Wingnut Rejection

Well, yesterday was Election Day and yes, I was a little disappointed in a couple of races that the MSM was concentrating on. John Corzine losing in New Jersey to Chris Christie was anticipated as was the Democratic no-name running against the Republican no-name in Virginia. But Jersey is a fickle bitch. They want honesty in their politicians, but when someone like Corzine tells them their $8 billion budget deficit will mean cuts and higher taxes, they vote for Christie, the guy that told them what they wanted to hear, not what they needed to hear. What do they expect Christie to do, eat the shortfall?

And we all know that Virginia is a purple, if not a maroon state. We were all surprised Obama won the state in the presidential election just last year, so why would a Republican winning the Governor's race be a "referendum" on President Obama?

In my own home town, Michael "I'm Support Term Limits Until It Affects Me" Bloomberg bought his third term as Mayor of New York City. I was mostly disappointed in the voter turnout. A little over a million people voted in the election with Mr. Monopoly receiving 557,000 votes. Spending an estimated $100 million on the race against his former Comptroller Bill Thompson, that amounts to about $180.00 per vote. And he still only won by 50,000 votes. Had this race not been billed as a blowout which in my opinion contributed to voter indifference and indirect suppression, there might have been a different outcome.

But if there was a real referendum, it was in New York's 23rd District, where Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck were flatly rejected by upstate New York voters. This was supposed to be the beginning of something big for the Teabagger movement but it might turn out to be just a big bowel movement and the beginning of the end for them and the fractured Republican Party. Their anointed Conservative candidate, Doug Hoffman, who doesn't live in the district and therefore didn't know the important issues at hand lost to Bill Owens in a district that hasn't seen a Democratic congressman since the Fillmore administration in 1852. Eighteen-fifty-fucking-two!

They were so confident they were going to win the district, (because after all how can you possibly be unimpressed by endorsements from Ms. Wasilla, America's Mayor and the relatively rational Tim Pawlenty?) that GOP leader Rush Limbaugh put his intrepid reputation on the line, predicting a victory along with liberals downplaying such a coup post election. He was banking on it:

If Hoffman wins -- and polls suggest that he will -- the race there will be dismissed as an outlier...

Folks, I want you to print these words out. I want you to get the transcript off my website. I want you to print these out, I want you to distribute them, I want you to carry them with you, and we'll just see how close I am to being right. (When Hoffman wins) the State-Run Media will say, "New York-23, the race is more about the demise of the Republican Party and anger on the right than Obama or his policies."

Rush is right. The debacle in New York's 23rd District was more about the demise of the GOP and the anger of the fringe right toward Obama which is why their candidate lost.  The voters knew better than to listen to the teabag loudmouths who don't even know they're sponsored by the corporate interests they claim to despise. The country (at least conservative, rural upstate New York) didn't seem ready for a Party of Crazy and said so by electing their first Democrat in 157 years. That's a pretty damning repudiation of Palin's Facebook followers and Beck's 9/12 Boneheads.

Chris Kelly has more.

Like Armadillo Joe, Hoping to Pop in Here More Often...

Posted by Fraulein

Finally checking back in after a shamefully long absence, I've been inspired by Armadillo Joe's recent posts to give a brief update on my own disappearance. I've been dealing with some minor health issues, and hope to have it all resolved soon. Once I'm on the mend, hopefully in a week or so, I plan to dive back into the political news!

Take care, Blog-o-Maniacs, and keep the faith for decent health care reform--we may see that happen yet.

Very Classy, Rush

Limbaugh's remarks on Dierdre Scozzafava, the Republican candidate for the Congressional seat in New York's 23rd District, who has suspended her run for due to wingnut mania and has since endorsed the Democratic candidate:

"We can say she is guilty of widespread bestiality. She has screwed every RINO in the country. Everyone can see just how phony and dangerous they are. 2010 might be a nightmare for PETA. Tow animals may become extinct: RINOs and Blue Dog Democrats."

They just keep eating each other alive. Let the feeding frenzy continue!

The Price of Prosperity

posted by Armadillo Joe

A new photography exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C. documents the price our oil dependency -- not just in the US but across the whole planet -- exacts on our landscapes both near and far.  It is sobering to contemplate and we really must ask the hard questions about how much is enough and what else we can do.


Edward Burtynsky: Oil from Corcoran Gallery of Art on Vimeo.

O'Donnell Rips Liz Cheney on Dover Lie

Compulsive lying must run in the genes of the Cheney family. Playing Renfield to Dick Cheney's Dracula, daughter and pseudo-pundit Liz Cheney was one of the first to criticize President Obama's presence at Dover Air Force Base to meet and honor the latest fallen coming from the Middle East, something the previous president failed to do. But that didn't stop her from opening her cakehole and lying about it. Lawrence O'Donnell does an excellent job at a little reality check while ripping Liz a new one.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

For the last few months, we've seen Liz Cheney parade around on the talking heads circuit (only on networks that wouldn't seriously challenge her, of course) backing up daddy's atrocious White House years and authoritarian policies. Is this a precursor for a possible run at political office? If so, she may be the only person to possibly have a lower approval rating that her father before announcing her candidacy in her continuation of the soulessness and classlessness of the Cheney family name.

Must Reads

John Cole: Fair Questions

Steve Benen: False Positives

David Michael Green: Big Bad Government Is Coming To Get You

Scott Ritter: McChrystal Doesn't Get It - Does Obama?

Abby Zimet: Everybody Is Supposed to be Equal In This Country

Frank Rich: The G.O.P. Stalinists Invade Upstate New York

Petro Sapien™ (Part Two)

posted by Armadillo Joe

NoWhereMan wrote the following comment on my last post, Petro Sapien™:

Great to have you back Joe but, as life long resident of the city who makes his living delivering goods to those stores that dot what was once Times Sq,it is so aggravating and ridiculous for me to have to park 5 or 6 blocks from my vehicle to my delivery point.Its time consuming which means less $ in my pocket.These past two dickheads weve had for mayor have reinvented Times Sq for thw worst.Giuliani made it into Disneyland now the present munchkin sized mayor has turned it into Oz.I don't see either version as an "improvement".

October 29, 2009 2:04:00 AM EDT

To which I responded:

I understand your difficulty as a delivery man in coping with a car-unfriendly arrangement. It most certainly would be better for you and for all delivery men if you could just drive right up to the door and roll your packages into the store through the front door. The same goes for cabbies with their passengers and for single-passenger vehicles driving in from the suburbs rolling right up to their destination.


But when we scale any one of these specific issues upward and apply it to city-life generally, we run into a NIMBY problem, applied to transportation resources.


...(continue reading)...

President Obama's Weekly Address - October 31, 2009

Milestones on the Economy and the Recovery Act

It’s a Jerry Springer Episode

From John Cole regarding Sarah Palin's attempt to bilk $100,000 for a speaking engagement from the Iowa Policy Center. You know, Iowa? The same state that potential presidential candidates bend over backwards for a year before their campaign run? For free? Yeah, that Iowa.

Umm, guys? SHE’S. A. GRIFTER. She quit her damned job to go on the wingnut welfare circuit. Seven in ten people think she is unqualified to be President. She’s just in this for the money, and she is currently having a public feud with the father of her teenage daughter’s child who is himself cashing in by posing for Playgirl.

This isn’t a credible politician. It’s a Jerry Springer episode.

Yes, she's a con artist. Just like the book that she didn't write. To think that it was only a week after the country (and John McCain) discovered her that she reached her political peak for delivering a snarky Convention speech from a teleprompter. How soon before it all catches up with her?

John McCain Plays David Letterman

Boy, does the old man love to tweet. Forgive my naiveté, but don't these projects at the Energy and Water conference Johnny Boy calls "pork" have to do with, oh, I don't know... energy and water?

Joe Lieberman is a Fucking Scumbag

I'm in the middle of a post about the opt out option for health care reform, but I had to put it aside to mention this:

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Tuesday that he’d back a GOP filibuster of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s health care reform bill. 

Lieberman, who caucuses with Democrats and is positioning himself as a fiscal hawk on the issue, said he opposes any health care bill that includes a government-run insurance program — even if it includes a provision allowing states to opt out of the program, as Reid has said the Senate bill will.

"We're trying to do too much at once," Lieberman said. “To put this government-created insurance company on top of everything else is just asking for trouble for the taxpayers, for the premium payers and for the national debt. I don’t think we need it now."

Lieberman added that he’d vote against a public option plan “even with an opt-out because it still creates a whole new government entitlement program for which taxpayers will be on the line."

Another fucking douche who doesn't understand the difference between health care reform that we have to pay for and a "government entitlement program." We don't need it right now? What do you mean "we," white man? Fine, we'll start by dropping your governement-run health coverage. And now Lieberman is trying to position himself as a fiscal hawk after we've spent trillions of dollars on wars that he supported in Iraq and Afghanistan? Fuck you, Joe. Harry Reid has sent two versions of the bill to the Congressional Budget Office for scoring and Holy Joe already thinks he knows better. At least the other fence sitters are taking a "wait and see" attitude... you know, the responsible thing to do.

The reason this pisses me off to no end is because all I've been hearing is how President Obama is stabbing us in the back for Olympia Snowe's vote just to say reform was a bipartisan effort, when the fact is the 60 vote threshold we all boast about is nothing of the sort. We never had sixty. We have 58 plus two Independents, one of whom I trust. We lost Lieberman when he lost to Ned Lamont in his primary and decided his political life was more important than his political party.

Ben "Helmet Head" Nelson, "Bayou Mary" Landrieu and Blanche "Hatchet Face" Lincoln are all straddling the fence on health care reform as if it were topped with gyrating dildos, not to mention Kent "The Ferret" Conrad and Max "The Insurance Man" Baucus. And now the one dickhead who I was worrying about the whole time but no one mentioned is wielding the knife into the back of the Democratic Party yet again. If we were worried about Ted Kennedy dying before this legislation came to the floor and Robert "Methuselah" Byrd who breaks hip when he blinks too hard to give us our sixty votes, then we were never actually there to begin with. We were never close to sixty. Can we now please stop blaming the White House for trying to coddle Snowe? There's a reason for it, and now we're seeing why. It's time to strip Lieberman of any seniority he has left. They should have done it two years ago.

Great job on Lieberman in 2006, Connecticut!

Jon Stewart Takes On Net Neutrality

How many schlubs are going to think the Internet Freedom Act actually means what it means?

Douche Quote of the Week

Rush Limbaugh: I'm also told that the blog containing the passage on Obama's thesis is a satire blog. So it's one of these sites like ScrappleFace or The Onion or some such thing. So I shout from the mountaintops: "It was satire!" But we know he thinks it. Good comedy, to be comedy, must contain an element of truth, and we know how he feels about distribution of wealth. He's mad at the courts for not going far enough on it. So we stand by the fabricated quote because we know Obama thinks it anyway. That's how it works in the media today.

Petro Sapien™

posted by Armadillo Joe

Hey, Blog-O-Maniacs, Armadillo Joe here. I've been absent these parts for quite some time and hope to start working my way back over with a tad more frequency in the coming months. I've been crazy with work and then traveling for my anniversary and then trying to buy an apartment (first time!) and, (same as last year during the election season) I am in a deep, existential political fight with my parents, which is only intensified by the emerging contours of the looming health-care debacle and the political atmosphere surrounding it. I couldn't even bring myself to read HuffPost or watch Olbermann or Maddow. When I opened the Blogger editor, the words just wouldn't come. Though I did have a number of trains of thought pile up in my head and I'd like to get them out over the next few days.

...(READ MORE)...

Soupy Sales Dies at 83

NY TIMES: Soupy Sales, whose zany television routines turned a pie in the face into a madcap art form, died on Thursday in the Bronx. He was 83.

His former manager, David Usher, said Mr. Sales had died in a hospice after suffering from multiple health problems.

Zero Attacks!

Another Republican strategist/Cheney apologist on Hardball expounding on the favorite Bush administration myth. Terry Jeffrey from CNSNews.com (I won't link it, but visit if you dare) trying some more revisionist history and boy, we should thank our lucky stars that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were in the White House to keep us safe! The proof is in the pudding because we've had "zero attacks" since 9/11. It really is a shame that these imbeciles either A) don't know that the Bush administration lasted a full eight years, and not the seven years and four months that they'd like us to remember, B) always dismiss the anthrax attacks or C) think that we're stupid enough to have forgetten that we were attacked on their watch.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Check out the full segment in which Jeffrey also infers that Afghanistan is Barack Obama's war, and since he won't appease either political side with the proper troop levels, history will remember that it will be his failed policy. An astute Matthews make a comparison to Nixon's Vietnam, another inherited war which was a slow bleed, but Jeffrey suggests that it might have turned out differently had the Democratic congress not "turned and ran out on the whole country" after Nixon left office in disgrace. So, you can't blame Nixon because he inherited a war, but you can blame Obama. And you can't blame Nixon for not sending enough troops to Vietnam, but you can blame Obama if he falls into the same situation in Afghanistan.

Brilliant!

Must Reads

Robert Reich: Why Wall Street Reform is Stuck in Reverse

The Rude Pundit: Photos That Make Christian Conservative Brains Short Out and Pat Buchanan Hearts the Oath Keepers, Does Not Heart Black People

Jason Linkins: Fake Obama Thesis Story Goes Viral, Because Of Stupidity

Dan Froomkin: Why Journalists Shouldn't Be Defending Fox News

Bill Moyers & Michael Winship: Texas, the Eyes of Justice Are Upon You

Christopher Brauchli: The Prolonging of Palin

David Michael Green: Paranoia For Breakfast

Don't Listen To Anonymous Saboteurs

As we've been getting closer and closer to finalizing health care reform bills coming out of the House and Senate, there have been various "unnamed sources" from the White House quoted as being against real reform, watering down the public option with artificial triggers and other nonsense. This is all an attempt to undermine the administration's plans and cast a shadow of doubt into the minds of the Conservadems and Blue Dogs on the fence about reform.

I don't know who the unnamed sources are or what their agenda can possibly be, but it's incredibly frustrating to think that some stooge that may be working in or close to the White House would be willing to undermine something as important to the administration as health care... if such an unnamed source actually exists.

These quotes could also be trial balloons to judge public opinion on certain ideas, but at this late stage of the game, it would be foolish to keep fanning the flames. So until the unnamed sources have the balls to come out and back up their statements (which will never happen) or until responsible journalists rely on unnamed sources to back up their stories so they don't look like idiots making shit up, just ignore any story citing anonymous quotes. The cycle is too obvious: 1- Story gets published with an unnamed source. 2- Left or Right or the mainstream media goes apeshit. 3- White House denies any validity to the story. 4- Repeat as needed.

Remember everyone reporting that the public option was supposed to have died during the summer? Stop falling for it.

President Obama's Weekly Address - October 24, 2009

Working with Small Business to Drive Recovery

Music Break! Virginia O'Brien

Say We're Sweethearts Again

Virginia O'Brien's trademark was a deadpan face as she sung some pretty swingin' stuff. This is one of her more humorous songs.

Going Rouge: GENIUS!

I wonder how many Sarah Palin lovers are going to pick up the wrong book and fly into a rage?

An alternative, liberal judgment of Sarah Palin's legacy will appear in book stores on November 17, the same day Palin's own autobiography, "Going Rogue: An American Life," hits the shelves. "Going Rouge: An American Nightmare" is the brainchild of Richard Kim and Betsy Reed, editors at the progressive magazine The Nation. In addition to their nearly identical titles, the two books share similar covers, both showing Palin smiling into the distance.

The Thing About Alan Grayson

I've been thinking about the newest Democratic star and his tactics. It's pretty impressive for freshman Congressman Alan Grayson to have so much exposure so early in his time in office. He was a successful lawyer with previous background work in the Colorado Supreme Court as well as a successful businessman which has made him a multi-millionaire. Part of what makes him tick is that he's not worried about where his next donation is coming from, which is key.

Basically, Alan Grayson is one smart cookie. He realized early on that the Democratic party has been on the defensive for so long because of the time and effort it takes to keep swatting away the flies that are attracted to the shit that spews from GOP mouths on a daily basis. So instead of spending time debunking asinine statements that an eight year old can debunk, Grayson decided to beat them to The Crazy.

Alan Grayson is beating the wingnuts at their own game. And the more he pushes and slaps the Bullshit Bully around, the more he gets them off balance, sitting on their heels and reacting to his dart throwing instead of locking and loading their own cockamamie cartridges. As a result, they're less inclined they are to run against him in his home district.

He's crazy like a fox - he knows that he'll get media attention by using extreme measures just like the GOP nutballs, but instead of using that time to push conspiracy theories of FEMA concentration camps or agreeing with the Birthers, he uses it to shine a light on important things like the health insurance cartel. So maybe his new website, NamesOfTheDead.com can come across as a little harsh when you first hear of it. But it puts a name to the statistic. It makes that number human. And it's one of the only ways the mainstream media will pay attention and he knows it.

Grayson Wipes The Floor With Broun

In defense of ACORN, Rep. Alan Grayson embarrasses Rep. Paul Broun while discussing a bill to deny funds to one specifically named organization in a Science and Technology markup. "Bills of attainder" are unconstitutional.



I'd be surprised if Broun wasn't helped back to his office for not being able to see through the blood in his eyes. You can donate to Alan Grayson here.

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.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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

They All Look The Same

I kid, I kid. Poor Contessa Brewer. Those damned teleprompters strike again!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

A Final Note on Limbaugh & The NFL

I touched briefly on this last week but I could let the Limbaugh/NFL debacle conclude without mentioning an article written by sportswriter Mike Lupica.

With all the sports wingnuts (who just so happen to agree with Rush) calling in to the local NY sports radio station last week in support of Rush being allowed to own a team, I couldn't stand the idiocy of these people not understanding the difference between free speech and private enterprise.

Rush has said some pretty vile shit over the years and he's completely free to say whatever he wants thanks to our 1st Amendment rights. But that doesn't mean that he can't be held accountable for what he says. And so his racist rants came back to bite him in his ample ass, as the ownership group he was a part of found him too toxic to their cause. And the free market being what it is, they decided his services and his money would no longer be required, so they bid farewell to Mr. Oxycontin. It's as simple as that.

But Limbaugh, not knowing why in the world anyone would reject him, immediately blamed his woes on a conspiracy, vast left wing conspiracy, when he should have just been looking in the mirror.

Well, Mike Lupica's column hit the nail on the head so well, I had to include it here in it's entirety.

Mike Lupica: Rush Limbaugh learns there is no room for him as a team owner in the NFL

Rush Limbaugh is always an advocate of a robust free-enterprise system, as it relates from health care to everything else. Only now he squeals because the same free-enterprise system rejects him as a possible owner of the St. Louis Rams football team.

You may have heard, Rush isn't taking this well at all, being told an exclusive private club of National Football League owners, along with Commissioner Roger Goodell, only want him as close to their sport as he is watching games with his NFL Sunday Ticket package.

So this must be a conspiracy. And an attack on conservatism, too, even though no one knew until now that comparing the behavior of the Chargers and Patriots one time to the Bloods and Crips was just another example of Rush being the acknowledged leader of the conservative movement in America.

President Obama is part of the conspiracy, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, the head of the NFL Players Association, DeMaurice Smith, a hateful media, and whomever stole the strawberries on Capt. Queeg in "The Caine Mutiny."

Why? Because the league couldn't possibly be telling him they don't want him, that's why.

Except that is exactly what is happening. It's not conservatism they're rejecting.

It's him.

Rush gets banged out of Dave Checketts' ownership group-and what did Checketts suppose was going to happen when he asked Limbaugh to get on board with him?-and immediately started screaming about the "race hustlers" like Sharpton and Jackson doing him in. No. He did himself in, with his own body of work. And, let's face it, Limbaugh calling anybody else a race hustler is pretty wonderful. You'd say this was an example of the pot calling the kettle black but, well, you know.

Sharpton in particular is a champion race hustler. So is Limbaugh. What he said about Donovan McNabb one time was just one small lyric in a song he's been singing for years, all the way to song parodies about "Barack the Magic Negro." But that was all right, that's what he told us, he was just looking for some laughs and, besides, it was just something he read in a Los Angeles Times headline.

Limbaugh says that the media has only gone after him this way because it hates him. But he's not important enough to hate.

There Limbaugh was on the "The Today Show" earlier this week talking about how his critics are just shooting "BB's at a battleship." Then he starts taking fire from all directions at even the notion that he could be a part-owner of the Rams, and gets hysterical. You dish the way Limbaugh does, you have to be able to take it better than this.

This is what they're doing to the country, folks! This is what is happening on Wall Street! Now it's happened to me! Limbaugh is never funny when he tries to be. But this week he was as funny as he's ever been.

The best idea of all here was that this is America, he's got the money, why shouldn't he be able to buy a seat at the table? Right. Rush should try that with Augusta National, where he likes to remind us he's played golf plenty of times. He's got the money. He likes golf. He should just show up at the front gate with a check and tell them he's ready to join, and where's the first tee. See how that works out for him.

Back when Martha Burk tried to force Augusta National's hand and get the club to admit a woman member, Limbaugh praised Hootie Johnson, then the chairman of the club, for not "caving" in. Right. A private club deciding who-and what-it wanted. The NFL basically did the same thing to him. Only now, because it's him, it's a vast left-wing conspiracy and a secret plot from the NFLPA because of an upcoming collective bargaining agreement.

The race hustlers, the lefties, they're behind this. Sportswriters, too. Yeah, owners in sports always do exactly what we tell them in the sports section.

Rush Limbaugh thinks he can say anything he wants to about anybody, black or white, and never have to face any consequences. Only this week there were consequences. Imagine something like that happening to a big powerful guy like him.

The NFL treated him like he was Rodney Dangerfield trying to join the club in "Caddyshack."

Where Did All The Rational People Go?

I saw this on Hardball last night and all I could do was shake my head... after I had picked my jaw up off the floor.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Seriously, Oath Keeper guy? When law enforcement officers and military personnel lose their process of rational thinking to the point of joining this pathetic, fear mongering group, it really is time to worry. Why is it that this group formed only after a black man won the Presidential election? Do you seriously think they would exist under a President John McCain? Me neither.

More Proof Fox News Isn't News

The backlash after Sunday's talk shows in which David Alexrod and Rahm Emanuel took a shot at Fox "News" for being more opinion and propaganda than news has been on the rise. But here's just more proof.



(H/T Video via Cesca)

Obama Loves States' Rights

This should be a big win for conservative states' rights proponents. Or will they be their hypocritical Republican selves?

The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws, under new policy guidelines to be sent to federal prosecutors Monday.

Two Justice Department officials described the new policy to The Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state laws.

The new policy is a significant departure from the Bush administration, which insisted it would continue to enforce federal anti-pot laws regardless of state codes.

Douchebag of the Week: Richard Heene

Man, oh man! This has been some week for the Balloon Boy and his camera hogging, questionnaire box having, morning show vomit inducing, attention whoring parents.

Didn't it strike anyone a bit strange that the first thing a father would do, whose boy who has supposedly floated out into space in a homemade weather balloon no less, is to call the local television news before dialing 911? Couldn't any of our intrepid media, with all the "experts" at their disposal have deduced the impossibility of the physics involved in the size of the balloon and the weight of an average six-year old, with or without the vomit? Apparently, the only experts CNN could find were the ones that really knew how to work that fancy-schmancy telestrator, increasing and decreasing the the size of a balloon graphic at the touch of a couple of index fingers.

And how about Wolf Blitzer, who could've had the scoop, an exclusive interview when a kid named Falcon implicated his mom and dad in a hoax for publicity by honestly answering why he didn't come out when they called him. "You guys said we did this for the show." But good ol' Wolfy, probably not paying attention to the answer because he was too busy composing the next question in his pea-brain, completely missed it.

Three days after the world watched a giant balloon fly through the air as a tearful family expressed fears that their 6-year-old boy could be inside, authorities announced what millions already suspected: The whole thing was staged.

Good job, Wolf.

On Sunday, Alderden called the incident a "hoax," adding that investigators believe the evidence indicates that "it was a publicity stunt" by the family in hopes of "better marketing themselves for a reality television show at some point in the future."

The parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene, met in a Hollywood acting school and "put on a very good show for us," Alderden said. Authorities know there was "a conspiracy" between them, he added.

The sheriff's announcement included an admission that authorities misled the media on Friday when they said they still believed it was not a hoax. After Falcon's remark on CNN Thursday night, "it became very clear to us at that point that they were lying," Alderden said.

The "nonverbal responses" and "verbal cues" from the children at that moment made it clear, Alderden said.

But in order to get to the truth, "it was very important during this time that they maintained their trust with us." So investigators misled the media while they carried out their "game plan" of gathering the truth.

And they would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for those meddling kids.

Really, Mayumi Heene should also get honorable mention for going along with the shenanigans and having no problem involving the children, but what put it over the top was the big announcement that Richard Heene had, which amounted to a cardboard box that reporters could place questions in. I suppose he's better at scripts than improvisation.

Douchebag of the Week: Richard "Balloon Boy Hoax" Heene.

White House: Fox News Is Not A News Organization

Wingnuts fling feces in 5... 4... 3...





Does any rational person still really doubt this? Fox News has always had a conservative slant which is their right. They're in the business of infotainment and they'll hawk whatever will turn a profit. But "fair and balanced" it's never been. And anyone who says that MSNBC is a liberal equivalent is sorely mistaken. Other than the two straight liberal shows (Countdown and The Rachel Maddow Show) who base their stories on facts instead of lies and distortions, show me the Fox News equivalent of Morning Joe or Hardball? Show me a liberal nutball on MSNBC crying on a nightly basis with leaps of logic on a prop blackboard. Sure, Keith Olbermann can be over emotional, but look for criticisms and factchecking on his show based on what he says instead of how he says it and you'll have a long, hard search.

The White House has every reason to be wary of real news organizations falling into the for-profit, if it bleeds it leads, Fox style of "news" broadcasting. No one says Fox can't have it's opinion, but purposely misleading or distorting facts, or building a segment based on RNC talking points complete with typos is not news.

Dick With A Box

First we had SNL's Dick In A Box skit, and now this.

Richard Heene, whose six-year-old son Falcon was feared to have floated away in a home-made helium balloon on Thursday before being found alive at the home, had earlier on Saturday said he planned a "big announcement".

But the eccentric amateur scientist instead emerged from his Fort Collins house carrying a cardboard box which he asked reporters to put written questions for his consideration.

What. A. Douchebag.

Piano Stairs

I'd be late for work EVERY DAY!

Must Reads

A Candid World: CHALLENGE: Why Did Arafat Receive A Nobel Prize, And Not Reagan?

The Rude Pundit: Cal Thomas Says That Gays Will Redecorate the Military

Robert Reich: More Desperation From The Right

Michael Winship: The Nobel Prize with an Asterisk

Paul Krugman: A Hatchet Job So Bad It's Good

Mark Morford: The Gang Rape and The Republicans - Behold, 30 U.S. senators who don't give a damn about battered women

Jeremy Scahill: The ACORN Standard

Jacob Weisberg: Ignore Fox - Obama's right. It's time to stop taking the network's skewed news seriously.

President Obama's Weekly Address - October 17, 2009

Taking the Insurance Companies on Down the Stretch

Scariest iPhone App Ever

SURPRISE! (Not.) Balloon Boy Hoax

Falcon Heene: "You guys said that we did it for the show."



When I found out about Balloon Boy, my first instinct after I heard he wasn't on the balloon after it had landed was that he had untethered it, and fearing the wrath of mommy and daddy, decided to hide out. When I found out that these people were on ABC's Wife Swap, my cynical side immediately took over and I thought mom and dad might be attention hounds or that it might be a publicity stunt. Luckily for us, six-year olds are too honest when under pressure, you know, like during a live TV interview.

I wonder if Mr. Heene is going to get a nice, fat invoice for the emergency resources that were used in searching for a child that wasn't lost?

The World Stops When Bizarre Things Happen

How else do you explain the nonstop coverage of today's story about a runaway balloon allegedly with a six-year old boy along for the ride? Once the balloon landed, and no boy was found, the very first thing I thought was that the boy let the balloon go and realizing how stupid it was, decided to hide for fear of getting in major trouble. If I were six years old and did something as asinine, I'd hide too!

The story has a "happy" ending. Despite horrid thoughts and speculation by bearded CNN pundits of a box or basket that was attached to the balloon in which the little fly boy hopped in and eventually plummeted to his death while 10,000 feet high, he was eventually found hiding in his attic, scared shitless of the Major League trouble he would be in.

And yet, hours after the homemade weather balloon landed two counties away sans kid, we were forced to watch speculators and and pseudo-pundits trying to figure out how high the balloon got, if it could handle the weight of a child and the basket he was supposedly in, all while watching the same 30 seconds of footage of the flying balloon, followed by 30 seconds of the balloon landing, followed by 30 seconds of the flying balloon that we'd just seen.

The world stopped while this balloon was in the air. Nothing else was happening. At least not according to the 24/7 news media outlets. And even after the boy was found, they kept talking about it! Nothing happened on the health care front. Everyone forgot to criticize President Obama's trip to New Orleans. Yet we were mesmerized by the balloon story. That silver, mylar, flying saucer shaped balloon put most of us in a trance even when there was NO NEW NEWS to report for hours.

This is the problem with 24 hour news outlets. When does breaking news stop becoming breaking news? Even when the story is long over, it's still "Breaking News" and real news gets ignored. Sensationalism is only sensational when something sensational happens, whether it be the balloon boy, or Natalee Halloway or Anna Nicole Smith or Michael Jackson. I wish someone would let cable news producers in on that little tidbit of information.

Rush Blames Liberal Media For His Racist Views

This is truly classic. Rush Limbaugh, syndicated right wing talk show host and all around asshole, has been dropped from the group of investors bidding for a minority stake in the St. Louis Rams. Doesn't that give you a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling?

Of course, Limbaugh, who has always insisted that liberal and progressive media doesn't have an audience is now blaming liberal and progressive media for his demise. And while yesterday he ranted that he would sue anyone that was maligning him for his past statements he deemed false, he hasn't said a word about it today. I suppose his lawyers made it known you can't deny something you said when there is audio and video evidence.

Imbeciles like Sarah Palin's lap dog, John Ziegler are moaning about Limbaugh's 1st Amendment rights. News flash, Ziegler: Rush can say any damned thing he wants, but that doesn't mean he can't be held accountable for it.

You know, things like,

"I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve. The defense carried this team."

Or...

"Look it, let me put it to you this way. The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There I said it."

And who can forget...

"What do you spend the money on to fight gang violence? Afterschool program -- don't we already have afterschool programs? Don't we already have -- what do you call it, extracurricular events? Midnight basketball -- I mean, we've done it all. We've taken the favorite sport of gangs, and we put it at midnight to get them on the basketball court."

And this is just pertaining to sports. This doesn't even begin to mention his screeds on President Obama. Such hits as "Barack, The Magic Negro," or "Halfrican-American," or "[I]n Obama's America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering" or on the Gates controversy: "Here you have a black president trying to destroy a white policeman."

So now the free market capitalists that conservatives love to espouse so much have decided that their business is too important for them to have a scumbag like Limbaugh ruining their image. Suck on it, Rush.

*Artwork couresty of TheDailyPost-It.com

Dow Closes Above 10,000...

... for the first time in over a year.

Remember this?

March 2nd, 2009 - RightPundits.com: Let’s look at the key dates in Barack Obama’s Administration so far and see what the stock market did around those dates:

November 3, 2008: Obama is Elected

November 3, 2008: 9326.04 Open

November 4, 2008: 9139.28 Close

So far, not that bad, right? However, if investors believed in Obama’s message of hope they would buy, instead of sell, around that time.

January 20, 2009: Obama is Inaugurated

January 20, 2009: 8,279.63 Open

January 20, 2009: 7,920.66 Close

Obama’s inauguration didn’t exactly make investors celebrate. Also note, between Obama’s election and inauguration, the stock market dropped 1200 points. If they believed in Obama, the stock market probably would have inched upward, even in a down economy.

February 17, 2009: Obama signs stimulus package into law.

February 17, 2009: 7,845.63 Open

February 17, 2009: 7,502.59 Close

The stimulus package clearly did not stimulate any investors into buying. Note that as of February 17, there was a 1800 point drop since the election, and a 400 point drop since inauguration.

February 27, 2009: Obama announces budget

Febraury 27, 2009: 7,180.97 Open

March 2, 2009: 6763.29 Close

As of today’s close, Obama has overseen the worst stock market performance in the history of America for a new president. It’s an unprecedented 28% drop from Obama’s election to today. If you don’t believe my numbers, you can check the historical data here.

Today: *criket*...*cricket*... *cricket*

Attention RightPundits.com: As of today's close, the Dow Jones has increased 33% in the last six months (while President Obama was actually in office) since your ridiculous post. Care to credit Obama for that?

Rahm Meeting With Reid About Senate Health Care Bill

This is going to be a very telling meeting.

TPM: At 2:30 this afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will host Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in the first of several meetings presaging the merger of two major health care bills. The foursome is expected to discuss key issues at the heart of the reform process--affordability, Medicare, the public option, revenues--but no decisions are expected today.

The talk has been about Reid and how he'd better not exclude a public option in the bill they are proposing, but just a couple of hours ago I heard Ed Shultz on his radio show saying he trusted Reid and quoting him as saying this on the Senate Judiciary Committee floor:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) joined the push to eliminate the [insurance industry's anti-trust] exemption Wednesday morning, saying at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, “It’s something that should have been done a long time ago.”

As for insurance companies, “There isn’t anything we could do to satisfy them in this health care bill. Nothing,” Reid said. “They are so anti-competitive. Why? Because they make more money than any other business in America today. . . .What a sweet deal they have.”

So it would seem that Harry Reid, being in favor of revoking anti-trust exemption laws favoring the insurance companies, would have no trouble increasing competition and adding a public option to the bill. Unless Rahm helps him changed his mind.

Music Break! Jon Faddis

Here's That Rainy Day

How Did Fox Miss This Story?

Jon Stewart is awesome.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Queer and Loathing in D.C.
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

This Is Perfect

Booman (Via Cesca): "Yesterday was probably the most embarrassing day yet for the progressive blogosphere during the short reign of the Obama administration. So, now is probably a good time to just let loose and register my disgust with the movement I've been a part of for the last five years.

If you supported Obama during the primaries, you know who you are and this does not necessarily apply to you. For the rest of you, you spent the primaries either shilling for Clinton and telling us our guy was all talk and no show, or you spent them bitching that David Plouffe wouldn't respond to and obey your emailed wisdom. As soon as he won the presidency, you started bitching about his appointments. As soon as he became president, you started bitching about his messaging, his framing, his agenda, and his lack of deference to your opinion. I want to know where the point was in this process when Obama was supposed to conclude that you were his allies and that you were responsible for his victory. When was he supposed to conclude that he owed you something, or that you had any respect for him, or that you credited his good intentions, or that you understood the myriad responsibilities of the job might mean that your pet issues might have to wait six months, a year, or two years to get to the top of his agenda.

You call him a warmonger, but he gets the Nobel Peace Prize. He ends torture and allows his Attorney General to investigate it, and you call him a torturer. He tries to enact health care reform with a robust public option and you accuse him of seeking every opportunity to sell-out to the insurance industry. He bails out the cratering financial services industry and prevents a second Great Depression, and you accuse him of selling his soul to corporate CEO's. I'm not saying that all of these criticisms lack validity. I'm not saying that people shouldn't advocate for the things they care about passionately. I just want to know where you get the fucking idea that an anonymous White House staffer who gets asked about all this criticism would feel obligated to show you deference and respect."

I've increasingly felt this way for the last few months now, very early on with DADT and DOMA, and now with the health care reform debate. It seems to me that everyone has their billy clubs out ready to pounce on any perceived slight by the White House, whether on the right (which is expected) or the left (which is surprising and depressing).

We're 9½ months into a new administration that started in the deepest of ditches on January 20th. Think about it: you really couldn't get handed something much worse. And despite some of the accomplishments that President Obama and his administration have succeeded on in just 9 months, there's been nothing but the feeling of "it's not good enough, or fast enough" when it comes to a specific issue that any one person can have.

Even now I look into health care debates online where some of the Progressive commenters who support single payer say, "Obama is worse than Bush." Really? Did you just say that George W. Bush could do a better job than President Obama when it comes to health care reform? The guy that cut S-CHIP? That George Bush? The guy who signed Medicare Part D into law without the means to pay for it? Is that the Bush you're talking about? And that's just on the health care front.

All the talk lately was about how Obama had too many balls in the air all at once, but if one of those balls wasn't Medicare for All or repealing DADT immediately, it wasn't good enough.

So yes, I am in agreement with Booman and Bob Cesca. You have every right to voice your opinion and feel passionate about the issues that mean something to you. But if it isn't 100% to your liking or it isn't fast enough for you, just take a deep breath and think about what the alternative might have been.

Meet the new boss, DEFINITELY not the same as the old boss.

Friedman Jacks Off On The Military

I really run hot and cold with Tom Friedman. Mostly cold. I'd like to dismiss him altogether but even a broken journalist is right twice a day, as in the case of his analysis on the current political climate of Obama hate coming from the far right.

But Friedman's latest column in which he suggests that President Obama embarrass the Nobel Committee by accepting the Peace Prize not on his behalf but instead on behalf of all the US military who have ever fought because they are the true peace keepers is a little over the top. Well, it would only be a little over the top if he'd just left it at that. What drives him over the Thelma and Louise egde is going on and on and writing an Obama speech in which the President stands before the US military, drops trou and proceeds to give them all a pearl necklace because of how fucking awesome they are. He then leaves a medal with Alfred Nobel's portrait on the side table and tells them he'll see them in Afghanistan.

Friedman seems to confuse empty Sarah Palin style military rhetoric with anything our President has ever said. That's where Friedman blew it, and his load, on this one.

Your 99th-Percentile Baby: "Too Fat" for Health Care

Posted by Fraulein

This is utterly reprehensible:

Because of his size, Baby Alex was turned down for health insurance. His height and weight put him in the 99th percentile according to CDC guidelines.

This child is four months old and breastfed. Meaning, as every parent knows, that his current size is completely arbitrary. There is no such concept as "obesity" when it comes to INFANTS. He's as big as he's supposed to be. You cannot put an infant on a diet. The "99th percentile" thing means that (going by averages that were probably set 30 or 40 years ago) if a baby's height and weight measure over a certain amount, in theory he or she is larger than 99 percent of the other babies the same age.

When my Peanut was a couple of months old, she measured in the upper percentiles for weight and height. She just ate a ton. She did not appear, visually, to be of a freakish size. She was pretty much the same size as most of the other babies we knew at the time who were a similar age.

This sad situation is just one more reason why health care reform is so desparately necessary. The insurance companies will grab onto any excuse, no matter how pathetic, to deny coverage. This time it's these unfortunate people. Next time it could be you.

Oh, Marge...

Who's idea was this?

Maddow Named Best Talk Show Host in America by UK

No, it's not an official title. But it is interesting that a foreign newspaper would notice.

"...what really endears her to American liberals is the way she takes her job and the authority it gives her seriously. Maddow is less interested in the shouting fests that dominate most cable news and instead favours in-depth interviews with experts who are permitted to show their expertise on air without being interrupted. Hers may be the only show on cable news were feminists come on air to speak their minds without being paired off with belligerent sexists who dominate the conversation by yelling over their points.

But Maddow isn't opposed to fair-mindedness. She often brings on conservatives for the same kind of in-depth interviews, and even when she strongly disagrees, she always gives them a chance to air their views (and generally hang themselves with those views). Her show is the exact opposite of Bill O'Reilly's show. Where he cuts people off for saying things he doesn't like, Maddow digs in deeper."

Suck it, Bill-O.