Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

I know ya'll love Krugman and that Bob Herbert hits 'em out of the park every time he puts fingertips to keyboard, but you also need to be reading Timothy Egan, who may be the best opinion writer at the NYT, and not just because he's pals with The Dude.

Banned Words of 2011™: Q3 Update

New items in bold. As always, please add your suggestions in comments.

Because it's never too early to put the world on notice...

1. Frenemies
2. Social Media
3. Sexting
4. Obamabot
5. How's that workin' out for ya?
6. Establishment
7. Mainstream
8. Lamestream
9. Emboldened
10. Litmus Test
11. Blowout preventer
12. Top Kill
13. Real Housewives of ___________
14. Gaga
15. Junk Shot
16. Enthusiasm Gap
17. Mixologist/Mixology (courtesy sexypixie)
18. Folks (when uttered by any politician)
19. Elites
20. Hysterical
21. Breathless
22. Fee Fees
23. Structural Unemployment (courtesy poopyman comments)
24. Epistemic Closure (courtesy poopyman, from comments)
    

Don't Believe the Hype

No, on second thought: believe it. Because the book is that good.

What Michigan really needs

Is for "JUST" one more person to be added to the unemployment rolls.

Of course, this guy would end up as a talking-ho for NewsCorp within a half-hour.

I shudder to think what this guy would attempt to stock his possibly faux-sex-boat video cruise with.

Nice Roy Cohn impression though. Perhaps Mr. Shirvell should wikipedia that guy and see if there are other similarities between the two of them?

FoxNews Certified

Among the loopier, FoxNews, bullshit topics that O'Reilly regularly trots out is the "body language" "expert"*, Tonya Reiman.

Like most FoxNews experts, Ms. Reiman has no real qualifications to be a body expert other than the enthusiasm in which she cashes Rupert's checks.

*required giant quote-marks.

Welcome to the cutting edge of civilization China!

From here:


Japanese adult actress Saori Hara (pink robe) and actor Hayama Hiro (blue robe), both wear 3D glasses as they watch a replay of their acting during the making of "3D Sex and Zen", with director Christopher Sun (standing, center) in Hong Kong on August 13, 2010. The producers are hoping the erotic period drama based in ancient China will prove a titillating hit with 3D-glasses-wearing audiences and develop a lucrative, niche market for pornography productions in future. (REUTERS/Bobby Yip) #

I believe we can now envision James O'Keefe's defense.

There is NOTHING that will ever keep a right-winger from being on television an fetted

Something that James O'Keefe knows only quite well. [Oh, and BTW, LOL, please sue Brietbart, that will be entertaining].

Example #1,657 - Frank Gaffney, who clearly is a among other things -- less savory things -- a guy who by the looks of him is remembering 9/11 by not having taken a dump since 9/10/2001.

In the not too distant future...

When I was a law student I remember getting up on Saturday morning to tune in Comedy Central in it's earlier days before it was all Stewart, Colbert, Cartman and some hack being roasted with the same crap they roasted the last hack with. In particular I watched Mystery Science Theater 3000 religiously. In fact, my middle-aged nerd cred allows me to say I've got about 150 episodes on tape.

Hard to believe I'm single, isn't it?

But enough about me, let's talk about what I think. One of the memorable episodes was 'Cave Dwellers' a riotously bad swords & sandals flick (episode 301 -- "NERD!") that starred Miles O'Keefe, his loin cloth and a hang-glider. During the opening credits one of the commenting puppets asks, "How much O'Keefe is in this movie?" for which it is replied, "Miles O'Keefe".

Which brings me to James O'Keefe, how much of him was going to be in his little porn movie?

I best leave it up to the experts:

illustration from bencossette at flickr.com

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Today in Bizarre (Possibly Criminal and/or Pathological) Sexual Obsessions

Exhibit I: Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei

Exhibit II: James O'Keefe

Exhibit III: Andrew Shirvell

Exhibit IV: Carl Paladino

Give Christine O'Donnell time. The day's still got a few hours left in which another of her bizarre sexual obsessions may be revealed as Exhibit V.

It's not the size of the boat

It's the motion of the OH MY GOD NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Looks like I picked the wrong time to be literate. Quite the creep you made there Breitbart -- maybe you two kids should just limit your circle-jerks to each other for a while?

Just to Update the Religion Thing

I got 14 out of 15 on the Pew Religious Knowledge Test and I'm definitely in the Agnostic/Atheist category. This put me, apparently in the top 1 or 2 percent. Suck.on.that. This is going to make me sooooooooooooooooo much money and get me soooooooooooo laid. Because what is better in America than knowing enough to be considered moderately intelligent and well educated...other than being accused of being a socialist?

Turns out I was pitching a perfect score until the very end when I blew the last question, which shamefully was more a historical than religious question. (To turn off the sarcasm for a second, it didn't strike me as that difficult, in fact it's rather easy except for the last question).

So bring on the money and sex!

Socialism has won out in Cincinnati!

Glenn Beck is going to streak that magic underwear, big time.

Matlock: Still not too old to be a whore

More than two-years ago, the Washington Post's then Ombudsman took David Broder to task for taking fees to speak before lobbying groups (and then frankly using their talking points in his pablumatic columns). Broder flat out lied, got called on it, and said he wouldn't do it anymore.

Well, guess what?

I'm sure the current Ombudsman Andy Alexander, given his track-record, will get right on not getting right on that.

I haven't looked yet, but I bet he's on vacation...yet again.

[looking]

That's a big affirmative.

Keep Milking the Cow

Now the headline is mildly exciting...

Star Wars to be Re-Released in 3D

Until you read the details...

starting with The Phantom Menace

I'm beginning to think

That Christine O'Donnell straps on a butterfly vibrator every day.

And THIS is why he gets the big bucks

And here I was just assuming Richard Cohen was still the nation's tritest Op-Ed writer. I am crestfallen. For Tom Friedman's 'Mustache of Understanding' (credit Atrios) has demanded the mantle:

The Tea Party that has gotten all the attention, the amorphous, self-generated protest against the growth in government and the deficit, is what I’d actually call the “Tea Kettle movement” — because all it’s doing is letting off steam.

Oh, you see what he did there? Considering the fact it became the "Tea Party" only after it's bleaters found out what "teabagging" meant requires that any other nickname would be trite beyond belief. Enter Thomas Friedman. I bet he spent at least six months coming up with it, so one Friedman Unit, an "F.U." But enough about that, let's see how the Mustache would make everything just right...suck.on.this!

The Tea Partiers actually want us to raise taxes.

Um, yeah, good job there Tom, you've really got their belief system pegged, that's exactly what they want. That's some solid political analysis of what makes 'em tick.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

That only figures

This certainly must not receive too much coverage:

...a survey that measured Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists and agnostics knew more, on average, than followers of most major faiths. In fact, the gaps in knowledge among some of the faithful may give new meaning to the term "blind faith."

A majority of Protestants, for instance, couldn't identify Martin Luther as the driving force behind the Protestant Reformation, according to the survey, released Tuesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Four in 10 Catholics misunderstood the meaning of their church's central ritual, incorrectly saying that the bread and wine used in Holy Communion are intended to merely symbolize the body and blood of Christ, not actually become them...

American atheists and agnostics tend to be people who grew up in a religious tradition and consciously gave it up, often after a great deal of reflection and study, said Alan Cooperman, associate director for research at the Pew Forum.

"These are people who thought a lot about religion," he said. "They're not indifferent. They care about it."

Atheists and agnostics also tend to be relatively well educated, and the survey found, not surprisingly, that the most knowledgeable people were also the best educated. However, it said that atheists and agnostics also outperformed believers who had a similar level of education.

That's why I only worship Andy Partridge:



Oh, and this...

Jonah Goldberg, Bill Kristol, Jon Podhoretz, George Bush,

Donald Trump, various and sundry other Bushs and Kennedys are aghast!! Aghast I tell you!!! How dare other countries allow people to be promoted without merit, simply because they're related to somebody!

A series of military promotions reinforced the leading role of the armed forces in North Korean political life, as the youngest son and sister of Kim Jong-il, were made four-star generals before a landmark meeting of the Korean Workers’ Party on Tuesday.

I look forward to seeing this mocked on Fox & Friends by Steve and Peter Doocy!

The motherfucking windy-fucking-fucking-city!

It appears that we are about to hear Rahm Emanuel is about to announce his departure as White House Chief of Smack.

I guess he's leaving so he can spend more time cursing out his family.

Well, I guess sometimes you do get a break

Things haven't looked too good for Russ Feingold recently. The Wisconsin Senator who is generally a reliable progressive, if occasionally a tad sanctimonious, is having a tough reelection campaign. In a year that has been good for Republicans (for once it really is good news for them) Feingold had recently fallen double-digits behind his Republican opponent, Ron Johnson, in some polls (that aren't Rasmussen).

But as they say the Lord works in mysterious ways...especially when you are running against an idiot.

Here's Mr. Johnson on videotape (via Jud Loundsbury at the Great Orange Satan) protecting the right of Catholic Diocese to reassign pedophile priests and make it harder for victims to sue. A real popular position all around.



Your move Russ.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

This day in History

September 27, 489 – Odoacer attacks Theodoric at the Battle of Verona, and is defeated again.

Those wacky non-Roman Italian Kings!

If Odoacer was alive today, he would have ghost-twitterers spewing out bad Latin (making up words, just like Cicero) and would have a show following 'Huckabee' on FoxNews.

Dear NBC

I know you are all proud of yourselves for capping off your critically regarded, but relatively lightly viewed, Thursday comedies with the new depressing and offensive 'Outsourced'.

But if you are going to go with racially offensive stereotypes that will draw in the FoxNews demographic might I suggest...

"The New Adventures of the Old Amos 'n Andy"?

And now, from the Barbara Bush International Collection

Comes Hugo Chavez, I'm guessing they both wear about a size 20.



[Image via AP]

What a shocker!

For only the 375,373rd time since 1948 talks between the Israelis and Palestinians fall apart as one side has to be an even bigger asshole than the other asshole.

A senior Palestinian official says President Mahmoud Abbas will quit Mideast peace talks if Israel resumes construction in West Bank settlements now that 10-month-old building restrictions have expired.

Palestinians have repeatedly threatened to quit U.S.-mediated talks relaunched earlier this month in Washington if Israel does not extend the freeze on new settlement construction that ended at midnight.

Israel has not offered to renew the restrictions, despite demands from Washington and the Palestinians to do so.

Sadly, this only gets reported in loud detail when the Palestinians exercise their turn, so the trick is how to turn this into their fault. I have no doubt Wolf Blitzer and FoxNews are up to the task.

"How dare my opponent call me an asshole!"

Says asshole.

Dear Minnesota Vikings' Management

Mr. Adrian Peterson's agent would like you to remember who is carrying the team on his back the next time you consider giving somebody $20 million bucks.

Sincerely,

Reality.

So many "'professional leftists"

All this and against the extending the tax cuts for the rich...we're obviously very very powerful, because Congress is so very afraid of us:

A new AP poll finds that Americans who think the law should have done more outnumber those who think the government should stay out of health care by 2-to-1.

The Marty Peretz School of Accounting

Apparently to the Bush Administration, since "Muslim life was cheap" torture was a chance to embezzle something or pay off someone else.

Fending off demands that he resign over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told Congress he had found a legal way to compensate Iraqi detainees who suffered "grievous and brutal abuse and cruelty at the hands of a few members of the United States armed forces."

"It's the right thing to do," Rumsfeld declared in 2004. "And it is my intention to see that we do."

Six years later, the U.S. Army is unable to document a single payment for prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib.

Emphasis on "the RIGHT thing to do."

Next Up

Steve King is going to use his preeminent intellectual powers to go after 'filthy socialist Tom Joad'.

Republicans get what they wish for July 2021

The nation's unemployment rate jumped 20% last month and the GDP is expected to fall by 40% this quarter as the nation's bars, strip clubs, theaters, movie industry, music industry, hotels, linen manufacturers, pharmaceutical industry, hospitals, liquor, florists, restaurants, diamond, and confectionery industries shut down as President Christine O'Donnell's"No Sex for Anybody Law" takes effect.

FoxNews blames Islamic Socialist Mexicans, nation, suddenly with a great deal more free time can now think about it and 95% disagree.

Dear Steve King,

Please do continue to pursue this with your characteristic intensity.

xxx....res

We are governed by idiots

And now I will pound my own head into pulp in frustration:

So why did it [voting on extending Tax Cuts, except for Rich People] fail? According to a very plugged in Senate aide, Senators debating the issue were very aware that the polling was on their side. Yet, paradoxically, this ended up tipping the balance against holding the vote. Senate Dems felt they were alreadly winning on the issue, and in the end they thought a vote risked upsetting a dynamic that was already playing in their favor.

Just Wondering

Bill O'Reilly says he has compromising information regarding Christine O'Donnell but he won't release it.

Do you think he recorded phone calls he made to here where he informed her he was masturbating while they were talking?

What O'Reilly did - according to the suit - was repeatedly proposition Mackris. In the conversations recorded by Mackris, he allegedly suggests that she buy a vibrator, boasts of teaching women to masturbate, discusses what kind of sex they should have and launches into 'a vile and degrading monologue'.

Sounds like they have a lot they can teach each other.

Funny that

Crooks and Liars and Gawker have what FoxNews left out of O'Reilly's interview with Jon Stewart...so their precious viewers wouldn't have their greek chorus de-tuned:

I know what this is. I come from Jersey—it's the same thing: "I'm not saying your mother's a whore. I'm just saying she has sex for money. With people." [F]ox News used to be all about, you don't criticize a president during wartime. It's unacceptable, it's treasonous, it gives aid and comfort to the enemy. All of a sudden, for some reason you can run out there and say, "Barack Obama is destroying the fabric of this country."

He closed with this unanswerable question: "How many tyrants do you know that really suffer because they can't get cloture?"

Too soon?

Please avert your weakening eyes, as written to Dan Savege:

The time has come for you to use your influence to pick a day between now and the November election and declare it Masturbate to Christine O'Donnell Day in either the state of Delaware or the entire United States of America. This needs to happen, and you're the only guy who can do it.

The palms get harrier from there.

"What are you going to do, bleed on me?"

Behold, fresh off folding on voting on tax cuts that don't include the wealthy, the Democrats are proclaiming a vestigial dorsal nerve ridge:

Senate Democrats said Thursday that Republicans were preventing votes on some of President Barack Obama's U.S. district court nominees, a game-changing tactic that would bring retaliation against a GOP president some day.

Oh, I bet the GOP is all scared and even more orange now.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Some Good News

Hey, in addition to penning his fine sports blog for The Globe, Mr. Charles P. Pierce is writing politics for Esquire. Check this bit re Our Lady of the Wadded Up Tissues, a/k/a Christine O'Donnell:

[O'Donnell] is what politics produces when you divorce politics from government. She is what you get when you sell to the country that nothing government can do will help, and that the government is an alien thing, and that politics is nothing more than the active public display of impotent grievance.

She is what politics produces when you turn it into a game show and the coverage of it over to a generation of high-technology racetrack touts. She is what you get when political journalism reduces politics to numbers on a scoreboard, divorcing it from the real-world consequences of what are increasingly seen as cute little eccentric decisions.

She is what politics produces when we abandon self-government for self-gratification. And that's the real obvious irony in her victory on Tuesday night, and the only thing about it that truly matters. Christine O'Donnell's campaign is a successful exercise in angry, misfit masturbation, with as little to do with the deadly problems this country faces as some guy wanking in the balcony of a grindhouse has to do with Romeo and Juliet.

That's good stuff!

Congratulations, Speaker Boehner

Fools.

Forget what it says, I know what it means!

Scalia is truly an embarrassment. The one thing even the "originalists" and the "living Constitutionalists" should agree upon is the very FIRST thing one looks for in a statute is the wording.

The Fourteenth Amendment:

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

It doesn't specify white person or black person, male person or female person, straight person or gay person, it says ANY PERSON.

But not to Scalia, no he just flicks his hand under his chin and says it only means the EP clause applies to the freed slaves, not to, oh say women. Unless, of course, there's a Republican and power involved.

In Bush v. Gore, he joined the majority that stopped the vote recount in Florida in 2000 - because they said equal protection required it. Is there really any reason to believe that the drafters - who, after all, were trying to help black people achieve equality - intended to protect President Bush's right to have the same procedures for a vote recount in Broward County as he had in Miami-Dade? (If Justice Scalia had been an equal-protection originalist in that case, he would have focused on the many black Floridians whose votes were not counted - not on the white President who wanted to stop counting votes.)

It's funny who Tony thinks gets the 14th Amendment's protections, as the last time I looked in 2000 George Bush wasn't a freed slave.

A little dramatic there Andy?

I'm glad that Andrew Sullivan is still failing to think before he posts, speaking as an original Fifth Columnist.

If I lived in Arizona Nevada and had the vote, even though Sharron Angle is beyond nuts, I'd vote for her. Better nuts than this disgusting, cynical, partisan Washington kabuki dance, when people's lives and dignity are at stake.

Yes, and I'm sure the logic of "Things aren't happening the way I like, so I'm going to vote for the person that truly truly passionately wants to strip away whatever rights a gay person has already obtained" is the way to go.

I'm sure if Andy was a black person in 1940s Mississippi he'd vote for Theodore Bilbo, if only he'd be allowed to vote, because at least you knew where he stood on the issue of civil rights.

Well, that certainly gets to the point

Saw this on the teevee while flipping around the remote, it certainly has a punchy script delivered in a dead voice...oh my...

A Life in the Shadows

Read this fascinating obituary of an extraordinary person.

He's got a Nobel Prize in Economics, Larry Kudlow has done an African Nation's GDP worth of blow

Naturally, we know who the right-wingers are going to believe:

Suppose you had spent the last five years actually believing what you read from the usual suspects — the WSJ opinion pages, National Review, right-wing economists, etc.. Here’s what would have happened:

In 2006 you would have believed that there was no housing bubble.

In 2007 you would have believed that the troubles of subprime couldn’t possibly spread to the financial system as a whole.

In 2008 you would have believed that we weren’t in a recession — and that the failure of Lehman was unlikely to have bad consequences for the real economy.

In 2009 you would have believed that high inflation was just around the corner.

At the beginning of 2010 you would have believed that sky-high interest rates were just around the corner.

Yelling not just for clouds anymore

John McCain shifts not so subtlety to the "LaLaLaLa" I can't hear you tact:

Time for the ol' BP defense!

I'm going to take a wild guess here and say it's going to be blamed on illegal immigrants and Muslims, at least in all NewsCorp propaganda outlets:

The owner of an Iowa egg company says in testimony prepared for a House hearing that he was "horrified" to learn that his eggs may have sickened as many as 1,600 people in an outbreak of salmonella poisoning this summer.

Austin "Jack" DeCoster and his son, Peter DeCoster, are scheduled to testify before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee Wednesday. In testimony released by the company, the two men say they believe an ingredient sold to them by an outside supplier may be to blame for the outbreak.

An FDA investigation found towers of manure and bug and rodent infestations at the farms, and an investigation by the House subcommittee found that the companies had received hundreds of positive results for salmonella in the two years before the outbreak.

But it was an OUTSIDE SUPPLIER'S TOWER OF DUNG, BUGS and RODENTS!

If you wish to see who is going to find a way to kiss ass in these hearings look no further than the Egg & Poultry industries biggest recipients:

Top 20 Recipients
Rank Candidate Office Amount
1 Lincoln, Blanche (D-AR) Senate $44,000
2 Peterson, Collin C (D-MN) House $22,000
3 Lucas, Frank D (R-OK) House $18,000
3 Kingston, Jack (R-GA) House $18,000
5 Edwards, Chet (D-TX) House $16,200
6 Boyd, Allen (D-FL) House $15,500
7 Blunt, Roy (R-MO) House $15,100
8 Holden, Tim (D-PA) House $13,500
9 Goodlatte, Bob (R-VA) House $12,250
10 Grassley, Chuck (R-IA) Senate $11,000
10 Boswell, Leonard L (D-IA) House $11,000
10 Costa, Jim (D-CA) House $11,000
13 Womack, Steve (R-AR) $10,600
14 DeLauro, Rosa L (D-CT) House $10,500
14 Scott, David (D-GA) House $10,500
16 Latham, Tom (R-IA) House $9,250
17 Burr, Richard (R-NC) Senate $9,200
18 Rogers, Mike D (R-AL) House $9,000
18 Kratovil, Frank M Jr (D-MD) House $9,000
20 Cuellar, Henry (D-TX) House $8,250
20 Owens, Bill (D-NY) House $8,250

Has Olbermann declared this guy 'Worst Person in the World' yet?

Josh Marshall first reported on this asshole a few days ago, and it's all coming out of the woodwork now:

Ruskiewicz went to Kratz in 2008 asking for support for her pardon application. She said they met in his office, where he asked an odd question about whether she thought it was appropriate for a boss to have a sexual relationship with a secretary. She said she was confused but grateful for his support.

He gave her his cell phone number, and she texted him later to thank him for the help — a move she now calls a mistake.

She said his messages soon turned suggestive. She recalled him texting while he was on vacation in Michigan with his family asking her to impress him "in between naps." She said he later pestered her when she didn't answer.

This is the third woman (oops, make it fourth) to come forward on the "Sexting Wisconsin DA", the first was a woman going through an "abuse" case, the second was invited to the ever-romantic event known as an autopsy and now this.

Katz is a Republican, which naturally means nothing -- as opposed to if it were a Democrat, then we'd have Malkin and Morning Doocies going apeshit that this has some broad meaning. But I think it suffices to just sum him up as a scumbag, regardless of Party affiliation.

I bet he enjoys tasering reports...just something for Digby to look into.

Aw, and I supposed we'll have to live without Rahm too?

Larry Summers is departing the White House before the end of the year to spend more time demeaning the science skills of the women in his family.

I guess what I'm saying so far is, it is a theme

It does seem that ironically -- in a tragic way -- these blatant bible-beating homophobes do seem to have a proclivity for molesting young boys. I suggest we prevent them from being teachers in our schools:

Two young men in Atlanta have filed lawsuits against nationally known televangelist Bishop Eddie Long, alleging that Long coerced them into having sex in exchange for luxury trips, cars and cash. In addition to preaching against homosexuality to his Atlanta mega-church, which seats 25,000, Long has appeared on national television to argue against same-sex marriage.

(pic via Gawker)

Ah, so this is how it works

If you so much as say you are gay, you are out of the military -- even if it needs all the folks it can find, especially ones who are intelligent and multilingual.

But if you're straight-out homophobic, have never served a day in your life in the military and can barely speak your own language, you can be a U.S. Senator.

And quite possibly if you work for that Senator you can type stuff like this:

"All Faggots Must Die"

What a proud moment for the country and Republicans everywhere. Why, I think it calls for something appropriately tactful in recognition thereof.


No openly gay people were recognized in the making of this video.

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Deep Thought

David Brooks learned everything he knows about America's literary culture at the Applebee's salad bar.

Well, that promise lasted less than half-a-day

So guess what the self-proclaimed team-name of Bristol Palin's dance pairing is?

Team Ballin'

How fitting for a knocked-up-single mother-cum-abstinence advocate.

I'm going to try to avoid further comment

But I understand that after all the faux hoopla to gin-up viewers to switch over from O'Reilly and Hannity to watch her sit all glassy-eyed, Sarah Palin quit, as usual, on her plans to show up for her daughter's rare display of public hip-gyrating.

But don't be hard on Sarah (or on Bristol -- oops too late) she just wanted to teach Bristol a lesson by pulling out at the last minute.

Though this is snark-worthy (and really, it's such easy target-practice):

...it turns out Palin is about as good at dancing as she is at using contraception.

And all this before the cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, or the Teabagger's funding by the Koch Brothers is considered!

"The global cost of dementia will likely exceed $604 billion this year, or 1 percent of the world's gross domestic product, a new report says.""

It's only worth reporting if it's a Democrat

Mr. Sheri Annis puts it out there, like the world's worst media critic:

And here's the thing: the slightly mocking tone with which some journalists are portraying these tea party conservatives is probably helping them with the broad swath of voters who don't much trust the media. If some of these voters are fed up with the establishment, that would include the establishment press. O'Donnell, for one, has cleverly brushed aside questions about her checkered finances by saying that helps her identify with struggling workers.

I don't immediately associate having dabbled in witchcraft with senatorial service. But if see the 11-year-old Bill Maher clip one more time I'm going to feel like making my TV set disappear.

Ah, but whatever Newt Gingrich wants to bilge up cannot get enough coverage for the Putz.

Hooray, statistical noise!

The base's enthusiasm has reached levels of "meh"! In a few weeks we will know whether they shall consider the shrugging of shoulders.

He's with us on everything, except the stuff that we care about

Who could have anticipated Joe Lieberman would come to the rescue of the poor, oppressed small masses that make in excess of $200,000 a year?

But there isn't highly edited videotape...

Finally, a Republican candidate who isn't going to constantly imply he's a racist with a steady drumbeat of coded language, he's just going to throw it out there unvarnished, meet Jim Russell, the man the GOP has endorsed to run against Nita Lowey:

It also compounds the culpability of media moguls who deliberately popularize miscegenation in films directed toward adolescents and pre-adolescents. In the midst of this onslaught against our youth, parents need to be reminded that they have a natural obligation, as essential as providing food and shelter, to instill in their children an acceptance of appropriate ethnic boundaries for socialization and for marriage.

The sociobiological warfare that our youth is subjected to is likely to be even more diabolical since it appears to deliberately exploit a biological theory of sexual imprinting at the critical period of sexual maturity. Movies like this past year's spate of miscegenationist titles, Save the Last Dance, Crazy / Beautiful and O, a parody of Othello, appear deliberately designed to exploit the critical period of sexual imprinting in their target audiences of white pre-adolescent girls and adolescent young women.

Oh man, "Miscegenation"? This "youthful indiscretion" was written in 2001 when he was at the tender age of 47. Who is this guy, the Theodore Bilbo (most racist hobbit ever!) of New York? I mean the other one, besides the moron running for Governor.

Whatever, we can be confident this will warrant no Drudge or Breitbart headline so it need not trouble our media's tender twittering fingers.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Hey look,

It's the world Rush Limbaugh wants to bring back!

Obviously...

But too obscure apparently to be waived under Gingrich's sausage-like twitter fingers:

I know it's obscure and hidden in the voluminous federal law and Supreme Court Decisions so possibly Newt would have missed it, but there is already fairly well established federal law making it illegal to impose Sharia law on the United States. After an exhaustive search, I found this:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Blatantly stolen in its entirety from TPM.

Please hire me for your TV Programming Needs

With Glee now being so "chic" and popular with all the cool kids, I have an idea for a musical.

One about Cops singing soft-rock anthems, we'll call it Cop Rock.

What could ever go wrong?

I know I couldn't tell

Apparently the "world" of international cricket (which to my knowledge amounts to England, Pakistan and Australia) is caught up in a fixing scandal.

Not knowing jack-shit about cricket and believing that understanding it requires dual Ph.D's in Theoretical Physics and Boredom, I have no idea how one can even tell.

Did they conspire to keep a match limited to two and a half days, instead of the usual thrilling three?

I, for one, can hardly wait...

Until 2024 when the Vikings manage to acquire the services of long-time Packer QB Aaron Rogers after he leaves the latter, replaced by someone younger and more talented.

Just to be clear

Dabbling in Witchcraft in early middle-age is no big deal if you're a Republican (and frankly, the bizarre thing about that is, it is not all that bizarre at all -- especially compared to the rest of the Christine O'Donnell resume), but being a Community Organizer in your twenties is incredibly dangerous socialism if you're a Democrat.

Maron & Mehlman

Are you following this Maron/Mehlman jaunt?

This -- and the time Kevin Smith Tweeted from a Southwest flight -- may be the only time Twitter has actually been interesting. So maybe being on an airplane is the secret ingredient.

/via Gawker

Update: Dammit, now Mehlman is telling Maron he's a "libertarian Republican". I hate this cowardly, "Oh, I'm really more in the nature of a libertarian" backpeddling stuff from Republicans. Give me a break. You're a Republican. Just like the Tea Partiers. Sheesh.

Oh, and on a not-entirely-unrelated note, I see at TPM that Fat Newt wants to outlaw Sharia law in the United States. And I'm wondering if that's because he's terrified of what Sharia law would say about a guy with his history of philandering and dumping wives on their sickbeds and the like. Does anyone know?

Names to Remember

Greg Sgammato and Javier Avitia.

Charmers, both.

Oh Goody, John Bolton has popped a chubby

Unleash the dreams of bombs, ignore the actual violation of international law if this is true:

Iranian border guards detained seven U.S. troops as they tried to illegally enter the Islamic state, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Sunday, without giving a source.

A long-standing non-bragged about tradition of warfare

Atrocities by soldiers are nothing new in war, including from American soldiers -- but the fact that this occurs is never really contemplated at the time wars start, or in the open reflexive praise we are supposed to give to our arms -- and never utter the dark stain of what making a killing machine sometimes entails. The xenophobia of never serving Newt Gingrich is the prototypical American asshole.

A group of US soldiers is facing accusations of randomly targeting and killing Afghan civilians for sport, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

"Beginners", etc.

Best movie I saw at TIFF: Beginners with Christopher Plummer, Ewan McGregor, and the lovely Mélanie Laurent.

Other stuff I loved at TIFF:

Super with Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page.

127 Hours (Definitely ran away with the "Best movie wherein James Franco saws off his own arm" category.)

The aforementioned Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer.

Least favorite: The Conspirators. Got the sense that Redford didn't know if he wanted to go full throttle on the military tribunals or make a straightforward historical drama. Plus, ultimately devolved into a "noble lawyer" movie, and there are definitely enough of those. Wasn't bad, just not my favorite.

You Brought the Global Financial System to the Brink of Collapse and You Didn't Expect to be Vilified?

Honestly, who knew that the Masters of the Universe were such wimps?

(Actually, I did, but it's nice to have written confirmation thereof.)

Anyway, I guess the deal is that we'll all have to suffer because Jamie Dimon's mommy didn't hold him enough.

Slow day, uninspired, isn't there something offensive I could post?

Is the Pope in England?


"We generally like 'em a tad younger, but they'll do."

(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Y'know

If we put Lindsey Lohan, Snooki, Sarah Palin, Christine O'Donnell and Mel Gibson (it says something that there's only one guy on the overexposed and incredibly annoying list -- we know day-to-day life splits this rather evenly, thanks TMZ mentality) on a desert island...




...we could devote more time to finding new ridiculous people to overexpose.

It's all about renewal people!

Says the man who cannot even bother to defrock a Pedophile Priest

This is rich:

A speech in which the Pope appeared to associate atheism with the Nazis has prompted criticism from humanist organisations.

However, the Catholic Church has moved to play down the controversy, saying the Pope knew "rather well what the Nazi ideology is about".

Indeed you do.

Besides, the Nazis never had a truer friend than the Pope's predecessor Pius XII. Ol' Benny has him on the road to Sainthood.

Well, so much for that EXTREME spaying and neutering plan!

Making sure blanks are fired, by not firing blanks:

Bob Barker was rushed to a hospital earlier today after the "Price Is Right" legend fainted at an L.A. area shooting range ... TMZ has learned.

Oh noz!

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Talk about a walking time-bomb

Guy fired from FoxNews for having temper-tantrums, and it isn't O'Reilly:

Brian Wilson, a longtime Fox News anchor and correspondent, is leaving the network under a cloud of rumors about his temper.

And your little beard too!

What the hell is it with Chuck Todd and weather? Has Al Roker failed to genuflect appropriately in his goateed presence? Was he once attacked by a group of bowler wielding Magritte enthusiasts (aka 'A Meet and Magritte'*)?


*Don't groan, that one hurt me to write more than it hurt you to read.

OMG! Time to give rich people even larger tax cuts!!!

After all it's plainly helped these last 9 years!

The poverty rate jumped to 14.3 percent in 2009, up from 13.2 percent a year earlier and the highest rate since 1994, the Census Bureau said Thursday. Last year, a record 43.6 million people were in poverty, up from 39.8 million in 2008 — the third consecutive increase.

I'm high on this young man's future

He's a budding genius!

Jacob Isom—the rattail-coiffed hero who swiped a Koran from right-wing fanatics and ran—has a dream. "I want to be in High Times," he told me by telephone. Then he showed a t-shirt screenprinted with his face.

Link contains picture that implies Jacob already thinks he's on High Times magazine's cover.

Christine O'Donnell would most definitely agree

How shocking!

The infamous Shake Weight—a fitness contraption that is supposed to make your arm muscles stronger and make you look ridiculously stupid at the same time—is useless, says Wired UK

What would Rush Limbaugh approve

Why spying on dangerous people, like Martin Luther King, Jr. Ah, the world Dick Cheney loved so much:

...according to documents the newspaper obtained via Freedom of Information Act during a two year investigation, Withers was also working for J. Edgar Hoover's FBI.

According to the documents, Withers followed King the day before his murder and told FBI agents about a meeting King had with suspected black militants and later divulged details he learned at King's funeral in Atlanta.

The alleged spying took place from at least 1968 until 1970. Withers, according to documents, passed on tips and photographs to the FBI which detailed an insider view of the civil rights movement as well as politics, business and everyday life in Memphis' African-American community.

"It is an amazing betrayal," Athan Theoharis, a historian at Marquette University who has written books about the F.B.I. told the New York Times. "It really speaks to the degree that the F.B.I. was able to engage individuals within the civil rights movement. This man was so well trusted."

Good thing nothing like that happens anymore, oh yeah, right, and just to make it all bi-partisany.

Some outrages are greater than others

Oh sure, I could post a few more wisecracks about Christine O'Donnell and how she thinks evolution isn't true because we would have developed oven-mitts for hands (speaking of mittens). However, all the good masturbation jokes always get used up in the first ten to fifteen minutes and then I lose interest fast. Besides, the real irony of her victory is it caused Chris Matthews to self-pleasure live on tv (sad really, as "Whack Off Live" is already a show on FoxNews)

Instead, let's have some real legitimate outrage, international edition. Somebody has observed Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck and evolved their outrage for profit model up a notch:

Holocaust denier David Irving will begin leading tours of the former Nazi death camps of Auschwitz and Treblinka next week.

The British historian is also scheduled to lead a group of American and British tourists in the former Warsaw ghetto. His tour brochure promises an experience far removed from the "tourist attractions of Auschwitz". He will charge the tour participants $2,650 each.

For those of you unfamiliar who Irving is, Worst Human on the Planet may be too insignificant a title.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Somewhere, Steve Gilliard is Smiling (Latest in a Series)

So Ed Cox will be the latest New York State GOP chairman to go down in flames. Not only did Cox's man, Rick Lazio, get crushed in last night's primary, but his kid, Chris Cox, got whupped in his House primary out on Long Island. And Baby Cox went down after some dirty tricks that would have made his granddad, Richard Nixon, proud.

Bye, Ed. Bye, Chris.

On a not-entirely-unrelated note: the other day I saw Alex Gibney's "Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer" at the Toronto International Film Festival. Carl Paladino, the guy that will send Ed Cox packing, was advised by none other than Roger Stone, who makes an appearance in the film. So now we have a Stone general to look forward to in New York. Should be an interesting autumn.

The Goatee

Day six or so of my having to grow a goatee in order to cover an ugly (and hopefully temporary) scar.

There's a good reason I've never grown a goatee.

1. I hate them.

2. I look terrible with one, well more terrible.

3. It is coming in grey.

4. I can't stop touching it (it's like Christine O'Donnell's nightmare come to life, if I had a chin penis). Now I understand why reformed smokers so often have them -- and I'm looking at you ladies.

But, the good news is I think it is coming off this weekend. And I'm going to have fun with it. As I shave it, I will look at myself in the following incarnation:

I'll begin with, the drunken, bank robbing, Rip Torn.

Second, obese, pale and balding Jimmy Smits.

Third, the Lenin vandyke.

Fourth, the Terry Jones fu-man chu.

Fifth, the John Oates/Gay Pornstar.

Sixth, the John Waters.

Seventh, of course, the Hitler, or is it now called "the Michael Jordan WTF are you thinking?"


The fact that this whole thing will still look like shit in four days means I'll probably just have to settle for Rip Torn and that will be it.

I'm an agnostic, but nonetheless, begin the rapture now please!

Behold the Free Market!

"Pipedream Products recently introduced the Kinky Kim Filthy Love Doll to their “Super Star Series” which features blow-up dolls of famous Hollywood starlets like Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Beyonce."

For the "Holy Fucking Shit!" files

At FDL's the Seminal, Jim White reveals that CNN interviewed two former disillusioned followers of Terry Jones' German Church. I want to emphasize again, this was a GERMAN church:

MALVEAUX: Hundreds of people in Cologne, Germany, have been watching this story unfold with special interest, because they are members of Jones' former church.

Using CNN's global resources, we found some of them willing to speak about their disillusionment, what ultimately led Jones to leave them. It is a compelling part of the story.

And they shared it with CNN's Phil Black. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For 20 years, Heinz and Elka Koop followed their pastor, Terry Jones. For 19 of those years, they trusted his every word.

HEINZ KOOP, FORMER JONES FOLLOWER: He was a charismatic leader. I think he was -- the preference was very strong for us.

BLACK: Jones' church, the Christian Community of Cologne, became the focus of their lives. Jones insisted on it, borrowing an infamous Nazi motto.

H. KOOP: And we worked the whole week, also Sunday and Saturday.

BLACK (on camera): For the church?

ELKA KOOP, FORMER JONES FOLLOWER: Yes.

H. KOOP: For the church, yes.

E. KOOP: Work made free.

BLACK: Is that what he said?

E. KOOP: Yes.

BLACK: Work makes you free?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

In German, of course, this translates into "Arbeit Macht Frei", if that sounds familiar to you, it should, you can see the phrase on the gates of Auschwitz.

Eat your gruel you lazy bastards!

A people who think $250,000 a family is the average family income. In this unbelievably long and ripped-off Taibbi statement he makes clear that in modern 'murica there is no one, no how, no way, that can ever make even the simplest, inoffensive, and non-time consuming pro-union gesture:

Thus is wasn't exactly a surprise when former "proud union guy" Mike Golic came out slamming the gesture, nor was it a shock when serial hair-care products consumer/ESPN morning host Mike Greenberg insisted that 99% of the calls and emails ESPN got were critical of the players. The sports media establishment bashing player union "greed" isn't exactly a new broadcast meme.

But when I heard loudmouth large-nostriled afternoon host Colin Cowherd go off on unions in general on my way out of Lexington, I nearly had an aneurysm. Cowherd actually came out in support of the NFL players -- although his reasoning there wasn't exactly clear to me -- but he said that in general, he tended to be "anti-union" because unions apparently don't encourage elite performance and creativity, and instead just protect the lazy, the weak, the unremarkable. Then he went into this long rant about how great football players like Drew Brees were remarkable and irreplaceable, as are -- and this isn't a joke -- radio stars like Rush Limbaugh, and appalling American Idol douche-twat Simon Cowell.

Then, to steelworkers and teachers, he said this: "Steelworkers? I love you. But guess what? You can be replaced. You can't replace Rush."

And there's only one Simon Cowell, he said.

Leave aside for a minute the fact that Cowherd's concept of talent and specialness is completely fucked (not only is Simon Cowell not irreplaceable, he should have his head chopped off the next time he opens his mouth on national television) and forget also the obvious provocation of lionizing a fat, racist slob who hasn't worked an honest day in his life like Rush Limbaugh while simultaneously ripping steelworkers and teachers for being lazy. In fact it wouldn't be worth mentioning the views of this half-bright sportscaster at all, except that his underlying point, that the worth of human beings is measured entirely in how much capitalist revenue they generate, is now basically hegemonous in American society -- to the point where even ordinary people who decades ago would have been union workers or at least union supporters believe it implicitly.

Almost everyone who has a job is economically "replaceable," but shit, outside an Ayn Rand novel, there's more to it than that...

That kind of thinking is spreading, because our pop culture priests have succeeded in filling the population with shame and nervous self-loathing to the point where they think of anyone who isn't an employer as a parasite, and anyone who isn't rich and famous, or trying to be, as a loser. People even think of themselves this way, which is why there are so many down-and-out people voting to give tax breaks to the same bankers who've been robbing them for years, and booing when the mere concept of unions shows up for a few seconds in a football game. It's sad, and a lot of it's the fault of mean little assholes like Cowherd. Shame on him.

(via Charles Pierce)

What Would Peggy Noonan Do?

I'm guessing that Christine O'Donnell was so excited about winning last night's primary she promptly went back to her hotel room and got out the Hitachi Magic Wand.












...her neck hurt you perverts!


Although, unfortunately, that photo is crying out for ribald "gifs" as much as any picture in the history of "html" abuse.


(AFP/Getty Images/Mark Wilson)

Well, so much for Roger Aisles then...

How dare Michelle Obama encourage kids to eat right, that's socialism -- but this, this is FREEDOM!

Beck on morbidly obese Americans: "I say let them die"

Hello Ladies

Here's your lesson for today from plainly handsome Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, never ever ever be moderately attractive and be near men, because you are totally asking to be abused and plainly are less than human, because the humans being men, they have no responsibility for their conduct.

Waiting for the video

But Stephen Colbert does a mean Dr. Strangelove.

Ah, now we have it.

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The Free Market will decide "Who Lives, Who Dies"

Yesterday, it was proclaimed that we on the "left", apparently both professional and amateur, oppose Glenn Beck's efforts to make money off of the tragedy of 9/11 because we hate the free market -- at least according to Glenn Beck.

But really, it does appear the Free Market really is about who lives and who dies:

The Iowa egg farm at the center of a massive salmonella outbreak received hundreds of positive results for salmonella in the two years before its eggs sickened more than 1,500 people, congressional investigators said Tuesday.

Oh, no need to regulate that.

And it appears not regulating is going to be the way to go anyway.

For the first time since the 1930s, participation in Republican primaries exceeds participation in Democratic primaries

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

I endorse this whole-fucking-heartedly

The talking heads of the media discuss the lapse of the Bush-tax cuts, a deficit shitbomb if ever there was one, falsely as a tax-hike.

Of course, these same heads are mostly wealthy. Charles Gibson in 2008 blithely declared a family income of $200,000 as not a lot of money and unbelievably common -- to an audience that laughed at him and he didn't have a fucking clue why. Which is true, when you are making $10 million a year, like Charles Gibson.

So I endorse this:

...anyone in the media talking about raising income tax rates on the top two income brackets should have to disclose their possible conflict of interest in the debate. It wouldn't take much, just a simple declaration: "Full disclosure, I fall into the top tax bracket myself, so I would personally be affected by changing this rate."

America's Concern Troll

Shorter Dicky: "I have nothing against Muslims, but they sure are crazy!"

Now THIS is white-washing your history

Haley Barbour is now re-writing the history of the sixties to enable his birther-bullshit today.

As always, what Digby says.

Value all-around

While the United States has a hefty-deficit that will lead to someone, not the wealthy mind you, being punished, Dan Froomkin notes that the source of much of that deficit is going along swimmingly when it comes to money:

The [GAO] report makes a direct link between U.S. government spending -- including $642 billion on U.S. military operations there and $24 billion for training and equipping the Iraqi security forces -- and Iraq's cumulative surplus of $52.1 billion through the end of 2009.

For comparison purposes, Iraq's annual gross domestic product is $65.8 billion. Meanwhile, the U.S. national debt has soared from $6.4 trillion to $13.4 trillion since former president George W. Bush invaded Iraq and decided to borrow the money for wars and slash taxes.

Awesome!

Straight outta a David Lean script

Marty Peretz sort of apologizes for saying Muslims in America don't deserve American Rights, but stands by his other slanders:

"Frankly, Muslim life is cheap, especially for Muslims." This is a statement of fact, not value.

Marty, thanks to you we've spent about $2,000,000,000,000 to kill at least 100,000 Muslims and that is still $20 million a Muslim. So I guess it isn't too expensive for a non-Muslim like you is it?

What this guy says

A few years ago, Res Ipsa, was kind enough to send me Lawrence Wright's 'The Looming Tower'. The subject matter was the rise of Islamic Extremism, it's origins, and focused on the period from the end of the Second World War (and the discovery of oil deposits on a huge scale), exploitation, wealth, and counter-reaction to both as it eventually came to rest in Bin Laden and Zawahiri. It is, without a doubt, the best book I've ever read on how we came to the place we were on 9/11/01. If you haven't read it, you simply must do so, but don't just rely on me, Josh Marshall has come to agree.

What Lawrence Wright says about the effect of domestic and international politics on groups like Al Qaeda is authoritative and should be listened to:

The best ally in the struggle against violent Islamism is moderate Islam. The unfounded attacks on the backers of Park51 and others, along with such sideshows as a pastor calling for the burning of Korans, give substance to the Al Qaeda argument that the U.S. is waging a war against Islam, rather than against the terrorists’ misshapen effigy of that religion. Those stirring the pot in this debate are casting a spell that is far more dangerous than they may imagine.

Yet more bigotry of the huddled asses

Funny how the not-Mosque not-at-Ground Zero has completely covered up the fact that until the 9/11 attacks there actually was a not-Mosque AT Ground Zero.

Sometime in 1999, a construction electrician received a new work assignment from his union. The man, Sinclair Hejazi Abdus-Salaam, was told to report to 2 World Trade Center, the southern of the twin towers...

Over the next few days, noticing some fellow Muslims on the job, Mr. Abdus-Salaam voiced an equally essential question: “So where do you pray at?” And so he learned about the Muslim prayer room on the 17th floor of the south tower.

He went there regularly in the months to come, first doing the ablution known as wudu in a washroom fitted for cleansing hands, face and feet, and then facing toward Mecca to intone the salat prayer.

On any given day, Mr. Abdus-Salaam’s companions in the prayer room might include financial analysts, carpenters, receptionists, secretaries and ironworkers. There were American natives, immigrants who had earned citizenship, visitors conducting international business — the whole Muslim spectrum of nationality and race.

And in further items never to be googled by Gretchen Carlson:

Moreover, the prayer room was not the only example of Muslim religious practice in or near the trade center. About three dozen Muslim staff members of Windows on the World, the restaurant atop the north tower, used a stairwell between the 106th and 107th floors for their daily prayers.

How many of those staff members died on 9/11 only to have the likes of Pam Geller piss on their memories?

Ah, middle age

I don't like having a beard, I've shaved religiously since my early 20s. But somehow late last week I had some sort of middle-aged acne disaster around my nose that has turned into an ugly scab just under my nose. Sort of a mini-Hitler-stache. So I am presently growing a goatee under duress.

And naturally it looks kind of bad and is coming in grey.

Can't wait till I can shave again.

What he said

Nick Kristof this weekend:

Now that Mr. Bush is no longer in the White House, nativists are back on the warpath. Some opponents of President Obama are circulating bald-faced lies about him that are also scurrilous attacks on Islam itself. One e-mail bouncing around falsely accuses Mr. Obama of lying and adds, “His Muslim faith says it’s okay to lie.”

Or there’s the e-mail I received the other day from a relative, declaring: “President Obama has directed the United States Postal Service to remember and honor the Eid Muslim holiday season with a new commemorative 44 cent first class holiday postage stamp.” In fact, it was President Bush’s administration that first issued the Eid stamp in 2001 and that issued new versions after that.

Astonishingly, a Newsweek poll finds that 52 percent of Republicans believe that it is “definitely true” or “probably true” that “Barack Obama sympathizes with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists who want to impose Islamic law around the world.” So a majority of Republicans think that our president wants to impose Islamic law worldwide.

That kind of extremism undermines our democracy, risks violence and empowers jihadis.

Yep.