Were I a less cynical person...

I'd fear that...:

A new survey commissioned by the AARP asks respondents to what degree they support or oppose "[s]tarting a new federal health insurance plan that individuals could purchase if they can't afford private plans offered to them" -- a public option, in other words. The results are interesting, though not necessarily surprising to those who have been closely following the debate.

All: 79 percent favor/18 percent oppose
Democrats: 89 percent favor/8 percent oppose
Republicans: 61 percent favor/33 percent oppose
Independents: 80 percent favor/16 percent oppose

...a sizable portion of our institutional leadership holds all of us in contempt and views their role as portraying us a ill-informed, angry, and all-around miserable.

But, as a cynic, I am already confident that this is the case.



[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Oh please Mitt, listen to this idiot's advice

Does this moron have no recollection of Romney's popularity rating when he stopped being Governor of Massachusetts?

And that was before the world's most outwardly venal man took a hard turn to the right so he could appeal to the base of the GOP.

It would be an intriguing thing if, after waiting a day or two out of respect for the late senator, Romney were to downshift and announce he will be a candidate in the upcoming election to fill Kennedy's vacant Senate seat.

Such an announcement would likely be embraced immediately by the Republicans, who would like almost nothing more than to deny Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada his new, hard-won, 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority. As a self-funding candidate who has already been elected once statewide, Romney has nearly 100 percent name ID. And, in an environment where President Obama seems to be dragging the Democrats down, he would be a serious threat to the Democratic hegemony in Massachusetts's congressional delegation. Meaning Romney likely would win.

There are more than a few fact-free clauses, sentences, and hell, paragraphs in that...uh, paragraph. But let's just get down to the premise:

Running for Senator in the place he dissed as a Presidential Candidate sounds like a SWEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLL idea, (or as Mittens in reacquiring a mysterious New England accent would say "idear").

Please, please, oh, please go for it Mittens. Not only would you lose (and badly) -- but you'd be finished for 2012.

Leaving the playing field as Palin, Huckabee, and Gingrich (and if Jesus loves us enough Hannity).

How much do they pay this moron at US News?

Have to admit, I like this one

In Which I Channel My Inner Dick Cheney

Last Tuesday night I was washing my face with some invigorating apricot scrub and minding my own business, when I looked into the hall outside my bathroom to see a truly gargantuan waterbug on the floor. After emitting an "Ugh" of disgust I stared and it and went into my whole "Wish it no harm" routine. That lasted all of two minutes, until I realized that it was gently waving its antennae at me. I screwed up enough courage and flipped the bathroom wastepaper basket over on the sucker.

I grabbed a copy of Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything Vegetarian, which, at 1,072 pages, is a doorstop of a cookbook, and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (2,560 pages), and put them on top of the overturned wastepaper basket for good measure. I could hear the damn thing moving around under there, crashing against the sides of the basket in a futile effort to escape. Just the sound of it scratching against the metal was skeeving me out.

I left it on where it was overnight. In the morning I started calling the setup it "The Bastille", but then I realized that, as the absolute monarch of my domain, "Bastille" was probably not the best metaphor. So I started calling it GITMO, but I thought that in poor taste. Later in the week, I settled on thinking of it as my own personal Black Site.

A week later, it's still there. I know. I know. As a liberal committed to non-violence, you think I'm a sadist. If you're in PETA you think I ought to be shot. As someone who's outraged by Bush, Cheney, torture, extraordinary rendition, detainees, and military tribunals you think I am just not funny.

I don't give a damn.

My question for you is, after one week and one day, do you think that little fucker is dead yet?

What Obama Should Do™

I had one of those annoying What Obama Should Do™ discussions with a friend yesterday. This one in regard to health care reform.

It's too late to do What Obama Should Have Done™, which is to say, had a big prime-time address to a joint session of Congress where he laid out say, three parameters for a health care reform bill he'd be willing to sign (e.g., cover everyone, re-regulate the insurance industry, institute a program to bring medical costs under control) and then let congress go out and draft a bill).

But it's not to late to do What Obama Should Do™, which is to say, challenge a Republican -- any Republican -- to debate him about health care reform live on national prime time TV at some point during the week after Labor Day.

If the Republicans balk they are sniveling chickenshit "Party of No" losers. And if they don't, well, who the hell are they going to send up there? A Bronzed Boehner? Mitch McConnell's Wattle? Mushmouthed Imbecile Eric Cantor? Mittens Romney? Tim Milquetoast Pawlenty? I'd vote for Michael Steele, but what the hell do I know anyway?

There's still time to do What Obama Should Do™, Mister President. And you don't even have to thank me (or, more accurately, my friend) for the idea.

Danziger

Warts & All

Pareene:

The man's many, well-documented flaws aside, he was on the right side of history, most of the time, and he did more to actually make America a better place than 90% of the careerists and charlatans who pass through the United States Senate.

And as the undemocratic institution of the Senate (and this celebration of the life of a man who won his seat due to family connections and held on to it for almost fifty years proves the anti-democratic nature of that body) continues to destroy whatever hope this nation has of governing itself responsibly, we'll miss a man who more often than most tried to show that politics can be about tangibly helping real people.

RIP

The Glory Holers (cont....)

As I was saying:

"If we need to save our penises from anybody, it's Obama"
-- Rush Limbaugh

Fill in your own goddamned jokes.

And now back to regular posting

Steve Pearlstein takes the latest lies and slanders of Michael Steele and the GOP to the woodshed:

Republicans seem determined to preserve the uniquely American system under which health care is rationed today -- on the basis of employment status and ability to pay. According to the respected Institute of Medicine, this market-based approach to rationing has held the number of untimely deaths each year to a mere 18,000 uninsured souls. Thanks to Medicare, all of those victims are younger than 65, but apparently that is the kind of age-based rationing that real Republicans can embrace.

And thank you, Mr. Pearlstein for calling the GOP statements what they are, LIES.

Even if your name was just "Edward Moore"

You would be a giant.

Thank you.

res' book bag

These columns are so stupid. Here's what I am currently reading.* What does the list say about me?

1. Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution by Simon Schama
2. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, by Robert Caro
3. Drums Along the Mohawk, by Walter D. Edmonds
4. The three most recent issues of The New Yorker
5. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Ordinarily I don't read five things at once, but the first two books are huge, and because I can't take them on the train, I read them in the morning at home. Drums and the magazines I take on the train. Guernsey is for before bed. I'm also not giving myself a week to read them. No way Obama is reading all that stuff in a week and playing golf.

By the way, Drums is really good. Actually, they're all kind of great.

Asshole vs. Balloon Knot

Joe Lieberman Sunday:

"I’m afraid we’ve got to think about putting a lot of that off until the economy’s out of recession," Mr. Lieberman said on CNN’s "State of the Union." "There’s no reason we have to do it all now...'

A Joe Lieberman email to constituents yesterday:

We cannot afford to wait any longer to provide Americans with the high-quality, affordable health care they deserve, even though doing so will require making some difficult decisions.

The Glory-Holers

At least they're consistent. All real crazed right-wingers eventually become fixated on seeing Democratic man-meat.

I guess because it's so hard to see their own.

Not much more to say other than...

READ THIS!



There's much, much more that's disturbing.


(pic via The Seminal)

Bring back the fail

Rudy Giuliani thinking of running for Governor of New York?

Ah, memories. As of last month, this was still up in suburban Des Moines (likely still is).

But we can't have universal health care

These fools would have us spend hundreds of billions on preventing fictional attacks out of an Ed Wood movie:

In May, the Wonk Room’s Matt Duss noted that, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich — citing a fictional novel — told the 2009 American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference that the threat of an Electromagnetic Pulse attack against the United States was why he was in “favor” of “taking out Iranian and North Korean missiles on their sites.” The next month, the New Republic’s Michael Crowley reported that the “scientifically valid,” but “not strategically realistic” scenario was being used by “a cadre of conservative hawks” to argue for “familiar hobbyhorses” like missile defense and preemptive military strikes. Now, Dave Weigel reports that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is set to headline an upcoming conference on the threat of an Electromagnetic Pulse attack against the United States, titled “EMPACT America”

Hell, we cannot even have a public option in health care ... but we have attack North Korea from something that will not ever happen.

Yet, other than us dirty fucking hippies no one ever does the compare and contrast on these utterly banal fucks.

Golly Fred Hiatt

Imagine if you'd written this editorial in 2003 or 2004 instead of what you actually wrote?

Although some lessons are never learned:

The real culprits in this sordid story are those higher-ups, starting with former president George W. Bush and former vice president Richard B. Cheney, who led America down the degrading path of state-sanctioned torture and left the next administration to cope with the fallout.

But nevertheless, like Chuckles Todd, you say leave them alone.

And FoxNews goes "La la la la la"

Shockingly an editorial in the Washington Post that is both factual and supportive of health care reform.

5 Myths About Health Care Around the World

But don't worry FoxNews viewers, you can watch this instead, it is after all a fitting theme song for you:

Stories where the headline is more than enough

(via Huffington Post)

Bring.It.On.

Giuliani Clearing the Way for a Run for the Statehouse

Maybe Bernie Kerik will tweet his support for Rudy from the defendant's seat at his federal trial for conspiracy, tax fraud, and making false statements to to the White House.

Run, Rudy! RUN!

L.A.

It's different.

Marilyn Monroe, who's been dead 47 years, still carries enough cachet that the crypt above where she was entombed was sold today on EBay for $4,602,100.

Elsie Poncher, whose husband Richard Poncher is buried in the crypt at Pierce Bros. Westwood Village Memorial Park, said she wanted to sell it to pay off the mortgage on her Beverly Hills home.
...

She said that when her husband was dying, he made a request. "He said, ’If I croak, if you don’t put me upside down over Marilyn, I’ll haunt you the rest of my life.’ "

Right after the funeral, Elsie said, she conveyed her husband’s wish to the funeral director. "I was standing right there, and he turned him over," she said.

I'm speechless.

I know I've followed the Premier League and stuff lately...

But the fact is that the very thought of figuring out how the fuck you keep score in cricket reminds me of figuring out logarithms -- and those are not pleasant memories.

Thus, I know I'm American.

A Country that Deserves what's coming to it...

We really are not in a position to critique any other society on earth for at least a week after this:

In the midst of a staggering obesity epidemic in the US, KFC has doubled down on a high-calorie menu choice. KFC is now offering a "sandwich" which consists of bacon, two kinds of cheeses and sauce between two pieces of fried chicken. That's right, fried chicken as a bun instead of bread.

This brings to mind a certain Patton Oswalt routine:

It's been a great few days

For justifiably getting under media enabler's skin.

1. Aimai of No More Mister Nice Blog - ruins Joe Klein's cocktail weiners with the bitter taste of just desserts. BTW, she's I.F. Stone's grandaughter? How cool is that. In bizarro world that would mean she'd be a TV pundit, but that stuff is only for those who earn it by merit in this world. You know by being the child or grandchild of a Joe McCarthy enabler.

2. Jeremy Scahill has the effrontery to call Chuck Todd on stuff he actually says on the air -- Todd gets all offended like a good villager. Not because what Scahill said isn't true, but because it made Chuck's goatee droop in shame on Bill Maher's show when Chuck wanted to look cool.

Cue Lee Greenwood Redux

Imagine if a Democrat or a Dirty Fucking Hippy (same thing) had said this -- oh, it would set Jake Tappers little member stiff with pleasure and we'd here about it incessantly the next month -- but if you're California Republican Representative Wally Herger instead of say Barack Obama, you can pal around with terrorists all you want:

One speaker said he could trace his ancestors back to the Mayflower and said “they did not arrive holding their hands out for help.”

“I am a proud right wing terrorist,” he declared to cheers.

Herger praised the man’s attitude.

“Amen, God bless you,” Herger said with a broad smile. “There is a great American.”

In addition to the praising of a self-described terrorist (does Herger have a soft-spot for Tim McVeigh?) I do love the guy who says his ancestors came over on the Mayflower "NOT" asking for handouts.

That must come as news to Native Americans. After all, not only did the Pilgrims need help from local tribes to survive (hasn't this guy heard the Thanksgiving story?) but they got small-pox in return. Setting a three-century pattern of White Guys screwing Native Americans and then having the nerve to come up with the phrase "Indian Giver" anyway.

Truly the first Republicans.

Always an asshole

Joe Lieberman's love of spending hundreds of billions on freedom through explosions knows no bounds. There are no limits to how much Lieberman would ask the American tax-payer over generations to pay for his beloved wars. If Obama, for some reason, called Joe up some evening and asked him to vote for $100 billion so as to bomb Tehran he'd have the supportive Op-Ed in Fred Hiatt's hands by the next morning.

But when it comes to providing policies that actually benefit Americans, in America of all places, like health care; no matter how small the relative price, it is too much for Senator "He's with us on everything except the War" (thanks Harry Reid).

"I'm afraid we've got to think about putting a lot of that off until the economy's out of recession"

But then again, Lieberman could be expected to do little else.

It reminds me of this little nugget from August of 2004 when we dirty effing hippies suggested that Bush was issuing terror reports for political reasons:

"nobody in their right mind" would believe that Bush would "scare people for political reasons"

Golly Joe, thanks for always being not only stupendously wrong, but also a real dick about it. After all as ranking member and then Chair of the Homeland Security Committee you never lifted a finger to get to the bottom of this or any other matter that might hurt your Republican buddies and indirectly your lovely wars.

Thanks so much for your decade of doing your level worst for the country. No wonder the Villagers love you.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Now that's some nihilism

Betsy McCaughey is a gigantic liar, how big a liar?

This big.

And here is my new favorite story involving just how awful she is:

The straw that broke the camel's back appeared to be when she confirmed to the press that D'Amato suggested at a private dinner that she bring Giuliani, with whom D'Amato was feuding, back to the fold by offering him sex. Pataki was forced to demand an apology, and D'Amato was forced to issue one

Well, now considering the company contained in that paragraph it's hard to truly see who the biggest liar is.

Al D'Amato wouldn't be above saying this sort of thing, Betsy would not be above offering it, and lord knows Rudy would not be above accepting.

With a chair

A number of people this week, starting with Emptywheel have browbeaten villager extraordinaire Mark Ambinder for saying he would have questioned the rather telling use of "terror threats" by the Bush Administration -- but he just couldn't trust us dirty fucking hippies and our .875 batting average.

Krugman joins in:

Bear in mind that by the time the terror alert controversy arose in 2004, we had already seen two tax cuts sold on massively, easily documented false pretenses; a war launched with constant innuendo about a Saddam-Osama link that was clearly false, and with claims about WMDs that were clearly shaky from the beginning and had proved to be entirely without foundation. We’d also seen vast, well-documented dishonesty and politicization on environmental policy. Oh, and Abu Ghraib was already public knowledge.

Given all that, it made complete sense to distrust anything the Bush administration said. That wasn’t reflexive, it was rational.

And anyway, who were these reflexively anti-Bushists? Howard Dean? Read what he actually said at the time, and it looks totally sensible (and prescient). Me? I think my columns from that period look pretty sound in the light of hindsight. Bloggers like Atrios or Kos? Again, if you read their archives what’s striking is how sane they come off compared with the “serious” voices of the time.

I'd also like to ask, I think Atrios did this already, why Ambinder seems not to have noticed that Ridge pretty much admitted politics were used in the terror-alert system a few years ago -- but he like most of the media ignored it then. I guess, because somehow, Ridge had become a DFHer.

Well thank goodness

We now know that Sarah Palin quit being Governor so she could take time to find a ghost writer to write cogent sentences about the same old bullshit for her Facebook page.

Typical Republican, using Facebook in a Twittered world and thinking they're cutting edge.

But hiring somebody to do your work is, I guess, why Ol' Sarah isn't on MySpace.

UPDATE:

Meanwhile,

A new analysis by Public Policy Polling (D) finds that Sarah Palin is especially popular with a key Republican demographic: The Birthers.

Among those respondents in PPP's latest national poll who either said that President Obama was not born in the United States or were undecided, Palin had a 66% favorability rating. Of the other three Republicans that were tested in the poll, Mike Huckabee was in second place at 58%, then Newt Gingrich with 46%, and Mitt Romney was last with only 43% favorability.

From PPP communications director Tom Jensen: "I mean this with all sincerity -- Romney's lack of popularity with the birther wing of the GOP really could scuttle his chances at the nomination in three years."

I know the media likes to pay attention to the various struggles of the Democrats in polling, but it ignores the fact the GOP is not exactly gaining in the interim, in fact they are in the toilet and not getting out.

Such is the state of the GOP that the guy who thinks he wears magic underwear is NOT CRAZY ENOUGH for the base.

"They hate us for our Freedoms"

The Bush Administration ran the United States of all Class (and human rights violations):

...the report describes how one detainee, suspected USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was threatened with a gun and a power drill during the course of CIA interrogation. According to the sources, who like others quoted in this article asked not to be named while discussing sensitive information, Nashiri's interrogators brandished the gun in an effort to convince him that he was going to be shot. Interrogators also turned on a power drill and held it near him. "The purpose was to scare him into giving [information] up," said one of the sources. A federal law banning the use of torture expressly forbids threatening a detainee with "imminent death."

And in a clear case of "see we did nothing wrong, you can't prove it..."

Before leaving office, Bush administration officials confirmed that Nashiri was one of three CIA detainees subjected to waterboarding. They also acknowledged that Nashiri was one of two Al Qaeda detainees whose detentions and interrogations were documented at length in CIA videotapes. But senior officials of the agency's undercover operations branch, the National Clandestine Service, ordered that the tapes be destroyed, an action that has been under investigation for more than a year by a federal prosecutor.

Liars for Bush (Reprise)

Ah, Fran Townsend. Little Frannie went on CNN this morning to refute Tom Ridge's admission claims about BushCo pushing bogus terror alerts to divert attention from whatever fuck-up they were currently inflicting on the country.

Here's my favorite Frannie memory:

In her resignation letter, Townsend paid tribute to President [George W.] Bush by saying: "In 1937, the playwright Maxwell Anderson wrote of President George Washington: 'There are some men who lift the age they inhabit, til all men walk on higher ground in their lifetime.' Mr. President, you are such a man."

Go away, Fran. Don your best flip-flops and go have a diet Snapple or a Crystal Light slushie with Monica Goodling, Rachel Paulose, and Harriet Meiers.

Lying Sack of Shit (Emphasis on "Lying" and "Shit")

She's missing page 432!

Reminds me of when another lying sack of shit, the Republican dingbat Jeanine Pirro lost page 10.

Thank God for John Stewart.

It's over, Republicans.

But he's fat!

Just wondering

When Odoacer was at the gates of Ravenna in the late Summer of 476 A.D. do you think the Romans inside sat there shouting "SPQR! SPQR! SPQR!"?

Because John Cole is exactly right, the mantra of the Republican Party the last decade or more has been to address ALL MATTERS whether for or against them by shouting "USA! USA! USA!". And if you don't you HATE the same.

This mantra is directly related to this, the most mind-numbingly defiant and stupid interviewer I've ever seen outside of the FoxNews big three -- and probably worse when you get down to it.

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

Remember when the Soviets were mocked in our propaganda because they allegedly claimed they invented everything?

Well, welcome to the Republicans perpetual 5-year plan -- the kind of thing they'd have you believe only Kim Jong-Il does.

USA! USA! USA!

But, of course...

When hasn't this been the case?

The states that have been most skeptical of President Barack Obama's agenda for health care reform also have some of the highest levels of uninsured people in the nation.

A new study by Gallup shows that large swaths of populations in the South and West -- anywhere from one-in-five to one-in-four individuals -- are currently lacking health insurance coverage.

These same regions also have the largest percentage of populations who believe widely perpetuated mistruths about the Obama agenda, including allegations that the president will set up "death panels" and wants a complete government takeover of the health care system.

It's not just 'What's the Matter with Kansas', never has been. Going against their own self-interest in a time-tested formula and when one Party is comprised of anti-science assholes that have no problem sucking up to bigots and liars this is what happens. A fictional world of grudges -- made all too real.

What I did last night

I went out and got my nerd on.

"Sorry Ft. Worth".

The Senator from the State of Moran

Jim DeMint is a long-time member of "the Family" so naturally he is convinced he lies with God's blessing.

I suppose this is just a by-product of my gut-level hatred of Bush (the Ambinder Factorial) but I have to say this statement from Jim DeMint is not only malevolent and slanderous toward the President, it is out and out the kind of bizarre statement that would make a LaRouche supporter blush:

Probably the most heart-wrenching experiences I’ve had over the last several days is when naturalized American citizens who have immigrated here from Germany, Iran and other countries, they come up to me and they say why are we doing what so many have fled from?

Uh, Jimbo, it's been a while since we've had too many immigrants that would "flee" from something going on in present-day Germany.

Though it's true Neo-Nazis are illegal in Germany, so I guess what you're saying is...?

Meanwhile, DeMint could not care less about a person bankrupted by crushing medical bills. It's not like that person has any money left to give ol' Jim's re-election campaign.

[Cross-Posted at Firedoglake]

I FUCKING ANTICIPATED, THAT'S WHO!

Yesterday you may recall I stated in regard to the whackjob at the Barney Frank town hall:

Oh, how, will the Steve Doocys of the world edit this to make Frank look like the bad person and not the person proudly holding up pictures of Obama as Hitler?

Well, now we know:

Steve Doocy says, "He was downright rude—somebody asked him a question, and he said on what planet do you spend most of your time? And then to somebody else, he said trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table."

Well, yes. Except the "somebody who asked him a question" actually asked about his "Nazi policies," and he made the dining room table remark to the same LaRouchite idiot. The best part is when they play only Frank's response, making it look like he's straight-up yelling at voters, and then cut to a shot of an entirely different woman in a pretty hat to make it look like he was addressing her, and not the one who was carrying a picture of Obama made up to look like Hitler.

There is NOTHING FoxNews will not lie or deliberate misstate. NOT ONE FUCKING THING.

All Class

That Tom Delay really mellowing through the years:

Matthews asked, “So you want to get rid of what’s known as Medicare today…[and] replace it with private sector health care?” “Amen brother,” replied DeLay, not realizing that Matthews was asking him a question, not making a statement.

Matthews then asked DeLay whether he is a birther. The former House Majority Leader mistakenly said that he would like to see the President’s “gift certificate” and asked Matthews to personally ask Obama for it. He also compared Obama to “illegal aliens”

(pic from here)

Oh the places they went...

Oh, the Bush Administration, every new revelation another WTF? moment.

The Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 hired outside contractors from the private security contractor Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials.

Ah, yes, Blackwater -- the cherry pit on the shite sundae that is the "War on Terror", all part no doubt of an all out -- and profitable -- effort to score some politically convenient points in an election year.

And how'd that work out?

The C.I.A. spent several million dollars on the program, which did not successfully capture or kill any terrorist suspects.

BOO-YAH!

Meanwhile..., there are those pending charges of conspiracy to murder and gun running too.

I'm sure this will all be discussed in the forthcoming Dick Cheney romantic fantasy.

Besides, we've now learned that we need to spend that money where it belongs, on the insurance industry.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

It's all DeDurkheim's mojo working

Burnley beat Man U?

That's like the Minnesota Golden Gophers winning the Rose Bowl. It's like Favre staying retired. It's like a strong Public Option being in a health care bill. It's like the United States taking a couple of decades off from taking military action against a third world nation. Okay, this is getting more and more depressing...

It's all because DeDurkheim adopted them. There, that's better.

Dammit, Attaturk!

You had to post that Squirrelizer thing, didn't you! Now I'll never get anything done.

Awesome

Photoshopping ... made easy.

Comment of the Day

At Wonkette about the Barney Frank smackdown discussed below:

PALIN/DINING ROOM TABLE 2012

So, uh how about reporting the facts then?

I know, silly me, expecting substance and truth over bloviating and lying.

To see Chuck Todd actually be a reporter, instead of Joe Scarborough's frat brother brow-beating into joining a panty-raid is a lovely change of pace.

A-fucking-men

Barney Frank demonstrates how nutjobs are to be handled:

Oh, how, will the Steve Doocys of the world edit this to make Frank look like the bad person and not the person proudly holding up pictures of Obama as Hitler? Because, of course, they either will -- or they'll ignore it completely.

Ponderings...

I wonder if David Broder ever wrote a eulogy for I.F. Stone?

Let Freedom Reign...

More of those Kaganesque celebratory fireworks:

Baghdad was hit by at least six explosions within the space of a few minutes today as a series of devastating attacks hit the Iraqi capital.

Early estimates suggested the number of casualties was high. The attacks are believed to have been co-ordinated, and demonstrate that insurgents maintain the ability to carry out spectacular bombings at will.

Fucknuttier

The overcompensating assholes parading around an Obama event in Arizona turn out to not just be Timothy McVeigh impersonators, they turn out to be pretty much Timothy McVeigh wannabes.

While "Chris" was the guy who carried around the assault rifle at the Obama event in Phoenix yesterday, it appears to have been another guy, Ernest Hancock, who organized the whole thing. And Hancock, who was also on the scene with a holstered handgun, turns out to have had very close ties to a 90s-era Arizona militia group called the 'Viper Militia' most of whose members were eventually sent to federal prison on various weapons and explosives charges tied to plans to bomb federal buildings.

Meanwhile, remember the good ol' days of five years ago when you couldn't even wear a t-shirt that spoke mildly ill of George Bush in his majesty's general proximity?

Yes, it's true

If you as a corporation want to make sure you reach the craziest demographic possible, you should advertise on Glenn Beck. There are, at least ten to twenty-million total right-wing crazies in this country and they are clearly willing to go to the same source for their slop repeatedly.

If you're Cadillac or Lexus you advertise on golf broadcasts, if you sell viagra any sporting even will do, especially golf and football. If you sell soap, there's a reason they were originally called soap operas. Which is why Beck's most dependable advertisers are "home security" systems and "gold venders". If Sealy Posturepedic starts selling mattresses with special internal hidey-holes Beck would be an ideal source for them as well.

Try not to speak ill of the departed...

On the other hand, one shouldn't work too hard to falsely sing their praises.

America's greatest self-proclaimed bipartisan managed to take a break from tut-tutting those liberal sourpusses who favor unions, clean air and health care to type out a eulogy to Bob Novak. It failed to note little things like his role in outing a CIA-operative to serve a petty political grudge or in the case of Robert Hanssen relying upon an actual traitor for the same purposes. But I guess that's what we filthy bloggers are for.

The self-mocking parody of himself that Bob created as the Prince, a grumpy right-winger, was sometimes taken more seriously by his audience than he intended. Bob was pugnacious, when challenged, but his instinct was to help his friends whenever they needed it.

Indeed, and I wonder how often that "help" made its way into his columns, hell when did it not?

But how could 'Mr. Bipartisan' pass up this little bon mot to Novak and his long-time collaborator Roland Evans; observe closely the "bipartisan" hymnal according to the Dean:

Bob's conservatism was real. He grew up with an anti-FDR father in Joliet, Ill. As his doorstop of a memoir makes clear, he and Evans often argued over the tone of their column. Evans had a liking for liberal Republicans like Nelson Rockefeller. Novak preferred the more rigid right-wingers, like Indiana Sen. Bill Jenner.

It's bipartisan as long as it involves just Republicans.

Surely, the funereal dirge of the media in our time.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Peter King has turned into Jenny Sanford

Only he allowed the love of his life to lie to him three (or is it four) times before he finally felt spurned.

But his attitude is even whinier and more petty than Jenny's attitude toward the object of his affections.

King's perpetual contact with football's leading Wrangler pitchman hasn't helped him divine Favre's ins and outs. "So now I've been wrong three times," King lamented last month. "I thought he was retired last year and he played for the Jets. I thought he was retired this year, and I said he'll come back to play for the Vikings unless his arm is a problem. His arm wasn't. And he still isn't going to play. That's why I give up." After Favre's move to Minnesota this week, it's time to update the tally: King has now been wrong four times.

So...

You think with Favre coming back, John Madden suddenly feels a bit like Jenny Sanford?

Weren't they supposed to ride off into the sun together?

NOOOOOOOOOOO....

...OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Lanny Davis

Is David Broder's kind of whore. He doesn't work any orifice that requires an extremity, he just blows your mind!

"Hey hon' do you have any of that freedom mustard?"

When NASCAR stereotypes are fulfilled -- the following is best accompanied by banjo music.

Lisa Mayfield, the stepmother of Jeremy Mayfield and a witness for NASCAR in defending its suspension of the Sprint Cup driver, was arrested Saturday night after an incident at her stepson's Catawba County house.

According to Catawba chief of police Cecil Cook, Lisa Mayfield was charged with public intoxication and had warrants issued for four counts of simple assault and second-degree trespassing...

"According to the officers she was pretty high," Cook said. "The officers took her to jail on public assistance ... to make sure she didn't cause problems to anybody or herself. The Mayfields came up [to the magistrate's office] and took charges out. She was arrested on those charges while in jail."...

Jeremy Mayfield was suspended by NASCAR on May 9 after testing positive for methamphetamines during a random drug test taken eight days earlier. He tested positive again during a random drug test taken at his home after the suspension was lifted, according to court records filed by NASCAR...

Jeremy Mayfield, in response to the court filing, argued that his stepmother's testimony was not trustworthy. He accused her of killing his father, who committed suicide in 2007, according to police reports. He also accused her of accepting money from NASCAR in exchange for her testimony. Lisa Mayfield has filed a civil suit against her stepson for defamation of character.

Ms. Mayfield did issue a statement, however, thanking the "Sears' Craftsman/Slim Jim/Old Grandad Division of the Catawba Sheriff's Office for having her arrest proceed so fast."

Stay tuned...you never know if this case may take an "unexpected" turn...as in to the right.







When your booking picture looks like a "last known photograph" it is truly a cry for help.

Totally Anticipated

Patricia Heaton, well-known Fox-News conservative.

And as one would completely expect...GIGANTIC MOR(A)N:

They've got Pat Boone (nsfw) & Pat Heaton.

The Left has George Clooney and Scarlett Johannson.

Golly, no wonder they are incredibly angry and overcompensating.

You know it's getting extra fucked up

When waffling on the "Public Option" stories make it a GOOD day for the White House because it took the media's attention away from Republican crazy lying points.

I believe Mr. Taibbi has a point:

I’ll say this for George Bush: you’d never have caught him frantically negotiating against himself to take the meat out of a signature legislative initiative just because his approval ratings had a bad summer. Can you imagine Bush and Karl Rove allowing themselves to be paraded through Washington on a leash by some dimwit Republican Senator of a state with six people in it the way the Obama White House this summer is allowing Max Baucus (favorite son of the mighty state of Montana) to frog-march them to a one-term presidency?

I disagree with the last sentence, if nothing else crazy is still crazy. But the frustration of constantly negotiating against themselves is fucking maddening. The GOP is NOT going to allow you jackshit, fuck them -- if you want to do so with a smile that's fine -- but one gets the feeling there will be a smile, but as for who is actually being fucked, well...

This is not going to end well

As Josh Marshall said, I'm sure we all remember all those times protesters packed heat outside a Bush rally. Oh right, we don't because it did not happen.

The Associated Press is now reporting that there were actually about a dozen armed people among the protesters in Phoenix

And since, I'm on a Josh Marshall quoting binge, this is fairly trenchant:

In a stunning amount of irony, Mansonite Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme was released from prison this week, after 34 years in prison. The gun she pointed at President Ford had no bullet in the firing chamber-- unlike Sarah Jane Moore, she never even pulled the trigger or fired. Presumably, these gun nuts showing up for the health care events have their weapons actually loaded. I repeat, Fromme did *34 years in prison.

But apparently, this is a-okay with Georgia Moron Phil "My Dickisthismall" Gingrey:

En-raptured

Mike Huckabee is in Israel engaging in the kind of foreign policy adventure the GOP pretended Nancy Pelosi was engaged in two years ago when she visited Syria (with some Republican Congressman). He's there to show how AWESOME he thinks it is that Israeli is building even more settlements in the occupied territories. Thereby undermining the expressed foreign policy not only of the Obama Administration, but the last several of both parties.

Yet, it appears that Wolf Blitzer just doesn't care all that much when a Democrat isn't involved.

But there are some protesters in Israel who have figured out the very creepy basis that Mike Huckabee and other Christian fundamentalists are so keen on more settlements as soon as possible:

Protesters chanted "go home" one of the banners they held up said: "Huckabee, we are not pawns in your Armageddon."

Yes, finally, and if only the true basis of the Christian Right's real interest in Isreal is stated. It all helps bring about the rapture -- it isn't about anything else, or anything that isn't disturbing.

(AFP/File/David Furst)

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Not the Onion

I predict competitors' will meet tire irons:

Former Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay will join 15 celebrities from the worlds of entertainment and sports in kicking up their heels on the new season of “Dancing With the Stars.

Hopefully there will not be too many twirls or that rug will go flying.

Shorter Ross Douchehat

The thing that makes me really upset about the current GOP lying points is the fact that I personally wish to put down as many seniors as possible. I've got a pillow and just enough strength to take out a sleeping 80-year old and yet, one of my few actual skills will be wasted.

Exactly

Tell it like it is Andy Stern:

"Waiting for bipartisanship has been like waiting for Godot," he continues. "And it won't protect them. No one thought stimulus was a bipartisan bill. Getting Grassley and Snowe isn't going to do it."

"I have no sympathy for the congressmen and senators who say they're taking too many hard votes," he continues. "The worst that can happen to them is they lose their jobs. Workers are taking much harder votes every day."

Chuck Grassley, Olympia Snowe, Harry Reid, etc. if they lose their jobs they are going to get a lovely pension the rest of their lives as well.

You this would have more impact

Upon me...

A group of Iranian clerics has issued an anonymous letter calling Iran’s supreme leader a dictator and demanding his removal, the latest and perhaps strongest rhetorical attack on him yet in the country’s post-election turmoil.

While the impact of the clerics’ letter, posted late Saturday on opposition Web sites, may have been diluted by the withholding of their signatures, two Iranian experts vouched for its authenticity. Its publication followed other unusual verbal attacks on the leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in recent days.

Last week a group of former lawmakers issued their own letter calling his qualifications into question. A day earlier, a member of the state body empowered to dismiss Ayatollah Khamenei called for an “emergency meeting” to address criticisms.

...if I didn't hear yet another wanker on talk radio or FoxNews call Barack Obama of all people, a dictator or like Hitler.

Somehow in Iran this is supposedly a big deal, while in the United States its just considered quaint and harmless (unless a liberal does it of course, then it's treason).

I haven't watched the premier of Mad Men last night

So don't tell me if Don Draper found out who killed Laura Palmer.

Harvest of Lame

This morning Howard Kurtz is still wondering how the print media will survive?

I cannot believe that he is missing the business model that the New York Times adopted some time ago and which his own paper is now emulating.

The plight of the struggling wealthy taunted by their inability to have every luxury and convenience available to the even wealthier. And all this at a time when their local Costco has decided to stop stocking the 64-count Kirkland Brand tiny violins, or so their personal shopper tells them. Those poor suffering wealthy people are going to have to delay replacing that old Trinitron set in the guestroom with their fourth 58" plasma.

Why it's almost as if the editors and upper management of the Times and Post were fixated on their own six-figure salaries and smaller than the normal bonuses of recent years.

Imagine if Fred Hiatt only made in the high-five figures or less and had to worry about paying for his insurance premiums and the increasing tuition at a state school for his kids after he hasn't had a raise in five years?

Who would want to live in such a country where those concerns were common place, let alone report on them? The horror!

Certainly not the management our nation's most prominent newspapers.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Oh the things you see

I was channel surfing around the various sporting events a few minutes ago when I came upon the men's 100m in the World Championships held in Berlin -- the same stadium where Jesse Owen's stuck it to Hitler.

Usain Bolt ran a 9.58!!!!!

That's .11 faster than his Olympic time.

Un-freaking-believable.

At long-last somethings we all could have predicted

Chuck Grassley, liar and idiot.

complimented by...

Lanny Davis, just a liar - a pathetically weasel of a liar that proves just because you have a (D) behind your name doesn't mean that Dick Armey is all alone in his immoral world.

Update:

After a couple tries, the link to the Davis article is fixed.

Exactly

Rick Pearlstein author of the exceptional "Nixonland" actually got a few columns from Fred Hiatt this morning...and he didn't waste it:

The tree of crazy is an ever-present aspect of America's flora. Only now, it's being watered by misguided he-said-she-said reporting and taking over the forest. Latest word is that the enlightened and mild provision in the draft legislation to help elderly people whhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifo want living wills -- the one hysterics turned into the "death panel" canard -- is losing favor, according to the Wall Street Journal, because of "complaints over the provision."

Good thing our leaders weren't so cowardly in 1964, or we would never have passed a civil rights bill -- because of complaints over the provisions in it that would enslave whites.

A-fuckng-MEN!

MATLOCK!!!

Forget the fact that the evidence is clear that the stimulus is aiding in slowly turning around the economic disaster I pretty much ignored and never understood, some guys who I cannot understand said some stuff I cannot understand so I'm writing a column about stuff I cannot understand.

Where's my pudding?

Better late than never

I'm glad that Katie Couric took a moment to denounce the insanity and screaming of the right as they attempt to derail health care.

Watch CBS Videos Online

It would have been even better if CBS and other news outlets would have spoken out sooner when it was just as plain two weeks ago that this was happening.

I almost remember a time

When Chuck Grassley was not a complete tool, full-blown nutter and asshole.

Now he twitters with the spelling and grammar of a FoxNation message board participant (which is sub-RedState) and is a connoisseur of brain porn. And when he's not doing those two things he's puking up lies and condemning colleagues to fictional morbid deaths and making creepy sex jokes.

Doofuses Go International

Over the last two years, I, as a midwestern youngin' raised on all the traditional American sports have started to watch more and more soccer (the original and more aptly named football) on Saturday mornings. Naturally, I'm a complete ignoramus, but nonetheless I've gotten into the English Premier League -- I know enough of it now to know I'm supposed to loathe Manchester United (and laugh at their AIG sponsored shirts before I get angry about the fact I'm subsidizing that bullshit).

But picking a team to root for when you have absolutely no connections to the country other than vague historical ones we all do. That's difficult (stupid and pointless, yes, but still difficult).

So I and a few others had a chat and just picked teams the way stupid people do with only one rule. It cannot be one of the top-four teams in that league that dominate (see, I'm learning -- took two years but I'm learning). The real battle is to choose a lovable loser that won't get relegated (see, learning).

So, one friend chose Tottenham Hotspur because they liked the name and well, I was just happy the friend picked a team even though they really aren't a threat to lose big (learning!). Another friend, our twittering genius DeDurkheim picked Burnley (the mighty Clarets) and I chose Stoke (the Potters).

Feel free to choose one of your own based upon the rules (cannot be Man U., Chelsea, Arsenal or Liverpool) and as the season starts today we'll see how it ends up in mid-May. And remember, it's not so much about results as it is about picking a team for the most lovable reasons.

And yes, this is incredibly lame.

Liars

It's Pareene again. So very very shrill.

I think I love him.

(Be sure to read all the linkies.)

Meet The Angry Left

Oh, wait ...



I can't wait until that woman's face, wearing that expression, winds up in a campaign commercial next fall.

Thanks for 2010, Republicans!

The Kids Are Alright

Do you remember this budding young reporter from the campaign?



Well, he's still out there, working hard. This time, he met The Big Man.



Way to go, Damon!

Brownshirts

Pareene is shrill.

(And does that Gladney person look the biggest dork in the universe, or what?)

Leave it to J-Stew

This takedown of Glenn Beck was AAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWESOME!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Glenn Beck's Operation
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Spinal Tap Performance

Too much fun last night

From partying with 'Yearly Attaturk' keynote speaker Roger Clinton.

(and yes, this has been sanitized so it's safe for work)

Better

Now, cable news talking heads, this isn't so difficult to frame...it being the truth and all:

"He's like the sons I already have..."

Andy Reid and the Eagles have adopted Michael Vick.

Philly fan and Michael Vick, that should go over well.

How about just a 6 oz can of whoop-ass?

Mr. President, you know I like you, I respect you. I know that occasionally we liberals are difficult to deal with because, well, somebody has to stand up for the person who is above drawing Hitler mustaches or screaming like a 2-year old. So people take us for granted, including you. Nevertheless, I didn't vote for you naively, I knew you'd let me down some. Still, you know you can count on us in 2012 to vote for you, with or without enthusiasm, because the alternative is opposition and look at them.

But that's kind of the lowest common denominator and not all that change-a-licious.

You sir, apparently have the patience of a saint and the blood pressure of some higher level zen master. After all, you have said you're still willing to negotiate with Chuck Grassley after he's spread patent lie after lie in addition to committing crimes against spelling and grammar on Twitter.

We get it sir, you style yourself a Gandhi-like figure, at least if Gandhi also launched the occasional missile into Afghanistan. And I know and you know that's really f*%$ed up, but this is America, and f*%$ed up is clearly how we roll.

But if I may sir, would you mind getting just a little indignant -- a tad angry? Not a Gandhi, but a Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, or better yet Billy Jack Goes to Washington? Because you doing scissor kicks that fall just short of John Boehner's tanning-bed-face would be, at a minimum, awesome I bet he'd cry.

I know it isn't your style, but those of us who supported and voted for you would sure like to see a little of it right now.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

David Frum is One of the Reasonable Ones

Right.

How do you read this paragraph?

It's not enough for conservatives to repudiate violence, as some are belatedly beginning to do. We have to tone down the militant and accusatory rhetoric. If Barack Obama really were a fascist, really were a Nazi, really did plan death panels to kill the old and infirm, really did contemplate overthrowing the American constitutional republic—if he were those things, somebody should shoot him.

Oh really? That's exactly what many Republicans believe.

But he is not. He is an ambitious, liberal president who is spending too much money and emitting too much debt. His health-care ideas are too over-reaching and his climate plans are too interventionist. The president can be met and bested on the field of reason—but only by people who are themselves reasonable.

One of the reasonable ones. Right.

Union Thugs

Something tells me that this is one group of union thugs that Republicans can get behind.

Does Chris Christie Have a Problem?

Is it irresponsible to speculate?

It is irresponsible not to.

Savor that, Peggy.

Do The Right Thing

Five more did just that today.

By "that", I mean dumped Glen Beck's ass.

Consider this when you spend your hard-earned dollars.

For the cable jabberers the barrel has no bottom

Hillary Clinton could cure cancer, end hunger, and solve the Middle East crisis and it would still be all about the size of her ankles.

The same press corps that can never get off of "process" can also never get out of high school.

Like most difficult marriages...

You know it's over when you can't even get it up for a grudge fuck:

"You Gotta Give 'Em Hope"

Well, it's that time a year again

Time to hide from the horde of people attending 'Yearly Attaturk'.