Posted 10:42 AM by Scoobie Davis

John Lewis Calls Out Rep. Paul Broun over Comments and Attempts to Defund Part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965
 The Huffington Post has the story:

Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) introduced an amendment to cut all funding for enforcement of a part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 intended to prevent racial discrimination. The provision, Section 5, requires a number of states and counties, mostly in the South, to receive federal approval before changing their election laws. . .Broun argued that the provision unfairly targeted several states and had become "antiquated" . . [Rep. John] Lewis, who marched with Martin Luther King Jr., took to the floor to denounce Broun's amendment: "It is hard and difficult and almost unbelievable that any member, but especially a member from the state of Georgia, would come and offer such an amendment," Lewis said, recounting the history of struggles over voters' rights. "It's shameful that you would come here tonight and say to the Department of Justice that you must not use one penny, one cent, one dime, one dollar to carry out the mandate of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act."

Just a little background on Broun: he's the guy who got on the House floor and referred to the Civil War as the "Great War Of Yankee Aggression."

Posted 3:40 PM by Scoobie Davis

Googlebomb Joel Arends and the Phony Veterans for a Strong America
Check it out on the Googlebomb blog

Here's the post:

Joel Arends, a notorious right-wing operative (e.g., he was South Dakota assisant director of the Koch Brother's Americans for Prosperity), has created an ostentively nonpartisan front group, Veterans for a Strong America, that are the 2012 version of the Swift Boat liars. Arends and VFSA have a disgustingly deceptive commerical that darkens President Obama's skin.

Let's give web searchers accurate information about Arends and his phoney front group:

1. Copy and paste the following to your web site or on an internet bulletin board:

<a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/201205040010">Joel Arends</a>
<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/05/swift-boat-obama-bin-laden-video">Joel Arends</a>
<a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/topics/veterans-for-a-strong-america/">Joel Arends</a>
<a href="http://video.msnbc.msn.com/now-with-alex-wagner/47296673/#47296673 ">Joel Arends</a>
<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Joel_A._Arends">Joel Arends</a>
<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/05/obama-street-thug">Joel Arends</a>
<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/04/1088736/-Swift-boating-jumps-the-shark">Joel Arends</a>
<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/05/06/478820/obama-swift-boat-veterans-for-a-strong-america/?mobile=nc">Joel Arends</a>
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/201205040010">Veterans for a Strong America</a>
<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/05/swift-boat-obama-bin-laden-video">Veterans for a Strong America</a>
<a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/topics/veterans-for-a-strong-america/">Veterans for a Strong America</a>
<a href="http://video.msnbc.msn.com/now-with-alex-wagner/47296673/#47296673 ">Veterans for a Strong America</a>
<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Joel_A._Arends">Veterans for a Strong America</a>
<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/05/obama-street-thug">Veterans for a Strong America</a>
<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/04/1088736/-Swift-boating-jumps-the-shark">Veterans for a Strong America</a>
<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/05/06/478820/obama-swift-boat-veterans-for-a-strong-america/?mobile=nc">Veterans for a Strong America</a>

The Results will look like this:

Joel Arends
Joel Arends
Joel Arends
Joel Arends
Joel Arends
Joel Arends
Joel Arends
Joel Arends
Veterans for a Strong America
Veterans for a Strong America
Veterans for a Strong America
Veterans for a Strong America
Veterans for a Strong America
Veterans for a Strong America
Veterans for a Strong America

Posted 9:18 AM by Scoobie Davis

New Jack T. Chick Tracts
"Why Should I?" and "Wassup?" (which is the African-American version of "Hi There!")

Posted 10:40 AM by Scoobie Davis

Guntoting Badass Ted Nugent Crapped his Pants and Cried like a Girl to Avoid Fighting the Vietcong
Ted Nugent, GOP flag waver and macho hunter, whom Senate candidate John Raese called a "patriot" after Nugent made a veiled threat agaisnt the President, had a different experience when his country called on him to fight against some targets who shot back:

Here is the relevant portion of the interview from the October, 1977, edition of High Times as provided by a reporter who still had a copy in his archives:

"High Times: How did you get out of the draft?

Ted Nugent: Ted was a young boy, appearing to be a hippie but quite opposite in fact, working hard and playing hard, playing rock and roll like a deviant. People would question my sanity, I played so much. So I got my notice to be in the draft. Do you think I was gonna lay down my guitar and go play army? Give me a break! I was busy doin’ it to it. I had a career Jack. If I was walkin’ around, hippying down, getting’ loaded and pickin’ my ass like your common curs, I’d say “Hey yeah, go in the army. Beats the poop out of scuffin’ around in the gutters.” But I wasn’t a gutter dog. I was a hard workin’, motherf***n’ rock and roll musician.

I got my physical notice 30 days prior to. Well, on that day I ceased cleansing my body. No more brushing my teeth, no more washing my hair, no baths, no soap, no water. Thirty days of debris build. I stopped shavin’ and I was 18, had a little scraggly beard, really looked like a hippie. I had long hair, and it started gettin’ kinky, matted up. Then two weeks before, I stopped eating any food with nutritional value. I just had chips, Pepsi, beer-stuff I never touched-buttered poop, little jars of Polish sausages, and I’d drink the syrup, I was this side of death, Then a week before, I stopped going to the bathroom. I did it in my pants. poop, pi** the whole shot. My pants got crusted up.

See, I approached the whole thing like, Ted Nugent, cool hard-workin’ dude, is gonna wreak havoc on these imbeciles in the armed forces. I’m gonna play their own game, and I’m gonna destroy ‘em. Now my whole body is crusted in poop and pi**. I was ill. And three or four days before, I started stayin’ awake. I was close to death, but I was in control. I was extremely antidrug as I’ve always been, but I snorted some crystal methedrine. Talk about one wounded motherf****r. A guy put up four lines, and it was for all four of us, but I didn’t know and I’m vacuuming that poop right up. I was a walking, talking hunk of human poop. I was six-foot-three of sin. So the guys took me down to the physical, and my nerves, my emotions were distraught. I was not a good person. I was wounded. But as painful and nauseous as it was – ‘cause I was really into bein’ clean and on the ball – I made gutter swine hippies look like football players. I was deviano.

So I went in, and those guys in uniform couldn’t believe the smell. They were ridiculin’ me and pushin’ me around and I was cryin’, but all the time I was laughin’ to myself. When they stuck the needle in my arm for the blood test I passed out, and when I came to they were kicking me into the wall. Then they made everybody take off their pants, and I did, and this sergeant says, “Oh my God, put those back on! You f*****g swine you!” Then they had a urine test and I couldn’t pi**, but my poop was just like ooze, man, so I poop in the cup and put it on the counter. I had poop on my hand and my arm. The guy almost puked. I was so proud. I knew I had these chumps beat. The last thing I remember was wakin’ up in the ear test booth and they were sweepin’ up. So I went home and cleaned up.

They took a putty knife to me. I got the street rats out of my hair, ate some good steaks, beans, potatoes, cottage cheese, milk. A couple of days and I was ready to kick ass. And in the mail I got this big juicy 4-F. They’d call dead people before they’d call my ass. But you know the funny thing about it? I’d make an incredible army man. I’d be a colonel before you knew what hit you, and I’d have the baddest bunch of motherf****n’ killers you’d ever seen in my platoon. But I just wasn’t into it. I was too busy doin’ my own thing, you know."

Posted 2:11 PM by Scoobie Davis

New Blog
The Amway Nightmare Stories Blog

Posted 1:39 PM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
The Ailes Effect

Posted 1:11 PM by Scoobie Davis

Was Jon Stewart's "Vagina manger" Comment Funny?
You watch; you decide. Not surprisingly, the ususal suspects--L. Brent Bozell and Bill Donohue of the right-wing Catholic League--are up in arms.

Posted 1:07 PM by Scoobie Davis

Support Greg Palast's Fight for Voting Rights
Watch the video and support the project through Kickstarter. 4/21 UPDATE: Great news! They reached their $15,000 goal. You can still contibute to their cause. Every little bit helps.

Posted 8:43 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Chris Mooney on Fox News’ misinformation effect

Posted 12:15 PM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Spearated at birth: George W. Bush and the late Thomas Kinkade.

Posted 11:52 AM by Scoobie Davis

Lovely
It didn't take long for the mouthbreathers at the Free Republic to jump on the revelation that Trayvon Martin had been suspended from school because he was caught with an empty plastic bag with traces of marijuana in it. Read the responses. Example: JustaDumbBlonde responded, "Was he USING....or SELLING? Probably [sic] bof."

Posted 4:41 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Paul Krugman on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

Posted 11:07 AM by Scoobie Davis

Book Review of Hollywood Hypocrites by Jason Mattera
Jason Mattera, who lied in his ambush interviews of Al Franken and others, just came out with the book Hollywood Hypocrites. Here's my Amazon.com review (with Links). The wing-nuts are savaging it. Give it a thumbs up on Amazon if you like it:

Flawed in Many Ways

In order to understand this book, it is necessary to give a little background on its author Jason Mattera. Mattera started his career with a deer-in-the-headlights appearance on Chris Matthews' show Hardball (the YouTube video of the side-splitting encounter titled "Matthews Grills Chickenhawk" is priceless). Mattera became a radio talk show host in the mold of Rush Limbaugh (not surprisingly, in Hollywood Hypocrites, Mattera uses the ungrammatical and Limbaughesque reference to the "Democrat [sic] Party").

Mattera's first book, Obama Zombies, is based on the patronizing premise that young adults overwhelmingly voted for Obama because they are clueless and out of touch. As luck would have it, about the same time that the book was released, Human Events--the magazine Mattera edits--offered subscribers a free copy of a repugnant neo-Confederate book The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War. The book's cover has a flattering illustration of war criminal and Ku Klux Klan founder Nathan Bedford Forrest (not surprisingly, the book completely whitewashed Forrest's massacre of captured Union troops at Fort Pillow). Talk about being clueless and out of touch!

In Mattera's latest book, he takes on the alleged hypocrisy of Hollywood--at least that is what the title promises. However, Mattera's targets include non-Hollywood filmmakers such as Michael Moore and Al Gore. Aside from that, there are two major problems with Hollywood Hypocrites. First, Mattera's standard of morality is so high that no political opponent could do anything without being accused of hypocrisy. So what if non-Hollywood environmentalist Al Gore flew on a private jet? Hasn't Mattera ever heard of carbon offsets?

More important, Mattera is oblivious to the fact that an accusation of hypocrisy entails that the targets of the accusation possess a moral worldview. That is not a problem for much of the American Right since many hold an Ayn Randian worldview that professes that self-absorption and superciliousness toward the less fortunate are virtues. Hence, the only way that a Rand acolyte such as Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) could be accused of hypocrisy would be if he surreptitiously helped the poor and afflicted!

Perhaps this is too harsh. Mattera has expressed a moral worldview. In fact, as a spokesman for the conservative Young America's Foundation, Mattera first appeared on Hardball and fervently argued about the morality of the Iraq War. Matthews then rightfully called out Mattera for supporting other young Americans being placed in harm's way but not exposing himself to the same dangers. Now that's hypocrisy!

Posted 10:06 AM by Scoobie Davis

Quote of the Day
Representative Jim Jordan (R-Ohio): "Ultimately, we'll stop it [investigations into Solyndra] on Election Day, hopefully. And bringing attention to these things helps the voters and citizens of the country make the kind of decision that I hope helps them as they evaluate who they are going to vote for in November."

Posted 4:12 PM by Scoobie Davis

Exclusive: Farrelly Brothers' Three Stooges Movie Zings The Weekly Standard
A friend of mine attended a preview screening of the upcoming movie The Three Stooges (release date: April 13). Apparently, one of the film's villains is shown reading The Weekly Standard in bed. The movie is a production of Rupert Murdoch's 20th Century Fox; Murdoch also used to own The Weekly Standard. Is there some bad blood? The Weekly Standard didn't respond to an inquiry from this blog.

Posted 9:52 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Steve Weinberg's article "There Will Be Paranoia" about Arthur Goldwag’s new book The New Hate: A History of Fear and Loathing on the Populist Right. I've read Goldwag's previously published work Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies: The Straight Scoop on Freemasons, The Illuminati, Skull and Bones, Black Helicopters, The New World Order, and many, many more. It was a great read.

Posted 7:02 AM by Scoobie Davis

Shocking Must Read
Robert Parry, "How the Right’s Smear Machine Started"

Posted 10:01 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Media Matters on "Hug-gate"

Posted 11:53 AM by Scoobie Davis

Cracked.com Takes on Amway Global
Priceless. Check out the anti-Amway blog for more details.

Posted 9:58 AM by Scoobie Davis

The Golden Rule and the Dead
I'm a bit put off by much of the venom directed toward Andrew Breitbart after his death. That's bad karma. It's true that he lied about ACORN, a group devoted to letting poor people and minorities vote (quick aside: I'm totally ecstatic that the Justice Department is calling the state of Florida on their voter suppression efforts).

Nevertheless, Breitbart is dead and we should obey the Golden Rule and hope that he has experiences that we would want to have in the afterlife. For instance, in the afterlife, I would love to have a conversation with the late Hosea Williams, who--along with others--suffered greatly in Alabama in his struggles for voting rights (e.g., the notorious "Bloody Sunday").

I hope for nothing less for Breitbart.

Posted 8:24 AM by Scoobie Davis

Jack Chick Takes on Al Gore!

New Chick tract "Global Warming." In the tract, not only is Gore caricatured, but Chick takes on Hillary (see the panel in which the scientist says, "Scipture? We're men of science!" and a cartoon Hillary adds, "And women!" Also, the Chickster reissued the out-of-print tract "The Passover Plot"

Posted 1:03 PM by Scoobie Davis

Sheriff Joe Arpaio says Obama's birth certificate is computer generated forgery
This would be funny if the guy didn't wear a gun

Posted 9:59 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must View
Jon Stewart on Fox News:

Posted 2:01 PM by Scoobie Davis

Romney's Linguistic Dog Whistle, Part Two
A couple weeks ago, I pointed out how Mitt Romney was subtlely appealing to the wing-nut GOP base through a grating grammatical error, namely the use of the word "Democrat" as an adjective--as in "Democrat [sic] Party."

He did it today on Sean Hannity's radio show (again). Romney was discussing Operation Hilarity (Democrats and progressives voting in the GOP primaries for Santorum). Here's what Romney told Hannity: "Look, this is, this is the old kind of dirty tricks that you've seen in politics before and the idea of trying to drum up Democrat [sic] voters to come in and vote against me, that's just the wrong way to go."

Posted 1:56 PM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Brad Friedman on Charlie White

Posted 12:29 PM by Scoobie Davis

New Purchase
The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network into a Propaganda Machine. I have read about 40 pages and have learned some important information I didn't know--e.g., that in the 70's, Ailes worked for a Coors-funded right-wing TV news organization called Television News Incorporated (TVN). TVN's idea of fair and balanced news was to red-bait Martin Luther King. Yuck!

Buy the book.

Posted 9:04 AM by Scoobie Davis

David Brock's The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network into a Propaganda Machine

I plan to buy the book. It will be released on Tuesday. Watch the promo video.

Posted 3:39 PM by Scoobie Davis

I Support Daily Kos' Operation Hilarity!
Read all about it here. I'm voting for Santorum in the primary.

Posted 9:35 AM by Scoobie Davis

Recent Evidence that Romney is Pandering to the Wing-nuts
Last week, Mitt Romney was interviewed on Sean Hannity’s radio show. Every time Romney referred to Democrats or the Democratic Party, he engaged in the de rigeur wing-nut practice of using the word “Democrat” as an adjective. Even Hannity usually uses the word “Democratic” as an adjective. Here are the instances from the interview in which Romney pandered to the far right: “We’re not going to let him [Obama] forget that for his first two years in office, he had a Democrat [sic] House and a Democrat [sic] Senate, that he did not need a single Republican vote to push through his healthcare plan, Obamacare.”

ADDENDUM: It’s not surprising that during Hannity’s interview with Romney that Hannity, in his attempt to portray President Obama as a secularist, trimmed an Obama quote in mid-sentence to give a different meaning to what Obama actually said. Here’s the Obama quote that Hannity aired: “Given the increasing diversity of America’s population, the dangers of sectarianism are greater than ever. Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation . . .” Hannity trimmed the quote in mid-sentence. Here’s the complete sentence: “Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation–at least, not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.”

Hannity is an old hand at trimming quotes in mid-sentence in order to give the quote an entirely different meaning. Check out this hilarious clip of Jon Stewart taking Hannity to task for using a truncated quote to suggest that President Obama was giving “a voice to 9/11 sympathizers.”

Posted 8:48 AM by Scoobie Davis

Intrade: Obama's Reelect Chances Over 60 Percent!
Here's Intrade's chart. Just a short time ago, his chances were below 50 percent:

Posted 9:53 AM by Scoobie Davis

Birtherism Bounces Back
Proof that you can't keep a good conspiracy theory down. Check out the stats here

Posted 10:42 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Reads
Frank Rich, "Who in God’s Name Is Mitt Romney?" and Salon.com's interview with Arthur Goldwag, author of the new book The New Hate: A History of Fear and Loathing on the Populist Right

Posted 9:55 AM by Scoobie Davis

Obama Campaign's Online Ad: the Bikini Graph
I recently saw an Obama campaign online ad featuring the bikini graph. I couldn't find the ad but here's the bikini graph:

Posted 9:49 AM by Scoobie Davis

Paul Ryan's Ayn Rand-esque Birthday Cake
Yesterday on Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace and Fox News gave Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) a birthday cake for his 42nd birthday. The cake had a Rand-esque touch: it was decorated with a large dollar sign.

This was fitting considering that Rand was Ryan's motivation for entering politics. Check out my previous post on Ryan, Rand, and Miami University.

Posted 10:59 AM by Scoobie Davis

Book Review of Mark Levin’s Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America

I checked out Mark Levin’s book Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America, which was released today. That’s time I can’t get back but at least I can review it. Although the book is pretty unimaginative stuff, it’s sure to sell well to the teabaggers (to paraphrase Paul Krugman, this is a stupid person’s idea of an intelligent book). I submitted a two-star review to Amazon.com. If you have an Amazon account and you like the review, feel free to give it some positive feedback. The review (with links) is at the end of this post.

ADDENDUM: Levin is a talk radio show host. He is a standard Rush clone. He got the radio gig because Hannity is his friend. One of the things I find amusing is that Levin is feuding with Michael Savage (Levin and Savage compete with each other on the 6-9 PM EST time slot). They trade on-air personal attacks, e.g., Levin calls Savage (born Weiner) “little wiener” and Savage refers to the high-pitched Levin as “Groucho Marx’s grandmother after a hysterectomy”). Anyhow, I wrote about Levin versus Savage (click here and scroll down).

The review:

Meretricious Pseudo-scholarship
Mark Levin’s Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America is a flawed book, not just because of points that Levin gets wrong but also because of the book’s glaring omissions that refute the premises of the book. This book is the kind of pseudo-scholarship that has characterized the American reactionary counterestablishment—the forty-year effort by the hard right to create alternative institutions that appear to be legitimate think tanks, journalistic outlets, and educational institutions but whose “research” could never withstand the scrutiny of impartial peer review. It’s not surprising that Levin has been part of this counterestablishment; he is the head of the Landmark Legal Foundation, a right-wing legal group that only exists because of largess from the Koch Brothers, Richard Mellon Scaife, and the now-defunct John M. Olin Foundation.

The majority of Levin’s book is a literature review of some of the core works that address utopianism, namely, writings by Plato, Thomas More, Thomas Hobbes, and Karl Marx. These sections of the book are generally adequate though the reader would be better informed by reading academic books on these theorists and their works. Levin is also correct to point out the utopian view that a perfect world is imminent often has led to extremely dystopian societies.

What is particularly flawed about Levin’s book is that it is devoted to arguing that FDR, the Obama administration, and modern progressivism epitomize this dysfunctional utopianism and that the modern right is inherently anti-utopian. For instance, Levin absurdly claims, “[i]ndeed, [Franklin] Roosevelt’s worldview harks back to Thomas More’s Utopia, a precursor to Marx’s workers’ paradise, where the individual’s labor and property are ultimately possessions of the masterminds and subject to their egalitarian design.” It is also a stretch, at the very least, to lump a pragmatic reformer like Obama in with totalitarian utopians. While this line of argument is manifestly ridiculous, it fits into the tea party’s stock narrative that Obama is a Kenyan anti-colonial Marxist who seeks to turn American society into a socialist utopia.

At the same time, Levin’s attempt to portray American conservatism as a bulwark against utopianism is completely baseless. Indeed, much of the contemporary American right’s embrace of utopianism happened right under Levin’s nose when he was working in the Reagan Department of Justice. It was under Reagan that the American right began endorsing the following crackpot utopian movements: 1) The Unification movement; 2) the neo-Confederate “Lost Cause” movement; and 3) theocratic millenarianism (the online article “The Theocratic Chain of Misery” illustrates how these pernicious movements symbiotically support each other).

Although Reagan himself wasn’t a utopian and supported these causes for cynical electoral reasons, the dangers of the fanatics he welcomed into the conservative movement are real. Reagan praised self-proclaimed Messiah and cult leader Sun Myung Moon’s dubious journalistic outlets (Reagan’s vice president George H.W. Bush later called Moon “the man with the vision”). Reagan shamelessly pandered to those in the “Lost Cause” movement who romanticize the paradise lost of the antebellum South; among other things, Reagan called Jefferson Davis one of his heroes (amazingly, some people still wonder why so few blacks support the contemporary Party of Lincoln). Reagan also gave credence to chiliastic fundamentalists, such as Jerry Falwell and Hal Lindsey, who had prayed for a worldwide nuclear apocalypse in the belief it would lead to The Rapture (the moment that God sweeps True Believers into the utopian ecstasy of Heaven, leaving behind nonfundamentalists to dodge unmanned moving vehicles). Incredibly, Reagan invited Lindsey, the author of the asinine apocalyptic best-selling book The Late Great Planet Earth, to address Pentagon strategists about the prospects of nuclear war with the then-Soviet Union. Clearly, contrary to Levin’s argument, it is the contemporary American right that champions fanatical and dangerous utopian movements whose actions could lead to horrific consequences.

Posted 10:24 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Robert Parry on Katharine Seelye

Posted 7:49 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Frank Rich on the GOP as the "Molotov" party.

Posted 7:49 AM by Scoobie Davis

Happy Festivus!
1. My favorite Christmas essay: "All Hail Pottersville" by Gary Kamiya
2. My favorite X-mas film: Bad Santa (directed by Terry Zwigoff (also, see Zwigoff's Crumb and Ghost World). Second Favorite Christmas film: Go. Third Favorite: A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas
3. Favorite Christmas TV episode: Futurama's "Xmas Story"
4. Favorite Christmas song: "Christmas Wrapping" by the Waitresses:

Posted 8:50 AM by Scoobie Davis

Congrats to Fox News for being Misinformer of the Year 2011
Read about it here. Fox & Friends is the worst of the worst.

Posted 9:18 AM by Scoobie Davis

Lisa Simpson and I went to the Same University
Well, kinda. I went to Miami of Ohio in Oxford (and had a fucking blast despite the buzzkills who also went there) and she went to Miami of Ohio of Pluto.

Posted 9:05 AM by Scoobie Davis

Penn State Has Suffered Enough having to Suffer a Fool Like Lanny Davis!
News Item: "Ex-White House counsel Lanny Davis to advise new Penn St president appointed amid sex scandal"

I've previously written about what an assclown Davis is. Read Lloyd Grove's profile of Davis.

Posted 6:54 AM by Scoobie Davis

Today, Ann Coulter, 50, is now a Half-Century Old
someone should take her aside and tell her to skip the miniskirts from now on.

Posted 10:40 AM by Scoobie Davis

The Good Guys Won (This Time)
Paul Schurick: Robert Ehrlich Aide Guilty Of Conspiring To Suppress Black Voter Turnout

Posted 11:16 AM by Scoobie Davis

Election 2012
The "bikini chart":


AND according to Intrade the chance of becoming the GOP nominee: Mitt Romney 46.0 %; Newt Gingrich 34.6%.

Posted 3:45 PM by Scoobie Davis

Must View
The prankster who impersonated David Koch in a phone call with Wisconsin governor Scott Walker resurfaces in this priceless anti-Walker ad, "Standing up to Scott Walker":

Posted 11:59 AM by Scoobie Davis

Ouch
A car window sticker I saw today was blue and white and had the words "State Penn"

Posted 9:20 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Good news for the Scott Walker recall petition drive.

Posted 8:31 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
I just finished Michelle Goldberg's book, Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. It's good but scary.

Posted 7:54 AM by Scoobie Davis

An Open Letter to Genevieve Wood of the Heritage Foundation

Dear Ms. Wood,

I saw you on the PBS public affairs panel show To the Contrary the other day. The topic of discussion was drug testing of welfare recipients. You defended the practice by pointing out that your employer, the Heritage Foundation, had required you to take a drug test as a precondition of employment.

When I heard this, I thought, “What the fuck is the deal with that?!” I mean, did some Heritage Foundation lackey actually stand over you and watch you piss in a jar? That’s really kinky (albeit an unerotic, creepy type of kink).

However, the issues run deeper. Why would a phony think tank that exists for the sole purpose of producing pseudo-scholarly position papers that support right-wing talking points (see postscript) need to have its gravy train riders drug-free? Rush Limbaugh was able to competently deliver wing-nut boilerplate even though he was taking enough hillbilly heroin to keep the entire state of Kentucky stoned to the bone. Providing phony research for the hard right must be the easiest gig on God’s green earth. For fuck’s sake, it’s petty for Heritage to deny its operatives an opportunity to take the edge off their feelings of existential angst when they’re cooking the data to argue that the tax code has given the top one percent of income earners a raw deal over the past 30 years.

Also, when I watched you on TV, you seemed to be wound up way too tight. You could use some weed. Do a few bong hits, loosen the corset, unclench your sphincter muscles, and pop in a Harold and Kumar DVD. You’ll feel better.

Sincerely,

S


Postscript: Candid Statement about the Heritage Foundation’s Real Agenda by Burton Pines, Vice President for Research for the Heritage Foundation: “We’re not here to be some kind of Ph. D. committee giving equal time. Our role is to provide conservative policy-makers with arguments to bolster our side.”

Posted 11:46 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Eric Alterman, "Next Stop on the GOP Crazy Train: 'Newtsville'":

In their new book, The Anointed: Evangelical Truth in a Secular Age, Randall Stephens and Karl Giberson explain the nature of intellectual insularity of so many in this world, in which “the teachings of dubiously credentialed leaders are favored over the word of secular experts in the arts and sciences.” Considering the example of evolution, they write, “Anointed leaders convince their followers to reject evolution by undermining the credibility of the scientific community. The resulting widespread distrust of the scientific community—often portrayed as atheistic, anti-religious, ideological—undermines the credibility of everything the scientific community says, including its conclusions about climate change, the dangers of fracking, the importance of ecosystems, the need for vaccinating children, and so on.”

The authors describe “what amounts to a ‘parallel culture,’” where people like alleged “historian” David Barton (whose formal education consists of a degree in religious education from Oral Roberts University) and psychologist James Dobson (tennis team captain at what is now Point Loma Nazarene University) proffer phony-baloney history lessons that distort almost everything professional historians know to be true about America’s founders.

Reporters representing reliable media outlets are supposed to defend the discourse from the virus of this ignorance. But for a variety of reasons they no longer do so. Part of the explanation can be found in the foolish willingness of so many reporters to treat Fox News, Drudge and various talk-radio hosts as respectable voices in the debate without regard to their motives or qualifications. A second, no less significant problem is the tendency of even the most sophisticated political reporters to treat the entire process as a contest between rival teams and ignore the substance of their arguments and policies, as if politics were simply a spectator sport with fewer (and perhaps crazier) fans than the Mets or the Red Sox.

Posted 9:02 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Fox News Dumbasses: Study finds that Fox News Viewers know less than people who don't watch any news

Posted 8:23 AM by Scoobie Davis

In a little over 2 weeks, Ann Coulter hits the half-century mark
Just a reminder

Posted 9:50 AM by Scoobie Davis

Keyword Searches People Used to Get to This Site
Every once in a while I put up a list of odd keyword searches that people use to get to this site (I do this based on my Statcounter stats). The last time I posted a list is here). Anyhow, here is the list of Google searches:

Is Amway a devil company? [The answer is "yes" ]
10 reasons democrats hate Fox News
is jeffrey kuhner a moonie
fred ricart curling iron up his butt by wife
erik prince amway
callista bisek old pictures
moonies are fucking idiots
marianne ginther
Tammy Bruce nude
michael+savage+quack
jeffrey kuhner birth control
rumors the Clintons are in league with satan
kellyanne conway implants
is marianne ginther alive?
fred ricart net worth
sean hannity dirty secret
rush limbaugh sean hanity relationship
robert kiyosaki amway
stewie curse out peter
ms michele fucking
sun myung moon net worth
why do liberals hate fox news? [answer is here]
ann coulter see through top [come on, Coulter turns 50 next month]
paul ryan miami of ohio transcripts
did rush limbaugh ever admit to homosexual experience?
fox news deconstruction

Posted 8:37 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
James O'Keefe's buddies turn on him.

Posted 9:23 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
This year's fake "War on Christmas" season has begun. Also, check out my on-air conversation with Bill O'Reilly about the War on Xmas.

Posted 9:43 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Nate Silver on the hurdles that Newt Gingrich faces in his quest for the GOP nomination. Also, check out my hilarious on-air conversation with Sean Hannity about Gingrich's habit of trading his wife-for-the-time-being in for a new model every few years.

Posted 9:05 AM by Scoobie Davis

When in Doubt, Blame the "Democrat [sic] Machine"
Read Eric Kleefeld and Alex Pareene on Herman Cain's attempts to blame his troubles on liberals.

Posted 10:41 AM by Scoobie Davis

The Anti-Union Robocall from Pat Boone (Ohio Issue 2)
A relative of mine in Ohio received a robocall from Pat Boone urging a yes vote on the anti-union Issue 2 ballot referendum. Boone has been an advocate of Amway and has emceed events for the Reverend Sun Myung Moon.

Posted 9:04 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must View
Stephen Colbert on Rush Limbaugh and racism. Also, this is one of my many posts on Limbaugh's racism.

Posted 8:42 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Paul Waldman on the right's definition of racism:

1. The primary victims of racism are white people.

2. The most vicious form of racism is when a white person is falsely accused of being a racist.

3. On rare occasions, a black person can be a victim of racism, but this only occurs when a prominent black conservative is criticized for, well, for pretty much anything. In that case, the criticism can only be motivated by the racism that liberals feel in their hearts, unlike conservatives, who all believe in the equality of all people.

Posted 9:50 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
David Weigal on the three arguments Republicans are using to the defend Herman Cain.

Posted 9:28 AM by Scoobie Davis

Playboy’s College Issue (i.e. my opportunity to increase hits to this site)
The November issue of Playboy is the college issue. The main pictorial is “The Girls of the Southeastern Conference. There are a lot of babes in the SEC. The pics are hot.

Based on the photographs, my top pick is Ashleigh Drew of Arkansas. First Runner-up: Liza Benson of Tennessee. Second Runner-up: Tori Tate of Tennessee. Third Runner-up: Tessa Fowler of South Carolina; Fourth Runner-up: Tatum West of Arkansas

Honorable Mention: Jessica Bentley, of Florida; Lisa Marie, Nina Valerie of Georgia; Goldy Cass of Mississippi State; Kassidi Olaes, Maggie Taylor and Brooks Lee of Mississippi; Jackie Pines, Johnna Dominguez, and Alex Sanders of Alabama; Kimberly Vires of Kentucky; Rachel Timmens of Vanderbilt; Jordan Reese of Arkansas; Sophia Beretta of LSU; Liliana Cook, Haley Ann, Kylee Noel, Brandy Evans, and Kaitlyn Ryan of Auburn; and Faith Melissa Lansford of South Carolina.

Labels: images photos

Posted 10:03 AM by Scoobie Davis

New Jack T. Chick Tracts and Crusader Comic Book
The Chickster is at it again with two new comic tracts: 1) "The Awful Truth," another Catholic-bashing tract and "Your Big Moment," a knockoff of "This Was Your Life" in which the protagonist is an African-American woman.

There's a new Crusaders comic book titled "Jesuits." The artwork is by long-time Chick Publications artist Fred Carter. The entire comic book isn't online but a sample is here. Chick puts the fun in fundamentalism.

Posted 8:45 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must View
Anonymous has a new anti-Fox News YouTube video. I bet Roger Ailes, who is paranoid during normal times, is quaking in his boots:

Posted 10:32 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Ed Kilgore, James Vega and J.P. Green whose article has the longest title I've encountered in a long time: "Wake up, commentators. The most dangerous group of 'right-wing extremists' today is not the grass-roots tea party. It is the financial and ideological leaders in the Republican coalition who have embraced the extremist philosophy of 'politics as warfare.'"

Posted 9:24 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Michael Winship on Rush Limbaugh and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA):

Instead, as is his usual way – in other words, not having any idea what he’s talking about — Old Motormouth Limbaugh recently defended the Lord’s Resistance Army on his radio program because they “are Christians. They are fighting the Muslims in Sudan.”

His defense came solely because anything or anyone Barack Obama is against must ipso facto be OK. President Obama has sent 100 military advisors to Africa to try to help end the LRA’s atrocities once and for all. But in the Gospel According to Rush, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, even if said friend engages in murder and mutilation

Posted 9:23 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must View
Anonymous declares war on Fox News for their jaundiced reports on Occupy Wall Street. The name of the campaign: Operation Fox Hunt

Posted 9:38 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Check out my Amazon.com review of Pat Buchanan's new book Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?

Posted 10:20 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Andrew Breitbart tried to destroy OWS

Posted 10:37 AM by Scoobie Davis

Wisconsin Banana Republicans Are Trying to Game the Electoral College
Click here

Posted 11:36 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must View
Moveon.org interviews Jesse LaGreca, the guy who took on Fox News' Griff Jenkins. He will also be a guest on ABC's This Week with Christiane Amanpour

Posted 10:19 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Melinda Warner on 15 years of Fox News.

Posted 11:44 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
I just reviewed J. Christian Adams' book Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department on Amazon.com. Read the review here.

I cite a review of the book by Media Matters for America that can be found here.

Posted 10:46 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must View
You gotta see this guy take on Fox News' Griff Jenkins!

UPDATE: His name is Jesse Lagreca

Posted 10:18 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Eric Boehlert on the difference between the Occupy Wall Street Movement and the Tea Party.