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Showing posts from September, 2009

Partition- Is it coming?

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From Chuck Baldwin, at Renew America: "So, will the United States break up in 2010? Or 2011? Or 2012? Or anytime in the near future, for that matter? If history is any teacher, the chances would seem good that (this prediction) may be closer to reality than anyone would like to admit." Good idea, Chuck. I think I'm behind you on this one. Here's my proposal, for your consideration: What do you think? Oh, and don't let the door hit you on the way out.

More About Honduras

I can't say I searched the right wing blogosphere with a microscope today, but in my daily walk on the wild side, I found not a single comment about the latest actions of the Honduran military dictatorship, which they admire so much for its upholding of the constitution of Honduras by ousting the elected president on trumped up charges of violating their constitution. I did, however, find this: Gateway Pundit: "Newt Gingrich Blasts Obama Administration For Backing Leftist Criminal in Honduras" "For the first time in history the United States government is siding with Marxist leaders Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega, Raul Castro and Evo Morales against the pro-democratic Honduran government of Roberto Micheletti." As has happened in the past, of course, Newt fails to mention some others who sided with us on this issue: for example, France, Spain, Italy, Britain, Germany, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador, Taiwan, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Mexico, C...

Joke of the Day

From the Washington Times: "The world became safer when President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher were in power."

The Right Ratchets It Up a Notch

Here we go- a post from the fairly mainstream right wing Newsmax. A number of blogs have latched onto this one, and I'm going to join in: Obama Risks a Domestic Military ‘Intervention’ By John Perry "There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America’s military will intervene as a last resort to resolve the “Obama problem.” Don’t dismiss it as unrealistic. " A last resort, of course. I mean, they wouldn't have any other choice, right? America isn’t the Third World. If a military coup does occur here it will be civilized." Oh, of course. A civilized military coup. How nice. "That it has never happened doesn’t mean it wont. Describing what may be afoot is not to advocate it." Of course not. Really. There isn't the slightest sign in your remarks that this is what you want. You're just "describing." "Officers swear to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Unli...

Things You'd Never Know if You Didn't Listen to Dennis Prager

For today: "Environmentalists as a rule are responsible for millions of deaths." .......... Thanks for that, Dennis.

Two Morons

Max Baucus and Harry Reid.

Wingnut Wrapup

They're feeling their oats today: Phyllis Schlafly, Town Hall: "Singing Heil Obama in New Jersey" It gets more pathetic every day, huh? Heil Obama. I wonder if those are the words they really used. Erick Erickson, Red State: "Obama Administration Condones Sex With Minors. " His Evidence: "People with low IQ got to see Whoopee Goldberg defend Roman Polanski on the View yesterday. Goldberg had no problem with the man filling a thirteen year old girl with alcohol and drugs before raping her." Whoopee Goldberg is now, apparently, the entire Obama administration. Well, you know, they all look alike. You know what I mean. Streiff, Red State: "Common Sense Outlawed in Indiana" Streiff, where have you been, man? Common sense was outlawed in Indiana decades ago. Little Pammy Geller, Atlas Shrugs: "Afghanistan: Fatal Misunderstanders of Islam, "When you treat the Afghans with kid gloves, they will bite off your hand" Ouch, Pamm...

Oy Yoy Yoy

Gateway Pundit: "ACORN Was Behind Franken's Stolen Senate Seat" They just never go away, do they?

A Little Honduras Update

We all remember, I am sure, the tremendous victory for democracy that occurred in Honduras recently, when the legally elected president was replaced by a military coup, thus ensuring the right to liberty for all Hondurans- or at least that's the interpretation I documented from literally dozens of conservative sources. Well, right wingers, there's more good news for you: "Coup Declares State of Siege, Suspends Constitutional Rights On Sept. 26 the coup regime took abuse of illegitimate power one giant step forward by issuing an Executive Decree to suspend guaranteed rights under Articles 69, 72, 78, 81 and 84 of the Honduran Constitution....the decree declares a virtual state of siege in the country through the suspension of civil liberties. Freedom of movement for all Hondurans has now been prohibited formally....All unauthorized public meetings are also prohibited. ....the coup regime warns that violence has now been "legally" authorized. The decree, sent out ...

Wingnut Wrapup

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A short lineup today, with major contributions from Renew America, my current pick as looniest website on earth: Lloyd Marcus, Renew America: "Stop allowing the left to set the rules" Lloyd, let me explain something to you about elections, and what they are about. First, you see....Oh never mind, what's the point. Kevin Price, Renew America: "Obama should learn from FDR's mistakes" Apparently FDR caused the depression with his stimulus, two years before he was even elected. Obama is about to do the same thing. If he keeps up his stimulus programs, he will succeed in causing an economic collapse that happened before he was elected, too. We'll think about that reasoning, Kevin. Off hand, I'm just not sure that I buy it. J. R. Dieckman, Renew America: "Doomsday is coming to America" Obama's fault again, somehow. Jen Shroder, Renew America: "Obama's illegitimate war on Israel" Not so illegitimate that he hasn't la...

Child Molester

I want to report to you one of the most loathsome right wing smear jobs I have ever heard. I must say first that I saw this item at Sadly, No! I generally avoid just repeating things others have found, but this is so far beyond the pale that I think it needs all of the attention we can give it. As you may know, after several months of lunatic right wing claims about the census being a step toward dictatorship, a Federal census worker named Bill Sparkman was found hanged recently, stripped and bound with tape, and with the word "Fed" scrawled on his chest, in a very right wing part of the country. Here is a response to this incident from one Dan Riehl, a mid level right wing blogger: "Was Census Worker Bill Sparkman A Child Predator? Update: Before any more people start going bonkers that I'm accusing Sparkman of anything, take a breath. I've done a fair amount of crime blogging mixed in with politics over time. One doesn't rule anything in or out without s...

Republicans Amazed

I found this item at right wing website Red State so interesting: "A Daily Show Two-fer: Bashing the Dems Open Thread " The piece featured two clips of Jon Stewart making fun of a couple of Democrats. It is enough to totally stagger the imagination of Republicans that one Democrat would dare to criticize another Democrat. That sort of thing would never be allowed in the Republican party. That's why, as Karl Rove predicted, the Republicans have pushed the Democrats out of power for a thousand years.

Infomercial?

TPM Reports: "New Birther Infomercial Rolled Out In 7 States" Infomercial? Shouldn't that be "lieomercial" or something?

Republicans Ready for More Criminal Stupidity

Here We Go Again: "Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) suggested on Meet the Press this morning that the way to deal with Iran and its nuclear program is to push for regime change. Kyl also implied that the time for talking with Iran is over -- or should be soon. "At a certain point, talking is counterproductive rather than productive because time is not on our side," he said, adding later that "the carrot approach does not work with these people." Thank the lord in heaven above that Republicans are not running this country right now, and let's pray that they never get their hands on the government again. Didn't they learn one damned thing from their eight years of grotesque mismanagement of the country? Or are they proud of the great job they did "bringing democracy" to Iraq, a country far smaller than Iran, which had no viable army? In the lead above, I called this "criminal stupidity." That hardly begins to express the lunatic derangement tha...

Beltway Pundit Demonstrates Stupidity Again

Charles Krauthammer, a classic example of how being wrong about everything for forty years straight earns you a place as a respectable voice in our media: "He started out saying things like no nation can dominate another. He said no group of nations ought to be above others," said Krauthammer. "What do our allies think when they hear that?" What do they think, Charles? Let me tell you what they think. They think that, at last, there is a sane adult in the White House. That's what they think, you stupid, ignorant tool.

Republicans: Let the CIA Go!

As Reported in the Washington Post: "Republicans on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said Friday that they will no longer participate in an investigation into the Bush administration's interrogation policies, arguing that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s decision to reexamine allegations of detainee abuse by the CIA would hobble any inquiry.... "Had Mr. Holder honored the pledge made by the President to look forward, not backwards, we would still be active participants in the Committee's review," the ranking Republican on the intelligence panel, Sen. Christopher S. Bond of Missouri, said in a statement. "What current or former CIA employee would be willing to gamble his freedom by answering the Committee's questions?" "Looking forward" being, in this case, not looking at all. What they are really saying is they will participate in an investigation of their party's management of our national defense, as long as it d...

Wingnut Wrapup, Back Again

Well, there's so little news these days that I thought I would take a little dip in the wicky wacky world that is today's conservatism. It's not as funny as it was a few months ago, and I'm not as inclined to cut them as much slack as before, but here's what there is: Michelle Malkin, Town Hall: "The Three R's in the Age of Obama: Rappin', Revolution and Radicalism" Negro! Communist! Negro Communist! Communist Negro!!!!! There! I guess Michelle made her point. Not racist, of course. Don't you dare suggest that. If you do, you are the racist, get it buddy? Now, back to the main point. NEGRO! Janet Shaw Crouse, Town Hall: "Does America Need Health Care Reform? U.S. Health Care Costs are Low, Results are High" How much did someone pay you to say that, you lying scum? And what else, exactly, would you do for your own personal advantage, other than deny forty million people health care? Suzanne Fields, Town Hall: "Wh...

Idiots

From the Washington Post, and the subject of much comment online today: "Democratic political committees have seen a decline in their fundraising fortunes this year, a result of complacency among their rank-and-file donors..." Complacency? I think a better word for what we are feeling might be fury. Fury at being betrayed by Obama and congressional Democrats. Fury at having given everything we could to a pack of liars who seem to be getting ready to hand the insurance companies a colossal, gigantic victory, and call it health care reform. Fury at paying Democrats for what we could have gotten for free from Republicans. Fury, in the end, at being cheated out of what we worked so hard to achieve, by people we trusted. Prove us wrong, Barack, and the money will come back. Prove us right, and screw you.

An Empty Day

Not much to talk about in the news. Just a few random thoughts: Republicans are incredibly boring and stupid. Rahm Emmanuel is a self serving dick, without a shred of principle. What does Harry Reid do for a living? Anyway, at the rate he's going, he won't be doing it much longer. For once, a victory for both parties. Everyone is sick of your waffling, Barack. Play your cards already- there's no one left who you can convince anymore. Time to deliver to your supporters. Or not. Did I mention that Republicans are incredibly boring and stupid? Update: On that Rahm thing, a quote today from Kos: "Rahm's interest in the institution of the House is in the numbers, not in the accomplishments themselves, except insofar as they can be used to generate better numbers. He never really cared, it seemed to me, about doing the things the House actually has to do once it's won. So it's no wonder he built a majority that feels the same way."

Ehud Barack vs, Wingnuts on Israel

Conservative view of Obama's stance toward Israel: "Obama Attacks Israel at UN General Assembly Barack Obama just slammed Israel at the United Nations General Assembly this morning. Obama just put Israel "on the chopping block," said former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton." This, from Gateway Pundit, but similar things are all over the conservative world. Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak: "Obama is investing a lot of his political capital in the peace process, and it's important that we don't waste this moment." Slight difference in tone there, huh? I wonder who to trust more on this issue, Ehud Barak or John Bolton. Update: This comment from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz: "Netanyahu sees confirmation of Israel positions in Obama's first UN speech" Netanyahu is, as I am sure you all know, a very conservative politician. Our lying, seditious, disloyal Republicans will say and do anything to damage Obama, no matter ...

Pammy Geller, In the Ozone Again

Oh, Pammy.... "Palin in Asia: Real American Leadership Overseas It is reassuring to know that there is a courageous leader going across the world to show the international community that there are great American leaders who are prepared to stand up and speak for America." A "leader," of course, who is not courageous enough to remain in her office and do her job. She is, however, "courageous" enough to go anywhere where she will be paid tens of thousands of dollars to shoot her mouth off. Pam, great leaders lead. When you give up your leadership position to run around spreading lies in an effort to enhance your own political and financial position, you are not a leader, you are a demagogue. Last week, Barack Obama got the Russians to turn missiles from Eastern Europe to Iran, for which accomplishment he received a barrage of abuse from people like you. Sarah Palin delivered a very well paid for speech. Which one is a courageous leader, and which one is ...

Obama is Just Like Hitler- Again

I have written before about the current Republican propaganda campaign to paint Obama as a would-be Hitler. This utterly preposterous smear continues unabated, given the lack of any substantive atrocities they can pin on him. Here's another example, a featured article from World Net Daily by one Janet Porter entitled "Austria in the 30's: Mirror to America." This discussion may be of limited interest to many of my readers; I am satisfying my own interest in this phenomenon by documenting their sordid campaign. The article primarily consists of the alleged memories of someone named Kitty Werthmann, who "was 12 years old when Adolf Hitler was elected fuhrer of Austria. " Let us leave aside the wisdom of basing our knowledge of world political affairs on the seventy year old remembrances of a twelve year old. Suffice it to say that Hitler was never "elected" the Fuehrer of Austria or Germany or anywhere else. After the Anschluss, with the German...

Wingnut Breakdown

If you have read this blog for very long (I'm talking to both of you) you will have noticed that, after many months in which I've had great fun bringing the daily lunacy of the right to your attention, I've dribbled to a halt the last few days. I'd like to take a minute to talk about why that is. Maybe three or four weeks ago, I began to get a sense of a lack of energy in the right wing world. Their output, it seemed to me, lacked the inspired derangement that made them so much fun to mock. I thought at the time that, maybe, I was just suffering from idiocy fatigue, and that, like old jokes, their maunderings just didn't entertain me any more. But now, after a few weeks, I don't believe that. I think it is they who are experiencing fatigue. They seem to have run out of the energy needed to dredge up their daily dose of malice. This has been particularly noticeable since the failed Washington teabag march a couple of weeks ago. They may be putting on a br...

Afghanistan- It's Over

Some generals "leak" their demands for more troops in Afghanistan, and suddenly, it's all over the news again. So, I'm going to repeat something I said not that long ago. We have lost in Afghanistan. After we drove the Taliban from power, George W. Bush spent six years bombing the hell out of them, and doing absolutely nothing to demonstrate an American willingness to think about their welfare. Bush and Cheney taught them well that we exist to torment them, to kill their relatives without a second thought, to prop up a dictatorial government headed by a former Union Oil employee, and to never, ever do anything that might make their lives better. My opinion? No matter what Obama does now, it's way too late to turn this situation around. They hate us, and with good reason. If we had gone into Afghanistan and spent a quarter or a tenth of the two trillion dollars we dumped down the sewer in Iraq, hiring Afghan companies and Afghan workers, to build a modern inf...

Pam Geller - Warmonger

Pammy's at it again. Nothing so straightforward that she can't twist it into a smear: "Stupid or Evil: Barack Hussein Obama ready to slash US nuclear arsenal" I guess Pam doesn't remember the other president that slashed our nuclear arsenal. That would be Saint Ronald Reagan. But, of course, what was heroism when a Republican did it, is now treason when a Democrat does the same thing. Predictable, Pammy justifies her stand with a pack of maundering nonsense about the great threat posed by Iran. Pammy, the United States currently has 9,960 nuclear warheads. Don't you think we could get rid of a couple of thousand of them and still be able to reduce Iran to rubble if we wanted to?

Change We Can Believe In, continuing

I think I've been focusing on Republican tantrums so much lately that I've neglected to mention the good news that continues, step by step, to come from the Obama administration. Here's today's example: "The fight for Net Neutrality took a big step forward on Monday with the chair of the Federal Communications Commission announcing plans to expand the rules to protect a free and open Internet." If you've followed this issue at all, you know there are people (i.e. Republicans) who would have loved to see federal rules giving huge corporations the ability to control internet content. Do you think you would ever read the above sentence if we were living with President McCain? Particularly as the internet played such a big part in Democratic victories the last couple of years. We're not getting everything we want, but let's not forget to be thankful for the good things we are getting.

What, George W. Bush Wasn't Really All That Religious?

From Huffington Post: "Bush In 2008: "I'm Not Going To Tell Some Gay Kid In The Audience That He Can't Get Married" Just in case there is anyone out there who bought into the unutterable garbage about "whatever else you say about Bush, he was a principled religious man who stood up for what he believed." This guy was a liar without a shred of morality, and anyone who really thought that he was a truly religious person should be ashamed of their stupidity. Bush cared about nothing except serving himself and the people who paid to put him in the White House, and nothing else on earth meant a God damned to him. The "Christians" who worshiped him were nothing but suckers; let's not join them. It is this kind of thinking, which goes beyond naivete to willing self delusion, that fuels meaningless, useless talk about bipartisanship with a party which has spent decades sacrificing anyone and everyone to serve its corporate masters.

Another Obama Success Vanishes Into the Ozone

I've mentioned Obama's great decision to pull the plug on the thirty year long Republican defense boondoggle known as the Strategic Defense Initiative, A.K.A. Star Wars. This multibillion dollar farce got that name, I am sure, because Yoda is as likely to show up at the State of the Union address as this fantasy program ever was to actually work. I pointed out that this decision, like all rational decisions of Obama became the target of an avalanche of right wing abuse, with the predictable "weak on defense" theme. No surprise there, but there's more. Obama agreed not to deploy this idiotic system in eastern Europe; in return, Russia agreed to take missiles that had been targeted on eastern Europe and target them on Iran, joining with us in trying to make the Iranian government see things our way. Thus, without fanfare or the slightest show of macho belligerence (an essential component of Republican foreign policy, no matter how many times it fails to work) Oba...

Egomaniacal Delusion of the Day

"I am getting close to removing the Usurper" -Orly Taitz

Stating the Obvious: It's Really Not That Hard

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From Time Magazine: "Plenty of political concerns have been raised over President Barack Obama 's decision to scrap plans to deploy a missile-intercept system in Poland and the Czech Republic ....The military rationale for Obama's move is hard to argue with." In other news, "Little to argue with in Obama's decision to stop sending people from Kansas up in tornadoes, to find the land of Oz." And this just in: "Cheney plan to form an alliance with Darth Vader given limited chance, due to Vader's having lived long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away" You have to give the Republicans credit. They scream their heads off about the budget, and then throw a tantrum when Obama stops funding a science fiction project with zero chance of ever working. Did I say credit? Actually, I'm not sure how much credit you get for stupidity and dishonesty. Below, artist's rendering of the newest Republican plan to spend a couple of trillion "def...

A Depressing Political Reality

There's so much out there to be depressed about. What has been depressing me lately is the way in which the Republican party and their collaborators known as the mainstream press have managed to reduce our entire political discourse to nothing but an endless sequence of ludicrous Republican lies, and the need of Democrats to spend their time dealing with them. I have said before that I believe this is because Republicans cannot hope to win a fair discussion of the issues, as they are nothing but front men for the most corrupt of the rich. On a whim, I spent a few minutes listing some of the right wing lies that have gained currency over the last year or so. I am sure I missed a lot of them, but here are the ones I thought of: We Don't Know Who Barack Obama Is Obama is an illegal alien Health care reform will result in government death panels that will decide if you live or die Obama is a Muslim Obama is a Communist "Manchurian candidate" Obamacare will provide fre...

Saint McCain- Thank God He Didn't Win

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John McCain today: "It seems to me that President Carter has earned his place as if not the worst president in history, the worst president of the 20th Century." Listen, you lying dick, did Jimmy Carter kill a million people in a war of aggression? Did he come as close as humanly possible to starting a new depression? Did he turn the Justice Department over to a bunch of lunatic political hacks? Did he deliver a near mortal blow to the middle class? Did he disgrace and humiliate our country here and abroad with almost everything he ever said or did? Did he pick a violent criminal madman for his vice president, and then let this prick run roughshod over him and everyone else who got in his way? Did he turn the White House into a bazaar for every corrupt corporation in the world? Did he let someone attack our country, and then not bother to catch and punish that person, while he was using our armed forces to settle a personal score in another country that posed no threat...

Republican Whining Continues

The right wing pseudo-outrage of the day, all over the wingnut web: "Surrender: Obama Betrays Eastern European Allies, Scraps Promised Missile Defense" Translation: Obama decides not to use Poland and the Czech republic as dumping grounds for an assortment of useless, non functional science fiction junk, produced by our defense industry at great expense to the American taxpayers, despite decades of evidence that it didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of ever working. What a disgrace, huh? This replaces yesterday's outrage, the claim that Acorn members were helping pimps and prostitutes bring underage illegal aliens into the country as sex slaves. That one was based on a secret tape made by two right wing plants, who "disguised" themselves and went into an Acorn office. If you have seen pictures of these two brave people, you would know that they looked like a couple of young Republicans dressed up as low-lives for a high school play. No person w...

More Orly

Someone stop me! I can't help myself! This, today, from Orly Taitz, in response to her latest judicial humiliation: "I am in court fighting to make sure this country doesn’t turn into another Communist Hell, as I experienced as a child, so we don’t live under Dictator Obama with all his szars like another Himler or Herring or another Beria." God protect us from the szars. And what will ever happen if we fall into the hands of another herring? Oh wait, herrings don't have hands. Thank heaven- I've already got enough to worry about. And, in response, she received this e-mail which she thoughtfully reproduced on her website: "I have challanged Judge Land to a round of “Fist a Cuff’s” in the Couthouse Square, via E-mail… I told him that I might possibly beat some sense into him….The man has insulted Me,U and 1/2 the Citizenry of the United States, by tossing ur case and calling it “Frivolous”….No such thing as a Stupid Question, and I want to know who or wha...

Sucker of the Week

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Here he is: Senator Max Baucus. The perfect example of the spineless, utterly lacking in principle, worthless Democrat we have come to know so well over the last thirty years or so. This total fool allowed the Republicans to lure and lie him into producing a health care reform bill which is, unbelievably, worse than the current mess, and which in fact consists of nothing but a gigantic, trillion dollar gift to the health insurance companies, with absolutely nothing to help the American people, or to deal with the disastrous economics of our current system. They led him around by the nose with promises of bipartisan support that no one over the age of five could have possibly found credible, so he could try to make himself look like the hero, by delivering one or two Republican votes for a bill so damaged that it must make the insurance companies jump for joy. So, Max, you sold your soul, and what did you get in return? Ten Republican votes? Five? One? No, you got nothing. Zero....

A Little Wingnut Wrapup

Really, I am so sick of our entire political discourse being reduced to nothing but refuting one gigantic Republican lie after another, taking a little damage with every new delusion they spread. And of course this is because anyone who knows the truth will support the Democratic alternative on every issue, so they have to create enough noise to utterly erase reality from the public forum. Well, here's some of the noise that attracted my attention today: Tristan Yates, Pajamas Media: "The Uselessness of Paul Krugman" Because Tristan Yates, self-described financial consultant, is so much more knowledgeable in the area of economics than an ignorant poser like Nobel Prize winning Princeton Economics Professor Paul Krugman. This is proven by the fact that, although Professor Krugman is always right about things, he is also always liberal; whereas Tristan Yates, while admittedly always wrong about things, is always conservative. Q.E.D! John Rosenthal, Pajamas Media: ...

Antichrist

Start your day off with a bang: "Fourteen percent of Republicans think Obama is the Anti-Christ. Fifteen percent are not sure." And this is in New Jersey . Imagine what the numbers are in Arkansas. It sickens me to think that fourteen percent of Republicans think anybody is the anti-christ, let alone this obviously well-meaning, serious man. What a bunch of losers.

David Vitter Solves the Health Care Crisis

This serious contribution to our national health care discussion, from the well-known Senator and moralist, David Vitter: "U.S. Sen. David Vitter has endorsed a new study from a conservative think tank that calls for scrapping the nation's employer-based health insurance system in favor of individually owned policies and converting the Medicaid program into vouchers for private insurance." Remember a couple of years ago when they wanted to do that sort of thing with Social Security? Boy, they never give up, do they? I wonder if there is an undiscovered provision in Vitter's plan that allows people to spend their health care vouchers on prostitutes. That would certainly explain things. Or, it could just be that he is just unbelievably, stupendously greedy? He is a Republican, so it's hard to say.

Sick Joke of the Day

Dennis Prager, Dennis Prager....is there anyone on earth more dishonest? Things you would never know if you never listened to Dennis' radio show: "So far, in the opposition to Obama, we have seen nothing of the violence and hatred that we see from the other side." What can you say? I guess the guy must get paid plenty to claim in public that he believes stuff like this.

Musing on the Market

I'm certainly no expert on this subject, but I just happened to notice today that the market is up another 56 points, to 9683. This represents a 48% gain in the Dow in six months, since its low of 6547 on March 9th, a month and a half into Obama's term. That seems like a pretty spectacular gain to me. At this rate, the Dow could essentially double in value in a year. Does anybody know if there have been other such relatively sustained periods of growth in the Dow of this magnitude since, say, 1940? This got me thinking that with a little more good news, we could be closing in on 10,000 in a month or two. You'd think that getting the Dow back into five figures for the first time since (I think) last October 3, would be a tremendous psychological event. I'm so looking forward to the heaps of praise that the ever- serious business minded Republicans will heap on President Obama and the Dems in Congress, for rescuing the country from the economic catastrophe brought on ...

Why We Need a Public Option

The insurance companies are thieves, and they need to be punished severely. Otherwise, they will never stop their criminal behavior. That's what government is for, right? To protect us from predators.

How Many Teabaggers Were There?

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I know I seem really long-winded about last Saturday's Washington D.C. Teabag party. I just want to make sure that, as far as possible, we figure out just how many people were there, because the teabaggers are claiming that their ludicrously inflated numbers indicate a powerful national movement. I think otherwise. I think the entire tea party thing has been, largely, a synthetically generated hoax, using a group of pathetic, frightened white suckers to advance the interests of big business. Here's my case for this particular event. I have scoured right wing websites for pictures showing the largest number of people, and will now attempt to guess at the number of people they show. The largest number of people by far are to be seen in this photo and a couple like it, showing teabaggers marching down Pensylvania Avenue. The shot shows the area from the point where Pennsylvania Avenue turns to go past the White House, down the street to somewhere close to the Capitol. How fa...

A Comment on The Continuity of Lunacy on the Right

Here is a really great article from Glenn Greenwald reminding us that the outbreak of conservative lunacy directed toward Obama is hardly without precedent. Greenwald takes us on a little stroll down memory lane, reminding us of the deluge of baseless conservative attacks suffered by Bill Clinton. I would like to add that he might have gone farther back to discover the same sort of thing being directed at Carter, whose legitimacy they managed to totally destroy, and above all towards Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In fact, since the total takeover of the party by monied interests at the time of Taft, driving Teddy Roosevelt, the trust busting environmentalist whom they still insist on claiming as one of their own, out of their party forever, this has been their staple in politics. And the phenomenon is hardly an American one. Anyone familiar with the Weimar Republic, and the hounding to death of its first leader, Friedrich Ebert, by literally hundreds of false charges, will see a simil...

Bye Bye Democrats

All our work. The fact that the American public is on our side on almost every issue. The manifest disasters produced by eight years of Republican rule. The clear fact that the Republican party has given in to a vicious, willing madness. All of it means nothing. The Republican party is going to take back Congress and the White house by 2012. How is this going to happen? Well, it's a long story, going back to Richard Nixon, and two southern crackers named Haynesworth and Carswell. Don't recognize them? They were two racists sons of bitches that Nixon tried to put on the Supreme Court. When the Democratic congress had the sense to throw both of them into the trash can, Nixon just went ahead and appointed an even worse racist, in-the-pockets-of-the-rich jerk, William Rehnquist. On the third try, the Democrats ran out of steam and let Nixon have his way. From this time dated the era in which Republican presidents did not for a second consider the interests of the country i...

And More

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Davis Shuster's Twitter comment, courtesy of County Fair: " "Freedomworks says their dc demonstration attracted 30,000 people. Park police official says that is being 'generous.' " And this, from Crooks and Liars: "For reference, I crossed 3rd Street and took a picture facing west from the Capitol at the Washington Monument, similar to some of the crowd shots we'd seen after the inauguration. Here's the difference between the teabaggers' protest today vs. President Obama's inaguration crowd, which included anywhere from 1 million to 1.5 million people." Here's the picture: Ha Ha Ha. More to come, I'm sure. UPDATE: Just a little perspective here. A single speech by Obama on the same day, in Minneapolis drew an estimated 15,000 people- about a quarter of what months of preparation and publicity netted the teabaggers. Sure there are some suckers who have fallen for this and really believe all the lies, but in the end, the who...

Teabaggers and the Press, part 2

Your serious, liberal beltway media. From Media Matters: "Behold the media's glaring double standard. Today, the Post puts the "tens of thousands" of Obama-hating tea bagger protesters on A1; makes it the lead story as a matter of fact. Back in 2002, when more than 100,000 anti-war protesters gathered in the nation's capitol to protest the Bush administration, the same Wash. Post did its best to ignore them..." And by the way, I repeat again, having been at the last big Bush-era protest, " More than 100,000" in this case is 3-400,000; official counts of yesterday's hatefest come in at 60-70,000. And, I have to throw in here a great link to pictures of this event, by Oliver Willis . Good for a laugh or two. I'm looking myself for long shots so we can make some kind of guess of the real size of the crowd. For anyone that cares, in a day or two I will show the ones with the most people in them.