That's how we deal with it around here folks

Mother of God. This guy doesn't live all that far from my home. This is what my local "independent conservatives" consider to be civil disagreement.



But, you know, it's the gay people who are the threat...

A couple of my neighbors have this sign on their lawn too. I have a nodding acquaintance with them, but I'm pretty sure most of my neighbors wouldn't find this over the top. I'm sure you can see why I haven't made a whole lot of friends in this state.

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Dear DCCC

This is why I've deleted your emails without even opening them for the last three years or more. If you refuse to lift a finger to help progressive Democratic challengers unseat entrenched GOPers, I'm not interested in anything you have to say. Neither am I going to give you one red cent of my money.

Let me give you a clue here. Engaged liberals are not as stupid or mindlessly loyal to the party as you appear to think we are.

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A night at the Nerd Prom

In my misspent youth, I couldn't get enough of them but the older I get, the less I care about big parties. Couldn't work up enough interest in the White House Correspondents Dinner to even follow the tweets about it, much less watch the red carpet entrances on CSPAN. But I was interested in Michelle Obama's dress and President Obama's stand-up routine at the event. He's pretty good at that stuff. His timing isn't perfect but now having watched the video, it's better than a lot of pros I've seen on the teevee box.

And as an added bonus got to see Michelle's dress, which was fabulous on her. Also, too, great hairdo. Love her style. She manages to be both hip and elegant without being at all pretentious. Not easy to pull off, but it she makes it look effortless.

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The Republican problem

Weekend read is clearly this rare departure from the usual "both sides do it" format. Our Mr. Hiatt allowed Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, of Brookings and AEI respectively, to tell the world, straight out loud, the root of our broken government lies with the Republican Party.

The opener is being widely and deservedly excerpted:

The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.

When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges.

However, like Think Progress, I thought the pair's advice to media at the end was equally important and deserves much more attention.

We understand the values of mainstream journalists, including the effort to report both sides of a story. But a balanced treatment of an unbalanced phenomenon distorts reality. If the political dynamics of Washington are unlikely to change anytime soon, at least we should change the way that reality is portrayed to the public.

Our advice to the press: Don’t seek professional safety through the even-handed, unfiltered presentation of opposing views. Which politician is telling the truth? Who is taking hostages, at what risks and to what ends?

Also, stop lending legitimacy to Senate filibusters by treating a 60-vote hurdle as routine. The framers certainly didn’t intend it to be. Report individual senators’ abusive use of holds and identify every time the minority party uses a filibuster to kill a bill or nomination with majority support.

The last point is especially critical. The vast majority of the electorate doesn't understand how the system in the Senate works and a 60 vote majority has become an accepted norm because the media doesn't tell them what a vast break of precedent this tactic is every single time the GOP blocks an up or down vote. Instead they report it as an ordinary victory or defeat.

If the media changed nothing else in the new stenographic format for journalism, changing this would go a long way towards informing the narrative. Not that I'm holding my breath waiting for them to embrace it.

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National Poetry Month

The month is almost over and I haven't officially marked the occasion though I do love the form and I've read a ton of brilliant poems posted by more ambitious social media denizens than me. Still, I feel I should do something before it's over and rather than try to impress you with some obscure poet from the vast breadth of my poetry knowledge, here's the source of my earliest exposure to poetry readings.



It's quite possible that Bullwinkle is responsible for instilling a love of poetry in me at such an early age. Also, too, still my favorite cartoon series of all time.

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Colbert cuts Koch down to size

I'm feeling a bit dull today but Stephen Colbert is always brilliant. He was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people and spoke at the awards fete. Mr. Koch was in the front row when Stephen laid this riff on him:

Of course, all of us should be honored to be listed on the TIME 100 alongside the two men who will be slugging it out in the fall: President Obama, and the man who would defeat him, David Koch.

Give it up everybody. David Koch.

Little known fact -- David, nice to see you again, sir.

Little known fact, David's brother Charles Koch is actually even more influential. Charles pledged $40 million to defeat President Obama, David only $20 million. That's kind of cheap, Dave.

Sure, he's all for buying the elections, but when the bill for democracy comes up, Dave's always in the men's room. I'm sorry, I must have left Wisconsin in my other coat.

I was particularly excited to meet David Koch earlier tonight because I have a Super PAC, Colbert Super PAC, and I am -- thank you, thank you -- and I am happy to announce Mr. Koch has pledged $5 million to my Super PAC. And the great thing is, thanks to federal election law, there's no way for you to ever know whether that's a joke.

By the way, if David Koch likes his waiter tonight, he will be your next congressman.

Read the rest at the link. No one escapes Colbert's rapier wit without suffering a few flesh wounds. [Via GOS]

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One more for the road

One more really great photo of the Enterprise space shuttle flyover in NYC from yesterday:

Nice shot of the Empire State building too. [Original photo]

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You can rely on the old man's money

This is so helpful. Willard Romney tells the young foks how to succeed in life:

If you’re young and you want to start your own business, Mitt Romney’s has some advice from you: Borrow money from your parents. At a “lecture” for students at Otterbein University in Ohio today, Mitt Romney told students that, his friend, Jimmy John, started a business by borrowing $20,000 from his parents at a low interest rate. Romney suggested anyone in the audience could do the same:

This kind of devisiveness, this attack of success, is very different than what we’ve seen in our country’s history. We’ve always encouraged young people: Take a shot, go for it, take a risk, get the education, borrow money if you have to from your parents, start a business.

Or you could, you know, sell the stocks your grandpa left you, or some tough choice like that. Just don't expect big government to force you into the indignity of an affordable student loan.

I'm pretty sure this is how glibertarians pull themselves up by their own little bootstraps too. [Video at the link]

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Starship Enterprise over NYC

The space shuttle Enterprise is taking the long way home. Last week it flew over DC. Today it was Manhattan's turn for the show. Saw lots of photos of it. This one was the best. [click to embigger]

Lots more pix and video at Gothamist. Also liked this fly by shot of Empire St. Bldg. Once again wish I was there to see it in person.

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Bear dropping

As the man said on the twitter machine, an early candidate for picture of the year:

Apparently taken by some student who was in the right place in the right time. Already crashed the server at the school, but everybody has it now. Spreading like a wildfire.

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The Cons must be crazy

Or, in other words, just another day in Wingnuttia. Maybe it's because it's finally sinking in that they're really going to get stuck with the Romneybot 2012 as their candidate, but for whatever reason, the Nutopians are especially goofy this week.

Rove, who has been in slow-mo meltdown mode for weeks unleashed a new attack ad reprising a recycled theme from 2008.

A new ad released Thursday by the conservative super-PAC American Crossroads seeks to use President Obama's "cool" status against him, appealing to the youth vote by asking how America's "biggest celebrity" has helped them find jobs.

I'm so old I remember they had some success with that meme for a while but hastily dropped it once Palin became the big celeb on the campaign trail. You can watch it at the link, but it's a dumb ad. Starts with lots of clips of Obama being cool and then cuts to some jarring, "Hey kids has your cool Prizzy from the United Stizzy got you a job yet" graphic in the last few seconds. Not Rove's best work.

Related, the Zombie Breitbart Army is dithering about Obama's Slow Jam and demanding he be impeached for being too cool on the teevee machine. [No, don't click that link to Breitbart] They're demanding equal time for Willard under rules that sound very much like an argument for the Fairness Doctrine. Funny, I remember when they told us we were doomed because Democrats were going to resurrect it when they took power. I suppose that means us lefties are supposed to screech about censorship and free speech violations now. Or something. For balance.

In other news, architect of the Roadmap to Ruin, Paul Ryan announced he's just not that into Ayn Rand anymore. No word on whether he's also stopped assigning Atlas Shrugged as mandatory reading for his interns.

Oh, and eureka! George Zimmerman is really a black man, so the wingnuts aren't racist. Liberals are the real racists. [No, don't click that link either.]

Sadly, that's not all the crazy in Crazyland. The real stupid is happening on the twitter today. The wingnuts are telling "jokes" again. It's going to a long road to November kids...

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Today in media stenography

I'm seeing a trend here. Last night on the twitter, Ed Henry was bemoaning the "controversy" over President Obama's travel schedule. As I said to him, what controversy? Not hearing the guy on the street talking about how to classify Obama's travel schedule. I only see the media guys complaining. But this morning CNN dutifully transcribes the latest GOP whining about Obama's events. Shockingly, they insist that the events should be classified as campaign stops and demand a full investigation. And what do they cite as evidence?

But Obama's recent speeches, the RNC said in the letter, were "events widely reported to be equivalent to campaign rallies." The committee's case sees supporting evidence in a list of the states Obama has visited this month, including the general election battlegrounds of Florida, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina and Ohio.

Odd, no? This meme has been pushed by the Big Media peeps since the first trip. I don't think I've seen Mark Knoller mention a single event without characterizing it as a "campaign style" stop. With help like this, the GOP is wasting its money on spin doctors.

I'm too lazy to look it up, but I'm pretty sure Bush was a much bigger offender by this criteria and I don't recall the media making such a big stink about it. But you know the drill. IOKIYAR.

Contrast this to Oliver Knox reporting on the same story. Oliver has a much more balanced take but you know, he's French and only recently moved over to Yahoo from AFP. Wonder how long they'll let him get away with that kind of journalism.

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Blue Dogs put down

I've long maintained that Blue Dogs were a detriment to progressive progress within the Democratic party. I endured years of no little criticism for suggesting that even though they often voted with the party on the small stuff, too often on the high profile issues they defected and gave Republicans bi-partisan cover. It made it nearly impossible to make GOPers own their policy and draw the bright line between the parties that had been too long lost.

So I was thrilled to see two more Blue Dogs go down in the Pennsylvania primary yesterday. I'm hearing the guy who beat Altmire isn't all that much better, but any small improvement is better than none in that district. Altmire joined Bart Stupak's stupid pack of fools in the health care fight. It's heartening to see him lose when he was he was projected to win, especially because his loss was greatly assisted by organized labor flexing some serious muscle.

The guy who beat Holden was the better victory. Don't know much about him, but he's a progressive and apparently willing to stand up for environmental realism since the League of Conservation Voters invested heavily in that race.

Unlike 2010, where the Blue Dogs lost because of Tea Party fanaticism, these defeats were clearly caused by progressive organization. I've been saying for years that liberals and progressives needed to stop obsessing over the Oval office and focus more on the Congressional races. Not that I think I had anything to do with it, but good to see it finally happening. This is how we will eventually change the world.



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GOP enthusiam gap

The GOP has now officially become so boring no one is covering it. I couldn't find any totals from yesterday's events. This is the closest I found to any rundown of the numbers. Of course, if this had happened to President Obama, every Big Media pundit on TV, the internets and in print would hollering about an enthusiam gap, but we're talking about a Republican candidate here, so I've only seen this one lonely blog mention Romney's lackluster "sweep" of yesterday's primaries.

But on Tuesday, Romney won only 56 percent of the vote in Delaware and 58 percent in Pennsylvania, home to Rick Santorum who dropped out on April 10th.

While Romney avoided the embarrassment of winning with a mere plurality, never has a presumptive nominee won a primary contest with such a low level of support at this stage of the race with his chief challenger no longer actively campaigning. [...]

Overall, GOP frontrunners have averaged 78 percent of the vote in contests conducted after the last credible challenger left the race.

No other candidates in recent history have garnered less than 60% but the "liberal media" is busily practicing steno-journalism, "reporting" in minute detail the latest in GOP whinging and whatever pathetic positive polling they can find for Willard. Because, profit model infotainment.

Sometimes I miss the days of information driven news so much, it manifests as a physical pain.

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I want a man with a slow jam - Updated

Fell asleep so I missed Jimmy Fallon's interview with Obama last night. Gratefully the internets post videos. Anne Laurie already posted Jimmy and Barack slow jamming the news. I liked it so much, wished it was longer. You should also click over and read Charlie's piece on the Romneybot that she linked to.

Haven't seen any video of the actual interview yet. Will update when one crosses the radar.

Update: Well that didn't take long. Thanks to Think Progress, here's Part 3 of the interview:



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Primary dullards

Bunch of Republican primaries today. Nobody cares. Weather was great, but few showed up to vote. It's pretty clear that Willard Romney is the last clown in the car.

The TV punditry is already pivoting to gauging how effective Mitt's mendacity is going to be against Obama. Chuckles Todd, dutiful stenographer, is gleefully examining the clues that signal Mitt's pending rhetorical rejection of the GOP's crazy base, eagerly anticipating Willard's shift to the center. He won't be reporting it as shameless lying, but rather canny strategy. Which will no doubt be the prevailing media meme.

The script is already written. The fact that Ron Paul swept the Minnesota congressional district conventions barely made a ripple in the news cycle. The only thing that might shift the prescribed narrative now would be a surprise win by Newt in Delaware. Or a surprise sweep by Ron Paul in Rhode Island. Both of which seem unlikely.

And thus the stupid season begins in earnest.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Ann Romney's struggles

Bit of buzz today about this verbal slip by Ann Romney at a speech in Stamford, CT.:

Romney alluded to the fact that not all women can stay at home saying, “I love the fact that there are women out there who don’t have a choice and they must go to work and they still have to raise the kids. Thank goodness that we value those people too. And sometimes life isn’t easy for any of us.”

Commentators are being careful not to misinterpret it, but I'm not so sure she didn't actually mean exactly what she said. People are forgetting the Mormom church is very much against women working outside of the home. Their elders preach financial sacrifice so they can devote themselves solely to child rearing and homemaking for their husbands. So she may well really love that some women have a valid excuse to seek a fuller work life than being simply consigned to mere chattel status.

Thinking, this pandering is the real insult to mothers forced to work.

“I know what’s like to finish the laundry and to look in the basket five minutes later and it’s full again. I know what’s like to pull all the groceries in and see the teenagers run through and all of a sudden all the groceries you just bought are gone,” Romney said to the crowd. “And I know what’s like to get up early in the morning and to get them off to school. And I know what’s like to get up in the middle of the night when they’re sick. And I know what’s like to struggle and to have those concerns that all mothers have.”

Clearly, Ann is still milking the diminishing Rosen kerfluffle with this, and it's pure bullshit.

Ann doesn't have clue what it's like to have never-ending laundry when you have to cart the wash to a laundramat, nor has she worried about how she's going to pay for that second trip to the grocery store. She's never had to explain to her kids why there's no food in the house because they ran out of money. She's never had to drag herself off to a crummy job after staying up all night with a sick kid, nor has she had to choose between taking time off from a job to care for them and not being able to pay the utility bills because she's lost a day's pay.

Of course, this sob story no doubt plays well in Stamford. She's pitching a big money crowd where no mom really has to work an outside job. But she will never know the struggles of all mothers. She never can, because she'll never have to make the agonizing choices forced on poor moms by the contraints of poverty. It's deeply insulting that she never acknowledges her own advantages in making those bogus claims. [photo via]

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World's cleanest energy

Until it isn't. The video speaks for itself.



In other words, we're already all pretty well fcked. But it could still get a whole lot worse. Not the legacy I want to leave my progeny. [Via watergatesummer]

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Put the load right on me

I didn't get around to posting about Levon Helm's death when it happened. I was unusally sad that he died and didn't have the heart to talk about it right away. The Band was big on the soundtrack of my misspent youth. I saw them live at the Filmore East back in 1970 or 71 maybe. It was a such a great concert. My first one in a high profile venue like the Filmore. And of course, it being in NYC made it extra exciting. As I recall, we also ate at Katz Deli. I'll never forget that old Jewish waiter. He was a riot. It was a golden time in my life, and listening to The Band always evoked warm memories.

Otherwise, I don't have any great personal stories about Levon but Charlie Pierce wrote a gorgeous tribute. And Elvis Costello's eulogy was moving.

Admit, I didn't really follow Levon's career after The Band broke up, so I didn't hear this song until he died, when it seemed everyone on the internets was mourning. Even though there are many other songs that mean more to me historically, this one seems the best to mark his journey to the Summerlands.



Can't stop listening to it. Makes me wish I had followed him longer, and somehow made my way to his barn in Woodstock.

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Falcons hatching RIGHT NOW

It's kind of like watching paint dry but I love these bird cams. I'm told this falcon at Cornell Lab is about to hatch her eggs. So far I'm not seeing it, but I expect this cam will get entertaining once they're hatched. Worth bookmarking Cornell livestream falcon cam.

Oh wait. Just saw mom get off the eggs and peck at the shells a bit. Someone apparently operating the camera and zooming when she gets off the eggs. You can see the little beaks trying to get out out of the shell. Yes, I'm a dork. Find this exciting.

Down and out in Muncie

Found this Sunday read fascinating. A profile of the societal breakdown of trust in our oldest institutions as viewed through the lens of Muncie, Indiana. It covers a broad spectrum of the town, but I found the saga of the former homeowner the most compelling story.

Here's a guy with old fashioned values. He did everything right. Worked hard, bought a home, took good care of it. Then the Republicans swooped into power with their austerity plan. His wife lost her state job in the first cuts. Eventually they couldn't pay the mortgage but they applied for the Obama administration's loan modification program. Which the bank rescinded after only three months and demanded full and immediate back payment in full for the rescinded discount.

He couldn't pay. His lawyer told him to just stay in the home anyway till they were kicked out, but he's not the kind of guy to play the game under the new rules of morality. He left his home, only to find out later that the bank didn't take title and he's being fined for not keeping up the yard. So now he's mowing the lawn for a house he doesn't actually own, He can't live in it, though he hopes to buy it back someday. Of course, he lost his job too because of the recession, so not clear how he'll accomplish that.

The irony is, he got his local government to rescind the $300 fine. It doesn't say, but guessing the local gov is Republican. So even though it's basically GOP policy that screwed him the first place, he'll probably never make the connection. He'll likely still vote GOP across the board in 2012 because those local guys were the only ones that helped him.

It's a tribal thing in heartland America. Democrats, and especially Obama, are not part of his tribe. Expect he'll be living in that trailer for the rest of his life.

The article is much deeper and more complicated that just this though. A bit depressing, but seriously worth a read in full. Some real food for thought.

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Lie down with dogs

Once Politifact was a fairly neutral, mostly reliable fact checker. Then they realized that the bulk of the lies were being told by Republicans, so they decided to go all "both sides do it" for "balance" and worked overtime to find any tiny discrepancy in statements by Democrats. Which culminated in their erroneously assigning the Democratic statement that the Ryan Roadmap to Ruin would destroy Medicare as we know it as Lie of the Year.

Of course they did this to please their fringe right wing critics and presumably to ensure their invites to the DC cocktail party circuit. In the process they destroyed their credibility and for what? Nothing short of full time Democratic bashing will please the crazy cons. For instance, publishing an unrated excerpt of Obama's book to give the whole stupid "dog eater" meme context is deemed a left wing sellout by the leading lowlights of the far fringe right. (Warning: link goes to Hot Air.)

I suppose they will still get those party invites, but pandering to the right wing won't get them any meaningful traffic. Those readers don't click links. They just read blogs like Hot Air to get their talking points for trolling comment sections. Essentially they destroyed their credibility, and the traffic generated by left wing links, for pretty much nothing but a few cocktail weenies. I'd rate that a net loss.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Not better Blogger

I've been defending Blogger from its critics for years. I've stuck with the platform, despite its annoying quirks because it was simple and fast to use. Of course, like every other damn thing on the internets, they couldn't leave well enough alone. So they invented a "new look" and completely fucked up the functionality. It's now become such a PITA to use that I'm seriously considering going through the trouble of switching to Wordpress, which has its own issues but at this point has more convenient functionality.

Blogger if you're listening, the popout side menu sucks. It doesn't stabilize while you're using it so adding labels is now irritating. Also it screws up the display of the text while you're composing. And, I now have to manually put in the breaks in html? Not a timesaver. Thinking this needed a bit more beta testing before it was forced on us. Please fix it, or give me my "old look" back.

Once the world would have stopped to watch

Now these things don't even make the nightly news. At least I didn't see it covered anywhere. End of an era. They're retiring the space shuttle and as a final tribute, it made a flyover in DC. My friend Hecate, who lives there, has some great photos. These two were my favorites.

Hecate also shares my memories of the space program and articulates the wonder it uses to evoke so beautifully, I'm going to send you to her because she voices my thoughts better than I can myself today. Click over for that and also more photos. Wish I had been there to witness this in person as well.

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If it's Sunday morning, there will be GOPers

Not that we didn't know this already. Lots of us have been pointing it out for many years, but a new study done by Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting proves the point. The Sunday morning bobblehead shows criminally skew to promoting white male Republicans.

Between June 2011 and February of this year, 70 percent of all one-on-one interviewees on the four biggest political talk shows — NBC’s Meet the Press, ABC’s This Week, CBS’s Face the Nation and Fox News Sunday — were Republicans. The numbers were even more lopsided in favor of men and white guests.

The ratio: 70% Republicans, 86% Men, 92% White. They should have added an age metric too. Would bet well over half these rich white, male GOPers were born well before 1950. But that's not the only bias:

Compared to other metrics though, the imbalance of political ideology seems almost insignificant. Across all four shows over the eight month period, there were just 36 appearances by women during one-on-one interviews compared to 228 men. And of those 36, 17 were Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN). Meanwhile, there 242 appearances by white guests, compared to just 15 by African-Americans (seven of those being Hermain Cain), four by Arab-Americans, and three by Latinos.

They always have an excuse for it. In the Bush era, they said it was because Republicans were in power. Of course, that metric didn't count with the bookers when Democrats took control. In the present day, I suppose they use the protracted GOP nomination race for cover. Yet GOPers still whine they can't get a break from that damn liberal "lamestream" media. And the rubes repeat that phony mantra as gospel.

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No blogs today

Really long day and Blogger appears to have gone to a "new look" that is definitely not better than the old look. Just can't deal tonight with this or the news. Check me in the morning. I'm going to get some sleep.

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Why I stopped eating seafood

Used to eat a lot of fish and other seafood. These days, I won't buy the stuff unless I'm sure it's doesn't come from the Gulf Coast or anywhere within the currents that come out of it. I mean, who wants to eat this mutated seafood?

According to Kuhns, at least 50 per cent of the shrimp caught in that period in Barataria Bay, a popular shrimping area that was heavily impacted by BP’s oil and dispersants, were eyeless. Kuhns added: “Disturbingly, not only do the shrimp lack eyes, they even lack eye sockets.”

“Some shrimpers are catching these out in the open Gulf [of Mexico],” she added, “They are also catching them in Alabama and Mississippi. We are also finding eyeless crabs, crabs with their shells soft instead of hard, full grown crabs that are one-fifth their normal size, clawless crabs, and crabs with shells that don’t have their usual spikes … they look like they’ve been burned off by chemicals.” [...]

The dispersants are known to be mutagenic, a disturbing fact that could be evidenced in the seafood deformities. Shrimp, for example, have a life-cycle short enough that two to three generations have existed since BP’s disaster began, giving the chemicals time to enter the genome.

And shrimp with tumors. Fish with lesions and no livers. Check out the photos at the link. Nothing stopping them from cutting off the heads and selling you the tails. Also, not reassured that BP says they've been tested and pose no danger.

Meanwhile, with the price of gas, everybody is going all "drill baby, drill" again. Won't do much good to be able to drive your car if you starve to death because the entire food chain has been poisoned.

Also, too: What Charlie said.

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Suck. On. This.

Ten years today of sucky blogging for Atrios. That's like a million years in internet time. Of course, I kid about the sucky part. He calls it that himself, I suppose because so many people call him a lazy blogger and say his blog sucks. Admit, back when I first started blogging, I thought he was kind of lazy too because his style is so terse. And of course, he got a lot of people really mad at him over the blogroll amnesty thing that seems like a lifetime ago now.

I came to realize it's actually a lot harder to say a lot in as few words as possible. And the more often you read him, the easier it is to understand his shorthand. Also, too, just because he doesn't post about everything, doesn't mean he's not jacked into the matrix and reading all day. He just chooses the most important stuff. Which is also not as easy as it looks.

And the open thread posts that are so widely mocked? Comments move fast there. Threads fill up really fast. After a couple of hundred comments, it takes too long to load. So he does that for the community, which is also unfairly scorned by the way. It takes time to crack that crowd, but if you engage and get to know them, you find they're some of the smartest and most caring people on the intertubes. At least that's what I found. I have many cherished friends there.

Anyway, the internet tells me this about tenth anniversaries.

Thus, traditional 10th wedding anniversary gift symbols are Tin/Aluminum. These materials symbolize the durability and malleability required in a strong relationship. Plus, tin is also resistant to corrosion.

Rather fitting for the blog and the community.

Atrios is kind of aloof and rarely engages himself, not even with his long standing regs. And admit I was one of the people outraged by his dumping of his blogroll. I probably said some mean stuff myself. But he was actually right about that too and over the years, even though he's rarely acknowledged my existence, he's become one of my favorite bloggers. Maybe even one of my favorite people that I've never met, and don't really know. Wishing him another ten years of hearty suckitude.

Oh, and in honor of the occasion, Atrios posted his One True Wanker of the Decade. I bet the under this morning on the twitter and predicted a surprise choice. Of course, Little Tommy Friedman was the obvious pick and rightfully so. He's been the leading wanker on Eschaton for the last ten years and some of Atrios' most enduring memes sprang from his wankery. It's another good one, but the Sully entry is still my favorite of the series.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Bad timing

Real life is kicking my ass today. Managed to land for the night just as a giant truck hit some wires and blew out the internet. Fixed now, but too late to blog tonight. Check me in the morning.

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Baby you're a rich Mom now

Republicans always want it both ways. I ignored the fauxrage over Hillary Rosen's comment about Ann Romney never having held a job. Of course the GOPers seized on it to declare Democrats were waging a war on stay at home mothers. Which is of course, totally different than the GOP's war on stay at home mothers who are poor. Just last January, Mitt Romney had this to say about poor moms.

“I wanted to increase the work requirement,” said Romney. “I said, for instance, that even if you have a child 2 years of age, you need to go to work. And people said, ‘Well that’s heartless.’ And I said, ‘No, no, I’m willing to spend more giving day care to allow those parents to go back to work. It’ll cost the state more providing that daycare, but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.”

Fred at The Slackvist [via] finds the new GOP graphic to go with that meme and expands the banner.

Maybe the slogan on the GOP’s banner above was just shortened for space. It might be that what they’re really saying is “Wealthy White Married Moms Do Work That We Count As Work, But Non-Wealthy and/or Non-White and/or Non-Married Moms Who Stay Home With Their Kids Are Still Just Lazy Freeloaders And Their Work Still Doesn’t Count.”

Rosen's comment was somewhat ackward but of course she was right. Ann hasn't a clue what it's like for regular working moms who don't have nannies and maids to help out, or who can't go practicing for dressage competitions when they need a break from the bedlam of family life. But the GOPers get away with the double standard every damn time because the media mostly just reports what they say, but they rarely mention that the talking points are completely bogus.

Because, you know, telling the obvious truth might be construed as taking sides, and some conservative blowhard might call them biased. Cowards.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Oh wait, we're still there?

Finally have a moment to review the state of the world. Stuff is still pretty well fked up and bullshit. But here's some stuff worth your time.

Doonesbury is especially good today. (That would be the Sunday strip if you're tuning in late.)

Charlie Pierce has his most fun takedown of Bobo, ever. I'm not going to even excerpt it. Just trust me and click over and read it. You won't be sorry.

And Atrios continues his wanker roundup. This one may be my favorite yet. Seriously. Read this one even if you skipped the others. I'll even give you the punchline.

One could waste a lifetime writing about the wanking of Andrew Sullivan. I'm starting to worry I have.

Admit there are days when I wonder why I've kept at this blogging thing so long myself. But hell, somebody has to archive the madness for future generations. Kind of sucks as a hobby, but I'm too invested to stop now. And I get even less respect than Atrios.

My crazy Congresswoman

Good Lord, but I loathe my Congresslizard Virginia Foxx. She apparently has no clue about the cost of an education today.

FOXX: I went through school, I worked my way through, it took me seven years, I never borrowed a dime of money. He borrowed a little bit because we both were totally on our own when we went to college, totally. [...] I have very little tolerance for people who tell me that they graduate with $200,000 of debt or even $80,000 of debt because there’s no reason for that. We live in an opportunity society and people are forgetting that. I remind folks all the time that the Declaration of Independence says “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” You don’t have it dumped in your lap.

Well I have no tolerance for self-serving, smarmy pols who work the system for their own benefit while cheating the people they're supposed to be representing. What part of taking a loan implies a free ride? Not to mention, when she went to school in the 60s the average price of tuition was between $500 and $1,000. The tuition at UNC right now is about $20K for in state residents and $40K for out of state.

I'm too wiped out tonight to fully express my disgust and rage with this woman tonight. Suffice it to say when it comes to the question of stupid or evil, she falls hard on the evil side.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Real LIfe

It's been taking up all my time. Hence no blogging. And there won't be any today. Hoping to catch up a bit tonight but the news has been so stupid, not sure they're will be anything worth talking about. But I will be back soon.

Newt won't quit

Gawker wasn't the only one trash talking Fox News this week. In a meeting with some Tea Party leaders, Newt accused Fox of "having been in the tank for Mitt Romney from the beginning of the Republican presidential fight." He also had a few harsh words for George Will. "Gingrich said that Will was among the conservative media figures who harbored 'personal jealousy' against him."


Furthermore, Newt thinks it's still possible for him to win the GOP presidential nomination." He claims his supporters want him to stay in it and figures he'll be able to pick up Santorum's base now that Little Ricky dropped out. So he's not quitting:

Gingrich vowed to campaign until the convention in Tampa, Fla., saying he wants to help the GOP reflect a "21st century conservatism."

Have to give some credit for perseverance I guess but I'm not fishing my favorite conspiracy theory out of the trash bin. Pretty sure Newt is going to come up short well before the convention.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

They ride horses don't they

Update: Didn't get to post this last night and in the interim, Fox did indeed catch the mole. Original post follows.

Gawker hired a new writer. They claim he's a mole from Fox News. Fox says they know who he is but he resurfaced with a taunt almost immediately after the announcement. So far no one has actually been fired. But even if they really do know, it's too late to contain all the damage. He delivered this backstage video from Willard's appearance at Hannity's Vegas extravaganza:



Most everybody focused on the horse thing. And sure, what says man of the people more than the finer points of Austrian Warmbloods, so well suited for dressage, and Missouri Foxtrotters? But am I the only one that noticed he said Ann needs to ride her horses to "get away from Mitt" because heck they just spent a whole month in close quarters is a bit contradictory to the whole loyal wife, happy family meme they're pimping?

Also I found the exchange about Romney's hotel telling. He tells Hannity, "You can spend your money on ads, or you can spend it hotel rooms. I'd rather spend it on ads." He's staying at the Renaissance in Las Vegas because it's cheaper. The Renaissance bills itself as a gambling free, luxury boutique hotel. Rack rate for a single weekend night for a standard room is in the $300 range. Don't we all look for those "cheap" $300 rooms when we're traveling on a budget? How much more "just like common folks" can they get?

Backstory on how it all started here.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

High Plains Grifter

I do try to avoid encouraging any attention to her, but this is hard to resist. The only change in Griftzilla's game is the graft just gets more blatant. Of course the rubes who donate only read her tweets and Facebook entries, so they probably don't know Sarah PAC is a fraud.

Sarah Palin’s political action committee raised $388,000 in the first three months of the year, but it spent $418,000 and didn’t give a dime to any candidates — which is the purported purpose of the PAC.

Instead, Sarah PAC spent $255,000 on fundraising and a small team of political consultants that Palin has continued to support even as she receded from the political spotlight during the heat of the GOP presidential primary. It also appears to have spent $19,000 on a video rebutting the HBO film “Game Change.”

That's just for the first three months of this year. Also, too, there's this:

The PAC also paid $4,500 to reserve space at Channelside Bay Mall in Tampa, Fla., near the site of the Republican National Convention, suggesting that Palin plans to have an independent presence at the event separate from the formal proceedings.

I'm guessing they're going to hold book signings to see if they can sell off the remainders of her books at retail. And maybe she'll take a cue from Newt and sell personal photo ops at $50 a pop.

But not to worry, they still have almost a million in the bank and they promise they'll be donating a few bucks to some candidates just as soon as they find any worthy of her priceless endorsement. They should have a few thousand extra left through November -- after expenses. And gosh darn, so maybe she won't run in 2012, but 2016 is just around the corner...

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Hell's a poppin'

Don't often click on the links that come in from the redneck mailing list I've been on for years. Thought it's was going to be something worse, but still not difficult to figure out the target audience for this ad.



I actually love many of the people on that list, but sometimes they scare me.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

When memes come true

And so, it's over. The Tumblr Texts from Hillary ends its run. The Texts from Hillary site will remain on the internets, but they're not going to add any new ones.

Can't blame them for wanting to go out on top. And really, after they were invited to meet with Secretary of State Clinton herself and she submitted a genuine text to the site anything else would be a bit anti-climatic. Besides, ending it this way, will only ensure its legendary status as one of the best internet memes ever.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Romney squeezes out Santorum

I see while I was off the grid, Little Ricky Santorum dropped out of the race and thus ends my favorite conspiracy theory. Hard to see a path to a brokered convention now. So no GOP dark horse to gallop in and save the race. Never so glad to be wrong.

[Post title shamelessly stolen from here.]

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Falling through the cracks

A lot of people outraged by this story today. It is infuriating and sad to read about the callous disregard our ruling class shows to the children of poverty, especially when the state cuts off welfare from mothers of young children. But this is the part I found the most revolting:

Faced with flat federal financing and rising need, Arizona is one of 16 states that have cut their welfare caseloads further since the start of the recession — in its case, by half. Even as it turned away the needy, Arizona spent most of its federal welfare dollars on other programs, using permissive rules to plug state budget gaps.

So I ask, what programs did the money go to? And why was there a shortfall in the budget that needed to plugged in the first place? Guessing, but willing to bet most, if not all, of those states are being run by Republicans who passed out tax rebates to corporations and the wealthy like Easter candy.

Meanwhile, the children of this enforced, abject poverty grow up in (often abusive) households where petty crimes and other desperate measures to survive are routine. Underfunded schools in the ghetto aren't going to show them the way out, so many willl take up the same lifestyle. Some two thirds of the boys and men will get arrested. Leaving single mothers to start the cycle again.

If you think about it, it's a helluva long range plan to keep all those private prisons filled to capacity.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

RIP Mike Wallace

I don't have any grand memories of the man, but Mike Wallace was the kind of journalist they just don't make anymore. Hard to imagine any of the current crop of bobblehead moderators asking the kind of questions he did, back in the day. He lived to be 93. To put that in perspective, "when Wallace was born in 1918 there wasn't even a radio in most American homes, much less a TV."

He witnessed a whole lot of change. Indeed, he was more than just a mere witness, he was the emcee of all of our mutual history. He was the inquistor of many of its major figures. He asked tough questions and insisted on real answers. Which sadly means, even if somehow he could come back again as a young man and start his life all over, there would be no place left in today's "news" business for him anyway.

Much more commentary on his passing at Memeorandum. May he rest in peace.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Happy happy

Well if you celebrate the holiday, Happy Easter or happy Passover or just happy day if you don't subscribe to the religion thing. If you're looking for an Easter graphic, click over and check out this Easter tree with 10,000 eggs. Actually an interesting story. The guy started with 18 eggs in 1965 and just kept adding more.

Me, as has become my custom, started my festivities by reading my hate mail. It's especially delicious today. Better than chocolate bunnies. My current favorite, verbatim:

libby the crap master crap for brains and crap column!

Thinking the mods may take that one down, but I don't ever delete them myself. Figure it educates the centrists on conservative values. But on to nicer things. This is, hands down, the picture of the week. Full moon rising over Central Park.

Original photo taken by the incomparable Isarda Sorensen. It was almost a tie this week though. This little charmer just makes me smile till my face hurts.

And if you need more cute, try 40 animals in love. Enjoy the day.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Texts from Hillary

I resisted as long as I could, but I finally checked Texts from Hillary. It's good. Almost Hillarious.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Derbyshire fired

Not even close to a full throated condemnation of his vile blathering, but good to know there is a place where even they will draw the line. National Review actually dumped Derbyshire. Reproducing the post in full:

Anyone who has read Derb in our pages knows he’s a deeply literate, funny, and incisive writer. I direct anyone who doubts his talents to his delightful first novel, “Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream,” or any one of his “Straggler” columns in the books section of NR. Derb is also maddening, outrageous, cranky, and provocative. His latest provocation, in a webzine, lurches from the politically incorrect to the nasty and indefensible. We never would have published it, but the main reason that people noticed it is that it is by a National Review writer. Derb is effectively using our name to get more oxygen for views with which we’d never associate ourselves otherwise. So there has to be a parting of the ways. Derb has long danced around the line on these issues, but this column is so outlandish it constitutes a kind of letter of resignation. It’s a free country, and Derb can write whatever he wants, wherever he wants. Just not in the pages of NR or NRO, or as someone associated with NR any longer.

Didn't expect them to do it. As late as this morning NR was still making weak excuses to disassociate themselves from his outside work and dismissing the outrage. It's not like Derb wasn't saying what they think and say to each other in private. Derb's only transgression in that crowd is he was too unsubtle in public.

Not really worried about Derb's future though. Figure within the month he'll land at either Daily Caller or, at worst, somewhere among the tattered remnants of what's left of Breitbart's Big.Con empire.

Addendum: If you somehow missed Derb's vile screed that precipitated the whole mess, I'm not linking to it, but you can get the backstory here.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Because nothing diffuses racial tension like gun-toting racial separatists patrolling an already on-edge community

They're here to help:

Neo-Nazis are currently conducting heavily armed patrols in and around Sanford, Florida and are "prepared" for violence in the case of a race riot. The patrols are to protect "white citizens in the area who are concerned for their safety" in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting last month, says Commander Jeff Schoep of the National Socialist Movement. "We are not advocating any type of violence or attacks on anybody, but we are prepared for it," he says. "We are not the type of white people who are going to be walked all over." [...]

Schoep, whose neo-Nazi group is based in Detroit, tells Riptide the patrols are a response to white residents' fears of a race riot.

What could go wrong?

Related:

#fail twitter.com/daveweigel/sta…

— daveweigel (@daveweigel) April 6, 2012

Difficult not to notice the media, right wing zealots and other crazed Zimmerman apologists are working overtime to make this all about the racsim, I guess so no one thinks about the guns. As if killing Trayvon simply for walking down a sidewalk is okay if Zimmerman really isn't a racist.

This story can still be summed up in a one sentence. Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teenager, would still be alive if George Zimmerman, an armed vigilante, had stayed in his car as the dispatcher had advised.

No matter what color they are, justice demands Trayvon's family receive a better explanation for their son's death than an uncorroborated story told by his killer.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Michigan Republicans break law to pass laws

I didn't think much about this story when it first broke at Detroit News. When I saw the suit was about roll call votes, figured it was just local bickering over process. It's not like I haven't witnessed the same thing on CSPAN in the big House on the Hill a million times. And there were previous skirmishes over open meeting laws that didn't do much but delay implementation of GOP passed laws, so I didn't investigate because my beat at that blog is national politics.

Of course, Detroit News coverage didn't mention the immediate effect clause. When Rachel Maddow discovered the GOP was violating the Michigan state constitution, it got much more interesting. It seems the GOP majority in the MI House passed 546 bills, which they put into immediate effect under a provision that requires a 2/3 majority. They don't have a 2/3 majority. Many contentious bills were passed on party lines and then deemed thus authorized without the benefit of a roll call vote. Which is also required under the state constitution, upon request.

Seems like the GOPers should be impeached, but instead the state AG is defending them against the Dems current lawsuit. As I said in my post I'm wondering how this is legal. I've been told on twitter it's the AG's function to defend duly passed laws. I don't disagree with that. Makes total sense if an outside group is challenging a particular, duly passed law. But I don't think that's exactly what happening here.

I haven't seen the pleadings but from the coverage I've now read, the Dems are challenging the process under which the laws were passed in addition to naming three laws in the suit. It's a internal suit between two opposing political parties that alleges illegal activity by one of the parties. Just can't see how it's proper for an AG to defend one party over the other. Hoping someone with more time and resources checks into that.

In any event, Rachel is right. Wisconsin gets all the press, but the subversion of democracy in Michigan is far more radical. At the least, this should motivate everyone to make sure as many Republicans as possible get kicked out of state governments in November.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

A change is gonna come

Someday. Feels like I've been waiting for a very long time.

Since I'm getting a late start -- again -- and it's already a holiday weekend, I'm going to post this via Greg Mitchell on the twitter. Always did love Sam Cooke and the video here seems especially appropriate for these times.



[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

The cult of false equivalency

In case you missed it, President Obama gave a barn burner of a speech at the AP luncheon. The media narrative termed it partisan. I'd describe it as realistic.



It's long, so here's a part where he called out the false equivalence of the media coverage:

Health care, which is in the news right now — there’s a reason why there’s a little bit of confusion in the Republican primary about health care and the individual mandate since it originated as a conservative idea to preserve the private marketplace in health care while still assuring that everybody got covered, in contrast to a single-payer plan. Now, suddenly, this is some socialist overreach.

So as all of you are doing your reporting, I think it’s important to remember that the positions I’m taking now on the budget and a host of other issues, if we had been having this discussion 20 years ago, or even 15 years ago, would have been considered squarely centrist positions. What’s changed is the center of the Republican Party. And that’s certainly true with the budget.

Dan Froomkin wonders, "How would political coverage change if this became the new accepted narrative?"

Well, we're not likely to find out because it will never become the media narrative. Truth so barely laid out would make all too clear that the Republican party has become a seething mass of mendacious sociopaths. Neither does it fit the preferred form for stenography journalism.

Hell, it took less than 24 hours for the AP to prove Obama's point with ludicrous false equivalencies in their analysis of the speech. Even worse, for all their pretensions about having to maintain balance, they actually reinforce the GOP narratives with their skewed definition of balance.

Hard to believe they don't realize it.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Reality check

Team Obama has a couple of new internet ads up. Saw the first one yesterday and frankly, I wasn't sure if it was working for me.



Then they released this one today. Maybe it's just my mood, but thought this one is really good.



Can see it how it would work well as a series.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

No confidence in incompetence

When I saw Chuck Todd complaining on the twitter yesterday that the final count in the Wisconsin primary was delayed because of late results coming from Waukesha County, I thought it sounded familiar. Meant to check and then got distracted but the internets always deliver the answer if you wait a while. Sure enough, America's most inept county clerk struck again. Have to agree, it's time for Ms. Nickolaus to step down so we don't see this happen with the recall races:

The tallies start coming in; first Walker is ahead and then his Democratic opponent. The tally swings back and forth, and finally every vote is counted - except for those in Waukesha County. Once again, something has gone wrong with County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus' system. No one knows what - just that the tally is hours late or vote totals aren't accurately reported or something else is messed up, and the outcome of one of the most important races in the country this year remains in doubt.

Of course we don't know that that will happen. But Nickolaus' record in counting ballots offers no confidence that it won't; her handling of last year's state Supreme Court election results and the mess that occurred Tuesday night have damaged her office's credibility beyond repair. To restore it, Nickolaus needs to step aside - we'd prefer a simple resignation - and allow someone else to run the recall elections, starting with the Democratic primary in May.

And, while they don't mention it here, these next elections are going to be more than usually emotionally charged and if memory serves, in the Supreme Court race, it was Waukesa's revised total, after they mysteriously discovered some "lost" votes that allowed the right wing judge to keep his seat on the bench. Even if there was none, it just smells like rigging the vote. The last thing we need is for there to be any doubt about the integrity of the process in what will be a historic recall election.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

So many wankers

So little time. As promised, Atrios is delivering his wankers of decade series daily. I was rooting for Mickey Kaus for today, but his choices are interesting, and apt, so far. Best part though is he's brought back the ponies! Always loved those. Only wish he would give me a unicorn, just once. That would be really fun.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Republicans run from their name

Belly laugh of the day. I'm sure this has nothing to do with the hatred the GOP base has for climate science:

After 16 years of trying to marry their party's support for drilling and climate change denial with environmental protection, Republicans for Environmental Protection is dropping the word “Republican” from its name.

The group's new name, ConservAmerica, is designed to "explain the connection between conservatism and conservation" and underscore the group's ethic of stewardship.

You have to wonder which they found more embarrassing, being for Environmental Protection or just admitting they're Republicans. Thinking their new name still doesn't really capture the true essence of the new conservatism though. If they were honest, they would have just called themselves, ConAmerica.

[Thanks to Doug J for kindly linking in.]

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Picture this

This is definitely the picture of the week, tweeted by Nichelle Nichols, a/k/a Lt. Uhura to us Star Trek fans.

I really liked this one too. Sadly, I don't remember where I found it, but thanks to whoever posted it somewhere.

Say what you want about President Obama, but the man has a smile that lights up a room.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Ancient blogger reflects on his past

I'm a pretty old blogger in more ways than one, but Atrios is older in blog years. He's coming up on his tenth blogiversary and is doing a series of rare long form posts to mark the occasion. Being that I'm pretty sure he invented the "wanker" meme, it's seems fitting that his series is focused on "Wanker of the Decade."

Now ironically, Jane Galt is responsible for my most viral post ever, that being when I was posting at The Newshoggers, where I briefly speculated on whether Fred Thompson's trophy wife would be a liability in his bid for the GOP nomination in 2004. Andrew Sullivan picked it up from her and I was bombarded with a vertiable firestorm of criticism that lasted for a couple of weeks for daring to suggest such a thing. Back then I had no idea who Jane Galt was. I thought it was her real name.

Anyway, I suppose I should be kinder to Ms. McMegan out of gratitude for launching me but fk that. She, and her pink Himalayan salt, deserves a place on the wanker of the decade list. I might have ranked her higher myself, but with so many choices, the competition is stiff.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Fourth Amendment is dead and gone

Of course it's been on life support for all too many years already, but the Fourth Amendment took its last gasping breath before being throttled by this latest SCOTUS decision on strip searching:

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled by a 5-to-4 vote that officials may strip-search people arrested for any offense, however minor, before admitting them to jails even if the officials have no reason to suspect the presence of contraband.

Any offense. No matter how minor.

You know when I read the classic dystopian novels of my youth, I always hoped Brave New World would be the vision that correctly predicted the future. Sadly, it appears Orwell won.


[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Unzip the Mitt

Admit I didn't make the connection to the double entendre immediately. When the woman who Politico deemed the "most feared Republican in the land" this morning, Ann Romney suggested we need to "unzip the Mitt," I envisioned a body suit with the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man stepping out. Apparently 95% of the internets had a different take...

Ann Romney’s remarks came during an interview with Baltimore radio station WBAL, during which the host asked her, “And one of the things, Ann Romney, that folks talk about with your husband, Mitt Romney, and I’ve seen him in casual conversation-He comes off very smooth and okay. But sometimes he comes off stiff. Do you have to fight back some criticism, like ‘My husband isn’t stiff, OK?’”

Laughing, Ann Romney responded, “Well, you know, I guess we better unzip him and let the real Mitt Romney out because he is not!”

Frankly, I find the whole premise of the hilarity a bit too icky to contemplate, but somehow I feel certain that "unzip the Mitt" will become part of the lexicon for the foreseeable future, so I'm passing it on to provide context in case you missed it.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

If it's Obama, it's got to be bad.

and if it's bad it's got to be Obama.

By Capt. Fogg

Am I a hard-core Democrat? I have no idea, but I don't remember the last time I was of voting age and the Republicans offered a decent candidate for any office higher than county commissioner.

But someone who sends me an endless series of fabricated, fictitious and venomous "articles" proving that Barack Obama is the Devil's evil twin, just told me that's just what I am yesterday and even though I'm a Democrat only by default, I guess I'm flattered. You see, he's yet to send me anything that didn't prove to be a baseless and usually flimsy lie and that makes him mad. He's often told me I "always have an excuse" when I expose him as a gullible idiot and seditious liar as though the truth were an excuse -- and of course if debunking lies makes me a Liberal apologist, telling them must make him, by his definition, a Republican liar, if I might be excused the tautology.

The latest offense was a short video of the President, leaving the podium and kicking open a door under the rubric:

The tantrum!!

Picture worth ten thousand words - "The little boy" did not get his way - this wasn't in the news, but it sure can be visualized..... "Poor baby" did not get his way and had a "tantrum." Bet you won't see this on network TV: Obama leaving a meeting with Congressional leaders after Cantor told the president "Republicans would not vote for his proposed tax hikes."

What tax hikes? I guess the media has covered that up too!

It's typical to include rhetoric about the "media" not wanting us to know something to cover up the fact that it never actually happened, but in this case, the video actually was taken from "network TV" because it appeared as a joke on Jay Leno. No, of course it wasn't in the news any more than the previous pictures of a huge arms cache "on the Arizona border" the media didn't want us to hear about, or didn't care about because it actually was found hundreds of miles away in Mexico and had nothing to do with Arizona. Think these good folks know that illegal immigration is way down or that this administration has deported in less than 4 years, more than the Republican liars did in 8? If it's Obama, it's got to be bad.

Then there was the one showing Obama with his feet on the desk and the hysterical denunciation that insisted this desecration of a desk by this "arrogant, immature, self-centered idiot" proved he thought of himself as a king and that "generations to come" would feel the effects of his having had his feet on the desk.

This being another tu quoque attempt at distracting from Bush's naked imperialism, constitutional infractions, financial malfeasance, war crimes and putting his feet on the desk, of course I countered, like a hard core Democrat with this:




Of course one can find many pictures of many presidents with many feet on desks on the Internet. I'll leave that search to you, but I never expect evidence of fraud or the irony attached to it to have any effect on the lower orders of humanity. Inconvenient proof will only generate further rage, further scurrilous attacks and won't begin to stem the flow of fake picture after fake story after malicious and fictitious malediction.

So am I a hard core Democrat? Not really and I do perceive that Democrats have their own shibboleths and conceits and that they aren't always as scrupulous at fact checking as they might be, but I'm comparing apples to road apples here. There is no excuse for the bottomless cornucopia of scurrilous stories, fake videos and doctored photographs that have infested the Internet for the ignorant armies of the angry Right to use as a weapon.

Take the series of fake pictures designed to "prove" that Trayvon Martin was a dangerous thug now filling up the blogs and mailboxes. No, nothing is too racist or too false or too pathetic for the cause to ignore it nor do any of the GOP employees who work overtime creating it really have to worry about their constituents finally catching on to the long con. The left behind, the outmoded, the surplus population of maladapted Republican miscreants simply aren't capable of the level of honesty, the level of cognitive function needed to question anything so delightfully, so soothingly, so self-importantly hateful.