Must Reads

Kaili Joy Gray: Ann Romney's tale of 'struggling': We 'learned hard lessons' living off our stock portfolio

Steve Benen: The wrong guy to talk about 'leadership'

Eugene Robinson: Republican rhetoric over the top

Robert Naiman: The US and Iran Are Talking: Why Is the New York Times Peddling Iran Islamophobia?

The Rude Pundit: In Brief: Dick Cheney Is Still Alive and Talking, For Some Reason

Bill Maher: The GOP is Waging a War Against Common Sense

President Obama's Weekly Address - April 21, 2012

Calling on Congress to Prevent Student Interest Rates from Doubling

The "Liberal" Media

Via Bob Cesca:



Must we continue to pretend that there is such a thing as a "liberal media" when the major markets are owned by corporations?

Dick Clark Dies at 82

TMZ: Dick Clark -- famed TV producer, and "New Year's Rockin' Eve" host -- died from a massive heart attack this morning ... TMZ has learned.

Clark's rep tells TMZ, the TV icon had been in St. John's hospital in L.A. after undergoing an outpatient procedure last night. Clark suffered the "massive" heart attack following the procedure. Attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.

Clark was 82.

Ted Nugent: Patriot

Ted Nugent, who has become infamous for incendiary rhetoric against President Obama and Hillary Clinton, and some really bad music, made the headlines yet again with more vitriol against the President causing enough concern for the Secret Service to investigate. While listening to those comments, something he said struck me. He considers himself, and all those who think like him, patriots.

NUGENT: "If you take that adamant, 'We the People' defiance, remember we're Americans 'cause we defied the King. We didn't negotiate or compromise with the King, we defied the Emperors! We are patriots! We are 'Braveheart'! We need to ride onto that battlefield and chop their heads off in November!"

Well, when Ted Nugent had a chance to show his patriotism, for real, he chose the Dick Cheney way out with student deferments... while on tour.

...Nugent received student deferments in 1967 (1-S) and 1968 (2-S). But according to the Internet Movie Data Base website, Nugent has been "performing professionally since 1958, non-stop yearly touring since 1967, averaging more than 300 shows per year '67-73." Hmm, that would include the two years he was supposedly too wrapped up in his studies to be serving his country.

And then he just decided to shit himself.

In a July 15, 1990, Detroit Free Press interview, Nugent crowed about how he managed to dodge the draft. He claims that 30 days before his draft board physical, he disavowed personal hygiene. The last ten days he ingested nothing but junk food and Pepsi, and with a week to go until the physical, he stopped using the bathroom altogether. When the big day came, he had been living in excrement-caked and urine-stained pants.

Ted Nugent. What a patriot.

No, It's Not a Manufactured Outrage

POSTED BY JHW22

This is what I was saying before and after Gabby Giffords was shot: there's a line we shouldn't cross. This is not comparable to jokes that one can say are offensive. This is actually suggesting that killing a President is a necessary action. Nugent, at an NRA event, tells a bunch of scared men to be afraid of becoming something America will NEVER become and says it's because Obama is something he will never be. He wasn't "joking" or being "creative." He honestly believes that patriots need to stand up to the government led by Obama. And he knows that referencing America's past, and the words "patriot," and "guns" and "self-sacrifice," all are loud and clear messages that people need to take up arms against enemies domestic. And he's making it very clear that he thinks we should see and treat Obama as an enemy.

This isn't about rhetoric from a rock star. This is about a group of Americans getting louder AGAIN, as the election looms, who INSIST on making you think the only desperate act is to remove Obama from office ANY WAY NECESSARY.

Do YOU think that's how Americans have to handle their struggles? Do you think things are SO BAD that we need someone to assassinate the President? Do YOU think this kind of behavior is inconsequential? Well, it's not. And if you think this doesn't matter, then you're willfully ignorant of what's happening out there and how many people don't just disparage the President but who actually threaten harm by stirring people up to think they have to.

The Tea Partiers around here say, "Wake Up, America." Yes, wake up. Wake up and see that this kind of discourse is BAD for America. And just ignoring it and saying, "Oh, it's JUST Ted Nugent" doesn't make it stop.

I have admitted when liberals have crossed a decency line or when liberals have gone too far. I don't like when liberals suggest Nugent should suck on his own machine gun because that's unproductive and stupid. But even that suggestion is FAR from as HARMFUL to the nation as someone actually implying our President is so dangerous that he should be stopped with force.

Forget the fact that Nugent has OBVIOUSLY missed the 8 years of illegal activity. Forget the 8 years where we did suffer at the hands of a dumb President led by a vicious Vice President and aided by an bumbling, egotistical administration. Forget all that.

IF a fellow liberal went to a convention of people with the firm belief that guns are a God-given right to protect ourselves from the government just as much as a wild boar out in the uncharted lands of the west, and these men would die before giving their guns up to some phantom government gun collector, and these men truly fear their rights are being violated every second of the day, and IF the fellow liberal stirred those fellas up and suggested something should be done about the evil, criminal who is a threat to AMERICA'S SURVIVAL, then I would tell that liberal to shut the fuck up!

But I don't hear a liberal doing that. I don't hear a liberal inciting a bunch of gun-clingers to protect America. I don't hear a liberal saying that to fight for our country we actually have to fight to the death.

When liberals worry about America, we threaten challenging elections and recalls and boycotts and facts!

This isn't about the ugly name calling from any side. This is about ONE PARTY consistently coddling people who actually speak as if our President is the enemy from within and that the only way to take him out is by death.

See, a while back some liberals were mad that Obama signed some bill that clarified and tightened language about protesting at events held by elected officials. I actually supported Obama on that. Why? Because I remember the guy who showed up at an Obama event with a gun strapped to his hip and nothing could be done about it. And I knew we were entering the general election cycle and I remembered that at the last election someone yelled out "kill him." So, you know what? I'm fucking scared.

This Ted Nugent thing isn't manufactured and it's NOWHERE NEAR the level of Hilary Rosen v. Ann Romney.

We're at Gabby Giffords level here. And to mock or ignore it is fucking dangerous. These freaks actually are desperate enough to think Obama is evil. What on earth makes you think one of these freaks won't act on it?

Will it be manufactured outrage if something actually happens to Obama? NO. So stop pretending the threat is fake.

Bro-Choice. CLASSIC!

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Lame

When Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen took Mitt Romney to task for putting his wife, Ann, front and center as an expert when it comes to women's economic issues with the factual statement that Ann Romney hadn't "worked a day in her life," the Romney campaign and the right lost their collective shit, accusing Rosen of waging a war on stay-at-home mothers. They work hard too, dammit! And they weren't going to let an opportunity pass to misconstrue Rosen's comment and try to tie her to the Obama camp even though she doesn't work for the Obama campaign. The faux outrage was palpable - enough for Rosen to apologize while clarifying her comment - and for the story to run at least three news cycles.

Fast forward just a week or so later. Today, rock-n-roll has been and NRA gun nut Ted Nugent, whose endorsement was sought out by the Romney camp to bring the NRA into the fold, made some pretty scary comments regarding President Obama and Democrats in general.



"If Barack Obama becomes the president in November, again, I will be either be dead or in jail by this time next year." Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are criminals. We will be a suburb of Indonesia. We need to chop their heads off.

While the White House basically shrugged off the rantings of a crazy, stupid person, this threat was enough of a concern to have the Secret Service launch an investigation. Now, while I haven't been watching much cable news lately, my guess is that the right will come to the defense of Nugent with yet more misunderstanding of the First Amendment and they too, will shrug off what I consider to be a disturbed man discussing thoughts of assassinating the President of the United States. Eh, it's only Obama, right? It's not like someone was threatening George W. Bush. But I digress.

You'd think that Mitt Romney would come out and denounce these types of comments and specifically tell Ted Nugent that he can take his endorsement and shove it up his rifle warmer. Right?

...Andrea Saul, a campaign spokesperson, said in an email, "Divisive language is offensive no matter what side of the political aisle it comes from. Mitt Romney believes everyone needs to be civil."

Lamest. Condemnation. Ever.

No matter what side of the political aisle? Ms. Saul, Mr. Romney, are you trying to equate what Hilary Rosen said (not related to the Obama campaign) about Ann Romney to an assassination threat on President Obama by a man who is ENDORSING YOU for the Oval Office?

So weak.

Leave Romney ALLONNNE! *bawl*

POSTED BY JHW22



Hey, give the guy a break!

When you have that much money and can claim every deduction the rest of America can't even qualify for, and you have to keep track of what money is off-shore, and you need to make sure you have the illegal lawn guys off the paperwork, and you are trying to decide how to deduct the new mansion you just demolished so you can build a new one, and you're wondering if the car elevator is considered a business expense since you are a "job creator", and your paperwork is spread over multiple states and houses, it's just hard.

The Romneys struggle, y'all. And it's damn class warfare to criticize them for having so much money that they get to take advantage of opportunities we will never have. And we're just envious. It has nothing to do with fairness at all. So quit whining over not being able to take more than the standard deduction! You got your $400 refund already. So what if you had to use it to pay the termite people to insure the termites don't come back and destroy your ONLY house that is worth $113,000. Waaaahhhhh. You can't relate to the Romneys and that's not *their* fault.

This is TOTAL snark, FYI.