Krugman pwns Ailes.

This is gonna leave a mark.

Teabaggers sound an awful lot like Bush Republicans.

There's actually an intellectually coherent strain of the right -- the Ron Paul Republicans. They are for limited government, and as a consequence, favor the dismantling of the Pax Americana and the industrial military complex.

This makes sense -- you can't have "small government" and have military personnel in 140 countries.

But this paradox gives Teabaggers like Putz absolutely no cognitive dissonance.

Many people -- er, well, many pundits, anyway -- complain that the Tea Party movement is entirely oppositional: For a brief moment, the key buzzword was "nihilistic," though the connection between Turgenev and Tea Parties seems rather tenuous.

In fact, Tea Partiers seem quite clear on what they're for: A limited government, one that keeps its nose out of their business and focuses on things like protecting the country in preference to redistributing income.

But to Putz, "protecting the country" means waging endless costly wars, a defense budget of $700B a year, supporting a gargantuan national security infrastructure, and never cutting defense spending ever.

"Limited government" my ass.

Uh -- Bush was still in office in 2009.

What an idiot.

FACT-CHECKING THE PRESIDENT IN BALTIMORE: “That means that over twelve years of Republican rule, there was an average annual budget deficit of about $104 billion. Compare that with an average annual deficit since 2008 of $1.074 trillion — or about $90 billion per month.”

Bush was President until 2009, nimrods. "Since 2008" happens to include the $700B TARP that Bush signed.

What, that doesn't count?

Anyway, the historical record of Republicans and deficits is clear.

Revealing.

Note: With the exception of Confederate Yankee and The Corner -- who mention it, sans commentary -- conservatives are totally silent about Scott Roeder's conviction. In fact, in the interest of thoroughness I checked back in with the folks who, when Dr. George Tiller was murdered, rejoiced, and they, too, are oddly uninterested in the verdict.

Why, I wonder, are they so tight-lipped about the conviction of a domestic terrorist? Hmmmm?

Obama hands the House GOP their asses.

In case you haven't heard, Obama fielded questions today from House Republicans. Video is here.

(Note: CSPAN is getting overwhelmed -- but keep trying, it's worth it.)

Here's Aminder's take:

Accepting the invitation to speak at the House GOP retreat may turn out to be the smartest decision the White House has made in months. Debating a law professor is kind of foolish: the Republican House Caucus has managed to turn Obama's weakness -- his penchant for nuance -- into a strength. Plenty of Republicans asked good and probing questions, but Mike Pence, among others, found their arguments simply demolished by the president. (By the way: can we stop with the Obama needs a teleprompter jokes?)

Putz won't.

Anyway, Obama was masterful. Here's a sample.

THE PRESIDENT: Jeb, I know there's a question in there somewhere, because you're making a whole bunch of assertions, half of which I disagree with, and I'm having to sit here listening to them. At some point I know you're going to let me answer. All right.

CONGRESSMAN HENSARLING: That's the question. You are soon to submit a new budget, Mr. President. Will that new budget, like your old budget, triple the national debt and continue to take us down the path of increasing the cost of government to almost 25 percent of our economy? That's the question, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: Jeb, with all due respect, I've just got to take this last question as an example of how it's very hard to have the kind of bipartisan work that we're going to do, because the whole question was structured as a talking point for running a campaign.

Now, look, let's talk about the budget once again, because I'll go through it with you line by line. The fact of the matter is, is that when we came into office, the deficit was $1.3 trillion. -- $1.3 [trillion.] So when you say that suddenly I've got a monthly budget that is higher than the -- a monthly deficit that's higher than the annual deficit left by the Republicans, that's factually just not true, and you know it's not true.

And what is true is that we came in already with a $1.3 trillion deficit before I had passed any law. What is true is we came in with $8 trillion worth of debt over the next decade -- had nothing to do with anything that we had done. It had to do with the fact that in 2000 when there was a budget surplus of $200 billion, you had a Republican administration and a Republican Congress, and we had two tax cuts that weren't paid for.

You had a prescription drug plan -- the biggest entitlement plan, by the way, in several decades -- that was passed without it being paid for. You had two wars that were done through supplementals. And then you had $3 trillion projected because of the lost revenue of this recession. That's $8 trillion.

Now, we increased it by a trillion dollars because of the spending that we had to make on the stimulus. I am happy to have any independent fact-checker out there take a look at your presentation versus mine in terms of the accuracy of what I just said.

Devastating.

Brevity.

[found here]

K-Lo, Please Stop this Immediately.

Ughhhhhh. At least Gregg is 'of age.'

The Murdochization of Obits.

Maybe the next time The Wall Street Journal runs an obituary for the country's most famous writer, they will take the time to find out when he died.

J.D. Salinger died Wednesday.

The error has been corrected online.

What would you cut, Senator?

How do you make a Republican's head explode? Ask him, after he bitches about the budget, what he'd cut. Specifically.

Works every time.

Contessa Brewer: Let's bring in now Republican Judd Gregg a senator of New Hampshire, a top Republican on the budget committee and a ranking member of the Senate banking committee. What do you think about the money the president is preparing to spend on jobs and what Mark was just saying, that it has to go hand in hand with other programs, job training, professional skill and certainly educating very young people?

Judd Gregg: Well we're running a 1.3 trillion dollar deficit this year. The government is going to spend over three trillion dollars. All of that deficit goes into the debt which will be paid by our children and our children's children. I think somebody's going to have to ask a more fundamental question. How are you going to get the economy going if you run up the debt to the point where we can't afford our government? Uh, that is a much more fundamental question.

If you want to do something to energize this economy, I think you put in place some plans that control the rate of growth of government so that people can have confidence that this nation is not going to go into some form of fiscal bankruptcy in five to seven years. And that will cause people to be willing to invest and be willing to take risks and create jobs. Jobs are not created by the government. You know long term, good jobs are created by a vibrant economy and you don't get a vibrant economy when the government and the size of the government and the debt of the government is overwhelming the capacioty of the economy to function right.

Francis: That's good in theory Senator ...

Gregg: That's not theory! It's not theory! Don't tell me it's theory!

Francis: tell me how to put it to work ...

Gregg: No you don't tell me it's theory. What are you... How do you get off saying something like that?

Francis: (who is a conservative by the way) Because it is good in theory. Of course, it's fantastic. Here's your opportunity senator... let me finish .. to tell us all how it would be put to work. I'm all for small government.

Gregg: You stop the spending spree. You stop the government from growing so fast that you can't afford to pay for it. You don't increase the size of government from 20% of GDP to 25% of GDP in two years. You don't add a trillion dollars of new debt to our kids back every year for the next ten years. You don't pass a budget... the president doesn't send up a budget that doubnle the debt in five years, triples it in ten years! You don't say that you're for fiscal responsibility and then propose a whole panoply of new programs that you can't pay for. That's not theory, that's reality! That's what we're facing as a nation. This is the reality of a fiscal meltdown of our country which is going to have a massive impact on people's lives and cost a lot of jobs in this country.

Contessa Brewer: So my partner Melissa, Senator Greg, is really asking for specifics. If you don't believe that we should have a 1.3 trillion dollar budget, which programs are you willing to cut. Are you willing to tell schools, no money for you? And do you side then with those who say, when you look back at the great depression, economists say that we landed back into real problems in 1937 when people got onto cutting the deficit and a lot of government spending was pulled back before it should have been?

Gregg: Well first off, nobody is saying no money for schools. What an absurd statement to make. What a dishonest statement to make. On its face you are being fundamentally dishonest when you make that type of statement.

Brewer: We're just asking which programs you would cut

Francis: tell us what to cut...

Gregg: Do you know how much money is spent on education in the federal governmen this year?

Brewer: Senator, you're going to be asked to cut certain programs if you're on the Senate banking committee. Which programs would you want to cut?

Gregg: Oh I have no problems telling you. I would freeze discretionary spending. A real freeze, not a freeze plus inflation. I would eliminate the TARP money which would get us close to 400 billion dollars. I would end the stimulus spending effective in June of this year, if not sooner, so we can recover all the money that's going to be spent outside the window of this recession and we shouldn't be spending it adding it to the debt. I would take a major effort to try to reform our entitlement programs. In fact we had a major vote yesterday to try to do that under a bill which I've proposed with Senator Conrad.

So I've made some very specific proposals and I'm willing to stand by them. The problem is that this administration's view of governance is that economic prosperity is created by growing the government dramatically and then it gets misrepresented by people like yourself who are saying that if you do any of this stuff you are going to end up not funding education. That statement alone is the most irresponsible statement I've heard probably in a month.

Brewer: it wasn't a statement, it was a question...

Gregg: And there are a lot of irresponsible statements made by reporters and that was the most irresponsible I've heard.

Francis: Senator, with respect, that's not what she said, she was asking you what you would like to cut ..

Gregg: =That's exactly what she said! Go back and read your transcript.

Brewer: thank you for your time, Senator ...

Gregg: You can't be duplicitous about this! You can't make a representation and then claim you didn't make it. You've got to have some integrity on your side of this camera too.

Francis: She asked you what you would like to cut, she asked you if you would cut schools. You said no.

Gregg: You're suggesting we should have a zero in education. Well of course, nobody's suggesting that. Nobody's even implying that. But in your introduxction to me you said that. That education funding would be cut. Well, education funding isn't going to be cut.

Brewer: Well Senator, I'm sorry for any communication problems that we'v had, but as always, we appreciate your time ...

QOTD.

Maggie Gallagher continues to find new ways to disgust me.

In Europe and Canada it is becoming increasingly clear that gay rights requires the repression of Christianity and other traditional faith communities. Can we find a better solution?

Super Mavericky!

McSame hates everything Obama said last night, and hates all the applause, and hates teh gay.

This is the guy, remember, who loves to "reach across the aisle."

Glenn Reynolds: Fucking genius

Instarube's ability to read the public's mind and make wholly accurate yet sweeping claims about how the entire nation feels (which, curiously, is always exactly the same as Glenn Reynolds feels!) is as sharp as ever via the equally brilliant Don Surber. On Obama chiding the Supreme Court in his speech:

Law professor Glenn Reynolds, on whether Justice Alito should just take President Obama’s words like a man: “No, actually, you don’t, and Alito didn’t. And that will step on Obama’s press tonight and tomorrow, turning his demagoguery into a negative for him. That’s why Presidents usually act Presidential. Not so much because it’s dignified. But because it’s smart. That’s something that Obama, with his limited experience on the national stage, hasn’t figured out yet.

The mouthing of words was one of the few newsworthy moments in a speech that dragged on for more than an hour as Obama grasped at any and all straws in a desperate attempt to salvage his presidency. He failed. He has become an uninspiring speaker who has used up all his magic. Quantity cannot make up for quality.

Pitchforks and torches are out.


Maybe take another look at those tea leaves, dipshits.

Yes.

In hindsight, IMAX is also kinda funny.

Careful not to overload the server

If you ever get tired of PJTV reruns (as IF that's possible) check out the only thing shittier:


Let's not all rush over at once, lest we overwhelm the "NRO TV" server.

I'm Sure The White House is Relieved.

All things considered, this is pretty funny.

The Nine Scariest Words in the English Language.

"I need to get cracking on the next book."
-- Jonah Goldberg

Question is, will he outsource most of the book, or all of it?

I'm Pretty Sure This is What Kaus Means By 'Excitable.'

Mr Sullivan's latest seems specifically designed to send John Cole back to the hospital. Like, forever.

In short order, he says he's "encouraged by the spending freeze and thrilled by the debt commission idea" (for reals?) and that "If [Obama] cannot deliver" -- i.e. force the House and Senate to pass the goddamn healthcare bill -- he...

Wait. Read for yourself:

These are dark times as the forces of reaction and resistance redouble their efforts to prevent any reform on any issue. Obama was elected to break through that impasse. If he cannot deliver, he must cede to someone who can.

Look, I realize that Sullivan sometimes lets his heart get the way of his head. It's a trait that, frankly, makes him equal parts interesting and infuriating. That's okay! But it sounds like he's saying that if the Senate and House don't agree on a bill, Obama ought to resign.

Am I misreading this? Were it not for Sullivan's famous hatred for Hillary Clinton, I'd say he was taking his cues from Will Bower. (thnx, Tom65!)

Are you at least charging them ad rates?

Another day of "news" dominated by powered gadgets for yuppies. Do the media actually do this for free or is Apple paying for it?

Wingnut Case for Waterboarding Implodes.

FP:

Well, it's official now: John Kiriakou, the former CIA operative who affirmed claims that waterboarding quickly unloosed the tongues of hard-core terrorists, says he didn't know what he was talking about.

Kiriakou, a 15-year veteran of the agency's intelligence analysis and operations directorates, electrified the hand-wringing national debate over torture in December 2007 when he told ABC's Brian Ross and Richard Esposito  in a much ballyhooed, exclusive interview that senior al Qaeda commando Abu Zubaydah cracked after only one application of the face cloth and water.

Flashback:

"Based on Kiriakou's statements, it certainly seems that waterboarding Zubaida was the right call. Those who disagree should explain either (a) how they would have gotten Zubaida to talk or (b) why the lives of innocent people (the ones Kiriakou says were probably saved) should have been put at serious risk to spare this terrorist 35 seconds of extreme duress." (Powerline)

"Recent revelations by 14-year CIA veteran John Kiriakou bolster the case for waterboarding. Simply put, it works — even when nothing else does." (Deroy Murdock)

"It’s obvious in retrospect that the waterboarding of animals like Zubaydah was an exercise in restraint, not an orgy of mistreatment. In the wake of 9-11 it might have been easy for officers to justify all kinds of treatment that, thank goodness, they don’t seem to have even contemplated. They used one method that was known not to leave lasting damage and that breaks subjects very quickly." (Hot Air)

"Less than five minutes, three awful men, five years ago." (Jonah Goldberg)

(Via bjkeefe's invaluable wingnuttia search engine)

Imagine.

What was it that Jesus said about humility? "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."

Destroying the Democratic brand.

Thanks, Mr. President!

Watergate!!!!111!!!!

The guy behind the ACORN prostitution video was arrested for trying to bug Mary Landrieu's phone. I certainly didn't think the right was above this, but these retards make the Watergate burglars look like Ocean's 11.

One of the "conspirators" is the son of the US Attorney in New Orleans. Let's see if they get prosecuted.

Fun Chart of the Day.

In Tucker Carlson's defense: other attempts at conservative journalism have been fucking hilarious even more embarrassing. And you know what? Unlike, say, attempted wiretapping, running a shitty website isn't a felony.

Idiot.

It's hard to believe that people were seriously pushing this guy as veep...

More Senate Democrats are pressuring the Obama administration to move Sept. 11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s trial out of New York City and into a military commission.

Democratic Sens. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Jim Webb of Virginia signed on to a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder condemning the administration’s November announcement of a criminal trial in Manhattan.

Webb's in great company: other signatories include Sens. Lieberman, Collin, Graham and McCain.

Hope this douchebag is happy with his new friends!

Feel Free to Parse This.

K-Lo:

I suppose Tebow's mother, who appears in the ad — he [sic] doctors urged her to abort Tim and she chose not to — isn't really a woman? She's certainly not represented by the National Organization for Women. But I know the feeling.

Asking the important questions

It didn't take the media long to move beyond the human suffering frame to start asking the important questions about Haiti. Such as, "Are property rights being enforced?"

I'll take awkward closeted gay men photos for $200, Alex.

Creepiest. Photo. Ever.




(via)

But I'm Trying to Be.

Adam's Apple.

Don't Make Me Laffer.

Putz:

FREEMAN HUNT: “You want a big tent? It’s fiscal conservatism. The people are overwhelmingly in favor of it. You offer that, you follow through on it, and you get the Republicans, the moderates, and a sizable chunk of disaffected Democrats.”

How this should read:

FREEMAN HUNT: “You want a big tent? It’s Lucy Lawless riding a unicorn. The people are overwhelmingly in favor of it. You offer that, you follow through on it, and you get the Republicans, the moderates, and a sizable chunk of disaffected Democrats.”

I'll write this in block letters because it is a cold fact of nature that wingnuts are stupid: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS 'FISCAL CONSERVATISM.'

Reagan? Never balanced a budget. Mired the country in a shitstorm of Federal debt. Bush? Uh yeah. Even The Weekly Standard scoffs at the idea.

Anyway.

Analogy Fail.

Putz:

OBAMA’S PET GOAT MOMENT? “Please let this be a photoshop!”

Because Obama using a teleprompter is exactly like Bush reading to school children for seven minutes while New York burned.

*rimshot*

Looks like tens of thousands of Haitians will be getting AFC Champion New York Jets t-shirts this week.

What, too soon?

Getting rid of DLC Senators.

I'm not advocating some kind of purge or teabagger-esque loyalty tests, but I don't think it's too much to ask to no longer tolerate Democrats who undermine their own brand by using right-wing frames.

Department of Witty Repartee

Admit it, you've already forgotten that the Daily Caller exists. Rest assured that Tucker's Folly is still chugging along and offering heaping portions of the same old shit. My favorite feature (if I had to pick just one) is The DC Trawler, the thought-stream of inveterate non-thinker and Instaputz favorite Jim Treacher.


Don't worry, the content is just as good as the artwork.

Don't Mess With Mommy.

Hmm?

To the Google!

[Lucianne] Goldberg set up her own literary agency in 1972. One of her clients, celebrity biographer Kitty Kelley, sued Goldberg in 1983, charging breach of contract, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty over proceeds from Kelley's book on Elizabeth Taylor. The jury awarded Kelley $60,000, but the judge reduced the award to $40,000 and dismissed the ruling of fraud.^[4]

Advertising 101

Speaking of 15 year old boys (and K-Lo's need to get laid reaching the boiling point) my spam filter recently caught an advertisement for something called the "Rolling Razor". Among its random collection of endorsers (including Donald Trump and Meredith from The Office) I noted the following:


Memo to Rolling Razor, Inc.: three junior high kids who shave once per year with a wet washcloth are not the best endorsers for a razor.

Love,
Instaputz

Ew. Again.

K-Lo is attending the big-time anti-abortion march in DC and of course has a funny thing to say about it:

Easy on the eyes, right K-Lo?

Run for Your Lives, Knoxvillians.

Will Putz meet Yutz?

For the sake of the good people of Knoxville -- especially 2 folks in particular of whom I am fond -- let us pray this unimaginable horror is avoided.

And Out of Its Ashes Rose a Senator. His Name Was Franken.

The news that Air America is finally gone will be news to Putz. He buried it years ago!

JEFF JARVIS has some observations on Air America, and concludes: “I doubt that Air America will last to the election. (May 13, 2004)

BRIAN ANDERSON WRITES THAT Air America is crashing, and can’t be saved. (April 19, 2005)

Sic.

What? I thought presidents had no control at all over the legislative process.

This would go under the "no, shit Sherlock" category.

The Obama/Baucus theory of writing a bipartisan health care bill seemed to basically amount to “have a lot of meetings with Chuck Grassley.” A different theory would be “have Tom Vilsack run against Chuck Grassley with a nice war chest so Grassley feels it’s in his interests to strike a deal.”

Ya think?

WTF.

Mark Krikorian:

My guess is that Haiti's so screwed up because it wasn't colonized long enough.

Italics his.

Birth of a Talking Point.

Hugh Hewitt:

We’ve invaded Haiti. We dropped troops on the presidential palace yesterday. The difference between Bush invading Iraq, and Obama invading Haiti, is that Bush had Congressional authorization.

Joan Walsh is shrill.

Uh-oh.

Krugman:

I’m pretty close to giving up on Mr. Obama, who seems determined to confirm every doubt I and others ever had about whether he was ready to fight for what his supporters believed in.

That's Why We Called Them Bedwetters.

Ezra Klein:

I tend to think that people overestimate the behavioral differences between the two parties. Democrats are certain that Republicans are lockstep automatons willing to go to any length to win, but Republicans often feel that way about Democrats. That said, I'm trying to think of a time when Republicans overreacted this badly. I remember when they lost former speaker Dennis Hastert's seat in a special election, but I can't recall the party collapsing in on itself in such paroxysms of terror. Harris Wofford used health-care ads to unexpectedly close a 44-point gap to win a special election in Pennsylvania, and Republicans still murdered the Clinton reforms the next year.

So help me out here. Are there even any contenders? Or are Republicans just made of sterner stuff?

Yes, there are and no, they are not. One could dig up any number of Chicken Little Republican reactions to the attacks of September 11, 2001, but here's an InstaPutz favorite:

GEORGE BUSH IS NOW THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THE WORLD: People always say that about Presidents, of course, but usually it's only notionally true. Now, if he wants to nuke Baghdad, there is nobody to say him nay -- and damned few who would want to.

Recall: When a couple of Saudi guys with box cutters attacked Washington and NYC, the first reaction of most Republicans, including the President, was to destroy Baghdad.

I think we can all agree this was an overreaction.

Worse Than Mouthpiece Theater.

I guess this is aimed at the 8 people nostalgic for the Jonah Goldberg 'n' Peter Beinart Show?

Stop the Motherfucking Presses.

According to Politico, this warrants an entire article.

I'm sure Politico's press release for a very influential wingnut won the afternoon.

Starbursts!

Sorry, Rich Lowry:

In Touch Weekly's gamble on Sarah Palin didn't pay off. The magazine paid $100,000 for a cover story on the former Alaska governor and her daughter, Bristol, for the current issue. But, despite Palin's huge book sales and TV ratings, sources said In Touch sold about 500,000 copies on newsstands, about half the number it sold a few weeks ago with the late Brittany Murphy on the cover.

In other news, the monorail that Palin peddled to the good people of Springfield has turned out to be a major fraud.

Ew.

..."In unrelated news, the Secret Service detail for Sasha and Malia has just been tripled."

Laff of the Day.

Thank you, Lanny Davis:

We liberals need to reclaim the Democratic Party...

Could there be a less appropriate second word? I think not.

Now holding auditions for a new savior

Whoops.

Broken down by party, 56 percent of Republicans are against a potential Palin presidential campaign while 30 percent are for it. Meanwhile, the vast majority of Democrats, 88 percent, are not in favor of a Palin presidential run.

I'm sure Putz will correct his assertion about Palin being as popular as Obama.

FOUR people! Holy fuck!

Oh, K-Lo:

Election Scene [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

From Attleboro:

Just voted in Attleboro MA (for Scott brown of course) and encountered a scene that seems to be a picture of the whole race. When I pulled into the parking lot, there were 4 volunteers holding Brown signs. They were excited, enthusiastic and waiving to everyone who pulled in. There was only one Coakley sign – and it was held by a street sign. That’s right; someone had duct taped the Coakley sign to the nearby street sign. None of her “volunteers” wanted to be out in the cold either I guess.

01/19 10:05 AM

Four people, but boy were they excited!

Memo to the Naderite McKinney supporters.

Grow the fuck up.

I said it, and I'll say it again.

Momentary glimpses of sanity

About 25 years ago you could still find a Republican or two in the Senate who would stand up and call his colleagues racist assholes for attempting to block the adoption of the MLK holiday.

That would happen today too, right?

Also, Summarily Execute Rahm Emanuel. kthxbai!

Oy. (bumped by BT)

Progressives, please help defeat Coakley

"It is very important that progressives help defeat Coakley. Please read my explanation." Uh, no. I think you should go fuck yourself.

Getting egged on by Putz? Bad!

...BT adds (in comments as well):

It's important to distinguish between The Seminal diaries -- where any idiot can post whatever they want -- and the FDL front page.

Just as anyone can go to Kos and publish a diary about how awesome voting for Cynthia McKinney and Ralph Nader is and what a corporatist shill Obama is, you can do the same at Seminal.

You'll note that this particular diarist has a whopping two posts.

So attributing that headline to "FireDogLake" the way Putzy has done is -- suprise! -- totally dishonest.

Bush's Prezidentin' tie.

His official portrait.



Appearing with teh Clenis yesterday.



Kinda odd.

People have exceedingly short memories.

How quickly they forget.

It’s instructive to compare Mr. Obama’s rhetorical stance on the economy with that of Ronald Reagan. It’s often forgotten now, but unemployment actually soared after Reagan’s 1981 tax cut. Reagan, however, had a ready answer for critics: everything going wrong was the result of the failed policies of the past. In effect, Reagan spent his first few years in office continuing to run against Jimmy Carter.

Mr. Obama could have done the same — with, I’d argue, considerably more justice. He could have pointed out, repeatedly, that the continuing troubles of America’s economy are the result of a financial crisis that developed under the Bush administration, and was at least in part the result of the Bush administration’s refusal to regulate the banks.

But he didn’t. Maybe he still dreams of bridging the partisan divide; maybe he fears the ire of pundits who consider blaming your predecessor for current problems uncouth — if you’re a Democrat. (It’s O.K. if you’re a Republican.) Whatever the reason, Mr. Obama has allowed the public to forget, with remarkable speed, that the economy’s troubles didn’t start on his watch.

Big mistake.

The Corner: calling someone a creationist is "sleazy", "slimy."

Kind of an odd reaction, since most Republicans are creationists -- including the Queen Teabagger.

Periodic reminder

Please remember that it is important to support our advertisers, without whom we would not be able to skewer Rod Dreher so regularly.

Dept. of Progressives Say Stupid Shit Too.

Paul Rosenberg, ladies and gentlemen:

...[T]he question is, "What purpose is Obama's intelligence devoted to?  And is the end result going to be smart or stupid?"

The answer I propose is simple, perhaps too simple, but I think it serves as a good-enough first approximation:  His intelligence is devoted to being a smarter version of Harold Ford. Okay, a lot smarter version of Harold Ford.  But still, Harold Ford.

Why stop there? I hear Obama and Toger Woods have a lot in common.

Gee, wonder why this is?

Are you listening, Mr. President?

Democrats face a growing enthusiasm gap in this year's battle for Congress, according to a new national poll.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday also indicates Americans are split in their choice for Congress in November's midterm elections, with Republicans making gains at the Democrats' expense.

Forty-nine percent of Republicans questioned in the poll say they're extremely or very enthusiastic about voting this year, up 6 points from November. Thirty-one percent of Democrats say they're enthusiastic, down 11 points.

This is what happens when you give your base the hand again and again in your first term.

Nice going.

Awesome.

A couple of days ago, I half-joked that Putz foresaw the recent assassinations of Iranian scientists because he had, infamously, called for exactly that two years ago.

Anyhoo. I'm not sure if we have readers in the erstwhile Evil Empire, but, well... 

US, Israeli Intelligence Behind Assassination

Iranian nuclear scientist and professor at Tehran University, Massoud Ali Mohammadi, was assassinated when "when a bomb strapped to a motorcycle exploded by remote control outside his home in his northern Tehran neighbourhood of Qeytariyeh." Mohammadi taught neutron physics and "was the author of several articles on quantum and theoretical physics in scientific journals," though the extent of his involvement in Iran's nuclear program is unclear

It just so happens that in February 2007, a controversy erupted when University of Tennessee Law Professor Glenn Reynolds advocated that, in response to Iran's nuclear activities, the U.S. should be "killing radical mullahs and Iranian atomic scientists." Exactly who told this Zionist that the U.S. had the right to behave in such a way? It should also be noted that such remote control explosions are a trademark of U.S. and Israeli terrorist activity.

That's from Pravda.

Hehindeedy!

New Low for Kaplan.

A defense of Pat Robertson:

I first met Robertson in 2003 while researching "Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite." We met over lunch on the campus of CBN and Regent University in a boardroom that featured a portrait of George Washington, wood paneling from floor to ceiling, and enough decorative crown molding to make a Daughter of the American Revolution swoon....

Robertson is a shrewd businessman, and although his 1988 bid for the White House failed early on, he enlisted millions of Americans in what would become a surge of conservative Christian influence in American political life. Why would someone as educated and experienced as Robertson make such outlandish statements? Even if he believes them, isn't he concerned about the backlash of criticism and ill will they generate for CBN and his other ventures?

When tragedies strike, people naturally ask questions about why bad things happen to the innocent. Millions of Americans see the hand of God or the devil at work in natural calamities and world events. In some ways, Robertson simply gives voice to a tendency all believers experience when grappling with the big question of why evil exists in a world made by a loving, powerful God.

I spent hours interviewing Pat Robertson and have dedicated years to studying his work and the wider evangelical world of which he is a part. Only he knows the extent to which he really believes some of his more dramatic pronouncements. But I am confident that he is savvy enough to realize such comments generate attention in the wider world, and they reflect as much his rhetorical flourish and skill in boosting ratings as they do his theology.

In other words, Kaplan Test Prep found one of the few people on earth with an economic interest in Pat Robertson not being seen as a bigoted old circus freak.

$50 on Erickson

So...first person to write a column this weekend about how Martin Luther King would have opposed health care reform?

It Burns.

A Curious Man [via]

If the President gave a press conference and I were allowed lob a few questions, I'd probably ask about short- and long-term plans to reduce unemployment, the prospects of repealing DADT, canceling Haiti's debt, and so on.

But I am not Jay Nordlinger, Senior Editor of the flagship conservative publication National Review.

You know what I’d like to see Obama asked about? I have yakked about this in Impromptus, but will do so again here. I’d like to see him asked about his bowing: before the Saudi king, the Japanese emperor, and the Chinese premier. He did not bow before the British queen, the Norwegian king, and others. So, what are the rules? What are his criteria? How does he decide? Is there a diplomatic calculation? Is it simply spur-of-the-moment?

I am not interested in “gotcha” (honestly). I am genuinely curious.

You know what, Jay? I believe you.

Like Glenn Beck, I fear for my country. But for different reasons.

And my favorite book is the bible and my favorite food is pizza. Also.

This idiot clearly doesn't know dick about anything and a) was nearly the Vice President of the United States and b) is the leader of one of the two major parties of the United States.

Guess that makes me an elitist snob who doesn't have common sense.

Please Do Not All Answer at Once.

How is it that an eminently accessible American poet, who was a Poet Laureate twice over and winner of both the Pulitzer and National Book Award, has no real cultural relevance? When was the last you heard the name Howard Nemerov, irrespective of his more famous sister?

Was Nemerov too square, or do people simply not read poetry anymore? I gotta believe work like this is still emotionally resonant.

I Got Yer Spending Cuts Right Here.

Putz in May:

Where are those “net spending cuts” we were promised during the campaign?

O hai!

President Obama notched substantial successes in spending cuts last year, winning 60 percent of his proposed cuts and managing to get Congress to ax several programs that had bedeviled President George W. Bush for years.

Good thing the blogosphere is self-correcting, amirite???

Heh.

High school flashbacks

As many of us learned in high school history courses taught by football coaches, sports metaphors are just about the laziest, lowest-browed rhetorical technique short of making fart noises and giving someone the finger.

Which is probably why we shouldn't be surprised to look at Tucker's Folly and see Rep. Eric Cantor explaining how the Obama White House is like the Washington Redskins.

PayPal is great, but...

The media is doing a fantastic job of overlooking the fact that Haiti needs a lot more than your old clothes and a few PayPal bucks. Like, maybe to be governed by something better than a US-approved, IMF-friendly kleptocracy.

Pajama Putziness.

VDH just wants to throw some stuff out there, if that's okay with you...

There are a number of things we simply no longer talk about. The silence is partly due to intellectual laziness. Or maybe it is because of political correctness—or even attributable to ignorance and the absence of curiosity.

Mostly, these "things" concern a favorite hobbyhorse of conservatives -- whitey has it rough! For example, in an effort to explain California's economic woes, Hanson slags undocumented immigrants. He says:

California, by most estimates, has somewhere between 40-50% of the nation’s illegal immigrants. That may mean 5-7 million residents here illegally, most without English, documentation, or high-school diplomas.

False.

In 2008, California had the most illegal immigrants at 2.7 million, double its 1990 number, followed by Texas, Florida, New York and New Jersey. Still, California's 22% share of the nation's illegal immigrant population was a marked drop-off from its 42% share in 1990.

I'll save you the trouble of clicking through: Hanson thinks the Iraq surge was a "brilliant success" and, somewhat oddly, "the construction of Barack Obama, the former Barry Soetoro, and his apotheosis by elite whites, is again an unintended paradigm of the times."

I leave to people smarter than me to explain that.

OMG! We're all gonna die!

Enough already.

Col Allen Simply Does Not Care for Haitians.

[via]

Conservatives are Weird, Part #5756.

John J. Miller:

It's hard to watch a vampire film without looking for metaphors—about STDs, AIDS, or whatever.

Sarah Palin, shilling for Big Liquor in Vegas.

Family values!

I could be wrong, but I don't think many Pentecostals would approve.

Chronicle of a Death Foretold. (By Putz.)

Putz, Feb. 2007:

We should be responding quietly, killing radical mullahs and iranian atomic scientists....Basically, stepping on the Iranians' toes hard enough to make them reconsider their not-so-covert war against us in Iraq.

Hehindeedy!

TEHRAN, Iran – A nuclear physics professor who publicly backed Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in the disputed June presidential election was killed Tuesday when a bomb-rigged motorcycle blew up outside his home.

 

The U.S. denies culpability.

This Could've Been Phrased Better.

Bush lackey Bradley Blakeman:

While I may not know what is in Senator Reid’s heart, I certainly know what is on his tongue.

Says the Guy Who Wrote "Scenes from a Prague Duet."

Hmmm.

Harry Reid’s not a racist; he’s a hack...

Now he’s something of a joke...

I'm no fan of Harry Reid, but a side-by-side comparison is not flattering to Roger. Reid rounded up 60 Senators for a health care reform bill.  Simon just published a thing by Mary Grabar.

Who's got a better résumé?

Not political, but not reporting.

Anyone else disturbed by the fact that Mark McGwire can claim that shooting horse testosterone into his body for a decade didn't help him hit home runs, and rather than laughing in his face the media dutifully reports it?

He's such a nice guy, it's sweet to see them doing PR and image rehab for him. He's not a monster like A-Rod or Barry Bonds.

Can anyone think of something about Mark McGwire that differentiates him from Alex Rodriguez or Barry Bonds?

We have one awesome media, as befits one awesome country.

QOTD.

BooMan:

[Hillary Clinton] is a fine Secretary of State, but she's not a good person. And imagining her hitting refresh on her blackberry to get the latest from that racist piece of shit blog No Quarter is funnier than it is sad. That's an image I'll always remember her by.

(He's writing about Game Change, of which he says "It's anonymously sourced... Grain of salt, and all that." I think BooMan and other progressives make a mistake by so casually dismissing the contents veracity of this book. Yes, Mark Halperin's name is on it and he is a sleazeball. But so is John Heilemann's, and he, to my knowledge, has never been anything but a reliable reporter.)

Glenn Reynolds: why isn't Harry Reid being treated like Trent Lott or Rush Limbaugh?

Putz, on why Harry Reid's comments are exactly the same as Rush Limbaugh's and Trent Lott's.

There does seem to be a double standard, doesn’t there?

No, actually there doesn't.

If someone has made a career out of saying bigoted things or associates with white supremacist groups, then they get a lot less slack when they get caught saying something racially offensive. And appropriately so.

Now as far as I know, Reid has not palled around with hate groups or made a habit of cracking black jokes or compiled a shitty voting record on civil rights, or suggested it would've been awesome of the US had elected a segregationist president.

So there's no double standard.

Asshole.

Define "Prescience," Plz.

Putz:

THE PRESCIENCE OF Victor Davis Hanson.

Hmmm. I have not clicked the link, but I've tried to figure it out by thumbing through our vast, illustrious archives:

-- "The war will be won or lost, like it or not, fairly or unjustly, in the next six months in Baghdad." (May 2007)

-- "Sen. Hillary Clinton once was damned for voting to authorize the war in Iraq. But her even more liberal rival Sen. Barrack Obama, D-Ill., now expresses his own willingness to invade nuclear Islamic Pakistan." (August 2007)

-- "Barack Obama is on his way to a McGovern candidacy." (March 2008)

It's one of those maybe, hmmmmmmmmmm?

High standards in journalism

Are you sitting down? Fox News hired the GovTard.

"I am thrilled to be joining the great talent and management team at Fox News," Palin said in a statement. "It's wonderful to be part of a place that so values fair and balance news."

And proofreading, apparently.

Cute Typo.

I'm sure this'll be corrected as soon as Andy Breitbart realizes Jesus didn't run the McCain campaign.

Too Early to Start a Death Pool?

Just got a look at The Daily Caller. As K. says, it's pretty terrible and does not refute my thesis that wingnuts can't/won't do reporting.

As an example of the seriousness of Carlson's endeavor, this is on the site's "news crawl."

(click to enlarge)

What's next? A Jeff Goldstein parody of the Thanksgiving Day parade?

With a paid staff of 21, I give this thing a year.

Why Wingnuts Don't "Do" Reporting, Excuse #34563485684.

A year ago, Matthew Yglesias observed that "What the right lacks are people with the skill" to produce real journalism. The response from the right was, eh, intense. Malkin's tepid defense of her conservative comrades simply made it clear how right Yglesias was.

Brian Maloney at the Radio Equalizer continues to do ahead-of-the-curve investigative work on his solo blog. You’ll recall that we teamed up to report on Air America’s financial shenanigans in 2005 — reporting that was resurrected in the Coleman/Franken race this fall. This year, Maloney broke several radio/media industry stories, many of which were picked up by Drudge or the rest of the MSM without attribution or hat tips. A sample: Maloney’s story on KGO nut Charles Karel Bouley threatening Joe The Plumber; financial turmoil at Citadel Radio; exclusives on Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes; reports on the unhinged rants of Randi Rhodes and Roseanne Barr...

Easy there, Woodstein! Turns out, conservatives really do suck at reporting. And now, thanks to newly-minted mogul Roger L. Simon Tucker Carlson, we know why:

Carlson, who started out as a Weekly Standard writer before becoming a cable pundit, says the site [the Daily Caller] will be distinguished by original reporting, including his own. "One reason there isn't more reporting online is that it's really expensive," he says.

So true. Everyone knows that Josh Marshall edits TPM from atop a throne of gold and Brian Beutler has an expense account that would make Tom Friedman jealous.

Yeah, what Reid said was incredibly stupid.

But MC Steele is probably not in the best position to demand anything.

Glass houses, and all.

Shitcan Harry Reid, Please.

Really, Harry?

I have a hard time believing that a guy Harry Reid's age (70) would use the word 'negro' ironically. In this day and age the word simply doesn't roll off the tongue.

Matthew Yglesias's take -- "[Y]ou can’t really apologize for being the sort of person who’d be inclined to use the phrase “negro dialect”" -- seems right on the money.

The Democrats, especially with Obama in the White House, ought to have zero tolerance for crap like this. For one thing, the optics are awful. Thanks to Reid, conservatives have quite understandably taken the opportunity to minimize Trent Lott's remarks about Strom Thurmond.

That's pretty fucking disgusting.

I hope Reid loses his majority leadership gig. I would not miss him.

If the wingnut in your life already has "Going Rogue"...

This is the white-trashiest thing I've ever seen, and I've been to two county fairs and a tractor pull.

I bring you The Conway Twitty^tm Tribute Pistol.

If you know of anything worse I don't want to see it.

The Party of Ideas.

It's Only a Matter of Time Before Richard Dawkins Kills a Troop of Girl Scouts.

Here's a bad joke: What do Mao, Stalin and Hitler have in common? 

Ah, yes. Warren looks at three of history's great monsters and decides that the problem is.... their atheism!(never mind that Hitler was a Roman Catholic) Maybe he'll take another 140 characters to explain himself?

It's worth repeating: Rick Warren is a very weird, very dysfunctional dude.

Horrible Link of the Day.

Putz:

JOHN STOSSEL: Who Is Wesley Mouch? Why Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged matters today.

 fyi, it's been more than a year and yet not a single one of these Randian masters of the universe have actually 'gone Galt.'

Never Forget.

Uh, sure:

IT’S TWO YEARS SINCE JONAH GOLDBERG’S Liberal Fascism came out, and it sure was well-timed.

More importantly, it's been two years since a very awesome and still effective Google Bomb. (Pantload actually wrote an irate post about it at the time, but it eludes me at the moment.)

Anyway, a proud moment.

Perspective.

Obama's job approval number today (52/42) is identical to the three-day rolling average from July 27-29, 2009.

Bring Me the Head of Andy McCarthy.

Interesting.

Over the past year, Secret Service agents charged with protecting President Obama seem to have taken a keen interest in the Birther movement, the committed group of anti-Obama activists around the country who claim the president was born in Kenya, not Hawaii, and is thus ineligible to serve.

The Secret Service has had a rough time of it, so I would like to make their job easier.

 

Birther

Please make sure he shares a cell with Pamela Geller. kthxbai!

ZOMG DODD RETIRES - DEMOCRATS FUCKED

God bless the Beltway press corps, always reliably carrying water for the GOP. Chris Dodd retires and this is the intro to the headline story on The Hill:

Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd (Conn.) on Wednesday announced that he will not seek another term after facing a tough reelection bid.

Dodd's decision to retire is another blow to the increasingly fragile Democratic majority in the Senate.

Last time I checked, Dodd was polling poorly and his replacement, Dick Blumenthal, was the most popular politician in the state. Last time I checked, Blumenthal had a hilariously large lead over presumptive GOP nominee Rob Simmons (59-28. 59-28!). Last time I checked, The Hill never let facts get in the way of fellating the Republican establishment.

A few hours later, The Hill amended its story to note that replacing the trailing, scandal-ridden candidate with one who has a 2:1 lead in the polls was not such bad news for the Democrats after all.

Age Old Question: Stupid or Lying?

Today's specimen is Roger L. Simon:

If there’s anyone more disdained than Barack Obama at this moment, it’s Nancy Pelosi, who is closed [sic] to the least liked American citizen? [sic]

As BooMan points out, Pelosi may not be popular in absolute terms, but in relative terms she's through the roof:

It's important to remember that all four leaders are unpopular. Pelosi, with a 42%-49% approval rating, only looks good by comparison. Her counterpart, Mr. Boehner, remains roughly as popular as a case of chlamydia (18%-62%). McConnell (18%-64%) is even worse off. And less than a third of respondents (32%) approve of the job Harry Reid is doing.

...The Rest of the Story.

Putz:

SEN. BEN NELSON: We Should Have Waited On Health Care. Ya think?

Unquoted by Putz:

Nelson also said the legislation wasn’t as rushed as people might think, having been in the works for almost a year. But he explained that setting deadlines is often what prompts governments to action.

“One thing I’ve found in Congress is that if there is no urgency, things don’t get done. Leadership always has an urgency,” he said. “Deadlines and crises are the very nature of how legislation passes.

Expecting Putz to provide context is like expecting a dog not to lick his balls.

This Must Be Palin's Play for the Independents.

She never ceases to exceed expectations...

WND founder Joseph Farah will join former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin as speaker at the first national tea-party convention – and he plans to get Americans energized and excited about reclaiming the nation this year from the clutches of "tyrannical central government."

Together at last!

Another Conservative Bites the Dust.

"Or"?

So cute...

Does Newt Gingrich Speak for Either Republicans or Tea Partiers?

Welch and Putz actually think there's a distinction.

[via]

O homem branco é o judeu do fascismo liberal.

Crazytown.

When Hugh Hewitt and Victor Davis Hanson get together, magic happens:

HH: Now do you believe this will be an issue in November of this year, the President’s sort of appeasement orientation towards…

VDH: Yeah, I think it is. I don’t think, though, that you’ll see one more bow, or one more apology. I think Barack Obama is one apology away, or one bow to a Saudi royal away from completely turning off the American electorate.

It's comforting to me that the intellectual leaders of the conservative movement believe stuff like this. You'll note, for instance, that during their entire conversation -- billed as a "sober assessment of Barack Obama's first year" -- the word unemployment doesn't come up once.

If guys like Hanson and Hewitt, who, for better or worse, are representative of where the GOP is at right now, truly have no idea what the public cares about, there's only so much damage they can inflict.

Garth! That was a Haiku.

K-Lo's fractured take on the English language has crossed the line from stupidity into poetry.

More Than Pamphlets from the Feds [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

I am reminded that at December omnibus-approps time in Washington, taxpayer funds were made available to pay for free needles for addicts. More than mapping out the right spot to hit when shooting-up, Congress has made sure taxpayer funds can provide the tools, too. Also in the name of harm-reduction.

01/05 06:44 PMShare

Seriously, I think that's almost haiku.

More than mapping out the right spot
to hit when shooting-up.
Congress has made sure taxpayer funds can provide the tools.
Also in the name of harm-reduction.

RedState is Very Subtle.

They do not like Charlie Crist. I wonder what they are trying to say here:

Somewhere Chuck Todd is smiling. Meanwhile, RedState goes on to note that the resignation of a Crist loyalist is "the fruits of our activism."

Says the Editor of What Was Once the Premiere Journal of Liberal Opinion.

Regarding the third White House party crasher, this just turned up on TNR:

Walter Lippmann wept.

Michael Steele: it's all the Bushes fault.

Wonder why Mr. Newt gets a pass?

How FOX Sees the World.

Nothing sinister here, right?

Wrong!

Is this an homage to Samantha Power, or simply a FOX web hamster freelancing? Hmmmm.

...Turns out, "monster" is internal code. Too bad. Anyway, CNN did it best.