At Least He Didn't Start Crying Again.

The arrogance of Barack Obama Glenn Beck

It's All Obama's Fault!!!

Except, you know, not.

But we already knew that.

From Greenhouse Gas To Green Balloons

Thers' Climate Change Crap Go-To Post is an excellent check list of sites that sets the record straight on all the conspiracy lunacy and lies wingnuts are spreading about the criminal hacking of climate scientists e-mails.
Once again simple fact trumps the "playing the record backwards to find out if Paul weather is dead" technique of the Palin/Inhofe/Jetton*


*I know Rod Jetton doesn't have anything to do with the climategate story. I was just looking for an excuse to get his twisted tale of conservative romance posted here.
After all, YCYSYWI. AOI!

Oliver Willis Fills In The Gap

Between Glenn Beck's ears.

Teabagger Protests. It's Not The What. It's The Hooey.

Matt Taibbi lays out the teabaggers:

In other words teabaggers don’t mind paying taxes to fund the salaries of Bolivian miners, Lou Gerstner’s stock options, deliveries of “sailboat fuel,” the Hermes scarves on Sandy Weill’s jet pillows, or even the export of their own goddamn jobs. But they do hate it when someone tries to re-asphalt their roads, or help bail their slob neighbor out of foreclosure. And God forbid someone propose a health care program, or increased financial aid for college. Hell, that’s like offering to share your turkey with the other Pilgrims! That’s not what America is all about! America is every Pilgrim for himself, dammit! Raise your own motherfucking turkey!
...

The really irritating thing about these morons is that, guaranteed, not one of them has ever taken a serious look at the federal budget. Not one has ever bothered to read an actual detailed study of what their taxes pay for. All they do is listen to one-liners doled out by tawdry Murdoch-hired mouthpieces like Michelle Malkin and then repeat them as if they’re their own opinions five seconds later. That’s what passes for political thought in this country. Teabag on, you fools.

As someone I once knew said: "You choose yer (sic) side you, you wear it. All of it."
I don't subscribe to that but he does and that increases the comedy by "lots and lots".

Nothing Will Stop Them From Not Voting For Her

Sarah's Fans:



Awesome.

Update:
More awesomeness!

Well, This Is Awkward

Two former Bush Justice Officials give Holder's Holder's KSM trial decision the thumbs up.

"One reason commissions have not worked well is that changes in constitutional, international and military laws since they were last used, during World War II, have produced great uncertainty about the commissions' validity. This uncertainty has led to many legal challenges that will continue indefinitely -- hardly an ideal situation for the trial of the century.
By contrast, there is no question about the legitimacy of U.S. federal courts to incapacitate terrorists. Many of Holder's critics appear to have forgotten that the Bush administration used civilian courts to put away dozens of terrorists, including "shoe bomber" Richard Reid; al-Qaeda agent Jose Padilla; "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh; the Lackawanna Six; and Zacarias Moussaoui, who was prosecuted for the same conspiracy for which Mohammed is likely to be charged. Many of these terrorists are locked in a supermax prison in Colorado, never to be seen again."

They haven't forgotten. They just hope the people they try to bullshit are forgetful. Why else would they try this incredible line of revisionism?

Towering Lies

In The Lies They Told, Jacob Heilbrunn's NY Times review of John Farmer's book The Ground Truth lays out some facts that make clear what people living outside The United State of FOXnews have known for years: George Bush did not keep America safe on 9/11 and he had a horseshoe up his decider-in-chief ass for the rest of his two miserable economy crushing constitution shredding terms.

It astounds me that there is anyone left who thinks Bush was a hero on 9/11 or anything but dishonest in the days that followed:

But the commission’s efforts to reconstruct the tragedy itself were, at best, resented and, at worst, impeded by the sprawling defense bureaucracy and the Bush administration, both of which had much to hide. Even two reports by the inspectors general of the Defense and Transportation Departments, released in 2006, whitewashed government failures. Now that numerous transcripts and tapes have been declassified, however, Farmer draws on them to assail the government’s official depiction of 9/11 as so much public relations flimflam.

Yet both Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Vice President Dick Cheney, Farmer says, provided palpably false versions that touted the military’s readiness to shoot down United 93 before it could hit Washington. Planes were never in place to intercept it. By the time the Northeast Air Defense Sector had been informed of the hijacking, United 93 had already crashed. Farmer scrutinizes F.A.A. and Norad records to provide irrefragable evidence that a day after a Sept. 17 White House briefing, both agencies suddenly altered their chronologies to produce a coherent timeline and story that “fit together nicely with the account provided publicly by Deputy Defense Secretary Wolfowitz and Vice President Cheney.

Farmer further observes that the Bush administration wrongly asserted that the chain of command functioned on 9/11; that President Bush issued an authorization to shoot down hijacked commercial flights; and that top officials at F.A.A. headquarters coordinated their actions with the military. Farmer’s verdict: “History should record that whether through unprecedented administrative incompetence or orchestrated mendacity, the American people were misled about the nation’s response to the 9/11 attacks.”

This will be ignored by the wingnuts because they can't make it Obama's fault.

Remembrance Day

Remembered with honour


Victor Maistrau, Bourgmestre (Mayor) of Mons, Belgium during WWI:

"I knew this was liberation. Then, above the roar of artillery, I heard music, beautiful music. It was as though the Angels of Mons were playing. And then I recognized the song and the musician. Our carillonneur was playing 'O Canada' by candlelight. This was the signal. The whole population rushed into the square, singing and dancing, although the battle still sounded half a mile away."

Dope And Change

Professional quitter and popular Republican Sarah Palin may trust in God but she should also verify.

Also this:

"Sarah Palin didn't allow press at her speech Friday at a Wisconsin Right to Life fundraising banquet, and attendees were barred from bringing cell phones, cameras, laptops, or recording devices of any kind."

I thought efforts to control the press were exclusively the behavior of Kenyan-born Fascist dictators?

"and Rush went on to calumny"

A few direct hits from Maureen Dowd's column on the real narcissist:

But the tactics of Limbaugh, Palin, Cheney & Fille are more cynical: They spin certainty, ignoring their side’s screw-ups, and they exploit patriotism, labeling all critics as traitors.

Military brass have told the White House that this is the first time in eight years that they have gotten the attention and resources that they’ve needed in Afghanistan.

If W. had gone to Dover in the middle of the night to salute the war dead, Limbaugh and Liz Cheney would have been gushing about his patriotism.

But since it’s Obama who at last showed up there to see the brutal cost of war, they simply have to dismiss the moving moment as a publicity stunt.

The 48-year-old Obama is skinny and getting skinnier, but there’s nothing childish about him. He more or less raised himself and came to terms with his Oedipal demons on his own, and he radiates a hard-won maturity.

W., on the other hand, was like a kid who knew that Daddy’s friends would take care of him; he was always running off to the gym or going biking, leaving the governing to his regents, Cheney and Rummy, or incompetents like Brownie.

Fat, Stupid and Lazy - And That's The Successful Brother

Behold the Awesome Political Influence of Jonah Goldberg!

...burp, fail.

0%

TPM reminds wingnuts to face reality about how many times Bush went to Dover AFB to honor fallen troops. That would be zero.

As in the percentage of accuracy in Liz Cheney's claims.

Or as David Kurtz puts it:
"Liz Cheney says George W. Bush showed more class than Barack Obama when he honored fallen troops -- because Bush didn't bring cameras along with him when he never went to Dover AFB."


Also:
Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot.

Original Sick

Antonin Scalia makes a good case for not inventing the time machine:

"Using his "originalist'' philosophy, Scalia said he likely would have dissented from the historic 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that declared school segregation illegal and struck down the system of "separate but equal'' public schools."

Ratings Go Up, Intellajents Go Down

Glenn Beck: Sharpest sock in the drawer.

Senator Franken Makes A Joke

...out of Diana Furchtgott-Roth.
The right wing shill and Senior Fellow from the conservative think tank Hudson Institute tried the usual bogus fear-mongering about how moving to a European style health care system would create more medical bankruptcies.
One of her big mistakes, other than being a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute thereby having to make awkward water cooler conversation with Douglas Feith, was in not realizing that Franken is a policy wonk and likes nothing more than to call bullshit where he sees it.

He saw it in Furchtgott-Roth:



Another "Fascistsocialistcommunisttaliban...ist government shouldn't give handouts to those too lazy to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps!" argument made by a right-wing group that provides for themselves through hard work and personal initiative accepts government funding.

Just Checking In

So how's that NFL boycott going, anyway?

From Little ACORN Large Wing-Nuts Grow

For anyone interested in the whole, honest ACORN story, some inconvenient truths the right prefers to stay mum on.

Joe Conason:

"When ACORN officials discovered those cases, they informed the state authorities and turned in the miscreants. (That was why the Bush Justice Department's blatant attempt to smear ACORN with rushed, election-timed indictments became a national scandal for Republicans rather than Democrats.) The proportion of fraud is infinitesimal. For example, a half-dozen ACORN workers were charged with registration fraud or other election-related crimes in the 2004 election. They had completed fewer than two dozen false registrations -- out of more than a million new voters registered by ACORN during that cycle. The mythology that suggests that thousands or even millions of illegal registrants voted is itself a fraud.

If only the Republicans who have worked up a frenzy over ACORN's alleged crimes were so indignant about real and damaging voter fraud -- such as the amazing case of Young Political Majors, the firm that ran GOP registration efforts in California, Massachusetts, Florida, Arizona and elsewhere before the authorities in Orange County, Calif., busted its president, Mark Anthony Jacoby, and sent him to jail last year. He had built a lucrative partisan career by teaching his minions to deceive thousands of voters into registering as Republicans rather than Democrats, among other scams. Of course, the only on-air mention of the Young Political Majors scandal on Fox News was made by blogger Brad Friedman -- and the national media, mainstream and conservative, generally ignored it. They were too busy generating "controversy" over ACORN."

Eric Alterman:

"O’Keefe admits that his enmity for ACORN derived from its success helping Democrats win elections, not from any charges of corruption. The Post also points out that in Philadelphia ACORN employees called the police when the duo left the offices there. The videotape of that encounter has yet to be released, and so the prevailing image of ACORN in the mainstream media has been the one that the video makers, with a vendetta against the organization, wanted out there."

Rick Perlstein:

"In 2008, when the election was going on, conservative activists and Republican politicians were able to drive discussion of ACORN in the following way: they said that ACORN was aiding and abetting election fraud, and as evidence they gave all these false voter registration forms handed in by ACORN. You had to be an extremely alert news reader, you had to be an extremely informed member of the public, and you had to be very patient to be aware that it was actually ACORN that had discovered the fraud, and that law requires them to turn in every voter registration form they receive, even the ones that are fraudulent. In actual fact, they went above and beyond the law and flagged the ones they believed were fraudulent. So actually they were fighting electoral fraud, not creating electoral fraud."

Get Ready For A Ratings Boost

Hey NFL! Feel the wrath of the Mighty Right-Wing Jugger...not.

The right should organize another one of their devastating boycotts. It worked so well to bring down David Letterman.

It's like their version of the Colbert Bump.

Oh, For Crying Out Loud.

Really? Again? Why doesn't this guy just wear ties made of Kleenex?

Fat Chance

For Rush Limbaugh, NFL stands for Not F#@&ing Likely.
Looks like his racist*, misogynistic and homophobic rantings - though they are protected as free speech - carry a price.

Let the whining and ridiculous charges of "reverse racism" begin.

*the evidence.

And here's the whining right on cue - smothered in a rich victim sauce.
Delicious.

Another Fiasco

Frank Rich holds the right people accountable:

"Let’s be clear: Those who demanded that America divert its troops and treasure from Afghanistan to Iraq in 2002 and 2003 — when there was no Qaeda presence in Iraq — bear responsibility for the chaos in Afghanistan that ensued. "

It's a column fat with details on just who got the U.S. into this mess and why it's well within Obama's right as Commander In Chief to not do what his predecessor did which was place more importance on being seen as "The Decider" of "Bold Decisions". Bush knew he would not have to clean up after himself - business as usual for him - so he didn't care what kind of mess he left for the next person to govern from the oval office.

Oh, That's How It Works

So now they're giving out Peace Prizes as consolation for not winning the Olympics?

No wonder I didn't get one.

Obama My God!

Last night on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart did a segment that included the right's over reaction to school kids singing a song with lyrics about The Great Black Marxist from Kenya.
Rough transcript:

"Alright, so that's one school in New Jersey. Obama had nothing to do with it. It occurred during Black History Month just after the inauguration. It was part of a program saluting other presidents as well and parents were notified of the lyrics before hand. And there were no complaints before the show, during the show or after the show. I believe I have said everything up to the appropriate level of panic."

What followed was a montage of FOX news clips showing various crazy FOX people panicking well above the appropriate level - also known as "their normal state of mind" - going on about Hitler, indoctrination and even the Khmer Rouge.

Back to Stewart who then went on to say "If you can brainwash kids to sing a song praising the first African American president you can probably convince them that president Bush and FEMA did a great job during Hurricane Katrina" We are then treated to a video of Laura Bush with the "Katrina Kids" praising another president.
Stewart quotes the lyrics: "Congress, Bush and FEMA people across our land together have come to rebuild us and we join them hand in hand."
So, again, selective outrage grips the right.
I wanted to link to the Daily show clip but, being in Canada prevents me from doing so - thanks a lot Comedy Central. If you too reside in the Home of Evil Socialized Medicine and Geddy Lee, you can see the show here for as long as it's on their site.

In lieu of that, I did manage to find this charming performance which, much to my shock and awe, never registered on the right's constantly red-lined outrage-o-meter.

Hallelujah.

The History Of "Rogue"

Professional quitter Sarah Palin is happy to announce her ghost writer, Lynn Vincent, has finished her book. The title, Going Rogue, however cute and sassy it may seem to Americans south of Canada's border, may not sit so well with Alaskans familiar with Palin's not so cute politics.

During the ethics investigation of Sarah Palin now known as "Troopergate," that phrase became seared into the collective consciousness of Alaskans. Palin's spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton used that word referring not to Palin, but to former Commissioner of Public Safety Walt Monegan. Palin had pressured Monegan to fire her ex-brother-in-law, Trooper Mike Wooten, whose nasty divorce from Palin's sister had left bitter feelings. Monegan refused to fire him, and was subsequently dismissed by the governor, leaving the Department of Public Safety without leadership and leaving many Alaskans with a bad taste in their mouths.
In a stinging press conference, Stapleton said that Monegan, a particularly well-liked and respected public servant, former police chief and ex-Marine had displayed "egregious rogue behavior." Stapleton, who had been a respected news anchor before her association with Palin, suffered withering criticism from Alaskans on both sides of the political spectrum. Alaska is a small town. Monegan was no "rogue," everyone knew it, and the use of the term disgraced her.

Classy? You betcha.

An independent investigator was hired to look into the firing.
How did that go?

"I conclude that such claims of fear were not bona fide and were offered to provide cover for the Palins' real motivation: to get Trooper Wooten fired for personal family reasons," Branchflower wrote.
The Branchflower report states Todd Palin used his wife's office and its resources to press for Wooten's removal, and the governor "failed to act" to stop it. But because Todd Palin is not a state employee, the report makes no finding regarding his conduct.

Poor Todd. His own douchebaggery forever to wallow in the shadow of his wife's big league muchmoredouchierbaggery.

A Platform Of Torture

Adam Sewer at The American Prospecton on the rising star of the GOP, Liz Cheney:
"Reality, it seems, is a nemesis not only for the former vice president but for the entire Cheney family."

And Ye Shall Know His Compassion By The Women He Mocks Tears He Sheds

I give you Right-wing role model, the King of Crybabies, and the current face of FOX, Glenn Beck.
A woman's tragedy is his comedy.

"We do not cheerlead for one cause or another."

Um, yeah, about that...

"Other Than 80% Of The American People."

Finally, someone comes to the defense insurance companies:

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Joe The Yeller's Awesome State of Health Care

Rachel Maddow on the sick state of South Carolina.
Palin/Wilson 2012 - Oh Yeah.

Oh My God. Obama Has A Time Machine!

More panic from the right:
Obama's Dems are fascists!!!
They will no longer tolerate TRUTH!!!
Pre-emptive censorshiiiiiiip!!!!!!

Except, again, not

"[Just to clarify: Even though I clearly wrote that it was the committee "primer' -- and not the rules themselves -- that were updated, I've gotten a bunch of emails from readers who think Slaughter and Co. actually revised the underlying regs. Not so. The document produced was merely a new guide of existing rules.]"

Obviously this proves Obama has the ability to travel back in time where he creates policies that will help him in his takeover of the galaxy.
I like this area 51 very much.

Protesting Numbers

Lies and the Lying Liars - Part 2,000,000

It's All Obama's Fault!!

Except, you know, not.

Wilson!!!!

Thank you to the Republicans last night who proved that Van Jones' assessment of them was spot on.

IndoctriedNation

I caught some hi-lights from Obama's speech to America's students today. I must admit I was a bit surprised at the end, after the students kissed his ring, when he suddenly and without prior warning produced brown shirt uniforms sized and ready to wear for all in attendance. Who knew he would have been that well prepared in advance? On the production side of things, the burning torches that lined the gigantic arena where the speech took place added a nice theatrical touch and lit the busts of Stalin, Marx, Malcom X, Saddam Hussein, William Ayers and Jean Naigeon in a rather dramatic way.

All in all, I think it went well.

Bullying Face Puncher Weak Frail Victim Loses Finger And Sympathy

Sheesh. What kind of thug bites a finger just because it's on a hand that's punching him in the face?
Is there no limit to the savagery of these anti face punchers?

Adding
In the real world if you are dumb enough to leave your fist in a guys mouth you don't call foul when your fingers get eated. I'm not saying Rice can't get upset by the loss of a finger but hopefully he is also embarrassed by the sleazy type of political opportunist who plays the victim card in his name and portrays him as "the weakest most frail victim" guy.

Now, what was that I recently read about calling the waaaaambulance?

Also this:

The exception was a tall 65-year-old man in an orange shirt who Kuns said "was displaying what I would consider to be intimidating behavior." He first picked on a pro-reform woman more than a foot shorter than him, stretching his arms out and shooing her away as he advanced on her and she backpedaled.

"It appeared to me that he was saying, basically, get on your own side of the street now," Kuns said. "He was chasing her."

Next on the anti-reformer's harassment list was a pro-reformer who appeared to be in his late 30s or early 40s, was stocky, and several inches shorter than the 65-year-old. Though Kuns isn't sure how the pro-reformer ended up on the anti side of the street, she saw the two men face to face, exchanging words.

Then the anti-reformer in the orange shirt "punches him straight up in the face, right between the eyes." The smaller pro-reformer's glasses and hat flew off, and he fell into the street.

"I don't know who started it wordwise," Kuns said, "but I can tell you for sure that the guy who threw the first punch was the anti guy. And can he punch hard! He knocked this guy down into the street."

"Weakest, most frail victim".
Yeah.
It's hard to tell which runs deeper around these bedwetters from "victimhood" - their bullshit or their crocodile tears

Not In Their Backyard

Fine example of conservative values, David Vitter, not satisfied with poking his penis into other people's business, introduces his nose to the practice too.

Sense Making Stop

From our Pick A Side, Stay With It Dept.:

Huh. Imagine that. Apparently Henry Waxman now is the embodiment of qualities so vile and thugalicious that he just may have earned himself a flattering book length tribute by none other than Anne Coulter.

How Do You Solve A Problem Like The HitlerNaziBaggers?

Finally, someone (that someone being a calm and concise Barney Frank) addresses the crazies the way they should be addressed - with spectacularly devastating public humiliation.

Too bad he wasn't here too.

"She really gets me high (Amsterdam) You know FOX don't lie (Amsterdam)"*

There's FOX news and then there's the truth.

*with apologies to, possibly, Leadbelly

Don't Tell Me What The Palin Is Doing

Let Shatner! do it.

As we learn The Quitter With The Twitter says either:

a)

"And then the extremes
In the winter time it's the frozen road that is competing with the view
Of ice fogged frigid beauty, the cold though,
Doesn't it split the Cheechakos
From the Sourdoughs?"

or

b)

"And porn speaks to it's splintered legions
To the pink amid the withered corn stalks in them winter regions
While aiming at the archetypal father
He said with such broad and tentative swipes why do you even bother"

Cheat sheet:
a); b)

It's All Obama's Fault!

Except, not really.

"Every Administration spins and sugarcoats the economic truth. But the Bush White House took this disingenuousness to new levels. The surest way to get yourself fired as a Bush economic adviser was to say something that was true. Paul O'Neill was ousted from Treasury for warning about deficits. Larry Lindsey was kicked out of the top White House economic job for predicting in 2002 that the Iraq war would cost $100 billion to $200 billion — far below the actual cost but much more than what the White House was officially projecting. This disdain for reality, and for expertise, pervaded the Bush economic approach, and made it impossible for the Administration to react intelligently to real-world economic problems like the housing bubble."

It's Like John And Paul After The Break Up Except With Less Talent And No Fan Base To Speak Of

Hilarious.

America Has Spoken

And the Mother Whacker's head explodes in three, two, one.

Murtha, Murtha, Murtha!!!

John Murtha, chair of the House Defense Inappropriations subcommittee?

Speciesous Argument

From the Brain Trust at Fox And Friends.

Bailout Package - Republican Style

Ensign runs to mommy and daddy for help.

I Don't Think "Win" Is The Word I Would Have Gone With

CNN ignores the rest of the news better than other networks.

Senator Franken

The Al Franken Decade finally begins.

Congratulations, Emy. Your hard work paid off!

Monsters

Bob Herbert's column:

"No one seems to know how old Mohammed Jawad was when he was seized by Afghan forces in Kabul six and a half years ago and turned over to American custody. Some reports say he was 14. Some say 16. The Afghan government believes he was 12.
...
In a sworn affidavit, Colonel Vandeveld said, “This abuse included the slapping of Mr. Jawad across the face while Mr. Jawad’s head was covered with a hood, as well as Mr. Jawad’s having been shoved down a stairwell while both hooded and shackled.”
...
The colonel said he lacked the words “to express the heartsickness” he felt as he came to fully understand the way Jawad had been treated by American soldiers.

On Dec. 25, 2003, Jawad tried to kill himself by repeatedly banging his head against a wall of his cell.
There is no credible evidence against Jawad, and his torture-induced confession has rightly been ruled inadmissible by a military judge. But the Obama administration does not feel that he has suffered enough. Not only have administration lawyers opposed defense efforts to secure Jawad’s freedom, but they are using, as the primary basis for their opposition, the fruits of the confession that was obtained through torture and has already been deemed inadmissible — without merit, of no value."

As Thers stated in the post I linked to yesterday, "...there are lots and lots of perfectly legitimate reasons to criticize the Obama administration..."

Continuing some of the monstrous misconduct of the Bush administration is certainly one of them.

Hoax Couture

Another rightwing conspiracy theory melts in the bright light of reality.
Whiskey Fire:

It's a very odd thing: there are lots and lots of perfectly legitimate reasons to criticize the Obama administration, but the right wing blogosphere has yet to come up with a single line of attack that isn't totally loony.

Thers actually takes the time to do what wingnuts should have done before buying this latest conservative think tank sponsored attempt at spreading blatant corporate propaganda.
You know, when someone decides not to publish a fiction disguised as a climate science report by two guys with no climate science credentials, I wouldn't exactly call that "suppressing".
In the same way I wouldn't call refusing to let an auto mechanic diagnose my mother when she's had a heart attack "suppressing" a medical opinion.

Paul Krugman's op-ed:

I’d call this a crazy conspiracy theory, but doing so would actually be unfair to crazy conspiracy theorists. After all, to believe that global warming is a hoax you have to believe in a vast cabal consisting of thousands of scientists — a cabal so powerful that it has managed to create false records on everything from global temperatures to Arctic sea ice.

To put it into terms they might understand - If these deniers don't get on the right side of this and soon, there won't be a habitable Argentina left to house their mistresses.

Update
Just because this, so far, is the best quote I have read on the story:

"a ragbag collection of un-peer reviewed web pages, an unhealthy dose of sunstroke, a dash of astrology and more cherries than you can poke a cocktail stick at."

The Perversion Of A Persian

I knew it would be only a matter of time before Mr. Wabu used the image of Neda Agha-Soltan, bloody and lifeless (a close up with a comical caption, no less, all you money-shot fans!) to further his conspiracy-laden political something-or-other agenda.
Was it a relief to him that that he found this photo? After all, he can only exploit images of the exploding twin towers so many times before his desensitized fan base start talking about how he just keeps repeating himself.
I'm certain he thinks he's being "Unflinching"™ and all "Up In The Grill"™ of his enemies by posting it but one gets the creepy feeling that it's just porn for this guy.
Just Mother Whackin' insane.

To paraphrase TBogg, Neda is the BFF that Abu Wabu never would have had.

Inglesh Ownlee

Pat Buchanan's Vowel Movement Rawks!

Found In Translation

Meet The Press as heard without the filter.

Stupid Human Tricks

A sampling of the vicious left the high-minded who sit in judgment of that awful man David Letterman who make crude comments about children :

"Should we talk about his son?" one protester asked Green. "I believe his son was born out of wedlock. I believe there's a term for that."
...
"How dare he?" asked yet a third, the most offensive of all. "When he has a bastard son, and a slut for a wife" (Letterman's wife Lasko has kept a notoriously low profile).

So that's what the high road looks like.
It's a good thing that, as some have brilliantly predicted, Letterman's ratings are dropping like a f****n' stone!
Yes, there's nothing like controversy (even one full of Hot Air) to rid a show of it's viewers.

Winkin' Memorial

Poor Bible Spice.
Now that she's got her apology from Letterman, she'll need to conjure up some other Palin-the-victim whine festival to keep the spotlight on herself.
I've been having a hard time believing the sincerity of this latest attack of the vapors that has overcome so many in the Palin camp. After all, when the issue moves from dealing with talk of rape to dealing with an actual rape, Palin's response has been far less sensitive:

"...as AMERICAblog has documented (and the media is now reporting), when Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, the town charged rape victims for the exams."

Nothing so classy as screwing a rape victim.

Turns out I'm not alone in my skepticism. Perhaps Letterman was the last straw for them but I doubt it. Conservatives have never met a straw they weren't willing to snap at in anger so the first one usually is as far as anyone gets.

As James Wolcott says:

"I fear some on the political-cultural right may be losing their sense of proportion, along with their few remaining marbles."

Who Would Jesus Shoot In The Head?

Looks Like Radical Rightwing Terrorism Wins This Round.

Asked whether he felt efforts should be made to keep the clinic open, (Dr. Warren Hern) said: "This was Dr. Tiller's clinic. How much can you resist this kind of violence? What doctor, what reasonable doctor would work there? Where does it stop?"

"I will never be safe the rest of my life," Hern said. "No matter what I do. Even if I close my office. They've told me, don't bother wearing a bulletproof vest, we're going to go for a head shot."

Update:
Say, isn't this one of those Ticking Time Bomb Scenarios the right loves to use as a torture justification?
Why all the silence, then (cough, not a muslim, cough)?

Or as Roger Ailes (the good one) puts it.

Hens In The FOX House

Sean Hannity, FOX's go-to alarmist who is equally afraid of waterboarding and elite mustards, and Mark Steyn (rapper name: Nostradumbass) hit the panic button over the horrible conciliatory tone President WorsethanHitler took in his Cairo speech when talking about Hamas.

Except, of course, he didn't.

On Shaky Ground

Making fun of the guy with Parkinson's Disease:
Har dee har har!

Making fun of the guy who makes fun of the guy with Parkinson's Disease:
Well, I never!

Letterman Kicks Dick

Funny because it's true.

Confronting Demons

In his May 4th column, Dan Froomkin includes this comment by Deepak Chopra:

"People don't want to hear about bad things from the past when the present is loaded down with more than enough bad things. But inconvenience and fatigue aren't good excuses. There is anger from the left — and not just the left — about an inexcusable Bush policy. There are demons in the closet, and shutting the door on them won't make them go away. Better to deal with it now, when a new president's idealism is still fresh. It will take idealism to face the torture issue. Otherwise, any truth commission will either turn into a vengeance squad or go the other way and sweep too much under the rug.

"The more the right wing tries to justify the torture policy, the worse they look. Using national security to justify torture is just a bald-faced attempt to hide the truth. What really went on was simple. The Bush administration felt that Al-Qaida could not be defeated while still preserving what America stands for."

“Enemy fighters at two o'clock!" "Roger. What should I do until then?”

Conservative beacons Hannity and Coulter show their deep respect for combat veterans.

History Lessen

Michele Bachmann (R-Cuckoo For Cocoa Puffs), the gift that keeps on giving.

Mother Whacking Conservative Principles

Shorter Byron York: "Obama popular? Sure, if you count what those people think."

The First One Hundred Days!!!1!!

From our You Can Please Some Of The People None Of The Time dept.

Remember how outrageous it was when Barack bowed to the Saudi King and remember how outrageous it was when Michelle Obama touched the Queen?

How obsequiously disrespectful!

Probably Should Have Been Nixed At The Storyboard Stage.

Worst. Photo-shoot. Concept. Ever.

Update: Hilarious because it's true.

Can't Spell "Got Pandemic?" Without G O P

The visionary geniuses of the Grand Obfuscation Party rock!
First they mock volcano monitoring. Oops.

Now this.

Bursting Bubbleheads

Sadly No educates the sadly wrong.

Standing Up To Rush

Here's one person who won't be crawling to Rush, begging for forgiveness.
The reason? He's not a Republican politician.

Shane Murphy, second-in-command aboard the ship seized by Somali pirates:

"You gotta get with us or against us here, Rush," Murphy said. "The president did the right thing...It's a war.... It's about good versus evil. And what you said is evil. It's hate speech. I won't tolerate it."

Mr. Murphy won't, but I know someone who would and often does while clapping like a trained seal.

Buzzing Cheney's Harsh

From McClatchy

CIA official: no proof harsh techniques stopped terror attacks

You were saying, Dick?

"This doesn't happen in America! Maybe in Ohio, but not in America!"*

An example of what the right thinks DHS has no business being concerned about.

*

Update: Dave Neiwert explains, in depth, the willful distortion of fact that on right-wing oly served to heighten Obama-rage among the Sgt Furious set when the infamous DHS document was released:

"This is, in fact, precisely accurate -- and as we pointed out from the get-go, this is the view not merely of DHS, but of the FBI. A July 2008 assessment of the situation by the FBI (titled White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnel Since 9/11) found that the numbers of identifiable neo-Nazis within the ranks was quite small (only a little over 200), but warned:

Military experience—ranging from failure at basic training to success in special operations forces—is found throughout the white supremacist extremist movement. FBI reporting indicates extremist leaders have historically favored recruiting active and former military personnel for their knowledge of firearms, explosives, and tactical skills and their access to weapons and intelligence in preparation for an anticipated war against the federal government, Jews, and people of color.

... The prestige which the extremist movement bestows upon members with military experience grants them the potential for influence beyond their numbers. Most extremist groups have some members with military experience, and those with military experience often hold positions of authority within the groups to which they belong.

... Military experience—often regardless of its length or type—distinguishes one within the extremist movement. While those with military backgrounds constitute a small percentage of white supremacist extremists, FBI investigations indicate they frequently have higher profiles within the movement, including recruitment and leadership roles.

... New groups led or significantly populated by military veterans could very likely pursue more operationally minded agendas with greater tactical confidence. In addition, the military training veterans bring to the movement and their potential to pass this training on to others can increase the ability of lone offenders to carry out violence from the movement’s fringes."

But we can assume from the anger and scorn present in so many online posts from the right that this particular security matter is best left unexamined. Because keeping America safe comes second to not making their side look bad. Now that's national security they can believe in!

Update 2:
Balloon Juice:

"Here is a suggestion if Michelle still needs shoulder to cry on. Go find a cop. There’s no need to come to southwestern PA; I saw squad cars from Michigan, Massachusetts and Canada at Thursday’s funeral. Tell him or her how completely unfair it feels to have the government keeping an eye on paranoid gun fetishists. She can explain to her new friend how the government was never meant to use unrestrained police powers on her kind of American."

Fractured Fairytale

Another rightwing lie gets the viral treatment among wingnut bloggers and conservative media.


Must be one of those deeply held principles of theirs that I keep hearing about.

Somewhere Over The Storm Clouds

Oh no! The Gathering Gay Storm is a comin'!!!
And we all know after the storm often comes the rainbow.
So for The National Organization for Marriage, their moral discomfort is really just beginning.

But please don't tell them. It's an awesome video and they worked so hard on it.

"Beauchamp's Fictions?"

Apparently Not

Taxing The Logic Of The Tea Baggers

What Rogers says.

Tearing At The Social Fabrication

Paul Krugman talks Tea Parties

"Thus, President Obama is being called a “socialist” who seeks to destroy capitalism. Why? Because he wants to raise the tax rate on the highest-income Americans back to, um, about 10 percentage points less than it was for most of the Reagan administration. Bizarre."

P Is For Dumb

George W. Bush, seen here swinging into action on 9/11/01


We're, what, 83 day's into Obama's presidency and the rightwing rage of the day is already up to the letter "p". As in "pirates" and "pizza".
The first outcries were over the fact that Obama refused to dive into the troubled waters off the coast of Africa with knife gripped firmly between his teeth, as George W. Bush would have done minutes into the crisis. Then when Captain Phillips jumps over board and Navy Seals wrap up the rescue operation, killing three of the kidnapp... sorry, pirates, and capturing the fourth, we learn from certain rightwing bloggers - yar, experts they be in all things military* - that the Seals apparently aquired their bravery and pro-active skills through personal training from none other than W himself. Seriously.

As for pizzagate. Well, that's just The Stupid once again coming home to roost.

"In fact, Chris Sommers flew commercial.
Not only that, he flew coach.
Not only that, he had already planned a business trip to DC, so the restaurant paid for his travel!
...
Finally, Barack Obama isn't saddling the American taxpayer with the tab for this feast. He's picking up the tab, for local ingredients, out of his own pocket."

Awesome, accurate reporting from the right, once again.
Or as Sadly, No puts it:

"So, Jack-o, what do you want on your pizza pie? How ’bout library paste, applesauce and an extra topping of melted stupid?"

*obligatory Pirate dialect.

Continuing Down The Wrong Path

Glenn Greenwald is right. It doesn't matter who is in office. This level of secrecy and immunity is just plain wrong.

If I Had An "I Wish I'd Said That" List

The last sentence of this post would be at the top of it.

Glenn Beck Is Ready For His Close-Up

Hilarious

Cry Baby Cry, Make Your Mother Sigh

Note "victim" expression (left), "meanie" expression (right).


Today's Right-wing Outrage™ stems from "Waaahhh, that mean man is saying mean things about our favorite president." Syndrome.


All this nonsense about how Obama is a coward because he has to go to Europe to badmouth Bush is just full on denial. The man ran his campaign, in part, by knocking the previous president's colossal failures and promising a new direction away from the last disastrous eight years.

That is why he won.

In fact, Obama even cut W down at the inauguration, while the petulant one was sitting just a few feet away. That's someone in possession of gigantic Presidential cajones.

adding: I don't really have to talk about how what was actually being said by Obama in Europe was that there are problems of perception that need to be fixed for relations to improve. That is obvious to any honest person who has been exposed to opinions in both Europe and the United States. "Obama the Anti-American" is just another typically phony conservative talking point design to rile up the party faithful. If America is perfection to them why are we subjected to FOX News and their unstable stable of professional complainers? The irony is that every time a conservative opens their mouth to complain about people who criticize aspects of America, they do so by criticizing aspects of America (the coastal states, progressives, Hollywood, hurricane victims, 9/11 widows, gays, people who enjoy drinking lattes etc. etc. - they are all part of the U.S.A.).
Precisely why so many rational people don't waste their time respecting what these cartoon characters have to say.

Edited For More Phony Outrage

Sean Hannity edits Obama's speech just to help him get another hour of his career.

These guys can't even whine without having to first distort reality.

What A Fool Believes

Miss Cocktail Dress continues to prove her irrelevancy.

Republican's To The Rescue!!!11!!

"One trick is to tell them stories that don't go anywhere. 

Like the time I took the ferry to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel 

for my shoe so I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they 

called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, 

which was the style at the time..."

In the time that it takes for Abe Simpson to get through a story and with almost as much substance and relevance, the GOP rolls out it's awesomest alternative budget ever.

Children, Part Eleventyhundred - The Indulgening

Telepromptergate - the wingnuts current best and brightest attempt at journamalism, notwithstanding Photoshopgate, Birthcertifigate, Terroristfistbumpgate, Nojacketintheovalofficegate, DVDgate. etc. etc. etcgate.

So, to stay on top of this ever so big story, John Aravosis asks the important question: "What kind of moron uses a teleprompter?"


End of story (if only).

Adding: Oh what the heck. This bit of perspective from David Letterman merely serves to punctuate the point.

Gee, sorry, I'm all out of tissue. Hey, I know. Why don't you just act like a grown-up?

A reply from TBogg to the wingnut whiners*:

"On behalf of those of us who watched an asleep-at-the-wheel president oversee a relatively large terrorist attack on our shores precipitating an invasion of a country with no ties to that terrorist attack at a cost of $600 billion and counting, 4000 military lives and counting, warrantless eavesdropping, torture, diminished standing in the world, epic incompetence while a great American city was destroyed, a surplus turned upside down and turned into a massive deficit, a war on science and the environment, and stocking various departments of the government with graduates of Jesus Rode A Dinosaur University .... consider us unsympathetic."

Or, as Jack Sparrow would say...

*I prefer to call them snivelers.

Rush's Greatest Hits

The many lows of the high moral compass of the Republican party.

Another Layer Off The Stinking Onion

In the Bush administration, it appears Freedom was just another word for "something we don't want you to have":

In perhaps the most surprising assertion, the Oct. 23, 2001, memo suggested the president could even suspend press freedoms if he concluded it was necessary to wage the war on terror.

The President of the United States takes an oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" not to dismantle it, which is exactly what Bush tried to do.

Logic Bored

Digby observes CPAC putting it in reverse and swerving into the ideological ditch. It's nice to see the right not getting why they lost the last two elections and just continuing the things that got them where they are today.

Please take extra time to enjoy the words of Charles Pierce in the Update at the bottom of Digby's post.

"No. You're idiots and your mothers are embarrassed by every single one of you.
...

These are people who never learned that a sneer is not logic and that a string of adjectives is not an argument. All that matters is Pissing Off The Liberals."

I think we all know someone who fits that description.

I have not seen such a thorough a dismissal of the petulant right since this classic.

Eruptile Disfunction

Meet the GOP's next Reagan.

Awesome.

or as TBogg put it:

"Bobby Jindal's presidential aspirations blew up tonight like a cheap condom on the end of a fire hose."

Good Godwin Ms. Malkin

With friends like this, who needs enemas?

Adding - Some may argue the highly principled™ "they did it first" argument.  

In fact I would argue that the highly principled™ have been doing it for years.  

Or my name isn't Ernst Zundel.

What A Fool Believes

Well here we are again.
You know, one needs to do no more than wait a few days after most right wing attacks on Liberal policy to check their in box and find that the attacks are the usual bunch of bull pulled not from their vast knowledge on any particular subject but rather from the vast recesses of their hind region.

Case in point: Betsy McCaughey.
She writes an article attacking Obama's plans for health care. An article so full of holes it can be used to strain the pasta I cooked for a delicious spaghetti and meatballs dinner I made from a recipe my beloved mother shared with me.

Oh yeah, Betsy is a real piece of compromised work. Only a right wing lemming conditioned to gobble up anything that fits his narrow ill informed world view would swallow her argument hook line and sinker and then go about spreading her lies online without first checking for accuracy. But then again, accuracy has never been a driving principle behind rightwing ideology.


As I always say of people like that: "He knows everything, but that's all he knows."

Responsible retraction in 3, 2, 1, infinity....

It's A Wonderful Life

Wollcott's thoughts on the inauguration.

Funny 'Cause It's True Dept.: "As my wife mentioned, Dick Cheney in his wheelchair really is the spitting image of Lionel Barrymore's despot banker in It's a Wonderful Life."

Suitable For Viewing

Fun times:
I watched the inauguration of President Obama on our big screen tv and the departure of ex-president Bush on our small one.

Cheers

Barack Hussein Obama is President.

I'm just sayin'