WTF?!

At the Beck rally...



Completely. Clueless.

See some more teabaggishness here.

Clueless

Ricky Thomas, 43, a SWAT team police officer from Chesapeake Beach, Md., brought his 10-year old son Chase to the Beck rally. "I wanted my son to see democracy in action," Thomas said.

He said he wants government to stay out of people's lives. He acknowledged that he works for government, but said it's "a part of government that helps people when they are in trouble."

I wonder if Ricky Thomas' was one of the jobs saved by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act? If so,  I can only imagine what he'd be saying had the government stayed out of his life?

Media Whore

Like mother, like daughter.

..."The final straw was him flying to Hollywood for what he told me was to see some hunting show but come to find out it was that music video mocking my family," [Bristol Palin] says [of Levi Johnston]. "He's just obsessed with the limelight and I got played."

That was then... this is now.

We can report to you exclusively that Sarah Palin's 19-year-old daughter Bristol Palin has been cast on the 11th season of ["Dancing With The Stars,"] set to premiere Sept. 20.

Doesn't the "Stars" part of the show title constitute contestants being "stars" in the first place?

Must Reads

David A. Graham: America The Ignorant

BooMan: Loonies Win The Night

Bob Cesca: The Summer of Republican Race-Baiting

Timothy Egan: Building a Nation of Know-Nothings

Joan Walsh: Beck Has a Scheme

driftglass: The Persistence of Mediocrity

Jason Linkins: Congressional Budget Office: Sometimes Wonks Have To Explain Their Work To Morons

Linda Greenhouse: Nine Justices and Ten Commandments

Will Christie Apologize to Obama?

Just a few days ago, we found out that New Jersey lost out on a $400 million federal education grant due to piss poor management and last minute changes in the application insisted upon by Governor Chris Christie in what amounts to a clerical error. A $400 million error.

While taking "responsibility" for it, Christie said no one would be fired for the lack of oversight but also blasted the Obama administration for not catching the mistake and said that "[t]hat’s the stuff that drives people nuts about government, and that’s what the Obama administration should answer for.”

Now comes word that Jabba the Governor has fired Education Commissioner Bret Schundler over the mistake that cost New Jersey badly needed education funding. And as far as answering for the beauraucratic red tape Christie was whining about? Well, it looks like the Obama administration did just that.

The latest evidence came Thursday, when the federal Department of Education released a video that flatly contradicted the governor’s harangue against the Obama administration earlier this week.

In a press conference Tuesday, the governor claimed that Schundler had tried to submit data needed to win a $400 million grant through the federal Race to the Top initiative during an interview a few weeks ago, but that the feds had refused to accept it. Instead, reviewers deducted five points from New Jersey’s application and knocked the state out of the running.

The video shows the governor’s statement was flatly untrue. Having poked his finger in the president’s chest, he now looks reckless and uninformed. And this comes on top of the loss of the $400 million, already the most embarrassing misstep of the governor’s term.

Schundler may not be at fault in this latest episode. The governor is the one who made the false claim. He says he was told that the numbers were presented and rejected, but we have not heard Schundler’s version of events. It’s possible the mistake was the governor’s.

Excerpt of N.J.'s Race to the Top interview shows officials with no budget answer

Boy, I didn't see that one coming.

So now that Chrissy The Cannoli has revealed himself to be reckless and a liar, do you think he'll call the White House and apologize to those he maligned?

Yeah, me neither.

President Obama's Weekly Address - August 28, 2010

The End of Combat Operations in Iraq

Quote of the Day

"...And more important than anything else, they are lies. Whopping big, wild, dumb lies so easily debunked that it has really made me rethink my position on Net Neutrality for trailer-trash (Maybe if it took hours instead of seconds to upload this horseshit they'd get bored, give up and go back to cousin-fucking.)"

~driftglass on the barrage of wingnut smear e-mails any given day.

Jon Stewart on Beck: I Have A Scheme

Christie Blows It For State Education Grant

Well, I literally just moved to the state of New Jersey not three months ago, and already I got a Republican fucking me in the ass.

Chris "The Cannoli" Christie, new Republican governor of New Jersey couldn't stand the thought of actually cooperating with the teachers' union, so he undercut his Commissioner of Education, Brett Schundler, after he'd hammered out an agreement with the union just days before a grant application for federal education funds was due. They had a weekend to redo a 1000+ page application. And they wound up sending out the application with what amounted to a small clerical error in a crucial area.

The result? Jabba the Governor lost a $400 MILLION education grant for New Jersey. And the real kicker? After admitting his mistake, he decided to take shots at the Obama Administration for not catching it.

In a lengthy news conference on Wednesday, Governor Christie, a Republican, said he took ultimate responsibility for the error, which “believe me,” he said, “I am not thrilled about.” But he said no one would be fired over the matter, then he assumed his signature anti-Washington tone. The Obama administration, he said, should have called, or checked the state’s Web site, when it discovered the error, which was on just one page of a 1,000-page application.

“That’s the stuff that drives people nuts about government, and that’s what the Obama administration should answer for,” he said. “When the president comes back to New Jersey, he is going to have to explain to the people of the state of New Jersey why he is depriving them of $400 million that this application earned them, because one of his bureaucrats in Washington couldn’t pick up the phone and ask a question.”

I'll tell you what President Obama will say you dumb shit: he'll say, "Well, if Christie wasn't such a fuckwad and paid attention to detail instead of where his next dessert was coming from, he wouldn't have shorted the state of New Jersey $400 million in education grants. Did you ask for do overs when you failed a test in school too? Or was a jelly donut stain a good enough answer on your multiple choice tests?"

Gee, I hope one of those bureaucrats at the IRS gives me a call and ask a question to correct my tax file the next time I make a mistake.

Adding insult to injury, had Chrissy the Cannoli just left things the way they were with the first application, the point rating system used to calculate the application would have awarded him an extra 15 points or so regardless of the "clerical error," far exceeding Ohio's final score, the last state to beat out New Jersey for the grant.

Heckuva job, Christie.

Rachel explains it all so very well.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Hasselbeck Said What Now?

I saw this headline in passing and didn't think twice about it...

Hasselbeck supports gay marriage, calls Obama a ‘cool guy’

... but a friend of mine brought it to my attention hoping I would comment on it and saying it needed my "wry sense of realism."

So here I am thinking, hell, what with a new baby, my wifey returning to work this week after her maternity leave, my softball team winning the league championship this season (yours truly manning 1st base and managing), making the familial rounds showing off the new progeny and scraping spare time together to do the occasional handyman jobs necessary to maintain a 90-year old house that we just bought, I guess I need to produce something for the semi-neglected blog. I'm trying not to completely ignore it but's not like I've been burning up the keyboard lately either.

So Hasselbeck.... Hasselbeck... uh, nope. I got nothing.

You see, the thing about The View's Elisabeth Hasselbeck is that I really don't give a rat's ass what she has to say, either for or against President Obama, gay marriage, abortion rights or anything else for that matter.

Why should I care that she thinks Obama is a "cool guy" when she campaigned for Sarah Palin? Why should I listen to someone's view on abortion rights after she said the morning after pill is the same thing as "birthing a baby and leaving it out on the street"? Does it matter to me that she needed a "mani-pedi to prepare" for an interview with the leader of the free world instead of preparing by, you know, actually researching facts and statistics?



It doesn't matter. And do you know why?

The woman is a dolt. I mean, her claim to fame is eating bugs on the Survivor reality TV series while her hair fell out for God's sake. So why would I care that she should shift her views as the wind blows?

If one minute she says she thinks the morning after pill is akin to leaving a baby in the street, but also believes the government shouldn't tell a woman what to do with her body, how can you take her seriously? If she says she supports gay marriage but is a Sarah Palin supporter, I would think she is, at the least, confused about her beliefs. So why would I give a shit about her thinking President Obama is "cool"?

You know what would be cool? If we stopped elevating not ready for prime time players like Elisabeth Hasselbeck on the same level of a Barbara Walters simply because she happens to be on the same show.  Even Walters can make casting mistakes.

Who's next? Snooki?

Colbert Is A Terrorist! Follow The Money

Classic.

My Response to a Wingnut

POSTED BY JHW22

After a long back-and-forth with a Republican who showed no grasp of facts or staying on a subject, I was done with the jerk. But then he had to bring up ACORN, the Black Panthers and something else (which I'm not about to go back to check on for fear of blowing my top). To that I responded the following -- which you are free to copy and paste as needed:

OK, so I was about to counter each one of your questions regarding ACORN and the Black Panthers, etc. But then I realized that you are a member of the party of personal responsibility so you should take responsibility and do your own research. I can tell you that I know the answers to all of those questions and I can tell you that the answers are not what Fox wants you to think they are. You will be so disappointed.

So I am not going to do the legwork for you, you should be a grown-up enough to handle that on your own. But I will give you some big tips (they're good ones so write them down):

1) When you see multiple sites support a claim, make sure the multiple sites don't use the exact same language. If you find 5 sites that pick up the same exact text, it only counts as one site.

2) Check dates. You may think you're reading something new, when in fact the story may have taken place earlier and is being presented as something it isn't. Make sure you know who was President during the events in question (this is especially helpful on the Black Panther case).

3) Check parties involved for conflicts. Just because someone USED to be a liberal Democrat, doesn't mean they still are. So don't let labels (because I know you don't like them) sway you into accepting what they say as fact.

4) Don't rely on articles. Check court documents, press releases, financial statements, interviews, speeches, etc. Articles and blogs are rarely a true representation of what actually happened.

5) For a broader picture, it's good to also research similar situations (for example, how many Republican voter registration organizers have been sentenced to prison -- good for balance and just to be fair).

6) It's also good to know definitions. For example, the difference between voter fraud and voter registration fraud is a doozy. And be sure to read all policies and actions (say for ACORN) taken within an organization to catch, prevent and report those things to the authorities.

7) It's good, when video (say of a fake pimp) is involved to see the whole video or to at least read court documents that show what REALLY happened when footage was edited. (Shirley Sherrod wasn't the first black person edited to look like she was saying something she wasn't.)

I guess that's about it. For now, anyway. See, I have spent months and years researching shit like you mentioned and I have learned that it takes more than reading comments on blogs and watching TV to understand the whole story. In fact, I have learned that anyone who thinks any of those issues can be addressed in less than 30 seconds doesn't really want to know the whole story.

Sooo.... because I think you need to learn this all on your own and I don't want to waste the time and energy I have spent learning more about these BS claims than you probably ever will, then I am not about to share with you what I have learned. You can be a responsible citizen all on your own. And until then, ask yourself this question: are YOU prepared to learn that Fox and stupid emails, that float around as if it's in an email it must be true, are wrong? Because they are. And you're going to have to face that all on your own time.

Quote of the Day

"After months of promising a look at his party agenda for his plans for America, his chief proposal, when you look at it, apparently was that the president should fire his economic team. Very constructive advice and we thank the leader for that."

~Vice President Joe Biden regarding House Minority Leader John Boehner's touted economic plan

Fox: The Parent Company Trap

Another awesome Jon Stewart segment.



So, do Fox News employees know that Murdoch's Newscorp partner is funding Park51 or are they really that fucking stupid? My guess is depending on the show, it's the former with a little bit of the latter. The little bit being the hosts of Fox and Friends.

How Childish

Via Oliver Willis:



Kudos to the man recording the video for not backing down. What, did Sarah and the First Dude think they were going to intimidate him by taking pictures with their BlackBerries? If this idiot has higher aspirations in 2012, I have no idea how she's going to handle the media, let alone your average man on the street with a camera every day for an 18 month campaign. But I still think she won't bother, because it's too much work and she's too lazy.

Cartoon of the Day

Hannity: America Caused Muslim Hostilities? NO WAY

Sean Hannity doesn't understand why some believe that American actions in the Middle East has caused anti-American sentiment.

Via GottaLaff:



Convenient time to cut to a commercial after four consecutive legitimate questions from a Frank Luntz focus group in opposition to what Hannity is desperately trying to push.

Obviously, Hannity is not so naive to believe that US foreign policy has absolutely nothing to do with anti-American sentiment by jihadists and terrorist (not "Muslims"), but when your agenda is such that you have to push the GOP/Newscorp line and are laughing you way to the bank because of it, you just act stupid and shrug your shoulders in disbelief.

ADDING... Gee, I wonder what gives the outside world the idea that America is so frightened that it rages against an entire religion?