A Spork in the Drawer

Barack Obama

Communist.

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The Company They Keep

Newsweek's Isikoff and Hosenball report from the first day of the "trial" of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed:

He then declared, in a surprisingly high-pitched voice, speaking halting but clear English, "I cannot accept any attorney who is not governed by sharia [Islamic] law. I will represent myself. I will not be represented by anybody even if he is a Muslim, because he will be sworn to your American Constitution. I consider all the U.S. Constitution and laws evil. They are allowing for same-sexual marriages and many things that are very bad … Do you understand what I said?" [emphasis added]

The Republican Party will soon demand all charges be dropped so they can run him for political office.

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It's A Rupert World

Ad we're forced to live in it:

Tribune Co has reached agreement in principle to sell Newsday to News Corp (NYSE:NWS) for about $580 million in what would be a joint venture, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Under the terms of a deal, Newsday would be part of a joint venture with News Corp's New York Post and other News Corp assets, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. News Corp would own most of the company and Tribune would keep a stake of less than 5 percent.

Australia was colonized because Great Britain needed an empty* place to dump its criminals. Now those criminals our colonizing our "news" media.

Funny how the world works.

*Aborigines? What Aborigines?

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The Intellectual Bankruptcy Of The American Right (Cont'd)

Neil Boortz:

If I had a button right now, two buttons -- push this button and it gets rid of all the drug dealers; push this button, it gets rid of the teachers unions -- I'm getting rid of the teachers unions."

What if the the teachers' unions start giving the kids heroin? Hmmm?

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Useful

The great Roy Edroso of alicublog gives us The Official Village Voice Election-Season Guide to the Right-Wing Blogosphere: A confederacy of dunces.

Know thine enemy!

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Blogs Are Not The Enemy

Devilstower has a terrific post up at the Great Orange Satan:

Punditry has always aimed as much artillery at the people who deliver the news as it does at those who make it. There's a very good reason for this. Before you can convince someone of a lie, you need to make it more difficult for them to check your information. If you establish from the start that NPR is communist, MSNBC and CNN are slanted, and every newspaper this side of Journal's editorial page should be printed on pink paper, then any exaggeration you deliver becomes the de facto standard. Impugning the validity of other news sources is the first job of a successful pundit. They don't seek to be your sources of information by passing along reliable news. They do so by constantly assailing the legitimacy of other sources until you're left shaking your head at the absolute ignorance of everyone but Rush/Bill/Sean/Ann.

[...]

In response to the assault from less factual sources, media both accelerated the already existing trend toward mingling news and entertainment and -- in the most twisted move imaginable -- sought to imitate the mudslingers. They joined the war not by upholding their standards, but by dismissing them. And again, they did so for the reason that Keen indicates as the break between amateur and professional: the perception that there was more money to be made on the less truthful side of the aisle.

Definitely worth a read.

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Happy Anniversary!

On this date in 1861 Southern plantation owners began a war to protect their "peculiar institution".

Racists and Republicans (but I repeat myself) will spend the day imagining what could have been.

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Republican Patriotism

Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry:

We spent the night in the Green Zone, in the poolhouse of one of Saddam’s palaces. A little weird, I got to be honest with you. But I felt safe. And so in the morning, I got up early — not that I make this a great habit — but I went to the gym because I just couldn’t sleep and everything else. Well, sure enough, the guard wouldn’t let me in. Said I didn’t have the correct credentials.

It’s 5:00 in the morning. I haven’t had sleep. I was not very happy with this two-bit security guard. So you know, I said, “I want to see your supervisor.” Thirty minutes later, the supervisor wasn’t happy with me, they escort me back to my room. It happens. I guess I didn’t need to work out anyway.

More than 4,000 "two-bit security guards" have died for McHenry's favorite war.

Video at link. If you can stand it.

From Atrios:

Washington, D.C. Office

224 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Telephone: 202.225.2576

Republican Rep. Darrell Issa yesterday:

San Diego GOP Rep. Darrell Issa was under siege for suggesting the federal government had already done enough to help New York cope with "a fire" that "simply was an aircraft" hitting the World Trade Center.

More than 3,000 died when those aircraft hit the WTC, Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field.

WHAT. THE. FUCK. IS. WRONG. WITH. REPUBLICANS?

But I'm sure they were wearing flag pins on their lapels so it's OK.

As Steve Benen says, "Let’s play, ‘Imagine If A Democrat Had Said This’"

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Enough

It's time for Hillary to go. Marc Ambinder:

The Clinton campaign is distributing an article in the American Spectator (!) about Obama foreign policy adviser Merrill McPeak and his penchant for.. well, the article accuses him of being an anti-Semite and a drunk. Principally, the author takes McPeak to task for supporting a Middle East map that would require Israel to withdraw to its pre-1967 border. It also makes the case that McPeak supports the Walt-Mearsheimer view of the influence of the Israeli lobby on foreign policy.

The author's sudden conclusion: "Obama has a Jewish problem and McPeak's bigoted views are emblematic of what they are. Obama can issue all the boilerplate statements supporting Israel's right to defend itself he wants. But until he accepts responsibility for allowing people like McPeak so close to his quest for the presidency, Obama's sincerity and judgment will remain open questions."

This would be the same American Spectator that inflicted "Troopergate" and Paula Jones on an unwilling public and, it should be noted, played a large roll in bringing about only the second impeachment of a president in our Republic's history.

That president was Bill Clinton, in case you've forgotten.

And now the Clintons are using that rag for their own sleazy, grasping ends. It's time for both of them to go.

James Fallows:

That the Clinton family would dignify the American Spectator, of all publications, is astonishing to anyone who was alive in the 1990s.

That they would bless this attempt to paint Merrill McPeak as an anti-Semite is grotesque.

[...]

I can easily believe that the Spectator would publish such an article. That the Clinton team would circulate it I'm still trying to deal with.

And to add insult to injury I give you this photograph:



Sidney L. Davis/Tribune-Review

That's Hillary with Pittsburgh Tribune Review owner and publisher Richard Mellon Scaife. For those of you who don't remember Scaife bankrolled the so-called Arkansas Project which sought to destroy utterly a sitting president.

That president was Bill Clinton, in case you've forgotten.

I expressed tepid support for Barack Obama a while back but have tried to stay out of the nasty Democratic civil war which threatens to rip the party apart. I didn't want to contribute to that. But now that the Clintons have turned not only to their worst enemies to save Hillary but have turned to the most extreme, most hateful, most insane elements in our polity I can't stay aloof even if it means turning this blog into a Clinton-bashing site. Them's the breaks.

It's time for Hillary to go.

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Wow

Just, wow.

Every once in a while the mask slips from the faces of our friends on the right.

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It's Not Just Us

Our neighbor to the north, the Canadian Soviet Socialist Republic, is discovering the joys of a Conservative government combined with wingnuts:

A well-known evangelical crusader is claiming credit for the federal government's move to deny tax credits to TV and film productions that contain graphic sex and violence or other offensive content.

Charles McVety, president of the Canada Family Action Coalition, said his lobbying efforts included discussions with Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, and "numerous" meetings with officials in the Prime Minister's Office.

[...]

Mr. McVety said films promoting homosexuality, graphic sex or violence should not receive tax dollars, and backbench Conservative MPs and cabinet ministers support his campaign.

Canada is semi-famous for it's support of its movie industry (Actually, many countries not called the "United states" are famous for their support of their film industry. But I digress.) so this action isn't sitting well mith some:

Arts groups say they will fight the change. Director David Cronenberg and other big industry names warned that the edgy, low-budget films that have garnered Canadians international acclaim will be at risk.

[...]

Mr. Cronenberg, whose most recent film was the Oscar-nominated Russian mob thriller Eastern Promises, called the move an assault on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"The irony is that it is the Canadian films that have given us an international reputation [that] would be most at risk because they are the edgy, relatively low-budget films made by people like me and others that will be targeted by this panel," he said.

"The platform they're suggesting is akin to a Communist Chinese panel of unknown people, who, behind closed doors, will make a second ruling after bodies like Telefilm Canada have already invested."

The efforts to undo the Enlightenment continue.

As a side note, I'd like to point out that the Globe and Mail is Canada's second largest (circulation-wise) daily newspaper. I mention this because of the following paragraphs of the story cited:

Films with controversial subject matter, such as Lynne Stopkewich's acclaimed necrophilia film Kissed and Atom Egoyan's Where The Truth Lies (which got an NC-17 rating in the United States for a scene involving a threesome) could lose the right to tax credits under new public policy guidelines.

Works by Martin Gero, the director of Young People Fucking (which opens in theatres in Canada in April), could also get a once-over from the panel.

Notice that a profane word was used. Not in a gratuitous way but simply to refer to a title. To those of us living in a country in which no "respectable" "news" organization would ever do such a thing (not even to quote the Vice President of These United States) it's quite refreshing.

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Ick

The Pride of Pat Robertson's Regent University Law School, Monica Goodling, is getting hitched to rightwing blogmeister Mike Krempasky*.

May they have many Aryan babies.

[Via watertiger.]

*If you've never visited Red State you're a much happier person.

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Hitler Or Stalin?

Obama's both!

Our wingnut pals aren't very bright.

---

ADDED: Also see attaturk.

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Mittens To Buy Clear Channel

As if the radio and advertising mammoth wasn't rightwing enough:

The proposed buyout by Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners, which was announced more than a year ago, has already received approval from the Federal Communications Commission, which gave its stamp of approval last month on the condition that the company sell some radio assets.

Bain Capital having been co-founded by Romney.

As usual, the government is assisting the concentration of corporate power into fewer and fewer hands.

Now Willard will have platforms to broadcast his "Democrats are Muslimonaziliberal terrorists!" message on an endless loop.

Yaaaay Capitalism!

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It's Been Awhile

Let's check in with our pals over at the Daily Scaife. It appears that Tom Purcell is really depressed:

Rudy's gone and now I'm really depressed.

Told ya.

Is Tom really depressed because 9iu11ani was going to save us from scary brown people? Surprisingly, no. It's all about the taxes:

And because I'll have to organize and record hundreds of receipts that I keep in a giant box -- a task that will take countless hours -- I get even more depressed.

But Rudy was going to save me from such woes. His tax-reform plan was the best thing to come down the pike since home-delivered pizza and twist-off beer caps.

I have to admit this is different. Most Rudy! supporters were in it for the mass death and authoritarian domestic policies promised by America's Mayor™.

But Rudy is gone and his simplified tax plan is gone with him.

Did you know that Tom is really depressed? He is!

Tom likes Huckster's idea of scrapping the current tax code and replacing it with a national sales tax. That such a tax is astoundingly regressive matters not. Tom, who is really depressed, believes that such a plan is too "sensible" to ever be enacted. He seems okay with Mittens' and St. John's ideas on taxes but is put off by their lack of concrete proposals. Tom mentions Ron Paul as well.

Tom, already depressed enough, looks at the tax plans of Hillary and Obama and is positively terrified. Why?

Don't worry about the IRS making a mistake -- that you owe them a couple million, for instance. I'm sure you'll be able to clear up the matter with only a minimal amount of jail time.

Pointing out that if Hillary or Obama is elected president he, and presumably me and you, will be going to prison over taxes certainly is depressing. Depressing enough to depress a hyena. No wonder Tom is really depressed.

That's why I've been depressed since Rudy dropped out of the presidential race.

See? And Tom is bitter about what might have been:

If only he'd had a better strategy in the primaries, maybe he could have made it to the White House. I had visions of him cleaning up our burdensome tax code the way he did Times Square.

"It's Giuliani time!" writ large.

Now, though, I'm really worried about Tom:

It's all pointless now.

I sure hope Tom doesn't do anything rash. Hide the knives!

Rudy's gone and his incredibly simple tax plan is gone with him. That means I'll spend countless miserable hours this winter and spring getting my tax affairs in order. I'll worry that a Democrat will win the presidency and that filing will be even harder next year.

I'd say that Tom needs a hug but it looks like he's found solace in bitterness:

Thanks for nothing, Rudy.

Chins up, Tom! There's always 2012.

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McCain Wins Florida...

...wingers on suicide watch.

Heh.

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Doughy Pantload Vs. Jon Stewart

This is priceless:

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Question

Have any of you actually read Ayn Rand?

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Chest Thumping

Reg Henry:

Not to worry. By expressing his belligerent views, Mr. Giuliani is able to make dyspeptic conservatives forget all the other stuff. For them and their talk-show thought controllers, the main thing is to be tough, always tough.

Still, this is fairly amazing for the rest of us. What happened to the gay-bashing so popular with the Republican Party faithful in recent years? What about all their other alleged values that Republicans said they cared about? Will they put aside their favorite prejudices just to worship power at the first church of Rudy Giuliani?

Of course they will. Anything to win. Besides, they understand now that there has been a bit of the old "doth complain too much" syndrome at work with the result that ordinary fellows are afraid to go into men's rooms around the country lest they find conservative preachers and politicians playing happy feet.

Read the whole thing.

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Schadenfreude Alert

Whackjobs of the right file a lawsuit:

In a suit filed in United States District Court in Washington yesterday, the authors Jerome R. Corsi, Bill Gertz, Lt. Col. Robert (Buzz) Patterson, Joel Mowbray and Richard Miniter state that Eagle Publishing, which owns Regnery, “orchestrates and participates in a fraudulent, deceptively concealed and self-dealing scheme to divert book sales away from retail outlets and to wholly owned subsidiary organizations within the Eagle conglomerate.”

Some of the authors’ books have appeared on the New York Times best-seller list, including “Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry,” by Mr. Corsi and John E. O’Neill (who is not a plaintiff in the suit), Mr. Patterson’s “Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Compromised America’s National Security” and Mr. Miniter’s “Shadow War: The Untold Story of How Bush Is Winning the War on Terror.” In the lawsuit the authors say that Eagle sells or gives away copies of their books to book clubs, newsletters and other organizations owned by Eagle “to avoid or substantially reduce royalty payments to authors.”

[...]

“They’ve structured their business essentially as a scam and are defrauding their writers,” Mr. Miniter said in an interview, “causing a tremendous rift inside the conservative community.”

So much for tort reform.

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The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

The War on Christmas has begun!

Let's go, "Secular Progressives", it's time to carpet bomb some crèches!

Woohoo!

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I'm No Fan Of Joe Biden's...

...but this is a damn good line:

There's only three things [Giuliani] says in a sentence: a noun, a verb, and 9/11

Needless to say, some wingers are freaking out.

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Whoops!

The good news is that he didn't shoot anyone in the face. The bad news is...

Although a heavy police presence kept the media and curious local residents at a distance, Cheney's visit did stir up a bit of controversy when a New York Daily News photographer snapped a picture of a small Confederate flag hanging inside a garage on the hunt club property.

[...]

...Cheney spokeswoman Megan Mitchell said neither Cheney nor anyone on his staff saw such a flag at the hunt club.

Whether Cheney was aware of the flag or not it certainly says something about the owners of the club. And there can be no doubt that DeadEye Dick knew their attitudes.

Indeed, via Think Progress, we find this:

Club officials threatened a reporter with arrest when he sought comment.

Nice people, huh?

And speaking of nice people, what sort of hunting was Dick doing? Need you ask?

Farm-bred pheasants were released on the preserve 24 hours before Cheney arrived, making them easy targets for the hunting party.

"The way they hunt, I'm not fond of," said Linda Smith, 52, who runs a local preschool. "It's not what I would call a real sportsmanlike activity."

The Veep sure does enjoy injuring and killing defenseless creatures. That certainly explains a lot about him.

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The Hell?

Some nuthatch rightwing group called "Family Security Matter" (FSM) has released a list of the "The Ten Most Dangerous Organizations in America." Let's just go to the list, shall we?

10) ThinkProgress
9) Muslim Student Association
8) CodePINK
7) American Civil Liberties Union, National
6) Family Research Council
5) Center for American Progress
4) League of the South
3) MoveOn.org
2) Universities and Colleges
1) Media Matters for America

Uhhhh..."Universities and colleges"?

Pied Cuckoo (Oxylophus jacobinus) - photo by David Behrens




That said, congratulations to those ten fine "hate" organizations! I'm proud to be a member of several of them.

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The Death Of Newspaper Columns

The rehabilitation of L'il Ricky is in full swing. After bursting gloriously back onto the stage with "Islamofascism Awareness Week" comes this:

Buried in the middle of the Inquirer’s A3 Rick-Santorum-blasts-brown-people story this morning is a bracketed announcement that the former U.S. senator, our state’s preeminent Islamo-Fascist Warrior, will begin a biweekly op-ed column for the paper starting next month.

Yes, you read that right: Former Sen. Santorum (R-AKC) will be dropping nuggets of his shit wisdom twice a week onto the citizenry of Philadelphia. Could a syndication deal soon be in the offing? Stay tuned!

Ricky's family hears the news.

[Via Think Progress.]

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Happy Islamofascism Awareness Week!

No, really.

And, needless to say, God's Own Bestiality Obsessed Former Junior Senator from Pennsylvania is in the thick of it.

A regular modern Paul Revere

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Whore Of Babylon

Tony Norman:

Because intolerance is as natural to Ms. Coulter as dyeing her hair a mustard-gas yellow, it was only a matter of time before she got around to saying something offensive about another member of the Abrahamic Axis of Eden.

[...]

Mr. Deutsch pressed her. Asked if "we should just throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians," the tarty Torquemada quickly agreed.

"Well, it's a lot easier," she quipped. "It's kind of a fast track."

[...]

What non-Christian could resist becoming a part of a tradition with this kind of history of perfecting others? If we were all to become like the happy Christians who smiled like idiots through the 2004 Republican convention, we would never have to fear another Holocaust, would we?

Judging by the makeup of the "perfected community" with all of its segregation and intolerance, perfection probably isn't all its cracked up to be.

As the saying goes, read the whole thing.

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Our Friends on the Right...

...strike again. This time it's Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) and his staffer Trent Wisecup. They apparently have granted themselves themselves the power to decide who is a citizen and who is not. Witness:

Protester: I'm a citizen.

Wisecup: No you're not. You're a political activist. You're a political activist with a political agenda.

[...]

Wisecup: Go away. We don't want you here.

Protester: Well, that doesn't matter.

Wisecup: You're not a citizen. You're a political hack.

Wisecup: You are a political hack with a political agenda. You're for everything that is wrong in this country, sir. You want our soldiers to lose in Iraq. You want Toyota to beat GM. If we followed your approach, Michigan would be in the tank.

Protester: Let's hear Joe say that. Is that what Joe thinks?

Wisecup: Ha! I'm speaking for Joe, because I'm his Chief of Staff, and he doesn't dignify you by talking to you.

So I guess it's settled: Bruce Fealk is not an American citizen. So sayeth Knollenberg and Wisecup.

Via Steve Benen, we find that Wisecup has a whole list of un-American activities:

"Per Politico’s blog on my run-in with Moveon.org, I will define what’s un-American for you.

It’s un-American to wage a political protest of a congressman’s wife at her home.

It’s un-American to disturb a congressman’s neighbors with weird anti-war tactics while our soldiers are deployed overseas fighting radical Islam.

It’s un-American to cheer for the imposition of $85 billion of Nancy Pelosi CAFÉ mandates that would destroy the American car companies and the good-paying UAW jobs they provide.

It’s un-American to use bullying, gotcha political tactics that scare female congressional staffers.

It’s un-American to use stalking and harassment as a means to score cheap political points.

"Weird anti-war tactics"? "Scare female congressional staffers"? (Is it okay to scare male congressional staffers?)

Wisecup goes on to claim that the Democratic Party is controlled by Michael Moore, Daily Kos, and Moveon.org (what, no mention of George Soros?)

And just think, the real election season hasn't even begun yet!

This is going to be a long 13 months.

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I Guess That's Settled

It's an impossibility for Our Friends on the Right to be anti-Semites (e.g., AnnCoulter). Only Lefties can be anti-Semites.

Who would have guessed?

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Absolute Loyalty

It has become a truism that to deviate even slightly from the approved script regarding Iraq brings down denunciations of disloyalty and ulterior motives. So it comes as no surprise that the latest victim is the former commander in Iraq Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez:

Republicans reacted with surprise and recrimination Sunday to blistering criticism of the Iraq war from former coalition commander retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez.

Leading the charge is none other than Sen. Lindsey "Five Rugs for Five Bucks" Graham (R-The Closet):

"I'm astounded, really...every time we talked to Gen. Sanchez, we got pushback -- we have enough troops; Guard and reserves aren't being strained," Graham said.

Now for the interesting part:

[Graham] added that Sanchez's own record in Iraq is blemished: Abu Ghraib "got out of control under his watch. The war in general got out of control under his watch."

That's amusing. Previously, Lindsey declared that the ultimate responsibility for the abuses at Abu Ghraib lay with Brg. Gen. Janis Karpinsky despite the fact that Sanchez gave the order:

Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior U.S. military officer in Iraq, borrowed heavily from a list of high-pressure interrogation tactics used at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and approved letting senior officials at a Baghdad jail use military dogs, temperature extremes, reversed sleep patterns, sensory deprivation, and diets of bread and water on detainees whenever they wished, according to newly obtained documents.

So what we have here is a general avoiding any responsibility for his actions, a senator aiming his fire at whomever is politically convenient at the moment, and an entire ideology based on a cult-like devotion to a discredited idea.

This is another truism: Everybody involved in this outrage is scum.

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Hate Is The Emotion That Sustains Them

Our Friends on the Right - in this case the lovely Freepers - go after Athenae.

Mind you, this is a crowd that thinks Ann Coulter is one of the most intelligent and attractive people on the planet so draw your own conclusion.

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Patsies

Krugman on the swift-boating of Graeme Frost:

All in all, the Graeme Frost case is a perfect illustration of the modern right-wing political machine at work, and in particular its routine reliance on character assassination in place of honest debate. If service members oppose a Republican war, they’re “phony soldiers”; if Michael J. Fox opposes Bush policy on stem cells, he’s faking his Parkinson’s symptoms; if an injured 12-year-old child makes the case for a government health insurance program, he’s a fraud.

Meanwhile, leading conservative politicians, far from trying to distance themselves from these smears, rush to embrace them. And some people in the news media are still willing to be used as patsies.

And yet David Broder and his cadre of Very Serious Pundits insist that Democrats and liberals "compromise" with these people.

And yet even some Democrats insist that if they stay as quiet as church mice the "news" media will be nice to them.

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Our Friends On The Right

Just keep talking, rightwingers:

During the October 8 edition of CNBC's The Big Idea, host Donny Deutsch asked right-wing pundit Ann Coulter: "If you had your way ... and your dreams, which are genuine, came true ... what would this country look like?" Coulter responded, "It would look like New York City during the [2004] Republican National Convention. In fact, that's what I think heaven is going to look like." She described the convention as follows: "People were happy. They're Christian. They're tolerant. They defend America." Deutsch then asked, "It would be better if we were all Christian?" to which Coulter responded, "Yes." Later in the discussion, Deutsch said to her: "[Y]ou said we should throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians," and Coulter again replied, "Yes." When pressed by Deutsch regarding whether she wanted to be like "the head of Iran" and "wipe Israel off the Earth," Coulter stated: "No, we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say. ... That's what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey laws."

The more they open their mouths the more people will turn on them.

Except, of course, for the 30% or so that agree with them.

Oh, and Ann? Thou shalt not bear false witness. As a "perfected Christian" you should know that. It's kind of basic.

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Getting It Right (For Once)

The "liberal" "news" media takes notice of the Graeme Frost affair and gets it mostly right. First the New York Times and now Time. The latter even uses the term "swift-boating" correctly.

Meanwhile, the loathsome Michelle Malking and friends aren't backing down. And what, exactly, is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's role in all of this?

But worry not. As we move deeper into election season there's no doubt that Our Friends on the Right will find ways to sink even lower.

---

UPDATE: CNN, however, regurgitates Malkinite talking points.

Hilariously, Malkin herself does her best frightened bunny impersonation and runs crying from Ezra Klein.

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Atavists

For a while now - certainly for the last few months - I’ve been pondering our Friends on the Right. And, to tell you the truth, I haven’t been able to get my mind around the subject with any coherence. The rightists are tipping over some edge into a true ugliness and I fear the next stop will be outright violence. The odds of that rise if the Democrats increase their Congressional majorities and take the White House in 2008. The right will then no doubt feel utterly powerless and the need to strike out will take over.

At any rate, I’m trying to work my way through this and until I do I urge everybody to read this Ezra Klein post.

---

ADDED: Ezra has follow-ups here and here.

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Move Over, Osama

A new Public Enemy #1 is here: A twelve-year-old boy.

Our Friends on the Right are such nice people, aren’t they?

---

ADDED: TBogg has more.

ADDED II: digby.

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Greenwater

Well well well. Guess which notorious band of mercenaries tried to save a certain rightwing Senator's job last year by supporting the lefty Green Party in an effort to defeat the Democratic candidate? And guess who that Senator was.

Here's a hint: This now former Senator has a fascination with "man-on-dog sex."

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Our Friends On The Right II

So Rush Limbaugh thinks any soldier who disagrees with him is a "phony soldier."

Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) disagrees:

Someone should tell chicken-hawk Rush Limbaugh that the only phonies are those who choose not to serve and then criticize those who do. I served proudly, so did two of my fellow paratroopers in the 82nd Airborne who spoke out and died just weeks ago. Generations of American veterans have worn the uniform with pride and we know it is no contradiction to serve your country and still disagree with the Bush-civilian leadership that mismanaged this war.

Here's Army Capt. Patrick Murphy, 82nd. Airborne, Bronze Star awardee:







And here's Rush Limbaugh, draft dodger, thrice-married, fan of Dominican prostitutes, drug addict:







Who are you going to listen to?

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Our Friends On The Right

Michael Medved says slavery was a good thing.

And yet they become indignant if we accuse them of racism.

Lovely people.

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All You Need To Know

From Think Progress:

.

***IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT***

Sen. Larry Craig (R-Wide Stance) wants you to know:

"Let me be clear: I am not gay. I never have been gay[.]"

Craig, second from left, is "not gay."

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There's A Surprise

This has been coming on for awhile but the murder-minded Stu Bykofsky, who wants to see "another 9/11" because it would teach us a lesson, has opened the floodgates and allowed us to see the true face of the rightwing. Bykofsky is now a hero to the FoxRushHannity crowd.

There it is: The rightists want - WANT - another massive terrorist attack resulting in enormous numbers of dead Americans (presumably not including themselves; their lives are too precious). No doubt in their twisted little fantasy worlds this would allow the imposition of martial law and the internment of evil liberals.

Insert a Nazi analogy if you wish. Our pals on the right have earned it.

---

ADDED: Josh Marshall says, "The surprising part of this, however, is that a variety of far-right media outlets seemed to embrace Bykofsky's message...For a column that pines for mass murder, this isn't the reaction I expected."

Sorry, Josh, you really haven't been paying attention.

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Our Friends On The Right

Why a major daily newspaper - the Philadelphia Daily News - decided to publish this sick shit is beyond my reasoning:

ONE MONTH from The Anniversary, I'm thinking another 9/11 would help America.

[...]

America's fabric is pulling apart like a cheap sweater.

What would sew us back together?

Another 9/11 attack.

The Golden Gate Bridge. Mount Rushmore. Chicago's Wrigley Field. The Philadelphia subway system. The U.S. is a target-rich environment for al Qaeda.

Is there any doubt they are planning to hit us again?

If it is to be, then let it be. It will take another attack on the homeland to quell the chattering of chipmunks and to restore America's righteous rage and singular purpose to prevail.

The unity brought by such an attack sadly won't last forever.

The first 9/11 proved that.

This is the true face of the Republican party.

e-mail stubyko@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5977

[Via Atrios.]

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Evil Bastard Of The Day

Robert E. Murray

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Typical Republicans

Max Blumenthal:

As a result of intensifying attacks from the Standard and right-wing blogs -- attacks amplified by the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz -- Thomas was forced to reveal his identity: Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp. According to Foer, the Army punished Beauchamp by revoking his cellphone and email privileges. Right-wing bloggers subsequently seized on TRN editor-in-chief Franklin Foer's disclosure that Beauchamp is engaged to TNR reporter and researcher Elspeth Reeve.

[...]

Among all the active duty soldiers used by Goldfarb to undermine Beauchamp, only one is cited by name: Matt Sanchez, a corporal in the Marine reserves. "Frankly, I don't believe ANY of this story," Sanchez proclaimed in the Standard about Beauchamp's diary. Who is Sanchez? According to Goldfarb, he is simply a soldier "who stands behind his work."

But Sanchez is more than a mere man in uniform. As I reported for Media Matters today, Sanchez is also a conservative pro-war activist whose bio includes a stint as the gay porn actor Rod Majors, (star of such filmic classics as "Beat Off Frenzy") and an illustrious part-time job as a male prostitute -- facts he has acknowledged "leaving ... off my curriculum vitae."

More importantly, Sanchez has been under investigation by the Marine Corps for fraud. According to an April 1 Marine Corps Times article, Sanchez was informed in a March 22 email from Reserve Col. Charles Jones, a staff judge advocate, that he was under investigation for lying "'to various people, including but not limited to, representatives of the New York City United War Veterans Council [UWVC] and U-Haul Corporation' about deploying to Iraq at the commandant's request." The email added: "'Specifically, you wrongfully solicited funds to support your purported deployment to Iraq' by coordinating a $300 payment from the UWVC and $12,000 from U-Haul."

Following in the footsteps of Jimmyjeff Gannonguckert, it would seem. What is it with the rightwing and gay hookers/pornstars?

Methinks the tighty-righties have some issues.

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Another Dead Newspaper

Whatever you think of its cesspool of an op-ed page, the WSJ is one of the great newspapers.

Now that Rupert has gotten his greasy mitts on it that will no longer be the case. He'll probably put bikini babes on Page 3. That's Rups' idea of journalism.

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New Morans

Over the years, we've come to know and love this guy:

Now comes the news that he has friends:

This all reminds me of watching a David Duke rally on teevee back in the eighties. He was running for, I think, governor of Louisiana. Right in front of the podium where Duke was speaking a supporter was holding up a sign that read, "WITE POWER!"

Sometimes our wingers are so gosh-darned adorable.

[From The Brad Blog.]

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Generation Chickenhawk

Max Blumenthal does it again:

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Republican Nancy Boys

Robert "Douchebag of Liberty" Novak:

I hate to say it, but I think the hatred toward George W. Bush is just mad. I listen to, sometimes in the car radio, on talk shows, and the venom that comes out of the mouths of some of these women, particularly, I’m not trying to be sexist, but they’re so vicious toward him. And I don’t think that really contributes. And also, the bloggers, I don’t read the bloggers very much, but it is really, it’s really vicious. [Emphasis added.]

Tucker "My Bow-Tie Is My Manhood" Carlson:

GEIST: Well, I think the metaphor in this next story, Tucker, is pretty clear. So I will just report the straight facts. The newest collector's item on the presidential campaign trail is a Hillary Clinton nutcracker. They're going like hot cakes in Rochester, Minnesota, where the idea for the nutcracker was hatched.

It's a Hillary doll with serrated stainless steel thighs that, well, crack nuts. If you can't make to it Minnesota to pick one up, you can go to HillaryNutcracker.com and that could be yours for the low, low price of $19.95. They'll also throw in a bag of Hillary nuts for five bucks. Now, I don't know what they're getting at here, Tucker. What do you think they're saying about Hillary?

CARLSON: I don't know, but that is so perfect. I have often said, when she comes on television, I involuntarily cross my legs.

GEIST: I know you do.

CARLSON: I'm getting one, by the way

What's next? Are they going to cobble together a clubhouse out of scrap wood?

Tucker and Robert sittin' in a tree...

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Professional Sockpuppetry

This comes as no surprise to me as this little blog had an infestation last year but LunkHead has found that the rightists are recruiting professional blog commenters Professional Blog Warriors. Have a look:

Despite my small elite readership it's entirely possible the we'll be seeing the results of this recruiting drive before long. Pathetic.

But as someone once said, bring 'em on!

(Oh, and check out winningcampaigns.org (I won't do a link). One word come to mind: Sleeeea-zeeee.)

[Via Atrios.]

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Making With The Funny

Alterman:

Many will recall that on July 8, 1947, witnesses claimed that an unidentified object with five aliens aboard crashed onto a sheep and cattle ranch just outside Roswell, New Mexico. This is a well-known incident that many say has long been covered up by the U.S. Air Force and the federal government.

However, what you may NOT know is that in the month of March 1948, exactly nine months later, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Condoleezza Rice, and Dan Quayle were all born.

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Our Fellow Citizens

Via BooMan, we find that Johann Hari went on a cruise sponsored by the nations' preeminent right-wing rag the National Review. So what's on the minds of our "conservative" fellow citizens?

I lie on the beach with Hill