Obama Hatred At McCain-Palin Rally: "Kill Him!"

Right-wing nutcases are displaying their foaming-at-the-mouth hatred of Barack Obama at McCain-Palin rallies lately. In this video, you can hear one nutjob scream, "Kill Him!"

But should we really be surprised at such unhinged hatred by Republicans?

After all, we've seen violent rhetoric like this before from wingnuts, aimed at Bill and Hillary Clinton. Examples:

In 2003, right-wing nutcase Michael Graham said of Hillary Clinton: "I wanted to bludgeon her with a tire iron."

Such inflammatory language is nothing new for the right-wing. Recall how Ann Coulter once wrote that the debate over Bill Clinton should be about "whether to impeach or assassinate."

Recall also the comment by Jesse Helms in 1994: "Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down here. He'd better have a bodyguard."

Or McCain pal G. Gordon Liddy's comment in 1995, when discussing how he'd used stick figures of the Clintons for target practice. "Thought it might improve my aim," he said.

There's more: "Obama Hatred At McCain-Palin Rally: "Kill Him!"" >>

Ted Kennedy's Hospitalization Prompts Laughter In Right-Wing Blogosphere

"At least he got a stroke in, which is more than the girl he drowned could manage. He should be rotting in jail, not making law. Disgusting."
----Geoff, a commenter at RightWingNews.com

For normal, sane Americans, the news that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was hospitalized on Saturday after suffering a seizure was a cause for prayers and concern.

But if you browsed many of the right-wing blogs on Saturday, you'd find that they were full of jokes, insults and sarcastic remarks about Kennedy's hospitalization. (This, despite the fact that many of the big right-wing blogs had warnings against posting offensive comments about Kennedy).

Despite such warnings, the comments on right-wing blogs were full of vile posts that featured sick humor.

For example, an anonymous poster at the right-wing blog Gateway Pundit wrote, "One Liberal down! Looks like he (TED) may have to answer for his drunk driving accident in the 60's. Maybe the SUBJECTS of MA will get there (sic) SECOND Ammendment (sic) rights BACK."

The sentiments were similar, over at RightWingNews.com. There, "guest blogger" Kathy Shaidle (of the blog "Five Feet of Fury") expressed annoyance over the media's "eulogies" for Kennedy. In a post under the headline, "Oh pu-leeeeeeze," she wrote, "In the midst of this embarrassing, wrongheaded preemptive media eulogizing of Edward Kennedy, at least spare a thought for the woman he killed."

Meanwhile, Geoff, a commenter on RightWingNews.com wrote, "At least he got a stroke in, which is more than the girl he drowned could manage. He should be rotting in jail, not making law. Disgusting."

Another RightWingNews.com commenter named Lord Locksley chimed in with the remark, "They don't call him 'Nazi Joe's last big mistake' for nothing."

The hatefest continued over at the right-wing Sister Toldjah blog. There, commenter Severian wrote a hate-filled post that seemed to take issue with another poster's remark that he didn't "wish a fellow human being any ill."

Severian responded:
"Just a philosophical question here, at what point is it justifiable to wish a fellow human being ill? What you say is a nice platitude, but it also reeks of more than a touch of holier than though attitude. Would it have been OK to wish Hitler ill? Yes, no? How about Ted Bundy? Saddam Hussein? Osama Bin Laden? How many reprehensible traits and acts does one have to commit before it is OK to wish them ill? Ted Kennedy, while said to be a charmer and nice guy in person, has been personally responsible for creating some of the most toxic political environments on Capitol Hill, lynching Bork among others, and is responsible for much of the ill will and problems we see coming out of the liberal Dem side of the aisle. While perhaps not rising to the level of actively wishing him ill or trying to harm him, I’ll be honest enough to admit that when his day comes, as Mark Twain said, his will be an obituary I’ll read with approval."

Actually, none of the above hate-mongering should be surprising in the least, as anyone who has ever listened to the filth spewed out daily by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, and the rest of the Right-Wing Noise Machine.

Nor should we be surprised by the glee the right-wing expresses when Democrats have misfortunes. We've seen this happen again and again.

Recall the hostage crisis episode in November, when a distraught man wearing what appeared to be a bomb walked into the campaign office of Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire. Then, as now, the right-wing blogosphere was full of laughter and sick jokes about the incident.

I have to admit, I never really understood the right-wing sense of humor.

Like when Ronald Reagan joked in 1964 about the 17 million people who then went to bed hungry every night in America, saying that "they were all on a diet."

Or when Rush Limbaugh called 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton a "dog."

Or when George W. Bush yucked it up over the issue of the non-existent WMDs in Iraq during a "comedy" skit in the Oval Office.

There's more: "Ted Kennedy's Hospitalization Prompts Laughter In Right-Wing Blogosphere" >>

Another wingnut congressman who needs to be unemployed

Wingnut North Carolina congressman Patrick McHenry knows what the lives of your loved ones in uniform are worth.

Twenty-five cents.

That is what "two-bit" means.

McHenry recently went on one of those idiotic taxpayer-funded congressional junkets to Iraq, you know the ones, the potentates blow in and disrupt important work so they can be treated to a dog-and-pony show and a couple of nights in one of Saddam's palaces.

Then he came back home and gave a speech in which he lied about a death occurring in the Green Zone while he was there (it didn't happen, he said it did. There was a rocket attack, but no one died.)

That is outrageous enough. But the really offensive thing this warmongering tool said was referring to the Soldier who wouldn't let him into the gym without credentials a "two bit security guard." Then he demanded to see the soldiers superior.

It did my heart good to read that the superior saw it the soldiers way and the wingnut warmonger was escorted back to his sleeping quarters.

McHenry’s gaffe occurred in his telling of a story about his recent two-day visit to Iraq. He said he was stopped by a military guard in the area known as the Green Zone, when he was going “to the gym” in the early morning hours on Easter after being unable to sleep.

The congressman belittled the sentry- referring to him as a “two-bit security guard”- for following his orders by not allowing him to enter the gym without “proper credentials,” according to McHenry’s own telling of the story to an audience of some 160 Republicans.Even after demanding to see the guard’s superiors, by McHenry’s own account, he still was refused entry into the gym and was told he had to return to his room, in a pool house at one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces in the Baghdad area. (emphasis added.)

Can we please start throwing some of this crap back at these idiots - and can the M$M get over painting these hypocritical bastards as the pro-troop party? They so obviously aren't.

There's more: "Another wingnut congressman who needs to be unemployed" >>

Where's Kent Brockman When You Need Him?

Amidst all the Oscar buzz from Sunday night, and the excrutiating non-story of Ralph Nader trying to remain relevant, you might be forgiven (barely) for having missed the 60 Minutes piece on former Governor Don Siegelman, "a successful Democrat in the Republican state of Alabama when he was convicted of bribery in a case that has been criticized by Democrats and Republicans."

Oddly enough, it seems that Alabama viewers may have missed it, even had they been watching it.

Tonight was something truly unseen in US history. During the 60 Minutes broadcast and ONLY during the Don Siegelman portion -- the screen went black for Huntsville residents and Mobile residents.

We are now being told that it was a technical issue with CBS in New York:

We apologize that you missed the first segment of 60 Minutes tonight featuring "The Prosecution of Don Siegelman."

It was a techincal (sic) problem with CBS out of New York. We are working with them right now to see if we can re-broadcast the segment.

Please be patient with us during this time. We are doing our best to correct the problem.

Excuse me? Are they trying to tell us that a glitch in New York ONLY happened in Alabama -- which is the topic of the 60 Minutes broadcast -- and ONLY during the Don Siegelman segment? Are you kidding me? We have selective prosecution and now we have selective news delivery?

Even worse, it seems that we have selective technical glitches. Microwave satellite technology has a well-known conservative bias.

In case you did not get a chance to see the segment, for whatever reason, here 'tis.

There's more: "Where's Kent Brockman When You Need Him?" >>

At the End of the Day

Another day, another end.

• The "news" network that had all their eggs in Rudy Giuliani's basket? Yeah, they're not letting little things like party unity stand in the way of smearing their presumptive standard bearer, even if "America's Mayor" has already thrown his lot in with him.
• Obama took all of yesterday's nominating contests, and it appears as if Huckabee has too (WA is still to close to call). Today, Democrats remember the Maine.
• Quote of the Day comes from Ron Paul: "If I may quote Trotsky of all people, this Revolution is permanent." But he continues: "...[W]ith so many primaries and caucuses now over, we do not now need so big a national campaign staff, and so I am making it leaner and tighter. I also have another priority. I have constituents in my home district that I must serve. I cannot and will not let them down. And I have another battle I must face here as well. If I were to lose the primary for my congressional seat, all our opponents would react with glee, and pretend it was a rejection of our ideas. I cannot and will not let that happen." Translation? "All that $$ I took in donations to my presidential campaign is mine, mine, mwa-ha-ha!!" That sound you just heard from your neighbor's basement is the lamentations of another disillusioned Libertarian.
• Ben Shapiro is living proof that people who were born the year that I graduated high school should never be allowed to write professionally (if at all); at least, not until I'm like 127 years old. Ben's latest epiphany? Americans are racists, and they prove their racism by voting for...Barack Obama? Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

There's more: "At the End of the Day" >>

At the End of the Day

It's the weekend, but that doesn't mean that the world is safe from the idiocies that abound throughout the week.

• Seems that the Pentagon is catching on that an ideology of endless war coupled with insufficient funding & support from a shell-shocked administration is not exactly the best way to maintain an effective fighting force. I am shocked, SHOCKED I tells ya!
• Is that a Clinton/Obama ticket in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?
• I guess you can take the reporter out of FOX News, but are you certain that you can take the FOX News out of the reporter?
• Best proof yet that there may not be a God? Fred Phelps.
• Can you be cited for DWD (Driving While a Douchebag)?

There's more: "At the End of the Day" >>

Anti-abortionists define zygote as person

In the Georgia legislature, H.R. 536 would amend the state constitution to codify that life begins the minute a sperm fertilizes an ovum:

A RESOLUTION proposing an amendment to the Constitution so as to provide that the paramount right to life is vested in each human being from the moment of fertilization without regard to age, race, sex, health, function, or condition of dependency; to provide for submission of this amendment for ratification or rejection; and for other purposes.

The AJC Political Insider reported (with emphasis):

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was brought to the Capitol on Tuesday to endorse the measure.

Perhaps more importantly, supporters of the bill — the Georgia Right to Life organization chief among them — have won the ear of the Georgia Baptist Convention, the state’s largest denomination. The Baptist organization recently sent out a pair of DVDs to every member church, outlining the details of the bill.

[House Speaker Glenn Richardson] hasn’t taken a position on H.R. 536, but many Republicans think it a bridge too far, likely to raise objections among suburban women for — among other things — the impact it might have on accepted forms of contraception.

[Keep reading... more after the jump.]

The Georgia Right to Life org (GRTL) billed the Tuesday rally as a "memorial service for the unborn." Jeepers! That's creepy. Beside Huck, other guests included Gary Bauer, President of American Values, and Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory.

Georgia House Speaker Richardson brought in an "unpaid" advisor, former president of Mercer University Kirby Godsey, a moderate, in whose positions Baptist fundamentalists disagree. "Godsey was at the center of a long-running schism among Georgia Baptists — over topics such as biblical literalism, homosexuality, abortion and the role of women in religious affairs." Let's hope the moderates prevail over the extremists.

The "right-to-life" extremists see an opportunity to tighten their stranglehold on Georgia politics. Maybe saner heads will overcome -- Georgia voters may reject any effort in reducing women into chattel held hostage by a zygote. NARAL provides a breakout of Georgia's anti-choice laws including notations on post-viability abortion restrictions, and lists politicians in Georgia -- Gov. Sonny Perdue (R), Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle (R), and the Georgia House -- who oppose choice.

The complete text of the Georgia resolution is here. Note that a zygote becomes defined as a "person" (with emphasis):

Paragraph XXIX. Paramount right to life. (a) The rights of every person shall be recognized, among which in the first place is the inviolable right of every innocent human being to life. The right to life is the paramount and most fundamental right of a person.

(b) With respect to the fundamental and inalienable rights of all persons guaranteed in this Constitution, the word 'person' applies to all human beings, irrespective of age, race, sex, health, function, or condition of dependency, including unborn children at every state of their biological development, including fertilization.

Words fail at the utter insanity of such a resolution. How will Georgia women react to lawfully being forced into becoming an incubator even if their lives, their financial well-being are threatened by a pregnancy? For that's the next step in the battle to ban abortion outright. The GRTL website's position clearly states:

GRTL opposes abortion at any point of gestation, as it destroys a living, growing human life. In the rare case that the mother's life is indeed endangered by a continuation of the pregnancy, sound medical practice would dictate that every effort be made to save both lives. GRTL supports an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which would guarantee the right to life of all persons from the moment of fertilization until natural death.

Defining a zygote as a person goes beyond the pale. Could this also mean that a fertilized egg is automatically an American citizen if the, um, transaction occurs on Georgia or U.S. soil? Adds another wrinkle to immigration, doesn't it?

The RTL movement and every legislator who supports this measure deserves a swift kick in the ass for attempting to usurp Roe v. Wade and ignoring any provision for the mother's life, which always should take precedent over a fertilized egg. But banning all abortions for any reason has been their goal for years. Life is something they want to control and they don't give a damn who dies or struggles during their fight to be -- and I say this sarcastically -- right.

There's more: "Anti-abortionists define zygote as person" >>

Pushback against the NIE on Iran

UPDATED AFTER THE BREAK

Over the past five days, the pushback against the NIE findings would amuse of it weren't such an indictment of our rotting press corpse compounded by the tragic consequences of a rogue presidency, Bushie's neocon sweeties, and the Repub intel committees that let the preznut run amok.

The usual wingnuts -- certifiable Bushwackos who ultimately make million$ reaching millions with erroneous infotainment news and opinion -- have lined up to discredit the NIE, the most unpoliticized and authoritative intelligence assessment on Iran in years. The mission: Protect their precious ideology and the worst president in U.S. history who continues to hype the Iranian threat. Ergo, trash the NIE, Democrats, the IAEA, ElBaradei, Europeans, and Bill Clinton to persuade people their Dear Leader's foreign policy isn't a national security train wreck.

A sampling of this week's propaganda about the NIE:

[Keep reading...]

* Steve Benen's Fox News roundup, a thorough report on Tuesday's contentious talking points from the Bushwacko Right.

* Crooks and Liars alerts us to the alleged CIA plot to subvert the Bush Doctrine authored by the head psychotic of the neocon ward, Norman Podhoretz, also foreign policy advisor to Rudy Giuliani. More in-depth details here.

* ThinkProgess dares to go where I prefer not to tread without galoshes for my keyboard ...further deconstruction of Podhoretz' reaction to the NIE. "He insisted the Iranians were very close to developing a nuclear weapon" and likens negotiating with Iran to the same effect that "Munich had with Hitler." See the TP Update for a creative conspiracy theory: It's a plot to affect the elections! Ooga booga!

* Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson leads us through the twisted minds of neocons gone ballistic.

* Emptywheel reveals John Bolton's warped history, one caveat of which was featured in a Dec. 6 Washington Post editorial, The Flaws In the Iran Report. More pushback on the IC's new sourcing rules used for the NIE. Plus, a nifty NIE timeline so you can keep track of who boosted what and lied when.

* Katrina vanden Heuvel at The Nation takes The Post's Al Kamen to the woodshed for his "snarky" hit job on the IAEA's Director General Mohamed ElBaradei and his remarks about the NIE. The quote with ouch from Katrina: "Maybe Kamen and his paper should set aside some time to reflect on how dead wrong they were in blasting ElBaradei on his Iraq assessment." Self-awareness dips low at the WaPo's editorial page so mendacity abounds.

* Bolton on CNN without a disclaimer... shameless. How can CNN advertise itself as "the most trusted name in news" and grant air time to an untrustworthy neocon kook? Dec. 4:

BOLTON: Well, I think it's potentially wrong. But I would also say many of the people who wrote this are former State Department employees who, during their career at the State Department, never gave much attention to the threat of the Iranian program. Now they are writing as members of the intelligence community, the same opinions that they have had four and five years ago.

BLITZER: President Bush says he has confidence in this new NIE, and he says they revamped the intelligence community after the blunders involving weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He says there's a whole new community out there and he has total confidence in what the national intelligence director is doing.

BOLTON: Well, I have to say I don't. I think there's a very real risk here that the intelligence community is like generals fighting the last war. They got Iraq wrong and they're overcompensating by understating the potential threat from Iran.

* More Bolton lunacy on Iran. See and hear him live raving at YouTube -- Dec. 4 on O'Reilly's spinathon in defense of Bush's Iranian warmongering despite the NIE -- Dec. 4 on CNN when Bolton slammed the NIE (excerpts above) -- his desire in August to attack Iran within six months -- earlier in June more warmongering against Iran for arming the Taliban (whom Shiite Iran hates) in Afghanistan -- and earlier in May, Bolton "hoped" that Iran would withdraw from the NPT or to expel IAEA inspectors. Bolton either requires medication for his delusions or he's a stone-cold sociopath. Take your pick.

* Tom Friedman's brain gasping like a hooked brook trout flopped from its cranium to lunge at parody -- an Iranian NIE on America -- that implicitly trivialized the American NIE on Iran:

As you’ll recall, in the wake of 9/11, we were extremely concerned that the U.S. would develop a covert program to end its addiction to oil, which would be the greatest threat to Iranian national security. In fact, after Bush’s 2006 State of the Union, in which he decried America’s oil addiction, we had “high confidence” that a comprehensive U.S. clean energy policy would emerge. We were wrong.

Stephen Colbert has absolutely nothing to fear.

* Michael Ledeen of the spin tank, the American Enterprise Institute, christens the NIE, The Great Intelligence Scam, at Pajamas Media. I decline to link to his scurrilous dreck so click here for excerpt and the link.

* Where's the ooey-gooey fudge factor with a wingnut center? NRO always delivers the goodies:

[1] If Iran was working on a nuclear weapons program until 2003, what does this say about U.S. policy in the late Clinton period and European engagement?

[2] Are [Democrats] now to suggest that Republicans have been warmongering over a nonexistent threat for partisan purposes? But to advance that belief is also to concede that Iran, like Libya, likely came to a conjecture (around say early spring 2003?) that it was not wise for regimes to conceal WMD programs, given the unpredictable, but lethal American military reaction.

[3] Two years ago, the [Intelligence Community] — the same IC that claimed to have detailed information about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction, that famously missed the boat on al-Qaeda, and that has had at least two spy networks inside Iran rolled up in the past couple of decades — told us it was all but certain that Iran was “determined to develop nuclear weapons.” [Ed. translation: They were wrong then so they're wrong now.]

[4] What the NIE does not explain — what no one has explained — is why the world’s third-largest exporter of oil and gas needs nuclear power.... ...It’s no secret that careerists at the CIA and State have been less interested in implementing the president’s policies on Iran, Iraq, and North Korea than in sabotaging them at every opportunity. Sources close to the intelligence community question the objectivity of the NIE’s Iran conclusions, and tell us that three principal authors of the report are longtime critics of the administration’s policy who have axes to grind.

[5] The attitude among many people — like say, John Edwards — is that we dodged a bullet with this NIE. But that's only true if this NIE is right. Indeed, as a matter of national security, it seems to me one could make the case that it would be better for the NIE to be wrong the other way. That is to say, if the NIE is wrong, better it be wrong on the side of caution. Which would you rather: An NIE that says Iran isn't pursuing nuclear weapons when it really is? Or, an NIE that says Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons when it really isn't? How you answer that question probably says a lot about how you view foreign policy generally.

The last chewy nugget from Jonah Goldberg seems to justify dishonesty, the kind that led to Operation FUBAR in Iraq. Yes, such distorted morality shrieks loudly about one's foreign policy view.

I'm certain plenty more pushback against the NIE on Iran skips merrily along to a polka beat but I've got to stop delving at this point. My head hurts from propaganda overload.

Can't wait for what Lil' Tim (who's hosting Rudy!) and the roundtables of the Sunday funnies have to say. Serious talk about the success of the Bush Doctrine could upstage the key findings in the NIE. Wanna bet?

Know of other NIE wingnuttery? Leave your picks in Comments. I'll post an update.

UPDATE: Digby (with a h/t to Josh Marshall) noted "the administration was changing its focus from WMD to Iranian influence in Iraq as a justification for the war they insisted must be waged." Summing up, Digby writes (with emphasis):

It seemed obvious to me that the Iran obsessives were working hard to build a case that even if Iran didn't have the bomb, it had declared war on the US by killing our soldiers in Iraq and we had to start bombing them post-haste anyway. Kyl-Lieberman was clearly designed to further that goal, no matter what Clinton and others say about it now.

Their problem seems to be that The Man Called Petraeus's surge has resulted in a decline in violence and urgency about Iraq --- and they couldn't hold back the NIE any longer. (It would have leaked before long with all this warmongering going on.) They finally had to admit that they couldn't get this defective casus bellis off the assembly line.

They knew. A whole bunch of them knew, even that nutcase Ledeen.

Which makes the pushback the empty rhetoric of gnashing teeth.

There's more: "Pushback against the NIE on Iran" >>

An Ornament Worth A Thousand Words

Hat tip and thanks for ruining my dinner to Media Czech of BlueGrassRoots for topping the blog with the image below. I, being of a far more empathetic disposition, will give you the description as a warning first.

(Yes, this is an actual item for sale - BGR has the link.)

Protect our troops - from the womb to the war. What if the fetus you were going to abort would grow up to be a soldier bringing democracy to a godless dictatorship?
Plastic replica of an 11-12 week old fetus, 3" long, holding a firearm in its precious little hand, with an assortment of other military paraphernalia, encased in a translucent plastic ornament, with a patriotic yellow ribbon on top. Includes a metal ornament hanger. If only a womb were this safe, attractive and reasonably priced!
Show that you support the "culture of life" by buying and proudly displaying one of these patriotic unborn Americans.
Also available in a "Brown" model

How does this one item embody everything that's sociopathic and beyond hope or help about the wingnut freakazoids? Don't make me count the ways ....




Media Czech gives his hat tip to Bean at Lawyers, Guns and Money, who not only had the good taste to post it last night AFTER dinner, but also explains the too-good-to-be-true description.

The description is fake -- or at least tongue in cheek. But the product is not. It is actually for sale. In both colors. The purveyor, Miss Poppy, is an "Adult Christian" shop run by a born-again Christian woman that sells "anti-masturbatory cream" (which you are to "keep applying until you get relief") as well as upside down American flags intended to express the owner's displeasure at the evisceration of civil rights. The thread that ties these products together under the banner of an alternative christian shop? Making Money. Because, as the website's tagline informs us, "What a Trend We have in Jesus!" Religion...a great way to get rich!

Cross-posted at Blue in the Bluegrass.

There's more: "An Ornament Worth A Thousand Words" >>

Right-Wing Nutcases Laugh It Up Over Clinton Office Hostage Crisis

I have to admit, I never really understood the right-wing sense of humor.

Like when Ronald Reagan joked in 1964 about the 17 million people who then went to bed hungry every night in America, saying that "they were all on a diet."

Or when Rush Limbaugh called 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton a "dog."

Or when George W. Bush yucked it up over the issue of the non-existent WMDs in Iraq during a "comedy" skit in the Oval Office.

I don't know---maybe I just don't have much of a sense of humor, because I saw nothing funny about yesterday's hostage crisis, in which a distraught man wearing what appeared to be a bomb walked into the campaign office of Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire.

However, plenty of right-wing folks thought the whole episode was real funny. Take (please) the wingnuts who hang out at the blog of right-wing nutcase Michelle Malkin.

As of Friday night, Malkin's comments section was full of posters who were joking about the crisis and speculating about how the "liberal" media and the Democrats would conspire to spin the episode to Hillary's advantage.

A poster by the name of "Fodder Jack" seemed to find humor in the crisis, writing, "Maybe it is a last ditch effort by the press to get an interview with Hillary."

Another writer called "Reppac122" was (like many across the right-wing blogosphere) already using the occasion to attack the Clintons. "My cynical political thinking here is that the Clintons (yes, both of them) will use this horrible situation for their political benefit."

Another writer, using the handle, "RetFireman," raised the issue of conspiracy: "Now be honest...with all that has come out lately, and I am not saying it is staged, but how many people would be that surprised to find out at some later date that it was? Be honest with yourself, and consider who we are talking about."

Commenter "Eric CharlotteNC" sarcastically mocked Liberals in his post. "If our troops weren't in Iraq this never would have happened! Or maybe global warming got this guy very hot!"

"Blacktygrrrr" added his own two cents: "The bottom line is if the hostage taker is a liberal, he will be dismissed as deranged, since many liberals are deranged anyway."

"Rotarymunkey" had this to say: "Anyone care to bet the protagonist is a card-carrying member of the Democrat Party (aka nutroot) who is frustrated that Hillary hasn't personally defunded the War in Iraq yet? Might even be a member over at Daily Kos?"

And so it goes, on and on.

Of course, none of this comes as much of a surprise to those of us who are at all familiar with the vicious hatemongering in the right-wing blogosphere.

The scary thing is Malkin's blog supposedly has a policy of screening out "offensive" remarks. If the above comments weren't screened out, one can only wonder what truly deranged nutcase comments were deleted. The mind boggles.

I'm sure there are those who would argue that Malkin isn't responsible for the deranged posters who comment on her blog. But anyone familiar with Malkin's own writings knows that she herself is a truly psychotic nutcase whose babblings over the years have been far scarier than any of the comments above.

As prominent Malkin critic Glenn Greenwald pointed out, Malkin once wrote a book "defending the ethnicity-based imprisonment of innocent American citizens in internment camps."

As media watchdog site Media Matters pointed out, the mainstream media has given, on numerous occasions in the past, significant coverage to episodes in which controversial comments appeared on progressive blogs.

How much do you want to bet that the MSM ignores the right-wing hatemongering that appeared in the aftermath of the Clinton office hostage crisis?

By Marc McDonald of the progressive blog, BeggarsCanBeChoosers.com

There's more: "Right-Wing Nutcases Laugh It Up Over Clinton Office Hostage Crisis" >>

When the candidates remain consistent, what's a wingnut apologist to do???

Zero in on the "tone" the candidates use, of course! What else?

Patrick Healy, frontrunner for the title of biggest shill in the print media, unable to attack the Democratic candidates for flip-flopping on content and position has decided to attack the way they deliver their (consistent) message.

As violence declines in Baghdad, the leading Democratic presidential candidates are undertaking a new and challenging balancing act on Iraq: acknowledging that success, trying to shift the focus to the lack of political progress there, and highlighting more domestic concerns like health care and the economy.

....Lately, as the killing in Baghdad and other areas has declined, the Democratic candidates have been dwelling less on the results of the troop escalation than on the lack of new government accords in Iraq — a tonal shift from last summer and fall when American military commanders were preparing to testify before Congress asking for more time to allow the surge to show results.

"Tonal shift"??? WTF???

Let me consult my handy dandy decoder ring...

Yep...that's what I thought - the message has been consistent, so he is left floundering for any aspersion to cast, and anything he can get grubby little mitts on will do.

A “tonal shift” is what the M$M has to resort to accusing Democratic candidates of when they can’t be accuse them of flip-flopping.

It’s an attempt to make the consistency they have indignantly demanded from Democrats for all these years sound like it's a bad thing.

And let's just remember who the hell is penning this garbage, while we are at it.

Patrick Healy is the idiot scribe who attempted to figure out the frequency of the Clinton's *ahem* marital relations by looking at their travel schedules.

Not one word he writes should be taken seriously - including and, the, and of. He isn't a reporter. He's a gossip columnist, not even rising to the level of Dowd - and we all know what I think about that petulant, cloying and vapid embarrassment to redheads everywhere.

[That's all, folks...]

Crossposted from Blue Girl, Red State

There's more: "When the candidates remain consistent, what's a wingnut apologist to do???" >>

Cry Me a River, Ya Bastards

Representative Roy Blunt (R-Misery) protests heavy-handed Democratic tactics

When did the he-men of the GOP become such bitch-ass, whiny babies?

House Republicans are fuming over Democrats' decision to hold the next vote on the State Children's Health Insurance Program on Thursday -- when many Republicans will be in California as President Bush tours areas hit by wildfires.

"Five to seven members are going, all of whom would be 'no' votes, and [Democrats] know it," House Republican Whip Roy Blunt told CNN. "This is clearly designed to minimize the Republican opposition to this bill.

Yet, once again, it seems that leading GOPers are...umm...lying.

But Democratic House aides defended the scheduling of Thursday's vote. Stacey Bernards, spokesperson for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, told CNN Democrats are affected by the fires too.

"The fires aren't partisan," she said. "We are very concerned for the victims of the fires but tomorrow's vote outcome will not be affected by Republicans and Democrats who will not be there."

What, Democrats in California? Shut up! Okay, to be completely fair, it is possible that a few members of the Republic Party™ may have had their toes stepped on since being trounced upon in November '06. I wonder where the Democrats might have learned such unfair tactics? Hmmm. Sucks the be marginalized, eh?

...there ain't no more...

There's more: "Cry Me a River, Ya Bastards" >>

How stupid do Mitt and his minions think we are?

I call bullshit.

The pandering jackass who happily posed with this sign did not "misspeak" - and certainly not twice in ten seconds - when he said this:

“Actually, just look at what Osam — Barack Obama — said just yesterday. Barack Obama, calling on radicals, jihadists of all different types, to come together in Iraq.”

His loyal minion and amoral mouthpiece, Kevin Madden, said he "misspoke" while referring to Osama bin Laden's just-released single that shot to the top of the Wingnut Top 40 overnight.

Umm, Kev - you are a dirty-dog liar - he started to say it right and corrected himself.

Care to try again, Wormtail?

How's about this? Try a little honesty.

"Hey, have you seen the polling? This kind of petty, junior-high crap is all we got if we want Mitt to be the guy who loses to Hillary next November!"

There's more: "How stupid do Mitt and his minions think we are?" >>

Cheney Style Jackbooted Thug Republican Government Arrives In Arizona

This is incredibly important, and I want everyone possible to know about this. Pass the word and grow the outrage. Please.

The two owners of the local alternative progressive newspaper, the Phoenix New Times, have been arrested by the local Sheriff and County Attorney.

The charges stem from a story published under their byline in the Thursday edition of New Times, in which they describe a subpoena the paper reportedly received from a grand jury convened by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.

The alternative weekly newspaper, in its cover story, said the subpoena was part of an investigation orchestrated to get back at its reporters and the critical stories they wrote of County Attorney Andrew Thomas' political ally Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

The scope of the subpoena is unusually broad: It not only demands information from the reporters but also information about all the online readers of the publication since Jan. 1, 2004, including their Internet domain names and browsers and what other Web sites they visited before reading New Times.

I know many of the folks at The New Times, several are friends. These are good people who do the only hard hitting investigative journalism done in Arizona anymore. Remember how Congressman Rick Renzi was recently taken out of commission over corruption? Well, it was the New Times that started the process back in 2003 with this article.

Our local Sheriff, Joe Arpaio, is a publicity seeking buffoon and the County Attorney, Andrew Thomas, is a young, extreme right wing, Dick Cheney loving (seriously), right to life, militant conservative, politically manipulative and ladder climbing jackbooted jerk. Their abuse of the grand jury and criminal process is shameful, unethical and outrageous to the extreme. This same County Attorney, Andrew Thomas, has also egregiously tried to silence and chill criminal judges here in Maricopa County by similarly outrageous attacks on the Assistant Presiding Criminal Judge.

Folks, everything we talk about here in terms of the national situation has just hit home in a big analogous way right here on the state and county level. When I and other progressive commenters and opinion makers talk about the need to have accountability, to have an impeachment investigation display what has gone on, and to once and for all put a stop to the totalitarian creep we have been witnessing; this is exactly why. By the way, did you all get that portion I bolded for you? If that isn't chilling, I don't know what is. This is the ethos of activity that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are currently ratifying and condoning through their coddling of the Bush Administration and refusal to permit legitimate investigation and prosecution.

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Oxymoron Meets Moron

Just don't expect him to actually answer

Far from a "macaca" moment, but still indicative that the GOP frontrunners for the presidential nom are nothing but a passel of buzzword chanting bastards. Compassionate conservatism has always been known to be a bumper sticker platitude to members of the Reality-Based Community, but naturally the The Gullible Third™ eat this offal like candy.

During an October 7 campaign stop in New Hampshire, Romney was asked a perfectly nuanced question regarding the validity of medical marijuana in treating the worst side effects of terminal illnesses.

Here is a longer piece of video than has been currently making the rounds, with better audio.

When asked "will you arrest me and my doctors if I get medical marijuana?" of course the biatch punts, and turns his back on a terminally-ill man in a wheelchair. "I'm not in favor of medical marijuana," Mitt4Brains™ responds. He's not only a douchebag, but he plays one on tv! This is so indicative of GOPer rhetoric, in this campaign and campaigns past: 1 mile wide and 1 inch deep.

Do the GOPer contenders really want to jail doctors and patients for using medical marijuana? Doubtfully, just in the way they don't actually wish to jail doctors who perform abortions nor the patients who undergo them. It's simply more red meat for Red State [of Mind]™ rednecks. Even the Gullible Third™ deserve better...they just don't want any better.

There's more: "Oxymoron Meets Moron" >>

Haute Couture, Not Hate Couture

This post is meant to be a bit of a companion piece to CJ's below. The rightwing noise machine goes to great pains to foment hate for those that they perceive to be our enemies, and they go to great lengths to pigeonhole and dehumanize them to the masses. This has been done, with a good deal of success, respectively to the Iraqis, the Iranians and to Muslims in general.

Of course, the reality, as is to be expected, is a much more complex and compelling story. More on the flip....

Fashion Week in New York City is not a place one would expect to find a devout practitioner of Islam, much less would one expect to find said practitioner to be a celebrated designer, busy behind the scenes tarting up her models with her latest creations.

Turkish designer Rabia Yalcin is a devout Muslim. In public she wears a hear scarf and conservative dress. But the plunging neck lines, peek-a-boo bras and see-through material reveal her flair for the sensual.

Asked if she would ever wear her garments, Yalcin responds, "Of course I would wear it, but in private at my home." Yalcin believes a girl can have it all, mixing haute couture with Islamic sensibility.

In stark contrast to the couture she supplies her runway models...

...Yalcin is quite modest and traditional in her dress.

In this, she sees no contradiction between her faith and her career.

"My religion has taught me about understanding and loving," said Yalcin. "As far as I'm concerned, I create designs for women of all backgrounds and religions and I don't discriminate, and I have respect and love for all."

Amazing. Not only does this devout Muslim not hate us for our freedom, not only has she not had to been fought "over there" to keep her from killing us, "over here," but she is more than happy to leave us to whatever vices in our own homes and bedrooms in which we may wish to partake. There is is many a religious leader in this little old country of ours that could learn a valuable lesson from this lady.

There's more: "Haute Couture, Not Hate Couture" >>

2,185 Days

There is, however, one BIG difference between the two men. Osama knows exactly where Il Douche'™ is. Il Douche'™ doesn't have the vaguest idea where Osama is. Nor, does he care. Do you care? 2,185 days, and counting.

There's more: "2,185 Days" >>

Mad Jack McCain: Countdown to Irrelevance

Go sell crazy somewhere else, Jack. We're full up here.

This anniversary week of 9/11, John "Mad Jack" McCain is vying for as much media face time as possible, to shore up his ever-waning prospects of capturing the White House in 2008. Speaking to reporters in California over the weekend, he said:

"As president of the United States, I will get him, and we will enact justice against Osama bin Laden."

He repeated this boast in an interview segment on this morning's The Early Show on CBS. This claim reveals at least three delusions that Mad Jack is currently belaboring under: that he'll gain his party's nomination for President, that he'll actually defeat his Democratic opponent for President, and that he'll be able to divorce himself sufficiently from the clusterfuck that is the War in Iraq that he can extend the intelligence & policing forces necessary to bring him to justice.

Since he goes on to claim that Iraq is his "primary focus," why should we believe that he'll be any more successful in his boasts than his frat-boy predecessor?

There's more: "Mad Jack McCain: Countdown to Irrelevance" >>

This (Political) Ball Needs a New Court

And that court should be the Supreme Court, I would imagine. Because, guess who decided that protecting her boss's ass is more important than serving the interests of the nation?

Loyal even after leaving the White House, President Bush's former political director Sara M. Taylor obeyed his instructions and declined to answer Congress' questions Wednesday about her role in the firings of federal prosecutors.

But Democrats insisted that the decision to cooperate with their subpoena - or not - is hers.

"It is apparent that this White House is contemptuous of the Congress and feels that it does not have to explain itself to anybody," Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said as he opened the hearing.

"I urge Ms. Taylor not to follow that contemptuous position and not to follow the White House down this path."

A court fight could take years, dragging on even after Bush leaves office.

Though I'd rather not wait years for a resolution, I don't think it is the worst thing that could happen. If it were to set real precedent for exactly how executive privilege could be wielded (and for once and all correct the incorrect assumption that some belabor under that said privilege creates an umbrella for all employees of the Executive), perhaps something good could be taken from this egregious administration's tenure.

There's more: "This (Political) Ball Needs a New Court" >>

Larry Flynt: Douchebag of Liberty

In all honesty, Larry Flynt is not the type of guy I want to be when I grow up. With that proviso, he is certainly a useful ally in the culture war against sanctimonious and hypocritical right wing moralists. The latest casualty of Flynt's meddling appears to be GOP Senator David Vitter of Louisiana.

Vitter's admission that he used the escort service is tied to a call from a telephone number listed in public records in his name in Washington on February 27, 2001. Until late last week, a federal judge had prohibited Palfrey from publicly releasing her phone bills, but the ban was lifted and the entire archive — which Palfrey has said would weigh in at roughly 46 pounds in paper form — has been placed on her website. Members of a team assembled by self-described pornographer Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler, are understood to have identified Vitter's name through their own analysis of Palfrey's phone records. Flynt has a long record of exposing what he regards as "hypocrisy" on the part of politicians who tout family or religious values, while falling short in their own lives. Flynt recently placed a full page adverstisement in the Washington Post, asking, "Have you had a sexual encounter with a current member of the United States Congress or a high-ranking government official?" It went on to offer $1 million for documented evidence, and listed a toll-free number and email address.

For me, there is an extra frothy layer of icing on this schadenfreude cake, because Vitter is the hypocrite who replaced Bob Livingston in the House after he resigned owing to sleuthing by Flynt and his minions. As Blue Girl has posted, it's not the sex that is the issue for me, it is the hypocrisy. I would go so far as to say, it's the criminality. In this, I am seconded by the DC Madame herself, Debra Jean Palfrey.

And as the so-called "D.C. Madam" whose escort service Vitter says he used, Palfrey says the agency she ran was merely one-half of the alleged equation. "Why am I the only person being prosecuted?" she told TIME over the phone. "Sen. Vitter should be prosecuted [if he broke the law]" Palfrey has been battling prostitution-related charges in federal court in Washington, and became a celebrity of sorts in May when ABC's 20/20 ran a story on her service "Pamela Martin & Associates."

In his prepared statement Monday night, Vitter did not address whether he broke the law, how many times he used the escort service, when he stopped using it or whether he recommended the service to others. His office did not respond to requests for comment on those issues. But Palfrey argues that those potentially prurient details of Vitter's activity are key to her case. "If Sen. Vitter participated in any illegal behavior, illegal sex, illegal prostitution, intercourse or oral sex of any kind, you would have to wonder why he would not be prosecuted," she said. Palfrey's legal defense is that no prostitution took place because the escorts who worked for her business were issued strict written instructions not to engage in illegal sexual activity. Indeed, Randall Tobias, the senior State Dept. official who admitted using the service and then resigned, has claimed that he only received "massage." Palfrey's lawyer says Vitter will be called as a witness to testify under oath in her court case.

I must say I agree with Ms. Palfrey. I don't think Vitter has the class of even Livingston, so voluntary resignation is probably not on his agenda; but prosecution should be on the DC courts agenda. Censure, at the very least, should be on the Senate's agenda.

By the way, what's this wingnut obsession with "massage" therapy?

There's more: "Larry Flynt: Douchebag of Liberty" >>