Saturday, March 31, 2012

The Breitbartless Breitbartians continue to explore the boundaries of irony over at the spectacularly misnamed BIG Journalism, where Dan “Oh, Really?” Riehl is taking a break from the racebaiting and harrassing people on Twitter to gin up another fact-free conspiracy theory buffered by the usual headline question mark:

DID THE WHITE HOUSE PRESSURE WASHINGTON POST TO CHANGE FACT CHECKER?

Riehl’s deeply concerned about the values of Pinnochios, as can be gauged by the startling point size of his lede:

On March 27, Josh Hicks of the Washington Post’s Fact Checker gave White House regulation czar Cass Sunstein one “Pinocchio” for his defense of the Obama administration’s regulatory record. However, the same article, a day earlier, was far more critical of the administration, giving Sunstein a total of three Pinocchios.

It Depends What You Mean By “Facts”

Before you get too excited, lay down those clutching pearls and rest assured that Riehl offers precisely no evidence whatsoever of behind-the-scenes shenanigans, instead relying on the customary paranoia that feeds the benighted BIG comment streams and keeps the rubes clicking. Riehl’s been driven to exploiting MS Word’s wonderful Compare Files feature to track the rewriting of two successive versions of the “factchecking” article, and supplies a handy screenshot to fuel the speculation:

I don’t expect his menagerie of regular readers to bother perusing any of this in any detail, but I’m not infrequently paid to do this sort of thing, so here’s a freebie, Dan.

read the whole post »

Posted by YAFB on 03/31/12 at 12:14 PM
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Friday, March 30, 2012

Pre-vitriol-spewing disclosure: I’ve had it in for Jimmy Carter for over a week now, ever since he said this on Brian Lehrer’s WNYC show:

Well, I think an atheist can live a moral life, because most of the standards of society—as encompassed in our laws and in our American constitution and other laws around the world—are based in religious faith, and I don’t think that those laws are much different between Christianity and Judaism, for instance, or Islam, and [long pause in which the listener has no choice but to mentally insert audio of Reverend Lovejoy saying “and miscellaneous!” -ed.] Hinduism. y’know, they all have basic principles as far as moral values are concerned. For instance peace, we worship Jesus as the prince of peace, and it would be good if everybody did comply with that mandate to resolve differences among ourselves peacefully. We’ve already mentioned some of the others, like humility and service to others, the alleviation of suffering… but I think that moral values can be applicable to an atheist who looks at Christian values and says “I don’t believe in those, but I adopt the basic principles that Christ espoused.” Whether they say that or not, I think that’s what they’re doing.

I actually transcribed that myself, which means I was annoyed enough to work for free. Now, I trust that you, the reader, are akin to my family, friends, coworkers, and anyone within a ten-yard radius of me when church bells sound in that you’d rather not hear me launch into a diatribe about how religion has, among many odious tendencies, a penchant for gathering up everything good in the world and claiming credit, so I won’t launch into that diatribe. It is, however, available upon request (or a two-second lull in the conversation), and it’s diatribe 16C if you’ve purchased a copy of my collected diatribes, The Hejustgoesonandonicon.

Anyway, apparently teaching the Republicans how to mobilize Evangelicals as a voting bloc in the late 70s wasn’t enough, now history’s greatest monster wants to provide the GOP further assistance! No, sorry, he wants to help the Democrats, which is, of course, the only reason anybody would agree to appear on Laura Ingraham’s radio show. His quiescence as she repeatedly refers to it as “the Democrat party” is some sort of rope-a-dope, surely.

read the whole post »

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 03/30/12 at 12:46 PM
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Monday, March 26, 2012

It’s a good thing this poorly camouflaged critter lives in my oak tree instead of the fictional setting of the Hunger Games, where he might have fallen under the pitiless gaze of movie huntress Katniss Everdeen. She would have put an arrow right through his little eyeball.

Speaking of those who are hard on the little things—the gentle, helpless creatures—it appears Herman Cain is still pretending to be relevant in the public arena (possibly as an excuse to get out of the house and escape the baleful gaze of Mrs. Cain). He has ads out that depict an adorable bunny being hurled upward and shot-gunned out of the sky and a fish being slowly suffocated to death to protest the stimulus. It’s such a pressing issue these days, you know.

Also, according to a CNN breaking news alert, a CNN/ORC poll finds that “nearly 75% of Americans” think George Zimmerman should be arrested for shooting unarmed teen Trayvon Martin to death. I’m guessing the precise number will turn out to be 73%. Maybe the 27% are the Orcs who were polled?

Please consider this an open thread.

[Cross-posted at Balloon Juice]

Posted by Betty Cracker on 03/26/12 at 12:39 PM
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Sunday, March 25, 2012

Given how much energy the Breitbartians are devoting at the moment to stretching the bounds of idiocy (no links or I’d just fill the page) while still keeping a hand free for the old racebaiting, the rest of the pack is having to up its game.

Bob Cesca just nominated Town Hall’s David Hoyt (“Hoyt?! I’ll show you Hoyt!”) for “Stupid Quote of the Day” thanks to a little gem I’ll share in a minute that deserves wider celebration, but first there’s the rest of Hoyt’s screed that isn’t much less daft.

David sets out to review Sen. Jim Inhofe’s new book, The Greatest Hoax. If I tell you it’s a diatribe about environmentalism, you can probably imagine its gist just from the title. And it certainly seems to have fired young David up. Kermie’s comin’ for ya, gas-guzzlin’ Americans:

... the greenies on the left are relentless in their pursuit of global control of everything related to the environment. Which is to say, everything.

Well, yeah. The thing about the environment is its kind of everythingness, David. You’re surrounded.

David’s obviously easily impressed:

It features no less than 408 footnotes and a useful index.

Woo—408 footnotes! That’s almost as impressive as that time Al Franken demolished Ann Coulter for her “extensive footnoting” onstage via the dastardly liberal ploy of actually checking them out, then illustrating that “never mind the quality, feel the width” is a maxim that applies to mendacious rightwing demagogic screeds as much as tailoring.

read the whole post »

Posted by YAFB on 03/25/12 at 10:10 PM
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Back in December 2010, the UK’s Daily Telegraph reported some unusual goings-on at the tiny southwestern France village of Bugarach, nestling in the shadow of the Pyrenean mountain the Pic de Bugarach:

... in the past few months, the quiet village has been inundated by groups of esoteric outsiders who believe the peak is an “alien garage”.

According to them, extraterrestrials are quietly waiting in a massive cavity beneath the rock for the world to end, at which point they will leave, taking, it is hoped, a lucky few humans with them.

Most believe Armageddon will take place on December 21, 2012, the end date of the ancient Maya calendar, at which point they predict human civilisation will come to an end. Another favourite date mentioned is 12, December, 2012. They see Bugarach as one of perhaps several “sacred mountains” sheltered from the cataclysm.

If this all sounds a little “Close Encounters,” well, that’s no surprise, as the mountain and the historic myths and mysteries that surround it were reputedly the inspiration for Spielberg’s epic film. Over the centuries, the mountain’s odd shape (one theory is that when an ancient volcano blew its top, it neatly flipped the summit upside down) and reports of strange lights, apparitions, UFOs, aircraft instrument anomalies and historical intrigues involving everyone from the Albigensians to the Nazis have fueled the mystery, and so it continues in its 21st-century form.

read the whole post »

Posted by YAFB on 03/25/12 at 12:09 PM
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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Alex Seitz-Wald at ThinkProgress cites a CNN interview today with Romney campaign Communications Director Eric Fehrnstrom, communicating in an admirably direct style:

HOST: Is there a concern that Santorum and Gingrich might force the governor to tack so far to the right it would hurt him with moderate voters in the general election?

FEHRNSTROM: Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all of over again.

So there you have it. Not only is this ridiculously protracted GOP primary campaign a total sham, with delegates awarded by an arcane process that will either see Mitt Romney emerge victorious before the GOP National Convention or anointed at it after a duel to the death, but nothing he’s said in the attempt to win over doubters in his own party will apply once summer begins to wane and November beckons.

But is the Etch A Sketch the most appropriate simile in the circumstances? I racked my brain to come up with something better for each of the GOP candidates, but you can no doubt improve on my suggestions.

read the whole post »

Posted by YAFB on 03/21/12 at 03:39 PM
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God, I hope this is true. Balloon Juice commenter Dave:

Sweet baby Jesus, you can’t make this stuff up.

Jason Mattera, on behalf of the Breitbart Babies, ambushes Bono of U2 to grill him on why he hides his taxes. Except Mattera interviewed a Bono impersonator instead.

Hahahaha! Hopefully someone saved the videos. Beck’s House o’ Crazy pulled the story, and it’s 404 at Breitbart.com.

UPDATE: Video after the jump…

[X-posted at Balloon Juice]

read the whole post »

Posted by Betty Cracker on 03/21/12 at 11:15 AM
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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

***BREAKING! MUST CREDIT GUY ON LINE 3!***

In fairness, Adam from Sunrise, Fl is one of The Daily Caller’s more distinguished correspondents.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 03/20/12 at 08:27 PM
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Monday, March 19, 2012

Too good not to share:

Back away from our Ortho, Republicans. Back s-l-o-w-l-y away…

[H/T: John Cole at Balloon Juice]

Posted by Betty Cracker on 03/19/12 at 03:04 PM
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As GOP sage Sarah Palin recently noted, President Obama and his terrorist pals were allowed to waltz right into the Oval Office unscrutinized in 2008 while white people Republicans like Ms. Palin were pelted with gotcha questions such as, “What newspapers do you read?”

Andrew Breitbart vowed to address the blatant unfairness of this situation by subjecting all African-American Obama Administration officials to a thorough vetting. After Breitbart’s untimely death, his underlings—the Breitbrats—announced that they would continue Dead Leader’s legacy by presenting an occasional series entitled Negros Said the Darnedest Things On Video in the 90s The Vetting.

After revealing 10 days ago the scandalous footage of a young Barack Obama hugging a black Harvard Law School professor back when Phil Collins was king of the Billboard Hot 100, Breitbrat Joel Pollak unleashes another bombshell sure to rock the Obama Administration to its very foundations.  Attorney General Holder was caught on tape intimating that it might be a good idea to convince young people that it’s not cool to “pack heat” or whatever quaint expression they used back when Boyz II Men topped the charts:

“What we need to do is change the way in which people think about guns, especially young people, and make it something that’s not cool, that it’s not acceptable, it’s not hip to carry a gun anymore, in the way in which we changed our attitudes about cigarettes.”

Translation: jack-booted DoJ thugs will kick down your door to collect your shootin’ arn in 3…2…1…. Stay tuned next week, when sinister Obama consigliere Valerie Jarrett will be revealed as the winner of the 1992 Black Panthers Ladies Auxiliary Brownie Bake-Off!

[X-posted at Balloon Juice]

Posted by Betty Cracker on 03/19/12 at 07:33 AM
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Friday, March 16, 2012

Ed Kilgore at Washington Monthly‘s Political Animal blog discovers that Sarah Palin’s discovered the Breitbart-commemorating streetposter I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, as the Breitbartlets do their best to assemble a death cult—and now, apparently, an entire Special Forces Division—to honor their leader’s memory:

When at the top of an aggregation site I saw the headline (“Breitbart Is Here”) and byline (Sarah Palin), I checked the calendar to make sure it wasn’t April Fool’s Day. No, that’s still two weeks away. But it’s almost too rich for description:

There is a new street art poster that’s being emailed around and will no doubt eventually be spotted on a street corner near you. It’s a gritty black and white image of Andrew Breitbart looking both battle-worn and ever vigilant with the caption: “BREITBART IS HERE.”

Those three words express the instant connection many of us feel for our fallen friend. They express our identification with him, and our need to continue his fight for the good of our republic.

With the death of Breitbart, the conservative movement didn’t just lose a General - we lost an entire Special Forces Division. But he didn’t leave us without the tools and the knowledge we need to fight. This website - Breitbart 2.0 - is the culmination of his study of the technology and aesthetics of new media.

OMG. Andrew Breitbart is the Right’s very own Alinsky.

Ed’s understandably a bit preoccupied with boggling at the combo of Griftzilla cottoning on to Breity’s poisonous legacy, but there’s a good argument that Alinsky is the Right’s very own Alinsky. As Rumproaster Boreds of Canada pointed out on that earlier thread:

Adam Brandon, a spokesman for the conservative non-profit organization FreedomWorks, which is one of several groups involved in organizing Tea Party protests, says the group gives Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals to its top leadership members. A shortened guide called Rules for Patriots is distributed to its entire network. In a January 2012 story that appeared in The Wall Street Journal, citing the organization’s tactic of sending activists to town-hall meetings, Brandon explained, “his tactics when it comes to grass-roots organizing are incredibly effective.” Former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey also gives copies of Alinsky’s book Rules for Radicals to Tea Party leaders.
(Wikipedia)

Why, a certain GOP presidential contender’s father even palled around with the dude.

But that’s by the by.

It seems to me that the Breitbartlets and assorted bandwagon-jumpers are being a little presumptious with their cries of “I am Breitbart!” and the repeated vows at the BIG sites and other corners of the wingnutsphere to continue his work.

What if Mr. Breitbart experienced a deathsidewalk conversion? For all they or I know, he may have had a few moments’ clarity before he slipped away, and chosen to repent his wingnutty, rabblerousing tendencies, in which case I think a far more appropriate way to honor his passing is to use the eyecatching design to convey a more fitting and urgently needed message to those who mourn the man in this manner.

read the whole post »

Posted by YAFB on 03/16/12 at 05:50 PM
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Thursday, March 15, 2012

As a woman, I’ve found the GOP’s eagerness to piss us off with all-male sperm-death panels, state-rape ultrasound-wand legislation, FCC-sponsored slut-shaming, etc., kind of puzzling. Not because the modern GOP has ever given a damn about women, but because it seems dumb for a party to go out of its way to alienate more than half of US voters in an election year.

But a post yesterday by Perfesser Heh Indeedy may reveal the real reason behind this disconnect: Conservatives still can’t tell an actual woman from a cardboard cutout:

WAR AGAINST WOMEN: Woman Raped At Occupy New Haven. #Occupyfail.

UPDATE: I suppose that this should come as no surprise considering the signals that have come from the very top of the Democratic establishment:

At the exact moment Jon Favreau is receiving high praise in pre-inaugural media puff pieces, the 27-year-old chief speechwriter for President-elect Barack Obama (not Jon Favreau, the Hollywood actor/ director) finds himself in a minor mess over a photo from a recent private party showing him groping the breast of a cardboard cutout of Hillary Rodham Clinton as an unnamed pal wearing an “Obama staff” T-shirt kisses and feeds her beer.
If you haven’t seen it, imagine the early stages of the barroom rape scene of “The Accused” with Jodie Foster. Or think prosecutor Mike Nifong’s graphic (though false) descriptions of the Duke lacrosse party. Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson danced to a similar tune at the 2004 Super Bowl. Fraternities have been closed for less.

Here’s the pic, in case you’ve forgotten. No word on whether Favreau was involved in helping accuse Republicans of running a “war against women.”

For my money, one of the best troll smack-downs in the history of the internet occurred right here on Balloon Juice when the Favreau controversy first erupted. I don’t think I can improve on the words our host used then to squash a nincompoop who was confused about the difference between an actual woman and a cardboard cutout, a brainless frat-boy prank and a hideous crime. So I will paraphrase Mr. Cole to address another nincompoop: Do you want to know what is like rape, Perfesser Heh Indeedy? Rape, you stupid fuck.

I’ll only add that every rape is a tragedy, and the wingnut obsession with any sexual assault that occurs in the same ZIP code as an Occupy encampment is creepy. But while Perfesser Heh Indeedy’s willingness to make political hay out of that particular woman’s personal tragedy is breathtakingly craven, it may shed light on a root cause of the gender gap in US politics. Therefore, it cannot be said that the Perfesser is altogether useless as a teacher.

[H/T: Alicublog; x-posted at Balloon Juice]

Posted by Betty Cracker on 03/15/12 at 06:08 PM
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Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Memeorandum yesterday:

read the whole post »

Posted by YAFB on 03/14/12 at 09:47 AM
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Tuesday, March 13, 2012

The righty blogs are whooping it up because the latest CBS/New York Times poll reckons President Obama’s approval rating’s dipping (CBS News) and that there’s been a decline in his approval ratings among women despite the events of the last couple of weeks (Weekly Standard). So I guess they’d better double down on the slutshaming then. 

Quote of the Week (already): “If these young women are being responsible and didn’t have the sex to begin with, we wouldn’t have this problem to begin with.”—North Carolina County Commission Chairman Tom Davis gives his learnèd opinion on contraceptive rights. (TPM)

UK Prime Minister David Cameron is doooomed because he’s not scheduled to pal around with shiftless raving rightwing nutjobs during his upcoming official visit to Washington, DC. (Daily Telegraph)

Meanwhile, ex-News International CEO Rebekah Brooks—a close friend and neighbor of Cameron’s—is the latest of Rupert Murdoch’s hacking hacks to be arrested (again—she was last arrested in July 2011),  along with her horsey hubby this time, as the ongoing inquiries into the clusterfuck continue to unfold. Crown Prosecution Service involvement implies that there are specific charges to face. (BBC News)

And in the comics section, Griftzilla seeks to capitalize on her return to the headlines this last week—not just for the airing of Game Change, but because it’s SO unfair to cherrypick quotes from political opponents in campaign ads (TPM)—by calling President Obama a “frikkin loser slut”* on Facebook, excoriating him for everything everywhere everywhen, and declaring she’s “willing and free to discuss these issues with the President anywhere, anytime.” The White House responds: “How would the plains of Mars when hell freezes over suit ya?”* (Facebook)

I’ve probably missed a few things going on. Clue me in if you like.

* Not intended to be factual statements.

Posted by YAFB on 03/13/12 at 09:30 AM
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Monday, March 12, 2012

This was the headline at The Drudge Report all morning—all weekend, for all I know:

If you happened on the Drudge site by accident, knowing that it drives mainstream media coverage without also knowing that it is a wingnut propaganda outfit run by an inveterate liar and fraud, it would be easy to conclude from that screaming headline that Tel Aviv had been reduced to rubble. The misleading headline is more disingenuous—even by subterranean Drudge standards—if you bother to click through.

The link leads to a Lesley Stahl interview with a former Mossad chief, Meir Dagan, who is speaking out publicly against the drumbeat of preemptive war with Iran. Perhaps the Drudge intern in charge of neo-con propaganda failed to read the whole piece, or at least this part:

Lesley Stahl: You have said publicly that bombing Iran now is the stupidest idea you’ve ever heard. That’s a direct quote.

Dagan: An attack on Iran before you are exploring all other approaches is not the right way how to do it.

Republican candidates and pundits are calling President Obama a naive appeaser for not jumping on the Bomb Iran bandwagon, and the same people who promoted hysteria during the run-up to the disastrous war with Iraq are shouting from the rooftops that we must bomb early and often. It’s interesting that the dude who was charged with degrading Iran’s nuclear program for eight years takes a more nuanced view.

The right’s capacity for lies, recklessness and stupidity should surprise exactly no one who remembers the George W. Bush administration. Still, I’m occasionally caught off guard by just how brazen the bastards are. And it’s disheartening to realize that no matter which saber-rattling idiot eventually gets the GOP nomination, north of 50 million people will vote for the lying prick, no matter how eager he is to jump into another Middle Eastern war. The rest of the planet must think we’re as dumb as dirt. They would be about half right.

[X-posted at Balloon Juice]

Posted by Betty Cracker on 03/12/12 at 05:58 PM
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