FOUR MORE YEARS! - Update

Observations and Musings Post Election Day

- Despite looking at factual evidence, the emotional heart will always doubt what your logical mind already knows.

- How many times does President Obama and his team need to prove doubters wrong before they realize that "I Got This" actually means something?

- If three million votes was a "mandate" for George W. Bush in 2004, you'd better fucking believe it's good enough to be a mandate for President Obama. "I've got political capital, and I intend to spend it" never sounded so good.

- The bubble that Fox News and the Republican Party's live in is so massive, they dismissed every single poll that didn't show their desired outcome, to the point of creating the ironically named UnskewedPoll.com, and seemed truly shellshocked that President Obama won reelection.

- Is Nate Silver a witch? No. But he's one badass numbers genius motherfucker!

- Joe Scarborough and every idiot talking head on TV who doesn't live in reality, doesn't deserve your precious time. Unless you're a masochist, stop watching them.

- I've had it up to here (pointing to my ball sac) with Republican talking heads now saying that President Obama has to prove anything to Republican politicians. Bipartisanship and compromise is a two way street. And it the GOP wants to stay relevant, they'd better jettison the crazies in their party and start acting like adults instead of holding their breath until they get what they want.

- Not only is he a media whore and an opportunist, but Donald Trump has become a boil on the ass of America. I don't understand how he thinks he looks like anything but a laughingstock now. Even Brian Williams called him out today with this: "Trump has "driven well past the last exit to relevance and veered into something closer to irresponsible." How that sloth continues to live on his head and share in the embarrassment is amazing to me. I guess love knows no bounds.

More to come...

 UPDATE – 8pm: 

- Today is the first day of work towards regaining the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives in 2014. Just as in 2008, we can’t think this is over after the election. It’s not the end, it’s the beginning.

 - Unless Citizens United is overturned, we will have a much harder time matching the Dark Side dollar for dollar, especially in the mid-term elections, so we have to double our efforts on the ground. And it starts now.

 - Despite only four hours sleep between 16 hour days, I have a spring in my step today. The air is a little fresher, the sky is a little bluer, and the tears of dumbass Republican voters are a little sweeter.

 - No matter what anyone says, yesterday’s results PROVE we are not a center right nation. Maine and Maryland voted for marriage equality. Washington and Colorado voted for recreational marijuana use. The times, they are a-changin’.

- After Chris Murphy won his Senate race in Connecticut, part of me wanted WWE magnate Linda McMahon to sneak up behind Murphy during his victory speech and cold cock him in the back of the head with a metal folding chair.

- Rape apologists Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin got their asses handed to them by their opponents. They were totally asking for it. BOOM!

Reince Gets Reamed

This was a thing of beauty.

Chris Matthews chomped down on RNC Chairman Reince Priebus' head like a crocodile this morning on Morning Joke™, calling out Mitt Romney for his birth certificate comment, which Mitt later characterized as a "joke," and the rest of the GOP and their dog whistles. Watch and be amazed.




Priebus was a deer caught in the headlights, having no clue he was about to get his ass reamed by Matthews, probably because he expected to be in friendly confines on Joe Scarborough's sorry excuse for show.

Just a few things.

Notice how Scarborough tried to come to Reince's rescue, failing miserably I might add, by throwing himself into Matthews' barrage and challenging his claims that the welfare lie and the birth certificate "joke" was not racially tinged.

And a big fuck you to Mika Brzezinski attempting to play the mommy role to two grown men when things get a little heated. And an even bigger fuck you to Tom "I'm Making Shitloads of Money with the Greatest Generation Enterprise" Brokaw for even suggesting the "both sides" meme. Give me the examples, Tom! Don't give example after example of GOP racist shenanigans, come up with nothing from the other side and then say, "but both sides do it" you fucking hack.

Regardless of these asides, it's awfully nice to see someone finally take Priebus down and call him out as the not ready for prime time douchebag that he is. Watching him stammer and sweat and meekly try to take the high road when he saw that he was backed into a corner with no way out warmed the cockles of my heart.  Yeah, that's right, I said cockles, baby!

(Cross-posted on ABLC)

Take That, Joe Scarborough!

Posted by Desert Crone NM

Joe Scarborough, the former Florida congressman, full-time pundit, and pseudo-journalist, claimed Sen. Marco Rubio isn't ready to be vice president just like "'Barack Obama wasn't ready to be president in 2008, just like Sarah Palin wasn't ready to be on the national ticket in 2008.'" So Scarborough thinks Rubio, Palin, and President Obama are and were similarly unprepared to be president and vice president. Shall we take a serious look at this comparison.

Scarborough is right about Sen. Rubio. In fact, he didn't go far enough. Rubio isn't just unprepared; he's the shallow GOP's pretty pet parrot. Compared to President Obama, Rubio is "Bush" league. Rubio attended Tarkio College, a now closed, bankrupt Missouri college and Santa Fe Community College in Florida. I'm not casting aspersions on community colleges since I was an English instructor at one for 10 years. However, Columbia they are not.

Rubio's biography claims he was a football star at Tarkio College in 1989-1990, when the team went 1-8. Seriously, I probably could have been a star on that team. Rubio transferred to Santa Fe Community College and then the University of Florida, where he graduated with a BA. In 1996 he graduated from the University of Miami with his law degree. My google searches failed to produce a single prestigious award he earned from any of his colleges.

Lawyer by trade but politician by profession, Rubio became a city commissioner and never looked back. Accordingly Rubio's wealth grew along with his political clout. In 2000, when he was elected to the Florida State House of Representatives, he made over $82,000, and by 2008, when he was elected Speaker of the House (FL), his income was over $399,000. As a United States Senator, he has sponsored 18 bills, which is the fewest bills of any senator. He has missed nearly 7% of senate votes this session, which is below the senate average attendance.

Shyster by trade and profession, Sarah Palin attended 5 (6 if you count the University of Idaho at Moscow twice) colleges and universities in 5 years. Frankly, I can't imagine how any of the colleges she attended could possibly have kept up with her grades, much less her credits.

Again her colleges were not Columbia. She went on to work as a sports reporter for an Anchorage TV station. She eventually won a seat on Wasilla, Alaska city council, a town of 7800 citizens. I would like to point out that I won a seat on the board of education in a town of 25,000, so I'm thinking that I could be .....oh skip it. Anyway, we are painfully aware of the rest of her story. Palin was catapulted onto the national stage in one of the most egregious, self-centered, damaging, not to mention unpatriotic, acts by a politician and his staff ever.

Palin's lack of general knowledge about American history, world history, world geography, and global politics was abysmal. She was and still is a divisive figure and should be an embarrassment to every American. Well, except to those who share the same qualities. Oh, and she wrote a book or maybe even two with a ghost writer.

From Occidental to Columbia to Harvard, where Barack Obama graduated magna cum laud and was president of Harvard Law Review, the President's academic record is certainly more impressive than the others to whom he has been compared. According to many who have participated in White House meetings, the President also possesses an eidetic memory. In fact, his frequent critic Keith Olbermann claims Pres. Obama is one of the 1000 most intelligent people in the United States. Those of us who have read President Obama's books know he is a self-actualizer who possesses an impressive intellect as well as profound, thoughtful insight into others. Lawrence Tribe, esteemed Harvard law professor, pronounced Barack Obama to be his best student ever.

Unlike Palin and Rubio, Barack Obama didn't become wealthy because of holding public office but because of his superior writing skills. In fact, his wealth doesn't compare to many politicians, say, such as Darryl Issa. (I know I veered slightly off subject, but I couldn't stop myself.) Both Rubio and Palin have been accused more than a few fabrications and found guilty of unethical and illegal behavior. The same certainly cannot be said of President Obama.

I believe it's fair to conclude that, in terms of both character and intellect, the President is far superior to the other two. However, Scarborough is probably referring to leadership skills possessed by the President, Palin, and Rubio. Well, then let's examine the President's leadership skills. He was elected president of the Harvard Law Review, a most prestigious and probably political position. In fact, being elected president of the law review at any law school is considered one of the highest honors at any university Pres. Obama's selection shows exceptional leadership when you consider this was over 25 years ago, not a time commonly known for Black men or women to be recognized at revered white institutions. (Remember his embrace of his African-American professor Derrick Bell--black on black hugging that gave Sean Hannity the vapors.)

And then there was that silly community organizing thingy, which, of course, you only think is silly if you don't give a damn about people. By the way, if any of you have attempted community organizing, you know it is like herding cats. Organizing any group of people with different opinions, desires, goals, etc. is a tough job. It's damn hard even when the people have similar goals and desires. I know. I was president of a local teachers' union. But the Republicans, ignoring the juggernaut of a campaign organization put together by a man with organizing skills, scoff at this experience as if it's nothing. Folks, that's not nothing to put together a machine that defeated both the Clinton team and the GOP. Besides President Obama did employ lots of people, so he should be called--wait for it--a job creator.

President Obama, a civil rights lawyer and professor, could have had, along with Mrs. Obama, a very lucrative career as a lawyer in powerful law firm. Instead President Obama entered politics as an Illinois state senator, a position he served in for 8 years. Get that---8 years, not half a term, and was elected by 46,000 voters. Later in the United States Senate, he served on both the international affairs and homeland and national security committees where he was well-suited with his degree in political science (emphasis on international relations) from Columbia. As a senator for nearly 4 years, Barack Obama sponsored--not co-sponsored--but sponsored 137 bills. As a comparison, look again at Sen. Rubio's rather lackluster accomplishments. In fact, if you compare their original pieces of legislation, I think you will find much more fluff and less substance in Rubio's offerings. If you do the math, at Sen. Rubio's pace, he will never be as productive or prolific a senator as Senator Obama.

Let's pretend for a minute ol' Joe reads my post, and he shoots holes in it-- in a sort of right wingy way-- I still have one more bit of proof that will separate President Obama from those two lightweights. Historians such as Doug Brinkley and Doris Kearns Goodwin have praised President Obama as one of the most productive presidents in history. His accomplishments would be historical even without some of the most intense obstructionism and extreme partisanship in American history. So don't tell me he was unprepared, Joe. Even if you disagree with his politics, you cannot deny that President Obama has been a pretty doggone amazing president. How else can you possibly explain his accomplishments. No one has the qualifications to be President unless they've been President. No occupation fully prepares one for such a job, but in President Obama we see a kind of "harmonic convergence" of intellect, curiosity, maturity, wisdom, leadership, and temperament. How else do you explain his preparedness but to conclude that Barack Obama was born ready to be President.

Elizabeth Warren Is For Real

Watch this now. Elizabeth Warren is running for Senate against (former?) Tea Party darling incumbent Scott Brown in Massachusetts. Watch her as she takes questions from Joe Scarborough and Mark Halperin who are showing obvious disdain for her. You can see it in their faces as they ask what I consider to be "gotcha" questions that she hit out of the park.

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President Obama didn't fight for you? China's military aspirations? Great questions! If only they would ask serious questions of everyone that came on their show.

You can donate to Elizabeth Warren's campaign here.

Tea Party Crazies, Scarborough Asshattery and Jon Stewart Nails It Again

I've been out of the loop for personal reasons (good personal reasons) the last two days or so and missed the finalization of the debt deal and yesterday's votes, occasionally checking an email here and a tweet there. But listening to today's morning news, you'd think absolutely nothing got done. Is no one happy with this deal? Or at least relieved that we didn't go down the default drain? Apparently not.

Democrats are angry because there are no revenue increases in this deal and only spending cuts (which in my opinion were inevitable anyway). But they got the debt ceiling raised a significant amount and don't have to deal with more GOP hostage taking bullshit until 2013. Republicans are angry that there weren't any entitlement cuts, that they didn't magically privatize Social Security or gut and voucherize Medicare or didn't throw the poor down the sewer by dismantling Medicaid, but according to that stalwart "leader" John Boehner, he got 98% of what he wanted. And yet Boehner couldn't get the Tea Party to join in. 66 "No" votes on the Republican side. So apparently no one is happy.

And yet this morning, if you were to listen to Morning Joke™'s Joe Scaroborough, you'd think it was only Democrats that were angry and were speaking in hyperbole. Scarborough was extra cranked today, on his fourth cup of Starbucks Venti Caramel Macchiasshole while sidekick Mike Brzezinski expressed her disgust for the trigger mechanism in the bill with a look that could easily be confused with her eating a few too many Activia yogurts.

The mocking tones were a new low, even for Scarborough, mimicking voices of disgruntled opponents of the passage of the deal (only on the Democratic side mind you), while Mika giggled like a wet-pantied schoolgirl at the sight of Senators Tom Coburn and John Thune appearing on their show. Then in a complete 180, Scarborough looked at the votes and expressed that the adults in the room were actually the Democrats and praised Senators Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid for their willingness to compromise.

Panelist John Heillman's jaw hit the floor and took Scarborough to task: "You can't sit there and praise McConnell and Reid for compromising without simultaneously criticizing Tea Party for not compromising," said Heillman. Joe's answer: "Yes, I can. You know why? Because I feel like it." And there in a nutshell, is Scarborough's very serious punditry.

The Republicans got 98% of what they wanted and it still wasn't good enough for the Tea Party? Both sides, Democratic and Republican, have to marginalize the emergence of these people. The Democrats need to for the danger they pose to the country, and that's not hyperbole. The rogue Tea Party members of the House pushed the country to the brink of default and the world to the edge of economic ruin when they continued to defy any deal that their own House Speaker could muster. Not until after Boehner's own plan was rewritten three times and a balanced budget amendment was added, was there enough support to pass a bill which everyone knew would die in the Senate. A purely symbolic vote that wasted a week.

And the Republicans need to take care of Tea Party rogues for the danger they pose to the demise of their own party. If 80 members of the Republican party can hold up all legislation (only 13 bills have been passed in Congress since January) what does that say for the strength of "real" Republicans? At this pace, they'll become 21st Century Whigs.

Meanwhile, Jon Stewart nails it once again.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Dealageddon! - Angry Tea Party
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Blinded By The Beltway

Listening to beltway insiders like Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan enlighten us with their punditry this morning on Morning Joke™ after the speech by President Obama yesterday, it reminded me once again that what we've heard before is not necessarily old news. What Joe and Crankypants failed to realize is that the President's address wasn't meant for political junkies or armchair pundits. It was meant for the 99% of Americans who don't watch cable news. I know, because I used to be one of them.

It's been a long time since I've been pissed off that the President of the United States would dare preempt whatever garbage I was watching for something in which I wasn't interested. But I still remember that feeling. Sort of the same feeling I got when John Boehner spoke after the President in a feeble attempt to exude some kind of equal footing with the President, with an assist by the mainstream media. They're not equal by any means. When in the history of presidential addresses on television has that ever happened, save for rebuttals to the State of the Union, which if I recall is also a recent phenomenon?

Scarborough then smirked about President Obama asking the American public, the people he was addressing, to contact their local Congressman if they felt a balanced approach with tax revenue increases was the way to go. Scarborough scoffed that it didn't work. I'm assuming he was getting his beauty sleep for his early morning monkey dance and no one briefed him on the fact that House website servers crashed from the response.

President Obama is taking the case to the American people. Poll after poll shows their preference of a plan with spending cuts and revenue increases and that's advantageous for the White House. But the beltway pundits are so far inside their own asses, they can't see what good the President's address did. That's because they're blinded by their own awesomeness and all they were thinking about was the current political boxing match and what only they thought of last evening's proceedings. Having an opinion is one thing, but completely failing to be objective is another matter.

Scarborough's Cognitive Dissonance

This morning I was fortunate enough to witness Joe Scarborough and the entire Morning Joe crew make fun of Michele Bachmann's John Wayne Gacy gaffe for a good four straight minutes and then immediately turn on a dime and mock bloggers for doing the very same thing.

It was mind numbingly astounding.

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So, Joe, I won't make fun of yet another of Bachmann's gaffes, but I'll point out your hypocrisy for making fun of bloggers daring to write about a little trivial thing like Bachmann confusing one of America's movie icons with one of the most notorious serial killers in US history, while you went on taking little jabs forever with your Al Bundy/Ted Bundy comparisons.

ADDING... Bachmann should know that full names count. John Wayne is not the same as John Wayne Gacy, just as founding father John Adams is not the same as not founding father John Quincy Adams.

Joe Scarborough Attacks Palin

Scarborough: "Republicans have a problem. The most-talked-about figure in the GOP is a reality show star who cannot be elected. And yet the same leaders who fret that Sarah Palin could devastate their party in 2012 are too scared to say in public what they all complain about in private.

Enough. It’s time for the GOP to man up."

Prepare for incoherent Palin tweets in 5... 4... 3...

See Ya, Juan!

Juan Williams agreeing with Bill O'Reilly's comments on the now infamous The View segment in which Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar walked off the set:

"...I think you’re right. I think, look, political correctness can lead to some kind of paralysis where you don’t address reality.
I mean, look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."

Did it ever occur to Williams that the 9/11 hijackers were NOT wearing Muslim garb? So according to Williams, we have more to fear from someone wearing "Muslim garb" than someone who isn't. Remind me again what the Times Square Bomber was wearing? So finally, NPR, which over a year ago asked Williams not to identify himself as an NPR analyst while on O'Reilly's show, has had enough.

NPR announced late on Wednesday night that it has terminated the contract of longtime analyst Juan Williams over his comments... In a statement, NPR said that it had informed Williams of its decision on Wednesday night, and that his remarks were "inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR."

A quick Google search will find that right wing bloggers are outraged, OUTRAGE I TELL YOU!, that Williams was fired for "no particular reason" or for "telling the truth" and are blaming Think Progress and The Huffington Post for... well for reporting the incident I suppose.

Even the Morning Joe crew was appalled at the firing. And just recently, Joe Scarborough tweeted this:



Actually, Joe, no. Williams was fired for saying he gets nervous on a plane when he sees people wearing Muslim garb.

But here's one question that these people should answer: If it's okay for Rick Sanchez to be fired for saying Jews run the media, and it's okay for Helen Thomas to be forced out for saying that Jews should get out of Palestine, then why is this particular firing an outrage? It couldn't be because one religion is to be revered and the other is to be vilified, could it?

Well at least Williams if now free to express his opinion on Fox News full time without having to worry about damaging NPR's credibility.

All Aboard the Crazy Train

Newt Gingrich, the man that some would say has a better than an outside chance of being the Republican presidential nominee for 2012 has punched his ticket to Loonyland.

In an interview with the National Review, Newt agreed with right wing freak Dinesh D’Souza's ridiculous Forbes article and therefore assessed that...

...[Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]...That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior.”

“This is a person who is fundamentally out of touch with how the world works, who happened to have played a wonderful con, as a result of which he is now president,” Gingrich tells us.

“I think he worked very hard at being a person who is normal, reasonable, moderate, bipartisan, transparent, accommodating — none of which was true,” Gingrich continues. “In the Alinksy tradition, he was being the person he needed to be in order to achieve the position he needed to achieve . . . He was authentically dishonest.”

We all thought Newt was a little loopy to begin with, but the quotes in this article reveal him to be either A) an opportunistic narcissist who will say anything to remain in the spotlight, even when that something can doom his chances to get the rational, sane voters in his corner, or B) he really has gone off the deep end and has out-Orly Taitzed Orly Taitz. To cast a shadow of doubt and ask "I'm not sure about the President, but we haven't seen his birth certificate" would be bad enough, but to go full-out crazy conspiracy theory and use phrases like "Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior" and say that President Obama was a con man, that he is "authentically dishonest." What does that even mean?

Even Joe Scarborough doesn't know what Newt was thinking, if he was thinking at all.

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In my opinion, Newt Gingrich has lost all hope of even contending for 2012. Going full Birther may play to the fringe base, but independents won't fall for it. Despite the polls showing a loss of independent support for the Democratic Party these last months, if given the choice between Barack Obama and either Newt, Sarah Palin, or even a Mike Huckabee or Mitt Romney, I still think the choice is still clear.

This Is Madness

When even Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan (PAT BUCHANAN!) gang up on Newt Gingrich, you know there's a problem.

Through The Looking Glass

Have I gone absolutely insane? All but twelve Republicans voted against health care for 9/11 responders and all the intrepid Joe Scarborough and Clueless Mika can do is show disdain toward Anthony Weiner for the anger he displayed on the House floor.

Give me a break.

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Can We Please Give Him A Show?

Lawrence O'Donnell shows once again why he needs a show. He is beholden to no one as he spars with Joe "Cheney Apologist" Scarborough over Cheney's comment that President Obama is "dithering" in Afghanistan, as if his administration didn't dither for the last eight fucking years.

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ADDING... Scarborough: "Okay, Lawrence... go sell your appliances." WHAT A FUCKING DOUCHE!

Must Reads

Joe Scarborough: Thank You, Mr. President

Rinku Sen: ACORN Is The New Dirty Word

Jesse Lee: Reality Check: Trying to Turn a Point of Pride into a Moment of Shame

Nate Anderson: Memes strike back: Gerbils, gay blood elves, and Glenn Beck

The Rude Pundit: Regarding Polanski and the Rule of Law & Rep. Alan Grayson May Just Fuck Your Shit Up

Roger Ebert: The Anger of The Festering Fringe

Scarborough Weighs In On Beck

I think it may be that Glenn Beck has jumped the shark with this Katie Couric interview. He rails on Barack Obama for months, incites an astroturf tea party with his 9/12 Project when he was initially in favor of the $700 billion Bush bailout, and now says that John McCain would have been worse for the country because he's a "weird progressive like Theodore Roosevelt"?!

Wow, that's some special kind of crazy there.

Adding... What's up with Mika at the very beginning of the clip? She mumbles that perhaps they shouldn't air the Beck/Couric tape and then rolls her eyes just before they start. Is she a Beck fan too?

But It's Not About Racism (The Jimmy Carter Edition) - UPDATED

This past Tuesday, former President Jimmy Carter, an old white Southern man who would probably know racism when he sees it, commented that the Joe "YOU LIE!" Wilson outburst, as well as the teabagger 9/12 demonstrations, was based in part on racial politics.

"I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African-American," Carter told NBC News. "I live in the South, and I've seen the South come a long way, and I've seen the rest of the country that shares the South's attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African-Americans."

"That racism inclination still exists, and I think it's bubbled up to the surface because of belief among many white people -- not just in the South but around the country -- that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It's an abominable circumstance, and it grieves me and concerns me very deeply," Carter said.

No sooner had he made that comment, the attack dogs were on the cable chatter stations to debate whether Carter was right in his assessment. Matt Lauer interviewed Michael Eric Dyson and Frank Luntz (Frank FUCKING Luntz!) as if there were equal sides to this debate. Conspicuously absent from the piece was any video or images of the racists signs being carried at the 9/12 protests. Dyson was also on Morning Joke™ where MENSA member Maria "Why Isn't 45 Year Old Anthony Weiner On Medicare If It's So Good?" Bartiromo tried to dismiss racism on the grounds that President Obama once enjoyed a 70% approval rating. Dyson astutely breaks down the arguments, but of course on the Morning Joke™ set, it falls of deaf ears.

The whole point of these most recent morning interviews was to discredit Carter's valuation, just as they attacked him for his Palestine book. They try refuting Carter's argument with no facts or images to bolster their non-racial argument from the teabaggers in DC. They discredit him and thereby try to show that race has little or nothing to do with the 9/12 marchers in Washington on Saturday who were soooo angry at the government "spending its tax dollars" that they showed up bearing signs with Obama dressed as a witch doctor with a bone through his nose, or telling him to go back to Kenya and take his "arrogent" wife with him (Arrogant... perhaps they meant "uppity"?) or calling him a "Muslim Marxist" as though no freedom of religion existed in this country, let alone probably not knowing the definition of Marxism. To them it's just another thing to repeat that they heard from "their hero, Glenn Beck."

Anyone who refuses to believe that race is not only an issue, but the main issue for the upswell in opposition is purposely ignoring what is plainly visible; the deep seated feeling that they really are racist but can't admit it. Where were these protesters when former President Bush bailed out financial institutions with $700 billion? President Obama continues the Bush policy and all of a sudden it's socialism? But you bring a sign like this to your protest?



I'd like to know how many 9/12 teabaggers "protesting the government spending" are A) Democrats and B) voted for Obama? I have more respect for David Duke than some I do for some of these teabaggers or Glenn Beck. At least Duke admits to being a racist and is proud of it.

UPDATE (9/17/09, 6:45am): Keith Olbermann takes on the race issue and backs it up with examples.

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30 Seconds of Morning Joe in 5 Easy Steps

Step One: Turn on TV and tune in to MSNBC.

Step Two: Wait for Joe Scarborough to say something stupid (it doesn't take long).

Step Three: Hear Scarborough say, in reaction to Rep. Joe "You Lie!" Wilson (R-SC), "It was stupid, but he's apologized for it... strange that he would apologize to Rahm... Maybe he should have apologized to Axelrod or Valerie Jarrett."

Step Four: Yell at the TV machine, "How about apologizing to the PRESIDENT, instead of writing a weaselly note like a fucking third grader, you DOUCHEBAG!" Your household pet might scurry away in the process as mine did.

Step Five: Turn off TV before you burst a blood vessel.

Nothing like a little Morning Joke™ to get your blood flowing in the morning.

Anthony Weiner ROCKS!

Doesn't Joe Scarborough get tired of being wrong? Well, I suppose if you think you're right, then you are. Every few weeks Scarborough gets eviscerated on his own show. This time It's Rep. Anthony Weiner's turn.

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How very white of Joe to state that he's not there to answer Rep. Weiner's question (6:16) when he gets all flustered and there is dead silence for about 5 seconds (about the 5:18 mark) to the question, "What are [insurance companies'] value? What do they bring to the deal?" and then gets all upset when Weiner is making a point and says he won't let him answer a question (7:20). What a douchebag.

As far as Weiner is concerned, if I weren't shopping for a house in another state, I'd be looking to move a couple of miles to be in his district. More Anthony Weiners is what the spineless Democratic Party needs.

Adding... I'm waiting for the video of the return of Weiner "after the news break" but it's not on the MSNBC website yet. I wonder if they'll put it up (provided he actually did come back)?

UPDATE (3:10pm): FDL has the remaining portion of the interview (starting at the 5:50 mark).

Joe Scarborough still disagrees which is his right, but can't get around spinning it by saying, "You made me speechless because you so clearly came here and stated your position, which is, and it took me a couple of minutes to figure it out, you want the federal government to take over. You want want insurance companies, not doctors, but the funding mechanism, the pay mechanism..." Weiner interrupts, "Correct. Whose going to take your money and give it to doctors?"

More Birther Bullshit - UPDATED

On yesterday's Hardball, Chris Matthews went after Rep. John Campbell (R-Douchelandia) for being asinine enough to co-sponsor the "birther bill" requiring future Presidents to provide proof of citizenship with their birth certificate. Campbell thinks it will lay doubts to rest, not realizing (or maybe realizing all too well) that it's only fueling the fire for the nutballs who don't like the idea of a black man being the President and are using this sorry excuse to discredit Obama's rightful place in office.

He argues that this would have been the same for John McCain or George Romney, but I don't remember anyone seriously doubting the citizenship of McCain during the campaign. And if they did, it was only in response to the craziness of the issue coming from the wingnuts. I think Chris does a good job of putting Campbell in his place.

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UPDATE (2:25pm): Does anyone think Lou Dobbs has any credibility left after this?

Media Matters: Dobbs joins right-wing media promoting birth certificate conspiracy theories

July 22, 2009: In light of CNN host Lou Dobbs' recent promotion of conspiracy theories about President Obama's birth certificate, Media Matters for America is re-publishing the following item, which was originally posted June 18.

Even Joe Scarborough isn't falling into the Birther trap.

Fact Grenades

I've never experienced shell shock, but besides the pain, I can only imagine it's something like what Steven Spielberg depicted in Saving Private Ryan*. If I remember correctly, this happens twice to Tom Hanks during the movie; once towards the beginning of the movie during the beach invasion and once towards the end. An explosion takes place nearby, the shock wave causing temporary deafness, disorientation and confusion.

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski felt that shell shock today when Chuck Todd tossed a fact grenade into the MSNBC Morning Joe set. Bringing up the Supreme Court reversal on the Ricci case and how it would play with the Sotomayor nomination, Todd stated the obvious which had been pretty much ignored by the mainstream media: the fact that the conservative judges on the bench overturned the decision which had been based on legal precedent and created a new rule to overturn the decision. Some would call that "judicial activism" or "legislating from the bench." The very thing conservatives were accusing Sotomayor of doing when she ruled on legal precedent. Funny, that.

Watch the carnage as Joe's & Mika's heads explode with the realization that the "activist" judges we actually face are the conservative ones on the Supreme Court of the United States.

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Boom! goes the dynamite! The stunned silence from Joe and Mika after Todd makes his point is priceless. Mika even calls Todd "adorable" - who the fuck knows what that's supposed to mean. And Joe Scarborough, caught with his pants down, proclaims that he'll just let it go because he didn't know if it would take him half hour or an hour to debate Todd's analysis. Hint: If it takes you 30 to 60 minutes to rebut someone's statement, you're probably wrong and just making shit up. Nice try, Joe.

The post traumatic stress disorder from Todd's fact grenade is probably going to reveal itself in a disjointed rant or two in tomorrow's telecast from the gang at Morning Joke™.

* 4:58 mark.