Conservatives are Weird.

Tough guy.

From John Hawkins's column, "5 Reasons The CIA Should Have Already Killed Julian Assange":

2) Killing Julian Assange would send a message: Julian Assange is not an American citizen and he has no constitutional rights. So, there's no reason that the CIA can't kill him. Moreover, ask yourself a simple question: If Julian Assange is shot in the head tomorrow or if his car is blown up when he turns the key, what message do you think that would send about releasing sensitive American data? Do you think there would be any more classified American information showing up on Wikileaks? That's very doubtful. Do you think the next cyber punk who thinks it is a game to put classified information on the web would think twice? Yes, you bet. Legally, we may not be able to do a lot to Assange since he's not an American, but killing him would do more to protect our classified data than any new security system.

About that last sentence: Hawkins is going to be so shocked when he googles "Anwar al-Awlaki"!

Afghan Flag Project.

Meet the newest addition to our blogroll, Afghan Flag Project. The goal is "to populate America with as many Afghan flags as possible." Why?

By planting a foreign flag in American soil, the Afghan Flag Project seeks to provoke public debate and private introspection over the meaning of war and patriotism, borders and sovereignty, moral imperatives and political realities.

Here's how you can participate:

1. Email us at afghanflagproject[at]gmail.com and request Afghan flag stickers.  We will mail you some stickers, free of charge.

2. Apply the stickers. We can’t control how you use the stickers; we can only request that you use your own best judgement.  Our wish for the project is to provoke conversation, not to promote vandalism.

3. Take photos of the stickers in their new locations, and email the photos to us at afghanflagproject[at]gmail.com.  Include the approximate address of the location. We will post the pictures on our blog.  Our interactive map tracks locations of Afghan flag stickers around the country.  Approximate address should include neighborhood, city, and state (i.e., Santa Monica , Los Angeles, CA).

Let's cover this map.

Really, We Don't.

Rod Dreher hath been resurrected! He writeth:

Today, the politics of sexuality is at the center of how Americans define themselves politically and religiously.

It's amusing, at least to me, that the people most obsessed by the act of bumpin' and grindin' so often view the act not a pleasure but as a chore to be engaged in only out of necessity.

Experts on the founding fathers

On Sunday the NYT ran a piece commenting on the potential of a primary challenge to six-term Senator Dick Lugar:

Even after the midterm rout that will remove many long-serving members from Congress, the idea that Mr. Lugar would be vulnerable to a primary challenge is a chilling notion to many Republicans, a symbol of symbolism gone too far.

“If Dick Lugar,” said John C. Danforth, a former Republican senator from Missouri, “having served five terms in the U.S. Senate and being the most respected person in the Senate and the leading authority on foreign policy, is seriously challenged by anybody in the Republican Party, we have gone so far overboard that we are beyond redemption.”

Predictably, this produced chaotic bursts of pant-shitting from Teabaggers around the internet, including Putz and the rocket scientists at Hot Air, who note:

Hot Air's Ed Morrissey: Since when is Dick Lugar the canary in the coal mine for Republicanism? I’m not a Lugar hater by any stretch; he’s a six-term Senator and has done some good work on Capitol Hill for the GOP. However, Republicans around the country have made clear that they want ObamaCare challenged by every legal means at hand — and a large number of independents feel the same way. If Lugar doesn’t represent the will of the electorate, then he doesn’t belong in office.

Ol' Shit-for-Brains: SO DOES JOHN DANFORTH THINK THAT RICHARD LUGAR IS SOMEHOW ABOVE THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS? I’d say that if the GOP has started issuing seats like titles of nobility, without caring what the voters think, then that’s beyond redemption. Nobody should be immune to a primary challenge.

Boy, for people who can't order pancakes without quoting the Founders they sure don't have a very good grasp on how Madison and Jefferson and the boys felt about the nature of democratic representation in their small-r republican system. Even if alleged law professor Glenn Reynolds has never heard of Edmund Burke or the idea of a republic founded on representing "your interests, not your will", there is very little doubt that the people who wrote the Constitution were quite keen on the idea.

But in the imaginations of Teabaggers, what the Founders really wanted was a government that served as a direct conduit for public opinion. That's why, you know, neither the Courts, the Senate, or the President are popularly elected in the original document.

(PS: Note Putz's attempt to look smart and appear as though he understands what is in the Constitution by swiping the phrase "Titles of Nobility" from Art. I, Sec. 9. Way to google, Putzy!)

Glenn Reynolds still doesn't know what Christianist means.

I guess he thinks this is cute.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED REPUBLICAN WE’D HAVE A BIBLE-READING “CHRISTIANIST” IN THE WHITE HOUSE. And they were right! Obama: I pray every night, read the Bible.

Because personally practicing religion and enacting laws and policies based on your personal religion are exactly the same thing.

Meh.

I'll know Obama's a Christianist when he starts telling world leaders that God told him to invade countries, and calls Tony Perkins to vet SCOTUS nominees and moves to amend the Constitution to prohibit teh gay.

Enjoy the slammer, Hammer.

I notice other than a perfunctory link, Putz has remained silent on DeLay Miserables getting jail time.

I’m wondering how long it will take for the wingnut blogs to notice DeLay is going to the big house.

And if you are wondering why none of them have commented yet, it is because they have not figured out a way to blame this on Obama or the Democrats nor have they come up with someone to point their fingers to in the Democratic party and say “He’s worse!” As soon as one of the upper tier wingnuts gives the marching order and figures out how to blame this on Democrats, they’ll start their little echo chamber.

Chronicle of a Gaffe Foretold.

Palin's North/South Korea gaffe will probably be explained away, somehow. But recall this passage in Game Change -- proof that the lady has learned exactly nothing in the last two years:

This is What Happens When You Make One too Many Teleprompter Jokes.

In a few months we'll see this in a campaign ad:

CO-HOST: How would you handle a situation like the one that just developed in North Korea? [...]
PALIN: But obviously, we’ve got to stand with our North Korean allies. We’re bound to by treaty –
CO-HOST: South Korean.
PALIN: Eh, Yeah. And we’re also bound by prudence to stand with our South Korean allies, yes.

I agree with this: "Eh, yeah, whatever, Sarah probably thought to herself, Chinese people are all the same."

Seems like a Stretch.

It was my impression that the purpose of pornography is to induce sexual excitement. Who knew that The Washington Times got off on body scans?

Kaplan Test Prep hires racist, neocon asshole Jennifer Rubin

Unbelievable. This is the same Israel First wingnut who campaigned against the Ground Zero [sic] Mosque [sic] and wrote,

Obama has shown his true sentiments now, after weeks of concealing them, on an issue of deep significance not only to the families and loved ones of 3,000 slaughtered Americans but also to the vast majority of his fellow citizens.

Here's some more of Rubin's trash. Ugly stuff.

Great hire, WaPo!

Glenn Reynolds on North Korea: "I say, nuke 'em."

It's moments like these that I'm grateful for Tbogg.

No homos in the military! Sort of.

Good to see Tucker's Toilet is meeting its goal of becoming a legit alternative to Huffington Post with pieces like "Don’t hint, don’t wink: An immodest proposal." It's a clever little thought-provoker from some guy I've never heard of - and strenuously hope never to hear of again - about how gays should be banned from the military...but lesbians shouldn't.

Turns out, according to Joseph A. Rehyansky of Human Events, that man-queers are too promiscuous for the military. Girl-queers, on the other hand, are less interested in gettin' it on with everything that moves. So they're OK.

I know very little after having read that article, but I do know with ironclad certainty that Joseph A. Rehyansky has never been to a lesbian bar.

Mythical Wonderfulness.

Needed to be said:

It was the government that oppressed blacks, enforcing the laws that imprisoned them and hanged them for crimes grave and trivial, whipped them if they bolted for freedom and, in the Civil War, massacred them if they were captured fighting for the North. And yet if African Americans hesitate in embracing the mythical wonderfulness of America, they are accused of racism - of having the gall to know more about their own experience and history than Palin and others think they should.

Um...

Sally Quinn, third paragraph:

My husband and I are "DWTS" fanatics.  We plan our social life around it, often regretting invitations that fall on the night of the show. Only in emergencies would we try to TiVo. Not only that, but I vote.  Under the show's rules, you're allowed to vote five times on one line. I have six lines at home and my cell, so I vote as many times as I can for my favorite. This season, I'm voting for Jennifer Grey all the way.

Fourteenth paragraph, also Sally Quinn, on the allegations that Bristol Palin fans stuffed the Dancing ballot box:

I never remember all Ten Commandments off the top of my head, but there should be one that says, "Thou shalt not cheat while voting on 'Dancing with the Stars.'" Polls have shown that the majority of tea party members are conservative Christians. Are these Christians who are voting 300 times and not using valid email addresses? Doesn't it offend their sense of fairness, if not ethics and morals?

Fwiw: The former Mrs. Bradlee can certainly attest to the fact that Quinn has no familiarity with the 10th commandment.

Intellectual dishonesty and the sad trombone

Mike hits one so far out of the park that it can only be compared to an old Comiskey Park roofshot from the likes of Greg Luzinski.

Michael Mandel handed glibertarians some first-class wanking material when he wrote a paper arguing that the real problem with the post-millennium economy has been...drum roll... too much regulation. Of course, common sense tells us that the banking/lending industries were, if anything, almost totally unregulated. But it's hard to dispute the hard facts, which Mr. Mandel happily provides:


Wow! Hard to argue with that. Unless, of course, one bothers to peer a little more deeply into those Dudley & Warren BEA numbers Mandel cites:

Embarrassing.

Last week, Marty Peretz insisted that Newsmax doyenne Judith Miller is "a journalist's journalist, a reporter's reporter." This assertion was greeted with righteous skepticism.

Most of us, having written something so fundamentally wrong, would probably leave well enough alone.

Then again, most people don't ride first class on the Singer Sewing Machine gravy train.

Today, Peretz doubles down:

Judith Miller is one of those reporters who sees the significant detail in almost every story.

Here's what I wanna know: Do New Republic staffers ever wonder if the guy atop the masthead has any idea what they, actual reporters, do for a living?

Dick Armey: outsider, rebel

Check out John Fund's comedy bit interview with Dick Armey in today's WSJ. Check out this pair of knee-slappers:

(Armey) sent each new member of Congress a seven-page memo on how not to be co-opted. Mr. Armey's top agenda item for the 112th Congress is, he says, "to defund, repeal and replace the government takeover of health care and adopt a patient-centered approach."

Do not be co-opted. Now do as I say, starting with Agenda Item #1.

Later,

And what, I asked, if Mr. Obama stonewalls? Mr. Armey did not say exactly what would be next, but he did note that the power of the Internet to connect and educate people today makes it easier to get the facts out and mobilize public support on behalf of Republican positions.

Yes, nothing sums up the core principle of mobilizing today's conservatives quite like "getting the facts out."

Let the Two Minutes of Hate Against Peggy Noonan begin.

I missed this one, via Rich this morning.

Let the Two Minutes of Hate Against Barbara Bush begin.

And the hits just keep on comin'.

Let the Two Minutes of Hate Against Mona Charen begin.

Again.

Since everyone with half a brain is telling the Quitter not to run, you can pretty much bank your mortgage on the fact that she will.

Interesting.

I'm pretty sure the "Holder should resign" meme has been the province of various conservative loonies and Mother Jones.

But here we have Tim Pawlenty, arguably the GOP front runner for president, unequivocally saying the same thing.

HH: Okay, and should Eric Holder resign?

TP: You know, I think Eric Holder and the Justice Department made a fundamental mistake, and they put the country, almost put the country at risk, and may still have done it if they continue down this path. And I don’t think you can just stay in that position and have those kinds of outcomes.

HH: That’s a yes.

TP: Yes.

Airport security evolves

Remember when airport security was a necessary, patriotic sacrifice by a public willing to trade rights for increased protection against Shoe Bombers and Underpants Gnomes and Syrian folk bands? Well that was before we had a Negro president! Now it's the latest sign of the Black Helicopters and One-World CommieNazoFasciMarxist government. At least according to Ol' Shit-fer-Brains and his ilk:

SCOTT JOHNSON: Revolt Against The TSA: “The TSA It is bound by a form of political correctness that has long rendered it a joke. With its newly implemented scanning and patdown procedures, however, the TSA has become something worse than a joke. It has become intrusive and humiliating to a degree that is difficult to accept.”

Related thoughts from Charles Krauthammer: “The junk man’s revolt marks the point at which a docile public declares that it will tolerate only so much idiocy.”

Chuck, Jersey Shore is a hit show. Our capacity for tolerating idiocy is limitless.

Rock solid evidence

The Joe Miller campaign refuses to concede in Alaska...and for good reason, as NRO is here to point out:

The Miller campaign has posted on their site three affidavits from voters concerned that irregular activity occurred at their polling places. One says that, although he was the tenth voter at his location, he saw a ballot box stuffed with “hundreds” of ballots. Another claims that the 15 write-in ballots she reviewed had Sen. Lisa Murkowski written in in what looked like similar enough handwriting that it could be from the same person.

Wow, that sounds like more than enough evidence to question the validity of the results.

Priceless.

Via Putz, dumbass Ed Morrissey on the Ghailani verdict:

It also shows that both Obama and Holder have been proven spectacularly wrong, since a man who confessed to the murder of over two hundred people will now face no more than 20 years, with a big chunk of whatever sentence Foopie receives being reduced by time already served.

Big oops:

Update: The minimum sentence is 20 years, not the maximum.

Don't these people ever tire of being wrong?

The Nazi Double Standard.

As you all know, Roger Ailes said this of NPR:

They are, of course, Nazis. They have a kind of Nazi attitude. They are the left wing of Nazism.

Which is funny because...

Fox News chairman Ailes calls Olbermann `over the line'

By BETH HARRIS, Associated Press Writer

July 25, 2006

Fox News Channel chairman and CEO Roger Ailes responded to Keith Olbermann's latest critical volley against Bill O'Reilly on Monday, saying the MSNBC host's behavior "is over the line."

Ailes, appearing Monday at the summer meeting of the Television Critics Association, was referring to a weekend incident at the gathering in which Olbermann whipped out a mask of O'Reilly and gave a Nazi salute.

Gay Marriage Makes a Mockery of Such a Sacred Institution.

It's too bad Rod Dreher isn't around to not write about this.

Pete and Alisha Arnold, both 30, both tech professionals, live in the Minneapolis suburb of Apple Valley and have been married for 10 years. Since September, they've blogged about their expected child at birthornot.com, posting health updates about the mother and the fetus (which will be 17 weeks-old tomorrow), and ultrasound pictures and video. But at the top of the blog is a poll hosted by PollDaddy.com. The question: "Should We Give Birth or Have an Abortion?" "Give Birth" has 46 percent of the vote at the moment, with "Have an Abortion" at 54 percent. The poll closes on December 7th.

...The poll will influence their decision heavily, the couple said by phone this evening, but it won't be binding. "It's kind of like Congress. They might vote for something, but the president has the final veto. If it's overwhelming one way or the other, that will carry a lot more weight."

Well played, heterosexuals.

Pew: Majority of Republicans reject science.

I still find it less alarming that 52% of Republicans don't accept the fact that the Earth is warming than 90%+ of them voted to install the Quitter in the White House.

Unless Ghailani is Electrocuted and Hanged, Our Justice System Has Failed!

I do not understand this reaction to the Ghailani verdict:

Today's travesty of justice can be laid at the feet of President Obama, Attorney General Holder and the five justices who have systematically destroyed every attempt by the Congress and President Bush to create a coherent system of military tribunals for terrorists.

224 innocents were killed by this terrorist, including 12 Americans.  They will never receive justice because of the absurd legal theories of a small group of justices and the refusal of Barack Obama and Eric Holder to demand of their left-wing colleagues inthe [sic] Congress a continued insistence on military tribunals.

First of all, under that tribunal system Hewitt loves so much, David Hicks got a seven-year sentence -- all but nine months suspended -- and Osama bin Laden's driver served five months. George Bush: Soft on crime!

And second: What the hell? When did 20-to-life become a walk in the park? The ease with which Hewitt, Powerline ("failure") and Pam Geller dismiss this betrays a palpable bloodlust. What are they after, I wonder? Beheading in a public square? Stoning?

The First Three Words Are Correct. The Rest is Bullshit.

Hehindeedy!

Putz, September 7:

Murkowski has to be thinking about whether a spoiler run in Alaska is worth the enmity of Tea Party folks nationwide. My guess is she’ll decide that it’s not.

Is "End" too Ambiguous?

Here's Bobby Jindal:

HH: So you’re a thorough going Catholic, Governor, and do you consider the death penalty to be consistent with the obligations of your faith?

BJ: I do. You know, the Holy Father, both this one and the last one, have taught that certainly, the death penalty should not be used casually. They’ve criticized the application of the death penalty in the United States. My belief as a Catholic, and I don’t pretend to be a theologian, I don’t pretend to be an expert or try to guide others. But my belief as a practicing Catholic is that the Catholic Church is right, that the death penalty should be used sparingly and in rare, the most extreme cases. The Church has never, throughout its history, taught that you could never use the death penalty. It has always taught that we should first look to see if there are other alternatives.

Here's the Pope in 1999:

I renew the appeal I made most recently at Christmas for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary. ... Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform.

Just in time for Christmas

Dan Riehl has solved my holiday shopping dilemma:

Are you ready for the Governor Chris Christie store? Nothing says capitalism like a business. The NJ GOP is capitalizing on the popularity of the governor by selling clothing items and other materials with the name Christie. All the profit goes to the state GOP, and apparently since the store opened Monday night, the GOP has made quite a profit.

Two words, gentle reader: you're welcome.

Alternatives

Doughy Pantload thinks that even if Obama wanted to "play center" - i.e., pull a Clinton and become an Eisenhower Republican - he won't be able to. Because he is too much of a CommieNaziMarxoFasciaSocialist.

Don't worry, Jonah. He and his crack team are hard at work trying to prove you wrong.

Run Sarah Run!

Yay!

If the Quitter does run, there's going to be a full-blown civil war during the GOP primary.

Brad DeLong: shrill.

What I desperately want to hear from Team Obama in the face of all the wrongness is simply: we were wrong, but we're going to fix it.

The lack of any mea culpas beyond "guess we didn't keep the process transparent enough and be sufficiently bi-partisany" is disturbing.

Judith Miller: From Pulitzer to Birther.

Martin Peretz, in his usual understated manner, writes that "Judith Miller is a journalist's journalist, a reporter's reporter." This is odd, not just because a) this is a stupid cliche, which certainly doesn't apply to a reporter now best-known for getting spun by her sources and  b) even Peretz's own magazine noted that she "credulously relayed key administration talking points" and accused her of "parroting of White House propaganda." 

Anyway, I followed Peretz's link, just to see what Miller was up to these days and where she'd landed. Turns out: Whoa.

Newsmax has published Miller's work more than a half-dozen times in the last month. (She's also appeared in many other outlets, including Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and The Daily Beast.)

This is remarkable. In 2002, Judith Miller shared a Pulitzer for explanatory reporting. Not ten years later, she's writing for a publication famous for stories about the 'amero,' lies about White House appointments, fantasies of a 'military coup,' and the skinny on why Obama's birth certificate 'matters.'

Let the Two Minutes of Hate Against Lisa Murkowski begin.

Again!

Will the Palintards run out of hate before the primaries?

Nah.

Pass the Popcorn.

Hahahahaha!

Two Democratic consultants are accusing Arianna Huffington and her business partner of stealing their idea for the powerhouse liberal website Huffington Post.

Peter Daou and James Boyce charge that Huffington and partner Ken Lerer designed the website from a plan they had presented them, and in doing so, violated a handshake agreement to work together...

 
Don't know much about Boyce, but Huffington and Daou are loathsome. In the best of all words, they'd tear each other to pieces, with nothing left but a stack of Daou's Belle and Sebastian records. But in real life, Daou's going to get his ass handed to him. He lacks the stones to take on a lady who, marveled Ed Rollins, is "the most ruthless and ambitious person I've met in 30 years in national politics."

Here's the Washington Post from 1987, profiling the future liberal icon as she galloped to the top of the D.C. social scene:

Before her husband's appointment, she flew to Boston to hear Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle, whom she had never met, give a speech. They attended a dinner afterward, then went to a friend's apartment and chatted until 2 a.m. "She's very bright and lively," says Perle. "Even on a subject that wasn't her field, she had intelligent questions." Perle says the meeting took place after the White House had asked him to interview Huffington -- a longtime friend and supporter of Vice President George Bush -- for the defense position.

"Richard," says Arianna, "has such a wonderful mind."

SchoenCaddellBot.

See if you can spot the subtle message of this very insightful Washington Post Q&A with Douglas Schoen and Pat Caddell -- both of whom cash checks from Fox News -- during which they argue that Barack Obama should choose to be a one-term president:

Q: Your assertion that declining a reelection bid won't make the president a lame duck is very lacking in support. If Obama were to make such a ridiculous decision, he would immediately lose all influence. The 2012 campaign would immediately begin, and Senate Democrats would be positioning themselves for a run--not helping Obama pass anything.

A: The 2012 campaign has begun.

President Obama already lacks influence.

And we wrote this article in the hopes that President Obama would put country first -- and our nation's problems ahead of its politics. ...

Q: Please expand on the following key assertion: "Forgoing another term would not render Obama a lame duck... [It] would grant him much greater leverage with Republicans and would make it harder for opponents... to be uncooperative." How so? Why exactly would the president have greater leverage?

A: He would have greater leverage because he would put the country first.

In "hand to hand combat" or a political war where Mitch McConnell says that his top priority is making sure President Obama does not win the 2012 election, everyone loses. ...

Q: If Obama were to follow through and announce that he's not running, his influence with the most obdurate portion of government, his own party in the House, would be gone. do you agree?

A: No again, we believe they would realize that the best thing they have going right now would be working for what is best for the country and supporting the President.

The House Democrats would discover that the way to regain their position with the American public --which was severely repudiated in the midterm elections -- would be to put the country first.

Q: Wouldn't the one term idea appeal to all Presidents?

If not, why do you think it applies to Obama alone?

A: It's not a question of a one-term President applying universally.  We are offering a unique proposal for a unique situation at a unique time.    It is necessary during this specific time of unprecedented crisis and division for the President to rise above politics and put the country first.

Even by the low, low standards of Post Q&As, this is particularly lazy. Maybe these guys should put the country first...by tossing themselves on I-495.

Charming.

Perhaps you remember our last item on Sally Quinn's vanity project, On Faith? Tony Perkins used The Washington Post's bandwidth to blames gays for gay teen suicide... on National Coming Out Day. Quinn's co-moderator Jon Meacham has since left the site and Newsweek is no longer a partner, but the content remains the same -- all hate, all the time. Pope Pius groupie law dean, Ronald Rychlak, takes the occasion of Obama's trip to India and Indonesia to suggest that it's Obama's fault everyone thinks he's a Muslim. Here's the warm up:

The president, whose middle name is "Hussein," was born in Hawaii and moved to Indonesia at age 6 to live with his mother and stepfather, who was Muslim. While there, he attended Catholic school and Muslim school. He also attended Muslim prayer services with his Indonesian stepfather. According to an interview he did in 2007 with the New York Times, he said that the Muslim call to prayer is "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset."

Did you know these things? I totally did not! Anyway, Rychlak complains that Obama "has refused to allow any school records, grades, papers written by him, or other records from his youth." This, he says, "has led people to speculate." (Speculate about what, exactly, he does not say.)

He's also irritated that Obama once said "We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation" -- leaving out the rest of the sentence: "or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation." He's unhappy that Obama pledged to push back at negative stereotypes of Islam. And -- naturally -- he's displeased that Obama believes Feisal Abdul Rauf has the right to build a community center the hallowed ground of the Burlington Coat Factory. "Let's be clear," he says, probably because he assumes On Faith's readers are idiots...

One cannot see into the heart of another, and we must respect and accept the president's claim to be a fully believing Christian. It is unfortunate that he has had to face so many crazy theories, beliefs, and downright falsehoods. On the other hand, his demeanor and his approach to religion is the cause of most of the problems.

It's the "on the hand" that so precious. And it's the difference greeting the coming demise of a once-great institution with a period of celebration, as opposed to mourning.

Moving to the middle?

I hope these "White House aides" are intentionally leaking misleading quotes, because the idea that the Democrats lost the midterms because they were insufficiently conservative is batshit crazy.

Eric Cantor, traitor.

Unreal.

Regarding the midterms, Cantor may have given Netanyahu some reason to stand firm against the American administration.

“Eric stressed that the new Republican majority will serve as a check on the Administration and what has been, up until this point, one party rule in Washington,” the readout continued. “He made clear that the Republican majority understands the special relationship between Israel and the United States, and that the security of each nation is reliant upon the other.”

Beck: Child Porn, Bad...Bondage Porn, Good!

Glenn Beck's "not into" child pornography, and good for him!

Reminds me of a truly odd moment from nearly four years ago, in re a Florida man who'd raped his wife. Here's Beck's reaction:

This story comes from Orlando, Florida. A guy by the name of Christopher Wood, he was on this canoeing trip with his wife when he suddenly paddles over to the shore. And she says, "What`s going on, honey?" He takes her and he rapes her at knife point. Then, he hangs her naked from a tree branch for hours and rapes her again, while he sticks a knife blade into her side.

The sickest part of all of this is this guy videotaped the whole thing with the hopes of making and selling a bondage porn film, which -- I love those things. Have you ever seen "Kiss Me, Tie Me, Shiv Me"?

Timing.

Kathryn Jean Lopez, November 10:

The point of the book, Decision Points, is to recount the decision-making process in a series of key moments of [George Bush's] life and presidency. On stem cells. On war. On domestic-policy successes, failures, and mixed tries. He tells us what he knew. What people advised. What he was thinking. He did what he did. What comes of that is a bit of a picture of a man’s discernment process. Not everything he did during his eight years is covered. Not even all of the big things. It’s not meant to be a definitive history.

We also get a clearer portrait of his deep appreciation for human life, which goes back to his childhood.

November 11:

Claude Jones always claimed that he wasn’t the man who walked into an East Texas liquor store in 1989 and shot the owner. He professed his innocence right up until the moment he was strapped to a gurney in the Texas execution chamber and put to death on Dec. 7, 2000. His murder conviction was based on a single piece of forensic evidence recovered from the crime scene—a strand of hair—that prosecutors claimed belonged to Jones.

But DNA tests completed this week at the request of the Observer and the New York-based Innocence Project show the hair didn’t belong to Jones after all. The day before his death in December 2000, Jones asked for a stay of execution so the strand of hair could be submitted for DNA testing. He was denied by then-Gov. George W. Bush.

With Friends Like This, Who Needs The Weekly Standard?

According to the editor of The New Republic, George McGovern -- of all people! -- is

an old Stalinoid and still one, so far as I can tell[.]

Pretty repulsive, obviously. But what I want to know is, why did Peretz give money to said Stalinoid? In a 1997 column, he recalled that he'd given "relatively large contributions to George McGovern's [1972] campaign."

Well-read indeed

Steve Chapman makes the horrible mistake of pointing out to TownHall readers - die hard supporters of the Constitution, one and all - that letting ex-felons vote after they serve their sentences (including all parole or probation time) makes a lot of sense. People who support basic Constitutional rights should support this sort of thing, he notes, while also pointing out that "It recognizes them as individuals capable of rehabilitation. It encourages them to reintegrate into society."

I'll let you guess how well the comment section likes this argument. My two favorites so far:

My god you're an idiot, Chapman! Every week you somehow find a new way to prove it.

The whole point of a REPUBLIC is to LIMIT the franchise to those who might make good choices. We've already diluted that concept to the point that we directly vote for Senators, and let children, aliens, and convicts vote -- and the Republic teeters on the edge of destruction as the inevitable result.

Yet here you stand, pretend Republican that you are, defending voting rights for people who have PROVEN their poor decision making ability -- convicted felons.

Unbelievable. Why are you here , Chapman? Couldn't get a job at the Huffington Post?

and:

The correlation between irresponsible, stupid, ignorant, illiterate drones unfit to vote, and felons, is so strong felons should have their voting rights severely restricted. Perhaps a probation period to earn the vote again, over time and good behavior, would be appropriate. This is America.

Well, that all makes sense to me. Felons are brown, and brown people vote for lib'ruls.

Human Life.

There are a number of wonderful lines in K-Lo's review of Decision Points -- "He probably should be a role model" and "His is ultimately a message of humility" come to mind -- but this, for its absolute wrongness, is my favorite:

We also get a clearer portrait of his deep appreciation for human life, which goes back to his childhood.

Now, I think, is a great time to dredge up two stories, both from Bush's tenure as governor:

In the week before [Karla Faye Tucker's] execution, Bush says, Bianca Jagger and a number of other protesters came to Austin to demand clemency for Tucker. "Did you meet with any of them?" I ask.

Bush whips around and stares at me. "No, I didn't meet with any of them," he snaps, as though I've just asked the dumbest, most offensive question ever posed. "I didn't meet with Larry King either when he came down for it. I watched his interview with [Tucker], though. He asked her real difficult questions, like 'What would you say to Governor Bush?' "

"What was her answer?" I wonder.

"Please," Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation, "don't kill me."

and

During Bush's six years as governor 150 men and two women were executed in Texas—a record unmatched by any other governor in modern American history. Each time a person was sentenced to death, Bush received from his legal counsel a document summarizing the facts of the case, usually on the morning of the day scheduled for the execution, and was then briefed on those facts by his counsel; based on this information Bush allowed the execution to proceed in all cases but one. The first fifty-seven of these summaries were prepared by Gonzales, a Harvard-educated lawyer who went on to become the Texas secretary of state and a justice on the Texas supreme court. He is now the White House counsel. ...

Did Gonzales reserve the most important issues and documents in the Washington case for a more extensive oral briefing of the governor? Only he and Bush know. It is highly unlikely, however, given that Gonzales usually presented an execution summary to the governor on the day of an execution and that, as he has acknowledged, his briefings typically lasted no more than thirty minutes—far too little time for a serious discussion of a complex clemency plea. Bush's appointment calendar for the morning of Washington's execution shows a half-hour slot marked "Al G—Execution." ...

George W. Bush was/is a sociopath, and we shouldn't forget it.

A reason to give

K-Lo on the NRO's 1926291935th fundraising wheedle of the past year:



And without the National Review and its website, who would even know the Bill of Rights exists?

*****whistle*****

Putz:

BAD NEWS: ‘Jaw-Dropping’ Data on Black Male Student Achievement. “According to the report, poverty levels are only part of the equation because poor white boys (defined by eligibility for subsidized school lunches) are doing as well as black boys who do not live in poverty.” It’s about the culture.

Is that what we're calling it now.

Let another Two Minutes of Hate against George W. Bush begin.

Damn, this is getting to be a trend.

“I probably won’t even vote for the guy,” Bush told the group, according to two people present.“I had to endorse him. But I’d have endorsed Obama if they’d asked me.”

Republicans Are Bad People, Vol 3.

Here's Powerliner Paul Mirengoff on Don't Ask Don't Tell:

The purpose of the Marines is to fight America's enemies. It is no part of their purpose to facilitate the self-actualization of gays.

If you have a moment, call Mirengoff at his office (202.887.4354) and ask him to show his work: when have gays refused to defend America from her enemies?

Be nice, or not!

Come on over, it's Tard Day!

Nothing like incoming Neal Boortz links to gum up the comments over at ginandtacos with a cavalcade of gun fondling retards. Don't miss it, it's comedy gold!

Let the Two Minutes of Hate against Spencer Bachus begin.

This keeps happening, eh?

Shelby County’s congressman, U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., said former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin likely cost the Republican Party control of the U.S. Senate.

Bachus made his remarks on Nov. 4 at the monthly luncheon meeting of the South Shelby Chamber of Commerce, held at the Columbiana United Methodist Church.

“The Senate would be Republican today except for states (in which Palin endorsed candidates) like Christine O’Donnell in Delaware,” Bachus said. “Sarah Palin cost us control of the Senate.”

Worst. Promo. Ever.

Wow.

Like crazy, only crazier

So Intellectual Chernobyl has started syndicating this guy to contribute insightful pieces entitled, I shit you not, "Bonds and Why You Will Get Your Face Ripped Off."

Welcome, Phil Grande. We were running low on bat shit.

Running away from the brand.

Greenwald:

The Republicans have long lived by what they call "The Buckley Rule": always support the furthest Right candidate who can plausibly win. This year, knowing that it would be a wave election, one that would sweep in huge numbers of Republicans in districts where they ordinarily couldn't get elected, they changed that to: support the furthest Right candidate, period. That's because they believe conservatism will work and want to advocate for it. Democrats don't do that. The DCCC constantly works to prop up the most "centrist" or conservative candidates -- i.e., corporatists -- on the ground that it's always better, more politically astute, to move to the Right. Even in the pro-Democratic wave years of 2006 and 2008, the Democratic Party blocked actual progressives and ensured that Blue Dogs were nominated, even though the anti-GOP sentiment was so strong that any Democrat, including progressives, could have won even in red districts (as Alan Grayson proved).

With that strategy, the Democratic Party now reaps what it has sown. Its message and identity are profoundly muddled, incoherent, unclear, uninspiring, and self-negating. Worse, its policies are mishmashes of inept half-measures that, with a handful of exceptions, produce little good for anyone (other than Wall Street, the Pentagon and other corporate interests). They are perceived as -- and are -- beholden to Wall Street, special interests, and the corporations they vowed to confront. They are without any ability to confront the massive unemployment crisis and financial decline the country faces. And as a result of all of that, they lay in shambles. Anyone who can survey all of that and cheer for the strategy which Democrats have been pursuing -- let's build our majorities by relying on GOP-replicating corporatist Blue Dogs -- or who thinks that this election loss happened because "Democrats are too liberal," resides in a world that has very little to do with reality. And that's true no matter how many times they repeat the simplistic snippets of exit polls to which they've obsessively attached themselves.

This has been coming for some time. I don't think people voted Democratic in 2006 or 2008 because they were so awesome, I think it's because it was obvious to everyone except people like Putz that the GOP had screwed everything up.

But, despite all their historic failures, people still know what Republicans stand for and I don't think they know what Democrats stand for.

Now, what they stand for more than anything else is "half-baked stuff that doesn't really change anything."

Glenn Reynolds: Obama comprimising means Republicans get everything they want.

Love how that works.

Let me spell it out for you, Putzy. The default Democratic position would be -- they all lapse. The compromise position is -- 99% of America gets a tax cut.

UPDATE

Meanwhile, one of Putzy's biggest fans gives him a big A-men.

Let the Two Minutes of Hate against George W. Bush begin.

Heh:

The 43rd President has told friends the ex-Alaska governor isn't qualified to be President and criticizes Arizona Sen. John McCain for putting Palin on the 2008 GOP ticket and handing her a national platform.

"Naming Palin makes Bush think less of McCain as a man," a Republican official familiar with Bush's thinking told the Daily News.

"He thinks McCain ran a lousy campaign with an unqualified running mate and destroyed any chance of winning by picking Palin."

Keynes Wept.

Please.

You set 'em up, we knock 'em down

Actually, Joe, we do know.

Sounds great!

But on which planet does the press actually do this?

You want the press to stop asking “what will Obama do to reach out to Republicans?” He’s busy! He’s not reaching out to anyone! The question to ask is “what are congressional Republicans doing to do reach out to Obama and the thirteen Democratic Senators whose votes they need to pass anything?”

The Brand.

Andrew Breitbart to ABC:

You have damaged me, you have damaged my brand, and I'm asking you to walk this lie back.

Breitbart doesn't want you to get the wrong idea: Contrary to what ABC says, he really is a racist, belligerent, borderline incoherent douchebag. That's his brand and, as you might imagine, he's rather protective of it.

Meet the new Speaker.

John Boehner:

The fight for smaller government must be renewed, and Republicans now have an unprecedented opportunity to fully re-engage in it. I’ve asked my colleagues to give me the chance to lead this effort.

That's after the GOP lost more seats in the House and Senate and lost the White House ... in 2008.

Something tells me the Democrats will not react the same way to last night's election.

Words fail us.

It's like listening to a 19th century carnie barker read the Montana Freemen charter.

Rand Paul is an idiot of colossal proportions.

He has promised a balanced budget (repeatedly - good luck with that!) and said "There is no rich, no middle class, no poor. We are all interconnected in the economy."

I have taken shits smarter than this guy.

Speaking of Rand Paul.

He just went on and on about how "government isn't the answer" and how we have to "rely on ourselves" to be prosperous.

Lincoln:

...government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

In other words, "government" is "ourselves."

Why does Rand Paul hate Lincoln?

Behold: Senator Aqua Buddha

Heh:

Maybe it's just me, but I still find it odd that Kentucky would elect to the U.S. Senate an odd, self-accredited ophthalmologist who doesn't know much about public policy, the state he lives in, or even his own political ideology. Sure, we knew he'd win, but that doesn't make this any less bizarre.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK! NEGROES!

If you thought Faux News was all done with that race-baiting stuff, you thought wrong.

Tbogg is teh funny.

Heh:

The Democrats really hate Nader because he points out the fact that they are asking those of us on the left to vote for them but they aren’t doing anything for us. Did they end funding for the Republican’s crime spree in Iraq? No. Have they moved for UHC? No. Have they tried to stop corporate crimes? No. Have they tried to reform the tax code to be progressive? No. Have they tried to protect homeowners from predatory lenders? No. Have they defended our constitutional rights? No. Take back the FDA from the corporations? No. The FCC? No.

The Democrats don’t deserve my vote. They aren’t helping the left, why should the left help them?

Let me see if I can explain it this way:

Every year in Happy Gumdrop Fairy-Tale Land all of the sprites and elves and woodland creatures gather together to pick the Rainbow Sunshine Queen. Everyone is there: the Lollipop Guild, the Star-Twinkle Toddlers, the Sparkly Unicorns, the Cookie Baking Apple-cheeked Grandmothers, the Fluffy Bunny Bund, the Rumbly-Tumbly Pupperoos, the Snowflake Princesses, the Baby Duckies All-In-A-Row, the Laughing Babies, and the Dykes on Bikes. They have a big picnic with cupcakes and gumdrops and pudding pops, stopping only to cast their votes by throwing Magic Wishing Rocks into the Well of Laughter, Comity, and Good Intentions. Afterward they spend the rest of the night dancing and singing and waving glow sticks until dawn when they tumble sleepy-eyed into beds made of the purest and whitest goose down where they dream of angels and clouds of spun sugar.

You don’t live there.

Grow the fuck up

Whenever I see Ann Coulter...

...the first thing I think is, "God, someone really should feed that poor horse."

Starving an animal like that is just cruel, people.

Belated Misc.

So last night I had a terribly successful second date with an East Villager whose hometown happens to be Knoxville.

It occurs to me, reading this, that maybe I should mention that I locked that down me and Knoxville Lady are getting hitched in May. The engagement was months ago. I work fast.

Here comes the BS post-election spin.

All horribly wrong, but undoubtedly, these will be on the lips of every pundit in America tomorrow:

1) The electorate punished the Democrats for “over-reaching.”
2) Obama should move to the middle if he wants to save his presidency.
3) Republicans will now be more sensible and work with Obama to get things done.

More here.

Now that's some good journalism

Guy Benson over at Intellectual Chernobyl on the Illinois Senate race:

But a number of Illinois GOP operatives I spoke with today expressed concerns about an eleventh-hour development in the race: A $1 million cash infusion from the DNC into the state late on Saturday, coinciding with the President’s Hyde Park Rally...“Your readers need to understand that this amounts to $1 million of walking around money for Alexi Giannoulias,” one insider warned. “This is money that very well could be used to literally buy the election at the street level.”

Well, I think it's perfectly reasonable to jump directly to that conclusion given the amount of evidence to support it!

Asshole.

Jay Nordlinger writes:

At my polling place, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, the chief concern seemed to be the accommodation of Spanish-speakers. Signs and forms in Spanish were everywhere; a Spanish interpreter was on hand. And I thought this seemed a little screwy — or at least a bit much. Why would anyone who can’t handle the voting experience in English even want to vote?

"What a strange sense of entitlement," he harrumphs, of the right to vote.

It's at times like this I actually feel a little bad for K-Lo.

Inspirational Election Day Speech, v2010

The recently-deceased James Gammon as Lou Brown in the 1989 baseball-comedy classic Major League:


"All right people, we got 10 minutes 'till game time, let's all gather 'round. I'm not much for giving inspirational addresses, but I'd just like to point out that every newspaper in the country has picked us to finish last. The local press seems to think that we'd save everyone the time and trouble if we just went out and shot ourselves. Me, I'm for wasting sportswriters' time. So I figured we ought to hang around for a while and see if we can give 'em all a nice big shitburger to eat."

G-men!

The Palin response bot.

She's got like 5-6 pet phrases, and just scrambles them randomly when needed.

"Politico, Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei, they're jokes," Palin told Fox News on Sunday night, referring to the writers of the story. "This is a joke to have unnamed sources tearing somebody apart limb by limb."

"If they would man up and if they would, you know, make these claims against me then I can debate them, I can talk about it, but to me they're making stuff up again," the former Alaska governor continued.

She's keeping "u lie," "you betcha" and any references to the First Amendment in reserve for the next one.

I mean, why wait?

Dan Riehl is the only person on the internet who would post something entitled "November 2 is only the beginning" on November 1, declaring that "The scalp taking doesn't end on November 2. But (GOP leaders) really don't understand that."

It's but one of his dozen whack-off posts today about how Teabaggers won't stop until they take over the country. Boy it's going to be cute when Joe Miller loses to a write-in.

Dept. of Bad Metaphors.

From yesterday's Face the Nation:

SCHIEFFER: OK. Well, let`s talk some politics. Because that`s what I asked all of you to come here to talk about today. And, Governor Rendell, Ed Rendell, governor of Pennsylvania, it looks like the wind is really blowing the Republicans` way this time. What happened? What did the Democrats do wrong here?

RENDELL: Well, first, Bob, let me just say I slightly disagree. I`ve sensed -- and I`ve been out campaigning the last couple of weeks, I`ve sensed that if this is a Republican tidal wave, I`ve sensed a Democratic undertone going against it.

Democrats are much more fired up in the last two weeks than people would think. African-American voters, I was in a subway station, they`re on fire because of the attacks by Mitch McConnell on the president. They know what`s at stake here.

[via Rumproast]

STFU, Bill Maher.

Christ, what an embarrassing tool:

Am I a racist to feel alarmed by that? Because I am. And it’s not because of the race, it’s because of the religion. I don’t have to apologize, do I, for not wanting the Western world to be taken over by Islam in 300 years? .... I should be alarmed, and I don't apologize for it.

Add Muslims to the list -- along with vaccines -- of Things That Frighten Bill Maher. The Buffalo Beast had Maher dead to rights last year:

The most audience-abusive MC since Jim Jones, Maher routinely belittles his uneasy crowd for not laughing at the stale mediocrities he calls jokes. His discussion panels typically follow an excruciating pattern: relatively smart person tries to talk down to some cringingly naive celebrity like Cindy McCain or Mos Def, only to get steamrolled by some visibly drunk old comic Bill used to do blow with backstage at the Improv. The dumber the guest, the more they dominate the panel—until Maher steers the discussion, yet again, to his pet topics, like how much better everything would be if we all shopped at Whole Foods, stopped taking medicine and legalized weed, dude. But the worst of it, especially for someone who makes it so clear he thinks he’s the smartest person in the world, is that Maher is just not very well informed.

OK, I'll say it.

It's not going to be as bad as you think tomorrow. We've all bought into the Glenn Beck TeaTard Tidal Wave narrative and, shockingly, it doesn't hold up under light scrutiny.

So, there you go. If I'm wrong, be sure to return and make fun of me.

BREAKING: Bush still liked in Dallas, Texas.

Good to see that Bush-worship is still alive and well on the right.