In Case You Wondered If Republicans Are Still Crazy

9:17 am EST October 15th, 2011 | Conservative | 28 Comments

Here’s Rush Limbaugh, sick as always.

On his radio show today, Rush Limbaugh launched another religion-based smear of President Obama: that he is sending troops to Africa to kill Christians. Limbaugh declared that “President Obama has deployed troops to another war, in Africa,” adding that the group being targeted, the Lord’s Resistance Army, “are Christians. They are fighting the Muslims in Sudan. And Obama has sent troops, United States troops to remove them from the battlefield, which means kill them. … So that’s a new war, a hundred troops to wipe out Christians.” Limbaugh then claimed that Obama supports “help[ing] the Egyptians wipe out the Christians.”

Sick. Always sick. Eternally sick. And he’s one of the right’s top “thought” leaders.

Rick Perry Better Cowboy Up

2:25 pm EST October 14th, 2011 | Politics | 13 Comments

Rick Perry says he agrees with his wife in her belief that he’s been “brutalized” on the campaign trail so far. Are you kidding me?

So far Perry’s been treated with mostly kid gloves, particularly from his fellow Republican candidates. Compare the fighting so far between Romney and Perry to Obama vs. Hillary, or Obama vs. McCain.

Rick Perry’s barely gotten his cowboy boots dirty, let alone “brutalized” so far. He’s been dancing with people who believe in his trickle down, dirty energy, crony capitalism shuck and jive. He hasn’t been challenged at all.

If he’s the GOP nominee and this is how tough he is, you can expect him to be on his heels from the get-go. This whining is practically Palinesque in how it telegraphs a glass jaw.

Topic: Rick Perry

The New Republic, Who Gets Everything Wrong, Opposes Occupy Wall Street

1:38 pm EST October 12th, 2011 | Liberals | 73 Comments

If you haven’t been playing along at home, you’ll remember the New Republic as the opinion magazine that:

* Supported Joe Lieberman for President
* Supported the Iraq War
* Consistently supported the corporatizing of the Democratic Party
* Publishes the hate tracts of Marty Peretz
* Is wrong on everything

So it should come as no surprise that TNR opposes Occupy Wall Street. It’s main argument is along the lines of the traditional TNR argument, that some elements are just too radical, too left-wing for a mainstream liberal to be in favor of.

Much like Fox News’ opposition to Occupy Wall Street, this should be seen as a well-earned endorsement by the protest movement. TNR is almost always wrong on everything as an institution (they do have the occasional smart writer who breaks out of its DLC-neocon box, but that’s the exception to the norm).

The left, and specifically the Democratic Party, failed America when it adopted Republican-lite economic policy. The New Republic was one of the chief cheerleaders of that folly. Consider the source.

Hey, Occupy Wall Street, I Was Wrong

4:37 pm EST October 7th, 2011 | Liberals | 133 Comments

I was wrong about Occupy Wall Street. Well, sort of. I still think that the protesters need to do more to appeal to non-activists out there in the vast middle of the country, but on the flip side they’re doing the right thing by getting out in the street.

The people that caused our recent economic crisis and the economic disparity that preceded it are right out there on Wall Street. They are the 1% who have lorded over the rest of us for way too long. In America you ought to have a decent shot at moving up, and increasingly that avenue is being cut off. Their message may be varied, but I know many of those occupying Wall Street would like to see a return to the American dream. I’m all for that.

The other, less substantive reason I know that Occupy Wall Street is on the right path is due to the intensifying attacks from the right-wing cheerleaders who helped lead America to the brink. When Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, and Glenn Beck are pounding their fists — the opposing side is almost always in the right. The team that brought you the Iraq War, the Financial Crisis and the Lost Decade is not to be trusted.

If they’re against Occupy Wall Street, I’m for it.

Lindsey Graham: It’s Hard Out Here For A Southern White Guy

4:15 pm EST October 6th, 2011 | News | 25 Comments

Who will stand up for the southern white man? WHO???

RIP Steve Jobs

8:40 pm EST October 5th, 2011 | News | 4 Comments

He fits right in with this crew:

Fred Shuttlesworth, Hero, Dies

2:32 pm EST October 5th, 2011 | History | 11 Comments

Just an amazing group of people fought for our rights.

It was in Birmingham in the spring of 1963 that Mr. Shuttlesworth, an important ally of Dr. King, organized two tumultuous weeks of daily demonstrations by black children, students, clergymen and adults against a rigidly segregated society.

Graphic scenes of helmeted police officers and firefighters under the direction of Eugene “Bull” Connor, Birmingham’s intransigent public safety commissioner, scattering peaceful marchers with fire hoses, police dogs and rattling nightsticks, provoked a national outcry.

The brutality helped galvanize the nation’s conscience, as did the Ku Klux Klan bombing of a black Birmingham church that summer that killed four girls attending Sunday school. The events led to passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and, after the historic protest march in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, organized in part by Mr. Shuttlesworth, the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The measures were the keystones of civil rights legislation.

Thanks to the work of Fred Shuttlesworth, America overcame.

PHOTO: Russell Crowe Is Jor-El

2:24 pm EST October 5th, 2011 | Comic Books, Movies | 1 Comment

He’s certainly a good actor, that’s for sure.

Topic: Superman

Yet Another Big Lie From Breitbart’s Big Journalism

11:29 pm EST October 2nd, 2011 | Conservative | 15 Comments

I know this will shock some of you, but Andrew Breitbart and his team at Big Journalism (and Big Government, and Big Peace, and Big Hollywood, etc.) often make up stories. They just out and out lie. This explains their success within the bastardized world of conservative “journalism” where the truth is the inconvenient bit.

Add this one to the “Big Lie” pile. Here’s Ron Futrell, trying to make the case that the media is responsible for creating the image of Obama attempting to unite the country:

Here’s just one example of the story line from 2007 with this little bit from the Washington Post about Obama, “he has the capacity … to unify the country and move it out of what he called “ideological gridlock.” Wow, good thing we don’t have gridlock and we hired the guy for the job who could stop it with a beer summit or the wave of his magic cigarette.

Whenever I see conservatives use ellipses, a warning bell goes off indicating that there’s trouble afoot. So, here is the text from the story Futrell links. I will highlight what he chose to excerpt and you can read for yourself what he left out on purpose.

Drawing a sharp contrast with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, his main rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama said in an interview that he has the capacity she may lack to unify the country and move it out of what he called “ideological gridlock.”

To make that really clear, Futrell has taken Dan Balz’s reporting on what Obama said about himself and magically attributed it to The Washington Post’s expressed opinion. I’m not fan of a lot of what the Post does, but they didn’t express an opinion here. They reported the words of a candidate for office. You know, reporting?

Futrell does this because he knows 99.9% of the people on the right who will read what he wrote will never click through, but even for someone in the Breitbart stable this is mighty dishonest.

On purpose.

Greek Austerity Misses Deficit Target

8:42 pm EST October 2nd, 2011 | News | 10 Comments

Hey, look, the drive to austerity hasn’t helped the Greeks meet their deficit targets. Guess what? It won’t happen here either. All it does, especially here, is squeeze those who are already being squeezed while the robber barons get to fleece us yet again.

It’s almost as if “starve the beast” policies are designed to keep those with wealth flush in cash while the middle and lower classes languish.

Almost.