Westboro Baptist shows up at Santorum event

They're the nuts who protest gay funerals, and funerals of people who like gays, and funerals of US service members, just cuz.

I had to ask myself whether they were protesting or cheering.  It appears neither. Read the rest of this post...

The Romney campaign’s penchant for lying

Maddowblog:

There may come a point at which the issue of Mitt Romney's propensity for falsehoods reaches some kind of critical mass. In fact, we may have already reached that point.

David Bernstein argued persuasively this week, "I think we've seen, over the past couple of months, an important tipping point where much of the national political media now recognizes ... that, in the Romney campaign, they are dealing with something unlike the normal spin and hyperbole. They are realizing that Romney and his campaign simply cannot be trusted, in any way, about anything.

I thought of Bernstein's piece on Tuesday when MSNBC's "Morning Joe" did two segments on Romney lying, rather blatantly, about his record on health care. It came the day before Rick Santorum also began targeting Romney as someone willing to "not tell the truth" to win.

Once a candidate earns a reputation for being shamelessly dishonest, it's awfully tough to reclaim a degree of credibility.

Read the rest of this post...

AMERICAblog at SXSW, "Waging Stories with Social Media"

Joe is speaking at the South by Southwest conference this coming Sunday (those in the know write it "SXSW," apparently).  Here's his report on what he's doing there. Read the rest of this post...

A gorilla gets a rabbit as a pet

Now, this is not the beginning of a gory joke. It's actually a cute story about how some zookeepers decided to give an aging gorilla a new friend, so they gave her a real live rabbit. I searched for a vide on YouTube and was surprised that no one has posted one yet, that I could find.

GoErie.com:

Zookeepers started slowly. Panda was moved to an area close to Samantha's night quarters. Then keepers held her up to Samantha for inspection. Panda was let into the exhibit by herself to get the lay of the land. Finally, he was let in while Sam was in there, too -- with an escape hatch for the rabbit, just in case.

"Right off the bat, they hit it off," Kreider said.

Scott Mitchell, the zoo's chief executive, recalled a time shortly after the two were introduced when Panda hopped up to Samantha's beloved Baby, a stuffed toy gorilla. Know this: No one messes with Baby.

Samantha "pushed the baby out of the way so Panda could go by," Mitchell said.

Another time, she scratched underneath Panda's chin. She shares her food. She reaches down to touch Panda, gently.

Read the rest of this post...

Howie Kurtz is right and wrong about Rush Limbaugh

Howie Kurtz on why Rush's apology failed.

Right.

But while Rush dutifully recited the words, there was no music. He never called Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown Law student he had assailed as a “slut” and “prostitute” over her advocacy of contraceptive coverage. He kept slamming her for three days before issuing his statement of regret—which came as advertisers were starting to bail on his radio program, giving the exercise an air of damage control. He flunked the contrition test, retracting only his word choice and larding the statement with attacks on the left.

Wrong.

The apology failed for another reason: the mainstream media, much mocked by Limbaugh, has it in for him. There was no uproar in the press when Bill Maher, now a million-dollar donor to Obama’s super PAC, called Sarah Palin the C word as well as a “dumb twat.” Ed Schultz’s sl*t attack was a relative blip. Limbaugh, who is carried on more than 600 stations, has a far bigger megaphone, but he’s cut no slack by the left-leaning media. Sl*tgate was carried on MSNBC every 10 minutes or so (and largely downplayed at Fox News).

Come on, Howie. You're a good journalist. You know as well as I do that Rush Limbaugh is a bigger and better story than Bill Maher (sorry, Bill).  What's makes a story "news" is a tough thing to define, but it's not tough to recognize "news" if you have a gut for news.   A few reasons Limbaugh is bigger news than Maher.

1. Limbaugh has a much bigger audience than Maher.
2. Limbaugh has far more political power than Bill Maher.  As David Frum wrote recently for CNN, Democrats don't pee their pants when Bill Maher criticizes them.  Rush Limbaugh got an apology from the (other) head of the Republican party.
3. This isn't Limbaugh's first time at the dance.  He's been far more controversial, and offensive, than Bill Maher.  That is to say, Limbaugh's hands are far less clean than Maher's; this is hardly his first offense, or his fiftieth.
4. Bill Maher attacked someone who attacks others just as viciously.  Limbaugh attacked an innocent, and a relative unknown.
5. Advertisers started leaving Limbaugh (which is news), while Maher is on HBO and doesn't have advertisers.

Does this excuse Bill Maher for using the c-word about Sarah Palin?  No way.  I didn't even realize he'd used it until a CNN reporter mentioned it to me.  That word is off-limits, period.  I don't care who the target is.  And in fact, Joe and I once censored a video we posted during the 2008 elections of an interview we did with actress Carrie "Princess Leia" Fisher because she used the c-word about Sarah Palin.  So I think we've been pretty consistent on our feelings towards that word, regardless of party affiliation.

But, the issue here is why the media is paying far more attention to Rush Limbaugh's use of the word versus Bill Maher's.  And I think it's too easy to explain all this away by saying that the media has it in for Limbaugh.  If that were the case, then why didn't every other Limbaugh eruption, like the time he played the song "Barack the Magic Negro" cause a similar uproar?  The media has had ample opportunity to take down Limbaugh had they wanted to.  In this case, for whatever reason, the circumstances came together in a way that made it a bigger story, more newsworthy, and the media responded accordingly. Read the rest of this post...

Big Brothers, Big Sisters drops Limbaugh

Bloomberg:

Big Brothers Big Sisters of America is working with the [Ad] council to pull its spots from stations that carry the Limbaugh show, Jill Godsey, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia-based organization, said in an e-mail.

“We made this decision at the request of national and local donors, some of whom made their concerns known via Facebook and Twitter posts,” Godsey said.

Read the rest of this post...

United Negro College Fund brushes off questions about why it’s advertising on Rush Limbaugh’s show

It's a free public service announcement, but still... the American Heart Association didn't want its brand associated with Rush Limbaugh, so it pulled its free PSAs.  But the United Negro College Fund, which has something in common with Limbaugh - Limbaugh's show uses the word "Negro" too - deferred questions about its advertisign to someone else.  Bloomberg:

Joye Griffin, a spokeswoman for the Fairfax, Virginia-based United Negro College Fund, referred an inquiry to the New York- based Ad Council, which manages spots for the fund and other groups.

Profile in courage. Read the rest of this post...

Limbaugh calls female Washington Post columnist "b-tchy"

You'd think that using the word "b*tch" to refer to a woman might be something Rush Limbaugh would avoid, following an exodus of his advertisers for referring to another woman as a "sl*t." Read the rest of this post...

Women's military group wants Limbaugh off the Armed Forces Radio Network

"Service Women's Action Network (SWAN) applauds Senator Carl Levin's endorsement to remove the Rush Limbaugh show from Armed Forces Radio. SWAN urges Secretary of Defense Leon Panatta and General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to join more than 46 advertisers who have pulled their ads from the Rush Limbaugh show. The backlash to Mr. Limbaugh's regrettable misogynistic name calling of Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown University law student reflects a growing consensus in America that bigotry in any form is not acceptable. Out of respect for service women, SWAN believes Armed Forces Radio should remove the show immediately."

-Anu Bhagwati
SWAN Executive Director
Former marine captain

Read the rest of this post...

Glenn Greenwald on Obama's power to kill

We recently wrote about the president's new ability to kill Americans by executive order.

(It still shocks me to write that — it's so stark — but that's a fair description. It also shocks me that my concern about this power is surrounded by a cone of silence from my countrymen and women.)

Our earlier article quoted lawyer Jonathan Turley at length on the subject. Here's Salon's Glenn Greenwald discussing the same topic with Sam Seder on Majority.fm.



This is a great walk-through by Glenn. He starts with the beginning of the practice by Obama, the comparison with Bush II legal opinion, and the implications of AG Holder's speech. An extremely clear, focused interview. (Don't miss the comparison to Bush II at about 17:00 — the key point, Obama can get away with stuff that Bush could never do. Guess why.)

More generally, think about "targeted killing" — executive assassination — for a minute.

1. This power-grab has implications for our "reasonable positions" discussion about voting in 2012, but I'll save that for later.

2. If Julian Assange were traveling in a country where the collateral damage, extra dead bodies, would be brown people ("Unpeople" like Afghans for example), would Obama order a drone strike to kill him?

After all, Bradley Manning is being held without trial, and because WikiLeaks is "known bad," it's all good with our freedom-loving fellow citizens. Manning's an invisible man.

3. How long before this power starts being used for political takedowns? (They call that "feature creep" in the tech biz; you start with code that adds two numbers, and end up with code that measures the distance to the sun.)

4. In particular, how long before the next Scott Walker, as president, jumps in with both feet and just uses it to the full? Republicans use every ounce of power they get; always.

This really is a kingly power, you know. But hey, isn't there a game on? (Maybe if Civil Liberties had a basketball team, people would care.)

GP

(To follow on Twitter: @Gaius_Publius) Read the rest of this post...

Romney likes grits, y’all

Which goes to explain that recently uncovered video explaining the origins of the Romney family wealth:

Read the rest of this post...

Lobbyists are getting rich off the war on pot (Why you can't have nice things)

I suggest you take a quick stroll over to Republic Report, where Lee Fang is hitting them out of the park. (We featured Fang's reporting in one of our drone & U.S. airspace stories. He found a congressman that the drone lobby had handsomely bought, Rep. Buck McKeon, and laid out the quid and the quo. Nice work.)

Here's Fang's investigative piece on where much of the money to fight California Prop 19, the Pro-Marijuana proposition, came from (as usual, my emphasis):

John Lovell is a lobbyist who makes a lot of money from making sure you can’t smoke a joint. That’s his job. He’s a lobbyist for the police unions in Sacramento, and he is a driving force behind grabbing Federal dollars to shut down the California marijuana industry. I’ll get to the evidence on this important story in a bit, but first, some context.

At some point in the distant past, the war on drugs might have been popular. But not anymore — the polling is clear[.] ... So why do we still put hundreds of thousands of people in steel cages for pot-related offenses? Well, there are many reasons, but one of them is, of course, money in politics.

About that money:

In 2010, California considered Prop 19, a measure to legalize marijuana and tax it as alcohol. The proposition gained more votes than Meg Whitman, the former eBay executive and Republican gubernatorial nominee that year, but failed to pass. ...

Lovell managed the opposition campaign against Prop 19. ... Republic Report reviewed lobbying contracts during the Prop 19 fight, and found that Lovell’s firm was paid over $386,350 from a wide array of police unions, including the California Police Chiefs Association. ...

There is big money in marijuana prohibition.

The rest of Fang's story details where that money comes from and just how much is available for lobbyists like Lovell and their clients. (Hint: Millions. Source: Barack Obama's need to appear "tough on crime" — my comment, not Fang's).

And unless you think it's just cops opposed to drugs (because they can get Federal grants to do so, among other reasons), Fang's research uncovers the obvious:

The beer industry, alcohol corporations, and prison guard unions also contributed money to help Lovell stop Prop 19.

The stars — and the incentives, and the beer and alcohol companies — are aligned against you, folks. It's why you can't smoke nice things.

GP

(To follow on Twitter: @Gaius_Publius) Read the rest of this post...

Limbaugh: Why the outrage now?

Bill Somerby raises an excellent question which he then fails to answer:

For the past twenty years, we have been an inept and feckless non-movement, permitting El Rushbo prosper. Suddenly, though, the outrage is general, in response to Limbaugh’s ridiculous comments about Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke. Question: Why is this the place where we’ve taken our stand? Why all the outrage now?

Understanding why Limbaugh is staggering after the Fluke outburst but not his previous attacks is important. Limbaugh is certainly one of the most dishonest and bigoted pundits on the air today but not the only one. And Limbaugh's radio kindgom is only a shadow of Murdoch's evil empire. Limbaugh plays Saruman to Murdoch's Sauron, Jabba the Hutt to his Palpatine.

But Somerby is completely wrong when he says liberals have allowed Rush to prosper unchallenged. If he doesn't get so much attention now its because Beck and O'Reilly have left him in their shadow. But back in his '90s heyday, Al Franken wrote Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot, an entire book setting out his lies chapter and verse. And Franken wasn't the only person doing this.

Meanwhile the right is trying to start their Outrage-2000 that used to work so well but has become unreliable in recent years asking why isn't the left outraged at the nasty things Maher said about Palin? Well I can't say for sure but maybe they remember all the nasty hateful things that Palin has said about other people and don't think she deserves any sympathy (i.e., she doesn't have clean hands in this fight).

It isn't just Palin.  Previous complaints about Limbaugh attacking liberal politicians didn't garner much sympathy or pressure from advertisers. Pelosi and Palin are both (correctly) seen by the public, and advertisers, as combatants.

Sandra Fluke, however, is not a politician, she is not even a journalist -- she entered this battle with clean hands. Limbaugh's attack was repeated, crude and left no room to doubt or excuse his motives. Rep. Issa had prevented Fluke from testifying in his congressional hearing on women's health (the witnesses were all men), and Limbaugh was determined to finish Issa's work by bullying Fluke off the public stage.



The fact that Fluke had been speaking on an issue of specific importance for women, and that the Republican party had been desperate to exclude women from the debate, made Limbaugh's strategy all the more transparent. The sight of a corpulent slug, with a history of drug abuse, calling a young law student from a good school "a prostitute" for simply sharing her story with Congress, was finally more than the public could bear. Read the rest of this post...

Obama talks up green tax credits

This is a lot of money, but it's still small compared to the tax credits that Big Oil receives every year. One would think that after a hundred years or so, Big Oil could figure out the business model and no longer need handouts but somehow they keep coming. The Guardian:

Another week, another car talk. Barack Obama stopped by a North Carolina truck factory on Wednesday to announce $1bn in tax credits and grants for alternative-energy cars and trucks. It was Obama's third speech on cars and fuel in an election battleground state in three weeks. The president has travelled from New Hampshire to Florida and now North Carolina to insulate himself from Republican attacks on rising gas prices and the on-again, off-again Keystone XL tar sand pipeline ahead of the general election. "We can't just keep on relying on the old ways of doing business. We can't just rely on fossil fuels from the last century. We've got to continually develop new sources of energy," Obama said in his speech at the Daimler truck plant in Mount Holly North Carolina.

Read the rest of this post...