is also based on a true story.

"12 Years a Slave" is based on a biographical novel of a free African American man who lives in Saratoga, New York in the 1840s.  He gets hoodwinked into traveling to Washington, D.C., where he ends up being kidnapped and sold into slavery.  The story is compelling and dramatizes the evils of an institution which ruled in the Southern states for hundreds of years.  As the title implies, there is a happy ending.

"The Wolf of Wall Street" is Martin Scorsese's latest movie.  Its stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort, an unscrupulous stock broker who lives a lavish and extravagant lifestyle in the 1990s.  Belfort, who is alive and well today, was the consummate salesman who ended up doing some time in federal prison.  He crosses the line numerous times in this story of gratuitous sex and excess.

After watching the movies and running the numbers through the Univac 3000, we came up with different results in a number of the categories, so we're gonna list who Buzz and I believe should win and who the Univac 3000 says will win.

Which movie should take home the best picture Oscar:  Buzz and I narrowed it down to "American Hustle," "Dallas Buyers Club," "12 Years a Slave," and "The Wolf of Wall Street."  "Her" and "Gravity" are entertaining, but really aren't Best Picture material.  For Buzz and me, the Oscar goes to "12 Years a Slave." The Univac 3000 agrees:   "12 Years a Slave."

Best Actor:  Leo has come a long way since being the "Oliver" on "Growing Pains." Wish we could say the same about Robbie Rist (the true Oliver.)  Leo does a hell of a job in The Wolf, just as he did in "The Aviator" and "J. Edgar."  Bruce Dern really isn't acting, because Bruce Dern really is a confused old man.  Christian should get courage credits for showing off his gut and that horrendous haircut, but tht doesn't get you enough points to win.  Chiwetel Ejlofor's name is just too hard to pronounce to get a win.  Matthew McConaughey really deserves the Oscar for this one.  He probably deserves a Oscar for the weight he lost just to play the role. Should win:  Matthew McConaughey for "Dallas Buyers Club"  Univac 3000 picks Matthew McConaughey for "Dallas Buyers Club"

Best Actress:  What can we say to Meryl, but "this aint your year."  Come on, you already won a Oscar two years ago after a 19 year drought.  We'll see you at the victory podium around 2030.  Sandra Bullock was excellent in "The Blind Side," for which she won the Best Actress Oscar in 2010, but just because she's on screen in "Gravity" 98.6 percent of the time, doesn't mean a best actress nod.  Judi Dench, we love you but if the didn't give you an award for the Bond movies, they aint gonna give you one now.  That leaves Cate and Amy. Should win:  Amy Adams for "American Hustle"  Univac 3000 picks Cate Blanchett for "Blue Jasmine"

Best Supporting Actor: We loved Jonah Hill, but this aint his year.  Bradley Cooper was very good, but nope.  We don't really remember who Michael Fassbender played.  Barkhad Adbi, Bradley Cooper, and Jared Leto all put in tremendous performances, but Leto really shined in "Dallas Buyers Club" and deserves the award, despite Adbi being an early favorite. Should win:  Jared Leto for "Dallas Buyers Club"  Univac 3000 picks Jared Leto for "Dallas Buyers Club"

Best Supporting Actress:  The early favorite was Jennifer Lawrence, in a role we didn't particularly like, but Lupita Nyong'o has picked up steam, and we agree.  Sally Hawkins, Julia Roberts, and June Squibb are also nominated. Should win:  Lupita Nyong'o for "12 Years a Slave"  Univac 3000 picks Lupita Nyong'o for "12 Years a Slave"

Best Director:  Sixty two times out of eighty five the best movie and best director have matched up.  It should happen that way again this year, but it probably won't.  We thought Steve McQueen died in 1980, but apparently this director is a different guy.  David O. Russell and Alexander Payne were nominated to fill out the category.  We believe that Alfonso Cuaron was a filler, too, because as we said before, this was a 90 minute movie that was 80 minutes too long.  About Martin Sorcese, what can we say.  He is excellent and deserves to win, but he won't.  Should win: Martin Sorcese "The Wolf of Wall Street"  Univac 3000 picks Alfonso Cuaron "Gravity"  (Get those circuits checked on the Univac, Buzz.

Don't look for us on the red carpet.  Buzz and I never go, because we really don't like all the attention.  Judi Dench offered us some tickets this year and wanted Buzz to be her escort, but Buzz said he wasn't going without me.  I'm still waiting for my invite from Amy Adams.

The truth is one of the first casualties of Obama Derangement Syndrome

Mark Twain once said "a lie will travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes."  In the world of the conservative blogosphere, now the lie makes it way all the way around the world and back again in that same period of time.

The latest example of this is the rumor that the number for information on the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is 1800FUCKYOU.  Hold on to your seats Obama haters, it aint true.

Buzz and I were having breakfast this morning while discussing the hot draft prospects in the WNBA, when we overheard a few customers talking to a waitress.  They told her that the number for Obamacare information is 1800FUCKYOU.  The waitress was a bit incredulous, but decided to give it a try. 

She called the number, and lo and behold, she got a message that said "press one for Obamacare."  It was enough to convince her, but like most of the crap fed to us by the right wing and suffers of Obama Derangement Syndrome (ODS,)  it just isn't true.

Buzz looked up from his WNBA fantasy cheat sheet and said.  "Excuse me, what did they use the phrase Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act?'

"Obamacare," was her reply.

Buzz went on to explain that the federal government does not refer to the Affordable Care Act as Obamacare.  It refers to the Act by its real name --- The Affordable Care Act.  Obamacare is the shorthand name given to it by the media, the right wing, or who really knows who first termed the phrase. 

One of the customers thought for a minute, and said, "that handsome gentleman in the tweed jacket and turtle neck is right."  Since I was wearing a Nehru jacket, I realized she was referring to Buzz and his Obamacare comment and not my overall choice for first pick in the WNBA draft.

When we got back to the VW Microbus, Buzz powered up the Univac 3000 to do a little research.

He found a snopes.com article. Those who may be unfamiliar with snopes.com should know that snopes.com is a website dedicated to debunking or proving urban legends, myths, rumors, misinformation, and folklore

Here's what they found:

Although 800-318-2596 is the correct phone number for the Health Insurance Marketplace customer service line, and turning its digits into letters as they are found on telephone keypads does produce the phrase 800-FUCKYO (among many other possibilities.)  Of course, it only works by ignoring the "1," because standard keypads have no letters on the "1."

Technically, the 800-318-2596 phone number cannot correctly be rendered as 800-FUCKYO because that designation omits the essential '1' digit between the '3' and '8' and therefore does not represent an accurate phone number for the Health Insurance Marketplace hotline (or a valid phone number at all). A correct rendering of the phone number would be the somewhat less salacious 1-800-F1UCKYO.

Additionally, the 800-318-2596 phone number wasn't selected by the current administration, as it has been used as a toll-free government number for providing information about Medicare plans since at least as far back as 1999.

The current assignee of the 1-800-FUCKYOU number (a phone sex line) has now updated their initial recording greeting with a message asking callers to indicate whether or not they are calling about Obamacare.

Sorry we had to debunk this myth for our friends who suffer from ODS and all those innocent people who were duped by another ODS pipedream.

But, alas, there is still hope for ODS suffers, according to Buzz's research on the Univac 3000, the Obamacare death panels have decreed that ODS is a covered affliction under Obamacare, even if it is a pre-existing condition before you sign up for insurance.  There is one catch, however, treatment is long term "in-patient" at the FEMA internment camps.
 

PA Governor Tom "Frank Drebin" Corbett strikes again with brother/sister marriage comment

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett has done it again.  He has shown us why Buzz and I believe that he may be , in reality, Detective Frank Drebin from Police Squad.

There has always been the physical resemblance, but his latest comments show a keen mental resemblance, too.

Corbett was on WHP-TV in Harrisburg when an anchor asked about a statement his lawyers made in a recent court filing, comparing the marriage of gay couples to the marriage of children because neither can legally wed in the state.

"It was an inappropriate analogy, you know," Corbett said. "I think a much better analogy would have been brother and sister, don't you?"

Pennsylvania is the only Northeastern state that does not recognize same sex marriage, and as long as Governor Frank Drebin is in office, the law won't change from the Executive branch of the government.

Fortunately for supports of same sex marriage, a number of law suits are pending in Pennsylvania state and federal courts.  Change will be coming.

Give it a rest GOP!!!!!!!

Guess what Republican Party?  We know you hate Obamacare, but now it's time to use your health insurance to seek a mental health professional.

It has often been said that the definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."  It's true, Buzz looked it up over a thousand times and came up with the same result.  The jury is still out on whether that proves Buzz is sane or insane.

Well, the House Republicans have attempted to repeal all or part of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) about 43 times.  Each time, the bill they passed never made it to the floor of the United States Senate, where even if it did, it was doomed to defeat.  None of this stopped the House GOP.

Now, the GOP controlled House has added a twist --- they will shut down the government in their never ending attempt to derail Obamacare.  Their obsession hasn't just been limited to the House of Representatives.  It has found its way to the United States Senate.

Last week, Texas Senator Ted Cruz rambled on for 21 plus hours, quoting from Dr. Seuss, among other bizarre things, in a pseudo-filibuster.  The Ted Cruz show captured the attention of all the suffers of Obama derangement syndrome (an affliction which causes Republicans to blame Barack Obama for everything that goes bad, regardless of whether Obama was responsible for it or even if the "thing" isn't really bad.)

The facts are simple:  The House and Senate passed Obamacare by majority votes, and it was signed into law by President Barack Obama.  Then after a couple of years of Republicans crying foul and claiming that Obamacare was clearly unconstitutional, the United States Supreme Court ruled, in an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, that Obamacare did indeed pass constitutional muster.

In addition to having been approved by all three branches of government, the American people weighed in in 2012, when they handed Obama a clear victory over the anti-Obamacare candidate Mitt Romney.

Give it a rest!  If the law is so terrible, just let it go into full effect and then hammer Obama and the Democrats for its utter failure.  Now that's a great election issue.  The problem is that the failure of Obamacare will only exist in the world of Obama Derangement Syndrome sufferers.  Obamacare, like Medicare and Social Security is here to stay, yeah it may be modified and improved, but it is here to stay.

 

The GOP's real fear brings them back to reality.  They fear, more than anything, that Obamacare will be an unqualified success.  All the fear mongering will prove to be unwarranted. 

The world will not end with the full implementation of Obamacare.  People who have private insurance or Medicare or Medicaid will keep doing what they're doing, but thirty plus million Americans will have health insurance for the first time in their lives. 

Just as it did in the Social Security debate of the 1930s and the Medicare debate of the 1960s, the GOP is on the wrong side of history. 

Message to the GOP, GIVE IT A REST.  Stop trying to get rid of Obamacare, and start proposing laws that will improve the faults of the law. 

Perhaps Cruz should listen to Sam-I-Am

Would you like Obamacare in a box?
Would you like Obamacare with a fox?

Not in a box.
Not with a fox.
Not in a house.
Not with a mouse.
I would not like it here or there.
I would not like anywhere.
I would not like Obamacare.
I do not like it, Sam-I-amacare.

For a well educated guy like United States Senator Ted Cruz, you would think he woulda realized that "Green Eggs and Ham" has a happy resolution for the obstinate character who protests a bit too much.

The Texas junior Senator spent 20 plus hours on the Senate floor this week telling the American people about the evils of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and ironically talked about the Dr. Seuss classic "Green Eggs and Ham."  Perhaps Cruz didn't see the irony, because like the character who goes on and on about his dislike for Green Eggs and Ham without trying it, Cruz did the same about a program that hasn't even gone into effect. 

Buzz and I strongly believe that the majority of Americans who have been fed constant attacks on Obamacare over the past 4 years will, like Green Eggs and Ham, come to love the program once it is fully implemented.

The Republican and Tea Party war on Obamacare has often crossed the line between reasoned debate and delusiondom many times.  The United States House of Representatives has voted 41, maybe 42 times to repeal all are part of Obamacare over the last two and a half years.  They continue to do this despite the fact that The United States Senate has no even entertained a vote on one of their 41 or 42 pieces of legislation, and even if the Seante acts, President Barack Obama would never sign a bill that guts his siganture achievement.

We heard about "death panels," sky rocketing premiums, job losses, loss of quality of care, doctors who will retire or high tail it out of the country, socialism, socialized medicine, loss of every freedom guaranteed under the constitution, comparisons to Hitler and Nazi Germany, comparisons to Marx, Lenin, Castro, Mao, and a whole bunch of right or left wing dictators, and of course our favorite "I don't want the government getting in between me and my doctor."

We agree with Steven Colbert who said "We don't want government getting in between us and our doctors, that's the insurance company's job."

We heard the same worn out arguments 48 years ago when Ronald Reagan preached against the evils of "socialized medicine" which would ensue when Congress passsed Medicare.  Medicare has become one of the most popular and efficiently run government programs ever.  And, guess what, it was the right thing to do. 

The system we have now downright sucks, and Ted Cruz and all of the Republicans have not come forward with any solutions to get healthcare for the 40 plus million who don't have it or to control the skyrocketing costs of healthcare. 

Yes we have some of the best healthcare in the world, but that is only if you can afford it.  For those millions of Americans who don't have healthcare insurance, their "primary care doctor" is the emergency room, and many times they delay going to the emergency room until a simple condition which could have easily been resolved by a primary care doctor, becomes necessitous of expensive medical care.

Obamacare is certainly not perfect, but to the Tea Partiers and Ted Cruz, how can you rant up and down about a program you haven't even "tried."  Next time, Senator Cruz, read the rest of the book before you go on quoting it.  Sometimes the endings will surprise you.

Pope Francis may make being Catholic kool again

Buzz and I may actually go back to church this week, and Pope Francis is the reason.

For years and years, in fact as long as we can remember the Catholic church has bitched about abortion, contraceptives, and homosexuals. Buzz and I sorta agree with the late, great, former Nixon Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz.  When asked about Pope Paul VI's position (no pun intended) on various sexual matters such as birth control and pre-marital sex, Butz responded in a mock Italian accent, "He no playa the game, he no maka the rules."

Now, our new Pope, Francis says the church should back off on beating up the flock over abortion, contraceptives, and gay marriage.  It's no longer kool in the Pope Francis' eyes to damn people to hell if they vote for an elected official who supports a woman's right to choose or believes in marriage equality for gays and lesbians. Whether it will work its way down to your local parish remains to be seen.

Francis said, "The church sometimes has locked itself up in small things, in small-minded rules, The most important thing is the first proclamation: Jesus Christ has saved you. And the ministers of the church must be ministers of mercy above all."

One of the problems with Francis' change in direction is the fact that almost all the Cardinals and Bishops in the Catholic Church throughout the world is the fact that they were appointed to their positions by either John Paul II or Benedict XVI.  Both of these guys believed in a non-bending and very conservative Catholic church.  Their position was "love it or leave it."  If you don't tow the line, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out of Saint Paul's Cathedral.

We really hope and pray that the 76 year old pontiff lives 'til 100 and is healthy in mind and body.  That way, Francis will be able to appoint like minded individuals as the new bishops and new cardinals.  These men, and hopefully in a short time, women, will be able to enthusiastically institute the changes in attitude and policy set forth by Francis.

Francis has emphasized that the church should focus on helping those who are less fortune --- the poor, the uneducated, the disabled, etc. in a sense, believing the only reason to look down on anyone is to offer them a helping hand to get up.  This is the type of church of which Buzz and I would be proud to be members.

Gotta get to mass.... more in the future.