If he's for it, they're against it.

This reflexive opposition to everything Obama proposes is getting amusing, if nothing else.

K-Lo is horrified by teh pr0n.

Ay-yi-yi.

Pornography [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

is quietly tearing at the time, efficiency, and souls of young men, families, and workplaces today. It wasn't invented recently, of course, but its availability is unlike ever before, in ways many, I assume, wouldn't quite care to imagine. It's frequently not talked about a lot — often for understandable reasons. (Pamela Paul, Mary Eberstadt, Laura Ingraham, and Mona Charen are some notable exceptions.) When I recently went to a press conference for a Witherspoon Institute study on its social costs, a man walked in, stayed a few, and announced, "I expected to be much more titillated by this than I am." And there we are. It's dangerous stuff and, well, I'll go ahead and let you read the story of one wife and mother. I'd be curious for your thoughts — maybe especially from men.

Efficiency?

Those Were the Days, My Friend...

"It is sadly true that there’s some legal authority for such an approach [the jailing and interrogating of U.S. citizens and noncitizens without legal protections], stemming from the Civil War and World War II. But it’s still a terrible idea, and in particular anything that breaks down the protections of American citizens is a terrible idea because it raises the potential for politically-motivated abuse of power in a way that a system aimed at non-citizens does not."

NC-17 book review

Over at Intellectual Chernobyl, Rebecca Hagelin offers a cloying-to-the-point-of-nausea "review" of Sean Hannity's new book Conservative Victory. There is so much fellating going in this column that it should probably be in Hustler. Watch Rebecca unhinge her jaw like a snake to chug more and more of Hannity's wang, dropping gems like this throughout:

Hannity carefully documents...

Sean says it best, (extended quote)

Sean brilliantly connects the dots between...

Sean’s terrific book outlines specific steps... Here are a few of my favorite steps, please read “Conservative Victory” for all of them. (note: not a sentence)

A Conservative Victory is an American victory. I highly recommend Sean Hannity’s book as the way to get started on securing both.

If being a sycophant could cure cancer, Ms. Hagelin would live forever.

Newfound Respeck for Dan Riehl an Anonymous RNC Operative.

From an interview with Hugh Hewitt:

Hugh, I listened in amazement to the Republican blogger that feels that Strippergate is no big deal as I drove home this evening. I met my second wife in a strip club so I am not exactly talking from a perspective of "holier than thou.["]

I, for one, would like to see some evidence...

Lots of fail in this post. At this rate, I'll be writing for RenewAmerica by lunch time.

Profound.

WWJD? He would steal from Reagan, of course ("With regard to the freedom of the individual for choice with regard to abortion, there's one individual who's not being considered at all. That's the one who is being aborted. And I've noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born.").

Keepin' it relevant

We can always count on the withered corpse of Phyllis Schlafly to bring the most relevant issues to the forefront.

Can we call the Hutarees Teabaggers yet?

I'm sure the "Don't Tread on Me" flag is just a coincidence.

More here.

Apparently Hannidate is not the Panacea for Virginity.

Putz does his best to get his blogger brethren laid:

IMPORTANT RELATIONSHIP ADVICE FOR TODAY’S ECONOMY: Why You Should Date A Guy Who Lives With His Parents.

Prediction: massive, hilarious fail, with an 80% chance of not getting to first base with Mary Katharine Ham.

Advertising Bot Fail

In which Glenn Reynolds sides with the terrorists.

Putz is sounding more and more like a Turner Diaries-type every day.

Make. It. Stop.

Riffing on the arrests of the Rapture-ready militia nuts, Althouse says:

But I must also say that it's interesting to see that Improvised Explosive Devices with Explosively Formed Projectiles, which, according to the indictment are "weapons of mass destruction." That blows a big hole in the notion that there weren't weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Ha ha no.

I sense a theme.

Hmm. Sounds like NRO, Inc. had to send around an internal memo letting its "contributors" know that the electricity was disconnected over the weekend.



At least have the decency to spread out your wheedles, guys.

I think Glenn Reynolds has finally snapped: Obama "possibly hates Jews."

The passage of the health care bill and the subsequent humiliation/defeat of the Teabaggers has just been too much for him.

Unhinged.

WHY HAS BARACK OBAMA TREATED NETANYAHU SO RUDELY? “Obama would never treat the president of Equatorial Guinea that way.”

Possibly Obama just hates Israel and hates Jews. That’s plausible — certainly nothing in his actions suggests otherwise, really.

Yes, all policy disputes with Israel's current government makes you a Jew-hater. I guess that means American Jews are mostly idiots or self-hating, since they overwhelmingly voted for Obama in 2008, and will no doubt do so again in 2012.

Greenwald, another Jew-hater, has a good response.

Knapp:

Honestly, I don’t know why certain segments of the right believe that supporting anything but the most pro-hardline Likud foreign policy is somehow “anti-Israel” or even “anti-Semitic”, but there it is.

It's just what they do, Alex.

UPDATE

Stooksbury

Last week, Glenn Reynolds gave a lecture at the Howard Baker Center on political civility. According to the student newspaper Reynolds pontificated about the “need to find a balance of disagreement and argument while not crossing the line of pure nastiness. . .”

Imagine my surprise to see Reynolds speculating that, “Possibly Obama just hates Israel and hates Jews. That’s plausible — certainly nothing in his actions suggests otherwise, really.” Obama’s crime is that he supposedly neglected to have a photo-op with Bibi Netanyahu, or something like that. I’m not sure what to say in response to that other than to note that Reynolds is apparently insane, which is to say that he is a rightwinger in the age of Obama.

Yes, The American Conservative just called Putz "insane." Way to go, Putz!

GET YOUR GOVERNMENT HANDS OFF MY GOVERNMENT JOB!!!!1ONE!

More cognitive dissonance from the Teabaggers.

Unsurprisingly, a high percentage of them are "fundamentalist Christians."

Anyone still wondering why this dynamic duo lost Indiana?

The Quitter and the Glue Horse, reunited.

At the rally on Friday, Palin proclaimed that the Republican Party isn't the party of no -- "we're the party of hell no!"

She derided "this BS coming from the lame-stream media" about "us common-sense conservatives kinda inciting violence," but added, "We know violence isn't the answer. When we take up our arms, we're talking about our vote."

Side note: The "lame-stream media" would include Fox and Discovery Channel, both of which employ the Quitter.

Wimps.

Ever since #hcr became law, conservatives have lost it and lost it hard. Kyle-Shiver's latest offering is typical of the current 'we're all gonna die' strain of American wingnut thought. For the sake of our beloved readers, her column has been condensed to its marrow, but not a word has been changed:

Standing in arrogant defiance of the will of the American citizenry ... Narcissus incarnate ... the judicial civil war began...  a single man who would perfectly display the despicable picture of tyranny for the American people. ... the citizenry have clearly seen the horrendous beast of tyranny for the first time in more than a century. ... Insulated in his bubble of Chicago cronies... Narcissist O has just gotten his own kind of Enabling Act. ... Alinsky laid out his thesis ... Trotsky’s summary of Lenin’s infamous April Theses ... Alinsky ... Alinsky ... Alinsky’s pinnacle of success now resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue... They pulled all Americans into an abyss of completely uncharted territory. ... Oh, Democrats, what have you done? ... Batten down the hatches. Anything-but-smooth sailing is straight ahead. And only the strong will survive.

I know John Cole renounced Peak Wingnut Theory, but this has to be close...

Well, That Was Fast.

Putz yesterday:

ERIC CANTOR’S DISTRICT OFFICE SHOT AT LAST NIGHT. I blame Courtland Milloy’s inflammatory rhetoric.

Other wingnuts, great and small, piled on.

As always happens with these stories, whether of considerable significance (the existence of mass destruction in Iraq) or trifling (the non-existence of Jamil Hussein), reality eventually overtakes the wingnut narrative...

The No. 2 Republican in the House went on national television on Thursday to say that it was not just Democrats receiving threats, he was a target too.
But that bullet that pierced the window in House Minority Whip Eric Cantor’s Richmond office was merely a stray shot from a random act of gun fire, a Richmond Police department spokesman told POLITICO Friday afternoon.

It's safe to say that this development will not be acknowledged by Putz et al.

OBEY

Frum ousted from the AEI.


DISSENT WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.

The burgeoning market for original wingnut art

"FIRE!!!!!!" Geez, everyone -- it was a joke.

So much for personal responsibility.

Bill Donohue, Rape Apologist.

This news has made Bill Donohue very sad.

Mr. Kathryn Jean Lopez has taken to the august pages of cnn.com to proclaim "Criticism of Catholic Church is Unfair." His argument is sound: nobody ever called the cops on these molesting priests back in the day, so...

it hardly comes as a surprise that Cardinal Sean Brady in Ireland did not summon the authorities about a case involving a priest in the 1970s. What is surprising is why some are now indicting him, acting as if his response was the exception to the rule.

Um, Bill? "The exception is the rule" is a bad defense, fyi.

My favorite bit is the last graf:

The hyper-concentration on the Catholic Church is not by accident. The Church preaches an ethic of sexual restraint -- a profoundly countercultural idea -- so when a priest fails, it's tempting to highlight it. Human nature being what it is, that's understandable. But it's also immoral. Quite frankly, if sexual abuse is wrong, it should not matter what the identity of the abuser is. Selective justice is the highest form of injustice.

I dunno. Perhaps a greater injustice is 200 deaf kids get assaulted. Maybe?

The week in pant-shitting

And it's not even Friday yet.

Macho FAIL.

"Man up, Steny. Or just, you know, shut up."

QOTD.

"There are plenty of reasonable (if wrongheaded) arguments - theological, political, personal - for why Catholicism ought to take a more modernist turn. But the notion that the Church's future depends on it - that Benedict XVI's election "may make the decline of the Church inevitable," that the Pope's orthodoxy will "only undermine his own authority," that elevating Ratzinger ensures Western Catholicism's "final death rattle" - is simply wrong on the facts."

--Ross Douthat, 2005

In Which I Agree With Kathryn Jean Lopez.

Quoth the craven:

There’s no room in the national Democratic party today for such a ["pro-lifer"] with any self-respect.

Where we diverge is, I think this is a good thing. Why should the Dems have a big tent, only to have some anti-abortion, woman-loathing jackass fart in it?

TEA PARTY!11!!1!

At some point, the GOP is either going to have to kill the Tea Party movement, or assimilate them into the fold, because if they don't, the teabaggery will take them down.

Fiddling

So if I promised you that Charlie Daniels wrote a lengthy rant about health care reform and then hundreds of members of the Charlie Daniels forum commented, you'd probably want to read that, right?

Picture how you think this is going to be and then have your mind blown by the fact that it is 100 times crazier.

Priorities.

Today's print edition of The Wall Street Journal:

Just a guess, but I don't think history will treat this editorial decision kindly.

Yeah.

"Is Obama the Antichrist?" wonders nearly 1 out of every 4 Republicans.

Crazier every day.

Use The Googles, John.

JA:

We were told to wait until Health Care Reform was over. Great, it's over. Where is the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' repeal that our 'fierce advocate' promised? Why is the Pentagon now dragging their feet on the commander in chief's orders? And why has it now been eight days since Barney Frank called on the White House to clarify whether or not they want DADT repealed this year? Silence from our fierce advocate at every step of the way.

It took me, like, 3 seconds to find this.

WASHINGTON — Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell says that the Defense Department is close to changing how it enforces its policy on "don't ask, don't tell," which bans gays from serving openly.

In February, Defense Secretary Robert Gates directed his legal counsel to suggest ways to relax enforcement of the policy, which is based on a 1993 law. Of particular interest is minimizing cases of "third-party outings," where a service member is kicked out after being reported by others to be gay.

Morrell said Gates is likely to announce a "way ahead" on the matter by the end of the week.

What's a Suffix Among Friends?

NYT:

At the end of his introduction of the president, Mr. Biden, who is well known for ad-libbing to the point of getting him in a little trouble, turned to Mr. Obama, embraced him and elaborated on the historic nature of the day.

“Mr. President, this is a big … deal,” he said, adding an adjective between big and deal, that begins with ‘f.’

Why so prude, Grey Lady? There's a Democrat in the White House, just like the last time the paper printed '****'!

In a recorded conversation later on October 6, Ms. Lewinsky said she wanted two things from the President. The first was contrition: He needed to ''acknowledge . . . that he helped fuck up my life.''(585) The second was a job, one that she could obtain without much effort: ''I don't want to have to work for this position . . . I just want it to be given to me.''(586) Ms. Lewinsky decided to write the President a note proposing that the two of them ''get together and work on some way that I can come out of this situation not feeling the way I do.''(587) After composing the letter, she said: ''I want him to feel a little guilty, and I hope that this letter did that.''(588)

Maybe they're spooked by the 'ing'? Not always! Even that's okay as long as the word is couched in a Candace Bushnell book excerpt ("All the way out, Peter kept making his hand into a gun shape, pretending to shoot at the other motorists. He called everyone "a fucking Polack." Janey tried to pretend that she thought it was funny.").

What's the fucking deal?

Gallup Has a Well-known Liberal Bias.

Putz, March 18:

SHOCKER: L.A. Times: Gallup Finds Americans Souring On Obama.

Putz, March 17:

POLITICAL WIRE: OBAMA UPSIDE DOWN: “For the first time, the Gallup daily tracking poll shows more people disapproving of President Obama’s job performance than approving, 47% to 46%.”

 Naturally, Obama's back at 51% today. Shielding your readers from reality is hard work, right, Putz?

In Which I Envy the Dead.

Why? Why?

Proud tradition

In keeping with the GOP tradition of trying to dismantle Medicare while simultaneously scaring old people with "Democrats are trying to take your Medicare!" who will be the first wingnut to run with a "Democrats are trying to cut your Obamacare!" meme?

You think they're not stupid enough to do this, and this is where you're wrong.

Psssst. Nobody Tell Marty that HCR Passed...

Here, ladies 'n' gents, is the editor in chief of The New Republic:

Surprise: "Indonesia Considers Removing Obama Park Statue"

This didn't make news in America. But it certainly made news elsewhere,
and especially in Asia. The dispatch was written by Chris Anderson, associate editor of CNNGo, in which it appeared on January 26.

The image is of "Little Barry," says Anderson, at ten years old. Apparently, 55,000 Jakartans had registered their discontent with the statue on Facebook.

True, it only "made news" in Time magazine, Associated Press, Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post, MSNBC... oh, and a little-known paper called USA Today. Perhaps you've heard of it?

There's got to be someone on staff who's embarrassed by this, yes?

A Movement of Malkins.

It's hard to believe these guys don't have more clout:

A tea party organizer angry over Rep. Tom Perriello’s (D-Va.) vote in favor of health care reform published what he thought was the freshman member’s home address on a blog, in case any readers “want to drop by” and provide a “personal touch” to their views.

Rather than giving out Perriello’s address however, the tea party activist instead mistakenly printed the home address of the congressman’s brother. Perriello’s brother and wife have four children under the age of eight.

In the post, the author gives out the address to his “friends” in Perriello’s district.

“Just in case any of his friends and neighbors want to drop by and say hi and express their thanks regarding his vote for healthcare,” the author writes. “I personally believe it’s so important for representatives to remain fully grounded and to remember exactly what it is their constituents are saying and how they are telling them to vote. Nothing quite does that like a good face-to-face chat. It has a much more personal touch to it.”

More Teabagger fail: Brown isn't 41.

Stupid rubes.

As Republicans are mounting plans to repeal the health care legislation -- and girding for battle in the Senate over a series of changes -- Senator Scott Brown is so far not immediately jumping on the bandwagon despite his well-established opposition to President Obama's health care overhaul.

Instead, Brown is keeping his options open in the wake of a Republican defeat, saying he wants time to study the bills and was noncommittal over whether he would vote against it.

When asked today if it was possible that he would vote for the so-called reconciliation package that the Senate will debate this week, Brown said, "I haven't read it yet. I want to be able to read it first."

The Week's Most Depressing Headline.

Frances, baby... if you need money, just call me!

Someone needs a hug.

Poor McTarded.

Obviously, yes, I was upset yesterday. I'm glad that this could bring so much joy to peoples' hearts, and of course to know that for many people, the happiest part of passing health care reform seems to have been knowing that it made people like me unhappy. The people wondering why I was so upset should contemplate that first, I think you people just screwed up both our health care system, and our fiscal system (even further), and that if I'm right, that's not really funny.

Yes, those mean Democrats totally wrecked our pristine, "best in the world" perfect-as-it-is health care system.

What a clown.

UPDATE

From the comments.

Victimhood is fun. Read an Ayn Rand novel -- victimization and petulant martyrdom are their stock in trade.

Indeed.

The logic machine took a shit and died.

I'm starting to like David Frum, as he strikes me as the kind of person with whom I could have a conversation and strenuously disagree. As opposed to a person cross-eyed with rage and screaming incoherent nonsense at the top of his lungs.

My new-found and grudging respect does not entail overlooking disastrously shitty logic:

One of the worst things about the Democrats’ plan is the method of financing: an increase in income taxes. The top rate of tax was already scheduled to jump to 39.6 percent at the end of this year. Now a surtax of 5.4 percent will be stacked atop that higher rate. At first, the surtax bites only very high incomes: $500,000 for individuals. But that tax will surely be applied to larger and larger portions of the American population over time.

Really, that's your argument?

There's no crying in teabagging!

Apparently, there is.

“The most important thing to remember,” said Jenny Beth Martin of Tea Party Patriots, throwing her hoarse voice into a megaphone, “is that the fight for freedom, it never ends! In the next days, you’re going to find out what you can do to stop it in the Senate. If it becomes law, we’re going to fight to repeal it in the next Congress!”

The roughly 250 activists, some of them wiping away tears, cheered for Martin, then belted out “The Star-Spangled Banner,” then recited the pledge of allegiance.

What, no "Battle Hymn of the Republic"? Oh right -- that was a Union anthem.

They Told Me If I Voted for McCain, Healthcare Reform Would Pass!

I knew Putz would be angry, but in my wildest dreams I could not have imagined this.

WHY DID FOX PUT GERALDO ON TONIGHT? He’s even more useless than usual. And he seems to have trouble enunciating.

UPDATE: A reader emails: “Not only is he so giddy that he can’t enunciate, but if other viewers are like me, I changed the channel because I couldn’t stomach his liberal glee. Does FOX not realize that it’s not a good idea to put someone like him on after we’ve been not only racketeered but defiled by the Dems?”

I know, right? We wuz raped! By Nancy Pelosi!

I suspect we'll hear more about how Geraldo can't "enunciate" during immigration reform.

Hehindeed times Infinity.

omg.

Death Panels are GO! ...

Not sure if they'll go alphabetical by last name or last three digits in your SSN. Not sure if they’ll go alphabetical by last name or last three digits in your SSN. Just be ready when you get your confirmation number.

The magnificent impotence of the Teabaggers and the GOP.

All those TEA PARTIES!11!! and town hall protests and death panels pulling the plug on grandma...all for naught.

When screaming "nigger" just isn't enough...

...advocating the murder of the President on your Twitter account might be for you.

Always leave detailed evidence when committing a felony. It worked pretty well for R. Kelly.

Yes, Glenn Reynolds: the Tea Party and the GOP failed. In epic fashion.

Read TS's post below, then read this.

Conservatives and Republicans today suffered their most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s.

[...]

We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.
There were leaders who knew better, who would have liked to deal. But they were trapped. Conservative talkers on Fox and talk radio had whipped the Republican voting base into such a frenzy that deal-making was rendered impossible. How do you negotiate with somebody who wants to murder your grandmother? Or – more exactly – with somebody whom your voters have been persuaded to believe wants to murder their grandmother?

Death panels. Heh.

The Narrative.

Putz:

IT AIN’T OVER ‘TIL IT’S OVER, and the ObamaCare bill is clearly wildly unpopular. But if it does pass, the media message will be that the whole Tea Party movement has been a waste — when, in fact[...].

Putz, March 20, 2003 (the day the U.S. invaded Iraq):

If you want to see — graphically — why the antiwar movement failed, Evan Coyne Maloney has a brand-new documentary video on anti-war protests from last weekend in San Francisco. The antiwar movement failed because it was morally and intellectually unserious, and could never articulate an alternative position that might plausibly have led to a safer America and a safer world.

So, yeah.

If the reform passes, the tea party movement will have failed. It will have been a waste. It's sole accomplishment? Helping elect a moderate Republican who voted for the Obama jobs bill.

And by the bye? Obama's Gallup approval is back up to where it was six months ago.

Hehindeedy!

Observation.

A lot of people I really hate are flipping the fuck out.

Because nothing says patriotism like shouting "Nigger!" and "Faggot!" at elected officials.

Here's how Putz reports the Teabagging going on in Washington.

PROTESTING OBAMACARE IN WASHINGTON: Reader Barrett Cunningham sends this photo and reports: “It’s an incredible turnout Glenn, and people just keep coming.”

How inspiring.

Meanwhile, according to The Hill:

Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.) claimed Saturday that healthcare protesters at the Capitol directed racial epithets at him Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) as they walked outside.

[...]

Asked if racial epithets were yelled at him, Lewis responded, "Yes, but it's OK. I've heard this before in the '60s. A lot of this is just downright hate."

Josh Marshall:

As our Brian Beutler reports, a few moments ago in the Longworth office building, a group swarmed a very calm looking Henry Waxman, as he got on the elevator, with shouts of "Kill the bill!" "You liar! You crook!"

Not long before, Rep. Barney Frank got an uglier version of the treatment. Just after Frank rounded a corner to leave the building, an older protestor yelled "Barney, you faggot." The surrounding crowd of protestors then erupted in laughter.

Then there's this.

Tea Party activists have gathered on Capitol Hill today for a “Code Red” rally against health care reform. Speakers at the event included Republican Reps. Steve King (IA), Michele Bachmann (MN), and Mike Pence (IN). The gathering was organized by Tea Party Profiteer organizations like FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity. ThinkProgress attended today’s rally and spotted a sign threatening violence if health care passes. The sign reads: “Warning: If Brown can’t stop it, a Browning can,” referring to Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) and a Browning firearm.

Putz must be so proud.

Classic InstaPutz.

To mark this dubious anniversary, please take a moment to revisit Putz on Iraq: a timeline. -- the post that put InstaPutz on the map.

If you can believe it, 3+ years later, Putz is even dumber and crazier than he was then.

Wingnuts Whistling Past the Graveyard.

I'm as surprised as anyone that Debbie Schussel strung a sentence together, much less broke an awesome story.

Sean Hannity, she reports, defrauded war vets.

To their credit, conservative bloggers and commenters have risen up, en masse, to condemn Mr. Hannity.

I am, of course, kidding.

Reason #2354578 I'm Glad I Let My TNR Subscription Lapse.

Marty Peretz:

Someone at breakfast this morning suggested to me that Obama is like Col. Lindbergh. ... But, unlike Lindbergh, whose presidential ambitions collapsed, Obama's succeded [sic].

TNR's editor-in-chief just equated the president with a Hitler-sympathizing pal of Henry Ford. And he called David Axelrod a "Jewboy."

Must be a proud moment for the staff.

QOTD.

And a Flightsuit. That Would Be AWESOME.

I Got Yer 'Quiet Truth Ripples' Right Here.

Thank you, Corrente, for giving Creed its next album title. (Boilerplate: K. performs an invaluable public service by reading these terrible illiterates.)

Further Adventures in Compassionate Conservatism.

If I were a wingnut, and my ideological brothers called a Parkinson's sufferer a "communist" and threw money at him, I'd do one of two things: distance myself from these horrible people, or, at the very least, stfu about it.

Alas. Dan Riehl has discovered a third way.

Then, because doubting the man's illness isn't enough of a dick move, Putz's pal doubles down:

A protest like that is no place to go shopping for sympathy and that appears to be precisely what he did. The dude has Parkinsons! He should shake it off and move on.

This One Might Be a Joke...

Althouse:

Why did Newsweek put the face of Karl Marx on Michelle Obama's apple?

It's a big day.

America's Irishmen are preparing for a lengthy day of "Reinforcin' o' the stereotypes."

Please bear in mind that Ireland's national color and symbol are blue and a harp, not green and a fat guy barfing in a field of shamrocks.

QOTD.

My disdain for Roger Simon is no secret. Abject laziness, prissiness, terrible speller, inflated ego, and so on. The man's got it in spades.

All this I could maybe forgive if he were not so motherfucking ballnumbingly stupid:

"Meanwhile, the Washington Post’s Fred Hiatt, no conservative by any stretch, is detecting a “happiness deficit” in our president..."

For liberal bloggers, it's an article of faith that Hiatt is a warmongering jackass, seemingly keen on winning the "who can fuck up Kay Graham's legacy" contest. But even my blogofascist brethren may not appreciate the extent of Hiatt's awfulness, and that his legacy of destruction is, in its own horrific way, impressive:

In 1996, Hiatt joined the Post's editorial board, and in 2000 became its editorial page editor. During Hiatt's tenure, the Post's editorial stance has been widely perceived as shifting towards a neoconservative position on foreign policy and a more conservative stance on domestic issues: Once called "Pravda on the Potomac", an allusion to the official newspaper of the Soviet communist party due to what critics deemed its left-wing bias, The Post has in the last decade steadfastly supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq, warmed to President George W. Bush's proposal to partially privatize Social Security, opposed a deadline for U.S. withdrawal from the Iraq War, and advocated free trade agreements, including CAFTA. In "Buying the War" on PBS, Bill Moyers noted 27 editorials supporting George W. Bush's ambitions to invade Iraq. In 2006, The Post endorsed every Republican incumbent for Congress in Northern Virginia.

In other words, Hiatt has been wrong about everything.

Quoting the only Post employee worth reading: Fuck Roger Simon with a spiky acid-tipped dick.

Armey on History

Good to see that Dick Armey is every bit as good of a historian as he was a Congressman. But what do I know, I'm just a modern liberal political science professor. Alexander Hamilton was a states' rights conservative after all.

This Will Not End Well. (But There Will Be Lulz)

Seems like only yesterday that famous stupid person Erick Erickson accused CNN of "convey[ing] terrorist propaganda."

Bygones, right?

(CNN) – Prominent conservative commentator and RedState.com editor Erick Erickson will join CNN as a political contributor, appearing primarily on CNN's new show John King, USA¸ the network announced Tuesday.

Erickson, a self described "obsessive news junkie" who grew up in Dubai and rural Louisiana, will also provide perspective and commentary on other programs across the network.

"Joining CNN is like coming home, and being in Atlanta makes the decision right for me and my family," Erickson said in a statement.

What could possibly go wrong?

Eh, Really?

"I don’t know what Lynn Woolsey is really thinking, but the leadership of the House progressive caucus should not be helping the entire party walk the bloody plank towards a fascist form of health insurance without a care in the world."

If the proposed health care reforms are fascism, what, I wonder, have we got now?

Inevitable.

Teabaggin' future Senator says something stupid:

Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) said Sunday that the expansion of state laws allowing gay marriage could lead to people marrying horses.

Naturally, Dan Riehl to the rescue:

 

Somewhat In Defense Of J. D. Hayworth

 

In related news, I have never had so much love for C-span.

 

 

 

Let's make this happen!

Shorter Ross Douthat.

Shorter Ross: "Why can't Hollywood portray the Bush administration in a more positive light for launching a disastrous war that killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people?"

Roger Simon, Thugged Out.

oh. em. gee.

Whatever the etiology, group love affairs with political parties cannot help but be self-destructive. They may begin in a burst of mutual admiration but they will almost always devolve into a self-desturctive “taking for granted” that could only work to the benefit of one party (if that). The love affair between African-Americans and the Democratic Party has been similarly useless for blacks. In the forty years I have lived in Los Angeles, I haven’t noticed life getting significantly better in South Central, a region of the city in which Republicans are about as scarce as killer whales.

I'm having a hard time believing that this guy, so Wonder Bread that he brags about smoking crack with Timothy Leary, has spent any time in South Central. He's got slightly less street cred that Andrew Breitbart.

Ezra Klein fail

We usually like Ezra, but what is the deal with letting Evan Bayh pontificate unchallenged for what seems like hours on end?

Way to ask the tough questions and sit passively through his sanctimonious, Liebermanesque lecture on what's wrong with the Senate. You're what's wrong with the Senate, Evan, and you ran away when things got too rough. Or maybe you think we forgot about the multimillion dollar bribe channeled through your wife to make health care reform seem just a little too far to the left for you.

Glenn Greenwald was right, the ADL's a joke.

Pathetic.

I think the ADL should hire Bill Donahue as their spokesman. At this point, he's indistinguishable from Abraham Foxman.

QOTD

Hehindeedy.

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

Oh, Snap.

Me.

Ow.

Glenn Reynolds: the Politico's lying! Teabaggers LOVE the Christian right.

Kind of an odd reaction for a "libertarian", isn't it?

UPDATE

Putzy feels the need to once again update the post with some random Texas wingnut claiming the fundies and the teabaggers are good buddies.

Methinks the Putz protest too much.

Spare Me.

About the Wired Andrew Breitbart sponge bath everyone's talking about... Look:

But a great tip can always capture his attention. Today, for example, he’s working in that apartment, reading about the finances of Media Matters, the press watchdog that has devoted hundreds of posts in the past four months to bashing Breitbart. He stares at his laptop screen. “Oh, this is good. This is good,” he mutters. “They raised $10 million this year. I’m working out of a basement, and I’m kicking their fucking asses.”

Breitbart is very fond of journalists knowing he works in the basement.

-- "During a recent visit to his home on the west side of Los Angeles, Breitbart, 41, is working from his own basement."

-- "Breitbart lives in Los Angeles and runs his web operations from an office in his basement."

-- "Yeah, of course I need money. I’m working out of my basement still."

Etc.

But, like, the basement is in a 4,000-square-foot home in Westwood, where the average abode costs well north of a million bucks.

The man-of-the-people act is stale, Andy.

Kid Speaks, Malkin Stalks, and the Sun Will Rise.

This is something that happens.

Marcelas Owens, an 11-year-old from Seattle, headlined a press conference with Senate Democratic leadership on Thursday, telling a packed room of reporters that he wanted the president and Congress to come together and pass health insurance reform.

"I am here because of my mom," said Owens. "My mom was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension in 2006. She missed so much work she lost her job. And when my mom lost her job, she lost her health care. And losing her health care ended up costing her her life."

He continued, "I don't want any other kids to go through the pain that our family has gone through. My grandma and I want Barack Obama and Congress and everybody to come together and to help get the health care bill passed."

You can see where this is going, right?

At least one conservative columnist wants to throw cold water on the Marcelas Owens narrative. Michelle Malkin wrote in a column that Democrats are using Owens as a "human kiddie shield." And, reprising her role in a coordinated conservative assault on the family of 12-year-old Graeme Frost during the battle over children's health insurance in 2007, Malkin questioned whether a failure of personal responsibility is not to blame for the death of Owens's mother.

I'm willing to entertain the possibility that Hell does exist, if for no other reason than that Malkin will need a place to go when she dies and I don't want her in Brooklyn.

Mike Huckabee Called. He Wants His Shitty Campaign Meme Back.

I'm sure Glenn Reynolds will applaud the Democrats' earmarks ban, right?

Heh, as if.

Rapid wheedle

Do it.

Gin and Tacos | Promote Your Page Too


That is all.

Too crazy for the Republican Party, just fine for Israel.

What has happened to the state of Israel?

Deep end.

The Irony Machine Took a Shit and Died

Time Magazine on "why Washington is frozen"...with sidebar headlines including "Why the Tea Party Movement Matters" and...wait for it..."Blueprint for Bipartisanship" from Newt Fucking Gingrich.

Heal Thyself, Gasbag.

ABC:

"Salinger is an important writer, not a great genius -- not like Nabokov or Dostoyevsky," said three-time Pulitzer winning novelist Joyce Carol Oates, who has published more than 50 books since 1963.

"He was a good writer and did well, but what he did was very narrow. He almost seems to have thought he was Shakespeare or Melville, but he was not on that level."

The author, considered by some to be the voice of a generation, may have had "an extremely inflated vision of his own talent," according to Oates, 71, who teaches creative writing at Princeton University.

Strong words from a gal who hasn't written a great book since 1969. ...Also, as bjkeefe notes in comments, Joyce has been nominated for Pulitzer three times, but has not yet won.

Epic Uncle Tom Fail

Walter Williams at Intellectual Chernobyl; "Is Health Care a Right?"

Most politicians, and probably most Americans, see health care as a right. Thus, whether a person has the means to pay for medical services or not, he is nonetheless entitled to them. Let's ask ourselves a few questions about this vision.

Say a person, let's call him Harry, suffers from diabetes and he has no means to pay a laboratory for blood work, a doctor for treatment and a pharmacy for medication. Does Harry have a right to XYZ lab's and Dr. Jones' services and a prescription from a pharmacist? And, if those services are not provided without charge, should Harry be able to call for criminal sanctions against those persons for violating his rights to health care?

You say, "Williams, that would come very close to slavery if one person had the right to force someone to serve him without pay." You're right.

Thanks, token black conservative. Keep shuffling until Glenn Beck stops playing ragtime.

Glenn Beck's epic Massa fail.

Just brutal. Always a good sign when you have to apologize to your audience.

Nice going, Glenn.

Wax that Ass.

Erick Erickson is very angry about Charlie Crist's insinuation that Tiger Beat Rubio has a smooth back.

Erickson is very influential, so Crist must be terribly worried about this:

So let’s help Charlie out.

Here is some back wax at Amazon.com. ...

Let’s send Charlie some back wax. And if he tries to use the stuff, he’ll at least experience the same pain the voters have been experiencing for the last four years. Full disclosure: this goes to RedState’s Amazon.com store, so we’ll get something for every one you send.

Operation Backwax will end well, I'm sure.

(One of RedState's smarter commenters cautions, "it’ll probably cause someone to go apeshitspiceygonzo and call the bomb squad." Ya think?)

Define "Grassroots."

Putz, last year:

Instead of the "astroturf" that has marked the ACORN-organized AIG protests, [the tea party] movement is real grassroots.

So you can imagine how shocked we are that this authentic grassroots movement is having its strings pulled by the Heritage Foundation.

Rush Limbaugh threatens to immigrate to country with national health care system if health care bill passes.

I think the drugs are really taking its toll.

Responding to a caller who asked him where he would go for health care if Congress enacts reform, Limbaugh replied,

I don't know. I'll just tell you this, if this passes and it's five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented -- I am leaving the country. I'll go to Costa Rica

Well, Costa Rica is certainly closer to his supply.

And yes, naturally, Costa Rica has a well-run government funded National Health Care system.

For their Wingutty Lips to God's Ear.

Greater Wingnuttia is worried that President Stupak is not the women-hating stalwart they thought he was.

Malkin:

Will Stupak be bought on Demcare?

Wizbang:

Is Bart Stupak Hinting He's About to Cave?

Betsy's Page:

Bart Stupak ... is starting to sound like he's ready to believe Democratic promises to keep out the federal funding.

RedState:

Stupak Shows his Democrat Colors

Dan Riehl:

Uh Oh: Stupak Optimistic ObamaCare Abortion Issue Can Be Resolved

Needless to say, this pessimism makes me very unhappy. Quoth Hewitt's Law:  Everything these guys have ever written, or will ever write, will ultimately be proven wrong.

Another Day, Another Reagan Anniversary.

We're celebrating 27th anniversaries? Jesus.

I suspect we're in for another decade of, "On this day in 1973, Reagan ate carrots for lunch and had a pain-free bowel movement."

Charles Johnson would understand

This is a great piece about a moderately conservative author attending the Tea Party Convention in Nashville. I have to imagine that more and more conservatives with half a brain are having that moment of clarity, looking around the movement and realizing "Wow, these people are all out of their goddamn minds."

Keep walking toward the light, folks.

Tea Party is the New PUMA.

ROAAAAAAAAAAAR!

From its loud and highly visible protests at summer congressional town hall meetings to its September march on the streets of Washington, the tea party movement has left a profound mark on the American political landscape since it burst onto the scene a year ago.

But as spirited political movements have shown in the past, translating passion and activist fury into votes can be difficult. And so far, success at the ballot box has been elusive for these grass-roots conservative activists — if not entirely nonexistent.

Behold their awesome record of success.

In Tuesday’s Texas GOP primary, tea party-inspired contenders found themselves blown out in races across the state. Gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina, who closely aligned herself with the grass-roots conservative movement, picked up just 19 percent of the vote. And while a host of House GOP incumbents faced challenges from tea party opponents, the only one who faced anything remotely close to a scare was Rep. Ralph Hall — who dispatched his nearest competitor by nearly 30 percentage points.

It wasn’t the first electoral blow for tea party faithful. In last month’s Illinois primary, tea party favorite Patrick Hughes won just 19 percent against GOP Rep. Mark Kirk in the Senate primary, while gubernatorial candidate Adam Andrzejewski, who aggressively sought the support of tea party activists and won high praise from conservative outlets like RedState.com, finished a distant fifth place in the Republican contest.

The movement, such as it is, is so desperate for validation they've taken credit for Rick Perry's primary victory.  It's good to know that tea partiers, though anti-government, are staunchly pro-murderer.

EJ Dionne smacks Orrin Hatch around.

This is so awesome -- you really need to watch the whole thing. Poor Orrin's not used to having his talking points thrown back in his face quite so forcefully.

Glenn Reynolds now concerned what the public thinks of the government.

This is the same guy who shilled for the GOP throughout the Bush years -- even when Bush's and the GOP Congress' approval rating was in the 20s.

Funny we never saw any pieces like this in say, 2006.

Have fun in comments!

Another right-wing extremist goes off.

This is getting to be a pattern, isn't it?

Charles Johnson helpfully bats down the wingnut bloggers' "he was a lefty" BS.

What you see in these statements is an extreme right wing libertarian, the kind of person who posts comments at the Campaign for Liberty website. Hatred for George W. Bush is widespread among this group, so the fact that he was anti-Bush definitely does not put him in the “left wing” camp — as many wingnut bloggers seem desperate to do.

Also very prevalent among the far right Ron Paul contingent — 9/11 Trutherism and support for conspiracy theories of all kinds. So this does not put him in the left column either.

And let’s deal with one more excuse that’s circulating among those who are desperate to assign Bedell to the “left wing” — that he was registered as a Democrat in California.

Here are some facts. In order to vote in primary elections in California, you are required to do one of two things: declare a party affiliation, or declare yourself “unaffiliated.” If you declare as “unaffiliated,” when you go to vote you’ll receive a ballot consisting of only unaffiliated candidates, unless you specifically request in advance that you be allowed to vote for a particular party.

Bedell, by the way, had not voted in the past five years. And given his extreme right wing variant of Bush Derangement Syndrome, it makes perfect sense that he would register as a Democrat. He certainly wasn’t going to vote for Bush.

To sum up, Bedell’s party registration tells you absolutely nothing about where he lies on the political spectrum. His actual words, however, paint a very clear picture of an anti-government right wing extremist of the Ron Paulian persuasion.

I'm Tight Grill When My Situation Ain't Improvin.

Not pictured: Chris Brown

Via Jim, The Weekly Standard is PISSED that Jay-Z and other non-Garth Brooks types were seen in the Situation Room.

John McCormack, who got beaten up by Martha Coakley and Dede Scozzafava, harrumphs:

The Situation Room in the White House was reserved for national security meetings in previous administrations. Apparently in the Obama administration it's used not only to map out campaign strategy, but for celebrity photo-ops as well...

I know, right? I, too, am nostalgic for the days when the S-Room was used to plan the invasion of a country that did not attack us:

Clearly, Jay-Z has brought shame upon this once mighty room.

(keep an eye on this, for the laughs)

The Analogy's Spot-on, Except for the Beheadings, Throat-cutting, Disembowelment and Rape.

Ha ha!

The conservative inability to distinguish between mass death and expanded health care coverage is revealing, and thoroughly unsurprising.

RIP Jon Swift.

This is just awful.

There are very few people about whom you can say, "Nobody did it better."

Jon "Al Weisel" Swift was one of those people.

Jesus titty-fucking christ.

"O.T.P." (One-Term President) by "WOLVERINES!"

It's #1 on Billboard's Modern Aryan Supremacist top 40.

Local News.

Ephemeral New York, via my occasional home, BHB, investigates the origins of Love Lane. Sure, the quiet street just off Montague may once have been the site of furious romance, a pawed bodice, etc., and, more recently, Björk, but I prefer to remember its darker history.

For example, 1872:

John Van Syckel was charged and tried for poisoning his wife. The Times called him a "rough, worthless character" and noted that, as she lay dying, Mrs. Van Syckel wrote her husband out of her will, "leaving Mr. Van Syckel without a penny."

Six months after Mrs. Van Syckel's death, the trial came to an end:

After which, Mr. Van Syckel, reported The Times, "locked in his counsel's arm, walked out of the court-room a free man."

Shared sacrifice

Ever notice how closely the "tough choices" legislators propose to close state budget gaps bear a remarkable resemblance to really easy choices? Maybe it's just a coincidence.

Leave Jim Bunning Alone!!!!!

Penis.

Literally.

Leave Jim Bunning alone. Thank goodness for Jim Bunning.

K-Lo loves her some crazy white men.

The Worst Tom Friedman Lede Not Written By Tom Friedman, Ever.

Wow.

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: Society may pretend to run on champagne but maybe it really travels on Dr. Pepper.

So not clicking this.

Spot on, friend. Spot on.

It sure is hard to be a Christian in America. In fact, "Christians are the new Negro."

And it's not racist, because World Nut Daily found a real live Negro to say it!

Buffett is a Fat Hypocrite, Until he's Not.

Here's how it works. First, trash Warren Buffett, repeatedly:

WARREN BUFFETT: Estate Tax Hypocrite.  [link]

IS WARREN BUFFETT a big, fat hypocrite? He’s not that fat. [link]

WARREN BUFFETT: Tax Hypocrite? [link]

Then, when Buffett -- who, remember, you've thrice called a hypocrite -- takes a stance with which you agree, link approvingly!

WARREN BUFFETT TO OBAMA: Start Over On Health Care.

Do not try this at home, kids. Mastery of such high-level hackery is the work of a lifetime.

Look out behind you, PJTV!

Why pay for a PJTV subscription (and let's be honest - who would?) when NRO TV can bring you this exclusive interview between a mannequin and the unmasked Darth Vader?

Keep the hits comin', NRO TV.

Pajama Putziness.

Putz:

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Obama Fatigue. “Every President starts to wear on the public. But the omnipresent Obama has become wearisome in record time. Why?”

Ahem.

Obama's approval rating today is the same as it was in August.

Hanson should stick to something he knows, like farming.