And Now, We Come To The Sanity Clause

I have to believe, all this nonsense about where President Obama was born would befuddle, even, the Marx Brothers.



From ABC News Today;

Poll: Half of 'Birthers' Call it 'Suspicion'; A Third Approve of Obama Anyway

Fourteen percent of Americans say without prompting that they think Barack Obama was born in another country, rising to one in five when those with no opinion are offered that as a possibility. But for many it's not a firm belief and some appear not to hold it against him.

Among those inclined to think Obama was born abroad, half also say that's their suspicion only, not a judgment based on solid evidence, the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll finds. And perhaps surprisingly, about a third of so-called "birthers" nonetheless approve of Obama's work in office and express a favorable opinion of him personally.

[snip]

THE QUESTION – This ABC/Post poll posed the question neutrally; first: "On another subject, where was Barack Obama born, as far as you know?" Sixty-eight percent said the United States (or a location within the country), 14 percent said another country and 19 percent had no opinion.

Steve M, over on No More Mister Nice Blog, isn't buying it;

No, I don't think that's the right explanation. The whole point of birtherism is that you can't possibly find out the truth because B. Hussein Osama is so EEEEEEEVIL!!! When anti-Obama birthers choose "suspicion only," they're not making an ambiguous statement about their beliefs; they're saying that the suppression of the truth is so great that history's greatest monsters would be jealous!

Of course, it's a ridiculous question anyway; what the hell "solid evidence" could there possibly be? But for some birthers the lack of solid evidence is solid evidence that B. Hussein is hiding ... something; others express this same feeling as a deeply held suspicion. It's just two different ways of describing the same invisible monsters under the bed.

It's over a year-and-a-half and these people ...

Oh, what's the use ...

Jesus Christ could come down, put his arm around Obama and vouch that he was born as, and remains, a United States citizen and the Birthers (aided, perhaps by a handful of Teabaggers) would boo and jeer the announcement.

DemFromCT, on Daily Kos says as much;

Yep. Republicans and conservatives always get mad at polls that make them look bad, but they look bad because of what they believe and not because they were polled.

Why is this news, again?

Why is this poll being taken?

The story returned to the news when the Hawaii legislature last week approved a bill authorizing the state Health Department to ignore repeated requests for information on Obama's birth records. The department's director had testified it was taking time and resources to respond "to these often convoluted inquiries." The bill's on the governor's desk.

This will be a Birther Meme by the beginning of the week.

Now, the state is in on it.

Help Me Mister Wizard!


Bonus Riffs

Alex Pareene: The Birthers: Who Are They and What Do They Want?

Alex Koppelman: Salon's handy-dandy guide to refuting the Birthers


Bonus Bonus

Maybe, they'll listen to the King

Suspicious Mind - Elvis Presley

Flying Monkey Illiustrated

We got a "Covergirl" email today, from the Flying Monkey perch at Human Events, heart-clutching, and breathlessly throwing rose pedals on the Queen of the Flying Monkeys, Michelle "Stalkin'" Malkin, for being "covergirl" of this month's other Flying Monkey perch, Townhall;

Michelle Malkin has been making a killing doing what she does best: exposing the corruption and lunacy of America's liberals. And the Left can't stop her.

Most people know her as a conservative firebrand who has written best-selling books, including "Culture of Corruption," which dealt with the shady characters that have populated the Obama administration, and "Unhinged," which exposed the lunacy of the Left.

Not to mention the bestseller book, of her endorsemnt of Internment

In which reviewer Eric Muller noted in his "There was no good reason for the mass internment of Japanese Americans during WWII.";

That passage alone should tell the reader this book is not a trustworthy work of history but a polemic--The O'Reilly Factor masquerading as the History Channel.

[snip]

But Malkin does not so much as mention any of that evidence, except to say that a reader can find it elsewhere in "pedantic tomes" and "educational propaganda." She dismisses what she cannot rebut.

These objections to Malkin's handling of the evidence are the concerns of scholars and historians, and some may think them unfair measures for the work of a political columnist. "I am neither a historian nor a lawyer," Malkin reminds her reader in the book's prefatory note. But even political columnists are bound by ordinary rules of inference and logic, and it is on this score that her book fails even more spectacularly.

And others;

The book proved to be highly controversial when published, with Asian-American groups in particular being highly critical. John Tateishi, the Executive Director of the Japanese American Citizens League issued a media release on August 24, 2004 stating "Michelle Malkin's book In Defense of Internment: The Case for Racial Profiling in World War II and the War on Terror is a desperate attempt to impugn the loyalty of Japanese Americans during World War II to justify harsher governmental policies today in the treatment of Arab and Muslim Americans."

The organization Historians' Committee for Fairness condemned the book as "a blatant violation of professional standards of objectivity and fairness".[6]

We'll make her The Garlic's "Cover Flying Monkey of the Day", with some of our highlights;

Mirror, Mirror .. If Only Keith Olbermann Offered A "Sickest Person In The World", Sighs Michelle Maudlin, "I Would Surely Be The Sickest"

Mirror, Mirror ... She's Still The Sickest! ... But The Bush Grindhouse Is Gaining Ground ... Follow-Up On The Graeme Frost Conflagration

When A Michelle Malkin Quits The O'Reilly Factor, And No One is Around To Hear it, Does It Make A Sound?

Top Ten Cloves: Things Michelle Malkin Will Do Now On Friday Evenings, Since She's Off The O'Reilly Factor

She's Stalking Donuts Now!

"We lock and load our ideological ammunition."

Palin's Experience

"Sarah Palin is back! The keeper of the light! All hail Sarah Palin! All hail Sarah Palin! Oh Sarah Palin can you see by the dawn's early light..."

Grand Central Station Locker Creatures.



It's a good thing I hadn't had my first morning cup of coffee when I caught this, otherwise, I would have spewed it all over the computer, as I fell to the floor in a fit of laughter.

It should be no surprise that The Wasilla Whiz Kid would call for, on her Policy Think Tank Facebook Page, continued drilling;

All responsible energy development must be accompanied by strict oversight, but even with the strictest oversight in the world, accidents still happen. No human endeavor is ever without risk – whether it’s sending a man to the moon or extracting the necessary resources to fuel our civilization. I repeat the slogan “drill here, drill now” not out of naiveté or disregard for the tragic consequences of oil spills – my family and my state and I know firsthand those consequences. How could I still believe in drilling America’s domestic supply of energy after having seen the devastation of the Exxon-Valdez spill? I continue to believe in it because increased domestic oil production will make us a more secure, prosperous, and peaceful nation.

No, actually "increased domestic oil production" will not make us more secure and prosperous (well, it will make the oil industry companies very prosperous).

It will continue to destroy our environment, and strain state and federal budgets, cleaning up, for years-to-decades, those "accidents with the strictest oversight" while underfunding the development of alternative, safe, renewal energy sources.



But that is not what would have had coffee shooting out of my nose.

Rather it was the Flying Monkey sycophants over on Conservatives4Palin.

Latching on to anything, anything, with Herculean powers, anything that could possibly make Mommy Moose look like a thoughtful, competent leader, they go to the source, the beryllium sphere, Ms. Ya'Bet'cha's book, to highlight "her experience" in dealing with oil spills.

Palin's Experience With Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

Governor Palin wrote earlier today about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. As the governor mentioned in her Facebook posting, she's experienced the effects of an oil spill first-hand. The following is an excerpt from Going Rogue about the Exxon Valdez spill (pages 59-62):

On Good Friday, March 24, 1989, I baked a cake for Dad’s fifty-first birthday. It started out a great day, but turned into one of those “where were you when ...” moments. When Ronald Reagan was shot, I heard about it over the intercom upstairs in the library at Wasilla High; when the space shuttle Challenger exploded, I was watching it on TV while standing in my dorm room at UI.

On this day, I was in my apartment on Peck Street in Wasilla when the phone rang.

“Sarah, turn on the TV!” It was Blanche. The intensity of her voice did not spell good news.

[snip]

When the Exxon Valdez hit Bligh Reef, I was a young mother-to-be with a blue-collar husband headed up to the Slope. I hadn’t yet envisioned running for elected office. But looking back, I can see that the tragedy planted a seed in me: If I ever had a chance to serve my fellow citizens, I would do so, and I’d work for the ordinary, hardworking people—like everyone who was a part of my ordinary, hardworking world.

Well ...

Not exactly.

It was more like she'd work for, about, a half term, for those "ordinary, hardworking people", before bailing out, and jumping on the Money Train.

Meanwhile, back in reality;

Leaked report: Government fears Deepwater Horizon well could become unchecked gusher

The worst-case scenario for the broken and leaking well pouring oil into the Gulf of Mexico would be the loss of the wellhead and kinked piping currently restricting the flow to 5,000 barrels -- or 210,000 gallons -- per day.

If the wellhead is lost, oil could leave the well at a much greater rate.

[snip]

Gouget said the loss of a wellhead is totally unprecedented.

Maybe she can go down there, and wink at it.





Bonus Links

Andrew Sullivan: Tweet Of The Day

Laura Conaway: Palin feels Gulf's pain, but accidents happen, OK? As proved by 2nd rig collapse

Cheney, Baby Cheney ...

Teabaggers Can't Count, Either

Following up on last night's post, where we referenced the great Teabagger protest yesterday, vociferously, and proudly, standing, showing off their prodigious ignorance, spewing their trademark hate, spewing their trademark hate, we have, yet another, instance where a small gathering gets blown up to gigantic proportions.



Over on one of the vilest, feces-throwing, Flying Monkey perches of the Right Wing Freak Show, Gateway Pundit screams the headline "100,000 RALLY IN WASHINGTON AGAINST OBAMACARE";

The rally was called just two days ago and over 100,000 made it to Washington to protest the democrat’s unconstitutional take over of the health care industry. FOX News reported:

[snip]

Thousands of Tea Partiers descended upon the Capitol in an effort to derail the march toward “Obamacare” by pressuring undecided lawmakers to vote “no” Sunday.

Hold the phone!

They quote Faux News, which only cites "thousands of Tea Partiers".

And, this is the same Faux News that has, consistently and aggressively, promoted the Teabaggers, even going the extra mile of displaying false footage to inflate the size of a Teabagger-Mommy Moose get-down.

I believe it is generally accepted that "thousands" is no way near "100,000", or Faux News would have presented it as "tens-of-thousands", or perhaps "scores-of-thousands".

Here's a view of the "100,000 RALLY IN WASHINGTON AGAINST OBAMACARE";



Even Queen of the Flying Monkeys, Michelle Stalkin' Malkin, rather surprisingly, stayed away from any exploding head counts.

Ignorant Dolts, the bunch of'em ...

What's The Big Deal? ...They Already Hired The Cheney Fluffer

It's getting to be a real, dubious, sliding-scale, CNN's claim of "The Best Political Team on Television!"

The Blogosphere, and World Wide Web has been reverberating the past few days, with the news that CNN went out and reeled in one of the vilest feces-flinging Flying Monkey of the Right Wing Freak Show, Erick Erickson, who mans the dung heap Red State blog.



Lou Dobbs must be climbing the Immigration fence in rage over this one.

Steve Benen, over on Washington Monthly can give you a "Reader's Digest" of some of his greatest hits;

For example, it wasn't long ago when Erickson explained his belief on why the left has a stronger online presence than the right. He attributed it to an asymmetry in free time, since conservatives "have families because we don't abort our kids, and we have jobs because we believe in capitalism."

This is the same Erickson who recently called retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter a "goat f--king child molester," referred to two sitting U.S. senators as "healthcare suicide bombers," praised protesters for "tell[ing] Nancy Pelosi and the Congress to send Obama to a death panel" (he later backpedaled on that one), and described President Obama's Nobel Prize as "an affirmative action quota."

And perhaps my personal favorite was the time, just last year, when Erickson was angry about new environmental regulations relating to dishwasher detergent. He told his readers, "At what point do the people tell the politicians to go to hell? At what point do they get off the couch, march down to their state legislator's house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp for being an idiot?"

Erickson says CNN made him an offer "he couldn't refuse."

Well, we can.

We don't have to watch, and, likely, will not, beyond an initial, curious peak.

He's slated to be part of the a new John King program.

That's the same John King that almost bumped out Hayes for the Cheney Fluffer position, him looping softballs in an interview last year.

And, it would seem that, perhaps, CNN is lowering their sights a bit, as to going after a big, wide audience.

In Tuesday's announcement, CNN political director Sam Feist lauded Erickson as being a voice for small-town values.

"Erick's a perfect fit for John King, USA, because not only is he an agenda-setter whose words are closely watched in Washington, but as a person who still lives in small-town America, Erick is in touch with the very people John hopes to reach," Feist said.

King was to dominate "small-town America?"

That ought to rack up the ratings.

In the end, this shouldn't really be surprising.

CNN, after all, egregiously hired Cheney-Fluffer, Stephen Hayes, and they went out and plucked off the PartyofNoican's welfare roll the El Jefe of Scooter Libby Apologists (and another Dick Cheney staffer) Mary Matalin.



Wolf Blitzer can breathlessly shout "The best political team on television" all day long.

About the only ones believing that are those CNN-produced holograms.

With the way they are stocking themselves with the stars of the Right Wing Freak Show, It's almost as if CNN should be a block of programs on the Faux News Network.

Bonus Erickson Flying Monkey Riffs

Eric Boehlert: CNN's Ed Henry should quit while CNN is behind

Steve M: WELL, HE IS THE EMBODIMENT OF MODERN CONSERVATISM, NO?

Alex Koppelman: What was CNN thinking with latest hire?

Sadly No: The death of our media

TBogg: News you can use

Eric Martin: At Least He Hasn't Written any Hagiographies of Dick Cheney...

Smooth Operator

Sorry, Garlic Fans, we're a bit under-the-weather this evening.

We've been battling against a nasty cough/cold thing the past week, and thought, with some meds from the Doc, and mucho rest, we turned the corner and left it behind two-days ago, but it has made a sneaky return today, leaving us less then feeling tip-top ready to dive into the boatload of juicy news.



We will touch on one here, the 33-Ring-Circus happening down in New Orleans, with Flying Monkey, Acorn-Bashing James O'Keefe, and his band of junior Flying Monkeys pulled a "WTF-we're-they-doing" in the offices of Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, playing, what else, monkey-business with her phones.

James O'Keefe, as you may remember (or, if you went out on the World Wide Web today, discovered), was the phony pimp who, on the sly, recorded ACORN officials in some convoluted brothel scheme, solely so he could hawk edited footage to Faux News and his mentor, Flying Monkey Andrew Breitbart, bringing the wrath of the Right Wing Freak Show down on ACORN, and, I guess, proving that President Barack Obama is a socialist illegal alien.



In reality, all O'Keefe did was fuck hundreds-of-thousands of poor people, who depended on ACORN for all sorts of assistance and services, but that was just some of that "Compassionate Conservatism" in action.

I'm with Steve M, over on No More Mister Nice blog, that something is stinky fishy here.

Initial reports had these PartyofNoican Nitwits possibly wiretapping Landrieu's phones, but now, the meme is that they were just looking to get evidence, record her staff dissing conservatives trying to call the office, to register their complaints about Landrieu supporting Healthcare Reform.

Say What?



This is like a Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, "Hey gang, let's put on a show", on illegal, cheap steroids.

It smells of a late night, brain fart session of "Duh, what do we do if we get caught?"

Lots more to play out on this, but we do have to throw one out, to this worthy-of-Ignorant-Dolt-status gang.

I think we'll go with the Mongo Santamaria (con the Fania All Stars) version.

Mongo Santamaría - Smooth Operator

Zinger of the Week Goes To Joan Walsh!

We have to heart Joan Walsh today, with her "I heart Dede Scozzafava ...I promised to blog from vacation if Bill Owens won NY23; here's my lazy compromise."

I semi-promised to blog from vacation if Democrat Bill Owens defeated Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, the right-wing carpetbagger backed by jobless Sarah Palin, in the NY-23 race. I did that because, um, I didn't think Owens could possibly win. But he did, and now I've got 20 minutes free before my next hike with Sadie, and here's the best I can do: My Twitter stream from last night, as I watched the returns on MSNBC with Anne Lamott and our three dogs.

Okay, she's solid.

She said, even if halfheartedly, that she would duke Bill Owens, if he won, and she did.

The NY-23 was where a flock of Flying Monkeys, including Mommy Moose, the former leader of the Free Alaska, ganged up on the Republican Scozzafava, because she wasn't deranged enough, backing the Flying Monkey who didn't even live in the district.

And, why does Joan Walsh heart Dede Scozzafaza?

I just want to say one extra thing: It's got to be great to be Dede Scozzafaza today. She gives me hope that moderate Republicans will either come to their senses and take their party back, or more likely, become Democrats.

That will only get a few of the Flying Monkey to throw feces at each other.

The real zinger, the zinger of the week, came at the end of the post, speaking to Ms. Ya Betcha's involvement, and her sterling work record;

See you Monday -- unless there's really big news, like Sarah Palin quits whatever she's currently doing, again.

Whatever happens Joan, when the Flying Monkeys swoop in on you, don't cave-in like Letterman.

Mo Dowd Slaps Down El Jefe de Dittoheads

We're agnostic when it comes to NYT Columnist Maureen Dowd



Once-in-awhile, she hits a triple, or even less often, a homerun, but, more, it a case of spraying out seeing-eye-singles, and, an occasional ground-rule double.

The other day, however, she had her claws out, and sharpened, taking on the Grand Poohbar of Dittoheads, The Cheeseburger That Sweats (h/t Barry Crimmins) himself, Rush Limbaugh.

She goes on, at some length, of meeting, and having dinner, with the man maggots consider to be a social class above of, and, that means she's a player, of course.

Robert Stein, over on Connecting-The-Dots has a very wry riff on it;

Dowd's Date With Limbaugh

In the annals of sexual politics and odd couples, none could ever match the possibilities of mating Maureen Dowd and Rush Limbaugh, a power pairing that would have made Mary Matalin and James Carville look like America's Sweethearts.

And, of course, she works in again, her sobriquet “The Boy Emperor”, as her "badge of honor" for drawing the ire of Smegma Man.

Yet, she recoups, waiting until the very, very end of the column, to level the slap across Rushbo's portly face;

But on Sunday, he ripped the president for having “an out-of-this-world ego,” for being “very narcissistic,” “immature, inexperienced, in over his head.” (Isn’t immaturity scoring OxyContin from your maid?)

It gives new meaning to pot, kettle and black.

Ouch!

Dissin' him for being a junkie!



(Can't wait for her and Glenn Beck to go out, at least, for coffee.)

Button Up Your Overcoat Today ... Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Better make that your rain slicker, for the Flying Monkeys of the Right Wing Freak Show will be in DefCon 5, full Warp speed overdrive, with flinging their feces around

The stunner news-of-the-day;

In Surprise, Nobel Peace Prize to Obama for Diplomacy

Of course, the NYT couldn't let it go by, with urging a little feces-flinging;

For Mr. Obama, the award could, in a strange way, prove a political liability. As he traveled overseas during his campaign for the presidency, he was subjected to criticism from Republicans who argued he was too much the international celebrity. Winning the Nobel at such an early stage in his presidency could further that kind of criticism, especially in Washington’s hyperpartisan political environment.

Here's the official statement from The Norwegian Nobel Committee



Yeah, maybe it was a bit slow-going on the Nobel Prize front this year, after all, peace hasn't exactly been breaking out all over the place.

Obama becomes only the third, sitting U.S. President to win the award, the first since Woodrow Wilson (the other, Teddy Roosevelt), and of the avalanche of posts (so far this morning), Josh Marshall, at TPM, seems to have the real deal on it;

This is an odd award. You'd expect it to come later in Obama's presidency and tied to some particular event or accomplishment. But the unmistakable message of the award is one of the consequences of a period in which the most powerful country in the world, the 'hyper-power' as the French have it, became the focus of destabilization and in real if limited ways lawlessness. A harsh judgment, yes. But a dark period. And Obama has begun, if fitfully and very imperfectly to many of his supporters, to steer the ship of state in a different direction. If that seems like a meager accomplishment to many of the usual Washington types it's a profound reflection of their own enablement of the Bush era and how compromised they are by it, how much they perpetuated the belief that it was 'normal history' rather than dark aberration.

Some other angles;

Nathan Hodge, at the Danger Room;

Finally, expect the Nobel Prize award to turn the spotlight on internal disagreements within the administration over the future of the nuclear weapons stockpile. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, for instance has said in the past that United States needs the Reliable Replacement Warhead, a new nuclear weapon design, if it is to maintain a moratorium on nuclear weapons testing while reducing stockpiles. It will be interesting to see if this prize changes the debate about re-sizing the nuclear arsenal.

Renard Sexton, on FiveThirtyEight.Com;

In the US realm, this is a great boost for the Obama foreign agenda - which certainly played into the decision by the Nobel folks. While the US political scene is often quite skeptical of the international community, the Peace Prize is a quite lauded affair. Even major Obama detractors will have a bit of hard time criticizing his win, especially after their poorly received revelry of Chicago's olympic demise. For Obama liberal supporters, it is a bittersweet moment --many have criticized the administration's foreign policy for moving to the center, particularly on war issues, and the Peace Prize designation takes a great deal of air out of that balloon.

Perhaps the happiest people in the US on this one will be the centrists - and those who wanted Obama to reshape the US image abroad. Whether the award is warranted (too soon? too uncertain?) or relevant (peace prize as we're discussing escalation in Afghanistan?, for the leader of the largest and most powerful military force in the world to be awarded a prize for peace and diplomacy is quite an interesting development.

Steve Clemons;

Forget the Chicago Olympics foul up. Barack Obama has just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize -- the first sitting US President to win the Prize since Woodrow Wilson.

[snip]

But the reality is that this Prize puts some air back in the Obama Bubble -- and this is good for the country and world as the challenges in the international system are enormous today.

Obama's efforts to talk the world into a better place have indeed created opportunities that were hard to imagine during the Bush administration -- but now a lot of heavy lifting and deal-making are required, and the Nobel Prize will give Obama a boost in these efforts.

ABC reports that a few White House staffers thought they were being punked, when the news came in early this morning.

Line of the morning goes to Robert Farley, over on Lawyers, Guns and Money;

Next: Barack Obama, AL Cy Young winner?

And, those Flying Monkeys ...

From David Kurtz, at TPM;

A TPM commenter wonders if this isn't a bit premature:

Isn't it a little soon for this? Maybe after he brokers an Israeli-Palestinian agreement or something like that. It sounds like the, 'boy is the world relieved you guys didn't choose McCain' award

Bob Cesca has how Morning Joke was dissing it, and more;

When asked whether the Nobel Peace Prize will negate the Copenhagen thing, White House correspondent Savannah Guthrie replied, "Well. I don't know." I don't know? The Nobel Prize doesn't supersede a ridiculous story about the Olympics? Please. The last sitting president to be selected was Woodrow Wilson. The only prize George W. Bush received was yanked out of a box of Froot Loops.

Peter Friday, on Firedoglake - "I can almost hear the screaming from Dick Cheney and the neocons as they get the news."

Prairie Weather, with "Poisoned chalice";

NPR speculated that awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama is like handing him a poisoned chalice. The poison is the inevitable the reaction of the political opposition in this country to the prize. The Nobel committee is seen as heaving a great sigh of relief that Bush/Cheney are off the scene.

We all have to pitch in to get Ta-Nehisi Coates some television;

My Lord. I wish I had cable, so I could watch Fox News flip the fuck out over this one. Rush is gonna be all-world today, Glenn Beck is gonna be all-universe.

And the Big Cheese Flying Monkeys are locked-and-loaded with their feces.

Michelle "Staklin" Malkin harumps that it is an award for his symbolism, while Mona Charen, at the big Flying Monkey perch, wants to keep that "Pal'n around with terrorists" meme going;

Before they break out the champagne at the White House, they may want to pause over the fact that Obama now shares this honor with Mohammed el-Baradei, Yasser Arafat, and flagrant liar Rigoberta Menchu Tum.

Meredith Jessup, at Flying Monkey Perch Townhall has the headline "Apologies Apparently Accepted: President Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize";

So correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this essentially mean Obama received this award for making some good speeches? Sure nothing he says has actually been accomplished, but it all sounds good!

Sure the Nobel Prize lost a lot of luster after they awarded one to Al Gore, but c'mon! This is just more evidence the "messiah" mentality has reached the world stage...

MediaMatters catches RedStates Eric Erickson ringing in the the racial meme for the Flying Monkeys, with "RedState's Erickson smears Obama's Nobel Peace Prize as "an affirmative action quota"

And, Flying Monkey Dan, at Riehl World View, at the end of his feces-flinging, predicts Obama winning the Nobel Prize will actually bring about his demise;

Unfortunately, this inexperienced, indecisive, ineffectual jerk doesn't seem to speak for America. And that's his real problem in the end. At this rate, the man is going to become reviled by a majority of the American people in four years.

I don't think Tweedledee and Tweedledum (Limbaugh and Beck) come to work until later in the day, so you can expect a second wave of Flying Monkey feces flinging well into the night.

Oh yeah, keep watch of the wire services today, to see when (if) Shadow President Dick Cheney is rushed to the hospital with heart trouble.

Irving Kristol, Godfather of Nepotism

I suppose that Irving Kristol cashing out during the Obama Presidency was just bad timing.

Had he passed during The Bush Grindhouse days, where they adopted the Neonitwism Papa Kristol drew up (expanded and bastardized by his son, Little Billy Kristol), they likely would have given him a State Funeral, complete with a 21-Country Invasion-and-Occupation salute.



Papa Kristol died last Friday, and you could have found numerous posts heralding him as a "thinker", and "intellectual".

Perhaps, or just he created the space, with a few tablets from the mountains, that spawned the Right Wing Freak Show, giving birth to the Flying Monkeys of today.

Then, again, reading Steve Clemons' "Irving Kristol Dies: How Will the Neocon Church Now Divide?" has me thinking that, forget neoconservatism, Papa Kristol was the Mother Monster of ''Alien', as he writes about Neoconservative scholar and author Francis Fukuyama, who he says learned "at the knee of Irving Kristol" but was embroiled in a food fight with the newer, younger neonitwits, like Charles Krauthammer.

Fukuyama said, as I recall, that he didn't need lessons from Krauthammer on what neoconservatism was all about. In fact, Fukuyama felt that what Krauthammer and some others were writing and speaking about Iraq contradicted neoconservative perspectives. He said that he and other neocons used to criticize government's hubris for thinking it could change school test scores in Anacostia -- and now some of these same people were arguing that America could easily generate social outcomes in Baghdad.

In other words, Fukuyama was intimating that the Iraq escapade was a violation of everything Irving Kristol taught him and stood for.

This vignette is important because I think that a number of leading neoconservatives -- including Fukuyama and David Frum as well as others like Kenneth Adelman -- never really left neoconservatism as much as the modern variant left them.

This leads me to suspect that in the wake of Irving Kristol's passing, there may be an effort to redefine an alternative version of neoconservative thinking and perspective than that which Bill Kristol and his close ally, Robert Kagan, have fashioned.

The church split with Fukuyama, but the neoconservative church may split yet again, and again.

What, Kristol's death is just going to give us a parade of bigger, louder, more dangerous, neonitwits?

And, leave it to The Washington Post to offer in its' tribute, Turd Blossom as the first voice they quote;

Karl Rove, a Republican strategist who advised President George W. Bush, called Mr. Kristol an "intellectual entrepreneur who helped energize several generations of public policy thinkers."

Through editing, writing and speaking, Mr. Kristol "made it a moral imperative to rouse conservatism from mainstream Chamber of Commerce boosterism to a deep immersion in ideas," Rove said. He also said that Mr. Kristol helped create a synthesis of Cold War Democrats and Ronald Reagan White House anticommunist hawks that influenced foreign and military policy in the 1980s.

"Influenced foreign and military policy?"

How's about hijacking it, stealing an election and installing The Commander Guy and his Shadow President to bring to life all the neonitwit wet dreams of invasion and occupation, illegal spying and wiretapping, and, of course, boner-inducing torture.

Neocirclejerks, is what they should be labeled.

The gem of remembrances, though, comes from TBogg, over on Firedoglake, tagging a piece by Paul Campos, of the Rocky Mountain News, back in January;

I once heard a recording of a BBC broadcast announcing the birth of Queen Elizabeth II of England's son. The announcer intoned, "Her Majesty has given birth to . . . a prince."

This struck me as a particularly stark illustration of how one's place in the world can be determined by the accident of birth. At least, I thought, I live in a country where it's never announced that someone has given birth to an electrical engineer or a pastry chef or an under secretary for East Asian affairs.

[snip]

On the other hand, you have the career of William Kristol. Kristol, the son of neo-conservative doyen Irving Kristol, was just fired by The New York Times, for which he had been cranking out an opinion column since last January (technically, his contract wasn't renewed).

A few months ago, my blogging colleague Robert Farley pointed out that "in the modern configuration of the conservative media machine, Kristol occupies an unparalleled central position of power . . . Right-wing journalism and punditry is absurdly nepotistic; everything depends on relationships, (and) Kristol always seems to be" at the center of these relationships.

[snip]

Which brings me to this charming vignette, courtesy of blog commenter Harry Hopkins:

"I remember back in the late 1990s, when Ira Katznelson, an eminent political scientist at Columbia, came to deliver a guest lecture. Prof. Katznelson described a lunch he had with Irving Kristol during the first Bush administration.

"The talk turned to William Kristol, then Dan Quayle's chief of staff, and how he got his start in politics. Irving recalled how he talked to his friend Harvey Mansfield at Harvard, who secured William a place there as both an undergrad and graduate student; how he talked to Pat Moynihan, then Nixon's domestic policy adviser, and got William an internship at the White House; how he talked to friends at the RNC [Republican National Committee] and secured a job for William after he got his Harvard Ph.D.; and how he arranged with still more friends for William to teach at Penn and the Kennedy School of Government.

"With that, Prof. Katznelson recalled, he then asked Irving what he thought of affirmative action. 'I oppose it,' Irving replied. 'It subverts meritocracy.' "

Who knew he was a Guinness commercial in-waiting!

"Neoconservatism" was just a new label for nepotism?

Brilliant!


Bonus Papa Kristol Dirt Nap Riffs

Wonkette: Irving Kristol Dies

PBS: From Memoirs of a Trotskyist by Irving Kristol

Bruce Bartlett: Remembering Irving Kristol

Michael J.W. Stickings: Irving Kristol (1920-2009)

Let's Hope The GM Boycott Goes As Good As His Palin Book

Well, I suppose there could be points awarded, for persistence.

We happened to catch this post, yesterday, from Eric Kleefeld, on TPM;

Right-Wingers To Boycott GM?

"In the effort to reverse this lurch beyond the farthest left fringe of previous Democratic statist urges, individual Americans have a role to play. They have to say no to GM products and services until such time as the denationalization occurs," says Hugh Hewitt. He acknowledges that this is a serious step that could hurt people currently working for GM: "But there isn't any alternative, every dollar spent with GM is a dollar spent against free enterprise. Every car or truck purchased from Government Motors is one not purchased from a private car company that competes fairly against all other car companies."

The Cheeseburger That Sweats (h/t Barry Crimmins), aka The Unelected Shadow Leader of the PartyofNoicans is also rooting for it.

Now, Hugh Hewitt is one of the bigger Flying Monkeys out there, and it was, oh so nice, to show some empathy for the GM workers, even though he's betting on screwing them.

So, it is conceivable, that some of his smaller Flying Monkeys, and the Dittoheads that listen to El Dittohead Grande, have already, if they own one, driven their GM automobiles, or trucks, to the nearest junkyard, and replaced it with a good, ol' American-made, "free enterprise" automobile ...

Errr, well, that would have to be subject of another post

But, wait, Hewitt's track record isn't so great on these kind of things.

Steve Benen, in his "SCHADENFREUDE WATCH: HEWITT EDITION..." explains;

In 2006, a few months before the midterm elections, conservative blogger/talk-show host Hugh Hewitt published a book on the drive for a "permanent Republican majority." Soon after, Democrats won a sweeping, historic victory, and reclaimed the majority in both chambers.

In 2007, a few months before the primaries, Hewitt published a book on Mitt Romney and the prospects of a "Mormon in the White House." Soon after, Romney blew leads in Iowa and New Hampshire, and withdrew from the presidential race after a surprisingly poor showing.

In 2008, Hewitt has a new idea for a book. It's called, "How Sarah Palin Won the Election ... and Saved America." There's a small problem: no one wants to publish it ...

Well, we all know how The Wasilla Whiz Kid made out.

Leon Neyfakh, from the New York Observer, has the 411 on the Hewitt-penned-Palin-book that wasn't;

Was that the plan regardless of who won?

"The book obviously presumed [a McCain-Palin victory]," Mr. Yates said, "but the theory was that her impact on this election will have a lasting effect regardless—that she's not gonna go anywhere, that she's just gonna be a figure in G.O.P. politics going forward."

The title of the book, Mr. Yates said, "went through a couple of different iterations."

At one point it was How Sarah Palin Won the Election. At another point it was How Sarah Palin Won the Election ... and Saved America.

"If they were to lose the election it would have just been How Sarah Palin Saved America," Mr. Yates said. "We were trying to cover our bases depending on what may happen."

Rest easy, GM workers ... You got nothin' to lose sleep over ... Well, at least from a Hugh Hewitt-led boycott.

If we follow form, sales of GM cars will skyrocket.

We Have An Instant Ignorant Dolt Today - Ed Whelan

Jesus, it's Sunday, for crying-out-loud.

You really have to be working at it, to want it, oh, so badly, to become an Instant Ignorant Dolt on the weekend.

I mean, you have the luxury of five days, to piss all over yourself, and spread your ignorance out, and then kick back over the weekend to bask in it, or to flail away, attempting to explain, or suppress, your shining moment of dunderheadedness.

But Ed Whelan just couldn't wait ... He had to let it explode, to shoot out of the gate, like a geyser of unfettered PartyofNoican bile.

Whelan, who is the President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, blogs on the Flying Monkey perch of The National Review, and, also worked in the Bush Grindhouse "From just before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, until joining EPPC in 2004, Mr. Whelan was the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice. In that capacity, he advised the White House Counsel’s Office, the Attorney General and other senior DOJ officials, and Departments and agencies throughout the executive branch on difficult and sensitive legal questions."



Hmmm ... Advised on "difficult and sensitive legal questions."

What was going on in the The Bush Grindhouse from 2001, to 2004?

The building of the lies for the invasion and occupation of Iraq ... The building of the Bush (Cheney) Torture Program ... Illegal wiretapping ... The exposure and outing of a covert CIA Agent ...

Which is where we landed today, with IID Whelan.

We'll let Steve Benen set up, succinctly;

On Friday, publius -- Hilzoy's Obsidian Wings co-blogger and someone I've known for several years -- had a blog post criticizing something National Review's Ed Whelan wrote. As blog criticisms go, the piece was acerbic but hardly outrageous -- Whelan made an observation about judges pondering policy outcomes, and publius referenced a Volokh item that took issue with Whelan's assumptions.

Whelan, publius said, is "a smart guy with outstanding legal credentials," adding, "He just enjoys playing the role of know-nothing demagogue." The same post referenced a quote from Anonymous Liberal, describing Whelan as "essentially a legal hitman."

So, what does our Instant Ignorant Dolt Ed Whelan do?

He writes a post, outing and exposing the identity, and employer, of publius, as well as sending him a pissy email.

Exposing an Irresponsible Anonymous Blogger

One bane of the Internet is the anonymous blogger who abuses his anonymity to engage in irresponsible attacks. One such blogger who has been biting at my ankles in recent months is the fellow who calls himself “publius” at the Obsidian Wings blog.

And, this is a good one, even in his hackery, his moment of Ignorant Doltness, Whelan admits "Well, I’m amused to learn that I was wrong about publius’s lack of legal education."

Then IID Whelan goes on to expose publius, where he works, and hits on him a few more times.

TBogg gets the honors for the most descriptive post on this, saying "Bitter out-of-power wingnut welfare recipient Ed Whelan fucks up explaining a joke, gets called out on it, and then goes Full Metal Asshole ..."

The Anonymous Liberal, who got dragged into this, offers;

Whelan responded by publishing Publius' real identity on the National Review website and sending him an email saying "now who's the hitman, you coward and idiot."

Um, it's still you, Ed, but thanks for proving it.

It's really difficult to put into words just how despicable and childish this behavior is. This is a man who was a Deputy Assistant Attorney General. He's currently the President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. And he's acting like a six-year-old.

John Cole, on Balloon Juice, points out a bit of irony, noting "Shameful, but to be expected. I mean, after all, Publius was defending a racist latina! He had it coming. Good thing Whelan heads a group that deals with ethics. That kind of experience could come in handy during a situation like this."

And, publius (we'll stay honoring his nom-de-plume), also responded to IID Whelan, in his sardonic "Stay Classy Ed Whelan";

And to be clear – the proximate cause was that Whelan got mad that I criticized him in a blog post. More specifically, he’s mad that Eugene Volokh made him look rather silly – and he’s lashing out at me for pointing that out, and publishing my name.

[snip]

As I told Ed (to no avail), I have blogged under a pseudonym largely for private and professional reasons. Professionally, I’ve heard that pre-tenure blogging (particularly on politics) can cause problems. And before that, I was a lawyer with real clients. I also believe that the classroom should be as nonpolitical as possible – and I don’t want conservative students to feel uncomfortable before they take a single class based on my posts. So I don’t tell them about this blog. Also, I write and research on telecom policy – and I consider blogging and academic research separate endeavors. This, frankly, is a hobby.

[snip]

All of these things I would have told Ed, if he had asked. Instead, I told him that I have family and professional reasons for not publishing under my own name, and he wrote back and called me an “idiot” and a “coward.” (I’ve posted the email exchange below).

How often have we seen this from the Flying Monkeys of the Right Wing Freakshow?

Have a disagreement with their dogma, they don't defend their position, they personally attack the dissenter, the person with a different opinion, a different point-of-view.

Valerie Plame is, certainly, a shining example of this

So Ed Whelan, you join the clown train of The Garlics' growing roster of Ignorant Dolts.

Just remember to change, frequently, as you piss all over yourself.


Bonus Ignorant Dolt Ed Whelan Riffs

A.J. Strata: A Far Right Tirade At NRO Results In Exposing An Anonymous Centrist Blogger

James Joyner: Outing

D. Aristophanes: douche-bag (n.) - see Whelan, Ed

Kevin Jon Heller: Ed Whelan Outs an Anonymous Law Professor/Blogger

Tom Maguire: I Deplore This

Joe Gandelman: Blogging Ethics: You Strongly Disagree With Me I Expose Your Identity

Brad DeLong: The National Review: Taking the Class Out of Class Warfare: Ed Whalen Edition (Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps?)

Scott Lemieux: Advocate of Arbitrary Torture Shows Lack of Ethics

And, the last word, to Publius - Thanks All

Latin Lady

Sorry Garlic Fans, another light post this evening.

We continue to be pummeled by allergies, to the point, I fear, we would be creatively-challenged to write out a shopping list.



It has become a Sonia Sotomayorpalooza out there, with cable news settling into what will be their programming for the next number of weeks.

And, as we noted yesterday, the Flying Monkeys are running around today, with their hair on fire.

Judge Sotomayor has been attacked, and smeared, over;

Her education

Matt Corley - Rove: Attending top schools doesn’t mean that Sotomayor is smart, but it proves that Bush is

Joan Walsh - Buchanan on Sotomayor: "Not that intelligent"

How she handles her finances

Brad DeLong: "Most Unfair Attack on Sonia Sotomayor" Contest Entry: Greg Mankiw

And, what is the Headline-of-the-Day;

Nate Silver: Grandmother of World's 23rd Best Economist Posthumously Offended by Sonia Sotomayor's Spending Habits; Will Obama Withdraw Nomination?

Even, that she is pronouncing her own name wrong

Amanda Terkel: Krikorian: People should stop pronouncing Sotomayor’s name correctly

What she eats

Wonkette: Sotomayor’s Magical Bean Foods Make Her Hate White People More

David Kurtz: Parody?

And, not surprising, Paul Krugman has a good finger on the pulse of things (A note on identity politics);

The thing that is really driving conservatives crazy, I think, is that their identity politics just isn’t working like it used to. Their whole approach has been based on the belief that Americans vote as if they live in Mayberry, and fear and hate anyone who looks a bit different; now that the country just isn’t like that, they’ve gone mad.

We may need to, having thought we'd have to wait for the confirmation hearing, shout out a "Help Me Mr. Wizard!", to help us all get through this.

So, with that kind of garbage being thrown at her, we just have to throw out another musical treat, as nod to the pending first Latino Supreme Court Justice.

Carlos Santana & Gato Barbieri - Latin Lady