Cue the Outrage.

I give it twelve hours before Michelle Malkin instructs her readers to kill Elmo's family.

The voice of reason: Right Wing Nut House.

No, really.

I give him about 15 minutes before he's put on the enemies list.

The Life of Kaus.

It took a while, but life and times of Mickey Kaus has finally gotten the Hollywood treatment...


According to our tipster, the movie "really blows."

It's About Time.

Gawker finally notices good ol' boy Robert Stacy McCain.

Vincent's co-writer on Donkeycons was Robert Stacy McCain, a former Washington Times editor who writes things like this:

[T]he media now force interracial images into the public mind and a number of perfectly rational people react to these images with an altogether natural revulsion. The white person who does not mind transacting business with a black bank clerk may yet be averse to accepting the clerk as his sister-in-law, and THIS IS NOT RACISM, no matter what Madison Avenue, Hollywood and Washington tell us.

That was from a private e-mail McCain once wrote that a recipient posted online, so in his defense, McCain (no relation to Palin's running mate) wouldn't write something like that in public. In public, he says things like slaves and whites in the Old South had "cordial and affectionate relations," is a member of the League of the South, which wants to secede from the union (again!), and writes for a web site called VDare, which proudly publishes the work"rational and civil...white nationalists" who "unashamedly work for their people."

I assume it'll take at least half a day for McCain to respond; he's really busy filing breathless dispatches from Kentucky, all of which are about how he's filing dispatches from Kentucky.

Curious indeed that someone so proud of being a reporter...

-- "Yet I am a professional writer..."
-- "Understand that I've been a professional journalist for 23 years..."
-- "Let me see if I can explain to you, Charles, what the basic problem is: I am professional journalist, and have been since 1986."
-- "I remind you that I am a professional journalist..."

...would do so little of it.

Not Her Area of Expertise.

K-Lo takes take a break from counting her rosaries to lecture us on the semantics of the sex she is not having.

Forgive me, but I refuse to take advice on fucking (or anything related to the subject thereof) from virgins.

Dept. of Really Bad Analogies.

Rick Moran takes an, um, interesting view of the Polanski case:

As an historical aside, a similar state of mind infected America when John Brown went to the gallows in 1857 to die for his crimes. Here, northerners condemned his actions but sympathized with his cause. That reaction drew the same kind of astonishment from southerners that we feel today at the reaction on the left to Polanski's arrest. In fact, it hurried the day when civil war became probable as the south felt that northerners didn't care if slaves murdered their masters in their beds as long as it was done in the just cause of getting rid of the institution. They didn't understand the north's moral confusion and many felt that a great chasm had opened up between the two sides.

I've got nothing to add. This, like great art, speaks for itself.

Did Dan Riehl once behead a drifter to get an erection?

Before any more people start going bonkers that I'm accusing Riehl of anything, take a breath. I've done a fair amount of crime blogging mixed in with politics over time. One doesn't rule anything in or out without some firm answers.

I am not claiming definitively that Dan Riehl once abducted and beheaded a drifter in order to get an erection with which he proceeded to repeatedly, and with what could only be described as an entirely unnecessary amount of violence, sodomize it. But I can't say that he didn't. Until Dan can provide some pretty convincing evidence that he did not behead a drifter to get an erection and then make the corpse his personal Disneyland I think it is fair to ask the question. It would be irresponsible not to.

But the drifter-beheading is only the tip of the iceberg. Does Dan Riehl like to rub his genitals with grape Smuckers and lower them into a cage of frisky, hungry ferrets? I think we have to wonder. Is Dan Riehl a Grand Wizard in the Klan? It's fair to ask. Did Dan Riehl really expose himself in a Jo-Ann Fabrics in Davenport, Iowa? I hear he did. Did Dan Riehl offer Bill Kristol $15 and two pounds of unrefrigerated ground beef for one of Kristol's daughters? I have not seen any evidence that he didn't.

Lots of questions, and so few answers from Dan Riehl. I'm certainly not accusing him of anything, but one has to wonder.

Santorum, Not Dead.

Only The National Review would give a loser a platform from which to opine on a quitter. Here's Santorum on Palin:

"She has a gift for prose. Hopefully that comes across."

A guy can dream.

"Call me Ishmael. Also. Some years ago- in what respect, Charlie? - having little or no money in my purse because I spent it on shoes 'n' stuff, and nothing particular to interest me on shore because I don't read newspapers, (Also?) I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world Russia. ..."

Michelle Malkin's latest obsession.

Random acts of black teenage crime.

Wonder what prompted that?

Betting pool

Sarah Palin's ghost-written memoir hits stores November 17, giving Christmas shoppers an appealing gift option for the hard-to-shop-for mouthbreather in their lives.

Anyone want to place bets on when the first copy priced at $0.99 or less shows up on Half.com or Amazon Used? I'm picking Dec. 7 simply because it reminds me of disasters.

Everyone knows Custer died at Little Bighorn; what Dan Riehl presupposes is, maybe he didn't?

Murdered Census-taker Bill Sparkman may have been a child molester. Well, we don't have any evidence that he was, but Dan Riehl is a great crime-solver and has a good hunch or two. We also lack any evidence that he WASN'T a child molester, so it would be irresponsible of us not to speculate that he was.

Stick to The New Testament, Dreher.

Briefly:

-- Polanski deserves to go to jail.
-- He hasn't made great movie in 35 years (however, the last scene of Death and the Maiden is exceptional).

More importantly, what the hell is Rod Dreher talking about here?

In Hollywood, Paris, Chappaquiddick and other cultural capitals, perhaps it's to be expected that great men -- at least great men beloved of certain segments of the left --can't be held to the same standards of the law as everybody else.

Chappaquiddick?

Dan Riehl: Still an asshammer

When Obama and his Commie-Nazi-Hippie comrades get their way and no one is allowed to have a car, your grandmother and your handicapped friends are going to starve to death. So, to summarize, Barack Obama has formulated yet another method of murdering Granny.

Huck: let's move the UN to Saudi Arabia.

Ohhh-kay.

I don't think Huck is stupid, so the question is: is this an attempt to out-flank Palin, or is it a concession that he knows he can't beat her?

Eugenics Watch

It's odd that a post entitled "Social Engineering Watch" would so quickly devolve into eugenics. Wait. It's NRO. That's not odd at all.

But mass immigration, especially in the context of the low fertility levels that are inherent to modernity, represents social engineering in its purest form, the elite's decision to dissolve the people and elect a new one. Instead, how about we leave social engineering to the ChiComs and just let today's American moms and dads decide what tomorrow's America will be like.

So Much for Peace in the Middle East...

From Hugh Hewitt's interview with Frank Gaffney:

HH: I encourage everyone listening to join the Center for Security Policy, support them, write them a check. Last question, Frank, let’s finish on an up note, I know you’re headed to the airport. Netanyahu was pretty doggone good yesterday as a rallying point. As one e-mailer said, this must be what it was like to listen to Churchill in the 30’s, not in the 40s when he assumed command, but in the 30s when he was giving fair warning. I think it had an amazingly good effect, a bracing tonic. What do you think?

FG: Yeah, I was in Israel about a month ago, and I urged Netanyahu and his team to do exactly this. We need more of it. And now, the really important part, now, he needs to back it up with his actions. And I think that will probably have to involve at this point eliminating the existential threat that we talked about at the top of this interview. It’s not going to go away. It’s not going to be appeased into an acceptable danger. The Iranian nuclear weapons program is an existential threat to Israel, and I believe to the United States as well.

Yeah, Frank Gaffney is an egocentric jackass, so this isn't definitive. Still, is it possible that Israel's head of state is taking advice from a bigoted birther? Say it ain't so.

Glenn Beck punked by Katie Couric.

(h/t Sullivan)

Sproing!*

This only thing even vaguely interesting about these poll results is that, once flipped around, they resemble a penis.


Sort of like Putz.

*

Singing songs is Stalinist!!!

As usual, this wingnut meme is exceedingly easy to throw back in their faces.

Shorter Rod Dreher.

Keep it up, Dreher, and you'll go blind!

"Stay in the closet, fags."

When He's This Stupid It Just Makes Me Love Him Even More.

The author of Liberal Fascism, ladies and gentlemen:


Totally.

Hehindeedy!

Brilliant.

The Official Mickey Kaus Totalitarian State Reading List

Prisoner Without A Name, Cell Without A Number: The narrator's survival of brutal conditions as a political prisoner is a testament to the fundamental inefficiency of government-run programs.

Darkness at Noon: The protaganist's frustrating attempts at communication with the other prisoners is a convincing argument against subsidies for public radio.

The Gulag Archipelago: The camp massacres are vibrant metaphors for Peter Orszag's death panels.

1984: The poor quality of government-approved gin reveals fundamental problems with free market regulation.

The Teaparties are working!!!1!! FREEDOM!!!!! ACORN ACORN ACORN!!!!!

Alas, still nope.

Mr. Obama is going into the fall having retained considerable political strength. At 56 percent, his job approval rating is down from earlier in the year but still reasonably strong at this point compared with recent presidents. More Americans are starting to credit his stimulus package with having helped to revive the economy. And Mr. Obama retains a decided advantage with the American public over Republicans on key issues, starting with health care.

Rich Lowry's flip-flop on criticizing America overseas.

You knew this was coming.

IOKIYAR forever!

Stupidest response -- so far -- comes from Daily Putz, who writes:

Some of the mandarins over at NRO - Lowry, at least - seem to be warming to Sarah Palin.

Newsflash: Lowry likes Palin! What an idiot.

Know When to Fold 'Em, Bill.

William Bennett is not happy with Matt Latimer:

Talk about way over your head. He's way over [his] head. That's the best job he'll have ever. The guy is a worm. He's a worm. He belongs under a rock next to Scott McClellan. This is so disgusting. I don't know if Don Rumsfeld knows what he's getting. I have been critical of the Bush administration, but I did not work for the George W. Bush administration. This kind of disloyalty is — you know, give me ten ultra liberal Paul Begalas for his integrity. [Latimer] needs to read his Dante. He probably hasn't read "The Inferno." The lowest circle of hell are for people who are disloyal in the way this guy is disloyal and the very lowest point Satan chews on their bodies. ...

Okay, but Bill is aware that Latimer will have company, right? If Bennett's actually read Inferno, then he should know who resides in the Fourth Circle: the avaricious. You know, the sort of greedy bastards who unapologetically gamble away $8 million.

What WFB Hath Wrought.

This is funny.

Earlier today, Michael Ledeen and Andy McCarthy agreed that Obama "rather likes tyrants and dislikes America."

This is totally not surprising and not any worse than the crap these two idiots fart out on a daily basis. This time, however, Rich Lowry decided to yank the leash:

That's way over-board. It's a horrible speech, accompanied by dreadful policies from Honduras to Eastern Europe. But it's not that Obama positively likes tyrants and thugs. ... It's just that he thinks the policies we'd want to see him adopt vis-a-vis those countries are flatly mistaken, short-sighted, not worth the cost, or all three. E.g., I'd like to see him prevent a Taliban takeover of a chunk of Afghanistan. But if he pulls out and (based on a political judgment or flawed cost-benefit analysis) adopts a stand-off strategy that allows the Taliban to regain lots of territory in Afghanistan and perhaps even topple the government, I'd never conclude that he therefore likes the Taliban. There's no doubt that Obama has an allergy to American power and a hostility to American exceptionalism, but, alas, these tendencies themselves are firmly within the American tradition. Is he left-wing and very wrong? Of course. But he's not rooting for the Basij militia.

Prediction: Goldberg takes Ledeen's side, K-Lo will ignore the issue altogether and continue to explain away the empty bottle of Maker's, and Jay Nordlinger will recall something he heard from somebody somewhere that absolutely nobody gives a shit about.

Want Proof that Health Care Reform is Inevitable?

Putz is pushing some hack from the Reason Foundation (but I repeat myself) who claims that Obama lacks "momentum."

Right.

-- PhRMA's nervous;
-- Howard Dean says "the votes are there on cloture";
-- Kennedy's seat is getting filled;
-- A F&M poll out today says that voters support the president's healthcare reform proposals over Republican proposals in Congress by a roughly two to one margin;
-- and even the dancing queen, Tom DeLay, says that reform is inevitable.

I get the feeling that Putz does not actually believe this and probably just trying to convince himself.

Remember this, from October 31, 2008?

CURRENTLY ON DRUDGE: “ZOGBY SATURDAY: McCain outpolled Obama 48% to 47% in Friday, one day, polling. He is beginning to cut into Obama’s lead among independents, is now leading among blue collar voters, has strengthened his lead among investors and among men, and is walloping Obama among NASCAR voters. Joe the Plumber may get his license after all.”

Yep.

Palin wins Glenn Reynolds' 2012 straw poll!

Congratulations, 'Cuda! Outpacing Willard by nearly 2:1.

Can't imagine why so many hard-right, base Republicans read the quirky non-partisan, though.

Palin/Cameron 2012!

Say Goodbye to 2012, Wingnuts.

"Fucked they are!"

Let us hope that Putz's readers are an accurate representation of the modern wingnut voter.

If so? Obama could pretty much sodomize Gaddafi on the White House lawn and he'd still be a shoo-in for 2012.

...BT adds:

It's so surprising to see Palin at the top of that list, seeing as how Putz is such a quirky centrist totally non-partisan libertarian.

I mean, it's kind of strange that his readers favor the knuckle-dragging batshit crazy wingnut candidate, isn't it?

Glenn Beck's sense of humor.

Miscarriages are hilarious!

Self-awareness doesn't seem to be his thing, so it's only a matter of time before he implodes.

This just in: people still hate Republicans.

Benen:

Just 21% approve of the Republican Party's handling of health care, less than half of Obama's support. Overall, 28% have a positive impression of the GOP, while 43% have a negative impression. (Democrats have 41%-39% positive/negative score.)

Tea Party!

Heh Indeeeeeeeeed!

Uh...

SO IT’LL ZOOM IN ON WOMEN WHEN THEY BEND OVER? Video surveillance system that reasons like a human brain.

Putz probably thinks this is charming, but it's really not.

...BT adds:

Heh.

Socialism! Socialism!

The 2008 election showed the right just how effective the strategy of screaming "OMG SOCIALISM!" is, and I encourage them to keep doing it since it works so well. But from the mouths of some people - say, the CEO of Coca-Cola - it's even more amusing.

The GOP's New Strategy to Convert Win Over Jews.

Apparently, the Hitler/Obama thing was not a one-off. The Anchoress, by way of Jonah Goldberg -- who was once uncomfortable with such analogies -- pushes the Nazi card hard:

There is a German word for what we are witnessing at the NEA and elsewhere in the Obama administration’s effort to push its agenda. It is Gleichschaltung.

Oh, I had no idea. I was under the assumption that words had meanings.

Stupid question: What are the odds that conservatives not named David Frum start to get uncomfortable with such casual trivialization of the Holocaust?

Palin Bombs, Putz Pretends Otherwise.

Putz:

HONG KONG READER SEAN GIEFING WRITES: “I attended Sarah Palin’s speech at the CLSA conference in Hong Kong. She was very engaging – very down to earth, likeable and offered very intelligent and well informed opinions on US domestic and foreign policy and interesting views on China. If you were looking for a slick nuanced presentation you were likely disappointed. If you were looking for a real person with common sense views and practical ideas you left thinking, why couldn’t we have more people like that in leadership positions. Hopefully we will.”

Here’s a press report: Palin slams Obama’s spending in debut speech in Asia.

There's a reason Putz doesn't excerpt the article:

Two US delegates left early, with one saying "it was awful, we couldn't stand it any longer". He declined to be identified. ...

Although she touched on the threat posed to the United States by terrorism and talked about links with traditional US allies in Asia such as Japan, Australia and South Korea, one Asian delegate complained she devoted too much time to her home state of Alaska.

"It was almost more of a speech promoting investment in Alaska," he said, declining to be named.

"As fund managers we want to hear about the United States as a whole, not just about Alaska. And she criticised Obama a lot but offered no solutions."

Another said he was disappointed that she took only pre-arranged questions. ...

CLSA, an arm of French bank Credit Agricole, said it closed Palin's session to the media after she indicated that she would have to adjust her speech if reporters were present.

I can't imagine why...

ZOMG AN AGENCY OF THE GOVERNMENT SUPPORTS THE PRESIDENT!!!

This, from the people who hero-worshipped Chimpy McFlightsuit for 8 years -- and, more importantly, said anyone who didn't was a traitor.

How times have changed.

Y Kant Roger Read?

Roger L. Simon:

The economies which seem to be recovering fastest (France) are those that used the least government intervention in the crisis. Our stock market started to go up when it became clear Obama wasn’t able to get his legislation through anymore.

Well, no. Obama signed the $787 billion stimulus bill into law on February 17. That, I think we can all agree, is not small change. Since then, it's become increasingly likely that a healthcare reform bill will pass. Whether it's the Baucus plan or not, it's going to be pretty huge and it's probably reflect the wishes of the Obama administration. This has been obvious for quite some time.

Anyhoo, what's happened to the Dow since February 17?


Maybe Roger should stick to what he's good at -- losing other people's money.

Teabagging, defined by Greenwald.

Pretty much.

Far more interesting than Beck himself is the increasingly futile effort to classify the protest movement to which he has connected himself. Here, too, confusion reigns. In part, this is due to the fact that these "tea party" and "9/12" protests are composed of factions with wildly divergent views about most everything. From paleoconservatives to Ron-Paul-libertarians to LaRouchians to Confederacy-loving, race-driven Southerners to Christianist social conservatives to single-issue fanatics (abortion, guns, gays) to standard Limbaugh-following, Bush-loving Republicans, these protests are an incoherent mishmash without any cohesive view other than: "Barack Obama is bad."

Pass.

Here's a new book I won't be reading:

When did Lanny Davis turn into such a chode?

When did he become indistinguishable from Tucker Carlson?

Oh wait - sometime in early 2008.

Glenn Reynolds calls Obama a Nazi, again.

Has Putzy ever been more non-partisan?

BREAKING NEWS: National Endowment for the Arts Renamed National Endowment for Propaganda. Stay Tuned. “This is Only the Beginning.” “There is a German word for what we are witnessing at the NEA and elsewhere in the Obama administration’s effort to push its agenda. It is Gleichschaltung.

Yeah, yeah -- he just linked and didn't agree/disagree with Roger Kimball, etc., etc., etc.

CWWatchtm

Old CW:

ANDREW BREITBART: I Am Kenneth Gladney.

New CW:


Heh. Hey, whatever happened to that Joe the Plumber guy? Better wingnut lapdogs, please!

Ross Douthat: Bush's attempts to partially recover from the massive calamities he created make him a good president.

Yes, this shit's printed in the New York Times.

Your daily McStupid.

Geebus.

I think that ramming through the bill on a party line vote makes it very likely that the Democrats will lose the house in 2010; the American public doesn't like uniparty votes, especially on something this controversial.

Megan McRand's starting to sound like Putz. Does she have any evidence to support this theory about what the "American public" likes? Because from my vantage point, I see the GOP has no credibility on healthcare with the American public.

But what's hard polling data vs. glib, breezy generalizations?

The World's Smallest Violin.

Dr. Mrs. Putz spent the weekend talking to Liz Cheney, Michelle Malkin and Marsha Blackburn. Here's her takeaway:

After interviewing a number of the women, I found the common theme to be a sense of isolation due to media exclusion of their voices, or if they were mentioned at all in the media, their portrayal was negative.

I haven't yet seen the interview, but am mighty curious to see how this "exclusion" squares with Liz Cheney's 22 teevee appearances in less than a month.

As for the negative portrayal, well, that's much easier to defend. Though I don't know much about Blackburn, Cheney and Malkin happen to be monsters of pantagruelian proportions...

Why did Bobby Fischer hate the Jews?

A fascinating discovery.

Other than that, this is a humiliating defeat.

Conservative America is in full pant-shitting mode over Obama's decision to "betray" and "abandon" Europe by removing ground-based missile defense systems from Poland. It is worth noting, while discussing the symbolic and diplomatic significance of this cowardly retreat, that missile defense systems do not work. They have never worked. They show no hope of working at any point in the foreseeable future.

Got that? Because it's kinda important. They don't work. They don't work. And they don't work. It is the most idiotic boondoggle in the history of a defense industry loaded to the gunwales with boondoggles. Even when technology improves to the point that the target-launch-intercept and accuracy hurdles are overcome, there is no aspect of a missile-based interception system that can't be defeated by the addition of a handful of empty steel decoys to any warhead. Approximate cost: $50.

Republicans have been pissing money at this technology for 30 years and will for 30 more. There has been almost no progress made in that time. The technology remains nowhere close to working (30% kill rates in "ideal condition" Pentagon tests do not count). Keep that in mind.

His Naivety Is Almost Charming.

Perhaps forgetting that The Starr Report came out during Bill Clinton's second term, Mickey Kaus writes:

After a few years of Obama, voters will have a surer sense of him on their own and the paranoia should subside.

Really? You'd think a guy who pals around with terrorists the syphilitic duo, Ann Coulter and Andrew Breitbart, would resist such optimistic predictions.

Or, it occurs to me, you might not.

Please Mittens, Don't Hurt 'Em.

Putz:

HISTORY’S GREATEST MONSTER: Romney taunts Democrats with memories of Carter. A Carter-rerun is now looking like a best-case scenario. . . .

First of all, the more clear-eyed way to look at this is, an out-of-power GOP loser disparaged a guy who, for all his faults, actually got, you know, elected.

Second, Putz is lying. When Romney said, "I'll bet you never dreamed you'd look back at Jimmy Carter as the good old days," he was speaking in tongues addressing the GOP faithful.

So, hmm. Taunting? Not really. I'm pretty sure Democrats think Romney is a clown. Which, as Failed-Candidate McCain can tell you, was also pretty much the judgment of the conservatives.

But by all means, please keep giving Moroni's Man a platform. If the GOP wants to take him seriously, that can only be good for the country.

Romney rising!

Now that Palin and Sanford are gone...

...my own governor Rick Perry wins the "wingnuttiest and dumbest GOP governor" award.

The party of Glenn Reynolds: the land of cotton.

Brutal.

Brilliant wingnuts.

I'm all for kicking people out of the country that can't speak the language.

Ed Kilgore 1, David Brooks -34

Nice brutal beatdown of McBobo's piece today at TNR.

Jon Kyl to the rescue!

I picked up this little habit of checking Hugh Hewitt transcripts from my Instaputz homeboy, TS.

A wingnuttia goldmine, they are, for sure.

Putz Flashback.

According to Glenn Reynolds, the word "racist" has lost all meaning. He'd like that, I suppose, since we and our pals would have to find new ways to describe Stacy McCain.

Putz is to be commended on his modesty. There is, after all, no one more adept at draining the life from the English language. 2005 in particular was what scholars will one day call "The Merriam Webster Massacre":

When Ted Kennedy can make an absurd and borderline-traitorous speech on the war, when Michael Moore shares a VIP box with the last Democratic President but one, when Barbara Boxer endorses a Democratic consultant/blogger whose view of American casualties in Iraq is “screw ‘em,” well, this is the authentic face of the Left. Or what remains of it.

There was a time when the Left opposed fascism and supported democracy, when it wasn’t a seething-yet-shrinking mass of self-hatred and idiocy. That day is long past, and the moral and intellectual decay of the Left is far gone.

Funny story: Kennedy was no traitor (just goddamn right) and The Left was, and is, still a big fan of democracy (we just don't believe in killing people to impose it).

As for Michael Moore -- well, he's still fat but is now clean-shaven.

...BT adds:

From your link:

If Kerry had won, would it be understandable for Republican artists to perform in front of swastikas?

Oops.

Seymour Hersh, Eat Your Heart Out.

Politico asks the important questions!

The answer, I assume, is "in the arms of a Dominican boy."

The right-wing's leader: still totally not racist!

Now he's calling for segregation.

We need segregated buses — it was invading space and stuff. This is Obama’s America.

Where would anyone get the idea that Obama's critics are racist? Wonder if Putzy will call this "much ado about nothing much"?

RIP

The Upside of Death.

The already-missed Mr. Gibson beats out a pretty august bunch.

Speaking of movies, Ms. Spicy Curry and I saw Inglorious Basterds last night.

How bad was it? Well, I have severe sleep apnea and (according to Ms. SC) I slept through a solid 30 minutes of the movie and didn't once stop breathing.

Too Late.

Andy Sullivan pretends his hands are clean:

[Rush Limbaugh] is a man who wants a race war. Until the GOP throws him out, they deserve oblivion. He's a racist through and through, and if no one on the right stands up to this, they are complicit[.]

Sorry, pal. The sentiment is appreciated, but you don't get to wax indignant this week when, less than a month ago, you slobbered over The Bell Curve.

Prediction.

At some point today, Roger L. Simon will write a post containing all of the following words:

Obama
appeasement
Russia
mullahs

He's on PDT and is a lazy douchebag, so I don't expect to see it til after lunch.

Losers.

Behold, the awesome power that is RedState.

I know what these words mean individually, but.....

More eloquent prose from the Editor herself.

Should Ted Kennedy Have Had a Catholic Funeral? [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Or at least the one that he did? Toward undoing some damage.

09/16 10:28 AMShare

Dept. of Change.

Obama's poll numbers are starting to climb.

Happily, the bounce in this president's popularity has come about thanks, most likely, to policy decisions -- not as the result of 3,000 people dying very horrible deaths.

Which is nice.

Megan McCardle, still really dumb.

Quoth Megan McRand:

I'm reliably informed that the Democrats think they're better off doing this alone than not doing it at all, and so it has to pass. If so, it will be the first time in history that I can think of that a single party passed anything of this size--certainly not a major new entitlement.

How many Republicans in the House voted for the stimulus?

Jesus H. Tap-Dancing Christ, teabaggers.

Really?

Really??? We're doing this now?



If you can't crank up your speakers, here are some of the lyrics from MC Uncle Tom and DJ Shit-4-Brainz: "We need tanks and hummers, not hybrid cars! We need honest politicians, not communist czars! USA, not the USSR. We need more Ann Coulter and less Bill Maher. […] I don’t need another lecture from the Socialistic hypocrite. Tuesday was your birthday, but where’s your birth certificate?"

We Can Be Pretty Crappy Sometimes.

And by we, I mean the United States. E.J. Dionne, in a truly wonderful column about the Joe Wilson incident, happens to get to the nut of why, more often than not, being an American feels more like a burden than a blessing.

Dionne observes that the truly odious angle of the Joe Wilson incident was not his accusation that Obama lied -- which was, frankly, standard-issue politics. It was the fact that

alleged plans to kill off seniors and promote abortion are spoken of in almost the same breath as the matter of delivering health care to fellow human beings, however they arrived on our shores.

Indeed. But it should surprise no one. Consider the fact that a creature such as Michelle Malkin is at the top of the bestseller list.

Here's something Mrs. Malkin wrote last year:

I’ve written before about organ transplants for illegal aliens–and been attacked by the usual socialist suspects as cruel, heartless, and racist for questioning the wisdom of US public policy that indiscriminately allocates scarce health resources at taxpayer expense to illegal immigrants.

An empathetic person would read that and say, "Well, duh." I mean, it's pretty evil to broadly condemn to death a swath of immigrants, many of whom risk life and limb just to get here. Saying so should not be controversial.

The problem, though, is that very few people of weight are willing to say as much.

The fallout? Malkin -- who, it's worth repeating, authored a book in praise of internment camps -- is one of the most popular conservatives in the country.

This is damaging to our collective intelligence, but it also stunts the discourse; after all, how can one have a good faith argument with people whose intellectual leader spent weeks going after Rachael Ray (for a sartorial faux pas) and a twelve year old boy, for the twin sins of getting sick and getting well?

Dionne finishes up like so:

...I am not at all at peace with the fact that the one issue about which a member of Congress chose to rise up and accuse our president of being a liar related to the charge that our chief executive wasn't doing enough to build walls between illegal immigrants and health coverage.

How mean-spirited will we allow ourselves to become? How coarsened has our political culture made us? We like to see ourselves as a generous, caring and welcoming nation. Are we losing that part of our character?

That's a little confused. The perception of America has never been in line with the reality of America -- which is why, lo these many months ago, Michelle Obama's remarks made people so uncomfortable. They were easily to believe!

We may see ourselves as "generous, caring and welcoming" but that just ain't so. Joe Wilson's remarks, and the speed at which he has been embraced by millions of his own party, proves it.

To answer Dionne's question: I hope so. That is, and always was, a delusion.

Shorter Dr. Helen: guys' propensity to lie a lot is all women's fault.

No, really.

Based on Putzy's blogging, she must be one nasty harridan.

George W. Bush, sexist beltway elitist.

The mask slips.

Looking forward to watching the wingnut civil war over this. Do they side with Great Leader or 'Cuda?

QOTD.

Ben JB:

As much as I hate the “Nietzsche led to the Nazis” line of thinking, I have to admit that certain Nietzschean formulations are very congenial (that not necessarily causative) to a Nazi worldview. The difference between the Nietzsche-Nazi and Rand-asshole connections is that I can think of Nietzsche leading to other avenues of thought, whereas Rand’s philosophy seems to lead only to narcissistic assholes as a consequence.

Teabaggers: still totally not racist!

Pansies

I wish the Obama administration would stop coddling terrorists like this.

Jeremy Lott, Hack.

Jeremy Lott writes stupid things for money, which is, admittedly, a nice racket. For example:

When he ran for president, George W. Bush promised to be a modest reformer at home and a humble representative of the United States on the world stage. The Al Qaeda-organized-and-funded terrorist attacks of eight years ago changed all that.

Ah yes. I remember it well! September 11, 2001 totally forced President Bush to do things he did not want to do, like spearhead a needless trillion dollar tax cut for the rich (several months earlier) and push for the privatization of Social Security (four and a half years later).

Indeed, 9/11 Changed Everything.

73% of doctors are communists.

Or something.

When polled, "nearly three-quarters of physicians supported some form of a public option, either alone or in combination with private insurance options," says Dr. Salomeh Keyhani. She and Dr. Alex Federman, both internists and researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, conducted a random survey, by mail and by phone, of 2,130 doctors. They surveyed them from June right up to early September.

Most doctors — 63 percent — say they favor giving patients a choice that would include both public and private insurance. That's the position of President Obama and of many congressional Democrats. In addition, another 10 percent of doctors say they favor a public option only; they'd like to see a single-payer health care system. Together, the two groups add up to 73 percent.

I can't wait to see the wingnut spin on this.

The incredibly powerful poor and undocumented.

Greenwald:

In that sense, Douthat (and Luntz) are correct when they say: "That’s exactly what’s been happening now." Just as was true for the 1994 crime bill, the right-wing fury over health care reform is motivated by the fear that middle-class Americans will have their money taken away by Obama while -- all together now, euphemistically -- "having someone else benefit." And this "someone else" are, as always, the poor minorities and other undeserving deadbeats who, in right-wing lore, somehow (despite their sorry state) exert immensely powerful influence over the U.S. Government and are thus the beneficiaries of endless, undeserved largesse: people too lazy to work, illegal immigrants, those living below the poverty line.

This is a fascination of mine. It's not only that wingnuts side with say, ExxonMobile over Greenpeace or Walmart over employees making minimum wage for philosphical reasons -- it's that they really think those immensely powerful organizations are helpless in the face of the evil greens or Big Labor.

It's really odd.

Fond memories of campaign '08

Where did Victoria Jackson go? She was Fox's favorite guest for a few weeks, and then the morning after the election she was gone.



Maybe she died. Corn dog lodged in the esophagus would be my guess. If she's still alive I say we petition the GOP and Fox to bring her back. I miss her insight, and her message was really working.

Today's selection from the "Give me a fucking break" file...

Clicking through the ad takes one to this website in which Our Hero reassures a worried nation that he "will not be muzzled."

Joe the Liar

Liar.

"I've apologized one time. The apology was accepted by the president, the vice president. ... I am not apologizing again," he told "FOX News Sunday." "I believe that is sufficient."

Wilson said he would "never do something like that again," but continued to defend himself.

The South Carolina Republican on Wednesday accused the president of lying for claiming his health care reform plan would not cover illegal immigrants.

"I believe in the truth. What I heard was not true," Wilson explained Sunday. "I believe (Obama) was misstating the facts."

So dude calls the President a liar on national television, in breach of House rules, is proven to be a liar for doing so -- and then doubles-down on said lie.

Censure the POS.

The wingosphere: a case study.

A follow-up to the post below.

Glenn Reynolds promotes bogus Teabagger numbers.

Really embarrassing.

HEADLINE: Up to two million march to US Capitol to protest against Obama’s spending in ‘tea-party’ demonstration.

You've been punk'd, Teabaggers.

At no time did ABC News, or its affiliates, report a number anywhere near as large. ABCNews.com reported an approximate figure of 60,000 to 70,000 protesters, attributed to the Washington, D.C., fire department. In its reports, ABC News Radio described the crowd as "tens of thousands."

2 million, 70 thousand. Whatever.

And this from Benen is pitch perfect.

We learned today that right-wing activists don't like government spending (except when Bush and Republican lawmakers spent freely), don't like the size of government (except when Bush and Republican lawmakers increased the size of government), don't like deficits and debt (except when Bush and Republican lawmakers added trillions to the nation's tab), and don't like czars (except when Bush used dozens of them to implement his agenda).

They don't like health-care reform, though it's not clear why. They don't like gun control, though it's not clear why they think anyone's coming for their firearms. They also don't like taxes, immigration, abortion, Muslims, the U.N., and the idea of "socialism," though their understanding of the word is tenuous at best.

In other words, the point of today's rally was to let the country know there are a lot of right-wing activists with right-wing beliefs. We knew that before today, but I guess they wanted to remind us.

I guess.

UCLA punks the UT Instapundits.

Hehindeedy!

Photos from the Great Teabagging.

More here.

9/11 as an opportunity to spew wingnut invective.

Today's fine example brought to you by the New York Post and Ralph Peters.

The Tea Parties are working! Obama's on the ropes!!! JOE WILSONS A HERO!!!11!!!

Oh well.

The day after Mr. Obama's congressional address, CBS re-interviewed 678 adults first questioned in a poll conducted August 27-31.

Last week, just 40 percent of these adults approved of how the president was handling health care. More, 47 percent, disapproved. After the speech, 52 percent said they approved and only 38 percent said they disapproved.

Regarding September 11, 2001 (Or, as Glenn Reynolds Prefers to Think of it, "That Time Christmas Came Early")

If y'all don't mind, there will be no Putz-related posting outta me today. Last night I saw the lights -- more than enough of a reminder of what happened eight years ago -- so I don't need the agita.

However, it's probably worth recalling what Putz wrote in the aftermath of the attacks. The last line ought to be his epitaph:

GEORGE BUSH IS NOW THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THE WORLD: People always say that about Presidents, of course, but usually it's only notionally true. Now, if he wants to nuke Baghdad, there is nobody to say him nay -- and damned few who would want to. That's a danger if he goes off half-cocked, but I don't think there's much risk of that.

It's hard to believe someone gets paid to make this shit.

Who am I kidding. Nobody at PJTV is getting paid.

Dear Erick,

Your hero is now Obama's bitch.

I'm sure you're very proud.

Love,
TS

PS: WOLVERINES!

Joe Wilson is, suprise!, a fan of the Confederacy.

DougJ's comment really says it all.

Specter wants to censure Wilson.

Good.

"He apologized immediately afterward but I don't think that’s adequate... If an apology is the consequence of an outburst I think we can expect more – that’s not a sufficient penalty that’s not a sufficient price to pay.. I'm not saying the guy should be kicked out of the House… But there ought to be some rebuke, reprimand, censure -- something that will discourage that kind of conduct in the future. If you do that to the President, it's open season."

Dog Whistle.

Still high on Joe Wilson's neo-confederate fumes, a Corner reader has a proposition for Kathryn Jean Lopez:

A friend e-mails a sentiment I'm hearing a lot of: "I think back in the old days, 18th and 19th centuries, that sort of stuff was the norm . . . I say we go back."

Color me, um, unsurprised that a National Review reader would find the "old days" -- when he or she would undoubtedly own a slave or two -- so appealing.

...Dude! In his previous life, Wilson was totally Strom Thurmond's grundelmeister! After the Senator, happily, died, Wilson said this:



Niiiiiiiiiice.

(This, incidentally, is the origin of grundelmeister.)

Joe Wilson (R-SC) should be censured.

What a disgrace.

And Erick Erickson calls him a "hero." I can't wait until we kick their asses in 2010 again.

...TS ADDS: Hehindeedy!

WATB update.

Putz:

Plus, Republicans will unveil their bill — in Obama’s presence. Tired of being ignored, I guess.

Everyone together now: awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Republicans have absolutely zero moral or intellecutal authority to criticize Van Jones.

Until the GOP purges the crazies from their midst, which is pretty much the whole party, they don't get to determine what kind of speech and what kinds of views are acceptable.

Tranny, Get Your Gun.

A couple of weeks ago, The Washington Post blew ran a puff piece of Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage.

It was shit, and the reporter, Monica Hesse, was rightfully thrashed.

Anyhoo, Rod Dreher, asshole, in the course of lamenting the terribly uncivil tenor of the criticism lobbed at Hesse, writes:

It's one reason I have a gun in the house.

Jesus Christ!

Look, I don't doubt Rod has a gun. Surely, though, the specter of Andrew Sullivan lobbing a grenade into the Dreher mud room is not the reason why.

Andrew's back.

And he's still sticking it to Putzy.

The current debt is overwhelmingly inherited by Obama, and it would have been nuts to enter office in the downdraft of the sharp recession and set about cutting spending. Bush had eight years to restrain it and he didn't. He let it rip. Think of the GOP's phony concerns about the cost of the current healthcare bill and compare it with the GOP's prescription drug entitlement that Rove rammed through the Congress when the GOP held total power. The costs then were about eight times as great as the proposed costs now. But that was a Republican measure and so it doesn't somehow count as evidence of fiscal irresponsibility. But Nancy Pelosi only has to raise an eye-brow and the alarms go off.

Somehow - thanks in part to dishonest partisan hacks like Glenn Reynolds and Sean Hannity - the Bush-Cheney debt is all Obama's fault and you need to get Republicans back to fix it.

Corker/Palin 2012!

Krugman brings the hammer down on Ezra and Yglesias.

Do your homework, lads.

Let me add a sort of larger point: aside from the essentially circular political arguments — centrist Democrats insisting that the public option must be dropped to get the votes of centrist Democrats — the argument against the public option boils down to the fact that it’s bad because it is, horrors, a government program. And sooner or later Democrats have to take a stand against Reaganism — against the presumption that if the government does it, it’s bad.

Thank you.

Republicans have been saying for 30 years that government sucks, and by caving on the public option, Democrats would basically be agreeing with them.

I'm not sure why Klein and Yglesias don't see why that's a problem.

Nancy pwns Teabagger.

Amato wants to know why MSNBC would put an idiot like this on the air. I want to know where he thinks they could have found a conservative up in arms over Obama's school speech who was any more intelligent than this asshammer.

Teabagger: Well like I said, there is no problem with the message it's the lessons plans that encourages students to reveal personal information about themselves by participating in the lessons that the teachers are putting forth for them and that's illegal....

Nancy: But I'm not sure I understand what you're talking about. No one asked for personal information as far as I understand and the lesson plans really went along with the bulk of the speech.

Teabagger: When the teachers ask in a questionnaires or they encourage the students to reveal information about their goals that delves into the psyche of the children and under code 34 of the federal regulations that's illegal.

Nancy: You must be kidding me. Do you not want kids to be talking about what they want to be when they grow up?

You'll Want to Keep an Eye on This...

DoBoLoPa has a Twitter feed. So far, this is my favorite tweet:




Hmmm, yes. Hassett would know from prescient.

Hats off, they're really good.

I mean, really good. They can literally just make up total bullshit and because people like Putz have been shouting LIBERAL MEDIA! forever, and continue to, it's treated with deference.

...the Wrong Week to Stop Sniffing Glue.

A week away and this is the first thing I read:

[Obama's education] speech made me think back to a much quoted passage of Kennedy's inaugural address,"Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country." My question is "Why?"

My friends, that is the monosyllabic essence of libertarianism.

I'm Mr. Blue.

I spent the last week in Central America and largely avoided the news.

It was a wingnut-free period, for which, apparently, I should be grateful.

Before I dive back in to the crazy, let me note this passage from a recent New Yorker piece on pirates, in which it is observed that captains

allocated set-asides for professionals (two hundred pesos for each surgeon, a hundred for each carpenter), incentive payments (fifty to anyone who captured a Spanish flag, five to anyone who threw a grenade into a fort), and compensations for injury (a hundred for a lost eye, fifteen hundred for two legs).

Yeah, pirates had health care. Communists!

Excerpts from Obama's Marxist indoctrination of our school children.

I can see why the Republican Party was so concerned.

Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.

I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

...

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

...

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

Labor Day

Makes conservatives sad.

Was Glenn Reynolds "pretty impressed" with this ad?

You can see why a non-partisan libertarian would like Corker.



I'll take racist dog whistles for $200, Alex.

Glenn Reynolds endorses Bob Corker for President.

No, really.

BOB CORKER FOR PRESIDENT? “He’s the best GOP candidate I’ve heard of so far. His convictions and credentials are rock solid. And he’s got a proven background of knowing the importance of balancing the books. As a bonus, he doesn’t shy away from ruffling the feathers of the GOP establishment, which of course did such a stellar job of managing expenditures while in power.”

I interviewed Corker last year. I was pretty impressed.

Aside from the fact that Corker is a total lightweight, a former mayor of Chattanooga who only eked out a 2 point win over Harold Ford because he's a white Republican and in Tennessee, yeah, he's awesome.

Corker has expressed skepticism regarding the claims of human-caused global warming.

There it is. Corker/Palin 2012!

It's like they want Obama to have a second term.

More Ezra: the Bush tax cuts were the result of a centrist compromise.

Oy vay.

Very tough sell, that.

Shorter Ezra Klein: Bush could get nothing done in Congress because of the aweseome power of centrists.

He's got to be kidding with this crap.

The Teabaggers have found their Leader!

Putzy must be so proud.

And yes, she'd be perfect.

McArdle to facts: kiss my ass, facts.

From Mike, McArdle lets the mask slip off for a moment.

Atlantic blogger Megan McArdle wrote a post on pharmaceutical companies last month, and while replying to one of her commenters, she said this:

The United States currently provides something like 80-90% of the profits on new drugs and medical devices. Perhaps you think you can slash profits 80% with no effect on the behavior of the companies that make these products. I don't.

Last week, during a Washington Post online chat, this exchange took place:

Anonymous: You said that medical innovation will be wiped out if we have a type of national health care, because European drug companies get 80% of their revenue from Americans. Where did you get this statistic?

Megan McArdle: It wasn't a statistic--it was a hypothetical.

Today's selection from the "No, really: Is this a joke?" file...

Morning Joe for President! No, seriously, Joe Scarborough is the new GOP savior!

He was in Congress (which he mentions every 15 minutes on his show)! He plays guitar (which is somehow relevant)! The intern he was fucking when he was in Congress turned up dead in his office!


Whoops, that last part didn't make it into the analysis, did it? The author must have forgotten.

Shorter Ann Althouse: LEAVE SARAH ALOOOOONE!

Her girl-crush on the 'Cuda gets creepier every day.

They've just dropped that whole 'compassionate' thing.

Stay classy, Mike.

Economists <3 Eugenics

Is economics the new eugenics, or are ecomonists merely the new eugenicists?

Republicans love Medicare!

Heh:

Man, I bet if I were a libertarian who spent the last couple of months defending teabaggers and pimping every Republican lie about fiscal responsibility, I’d feel pretty damned stupid right now. I wish there was some way I could put this on infinite loop in Reason HQ so they would have something to watch in between Fox News appearances and watching PJTV.

But don’t you dare call them Republicans.

That means you, Putz. And McCardle.

And today's selection from the "Oh, what the fuck..." file

Why does the (socialist) US Forest Service put out fires when we could be letting the market put out fires? Because the inefficient (socialist) government program has an incentive to spend more money!!!

There is a fierce debate over whether this is real or satire. It IS real, but when one's sincere ideas are suspected of being an elaborate parody it may be time to reconsider a few things. Having a comically stupid name like "Randal O'Toole" doesn't help matters.

He'll be working at Heritage by Christmas.

The wingnut obsession with the Constitution.

Torture, shitting on treaties, illegal surveillance. All fine. Effectively expanding Medicare?

ZOMG ITS NOT IN THE CONSTITUTION!!!111!!1!

PS
Their complaints would have a little more validity if they actually knew the name of the document.

Captain Starburst P. Sparklepants needs to put down the "24" DVDs

Just think: if not for "harsh" interrogation techniques we could never have gotten so much unverifiable and dubious information out of Khalid Sheik Mohammad.