MATLOCK!!!

Broder almost writes a decent column today decrying the douchebaggers scream-therapy sessions as destructive.

But sadly, ol' Grandad just cannot gumption up the regularity or the balls to call them or the Republican Party what they are, a bunch of shrill liars and enablers hijacking the health care debate.

Because that would ruin Broder's fantasy world of bipartisanship.

In the worlds of Homer Simpson, "Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try."

Modern Journamalism:

Robert Gibbs stated yesterday what we dirty effing hippies of the the internets have been saying for years, "the media bore some of the blame [regarding health care reform falsehoods] for doing too many “X said this, Y said this” stories, without rooting out, and pointing out, unambiguous falsehoods."

This response to his criticism was telling:

Jessica Yellin, CNN’s national political correspondent, commenting on Senator Cardin’s town meeting in Hagerstown, Md., pointed out what news people already know: when journalists cite outright misstatements by public officials, the American people “don’t seem to trust us.”

Ah, modern journalism now going by the mantra, "why even try?".

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles:

For the second day in a row, thousands of people lined up on Wednesday — starting after midnight and snaking into the early hours — for free dental, medical and vision services, courtesy of a nonprofit group that more typically provides mobile health care for the rural poor.

Cue Lee Greenwood.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Shorter Rush Limbaugh

"They all look-alike"

Clown Halls

If I were a member of Congress on August recess I wouldn't waste my time on this "Town Hall" nonsense. Who started the modern day version of town halls, anyway? I know they're part of our long and glorious history, but they don't work in an era of lunatics who think the government is going to ration their toilet paper after murdering their grandma at the behest of a "Death Panel comprised of Bill Ayers, the Reverend Wright, and the Black Panthers.

So if I was a member of congress, here's what I'd do. There are twenty-one working days in August. I'd set aside six hours of every working day for thirty minute meetings with groups of no more than five people. They'd have to register in advance, but the only requirement for attending would be that they live in the district. The meetings would be held in a conference room at the representative or senator's local office, they could start late in the day and go into the evening, so that people who work could get to them. Some would be held on Saturdays.

That's sixty constituents a day for twenty-one days, i.e., they have productive meetings with 1,260 grownup constituents instead of pointless free-for-alls with mouthbreathing Malkinite wingnuts.

You can bet that these wingnuts would not pull this shit in a room of five people. They need their demented pals alongside them in large numbers to behave this badly.

It's only August 12th, congress. There's still time to try this. And you don't even have to thank me for the idea.

"Liberal" MSNBC

The morning line up on Joseph & the Amazing Besweatered Enabler is:

Pat Buchanan, Dan Senor, and Mike Barnicle.


So discussing the events of the day are:

1. Beady-eyed Conservative pinhead;
2. His Tut-tutting, head bobbing, co-dependent who's role is to "softly moan" in agreement to Beady-eyed pinhead.
3. Nativist, racist, pre-Vatican II Catholic asswipe;
4. Spokesmodel for the bombing and occupation of brown people;
5. And noted long-time columnist fired for outstanding lying too extreme even for a columnist.

When Willie Giest is the most likable person on a show, you know you're on the most dispicable set this side of Doocy-land.

Shorter Lou Dobbs

I resent being labeled a racist and having people engage in name calling and hyperbole while they tell me to be quiet. Now all you commies and pinkos shut the fuck up, while I talk about that Kenyan's plan to kill us.

Hey, the curtain came unveiled for a moment

Why did FoxNews cut away from Obama's townhall yesterday?

"Any contentious questions, anybody yelling, we will bring it to you here."

Not enough morons yelling bullshit FoxNews inspired lying points.

That's FAIR & BALANCED!

Meteor Swarm

Hope you folks got to see some. Took the dog out about 3 in the morning and saw about a half-dozen in ten minutes, three of them leaving streaks through half the sky west-to-east. Sort of like Joe-the-Plumber as metaphor only "awe-inspiring" instead of "really pathetic".

I was impressed, the dog, as always, was far too preoccupied to care.

The Wankery of Solomon

[cross posted at Firedoglake]

It was pretty well established that John Solomon was a right-wing tool before the Washington Post hired him in December 2006. A "Ron Fournier" for when Ron Fournier's dance card is full. From the Clintons, to John Edwards' house, to Harry Reid and schmoozing it has been a rare Democrat for whom John Solomon has not ignored fact to serve alternative reality. Meanwhile, no Republican has been too small for favorably editing reality. Surely, he was the perfect choice to become Executive Editor of the Moonie Times in January 2008.

And the latest release of emails -- more than two years after the fact -- about the firing of Federal Prosecutors reveals him at his most Right-Wing Enabling:



In other words, now that I've told you the excuses I'll give you -- you should really let me in to flesh out the enabling. And lo, Solomon did make it so.

I bet Fred Hiatt still tears up like Glenn Beck (only sincerely) when he thinks how he lost such a valuable commodity.

Why You Should Buy Insurance from Geico & Clothes from Men's Wearhouse

Because they both dumped Glenn Beck's ass today.

See here re Geico.

And here re Men's Wearhouse.

Gun-Toting TeaBagger from Today's Town Hall

Watch Matthews take this loser downtown.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

"Anyone Better?"

Oh, this is funny.

Seems Little Starbursts Lowry wanted in on the U.S. Attorney Scandal.

Update: Looks like the WaPo did its part, too. h/t Sukabi, from comments.

Alessandra Stanley's Eunice Kennedy Obit

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, long-time matriarch of the Kennedy Dynasty is dead at 97. She along with her family have been long-standing Republicans of influence. Her brothers Dwight, Ronald and Dick all rose to prominence. Two of them dying young, of heart disease. She is survived by Dick Kennedy Cheney, who was found at her bedside with a pillow and several spoons in his pocket.

Ms. Shriver was a decorated veteran, having served in World War II as a light cruiser including taking part in the Battle of Midway. She was then decommissioned and discharged as a Lt. Sea Bass.

Ms. Shriver was for years the celebrity spokesperson for the Shriners Hospital and NutraSystem and was also known for aiding Native Americans in their quest for legalized gambling establishments. Ms. Shriver was also an active outdoorsman, winning several lumberjack competitions and was voracious reader of H.P. Lovecraft. She is survived by several Thai children, among whom is Pam Shriver, an American competitive eater who is married to the Governor of Oregon, Larry Storch.

"No he isn't, he's a very naughty boy."

I do believe we've found the GOP's VP Candidate for 2012.

A man [on EBay] is selling a 1990 E-Class Mercedes, complete with CD player and sun roof, for $100,000 or more. He’s hoping that the fact that the car is owned by Christ’s grandson will push the price up

And, of course, it's a Mercedes Benz which I'm sure would be the car of choice of any person of Jewish descent (even more than a Ford).

RIP Eunice Kennedy Shriver

Lived a long, very productive life. The nation's disabled never had a greater friend.

And the nation's wantonly ignorant will never know it.

If Sarah Palin had one ounce of integrity she'd realize what an advocate for the disabled actually does...HELPS THE DISABLED rather than exploits them.

Good thing the Bush Administration didn't give a shit huh?

Oh, that National Security pales in importance to the power of Jesus:

The changing global climate will pose profound strategic challenges to the United States in coming decades, raising the prospect of military intervention to deal with the effects of violent storms, drought, mass migration and pandemics, military and intelligence analysts say.

Such climate-induced crises could topple governments, feed terrorist movements or destabilize entire regions, say the analysts, experts at the Pentagon and intelligence agencies who for the first time are taking a serious look at the national security implications of climate change.

But, but, I thought for every brown person bombed, a tree was planted at Dick Cheney's chickenhawk ranch? Y'know something to shoot at that won't shoot back?

The market place

Apparently, Sarah Palin's political career did not make it past her "Death Panel".

At least they're consistent

Consistently stupid.

In North Carolina at least the exact same percentage of Republicans believe that Obama was born in the United States as believe in the scientific fact of tectonic plates.

24 percent say "Yes"
47 percent say "No"
29 percent say "What?"

Truly, this is a party that deserves the media declaring them the victor in the message wars ("Is the world round? Opinions differ.")

Once again, they may not know much, but they're very good at yelling about it.

Seattle, Vancouver, Banff, West Glacier: Vegetarian Restaurants

You think I ignored your suggestions for hotels and motels near Glacier National Park, don't you? Well, I didn't. I actually booked a couple of those. So thank you!

Now ... I'm asking for your suggestions for vegetarian restaurants in Seattle, Vancouver, Banff, and near Glacier National Park. Don't need to be vegan, or haute cuisine. Just vegetarian, and the places you love.

Please put 'em in comments.

More About "Kansas"

Following up on this...

There was one point during the panel when either K-Lo or Suellentrop said, in reference to the people in the documentary, "They feel beleaguered! They feel economically beleaguered."

I actually believe that the are probably a lot of economically beleaguered Kansans, but I only saw one in this film. That would be the Kansas Farmers Union guy you'll see at 2:50 in the trailer below. He was finding it tougher and tougher to make a decent living on a mid-sized farm and he went up to Capitol Hill to try to get his government to address that.

Other than that, I saw a husband and wife who had $300,000 to invest in a wild west theme park and a family fantasizing about professors being "antagonistic to Christians" from the comfort of a McMansion of which Carmella Soprano would have approved.

Again, I'm not saying there are no Kansans in economic difficulty. I am saying, however, that K-Lo and Suellentrop surely don't know any of them.

And now ladies and gentlemen, Sarah Palin, the Queen of Moranville has her King

The stooge who Orly Taitz'd an injury in St. Louis at a Townhall and then showed up on FoxNews the next day in a wheelchair (this guy really needs Cosmo Kramer's lawyer) not only faked his injury but was outraged over the possibility of health care reform...

Gladney told reporters he was recently laid off and has no health insurance

You sir, have achieved the impossible, you have "stupided" your way onto Joe the Plumber's porcelain throne.

Cue Lee Greenwood.

This about sums it up

Matt Wuerker at Politico.

More here.

Ugh!

Look, I don't expect Ross Douthat to do quality movie reviews (or opinion pieces for that matter).

For one, if a movie stars Reese Witherspoon, I'm not sure Ross can type one-handed.

Second, I'm not sure Ross could watch "G-Force" and type one-handed.

But what the hell, Ross reviews a Judd Apatow movie? Look, just because Adam Sandler didn't get an Oscar nomination for "Don't Mess with the Zohan" like you were hoping for Skippy, doesn't mean you are a culture critic and can waste 500 words talking about him.

Well, from what we know of him

Levi Johnson, like the objects of his affection, went through high school quite familiar with the "D-List".



This is known as "acquiring material" the hard way.

The crazy funnel

To no one's surprise, the less popular and more fringe the GOP gets the more its followers funnel to the home of Crazy and concentrate on the one fictional channel that gives them "mental pudding" they can guzzle and feel better about themselves:



When Steve Doocy is the supplement to morning regularity (dementedmucil) your life is officially a lie.

Death Panel 3000

I was wondering about a allusion Atrios made in a post about Krauthammer:

I remember Chucky Krauthammer's great 'moral' policy prescription from the Schiavo case which was that as long as someone somewhere is willing to pay to keep you alive, then the feeding tube should stay in. Otherwise, well, Texas futile care law death panel for you!

And, by golly, here it is:

There is no good outcome to this case. Except perhaps if Florida and the other states were to amend their laws and resolve conflicts among loved ones differently -- by granting authority not necessarily to the spouse but to whatever first-degree relative (even if in the minority) chooses life and is committed to support it. Call it Terri's law.

What utter bullshit. And now the "Death Panel" meme gets tossed out by America's (or just Alaska's if Todd has his way) dumbest politician -- who doesn't get called out by other Republicans because they're too terrified of offending her moronic followers because they are capable of five things: eating, shitting, breathing, fucking, and showing up on Caucus/Primary day.

But then again, Chuckles Krauthammer's biggest joy in life would be to sit on a 'Death Panel' and pass terminal judgment on Iran.

Fetish driven assholes

It never fails to amaze me how when it comes to invading another country, killing lots of people -- preferably non-white ones -- and spending untolds billions or even trillions the villagers have NO FUCKING PROBLEM WHATSOEVER. Hell, put it off-budget and pretend we're not spending it. That'll be so cool, and it can all be summarized beautifully by a car magnet.

It's an investment in -- showing how big one's dick is, and as we're talking Fred Hiatt, this is all metaphorical.

But god forbid we spend money on our own people, then it just has to be budget neutral or better.

So apparently, the equation is --

FOREIGN POLICY - PUNISH THE WORLD

DOMESTIC POLICY - PUNISH THE CITIZENRY

Mustache of Peace

After 102 122 FUs I believe there will be peace in Palestine within 6 months. And when have I ever made a mistake?

You modern conservative

And your modern media.

Stupid frauds fooling gullible reporters who after being punked for 30 years, you think would try to verify shit from obvious evidence.

I Don't Think We're in Kansas Anymore

Attaturk suggested that I write up a snarky report about a panel I attended with watertiger on Thursday night. Honestly, I was too depressed by the whole affair to write anything at the time, let alone anything snarky. But some time has elapsed – plus, I can’t sleep – so here goes.

On Thursday, there was a screening of the documentary film adaptation of What’s the Matter With Kansas? at one of the high temples of Liberal Elitism: the Walter Reed Theater at Lincoln Center in New York. A panel consisting of Joe Conason, K-Lo, Chris “Opinionator” Suellentrop, and Ryan Sager, who wrote for the mercifully now-defunct New York Sun, and moderated by sociologist Frances Fox Piven followed the screening.

I didn’t think much of the film. First of all, it’s about four years too late. Second, subsequent analysis of the premise of What’s the Matter with Kansas? has shown that Frank’s thesis, had it been taken to that next, data-driven level, would have been slightly more complicated. Finally, the filmmakers' decision not to employ any voice-over narration or probe the subjects of the film on any of their statements left me not knowing much more about the subjects than I knew going in, e.g., that the Kansan Republicans think abortion --- specifically denying abortions – is the only thing that matters.

After the screening there was a little Q&A and then a reception and I learned a few things. First, that Conason is handsome! Second, that K-Lo is the dim-bulb I’d always suspected she was, and a smug and socially crippled one at that. Third, that Suellentrop is an insufferable twit who trades exclusively in wingnut tropes. And finally, that Ryan Sager may be one of the more honest conservative pundits roaming this particular planet. (He actually copped to the fact in covering people like the Kansans portrayed in the film, he's learned that other than abortion, gay marriage, and creationism, they don’t have a thought in their heads.)

So K-Lo … First of all, she took some fire from the audience when she praised the filmmakers for not “exploiting” the fact that Dr. George Tiller, footage of whom appeared in the movie, had subsequently “died”. People began to shout, “He was assassinated!” "He was murdered!" "He didn’t just ‘die’!” So ding-dong K-Lo had to rephrase, which she did in a most phonily obsequious fashion. After the screening, I wanted to talk to her (I have no problem approaching minor pundits at these sorts of events), but she was being monopolized by some demented, middle-aged fangirl. She didn’t mingle with the other attendees at the little meet-and-greet, opting instead to remain in the hall with her acolyte. What really stood about K-Lo was that she talks really fast, so fast that she sounds like she’s perpetually gasping for air – and that when she does get something out, she doesn’t say much of anything at all. It's all wilted word salad from someone who, I suspect, got told somewhere along the line that she had the makings of some sort of intellectual, but who knows at her core that it's really not true. The gasping and speed-talking are the little tells on that score. I almost felt sorry for her until the end of the panel when she said, "When conservatives ask me if we got anything out of George Bush I say, 'John Roberts and Sam Alito'". Then she waited for applause. It's hard to convey the degree of smugness with which she made this statement. Anyway, Sonia Sotomoyor is now a justice, so blow me, K-Lo.¹ If you liked Sotomayor, you’ll love our next two nominees. But I digress …

But more interesting – and depressing – than either the film or K-Lo was the panel and, especially, the audience. Please bear in mind that the latter was comprised of hardcore liberals – the Upper West Siders at whom Joe Scarborough sneers on a daily basis, even as he lives among them. They’ve won two elections straight: “thumpin’” the opposition in 2006, and pretty much shellacking it in 2008. But here we are in August 2009, and the questions to the panel were a series of circa 2004 clichés. There was the old, “How do we reach out to these people?” thing. The tired, “Why do they hate us?” bullshit. And in response, the tried and true, “You liberals sneer at them” lie. "I heard the audience laughing!" hissed Suellentrop. (True: I laughed at the "scientist" at the Creation Museum and when wingnut panty-sniffing attorney general Phill Kline was defeated.) Conason made the only interesting point when he asked, “When do we get to see the documentary about the lives of liberals? I haven’t seen that one.” It felt as if it were the day after the 2004 election, when everyone in New York wanted to commit mass ritual suicide.

What the hell is with this idiotic and anachronistic assumption – still alive after all these years – that “we need to ‘reach out' to these people” and the bewilderment at why they hate us? Do you think that anywhere on this planet there are Republicans sitting around trying to figure out how to “reach out” to single, professional women in urban centers? Or married male academics in university towns? Or tech-heads in Palo Alto or Austin? Yet here are these liberals, still fretting over “reaching out” to people who couldn’t give a rat’s fat ass about them. They actually sounded fearful about it. I suppose some of it was due to thoughts of the Republican brownshirts showing up to intimidate Democratic congresspeople at all these town halls, but you'd think a smart bunch of people like this would not be as shell-shocked because they understood who, exactly, these creeps are.² I said to watertiger, “They all seem like they have Stockholm Syndrome. When will they realize that they are the winners?” I wanted to yell, “Listen, don’t bother! They don’t like you and they never will. More importantly, the demographics are against them and you don’t need them to win.” I found the whole thing pretty sad and demoralizing.

Later I wondered if this was part-and-parcel with the near-constant whining and hand-wringing I hear from lefties with regard to Obama. A lot of my leftie friends, especially the ones I met in Blog-o-Land, feel really let down and are always shaking their heads at me and wondering why I am not equally enraged/disappointed/disillusioned with Obama. I’ll tell you why: because during the campaign I did not project my shit all over the guy like he was some human 70mm movie screen.

Sometime in 2008, I heard Professor Dan Ariely on either Brian Lehrer or Leonard Lopate and he made a lot of sense. He talked about how Obama’s campaign was like an online dating ad in that it traded in generalities that, coupled with the fact that the vast majority of people didn’t know a lot about Obama at the time, allowed them to project all sorts of stuff onto Obama. Having done my share of online dating, I am familiar with this phenomenon. You’d see a profile that really spoke to you, although, when you thought about it, didn’t say much at all (e.g., “I love Charlie Chaplin movies. I’ve seen every Hold Steady gig ever. I hate George Bush. The hipster must die!”). Then you’d exchange a couple of emails and make a date. In the interim, you’d basically make up no end of nonsense about this poor person, probably in an effort to stay positive and manage your anxiety (e.g., “For Christmas, I’ll get him movie posters for ‘City Lights’ in fourteen different foreign languages! He and my brother will bond over table saws and lathes! We love all the same things, including tomatillos, flat-front kahkis, and the word 'solipsistic.'”), setting up all manner of unrealistic expectations. Then, when you met them, more often than not it all went, “Splat!” Once you were able to start filling in the blanks you didn’t like the person as much, or, at a bare minimum, you realized that crafting a relationship with them was going to be a lot more complicated. Same deal with Obama. During the campaign, we saw a charming, handsome intelligent guy with a pretty wife and daughters, who seemed genuinely compassionate and who had terrific public speaking skills, which he used to connect with crowds both enormous and intimate. (I know because I met the guy at a small event and was instantly bowled over.³.) If you knew anything about his relatively short political career, there was no way not to know that he was a slightly left-leaning centrist who was very into reaching consensus on virtually every issue. But if you didn’t know a lot, you could let your fantasies run wild (e.g., “He’ll bring everyone together over burgers and fries (with vegetarian options, of course) on the Fourth of July, where he'll overturn every decision Bush ever made, repeal horrible laws by fiat, pay close personal attention to every baby, puppy, and old lady present, while simultaneously singlehandedly staging the a fireworks exhibition that will shame the Gruccis!”) It was a lot harder to do this with to Hillary Clinton, because she had a much longer public history and, thanks to Wingnuttia, had been a near-constant obsession of its accomplices, our freakazoid press.

Anyway, I realize I’m all over the place here, and I apologize for this being so long and winding, but I think that the past six months have been like the months after that first date and that people are still getting a handle on who this guy is and that they're not always comfortable. They seem to still like the surface, but the surface is not what you have to wake up next to every morning for the rest of your life. That’s why I think those audience members sounded so bummed out. It’s like the day after the first date when you realize that one of two things is going to happen: you’ll keep dating, but that the relationship is going to require work – or that your search is not over – and that at some point (in four years?), you will have to go back out there and date again.

Okay, Attaturk. There's your post. I know it wasn't snarky, but may I please have that Perkins "French Silk" now, anyway?

Update: I forgot to mention that I have a friend -- a respected academic who's been spot-on about this election from the early days of the primaries -- who insists that Obama is the "transitional"-- not the "transformational" -- guy. So for all of you out there who are still disappointed, maybe there's something to cheer you.

¹By the way, now that it's a done deal, can we please remember that Sotomayor was the judge that the Republicans tried to warn Obama off even before there was a Supreme Court vacancy? They were issuing threats about how they'd shut down any nomination of Sotomayor and Obama had better not nominate her or there would be trouble, and blah blah blah. So what does Obama do? Give them the metaphorical finger and pick Sotomayor. And now, provided John Roberts didn't fuck up that oath, too, she's Justice Sotomayor. For Life. So there!
²They are the same people who let loose like this at McCain/Palin rallies.
³Okay, so I shook his hand, smiled, looked him in the eyes and said, "Best of luck, Senator." And yeah, he spoke to me. That constitutes "met" in my book. Ask CoT. He was there, too.

Not just a lie, but a malicious and evil one -- Truly a Monster

Yes, evil. Following up on Res Ipsa's link to the paralyzingly stupid and mean-spirited lie of Sarah Palin, Publius sums it up perfectly:

It's goes without saying that this statement is an outright demonstrable lie. And it's coming from a former candidate for Vice President of the United States.

But that said, Palin is sort of right on one point -- there are people who weigh whether children like Trig are worthy of insurance. They're called insurance companies, and they have decided that these children are not in fact worthy of coverage. That's because Down Syndrome is a "pre-existing condition."

Palin is literally using her down's syndrome child as a prop ONCE AGAIN to malevolently assert the OPPOSITE of reality. Expanding health care coverage, as the legislation will do, will cover more children with disabilities that insurance companies currently refuse to insure.

No politician who would lie so vanely, stupidly, and yes evilly is worthy of holding an office, especially when she uses a falsehood about her own child -- when kids in exactly the same position will actually be demonstrably and greatly helped by the legislation she is lying about.

Ugh, the South

Not all the South, just the ones that seem to be returned to power over and over and over (btw, enjoy that fine empty mansion there Mark Sanford).

Sally Jenkins, who has written a book on the State of Jones during the Civil War (which I intend to read) writes a reply to the criticisms of the South dominated GOP from George Voinovich today. It's well intentioned but at its heart it talks about "exceptional" southern politicians and other pablum.

Well, here is one of the things that make them exceptional...they are the "exception" to the rule.

And now let's go to the more recent videotape. Via Think Progress here is Max Pappas, Vice Asshole of Freedom Works (the astroturfers & thug organizers protesting health care reform) after taking a call from a truly concerned Republican about what he is seeing and essentially blowing him off, they take a call on C-Span from a caller (in Indiana, a state which in its southern regions might as well be the South -- the Klan dominated the state in the 20s) who said they belonged to the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) — a group that claims the U.S. is a European country and was founded by a “longtime white-power activist”. The "CCC" are the direct descendants of the "White Citizens Council" from the 50s and 60s.

They are full-out racists -- and they make NO EFFORT to hide it. It is well-known. And here's Max Pappas DELIGHTED to invite them to join Freedom Works. Awesome.

Let me repeat an old post:

Is there any group that has been more responsible for holding back progress, who has ever been more consistently wrong about everything the last sixty years than Southern Conservatives?

Hell, the whole history of the Republic has seen this bunch of southern-fried right-wing fucks consistently wrong and consistently holding the rest of the nation back. Being defeated, and then starting ALL OVER AGAIN with being fucking wrong about something else. WRONG. ABOUT. EVERY. FUCKING. THING. From holding back the economic development of the early nation, to slavery, to the Civil War, to Jim Crow, to Segregation, to the minimum wage, to maximum hours, to workplace safety, to workers compensation, to food safety, to child labor, to isolationism, to the FDIC, to Social Security, to Red Baiting, to anti-intellectualism, to workplace discrimination, to State's Rights, to the Voting Rights Act, to religious fundementalism, to loving guns more than life itself, to anti-Catholicism, to anti-Semitism, to the War on Terror, to birth control, to not taxing while spending, to homophobia, to making the rubble bounce on brown people, to supporting torture, to police abuse, to outlawing the precious and blessed blowjob between consenting adults, generation after generation, they've been the assholes of the nation.

Russian Roulette

P.S. DougJ is spot-on. Peggy Noonan's little screed is a threat dressed up in concern. Note to Peggy and Ross I-Never-Give-Them-My-Essence Douthat: if one of these brownshits goes off with a gun, we will blame you.

Monster

Just when you think she couldn't sink any lower, she descends deep into the slime once again.

Nation of Morons

Or as Olea europaea and Sagittae would call it "my base" have really done a fine job on the topic of science education:



They don't know much, but they're more than willing to tell you.

This is embarrassing all around, but jeebus, the numbers for the South and the GOP are just pathetic. One can only imagine how painful the numbers would be for heliocentrism, evolution, and the big bang.

There is not one thing in this poll to be proud of, but the GOP and the South in particular should hang their heads in shame. But they won't they'll ignore this shit and blather on.

Yet, they are absolutely sure that they can say that Obama was born in Kenya and wants to kill you or your Grandmother.

Green shoots!!!

Payroll report only really really shitty instead of OH MY GAWD WE'RE DOOMED!

USA! USA! USA!

USA! USA! USA! (via Australia)

Self-confessed alcoholic dreams of drinking wine with Nancy Pelosi and murdering her.

And not only does he get to still be on television again tomorrow, he'll get paid really well to boot?

Sorry that John Hughes died

I always liked the mindless goofiness of Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

But he wasn't exactly David Lean or Sydney Pollack y'know and I always thought Pete Townshend handled teenage angst better.

Dance, TOADIE, Dance!

Couldn't happen to a lamer weasel:

ABC's "This Week" beat NBC's "Meet the Press" in a clean ratings fight for the first time in a decade, Nielsen Media Research said on Thursday.

It was June 1999 when ABC's show last beat NBC's program in a contest without substitute hosts, sports pre-emptions or presidential visits.

It's an ominous sign for David Gregory, who was called upon to take over NBC's long dominant Sunday morning show following Tim Russert's death from a heart attack last year. While it's only one Sunday in August, "This Week" has been steadily gaining ground since the beginning of the year.

Of course, Gregory's guest was human charisma vacuum Larry Summers. However, Summers was facing two people with even less charisma Tim Geithner and Alan Greenspan.

(via AmericaBlog)

Moran vs. Moraner

It's getting extra crazy out there:

Andy Martin, a noted serial litigator and Jew-basher who has been hawking Obama conspiracy theories since 2004 -- and the apparent godfather of Birtherism -- is now calling on the movement to disown this "nutcase" [Orly] Taitz.

I sure hope the other crazy Andy, Andy McCarthy, can come to Orly's defense.

Have you actually ever read the Washington Post?

Jack Shafer in Slate, where being contrary is a way of life, like Mickey Kaus getting a hoof-job, writes:

When Washington Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli canceled the Post's Web video feature "Mouthpiece Theater" on Wednesday, his goal was simple: mollify those who were outraged by the July 31 episode that suggested that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton be served a bottle of Mad Bitch beer.

But Brauchli's surrender to the offended telegraphs this message his reporters and editors: We support edgy journalism completely—until we don't, and at that point we'll ship you to the tailor and have you fitted with gags.

Edgy?

You thought "Mouthpiece Theatre" was edgy?

Yeah, and Benny Hill was the height of British Comedy.

The Other

Now that a Democrat is in the White House,
the Right can call Obama "Hitler"
as much as they want
without Howard Kurtz's castigation.
Suck on that, single Move-On contest entrant.

There are huge flaws in the health care plan (d)evolving through Congress, for example insurance companies and drug manufacturers will be more profitable than ever, even with a public option. But it will be "marginally" better than what we have now (is this the part where we mumble USA, USA?). Nevertheless, the right wing has convinced many a 50 plus year old white person to take to the streets something they managed never to do about, oh, an illegal war and its wasted trillions. Their ironic mantra "Government should stay out of our medicare".

We live in a culture where one side is led by rational accommodationists who want to get along and the other, smaller side, led by a delusional, angry, id who want the majority to surrender. Millions of people "hoped", if nothing else, the tenor of politics would be improved only to find that racist, bigoted messages and implications to violence are more prevalent and more tolerated: Steve Pearlstein of the Washington Post:

Health reform is a test of whether this country can function once again as a civil society -- whether we can trust ourselves to embrace the big, important changes that require everyone to give up something in order to make everyone better off. Republican leaders are eager to see us fail that test. We need to show them that no matter how many lies they tell or how many scare tactics they concoct, Americans will come together and get this done.

If health reform is to be anyone's Waterloo, let it be theirs.

Oh, if only.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

(pic from here)

AWESOME!!!

This is Rick Scott, well-known and well-fined medicaid abuser and the voice of the industry getting teabaggers out to shout down and intimidate people at town halls on health care refore.

Mr. Scott is, to put it mildly, a scumbag. Rick Sanchez gave him a well-deserved beat down and IT IS GLORIOUS!!!!

Scott has been on all the networks lately, Sanchez was the first person to confront him and his scumbaggery on this.

Malkinesque Deep Thought

I wonder if all owners of the dealerships benefitting from the socialist "Cash for Clunkers" program donated to Obama?

BTW, good Tim Egan opinion on why Republicans hate "Cash for Clunkers" so very much. Hint: class war.

What the teabaggers and screamers are protecting

Because these guys make money by collecting your premiums...and then denying your claims:



Steve Hemsley is sorry about your child's malignant brain tumor, but I'm afraid he'll have to deny that experimental treatment.

He'll try to comfort himself by buying a valuable piece of artwork and watching the 102" plasma he has in his 4th den.

Good luck to ya' though, and thanks for the premiums.

As painful as it is to say

Ronald Reagan was a hell of a lot smarter than the movement he spawned, and this sums it up exactly:

Bill Clinton went to North Korea and got two Americans freed from its prisons by issuing an apology on their behalf. This reminds us of Jesse Jackon's independent mission to Damascus in 1983, by means of which he got Navy Lieutenant Robert O. Goodman back from the Syrians. President Ronald Reagan, who had not approved of the mission, nonetheless had the brains to say of it afterwards, "You can't quarrel with success."

Our current rightbloggers, on the other hand, seem to think Reagan was a pussy.

Going to war because he was fucking insane.

How fucking Taliban like, and how freaking frightening -- no doubt to be ignored by our lovely media:

Incredibly, President George W. Bush told French President Jacques Chirac in early 2003 that Iraq must be invaded to thwart Gog and Magog, the Bible’s satanic agents of the Apocalypse.

Honest. This isn’t a joke. The president of the United States, in a top-secret phone call to a major European ally, asked for French troops to join American soldiers in attacking Iraq as a mission from God.

Now out of office, Chirac recounts that the American leader appealed to their “common faith” (Christianity) and told him: “Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East…. The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled…. This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins.”

This bizarre episode occurred while the White House was assembling its “coalition of the willing” to unleash the Iraq invasion. Chirac says he was boggled by Bush’s call and “wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs.”

This insane argument, naturally was rejected. Which is why right-wing idiots are still calling the French "cheese eating surrender monkeys" today. Because, apparently, they were unmoved by shitty arguments made by crazy people.

...ex-President Chirac confirmed the nutty event in a long interview with French journalist Jean-Claude Maurice, who tells the tale in his new book, Si Vous le Répétez, Je Démentirai (If You Repeat it, I Will Deny), released in March by the publisher Plon.

Oddly, mainstream media are ignoring this alarming revelation that Bush may have been half-cracked when he started his Iraq war. My own paper, The Charleston Gazette in West Virginia, is the only U.S. newspaper to report it so far. Canada’s Toronto Star recounted the story, calling it a “stranger-than-fiction disclosure … which suggests that apocalyptic fervor may have held sway within the walls of the White House.”

Your press corps, of course, were first class enablers of this whole asinine business.

MATLOCK!!!

Is it possible, for me, David Broder, to write another meaningless mash note to the awesome power of bipartisanship?

C'mon, I'm David Broder, of course it is.

We'll see how long this last

Fresh off being told directly "you are not funny", Dana Milbank writes a more than half-way decent column about a person with an actual life-experienced basis for health care reform. It actually contains no effort at smarm.

A real rarity.

Things you can never say in "The Village"

Is cleary, "You know, that's a good point, maybe I'm wrong?"

And it isn't just people trying to rationalize why the hell they were all for invading Iraq six and a half years ago. It applies to just about every villager when they get called for tossing out some right-wing tripe.

Lou Dobbs won't just say, "On reflection this birther stuff is ridiculous nonsense, I should just go back to what I'm good at, disgustingly and mindlessly bashing Mexicans. " No, he just digs himself in deeper.

And so it is with The Village and it's attitudes toward the teapartiers and ending civil discourse by screaming over it, an Orange Pekoe Putsch. After all, as Marc Ambinder reflexively said, "it's just like the liberals when Bush tried to reform social security".

Well, no. When Josh Marshall reminded Ambinder that the protest over social security "reform" did not involve actually screaming at meetings to ruin them, threatening representatives with physical violence including assassination, and generalized douchebaggery, the response was telling:

Democrats may have used different tactics -- protesting outside of places as opposed to inside of them -- but that's not terribly germane.

Well, aside from that being the entire point of what Marshall just said, and that it completely contradicts your original argument, you're right Marc, it is not terribly germane, to you.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Another gun wielding right wing maniac

What is being little reported on the news, George Sodini, the latest mass murderer, was in addition to being a real misogynist, a first class right-wing a-hole:

The diary focuses on his problems with women and other worries related to family and layoffs, but also has some comments about the "liberal media," the "Obama economy" -- and it opens with remarks about last fall's election, the election of "The Black Man" and jokes about black men bedding white women.

All of this left out of the AP excerpts and nearly everywhere else, including a new New York Times account...

Orly Taitz has convinced me

I too was born in Kenya.



Were you?

Dear Huffington Post

That headline...



I mean, WTF?!!!

Who's writing your headlines, Maureen Dowd?

Jeebus.

You can literally see the beer-drenched t-shirt being twirled above her bare torso

And this is the GOP alternative to the Teabaggers.

Oh Larry King is so going to be twittering about this today

Helping Bill Clinton pick up two women in North Korea.

(Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service)

Why is "D'oh!" not the mantra of the right wing?

I pretty much owe this post in its entirety to DougJ at Balloon Juice. But anyhow,

“[Erik] Prince,” Rohrabacher said, “is on his way to being an American hero just like Ollie North was.”

Oh, wait, it must be comedy, because if Ollie North is a "hero" than Erik Prince by the same logic must be a goddamned future face on Mount Rushmore:

A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company’s owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company.

Of course, Dana Rohrabacher has a long history of cuddling up to "heroes"

Rohrabacher (ironically on the left) and his Taliban buddies.

Amen

David Sirota, Jane Hamsher and Glenn Greenwald are all correct on the inconsistencies of Olbermann's statement and GE & NewsCorps role in trying to smother or smooth over shit all in the name of controlling the news. No matter how much you may like or approve of many of the very good things Olbermann has done, papering over this because you like him, ignores the real problem.

Multi-national conglomerates own ABC, CBS, and NBC. A right-wing carnival Barker owns FoxNews.

Each and everyone of them requires that their news divisions operate at a profit. News is no longer considered a loss-leader as it was in the days of Murrow, Cronkite and Huntley.

And what your broadcast medium tells you has been affected thereby.

"Harvest of Shame" for example would NEVER be allowed on the air today, instead we get Lou Dobbs immigrant bashing. No one would be allowed to challenge McCarthy, except in a pre-ordained "he said-she said" fashion.

So...

When is Fred Hiatt going to have John Bolton write up an editorial that the two freed Americans have to go back to North Korea and engage in 12-years hard labor to prove his point?

PWNDYANGED!!!

Why it seems just a couple hours ago that Fred Hiatt gave his special needs Neo-Con John Bolton a chance to editorially rail against Bill Clinton going to North Korea.

Followed a few minutes later by the news that North Korea is letting the two American journalists Bill Clinton went there to free, well, free.

EPIC FAIL is John Bolton's long-time companion.

But hey, now he's got another $85 from Fred Hiatt he can spend on gazing at Pam Atlas's bodacious not-tas.

You know what's funny?

Just about anything that isn't these two.

They think they're Stewart & Colbert when they're about as humorous as a lobotomized Leopold & Loeb.

"Don't be like your old man...

remember to have him wear a raincoat."

Words every parent dreams they will someday say to their daughter, but then again, this is John McCain:



Well, I hope Meghan listens to her dad and doesn't come back with chafing and Hell's Crabs:

I thought this was a joke

After all, I just assumed those Sadly, No folks are up to their photoshop tricks again.

But no, it's real -- well not "those" -- but this:



That's not what John Bolton pays.

How it works in modern Journalism

Looking at how some of the networks are handling the ongoing teaparty putsch was remarked upon here and they have a great point. A handful of compensated screamers rioting


Are allowed to change history...

But millions of people marching peacefully

Are the "un-American" fringe and otherwise ignored.

Blather, rinse, repeat.

Just wanted to let you know I watched the Couric newscast this evening and they had a segment on the organic 'anger' that exists against the Obama and the health program. Guess who they has on? A guy from freedomWorks, a republican strategist and Ambinder spouting the line that this is 'real america' anger. So as you said today they are reporting it as spontaneous not as an organized astro turf fight.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Happy Birthday Mr. President

Forty-Eight years ago Barack Obama was either born in Hawaii, or in an alternative universe that only he can transport in and out of.

Or Greenland.

Preemptive dodging

Apparently Glenn Beck was either forced, or decided, to tell the maniacs that form a large portion of his audience (the part that isn't looking for a laugh at his expense) NOT TO KILL OTHER PEOPLE.

This serves two purposes. First, it might actually cause a maniac or two not to kill or shoot people. Second, and most importantly, when a viewer of Beck, decides to try to kill people, specifically a certain person, Glenn Beck can play this video so he can wash his hands of the matter and keep on preaching his special version of dementia.

Best description yet

By someone on Twitter as related by MSNBC's Tamran Hall (?):

Is Orly Taitz a new Sasha Baron Cohen character?

And here's the evidence, it is not a forgery:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Wear your plastic sheeting today

Because the birthers' heads will explode when they learn that today Hillary Clinton is on her way to...

(da...dah...)


KENYA!

(DUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!)

Gosh, what a surprise

Rush Limbaugh lost 90 pounds (or so he claims) in four months (or so he claims) by popping pills.

And he has no plans to stop taking them!

They must have told them they were Hillbilly Heroin.


THAT'S GOTTA BE REAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL HEALTHY.

One last one off the wrist...

Poor Peter King, so far away when Brett Farve is all vulnerable and shit:



I've seen "Dear Penthouse" letters that were less desperate and sad.

You can literally see the "long-distance reach around"?

I'm sure we all remember how...

In 1989, Mike Dukakis was all over the tee vee?

Oh, he wasn't?

How about how often Al Gore showed up in 2001?

Oh, that's right, except for being called fat and bearded he didn't show up again until the Drudge's of the world mocked him for opposing the invasion of Iraq. Boy, that Gore sure was wrong about that.

And John Kerry was all over the television chat shows in 2005...in a bizarro Universe in which he won Ohio.

But John McCain's not a Democrat so that he and that crazy lady who ran with him are all over the news and the chat shows all the fucking time.

And it doesn't stop there, no, like good Republicans they have to force their off-spring upon us because America's a real meritocracy as long as affirmative action is verboten: just ask George W. Bush, Bill Kristol, Jonah Goldberg, Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, John Podhoretz, etc.

Doonesbury

Should be a good week or two as he takes on "the Family".

from here.

The Putz

The World's Lamest Media Critic manages to have an ENTIRE weekend to be aware of deal between GE & NewsCorp to silence their top bloviators.

Yet, what does he write about today?

A recycling of a column he's written two or three times already and which is already nearly two weeks old.

Not one word about the REAL story of corporate media this week. And, for once, it doesn't even involve one of his employers.

God he sucks.

The GOP picks their demagogues

You really have to hand it to the GOP, they are determined to slowly but surely piss off everyone that isn't a middle-aged white guy. Though they are certain to lose, nevertheless they are pursuing the strategy Digby says:

And yet they've gone out of their way to publicly sully the woman's [Sotomayor's] reputation and now are pulling every possible string to keep the vote as tight as possible, thereby reinforcing the notion that they hate Hispanics so much that they will do everything in their power, even when they are sure to lose, to keep one from the Supreme Court...

It occurs to me that they are seeing something much more devastating in their numbers than just losing the Hispanic vote of the future. It seems they must be afraid of losing the white working class. Assuming they are behaving rationally (which is assuming a lot) the only logical reason they could have for ginning up all this racial animosity is if they feel the need to secure their base with the old tried and true racial resentment. If they were secure there, they could afford to be magnanimous toward Sotomayor in a situation that makes no substantial change in policy.

Of course, it could also just be that they are a bunch of sexist, racist bastards themselves and just can't stand the idea of a woman of Puerto Rican extraction being in power. With these people it's usually a good idea to apply Occam's Razor and call it a day.

Shorter John McCain

"You're damn right I'm still bitter!"

Just another "Teabagger" *& "Glenn Beck" fan

Hope he sheds a few tears at the injustice of it all:

A Long Island mother of three -- armed to the teeth with an assault rifle and shotgun -- was arrested for scouting out and taking pictures of an Air National Guard base in the Hamptons, authorities said...

Caracappa said Genovese was taking photographs of the perimeter of the base. A search of her car uncovered an arsenal -- an XM-15 assault rifle, a shotgun and 500 rounds of ammunition...

She was arraigned yesterday afternoon at Southampton Town Justice Court, where a judge set bail at $50,000, and then ordered Genovese held for a psychiatric examination after she went berserk in the courtroom.

Well she is a huge Glenn Beck fan and probably believes only in "common law courts" comprises of her fellow nutjobs.

Behold her twitter page:

MATLOCK!!!

Shorter Broder:

The less popular something is, the more I like it. Which is why Fred Hiatt, Republicans, and shingles get along so well with me.

Editing C&L Headlines for greater accuracy

Oh, they do a fine job, it's the original source that needs the adjusting:



Excuses, excuses.

No bridge that cannot be bullshitted about

So GE & News Corp. negotiated an editorial ceasefire because it was getting too irritating to making a profit in other areas without people yelling and stuff. Stupid proles.

If Walter Cronkite starts spinning any faster they might as well put him vertically so he can be used to get down to the oil. And what the fuck, is it Charley Rose's job to do such negotiations?

And I guess this sort of "editorial compromise" couldn't POSSIBLY be the kind of thing that quells investigations into just how much GE likes a good war as a profit-making opportunity and shit could it?

I suppose the world's worst media critic cannot be bothered to look at the actual ramifications of this any more than he can look into his boss at CNN Jon Klein bending over backwards to keep Lou Dobbs ass deep in race-baiting?

As he often does, Greenwald sums it all up:

There are many reasons why our establishment press exists to do little other than serve the interests of the political and financial establishment and to mindlessly amplify government claims. The virtual disapparance of the line between large corporate interests and journalism (as Richard Wolffe himself noted) is certainly one of the leading factors.

Classic "modern" reporting

From Ceci Connelly:

Complete and Utter Bullshit vs. Reality compared as being utterly equivalent.

And Yet, they'll keep voting Republican

Because that's what Jeebus wanted:

It is hardly unusual these days for a government building to forgo a fresh paint job or regular lawn care to cut costs. But last week, the director of the Jefferson County public nursing home was told that the county could no longer afford to bury indigent patients...

The main reason for the debacle is the invalidation of a tax the city replied upon -- a tax that could be easily fixed by the legislature, except they won't fix it. To be fair, it's not just a Republican problem, it's all of societies and the way we've framed taxes as being worse that racism and about equal to genocide. From Prop 13 to calling the estate tax the "death tax" our immaturity is stunning.

And speaking of this trend, two Republican State Senators in Florida -- who undoubtedly are tossing out the lie that health care reform will euthanize the elderly -- are simultaneously doing this:

Florida State Senator Carey Baker (R) and State Representative Scott Plakon (R) introduced a state Constitutional amendment that, if adopted, would prevent Floridians from enrolling in any federal health care plan.

That would be Florida, home of the largest collection of elderly voters in the United States, each and everyone of whom is on Medicare.

So these two, either gigantic morons or gigantic assholes, or perhaps just both, want to deride what a huge chunk of their citizen rely upon.

Now that's thinking like a Republican!