Playing Hardball

This is good news:

President Obama on Wednesday will make clear that he opposes any compromise that would extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy beyond this year...

Mr. Obama’s opposition to allowing the high-end tax cuts to remain in place for even another year or two would be the signal many Congressional Democrats have been awaiting as they prepare for a showdown with Republicans on the issue and ends speculation that the White House might be open to an extension. Democrats say only the president can rally wavering lawmakers who, amid the party’s weakened poll numbers, feel increasingly vulnerable to Republican attacks if they let the top rates lapse at the end of this year as scheduled.

Of course, we now have to wait and see if Congressional Democrats will find their spine.

Ultimately, this will get spun against Obama as a tax increase if the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire for the top 2% of income earners, or if it doesn't come to pass and the cowards actually do extend them, by 2012 everyone will have forgotten and the GOP will call it the Obama tax cuts further adding to the deficit.

But it's nice to see the President playing hardball and calling out the GOP for what it is the last couple of days.

Douche Quote of the Day

Talk about your right wing lunacy!

Gawker:

Andrew Breitbart: [Holocaust Museum shooter] James von Brunn was a "multiculturalist just like the black studies and the lesbian studies majors on college campuses."

Breitbart is angry that anyone would call a neo-Nazi a "right-wing extremist."

Here's a sample:

"It's such a fucking slander on people like me. This guy's political philosophy is more akin to the drivel that you hear on a college campuses that delineates us by group and not by individuality....
It's deeply offensive that you would use this for political gain."

What a fucking jokester this douchebag is. But please go to Gawker and listen to the whole seething, angry voicemail. How dare someone call Von Brunn a right wing extremist! Apparently it's an insult to real right wing extremisits like Breitbart.

But It's Not About Racism (The Pat Buchanan Edition)

BUCHANAN: Well I, again in that Saturday piece, she went to Princeton. She graduated first in her class it said. But she herself said she read, basically classic children's books to read and learn the language and she read basic English grammars and she got help from tutors. I think that, I mean if you're, frankly if you're in college and you're working on Pinocchio or on the troll under the bridge, I don't think that's college work.

Amanda Terkel: Buchanan has long claimed that Hispanic immigrants are resistant to learning English and has said that it would be easier for them to "assimilate" if they did so. When writing about Mexican immigrants in 2006, Buchanan said that in contrast to Italian immigrants, "millions of Mexicans are determined to retain their language and loyalty to Mexico." Similarly, he has also said that "the road to culture is language" and "they want to keep their Spanish language."

So basically, Buchanan yells when Hispanics are allegedly unwilling to learn English. However, when they make an attempt to do so, he mocks them as being dumb.

You should watch the entire video for more crap like she's an affirmative action activist and belongs to La Raza a "radical group" advancing the Hispanic agenda. Remind me again why Buchanan is considered relevant?

Judge Sotomayor's "Racist" Comments

Does context mean anything? FUCK, YES! The GOP bandwagon to attack Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor has boiled down to one sentence made in a speech in her 2001 address at the 'Raising the Bar' symposium at the UC Berkeley School of Law.

The quote: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

Not only have the right wing operatives taken that quote out of the context in which it was used, they've even parsed it further, usually omitting the ending, "who hasn't lived that life." Pat Buchanan even goes ahead and argues the plight of the white man.

Pat Buchanan: "...she thinks "Latina women," because of their life experience, make better judicial decisions than white men, that discrimination against white men to advance people of color is what America is all about..."

Oh, the white male has had it hard in these United States, haven't they? The affirmative action claim Buchanan makes is based on his interpretation (or lack of) of Sotomayor's ruling in the New Haven firefighter case which, I'm sure if you asked him, he would categorize as being an "activist" ruling not realizing that the basis for the three judge panel's decision was due to past precedent as well as upholding the District Court's decision.

But no matter. She said "white male" in a speech eight years ago and the white males are crying "RACISM!" while their scrotums shrivel up. After all, she's a "brown woman" according to Tom Tancredo. Lordy, we can't have that on the bench.

Keith Olbermann does a great job here in not only putting the quote into context, but debunking the "racist" poo flinging from the actual racist monkeys on the right, while at the same time employing a scorched earth policy taking on Karl Rove, Ann Coulter, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, CNN and Tom Tancredo.

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In that CNN segment, Tancredo also likened the National Council of La Raza to the "KKK without the hoods and the nooses." What the fuck?

From their website:

The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) – the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States – works to improve opportunities for Hispanic Americans. Through its network of nearly 300 affiliated community-based organizations (CBOs), NCLR reaches millions of Hispanics each year in 41 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. To achieve its mission, NCLR conducts applied research, policy analysis, and advocacy, providing a Latino perspective in five key areas – assets/investments, civil rights/immigration, education, employment and economic status, and health. In addition, it provides capacity-building assistance to its Affiliates who work at the state and local level to advance opportunities for individuals and families.

Founded in 1968, NCLR is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax-exempt organization headquartered in Washington, DC. NCLR serves all Hispanic subgroups in all regions of the country and has operations in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Antonio, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Yeah... sure sounds like a lynch mob to me. Does the KKK have a lobbying firm in Washington, DC? Perhaps the National Rifle Association? I kid, but you get the point. What an insufferable, racist douche, that Tom Tancredo. And you can quote me.

More Stupid Than Humans Should Allow

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Doucheland):

– “I would also point out that CO2, carbon dioxide, is not a pollutant in any normal definition of the term. … I am creating it as I talk to you. It’s in your Coca-Cola, you’re Dr. Pepper, your Perrier water. It is necessary for human life. It is odorless, colorless, tasteless, does not cause cancer, does not cause asthma.”

– “And something that the Democrat sponsors do not point out, a lot of the CO2 that is created in the United States is naturally created. You can’t regulate God. Not even the Democratic majority in the US Congress can regulate God.”

– “If you think greenhouse gases are bad, life couldn’t exist without greenhouse gases. … So, there is a, there is a climate theory — and it’s a theory, it’s not a fact, it’s never been proven — that increasing concentrations of CO2 in the upper atmosphere somehow interact to trap more heat than the atmosphere would otherwise.”

— “You know, that life style is going to become more and more difficult if you get these vehicles smaller and smaller and less and less efficient in terms of being able to travel distances without having to recharge or refuel.”

I'm not making this up. Here's the video.



(H/T Think Progress)

PizzaGate? Seriously?!

In yet another example of "We Got Nothin', So We'll Try To Make Anything a Scandal," the fringe zanies are trying to hang an environmental / I'm the president and therefore can request anything hypocrisy moniker on President Obama by insisting that he ordered pizza. From St. Louis. On the taxpayers' dime.

One problem. It's all wrong.

Is this what the wingnuts have come to? Pizzagate? This is what we're going to have to contend with for the next four, and most likely eight, years. Pathetic.

Maddow Calls Bullshit

I ♥ Rachel.

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Bill Kristol: Biggest. Douchebag. Ever.

I as soooooooooo glad I recorded The Daily Show last night. When I heard the name "Bill Kristol" come out of Jon Stewart's mouth, I almost got sick to my stomach. This is one of the most vile conservatives ever and at the same time such an easy punching bag because you can count on him to be wrong 99% of the time. I'm still looking for that one percent but I'm giving Kristol the benefit of the doubt.

But still, I just can't take anymore bullshit these last four days (FOUR DAYS!) before the election - I don't even listen to the live coverage from the Republican campaign trail anymore - and I certainly didn't feel like listening to the likes of Kristol after a long day, but Stewart is like a fine surgeon with his comedy scalpel and it was a lesson in how to deal with wingnuts.

Jon Stewart is my hero.



Stewart: Sarah Palin is from Alaska. They give a stipend from corporations to their citizens. That is Marxism, is it not? Isn't that redistribution of wealth?

Kristol: No, that's conservative economics. Helping those hard working citizens.

Audience moans and laughs in disgust.

[...]

Kristol: I'd would prefer to go with McCain's record in the Senate than Obama's record in the campaign.

Stewart: But [McCain] has repudiated almost that entire record during the campaign.

Kristol: Oh, nonsense. Nonsense. You're reading the New York Times too much, Jon.

Stewart: BILL, YOU WORK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES!

[...]

Stewart: But you can't look at past performance as a predictor, otherwise you wouldn't be obviously still a pundit.


Bill Kristol: Biggest. Douchebag. Ever.

When Is A Town Hall Debate Not A Town Hall Debate?

When the Republican spin operatives say is isn't.

As Logan Murphy at C&L makes clear, a half hour before the debate was even over, the GOP spin doctors were already sending out e-mails disparaging the debate as not really a town hall format and therefore a disadvantage to McCain.

Yeah, that's right. They saw the writing on the wall with McCain before the gig was over and didn't blame the debater, they blamed the style of the debate. The "town hall" debate that BOTH candidates agreed to - signing off on the rules of the debate in advance - the "town hall" setting that John McCain asked Obama to weekly. The "town hall" style that would've shown the country who connects with the average American - "Joe Six-pack," if you will.

How pathetic. But in a strange way, they spin machine is right. A real town hall would've had a back and forth between the audience member who asked the question and the debater. The rules gave the debater a chance to avoid answering the question or changing the subject. Perhaps if Obama had agreed to do the town halls in the first place, he would have had this thing wrapped up a month ago.

Palin Ready To Lead on Day One

So says MSNBC's Republican strategist Joe Watkins. When asked if he'd be comfortable with Palin's limited experience should she have to meet with a world leader of, say Iran, if something should happen to John McCain, he responded, "Absolutely. She's ready to lead on Day One if need be."

How does Joe Watkins sleep at night?

Just Shut Up And Go Away!

C&L: For years now, FOX News pundit William Kristol has been wrong on nearly every subject he’s chosen to write about or speak to. His follies at Fox are legendary, and since bringing his special brand of fact- & research-free hackery to the pages of the New York Times, he’s made not one, not two, but now three glaring gaffes to add to his comical body of work.

Think Progress: In his New York Times column today, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol tried to find reasons for conservatives to be optimistic about 2008 elections,
despite the claims of some Republicans that “the Republican brand is in the trash can.” To support his argument, Kristol pointed to Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) 41-point loss in the West Virginia primary:

On Tuesday night, while the G.O.P. Congressional candidate was losing in Mississippi district George Bush carried in 2004 by 25 points, Barack Obama was being trounced in the West Virginia Democratic primary — by 41 points. I can’t find a single recent instance of a candidate who ultimately became his party’s nominee losing a primary by this kind of margin.

Apparently Kristol didn’t look hard enough. Writing at Room Eight, New York political consultant Jerry Skurnik says it took him “all of 2 minutes to find what Kristol couldn’t find.” On Feb. 5, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney beat presumptive GOP nominee Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) by 85 points in the Utah primary.

What an embarrassment to the New York Times that this schmuck is on their payroll. He should be removed immediately along with the idiot who hired him.

UPDATE: Glen Greenwald

" ... Hillary Clinton lost Kansas to Obama by 49 points; lost DC by 51 points; lost Hawaii by 52 points; and lost Idaho by 62 points. So by Kristol's reasoning, Hillary Clinton -- just like Obama -- couldn't possibly be a strong candidate because she lost some primaries by more than 41 points (granted, some of those were caucuses).
Somehow, though, that reasoning doesn't apply to John McCain, who lost Utah by 85 points. In addition to his 85-point loss in Utah, McCain lost Arkansas by 40 points to Mike Huckabee and lost Kansas by 36 points to Huckabee. For some reason, those facts didn't make it into Kristol's column either."

Democratic Backbone? Not In This Congress

This is depressing. House leaders stalled the FISA bill giving retroactive immunity to telecoms passed by the Senate under the guise of civil liberties and the rule of law, giving a glimpse of hope for the few remaining Democratic eternal optimists that finally the party would make good on promises made after the 2006 election.

But like a sadistic master dangling a treat in front a his loyal but stupid dog, it looks like they'll pull the treat of the defense of the Constitution once again, giving the White House everything they wanted in the first place, and as Glenn Greenwald notes, putting themselves in the worst possible position by picking a fight on a highly volitile issue that has gotten a lot of media attention, only to capitulate and give the Republicans more fodder.

...No rational person who has watched Congressional Democrats since they took over Congress could possibly have expected them to do anything but what they always do: namely, whatever they're told to do by the White House.

...what is somewhat baffling in all of this is just how politically stupid and self-destructive their behavior is. If the plan all along was to give Bush everything he wanted, as it obviously was, why not just do it at the beginning? Instead, they picked a very dramatic fight that received substantial media attention. They exposed their freshmen and other swing-district members to attack ads. They caused their base and their allies to spend substantial energy and resources defending them from these attacks.

And now, after picking this fight and letting it rage for weeks, they are going to do what they always do -- just meekly give in to the President, yet again generating a tidal wave of headlines trumpeting how they bowed, surrendered, caved in, and lost to the President. They're going to cast the appearance that they engaged this battle and once again got crushed, that they ran away in fear because of the fear-mongering ads that were run and the attacks from the President. They further demoralize their own base and increase the contempt in which their base justifiably holds them (if that's possible). It's almost as though they purposely picked the path that imposed on themselves all of the political costs with no benefits.

...Even with their ultimate, total compliance with the President's orders, they're still going to be attacked as having Made Us Less Safe -- by waiting weeks to capitulate, rather than doing so immediately ...It was a loss for them on every level.

And so here we find the American people (at least the Democratic ones) laying on the ground, dejected, demoralized and feeling like fools for allowing Lucy to pull the football away as we tried to kick it yet again.

What do we do now? Better Democrats. The gang of losers in the Congress are so used to giving in time and time again that they don't know how to win. How many times does the GOP minority leadership have to fuck them in the ass until they get the picture that the have to fight fire with fire? There is no negotiating with these cretinous bastards. You don't bring a knife to a gun fight. What was that line that Malone (Sean Connery) says in The Untouchables? "They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue."

This is the only way the Republicans know, and if you give an inch they'll take a mile. But the weak, flawed Democrats in Congress have just gotten so used to atomic wedgie after atomic wedgie, so used to being stuffed in a locker after having their milk money stolen time and again, that they know no other way to act even when they are in the majority.

The worst part is that if they really and truly cared about the rule of law, about defending the Constitution as they say they do, the separate votes they plan to cast on the FISA and immunity to cover their own asses would never take place. But please pay attention to those Democrats that will vote "yea" on immunity and put them on your sHit List of the Democrats we must replace in Congress. That list is getting longer and longer all the time.

BIll Kristol's Predictions for 2008

Kristol does his best Jeanne Dixon impersonation and predicts that Republicans will win the White House in 2008.

"...I think Republicans win in November, and if it's not Dick Cheney, McCain/Romney, McCain/Lieberman... there are some very good Republican tickets."

This guy has been full of shit for years now, and somehow he's still considered a "pundit" for Fox News, hopefully the only network that will carry him. I wonder if Kristol predicted Time Magazine was going to can him for his amazing lack of credibility?

Here Comes The Spin

NY TIMES: President Bush said today that a new intelligence finding that Iran halted its nuclear weapons work in 2003 had not altered his sense that Iran remained a danger.

...“I have said Iran is dangerous,” Bush said a day after the release of the National Intelligence Estimate, representing the consensus of all 16 American spy agencies, “and the N.I.E. doesn’t do anything to change my opinion about the danger Iran poses to the world — quite the contrary.”

So just disregard that 16 separate intelligence agencies report that Iran has not constituted nukes and had actually stopped its program in 2003. Asshole. Sometimes the Decider really makes me go nuke-u-lur!

Reporters pressed the president to explain why as recently as October, he was saying that a nuclear-armed Iran could pose a risk of a “World War III.” But Bush said he had learned of the new intelligence findings on Iran, which have been in the works for months, only last week. When a reporter asked whether anyone in the intelligence community had urged him to step back from his tough warnings about Iran, he said, “No.”

UPDATE: Norman Podhoretz, who is Rudy Giuliani's national security advisor by the way, thinks the latest NIE is a plot against Bush. This is the same cadaverous son of a bitch that "prayed" the US would bomb the crap out of Iran a couple of months ago. Great pick, Rudy.

UPDATE II: Bob Cesca in his new Huffington Post article:

Knowledge has been the president's enemy ever since his skull failed to completely fuse, leaving him with a spongy head and a brain that's susceptible to bruising. His other lifelong enemy, by the way, is a fork without a protective wine cork pressed onto its dangerous, eye-poking tines. I'm joking about the skull thing.

...Why else would President Bush cite knowledge as the qualifier? Knowledge is also the simplest justification to lie about due to the fact that it's so insanely difficult disprove. Oh, and it's a perfect fit for rallying the president's dingus base --they hate anything that has to do with knownin' shit.

The Gonzales Spin Begins

Republican pundits everywhere are trying to spin the Gonzales resignation as a "win for the White House."

Tucker Carlson just called him a liberal!!!

Carlson: I'm not defending Gonzales, I just attacked him. I thought he was mediocre, another baby boomer... talking about himself and his stupid personal journey and he's doing better than his dad, like we care. I don't care.

However, the guy's actually kind of liberal. He's kind of inoffensive. Of all the people you could attack in the Bush administration... I get why the left hate Karl Rove, but this guy?

I guess Tucker was sleeping during the torture memos, the Patriot Act, firing US attorneys for political reasons and not remembering a single thing about it when asked.

Luckily, Rosa Brooks of the Washington Times slaps him back into place, and Tucker laughs it off like the punk that he is.