Disarming the GOP Memes

Yesterday I posted the video to Saturday night's White House Correspondents' Dinner and took the opportunity to watch them a second time. I thought the second time was better than the first in regards to both the President's and Jimmy Kimmel's performances.

But something struck me while watching the President. There were the dog eating jokes. A lot of dog eating jokes. Just when you think he'd move on, he'd come in with another one. For a bit, I thought it was too much. But watching it a second time, I realized that all the self deprecation was yet another tool to disarm some of the ridiculous right wing talking points and conspiracy theories that still resonate with the uninformed, misinformed and ignorant that plague our society.

The President's wink after he stating he was born in Hawaii, the GSA scandal cracks, Hillary Clinton's "drunk texting from Cartajena" joke, and the constant dog eating jokes, all designed to disarm the constant harping from the right wing on things that don't matter, or more serious issues that are being dealt with but are used to misplace the blame on the President.

Why this struck me the way it did was because I can't recall such self deprecation on the other side. Sure, there's that hilarious time President Bush was looking under his coffee table for nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, but that wasn't so much humorous as it was sad and insulting. Eating dog because it's part of the culture in Indonesia when you're eight years old is a little different than starting a war under false pretenses. An "Oops, my bad" joke in that situation is not at all funny. But I digress.

The point is, watching the idiots on Fox and Friends or Hannity make the off-handed dog eating joke now is only going to make them look childish.

Oh Noes! RWNJs Angry at Birthday Celebrating President!

It really can't get any more petty than criticizing a man for celebrating his 50th birthday. But that's exactly what the right wingers are doing regarding President Obama's birthday.

President Obama turns 50 tomorrow, but that isn’t stopping him from celebrating early.

Fresh off a bruising debt ceiling debate, and an announcement that the administration is pivoting back to a focus on jobs, Obama heads to his hometown Chicago tonight for a birthday-themed fundraiser at the historic Aragon Ballroom.

...Republicans have unleashed a barrage of criticism against the president for making the trip, accusing him of hypocrisy during tough economic times.

“With 9.2 percent unemployment, he could work on creating jobs, but I suppose the White House is thinking he should stick to the part of his job he really likes,” said RNC spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski in an email statement.

GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney also took a swipe at Obama for the trip, publishing an online video Tuesday that highlights a spike in Chicago’s unemployment rate and falling housing prices over the past three years.

Kirsten Kukowski is right! I mean, I'm sure that if President Obama skipped the fundraiser that will take him out of town for the evening, he could easily solve the unemployment crisis. If only he weren't so callous, inconsiderate and just plain lazy. Just sit at your desk in the Oval Office and do your job, Mr. President! You'd have a plan to lower the unemployment rate to 4% by tomorrow if only you'd put in a hard night's work.

How dare the President of the United States celebrate a birthday during a national crisis!!!

How Does the Tea Party Help Republicans?

I've been mulling this question over while watching Republican incumbents in primary after primary fall to the Tea Party candidates and I can't see that they help the Republicans at all. In fact, the whole GOP is tacking to the right to embrace the Tea Party for fear of extinction. So why is it that all the polls and pundits are convinced that the Democrats are doomed on Election Day 2010?

It's all really a matter of common sense. The Tea Party is basically an extreme, conservative group to the right of the Republican Party. Regardless of the spin they try to put on the demographics of the movement - that they are equal parts Democrats, Republicans and Independents who are tired of the status quo in Washington - we know better. The chance that even conservative Democrats in the general election would flock to vote for a Tea Party candidate is slim to none. And knowing that Freedom Works is basically behind the Tea Party movement, I view it as the political equivalent of the Frankenstein monster.

If anything, we are witnessing angry Republicans not only fearful of the evil, Kenyan, socialist, Marxist, Nazi Obama, but upset with their own party and knocking them off in the Republican primaries with candidates who are at the least inexperienced, and at worst, the fringiest of the fringe who think Social Security is unconstitutional and continue the myth that Social Security is bankrupt, want to privatize Social Security and Medicare, because as you know, Wall Street bankers will protect your assets, and forward blatantly racist, anti-Obama emails.

And yet we keep hearing (literally just now I heard this as a bumper on MSNBC) that "the Tea Party is proving it can shape the political landscape and will have a huge impact on the midterm November elections."

Let's face it, Democrats will mostly likely vote for Democrats. Republicans will most likely vote for Republicans, even if that means they have to cast a ballot for Christine "Masturbation Is Bad" O'Donnell or Carl "Humans are Racist" Paladino. But the Independent voter, the voters that swung for President Obama in 2008, don't normally ride the crazy train.  And I don't think they'll punch a ticket for it this time either.  Hell, even the GOP party chairman said O'Donnell has no business running for dog catcher, let alone US Senate. And evil spawn Karl Rove is calling some of her comments "nutty" for which he is getting backlash from Wingnuttia.

So maybe the Tea Party really is reshaping the political landscape for the November midterms, but in my opinion it's coming at the peril of the Republican Party. Eight of the Republican Party backed establishment candidates lost to the Tea Party challenger. And although Republicans have no choice but to support the primary winners (even after saying they wouldn't) the fracture in the GOP is clearly visible.  They have just as much to lose as any Democrat in office.

Yes, anti-incumbent rage might cost some Democratic seats in the House and Senate just like it does after every midterm against the majority party incumbents whose party controls the White House, but I don't believe it'll be anywhere close to the devastation that the pundits are predicting, because the one thing all the talking heads keep dismissing in all of the analysis is the quality of the candidate.

Adding... Maybe all the wingnuts winning Republican primaries are just what the Democratic doctor ordered to gin up the base and finally get some enthusiasm rolling.

WTF?!

At the Beck rally...



Completely. Clueless.

See some more teabaggishness here.

My Facebook Debate with A Right Winger

Not too long ago, Armadillo Joe gave us a post about his Facebook debate with a Texas conservative, the place where he once called home. Now I too have fallen into the trap of debating someone on Facebook with a "different take" on the politics of the day. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but a complete fantasy world can be lethal.

It all started with a Facebook friend, who I'll refer to as "Karen," because her name is Karen, adding this comment as her Facebook status:

"Ok - so I'm hangin with the tea party crowd and they're listening to some annoying radio show MCed by an equally annoying person called Mark Levin. Time to turn the shuffle on HIGH. With all that's going on in the world today - the last thing I can deal with is someone with the voice of gloom and doom."

To which someone I'll refer to as "John," because his name is John, replied:

"Well I would love to be there! I would say I am more a Reagen [sic] conservative! As long as we have small gov less taxes and big defense I am good to go!!"

Well, you know me. I couldn't just let that go. So I commented:

"John, you do know that Reagan blew the national debt out of the water to $3 trillion at the time, more than all presidents before him combined, don't you? I know I'm opening up a can of worms."

John: "And now Obama has increased the debt to more then all presidents combined and that's four more presidents then when Reagen [sic] was including Ronald. Plus he has made our country week [sic] by his apolgy [sic] tour. And let's not forget how he insults our allies. Plus I never heard a president trash talk american people like he does! He controls the.[sic] Highest office and acts like a school kid!"

The gloves are off. It's on, brohim!

Continue reading "My Facebook Debate with a Right Winger."

Well That Didn't Take Long

A couple of weeks ago, after almost daily embarrassments due to inaccurate information that they'd then have to apologize for, Fox News decided to implement a "zero tolerance" policy for on-screen errors, complete with possible termination for offenses.  I commented then that it would be two or three days max before FNC went out of business for firing it's entire staff. Well, I was wrong... but not really. If they make a mistake, they'll just deny it was a mistake.  Problem solved!

... Lauren Petterson, executive producer of Fox & Friends, told POLITICO that she sees no error in the graphic. And for that reason, there will be no reprimand of staff under the "zero tolerance" policy.

"We were just talking about three interesting pieces of information from Rasmussen," Petterson said. "We didn't put on the screen that it added up to 100 percent."

[...]

While Petterson maintains that Fox & Friend's didn't err in displaying the information from Rasmussen, she acknowledges that the presentation wasn't perfect. "The mistake I do see is we could have been a little clearer here," she said.

Right.  A poll showing 94% of respondents favoring an outcome that Fox News prefers with totals equalling 120% would never be misconstrued as manipluating the data, especially in a poll about manipulating data.  As usual, Jon Stewart and his finely honed staff eviscerates the mistake and takes no prisoners on Fox & Friends.

Sound Familiar?

Right wing crazies have been with us long before President Obama or President Clinton. "Betraying the Constitution"? "Befriending our enemies"? "Caught in fantastic lies to the American people"? All accusations hurled at John F. Kennedy, who many now regard as an upper echelon President because of his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis, his leadership for civil rights and his initiative to push the citizens of this country to be better and do better.

We have to be doubly vigilant and on our toes to stop this wingnut disease from spreading.

(H/T Stimulist)

The Equilvalent of Hoods

I've always found it rather unsettling that the anonymity of the internet causes what would otherwise be normal discourse and debate into heated, hate-filled rhetoric that one would most likely never dare to say face to face for fear of physical assault.

With the ascent of our country's first African-American president after our sordid history of racism however, never has it struck me more that the progeny of the cowards who once wore hoods and robes are now trading them in for the 21st century version of their shameful furtiveness.

We've seen it bubbling up more and more. What may have started as a moron with a Curious George doll at a Palin campaign rally or the accusations of President Obama being a secret Muslim has escalated to deadly violence and frightening vitriol on conservative websites without the slightest hint of disgrace or remorse.

Case in point. Free Republic.

"A typical street whore." "A bunch of ghetto thugs." "Ghetto street trash." "Wonder when she will get her first abortion."

These are a small selection of some of the racially-charged comments posted to the conservative 'Free Republic' blog Thursday, aimed at U.S. President Barack Obama's 11-year-old daughter Malia after she was photographed wearing a t-shirt with a peace sign on the front.

The thread was accompanied by a photo of Michelle Obama speaking to Malia that featured the caption, "To entertain her daughter, Michelle Obama loves to make monkey sounds."

The cowardice to write such things while hiding behind a keyboard used as a hood and a username used as a robe is immeasurable. This isn't about disagreeing with the administration's policies. This isn't worrying about national security. This isn't about the threat of terrorism. This is hostility and disdain for an 11 year old girl purely based on the color of her skin. This is about the overt racism displayed at the President of the United States and his family.

And the bigotry doesn't stop at the faceless ones living under rocks. Now the ugly scars and boils filling in a Dorian Gray's portrait of the GOP are visible for all to see. Chip Saltsman, a candidate for chairman of the Republican National Committee, sent out CDs containing the song,"Barack the Magic Negro." South Carolina GOP activist Rusty DePass joked that an escaped gorilla from a local zoo was an "ancestor" of Michelle Obama.

Speaking of primates, let's not forget about the editorial cartoon depicting police officers shooting a monkey and lamenting that "they'll have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill." And most recently there's Audra Shay, a candidate to chair the Young Republicans National Federation, who "LOL"ed when a Facebook friend ranted that they had to "take this country back from all of these mad coons." Further review of her Facebook account and her poor attempts to scrub her page found more than a few racist and homophobic comments.

In October 2008, in the wake of news that an effigy of Sarah Palin was being hung outside an affluent Hollywood home as an offensive Halloween decoration, Shay replied, returning to the “LOL” style that she employed after the “coons” comment: “What no ‘Obama in a noose? Come on now, its just freedome [sic] of speech, no one in Atlanta would take that wrong! Lol.”

She picked up the thread again the next morning with a clarification and a new insight. “Apparently I could not spell last night. I am wondering if the guys with the Palin noose would care if we had a bunch of homosexuals in a noose.”

By the way, she won her election.

Apparently, this is the future of the Republican party, continuing to elect not only racists, but overt ones at that. While the anonymous "hooded" cowards of the Internet feel free to spew their intense hate of "the other" without fear of repercussion, their elected Grand Dragons and Imperial Wizards further marginalize the 21st Century Whigs.

Ratcheting Up Teh Crazy

by Armadillo Joe

Following up on my last post "The Mighty Wurlitzer," I'd like to highlight something I read today from David Neiwert (who has made a career the last decade or more tracking right-wing militia insanity at Orcinus and other sites -- he also wrote a book titled 'The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right') over at C&L, a post entitled "As their power spirals downward, the Right's rhetoric gets nuttier and nastier":

[...]

Deja vu from 1994, when I was regularly attending militia meetings, all over again: The president-bashing. The gun fetishizing. The paranoia. The unstated old bigotry. And sometimes, all of them would come together at once.

[...]

This time, they're not just getting whipped into a paranoid frenzy by their fellow paranoids, which was generally the case in the 1990s, with a few exceptions -- namely Rush Limbaugh. In their latest immanation, the old Patriot movement is getting stoked by a whole slew of ostensibly mainstream conservatives broadcasting daily and constantly on mainstream news media.

He also quotes Eric Boehlert, as he dismantles the hapless but frighteningly popular Glenn Beck and other rabblerousers as they spew hatred and sow seeds of popular disorder on FOX News:

Beck's sure "[d]epression and revolution" are what await America under Obama, and fears moving "towards a totalitarian state." The country today sometimes reminds Beck of "the early days of Adolf Hitler." Beck thinks that Obama, who has "surrounded himself by Marxists his whole life," is now "addicting this country to heroin -- the heroin that is government slavery."

And it's not just Beck. Appearing on Fox News, Dick Morris recently made a wildly irresponsible comment that looks even worse in light of the Pittsburgh law-enforcement slayings: "Those crazies in Montana who say, 'We're going to kill ATF agents because the UN's going to take over' -- well, they're beginning to have a case."

And it's not just Fox News. Radio nut Michael Savage recently claimed that "we have a naked Marxist for president." And high-profile conservative blogger Erick Erickson contemplated the beating of politicians: "At what point do [people] get off the couch, march down to their state legislator's house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp for being an idiot?"

Of course, the right-wingers at Free Republic are way ahead of Erickson as they fantasize about Obama's assassination: "And let's face it: all the speculation about Obama being the actual Antichrist will either be confirmed or denied if someone gets off a lucky shot at the SOB."

Again, all of this shit scares me mostly because these people have been steeped in violent eliminationist rhetoric for decades, they are armed and their ancestors are the original domestic terrorist group, the KKK, proving they have quite a record of doing as they say. Now that America is led by a black president with a mooz-luhm' sounding name, all their worst nightmares have come true and we not yet even begun to feel the Wrath of Teh Crazy.

The Mighty Wurlitzer

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Dismiss Limbaugh? Not A Chance - UPDATED

I've been reading some comments on other web threads of those who are concerned of the Limbaugh situation and how it may galvanize Republicans in 2010 and 2012. Or perhaps that the Democrats are not taking Limbaugh seriously.

Sure, it's great comedy for the left - right now. What about in a couple of years when these idiots mobilize? And mark my words, they surely will. This whole "kiss the ring" mentality of the party is ludicrous, but it keeps them in the news cycle.

I say fine, let it come. Let them continue to make asses out of themselves by bowing down to a radio talk show entertainer. Anyone who listens to and agrees with Limbaugh is never in a million years voting Democratic anyway. It's the independents who are annoyed, frustrated and fed up with the Limbaugh rhetoric, and if the Republican party refuses to distance themselves from Rush because they're afraid of him and the power he wields with 20 million listeners, then it shows them for weak party they've become. They can sit behind their podiums and threaten to filibuster when they're in the collegial body of the Senate, but when they have to shiv someone in a Rush Limbaugh airwaves street fight, they kneel down, cower and beg for mercy.

So in a sense, Democrats and liberals who are making the correlation between Limbaugh and the leadership of the GOP aren't doing it for a laugh, they aren't taking Limbaugh for granted, they're embracing the fact that as far as GOP voters are concerned, Limbaugh TRULY IS the de facto leader of the Republican party and every time a GOP politician tries to distance himself from Rush, he looks like twice the fool when he tucks his tail between his legs and apologizes the next day. They can't say Rush doesn't speak for the party and then backtrack and say they "cherish his voice in the public debate."

And what if they do "mobilize"? The crazies came out in droves to vote against what they perceived was a black, Muslim, Manchurian candidate, foreign born socialist who palled around with terrorists. There were shouts of "treason" and "terrorist" and "off with his head" from the wingnuts at Sarah Palin rallies.

What did that get them? 45 million votes, 160 some odd electoral votes, and major seat losses in Congress. They're in for the same thing if the strategy remains the same. If the Republican party was serious about changing, they wouldn't be touting the likes of Jindal and Palin for 2012.

As an aside, I don't know whether the Obama staff and the Democratic party in general stumbled upon Limbaugh equaling the head of GOP by chance, or whether it was a carefully laid out tactic, but it seems to be working. The Republicans are in Limbaugh quicksand right now, and the more they struggle to extract themselves, the deeper they sink.

UPDATE (4:25pm):

Maybe it was planned after all. Well, I suppose not "planned" per se, but the Democrats are definitely using it to their advantage.

Politico's Jonathan Martin: Rush Job: Inside Dems' Limbaugh plan

Washington Post Op-Ed - David Plouffe: Minority Leader Limbaugh

T Minus 68 Days

"The United States and Russia are in the midst of transformationed relationship that will yield peace and progress."

- Washington, DC, November 13, 2001


What was that quote by John Hinderaker again?

Oh yeah :

"Obama thinks he is a good talker, but he is often undisciplined when he speaks. He needs to understand that as President, his words will be scrutinized and will have impact whether he intends it or not. In this regard, President Bush is an excellent model; Obama should take a lesson from his example. Bush never gets sloppy when he is speaking publicly. He chooses his words with care and precision, which is why his style sometimes seems halting. In the eight years he has been President, it is remarkable how few gaffes or verbal blunders he has committed. If Obama doesn't raise his standards, he will exceed Bush's total before he is inaugurated."

HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!! Douchebag!

Why Does This Dipshit Still Have A Job?

Will someone tell me why anything Bill Kristol writes matters? Only a weatherman can be wrong so often and still be able to retain his job. And yet, here is Kristol in the New York Times again with this craptacular observation:

Sure, the election results had been bad — but they weren’t devastating. Obama wasn’t winning the popular vote by double-digit margins, as some polls had suggested he might. Republican losses in the Senate and House were substantial but not catastrophic.

...there was virtually no change in the voters’ ideological self-identification: in 2008, 22 percent called themselves liberal, up only marginally from 21 percent in 2004; 34 percent were conservative, unchanged from the last election; and 44 percent called themselves moderate, compared with 45 percent in 2004.

In other words, this was a good Democratic year, but it is still a center-right country.

Oh, Bill. Bill. You can try to talk yourself into your idiotic assessments until you're blue in the face, but the reality is that the country is not "center-right." In fact, it never has been. Here's a little something from Gallup brought to us by our good friend, Mr. Bob Cesca:

• Americans are pro-choice (67 percent)
• Americans support the Geneva Conventions with regards to torture (57 percent)
• Americans don't want the government snooping in their bank and internet records (67 percent)
• Americans want the USA Patriot Act changed or eliminated entirely (81 percent)
• Americans support protecting the environment at the expense of economic growth (55 percent)
• Americans believe that global warming is happening (86 percent)
• Americans believe that it's the government's responsibility to provide health care (69 percent)
• Americans support the decriminalization of marijuana (55 percent) and support the legalization of medical marijuana (78 percent)
• Americans are opposed to attacking Iran (68 percent, according to a CNN Poll)
• Americans support labor unions (60 percent)
• Americans want government funding of embryonic stem cell research (56 percent)
• Americans believe that free trade hurts American workers (65 percent)
• Americans believe rich people and corporations aren't paying enough taxes (66 and 71 percent respectively)
• And overall party affiliation? 54 percent of Americans are Democrats (with leaners) and 39 percent are Republicans (with leaners).

Bob also mentions this little tidbit of information:

Of the last 30 Congresses, since 1945, Republicans have controlled the House for a grand total of seven Congresses. Seven out of 30. The 80th Congress, and the 104th-109th. In the Senate, the numbers are slightly better. Ten out of 30.

We know you really, really, really want to think that the country is more conservative, but just because you say it doesn't make it true. Here's a handy, dandy little map brought to you by the newspaper of record that you happen to work for, The New York Times:

See all the blue there, Billy boy? Those are counties that shifted and voted more Democratic than in 2004. That's a lot of blue, isn't it? A bit too much blue to claim that the country is "center-right."

And yet, this moron still has a job, but hopefully not for long.

McCain's Conservative Base

(H/T Oliver Willis)

Another Sad Day In The Life of a Capitulating Democratic Party

FISA capitulation passed. And you can hear the evil bastards in the White House laughing their asses off through the walls of the Oval Office.

From Glenn Greenwald:

UPDATE VI: Cloture on the bill just passed 72-26. Obama voted in favor of cloture along with all Republicans. Hillary Clinton voted against cloture.

After the cloture vote, the Senate just approved final passage of the FISA bill, by a vote of 69-28. Obama voted with all Republicans for the bill. Hillary Clinton voted against it.

Democrats voting in favor of final passage of the FISA bill: Bayh - Carper - Casey - Conrad - Dorgan - Feinstein - Innuoye - Kohl - Landrieu - Lincoln -McCaskill - Mukulski - Nelson (Neb.) - Nelson (Fla.) - Obama - Pryor - Rockefeller - Salazar - Webb - Whitehouse.

Democrats voting against final passage of the FISA bill: Akaka - Biden - Bingaman - Boxer - Brown - Cantwell - Cardin - Clinton - Dodd - Dorgan - Durbin - Feingold - Harkin - Kerry - Leahy - Levin - Lautenberg - Murray - Reed - Reid - Sanders - Schumer - Stabenow - Tester - Wyden.

Once again, in an effort not to appear weak on national defense, the Democrats capitulate and look weak, period.

And even though Senator Obama understandably (and hopefully begrudgingly) voted in favor of the bill for political reasons, as he said he would, it's disappointing nonetheless. There isn't one Democrat with the "fuck you" attitude (that liberals and progressives yearn for) in a position to make a statement on a vote like this. Sure, Hillary Clinton voted for it, but what does she have to lose? Her statement by voting against the bill now is basically, "Fuck you, Barack." Call me cynical, but I'd venture to guess that if Hillary had won the nomination, she would have voted in favor of the bill as well.

Yes, it's a very sad day indeed to be a Democrat. And we should have nothing to say when the right wing nutbags pile on in the "kick 'em while they're down" stompfest. Let them have their giddy few days. Just take it and remember it. Don't forget it... and think about November.

Chris Matthews , Kevin James and Appeasement

ap·pease·ment, noun - to yield or concede to the belligerent demands of (a nation, group, person, etc.) in a conciliatory effort, sometimes at the expense of justice or other principles.

It's late and I should be getting to bed, but I have to comment on Chris Matthews' evisceration of right wing hack Kevin James today on Hardball. Every once in a while, Matthews gets it right, and I'm starting to believe that he's just as tired of all the bullshit as the rest of us have been for a long time now.

I first saw Kevin James (not the funny comedian, but the asshole wingnut) on some show a couple of weeks ago and thought, "Who the fuck is this dipshit and why would anyone have him on the air?" Maybe Matthews thought that too and figured he'd have a little fun dangling him over the shark tank.

*It's a horrible situation when the President of the United States makes a ridiculous comment (comparing Barack Obama's foreign policy stance to the appeasement of the Nazis in 1938) while in a foreign country today that can be considered an act of treason,* but then the wingnut hyenas receive their faxed talking points and repeat what they read ad nauseam without even understanding what they are saying.

Watch and be amazed at how this buffoon is schooled by Matthews, and keep an eye out when James gets flustered and refers to his notes for those catch words "enabled, energized, legitimized," repeating them over and over again as if it's an answer to the question being posed.



You can keep looking at your notes all day, nitwit, the answer to "What did Neville Chamberlain do wrong that you don't like?" isn't going to magically appear on your "Dittohead Brainless Talking Points of the Day" email.

And Mark Green! "Kevin, when you're in a hole, stop digging." Priceless!

The saddest part of this whole thing is that this piece of shit excuse for a human being is going back to his job tomorrow at a Los Angeles right wing conservative radio station without any repercussion from his pitiful performance on Hardball, probably trying to excuse it as being taken out of context or that it was some "liberal media" hit job. (I say "excuse for a human being" because I believe that besides being a living, breathing entity, you also have to have the ability to use your brain and think.)

I hope I'm wrong. I hope there is blowback from his pathetic appearance because I am so fucking tired of the "yes" men and dittoheads who do nothing but regurgitate whatever is fed to them and up until this point, haven't been called on it. Finally, a "journalist" did his job. I still use that term loosely with Matthews but he is starting to show something here. Contempt for the corporate status quo? Or just plain tired of sitting there and having to deal with the bullshit? I don't know, but it's working for me, makes for good television and for once it's nice to see some truth on the tube.

Kudos to Chris for being mad as hell and not taking it anymore... at least for today. Does Matthews have enough pull at MSNBC to prevent them from ever booking this douchebag again? God, let's hope so.

(* More on the moron and his "appeasement" comments at a later time.)

Hillary's Bad Week & Wingnut Hyposcrisy... AGAIN!

This week Hillary Clinton was skewered for having a question planted in Grinell, Iowa. Rotten. Not necessary. Not cool. Then came the CNN interview of the 19-year old college student that states that she wasn't the only planted question... ouch. Bad.

And the wingnuts go wild. Michelle "Internment Camps are Good" Malkin, Rush "These are prescribed!"Limbaugh, Sean "Giuliani Makes Me Hot" Hannity, etc., froth at the mouth. Fine. She was caught. Good for them.

But does anyone remember these "non-stories?"

Jeff Gannon Guckert: "...for nearly two years the White House press office had credentialed Mr. Guckert, even though, as Dana Milbank of The Washington Post explained on Mr. Olbermann's show, he "was representing a phony media company that doesn't really have any such thing as circulation or readership."
How this happened is a mystery that has yet to be solved. "Jeff" has now quit Talon News not because he and it have been exposed as fakes but because of other embarrassing blogosphere revelations linking him to sites like hotmilitarystud.com and to an apparently promising career as an X-rated $200-per-hour "escort."

Bushies screen audience and have manuals on techniques to be used: "Those entering must be screened in case they are hiding secret signs. Any anti-Bush demonstrators who manage to get in anyway should be shouted down by 'rally squads' stationed in strategic locations. And if that does not work, they should be thrown out."
...Those invited into a VIP section on or near the stage, for instance, must be 'extremely supportive of the Administration.'"...

And my personal favorite, Bush stages "spontaneous" video conference with troops in Iraq: In the words of Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, the feed "showed a full-blown rehearsal of the president's questions, in advance, along with the soldiers' answers and coaching from the administration," although the live video event was billed as a spontaneous exchange between the president and the troops.

The WHOLE, FUCKING conference.

So what did Malkin have to say about that?
MALKIN: "NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell was breathless last night over her military-bashing “scoop” about the “staging” of a Q&A between President Bush and the troops."

That's right Michelle, when caught with your pants down, just use the old tried-and-true "they hate the troops" crap and then deny, deny, deny. Chapter 4, Section 3b on how to deflect questions regarding the indefensible.

Another example in the ever growing list of right wing hypocrisy. Isn't everyone just getting a little tired of the defenders of the Destroyer of the Constitution with a 24% approval rating? I know I am. Cut your losses, admit that he's awful and try better next time. But who am I kidding?

While I'm at it, why is this funny?

Senator Clinton, ending a press conference, turns to walk away. Behind her are your normal school classroom flagpoles. Someone opens the curtains behind the flags, inadvertantly tipping one over and causing a domino effect. The flags fall... and it's Hillary's fault. Watch the video:

HA!HA!HA! Hysterical, isn't it?... Yeah, I didn't think so either. But let's do a quick Google search on "Hillary Clinton Flags Fall" and see what we get. (Emphasis mine to show the spin.)

ABCNews Blogs: " There were no planted questions to worry about, but on this Veterans Day the flags dropping all around the Senator created quite a stir among the press before Clinton fled the scene."

NowPublic.com: "At a news conference yesterday, four big American flags fell down ON presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton; right now she's hoping that that's not symbolic or anything."

CNN Political Ticker: When flag poles attack (CNN?! Jesus Christ...)

The Hillary Project: "You have to wonder if this really is a sign from above of things to come if Hillary should win the Presidency."

Yes, I'm sure that's what it is. The God of the Republicans (...Ronald Reagan?) tried to smite Hillary down as she left the conference. His aim, being what it was, missed by a few feet and knock down a few flagpoles. (Perhaps they should have sent Cheney with a shotgun.) Ominous? Who can tell? Apparently, the right-wing political hacks can.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a big Hillary fan, but this is beyond ridiculous.