Functionally retarded Donald Douglas semi-refutes one of my 4 rebuttals, declares victory.

Wow, this wingnut doesn't know when to quit. (UPDATED)

After I handed him his ass in this post, Douglas comes back for more, in the hilariously titled,

Eat Shit and Die, ‘Blue Commie Texan’”

Is that really all ya got, Donald? What is this, 1968?

OK, let's have it.

Blue Texan suggests I'm not very bright and then offers this epic-fail excuse of racist hypocrisy on the late KKK Senate Majority Leader: "Byrd renounced his past racism, and became a true champion for civil rights. Lott's voting record on civil rights sucks, and he's never renounced his ties to the CCC."

I'm tempted to dismiss Blue Texan as stupid, but that'd be getting off too easy. Blue Texan's in fact a morally decrepit liar. There was no Trent Lott renunciation of CCC? Well, yes there was, actually: "Lott Renounces White 'Racialist' Group He Praised in 1992."

Hmmm. Well, let's take a look at the key grafs of the article Douglas links to:

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), who last week claimed "no firsthand knowledge" of the controversial Council of Conservative Citizens, six years ago told the group's members they "stand for the right principles and the right philosophy."

This week, after being asked about a newly surfaced copy of the group's 1992 newsletter, in which he appears to endorse the group and ask for its support, Lott renounced the organization and said through a spokesman he has nothing to do with them.

BAM! That settles it! Through a spokesman, after he got busted palling around with white supremacists in the '90s, Lott distanced himself from them. In your face, Commie!

But...

Lott originally denied firsthand knowledge of the CCC (later having to backtrack on this statement) and because, as opposed to Barr, there was evidence of an ongoing relationship. CCC leaders revealed that Lott had spoken to them on more than one occasion; that his syndicated column regularly ran in The Citizens Informer, and that his uncle, a member of the Council's Executive Board, called him an "honorary member." Lott later criticized the CCC's use of his name in their publications, denied membership and claimed ignorance as to the racist nature of the group's rhetoric. Unlike Barr, however, he never condemned the group's racist ideology explicitly and unequivocally.

Oops.

Can't wait until Donald Douglas calls the Anti-Defamation League a bunch of leftist liars.

As for my other rebuttal points #1, #2, the first three-fourths of #3, and #4 -- Donald offers no comment. Good move. That's why I say he's functionally retarded, as opposed to a total drooling giggling vegetable finger up his nose mouth breathing kind of retarded.

So let's sum up: Obviously, Blue Texan's one sick lying motherf***ing hypocrite.

It's always so much fun to watch these wingnuts melt down.

UPDATE

Uh-oh. I think poor Donald has snapped.

HAHAHAHAHA!! SMACK. DOWN. YO. BLUE. TEXAN. FAIL. .... aaaawwwhhhh!!! Screw you and your white supremacist double-standards, prick. You lose epic Blue Texan loser.

I fear for his co-workers at the mall.

Golden Boy.

Here's the latest from Marco Rubio:

VARNEY: But no tax hikes for the rich on January 1 and roll back health care reform, that's where Marco Rubio stands, amongst other issues, right?

RUBIO: That's right.

VARNEY: Marco Rubio, it was a pleasure. Nice to see you, sir. Thanks very much for joining us. Appreciate it.

RUBIO: Thank you.

And, just, remember, the rich, that's not how I - I call them job creators, because that's what many of these people do. And if we tax them, they won't have the money available to invest in creating new jobs in America.

Winning the hearts and minds

Confederate Yanker on the debate over unemployment benefits in the Senate:

(prominent liberal bloggers) moan and wail because it appears a Republican filibuster may finally end the unending unemployment gravy train…The filibuster has support because Republicans and Nelson understand that you can't keep plunging the country further into debt and expect to climb out of a recession. By stopping unemployment benefits, the Senate will force those lazy Americans enjoying "funemployment" to get off their backsides and get back to work.

"Funemployment." That'll win the right some votes.

Hehindeedy!

Wingnuts, tell me again how Democrats "fear" Sarah Palin?

Sarah Palin's appearance at Gwinnett Arena on Tuesday night before a half-capacity crowd was part sermon, part comedy and, as her audience surely hoped, part politics.

Amazing that Palin's handlers couldn't scrounge up 13,000 of the faithful.

Donald Douglas is not very bright.

The American Power wingnut thinks he's BUSTED! me by comparing a post I wrote at FDL about Trent Lott's ties to the racist CCC to my Robert Byrd post yesterday. (UPDATED)

Some obvious points.

1) The context of the Lott post matters. It was a response to the wingnut hissy kabuki over Harry Reid's "negro" comment, in which they were making the absurd argument that there was some sort of double standard with Trent Lott and calling for Reid to resign.

I noted:

When someone discovers that Harry Reid is a) chummy with racist hate groups and b) has a deplorable voting record on civil rights — please speak up and speak up loudly. Otherwise, the GOP needs to STFU with this “Harry Reid is just like Trent Lott” BS.

2) Being Southern and associated with a white supremacist group in 1942 is not the same thing as being Southern and being associated with a white supremacist group in 1992. This should be self-evident, even to a tool like Donald Douglas.

3) Byrd renounced his past racism, and became a true champion for civil rights. Lott's voting record on civil rights sucks, and he's never renounced his ties to the CCC.

4) Is Douglas really defending Robert Stacy McCain, who wrote that Byrd's death makes him "the best kind of Democrat"?

Again, classy. And not very bright.

UPDATE

Hehindeedy.

Buddy, That'll be the Least of Her Problems.

Rod Dreher:

I fear for ... my daughter, trying to find a suitable marriage partner in a world in which so many of [her] peers will have grown up with widely-available pornography.

I expect the fact that her father's a bigoted, judgmental scold will be a bigger obstacle. Alas, Ben Shapiro is still a) married and b) a Jew.

Glenn Reynolds: very conservative Southerners used to be Klansman.

What a putz.

CRITICIZE A KLANSMAN, get attacked from the “left.” Well, a lot of “blue Texans” were Klansmen, back in the day, so it makes sense. . . .

Key words: "back in the day."

"Back in the day" extremely conservative Southerners were still Democrats, out of political expedience. Today, all of those extremely conservative Southerners, like Putz, are Republicans.

Wonder why that happened?

"We have lost the South for a generation."

Try two, Lyndon.

It's kind of self-incriminating when Southern wingnuts like Putz gleefully point out that Southern wingnuts were unabashed white supremacists before Lyndon Johnson drove them all out of the party, but then -- self-awareness isn't their strong suit.

Probably just an oversight....

The Corner:

The Senate has just sworn-in Sen. Daniel Inouye (D., Hawaii) to be President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate. That puts him third in the line of succession to the presidency.

Should we rethink this?

Funny, I don't remember The National Review "rethinking" their position during the two tenures of Strom Thurmond, during which the rotten bastard was, respectively, 84 and 88 years old.

Lara Logan, Wrong.

Lara Logan has done good work over the years, so it's unfortunate that her reaction to Michael Hastings' Rolling Stone story is so off the mark.

KURTZ: If you had been traveling with General McChrystal and heard these comments about Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Jim Jones, Richard Holbrooke, would you have reported them?

LOGAN: Well, it really depends on the circumstances. It's hard to know -- Michael Hastings, if you believe him, says that there were no ground rules laid out. And, I mean, that just doesn't really make a lot of sense to me, because if you look at the people around General McChrystal, if you look at his history, he was the Joint Special Operations commander. He has a history of not interacting with the media at all.

It's hard to square this portrayal of the reclusive General Pynchon McChrystal with the guy who, not even a year ago, spoke openly in the service of a 9,600-word profile in The New York Times Magazine.

More:

And what I find is the most telling thing about what Michael Hastings said in your interview is that he talked about his manner as pretending to build an illusion of trust and, you know, he's laid out there what his game is. That is exactly the kind of damaging type of attitude that makes it difficult for reporters who are genuine about what they do, who don't -- I don't go around in my personal life pretending to be one thing and then being something else.

First off all, Hastings said no such thing about "pretending to build an illusion of trust." Contra Logan, here's what he told Kurtz:

[General McChrystal's team] gave unprecedented access to everybody. You know, they let -- you know, debriefings. They let you hang out with them. And they try to make you feel like you're part of the team.

But that's an illusion. You're really part of the team. You know?

And they know that and you know that. You're a journalist.

Logan had it backwards. The illusion of trust was propagated by McChrystal's staff. Hastings (wisely) chose not buy into it.

Logan's remarks reveal her to be either a sycophant or, worse, naive. The subject/journalist interaction is a two-way street. Prior to Rolling Stone, McChrystal and Co. had adroitly used the press to get out their message. In fact, their decision to cooperate with Rolling Stone was undoubtedly driven by a desire to sell the magazine's demographic on the merits of the war.

As for this -- "I don't go around in my personal life pretending to be one thing and then being something else" -- well, it's abject horseshit, unless Logan has evidence that Hastings wasn't candid with McChrystal about his day job.

If anyone's pretending, it's Logan. Logan is not really concerned about Hastings' ethics, so much as jealous that that, in her desire to ingratiate herself with McChrystal's team, she missed  -- or, worse, ignored -- an important story.

Buy her some ARIEL Blanc instead...

Putz:

HEH: Let’s Buy Ann Althouse The Journolist Archives.

Somehow I don't see Glenn Reynolds being gung ho at, say, a progressive effort to bribe a member of a conservative listserv simply to placate a paranoid blogger who believes she has "a right to know what a gang of 400 journalists are saying about me, as they endeavor to shape my reputation."

That, by the way, is pure delusion. Ann Althouse's rep is her own making:

Stephen, my dear...

You are a hack, and what's more, you are disgustingly hackish. But tomorrow David Weigel will be reemployed and you will still blog for Pajamas Media.

Lowry Makes a Shrewd Editorial Decision.

K-Lo is assigned to an appropriate beat.

Theodore Roosevelt vs. Dr. Helen.

Teddy:

A heavy progressive tax upon a very large fortune is in no way such a tax upon thrift or industry as a like would be on a small fortune. No advantage comes either to the country as a whole or to the individuals inheriting the money by permitting the transmission in their entirety of the enormous fortunes which would be affected by such a tax; and as an incident to its function of revenue raising, such a tax would help to preserve a measurable equality of opportunity for the people of the generations growing to manhood.

Dr. Mrs. Putz:

My form of social justice is a little different. I would have people keeping the money they earn without the force of a gun to their head with orders to turn larger and larger amounts of it over to the government as they become more successful.

One of these two has their head on Mt. Rushmore, and the other is married to Glenn Reynolds.

The Fourth Estate You Deserve.

Yesterday, Jay Nordlinger analogized the experiences of conservative journalists (who can't catch a break from the mainstream media) to Jews (who can't catch a break from country clubs). "There are interesting arguments to be made, and listened to," he complained.

The thing is, the conservative movement and its ideas had a massive platform. His name is David Weigel and he wrote for The Washington Post -- until today. 

Conservatives are gleeful. "Burn, Davey, burn," says Ann Althouse. "A fitting end," says Dan Riehl. Pam Geller bids adieu to "this clown."

These celebrations unfortunate. Weigel is no liberal. Says Philip Klein:

I could just as easily report on private conversations in which [Weigel]'s revealed a fondness for Ronald Reagan, a willingness to vote for Bobby Jindal as president, and agreed that Van Jones should have been fired for his 9/11 trutherism. Plus, it should be noted that in the past, he's even contributed to the American Spectator.

It should also be noted that he went on Keith Olbermann's show and shot down a story about Sarah Palin committing perjury that had been lighting up the liberal blogs and defended Cato's Michael Cannon against a "dishonest and unfair hit" by the Center for American Progress.

I've disagreed with Weigel on a number of occasions, and have called him out when I've felt he's placed an inordinate amount of focus on fringe characters or extreme statements made by conservatives. But I also know that he isn't some "drive by" journalist. He knows his subject matter well, reads constantly, goes to lots of conservative events, maintains friendships with conservatives, and talks to a lot of conservatives for his articles and quotes them accurately.

It wasn't long ago, recall, that conservatives complained that the tea party movement was being "ignored" and "snubbed". David Weigel, who covered the beat early and often, did neither. Conservatives would do well to remember this amid the schadenfreude. [seealsotoo]

Not a Good Argument for States' Rights.

A month ago, Bobby Jindal said that Louisiana's way of life "depends" on the federal government's response to the BP atrocity. (An odd thing for a big government hater to say, but whatever.)

Well, looks like Jindal really meant it. It would been nice, though, if he'd disclosed his intention to do, well, nothing about the problem:

All along the Gulf coast, local officials have been demanding more help from the federal government to fight the spill, yet the Gulf states have deployed just a fraction of the National Guard troops the Pentagon has made available, CBS News Chief Investigative Correspondent Armen Keteyian reports.
That's a particular problem for the state of Louisiana, where the Republican governor has been the most vocal about using all resources. ...

But nearly two months after the governor requested - and the Department of Defense approved the use of 6,000 Louisiana National Guard troops - only a fraction - 1,053 - have actually been deployed by Jindal to fight the spill.

Probably a good time to shelve the Jindal 2012 signs, eh?

"Assault."

Earlier in the week I learned from Hugh Hewitt that a Labor Department order giving gay workers the same opportunity as heterosexual ones to take unpaid time off to care for their partners' newborns or loved ones constitutes "contempt for the rule of law" and "a raw exercise of power."

Hugh's anger is justified: Moternity leave is a travesty of justice. But I hope Hugh realizes that such strong language must be used sparingly. Surely, he won't go FedSoc DEFCON 5 at yesterday's news that...

The House on Thursday approved legislation to curtail the ability of corporations and other special interest groups to influence elections by requiring greater disclosure of their role in paying for campaign advertising.

Right?

The Disclose Act: Another Assault On The Constitution

Know who else was fond of that phrase? Strom Thurmond:

Just sayin'.

Worst National Review quote ever.

Ack.

Any day Jonah is in The Corner is a good day.

Bad News for Bigots.

The Supreme Court says that if you're going to be a bigot, you're gonna have to be out 'n' proud:

In a Thursday decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of disclosing the names of petitioners who called for a ballot measure to repeal an expanded domestic partnership rights law in Washington state last year.

The 8-1 ruling, considered in the heated context of the nationwide marriage equality debate, could hold far-reaching implications for public disclosure, including the right to know who contributes to political campaigns against gay rights, and how much they spend.

Justice Scalia, to his credit, acidly notes that no one has the "right to anonymity in the performance of an act with governmental effect." Don Surber is sad. The West Virginian Wanker, eager to burn himself at the stake, has decided he's a noble heretic. Rod Dreher has yet to weigh in, but will undoubtedly be horrified that SCOTUS has implicitly blessed "gay activist hate maps."

Anyway, it's strange for me to say so, but this line from Scalia is really wonderful:

Requiring people to stand up in public for their political acts fosters civic courage, without which democracy is doomed.

Hehindeedy!

Wingnut Foreign Policy.

Here's what Michael Ledeen thinks Obama should have done instead of firing McChrystal:

The president could have chosen to ignore a magazine article if he wanted to. He chose to escalate and assert his authority. He's entitled, but not compelled. He could have picked up the phone and ordered McC to fire those fools who spilled their guts to the journalist. And then he could have told the general to shut up and win the war.

The hell you say?

Nice going, Joe.

Apologizing to BP was not a popular move. Even in Texas.

Texans think that Barack Obama's right and Joe Barton's wrong when it comes to BP's responsibility for cleaning up the oil spill, and a plurality of voters in the state think Barton should lose his leadership post on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Only 18% of voters think that BP deserved the apology Barton sent its way last week to 65% who think it did not. Barton doesn't even get much support from Republican voters on that front- only 23% of them say it was right to apologize to BP. With Democrats and independents the numbers are even lower at 17% and 12% respectively.

Hilarious graf.

Schaller:

The Center for American Politics' Ruy Teixeira, one of the top political demographers in the country, has a new paper out in which he examines the two major party coalitions, with a focus on the current and future prospects of the Republican Party. For the GOP, says Teixeira, things look grim, in large part because the country is becoming less white and more educated.

The GOP: the party of stupid white people.

The party of personal responsibility.

Jeb Bush: not a fan of accountability.

Uh, great.

Way to go, Mr. President: fire an insubordinate Stanley McChrystal and replace him with George W. Bush's personal butt boy.

That'll help.

Hehindeedy!

Atrios:

I frequently see intelligent people taking the whole COIN thing very seriously, if with skepticism about its chances for success. Maybe I'm an idiot, but to me it always just sounds like "kill all the people who want us to leave and then we can finally go."

Duncan clearly needs to read more Michael O'Hanlon and The New Republic.

Hahahahaha.

Six weeks ago:

"Resurgent Republic is an answer to Democracy Corps on the left, which has been up for ten years without a conservative counterbalance," [Ed] Gillespie explains. "Center for American Progress has been up and running for almost that long. The American Action Network and the American Action Forum are designed to mimic that on the right. The AFL-CIO, the SEIU, and the Sierra Club and other left-leaning groups, well, American Crossroads is going to help offset that." ...

According to my English-to-wingnut phrase book, "Help offset that" means "fail, big time":

The group, American Crossroads, raised only $200 last month, according to a report it filed Monday with the Internal Revenue Service[.]

Is Gillespie running a 527 or a lemonade stand?

Robert Scheer's righteous smackdown of Matt Miller.

Haven't blogged about "Left, Right & Center" for a while, but am still a big fan.

Start at 12:55 and listen past the break. Just devastating.

And Scheer is quite correct. We do have teh Clenis to thank for the repeal of Glass-Steagall (which Miller doesn't dispute).

Thanks, Bill!

Dept. of Stupid Analogies.

From Alan Grayson, who is smart enough to know better:

It is fundamentally wrong to set policy on war by asking the generals, "do you want more troops?" That's like asking Wall Street, "do you want more money? That's like asking my five-year-old twins, "do you want more candy?"

Is it really?

Thanks a lot, Rolling Stone.

Sure, the Taliban is gaining strength, Hamid Karzai is demonstrably out of his mind and Karzai's government isn't seen by its own people as legitimate. But that doesn't mean the war is hopeless! Hugh Hewitt, who is a smart guy, knows what the real problem is:

here is the article that could lose the war in Afghanistan.

Yes, if the US decides that a) keeping a body count sucks and b) there are better ways to spend billions of dollars, it's of course the fault of Jann Wenner and Michael Hastings.

Nothing changes, you know? Way back when, Glenn Reynolds gave us a pretty good idea of who'd be to blame if Iraq went south:

The press had better hope we win this war, because if we don't, a lot of people will blame the media.

Anyway, tune in next week for the usual chest-beating about the demise of the lamestream media, which has no absolutely no influence whatsoever.

Who knew that Rush was the smart Limbaugh?

David Limbaugh makes it rain stupid in his column-length advertisement for The Grand Jihad, appropriately yet creatively titled "Please Read The Grand Jihad":

Andy McCarthy is no conspiracy theorist, but that doesn't keep him from recognizing and warning us about the common goals of the Islamists and the hard left, both of whom pose a serious, active threat to America's freedom. In his book The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America, McCarthy, the prosecutor of the Blind Sheik and a tough-minded realist, exposes the connection between the two groups and the danger they represent to most everything we hold sacred.

Apparently both "Islamists" and "the hard left" seek to destroy "the freedom culture" of the United States. He neglects to mention that we both want to impose Sharia as well.

Bullshit.

From a recent post by Rod Dreher:

I have just learned that my friend the Washington journalist Tom Kelly has died at age 86. What a wonderful man he was. He lived around the corner from me on Capitol Hill when I was there in the early 1990s, and he and his wife, Miss Marguerite, welcomed me and other young journalists into their home. I remember spending one Thanksgiving morning in Miss Marguerite's kitchen, eating raw Potomac oysters a friend had brought in. Tom and Marguerite's son was Michael Kelly, who was the first journalist killed in the second Iraq War.

Kelly's Wiki entry, too, says he "was the first reporter officially killed in action in Iraq."

Trouble is, this is false. Paul Moran, Terry Lloyd and Kaveh Golestan all predeceased Kelly. 

This is only true if  "officially" means "American."

How Do You like It Now, Gentlemen?

Hugh Hewitt, in a post titled "The Obama Administration's Contempt for the Rule of Law":

[Y]et another unilateral exercise in executive branch power is being substituted for Congressional action followed by a presidential signature.

This is deeply troubling...

"This is a raw exercise of power," rages Hewitt, who says that members of the executive branch are "in the business of doing what they want regardless of the Constitution's requirements for law making."

Hey, everybody loves a convert! I'll bet you're wondering what changed Hewitt's mind on the necessity of untrammeled executive power, only nine years after rationalizing every wiretap, incident of torture and  classification procedure?

This:

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Labor Department is ready to tell employers they must give gay workers the same opportunity as heterosexual ones to take unpaid time off to care for their partners' newborns or loved ones.

Hilariously, Hewitt says he's troubled "for reasons that have nothing to do with gay rights or the lack thereof."

Stop laughing, okay?

Actually, on second thought, maybe he can't.

Oh noes! The Senator from Teabaggia is in a free fall.

This is Why They Marty Peretz Pays Marty Peretz the Big Bucks.

Behold:

...Obama commented that, if Hayward had been working at the White House, he'd now be out of a job. We'll soon see how many people and whom the president actually dumps to make it seem that someone was held responsible. By now, someone would have been pushed off the ship if this were a British affair. Anyway, one low level woman bureaucrat is now receiving unemployment compensation. I forgot her name. But the big office at Energy, now empty, is that of the director of the Minerals Managements Service. Still, in Washington, the person to watch taking the real fall is Ken Salazar.

Like The Onion, only less funny

What the fuck.

Joe Barton, scapegoat.

It interesting the way Republicans they eat their own for telling the truth.

You would think this would lead to a lot of resentment from those who get scapegoated, but I guess it's all part of the club rules.

Conservatives annoyed that there is a political price to pay for saying really crazy shit in public.

God, what a bunch of WATBs.

Especially since these wingnuts have made an entire industry out of flogging Democrats with willfully distorted quotes.

Teabaggers apparently love quirky leftist non-partisan bloggers.

From the Playboy piece on Teabaggers:

Tea Party members are into less sexy things than a missing birth certificate, such as the national debt and privacy. They watch Fox News and read blogs. They’re conservatives, but don’t call them Republicans. They are intense followers of bloggers such as Jim Hoft (Gateway Pundit), Andrew Marcus (Founding Bloggers), Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) and Mike Flynn (Big Government.com). BigGovernment.com was created last fall as part of Andrew Breitbart’s growing media empire.

And here I thought Teabaggers were the far-right, Republican rump.

Speaking of Marco Rubio and personal responsibility...

Doh!

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio and another Miami politician are facing foreclosure on a Tallahassee home they co-own for failing to make mortgage payments since January, Leon County court records show.

The Deutsche Bank National Trust Company initiated foreclosure proceedings on the home owned by Rubio and state Rep. David Rivera, who is running for Congress. Rubio, a former state House speaker, and Rivera lived in the home when they were in Tallahassee for legislative sessions and other business.

Fiscal responsibility, bitches!

Marco Rubio, Republican.

Back in April, Mitt Romney endorsed Marco Rubio, noting that he is "the embodiment of the American Dream."

Well, I'm pretty sure refusing to pay your adjustable rate mortgage just because, well, you don't want to, isn't part of the American dream.

Meanwhile, guess who said this two weeks ago?

America’s proud legacy of limited government, free enterprise and personal responsibility is under assault...

That's right: The guy who settled his outstanding debts only after Politico started calling around.

Um, What?

CNN contributor Erick Erickson on BP's $20 billion escrow fund:

I confess, I have no idea what this means.

Dave Weigel: Wah! The Democrats are saying mean things about Joe Barton!

Uh, Dave? Is everything okay at home?

It's pretty darn obvious what Democrats are doing today -- ripping into Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) for his "apology" to BP in a fashion that makes Oceania's campaign against Emmanuel Goldstein look amateurish.

A commenter replied,

The only differences, of course, being that unlike Emmanuel Goldstein, Joe Barton actually exists, and actually said what he is being attacked for saying -- in a prepared statement at a televised congressional hearing, no less -- and the Inner Party functionaries in "Oceania" (i.e. the Obama Administration) have simply been responding to questions about Barton's idiocy asked by a more-or-less free press.

But other than that, yeah, it's just like 1984.

I can see Weigel criticizing the Democrats for willfully *misconstruing* Barton's remarks. That's the dirty game Republicans love to play with Democrats, which Democrats never seem to be able to pull off.

But whining because they're making hay out of a massive, unforgivable, nationally-televised gaffe, which Weigel admits is in fact what most Republicans think?

This is like Kobe complaining that Kevin Garnett will try and score a lot of points and get a lot of rebounds tonight.

What a puss.

Random Thought on William Buckley.

William F. Buckley, patron saint of modern conservatives, gets a disproportionate amount of shit for his hatred of black people.

Let us not forget that he considered other minorities subhuman, too!

As the Prop 8 trial nears an end, it seems only fitting to reprint something he wrote in 1985, at which time there were 2000 AIDS cases and deaths in New York City alone.¹  According to Buckley, AIDS-ridden gays, like Hitler, deserved eternal damnation because they hadn't shown enough contrition²:

Later in the piece, Buckley notes that a local bishop was planning a memorial service for those who had died of the virus. He not pleased:

Anyway, I just figured you'd wanna be aware of this, in case you were planning on buying a t-shirt commemorating the great man.

¹ NYC Department of Health
² Universal Press Syndicate, 12 November, 1985 [via]

Of course the right is defending BP and attacking Obama.

Though maybe apologizing to them on national television was a little over the top.

Better Reporting, Please.

The Economist, today:

The collapse in BP’s share price suggests that [President Obama] has convinced the markets that he is an American version of Vladimir Putin, willing to harry firms into doing his bidding.

The markets, today

LONDON—Shares in oil giant BP PLC jumped as much as 9.8% in London a day after the company struck a deal with the Obama administration to set aside $20 billion to cover costs of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Heading into the European close, BP shares recently were up 7.1%, or 23.95 pence, at 360.95 pence, leading the FTSE 100 index. The company's shares have plunged since the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that killed 11 workers and lead to the spill.

Meow.

Hugh Hewitt will not like this. He will not like this one bit.

Santorum, however, doesn’t play coy when I ask him about what his endorsement means to a fellow Republican, if anything. “Palin is the only endorsement anyone wants,” he laughs. “If you ask who the most influential endorsers are, Palin is numbers one, two, and three, with maybe Sen. Jim DeMint at four. Her endorsement is the only one that matters this year. Just look at what she did for Nikki Haley.”

What about Romney, the man Santorum supported in the 2008 presidential campaign? “No offense to Mitt, but he doesn’t carry the weight,” Santorum says. “Mitt can help you with some finance people, maybe in some small way, but his pull is insignificant compared to Palin’s.”

Fight!!!!! Dear god, I hope this escalates...

This just in: Americans still don't like Sarah Palin.

Keep bragging about her endorsements, Republicans. Keep putting her in front of the camera, Faux.

It's all working beautifully.

Ex-AK Gov. Sarah Palin hit a low since Pew first included her name in mid-Sept. '08. She now is viewed favorably by 39%, while 52% view her unfavorably. Men were split on her, with 44% viewing her favorably and 45% unfavorably. But 58% of women turned thumbs down on her; only 35% were thumbs up.

The youngest segment surveyed, aged 18 to 29, were the most negative on Palin, splitting 32%-59%.

The most hated President since Carter, that socialist/fascist B. Hussein X, is at 56%, some 17 points higher than America's Evita.

"Deeply Personal."

On the occasion of the Prop 8 closing arguments, NOM's Brian Brown has something he wants to tell you:

California’s Prop 8 is, for me, deeply personal. I am one of the people who devoted time, treasure, and sacrifice to make Prop 8 come true. ...

And so we fought, with decency and civility, in love, for the future of marriage in our country.

...Against all odds, we won.

Many, many Californians sacrificed to make this dream come true. People I know have had their homes, their livelihoods, their businesses attacked because they fought for marriage. These are the people Ted Olson says don’t count.

Having lost at the ballot box, gay-marriage advocates are now stepping forward and asking the courts to nullify our victory, to invalidate our sacrifice.

I'm not sure what is most loathsome here: the notion that it's Brian Brown and his bigot brigade who have sacrificed and for whom the right to marry is personal; that the denial of said right was an act of "decency and love"; that, in a truly Kafkawellian moment, it is Brown who "fought" for marriage; or -- my favorite -- that he considers Prop 8 a win and a victory. Like it's a goddamn football game.

What is one to do in the face of such naked bigotry? For the moment, I, as a great man once wrote, will try to practice my Buddhist Tolerance and turn all my cheeks to the wall.

Short memory

The National Review unironically prints an article entitled "Here Come the Federal Education Standards" in the standard conspiratorial the-gub'mint-men-are-a-comin' style of American conservatives.

Republican presidents, thankfully, do not support massively unpopular top-down Federal educational mandates imposed on states and school districts.

Doctor, what's wrong with me?

Something is wrong. I agree with Ed Rollins. Not on the nostalgic waxing about Reagan (although he describes Reagan's on-camera and speech-delivering skills accurately), but about the general reaction to the Obama speech last night. Nice words. Sounds pretty. Seems earnest. Time to STFU and do something.

My disappointment in the President is for dramatically different reasons than someone like Ed Rollins, but I think we agree that these speeches are starting to sound like Charlie Brown's teacher.

PS. If Obama says "bipartisan cooperation" (also accepted: "bipartisanship") one more time I am going to adopt a kitten and murder it.

More evidence that Sarah Palin is a complete idiot.

What an incoherent mess. Eli tries to make sense of it here.

Concern trolling: still awesome!

Mona Charen on "What Obama Should Say Tuesday" to "put himself on the right track." You know, Mona Charen, the leathery corpse and regular contributor on Clown Hall. A rhetorical sample:

When the Deepwater Horizon rig blew up and spawned a terrible oil spill on April 22, my administration’s response was conditioned by decades of liberal and leftist thinking about business and government. My background in academia and community activism had never exposed me to the basics of making business decisions or to the fundamentals of a market economy.

I'm sure they're making appropriate revisions as we speak, Mona.

Um.....

That Newsweek story on Sarah Palin that seems to be roiling wingnuts is pretty dull. This line, however, made me laugh:

Vicki Garza, who owns a marketing firm in Dallas, was so inspired by Palin’s presence in the 2008 campaign—“something in me was rekindled,” she says—that she built a Web site called PrayFor SarahPalin.com, which at its height received 24,000 visitors a month.

At its height? Really? Clearly, Lisa Miller has no idea that these traffic stats are very, very lame, even by our rockbottom standards.

The Further Adventures of Ed Henry, America's Worst Reporter.

Brooke Gladstone's interview with Ed Henry (last seen bragging that CNN "let me loose" on the floor of the NYSE) reveals Henry to be even more vapid than I even suspected:

BROOKE GLADSTONE: So I was looking at your Twitter feed. “Rahm was chasing Mrs. Biden, and she hid behind me [ED HENRY LAUGHS], so I got in the crosshairs.”


ED HENRY: [LAUGHS]


BROOKE GLADSTONE: “A little girl just hit the VP in the face with some water.” You can see how this might make people who want –


[ED HENRY LAUGHS]


- a challenging press corps that holds -


ED HENRY: Yeah.


BROOKE GLADSTONE: - the feet of power to the fire distinctly uncomfortable.

ED HENRY: No, I don't, actually.

Ed, I believe you.

Here's my favorite line, in which Henry asserts that divining a source's fork-holding/food-chewing habits are really really important:

I think having a meal with someone that you cover actually gives you a lot more perspective on not only who they are but why they're attacking a certain issue, a certain way.

The indefatigable Gladstone, to her credit, is so not persuaded on the value of the backyard bbq:

If these events don't influence coverage, why do you think the White House throws them? Do they just want to shoot you with a super-soaker?

Whatever You Say, Buddy.

Jay Nordlinger on Sarah Palin:

She ought to have the appreciation of the entrepreneurially minded everywhere. It’s just that some people can never forgive her for not aborting a Down-syndrome child.

It's What Jesus Would Do, Right?

"Angst."

The potential repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" also is causing some angst within the military's chaplain corps, which has grown more conservative and evangelical since the policy was established. In recent weeks, most military chaplains have sought formal guidance from their endorsing organizations regarding the new policy and homosexuality.

Although chaplains are part of the military, they also must answer to their individual denominations. Some conservative denominations that endorse chaplains have expressed worry that a formal recognition of the rights of gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military could lead to limits on what their chaplains can preach.

"Will someone be able to teach a Bible study in which they say homosexuality is immoral?" asked retired Brig. Gen. Douglas E. Lee, who left the military in late 2008. "I think there is a high probability that it could be challenged."

If that was to happen, some denominations could pull their chaplain endorsements, forcing religious leaders to choose between their military service and their faith, said Lee, who represents six conservative Presbyterian denominations that provide chaplain endorsements.

Wow. Seems that preaching hatred of gays is now a greater priority for battlefield chaplains than the administration of last rites.

This is my favorite line in the article, re Col. David Moran, who oversees chaplain training for the Army:

Moran, who is endorsed by the conservative Church of God, recently received guidance from his denomination declaring that homosexuality is a sin.

Really? The Pentecostals were on the fence?!

Turns out, there is a God.

Atlas Juggs axed by Paypal.

In which RAND demontrates that McArdle's full of shit.

Here's Jane Galt, completely hysterical after the passage of health care reform.

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.

BusinessWeek:

The new U.S. health care reform law was the best option for providing health insurance to the largest number of people while keeping federal government costs as low as possible, according to an analysis by the RAND Corp., a nonprofit policy think tank. [...]

"Of all the proposals on the table that would expand health insurance to more Americans, the final health reform law included those that covered the largest number of people at the lowest cost to the federal government," study author Elizabeth A. McGlynn, a senior researcher at RAND, said in a news release from RAND.

"On balance, the new law appears to have landed on a distinctive plain of the policy frontier where the costs and coverage levels achieved were reasonable enough to secure passage of the law," she noted.

That's gonna leave a mark.

Obama tells the truth, wingnuts say he's lying.

Obama points out that the anti-government/anti-regulation/drill, baby drill Teabaggers might wanna STFU about BP.

“I think it’s fair to say, if six months ago, before this spill had happened, I had gone up to Congress and I had said we need to crack down a lot harder on oil companies and we need to spend more money on technology to respond in case of a catastrophic spill, there are folks up there, who will not be named, who would have said this is classic, big-government overregulation and wasteful spending.”

The president also implied that anti-big government types such as tea party activists were being hypocritical on the issue.

“Some of the same folks who have been hollering and saying ‘do something’ are the same folks who, just two or three months ago, were suggesting that government needs to stop doing so much,” Obama said. “Some of the same people who are saying the president needs to show leadership and solve this problem are some of the same folks who, just a few months ago, were saying this guy is trying to engineer a takeover of our society through the federal government that is going to restrict our freedoms.”

Yep, that's fair to say. Unless you're crazy.

Patently false. If the Tea Party mentality held sway, we'd be drilling in ANWR and closer to the shore in shallower water, so this disaster would never have happened. He's opening the door for even more attacks over how government overreach creates problem like this.

Right. Because if McCain/Palin had won, the very first thing they'd do they'd do is shut down all the offshore drilling.

What an asshat.

Palin has high negatives in patriotic, pro-America type area.

The good news for Palintards: the Quitter finished second (behind Willard) in a poll of Iowa Republicans.

The bad news: 40% of Iowa Republicans hate her.

Bang Bang Hehindeedy!

Putz:

CIVIL RIGHTS PROGRESS? Republican senator’s plan to let guns on Amtrak moves closer to reality.

Perhaps you're familiar with this senator, Roger Wicker? He hates children. Back in 1998, he decided it was more important to line the coffers of Mississippi than to keep kids from dying:

WASHINGTON, July 28— For nearly four years, the Federal Government's top consumer agency has been working to fashion regulations to make upholstered furniture more fire resistant. The agency, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, acted after a group of fire marshals filed a petition in 1994 that said fires from upholstered furniture accounted for hundreds of household fire deaths in the nation each year, many of them children.

But this month a legislative rider suddenly appeared on a House appropriations bill that would stop the commission from putting rules into effect any time soon. The provision was inserted by Representative Roger Wicker, a Republican from Tupelo, Miss., which is known, with some justification, as the upholstered furniture capital of the world.

Then, last year, probably because there were still too many not-dead kids, Wicker decided it would be just swell if four million uninsured children weren't given health insurance.

So: bravo, Roger Wicker. Your previous plans to sufficiently cull the population of America's children via poison furniture and lack of health insurance may have failed. The guns-for-crackers plan, however, may be a great -- government subsidized! -- success.

Hope you're happy.

TEAPARTY!!11!!1!!!!

Obama still leading all Republicans in possible 2012 matchups.

Keep screaming "fascism!" and "socialism!" idiots.

Ass.

Jim Lileks:

Barack Obama is probably the last guy you’d think would introduce “ass” into the mainstream political discourse.

First off all, congratulations to Pajamas Media for finally tackling a topic that was stale by Tuesday morning. Second, Lileks ought to be ashamed! His man, President Steely-Eyed Rocket Man, uttered that awful, awful word on Wingnut Christmas Eve, nearly nine years ago: 

Jim, have you forgotten September 11? Where were you when the world stopped turning?

Win the Morning!!!!!!

DIAF, Politico:

When two White House aides last weekend stripped off their shirts for an afternoon of drinking with friends at a Georgetown bar, there was widespread agreement that it exposed something — beyond the pectorals of speechwriter Jon Favreau and press aide Tommy Vietor — about Washington in the age of Barack Obama.

There was no agreement about what that something was.

Conservative critics said it showed the young Obama crowd needs to get a clue. By these lights, the bare-chested drinking showed the aides acting like — and, thanks to a photo posted on the Web, looking like — frat boys in the midst of two wars and the Gulf oil spill.

[snip]

Erick Erickson on conservative RedState.com complained of a double standard, claiming that a similar picture of Bush White House aides would have sparked a huge uproar.

Yeah. Let me know when Biden shows up at Auschwitz wearing a parka and ski cap...

...or Obama rocks out while a city disappears.

Until then, maybe shut the fuck up?

Why does Carly Fiorina hate Sean Hannity?

Oooopsie!

Haven't had this much fun since Magic Dolphin Lady was caught on a live mic dissing the Quitter.

Can't wait for the wingnut spit on this.

This is Why Everyone Hates You, Sally Quinn.

This:

Rejoice. Al and Tipper have split up.

Sally believes that the classiness with which the Gores have handled the public dissolution of their marriage has "given us all a great gift."

Jesus christ, you asshole. It's not always about you and there is no "bright side".

Look what you made me do. I agree with Althouse!

By the Numbers.

Votes for Robert M. Kaus:

93,599

Votes for Orly Taitz:

368,316

Fyi, Kaus, 93,599 is not "more than 100,000 votes." (as noted in comments, Kaus has since corrected this)

RedState Misc.

Erick Erickson is a funny guy:

When George Bush stood on the rubble of the World Trade Center and said, “I can hear you! I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people — and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!” people knew he meant business.

Yeah, whatever happened to that Osama bin Laden guy?

In other news, RedState is hosting its annual Big Boy Trikeforce Jamboree. In Austin. Golly, I wonder if InstaPutz will send a correspondent....

Charming.

Jennifer Rubin:

There is a single question that every individual, group, and nation must answer. To borrow from the most pro-Israel president since Harry Truman: if you are not with Israel, you are against her. And if you do not oppose with every fiber of your being and every instrument at your disposal that which intends the Jewish state harm, you are enabling her destroyers.

And if you don't make monthly donations to AIPAC and Connecticut for Lieberman, you personally gassed 100 Jews at Auschwitz.

Tea Party 4 Eva!

Looks like Putz's tea party cheerleading was for naught:

Overall, since the last poll, the percentage of Americans who hold an unfavorable view of the movement has jumped from 39 percent to 50 percent. The leading edge of that has been a collapse in support from 18-29-year-olds. In March, they had a positive, 43-38 view of the tea parties. They've swung hard to a negative view, 27-60.

One result that surprises me: a seeming tumble in tea party support from white Southerners. In March, only 30 percent had an unfavorable view of the movement. Now, it's 45 percent.

Youch. Who could have predicted that large swaths of angry white nativists would have diminishing appeal?

In an unrelated note, here's Sarah Palin's pool boy, two months ago:

But the Tea Party endures. It gained steam with rallies on Tax Day 2009, the town hall meetings protesting Obamacare last August, and the 9/12 march on Washington. The trajectory of the Tea Party is upward; the trajectory of the Democrats, downward. And the rising Tea Party tide is lifting Republican boats. The movement is the best thing to happen to the GOP in years.

There Is Nothing About Which Putz Will Not Lie. (A Continuing Series.)

Putz:

THEY TOLD ME IF WE ELECTED BARACK OBAMA THEY’D BE putting up statues of Stalin around our nation’s capital. And they were right!

Strange, if true!

But it's not. First, it's a bust, not a statue. Second, the bust in question is in Bedford, VA, which is approximately 220 miles from Washington, D.C. -- or the same distance from New York to Boston.

Perhaps Putz means 'around' in the same way Muhammad Atta and Iraq intelligence had a 'connection'?

Putz logic

Putz:

CHEERFUL PREDICTIONS: Societal Collapse Due to Peak Oil ‘Inevitable,’ According to Researcher. At least as inevitable as Paul Ehrlich’s food riots in the 1970s.

Shorter Putz: "Someone made an incorrect prediction in the 1970s, so all predictions are probably wrong."

Next year, Judith Miller!

Back in 2008, when John Solomon took the executive ed job at the Washington Times, Media Matters heroically chronicled the shitty reporting left in his wake:

• Solomon ignored Planned Parenthood support for Obama's abortion votes (The Washington Post; 12/14/07)

• Solomon ignored facts in reporting distribution of Obama's Hopefund contributions (The Washington Post; 11/30/07)

• Solomon blamed editor for deletion about GOP fundraiser (washingtonpost.com; 9/05/07)

• Solomon uncritically quoted Thompson "mocking global warming" (The Washington Post; 7/27/07)

• Thompson's role as Nixon mole in Watergate probe absent from Solomon's Wash. Post story (The Washington Post; 7/26/07)

• Wash Post's Baker and Solomon highlighted old disclosures in Clinton books as new (The Washington Post; 5/25/07)

• Solomon falsely claimed Edwards "opposes" subprime lending (washingtonpost.com; 5/16/07)

• Solomon -- whose "investigations" fuel right-wing attacks -- suggested Clinton nonprofit is somehow corrupt (The Washington Post; 2/27/07)

• Wash. Post baselessly linked Abramoff to Democratic fundraisers (The Washington Post; 2/24/07)

• Solomon baselessly suggested Edwards broke campaign finance law (washingtonpost.com; 1/23/07)

• Solomon baselessly suggested shady Edwards land deal (The Washington Post; 1/19/07)

• In follow-up article on Reid, Solomon continued pattern of distortion (The Associated Press; 6/01/06)

• Responding to Media Matters, AP continued to mislead in reporting on Reid (The Associated Press; 5/31/06)

• Even more serious flaws emerge in AP story about Reid's attendance at boxing matches (The Associated Press; 5/29/06)

• Solomon lobbed more faulty ethics accusations at Reid (The Associated Press; 5/29/06)

• AP continued to mislead on purported Abramoff-Reid link (The Associated Press; 2/11/06)

• AP left out key facts in report linking Reid, Abramoff (The Associated Press, 2/09/06)

I mention this because an excellent organization, the Center for Public Integrity, has just named Solomon its first "journalist-in-residence."

Stupid wingnut headline of the day.

Here's Hot Air, getting all excited about W's admission that he'd torture people again.

Bush: You’re darned right I would have ordered the Code Red!

Uh, guys? After Jessep says that line in "A Few Good Men" -- he goes to jail.

Michael Oren is Lying.

His allegation, in an interview with Hugh Hewitt:

HH: ...Has the American media reported this incident fairly?

MO: I think there’s been, for the most part, it’s been fair. But just, you know, in a way, just the obsessive focus on it in itself creates a gross imbalance. Israel defending itself against a flotilla organized by a radical Islamic group linked to al Qaeda, and our commandos doing the utmost to avoid inflicting casualties, landing on these boats with paintball guns, and somehow, this has become the focus of what basically is a media frenzy.

The IDF does not agree:

"We don’t have any evidence."

LOL.

I don't think "straw man" means what John Boehner thinks it means.

Seriously, can someone name a Republican since Reagan who has said something good about regulations and taxes?

Because they're racists. Duh.

Powerline reacts to the death of an American aboard the flotilla with the compassion you'd expect:

The facts are not entirely clear, but it appears that Dogan was born in the United States to Turkish parents who returned to Turkey not long thereafter. (The ABC story says he was two years old.) Apparently Dogan had lived in Turkey with his family since that time. He apparently was, in other words, a "birthright citizen," solely by virtue of the fact that his parents were residing in the U.S. when he was born.

If that is the case--and, again, the facts are not yet entirely clear--it is silly to call him an "American of Turkish descent." He, like the other members of his family, was a Turk.

Know who else is a birthright citizen? John McCain. Know who agrees that McCain is a "great American"? Powerline.

Notice, please, that these stupid Minnesotan cunts do not believe that McCain is a Panama Canal Zone-American or an American of Panama Canal Zone descent.

TEAPARTY!!11!!1!!!!

Gallup Daily: Obama Job Approval

Jonathan Alter, Meet David Limbaugh, Pat Boone, Laura Schlessinger and Bill O'Reilly.

On the one hand, this deal would be worse than herpes for the Newsweek staff. On the other, fuck Jon Meacham -- he so deserves this:

It's been almost a month since the Washington Post Co. put Newsweek on the market, and by 5 p.m. today the initial bids are due. Despite skepticism over whether there will be bidders, Yahoo! News can confirm there's at least one: Newsmax Media.

"Newsmax Media Inc. has made a bid for Newsweek," said a company statement provided to Yahoo! News. The company also stated that its "bid for Newsweek's print and online assets is congruent with its objective to diversify and expand into numerous distinct media brand offerings, like any major multi-title publisher."

"Newsweek's staff, advertisers and readers can be assured that if Newsmax Media Inc.'s bid is successful, Newsweek's stellar brand and editorial representation would remain distinct from our other brands," the statement continued. "Newsweek would continue in its mission to objectively report the news and provide analysis from a wide spectrum of perspectives."

I hope Fineman gets stuck with the North American Union/amero beat.

Show your work, please.

Formerly-employed asshole Rick Santorum:

Western tolerance of Muslims did not happen overnight; it took centuries for Christianity to develop it.

Santorum added that Christianity is also resposible for the "development" of Copernican astronomy, gay marriage, and the strict separation of church and state.

This is a threat.

Why does Glenn Greenwald hate the Jews?

Conservative Journalism.

The Weekly Standard brags that they've "obtained" Sarah Palin's Facebook posting, which is public.


...Yes, I missed the "imminent". I believe this only strengthens my point!

Putz is Truly a Horrible Person.

Sun-Times:

Six people were killed and at least three dozen wounded in acts of violence -- mainly shootings -- throughout the city of Chicago over the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

Putz's reaction:

SO HOW’S THAT CHICAGO GUN CONTROL LAW WORKING?

I try not to be hater, really I do. But there's something perverse about a guy whose knee-jerk reaction to the shooting of a brother and sister, a teenager shot in the head, a man shot in the face, a woman in the neck, another man playing dice, and so on and so on and so on, is.... less gun reform.

Frum: Still an asshole

A right-wing American Jew defending Israel to the death? Why, I never thought I'd see the day. Hypocrisy indeed, David.

You'd think the more fervent pro-Israel forces would have the good sense to sit this one out for a few days. You'd be very, very wrong.

Hey, Maybe Stop Sucking?

Putz would giggle himself retard if, say, the New York Times tried to pull this shit:

Do me a favor and subscribe to PJTV.

Kinda pathetic.

Also Our Credo.

Mike Judge in the print edition of Entertainment Weekly:

Maybe it's another level of clever to really get inside the head of a stupid person.