Ignorant Racist Dolt Follow-Up

You may recall, back in early July, there was a jarring news report of a suburban Philadelphia, all-white, private club that made a deal with a local camp (which the camp paid some big moola), to allow their day campers to use the private clubs' swimming pool.



We had it here with "Instant Racist Ignorant Dolts - The Valley Swim Club"

Pool Boots Kids Who Might "Change the Complexion" ... Campers sent packing after first visit to swim club

The Creative Steps Day Camp paid more than $1900 to The Valley Swim Club. The Valley Swim Club is a private club that advertises open membership. But the campers' first visit to the pool suggested otherwise.

"When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool," Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. "The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately."

The next day the club told the camp director that the camp's membership was being suspended and their money would be refunded.

But, wait, it gets worse ...

The explanation they got was either dishearteningly honest or poorly worded.

"There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club," John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club said in a statement.

There has been some action in this case;

State rules Montco pool discriminated by banning campers

A state investigation found that a Montgomery County swim club racially discriminated against 56 African-American and Hispanic children in June when it revoked an agreement to allow a Northeast Philadelphia day camp to use its pool after the children' first visit.

"The racial animus . . . and the racially-coded comments" by club members at the Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley were the reasons the club revoked Creative Steps Inc.'s contract, according to a 33-page report by the Human Relations Commission and released tonight by an attorney who represents four of the campers.

The Human Relations Commission report examined Valley Club leaders' actions, including members' e-mails, both before and after the Creative Steps trip to the pool.

Of course, the club says everything has been blown out-of-proportion, and will appeal the finding, and $50,000 fine.

But wait, there's more!

Additionally, the report noted that when Valley Club tried in 2009 to expand its membership by recruiting in areas outside its township - Lower Moreland, which has a 0.8 percent black population - mailouts were "mainly directed at areas with overwhelmingly Caucasian populations" including Rhawnhurst, Fox Chase and Churchville.

The more-diverse townships of Cheltenham and Abington, like other nearby areas with "significant African-American populations," the report says, were passed over.

And, there's this gem in the report

When the children were at the pool, one child recognized member Michelle Flynn, who is a teacher at Laura H. Carnell Elementary School, and reported that she said, "What are all of these black kids doing here?"

After the campers left, the report said that one club member threatened to rethink his membership and that e-mails circulated about the matter.

We'll have to update the plaque in our Ignorant Dolt's wing, to include the teacher.

Ignorant Dolt of The Day: Ross Douthat

I was surprised, to some extent, that there wasn't a big roll out.

You know, trumpets blaring, long, ego-pumping press release.

But, no, nothing.

Only his column announced that NYT columnist Russ Douthat had jumped aboard the Bush Legacy Team, earning him a spot on the ever-growing roster of The Garlic's, Ignorant Dolts.



It was a doozy today, going well beyond the "when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade" kind-of-thing.

Douthat actually praises The Commander Guy for the disasters he created, in short, for the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq, Bush aces it because he escalated the war, and as to the Nightmare On Wall Street, The Ek-A-Lec-Tic Reading Guy decided to let Heistin' Hank Paulson turn over the U.S. Treasury to his old cronies, bailing them out from their own greed.

Here's some gems from Douthat's "The Self-Correcting Presidency";

But if Bush is destined to go down as a failed president, come what may, he looks increasingly like an unusual sort of failure.

America has had its share of disastrous chief executives. But few have gone as far as Bush did in trying to repair their worst mistakes. Those mistakes were the Iraq war — both the decision to invade and the conduct of the occupation — and the irrational exuberance that stoked the housing bubble. The repairs were the surge, undertaken at a time when the political class was ready to abandon Iraq to the furies, and last fall’s unprecedented economic bailout.

Both fixes remain controversial. But for the moment, both look like the sort of disaster-averting interventions for which presidents get canonized. It’s just that in Bush’s case, the disasters he averted were created on his watch.

[snip]

It’s true that Bush didn’t personally formulate the surge, or craft the bailout. But he was, well, the decider, and if he takes the blame — rightly — for what Donald Rumsfeld wrought, then he should get credit for Gen. David Petraeus’s successes in Iraq, and for blessing the sweeping decisions that Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke made in last September’s desperate weeks.

And if we give Bush credit on these fronts, it’s worth reassessing one of the major critiques of his presidency — that it was fatally insulated, by ideology and personality, from both the wisdom of the Washington elite and the desires of the broader public.

[snip]

And perhaps his best decisions, on the surge and the bailout, were made from the bunker of a seemingly-ruined presidency — when his approval ratings had bottomed out, his credibility was exhausted and his allies had abandoned him.

This is not a blueprint that future presidents will want to follow. But the next time an Oval Office occupant sees his popularity dissolve and his ambitions turn to dust, he can take comfort from Bush’s example. It suggests that it’s possible to become a good president even — or especially — when you can no longer hope to be a great one.

You would have thought some editor at the NYT would have walked the copy back to Douthat, reminding him, that "Hey, no way, Worst-President-Ever!", and give him the choice of rewriting it, or having some advertisement run in his column space.

And, if you think The Garlic is being tough on him, that Douthat isn't deserving of the IDOTD ...

From Blue Texan, over on Firedoglake;

I never thought I'd write this, but I'm starting to miss Bill Kristol.

Put another way, if I get totally wasted on smack, pass out on the couch with a lit cigarette and set the house on fire, but am shaken out of my drug-induced stupor by the billowing smoke in time for me to pull one of my children out of the conflagration -- that makes me a "good" parent not a "great" one.

Some sliding scale! And I thought conservatives opposed affirmative action.

Brad, at Sadly No;

Yeah, OK, so Bush fucked up everything he touched, but at least he had the good sense to scramble around at the very last minute while spending lots of lives and money to avert a complete zombies-roaming-the-streets type of disaster. In conclusion, Bush was a good president.

Even Glenn Greenwald, on his Twitter, weighed in;

Ross Douthat, every week: I'll explicitly renounce right-wing myths to prove I'm reasonable, then spend the whole column justifying them

Yeah, Douthat, we know that the NYT brought you in to replace Little Billy Kristol, that you are one of the young tigers of the Right Wing Freak Show (the non-screaming division), but Jesus, were you in a coma for the past 8+ years?

One thing if you playing around with this idea, over cocktails (you could always blow it off that you were drunk).

But, to run this Bush Legacy Package as your column?

Only an Ignorant Dolt would do such, and you, Ross Douthat, are today's Ignorant Dolt.

Instant Ignorant Dolts - Rick Stengel and Time Magazine

We haven't done much with Glenn Beck, here on The Garlic.

It's already satire, as soon as he opens his mouth, and we don't want to get into the daily "Look what Beck Said Now" circus.

His prodigious lunacy, long ago, granted him being grandfathered into The Garlic's "Ignorant Dolt" roster.



It would be one thing, like a major news periodical, say, Time Magazine, decided to look into the smegma that is Glen Beck, the lies, the racism, the fomenting of anarchy, and report on that, even acknowledging that the Flying Monkeys of the Right Wing Freak Show eat it up like happy soup.

But no.

Editor Rick Stengel has decided to do a puff, cheerleading, piece, that gives credibility to Beck's ranting lunacy by using the 'straw man" argument that the liberal left is just as bad.

Funny, I don't remember the Liberal Left foaming at the mouth that The Commander Guy wasn't a U.S. Citizen, or continually depicting him in offensive racial caricatures.

If someone has a tape of "The Cheeseburger That Sweats" (aka Rush Limbaugh - (H/T Barry Crimmins)), singing "Bush, The Hapless Honkey", get it posted asap.

Time's cover story this week, written by David Von Drehle, is "Mad Man: Is Glenn Beck Bad for America?"

You can go read it, and it take some time, as you will have to gather yourself up off the floor, having fallen down laughing so many times, you may end up with some bruises.

Or, you can read Greg Mitchell's deconstruction of it;

New TIME Cover on Glenn Beck Ignores Facts, and Worse

I have no quarrel with TIME magazine devoting a cover to Glenn Beck -- so long as the accompanying story sticks to hard facts and harsh truths. The issue coming tomorrow, online today, sadly fails to do so in an apparent effort to woo the rightwing with a ludicrously "balanced" treatment of equally dangerous and wacko "ranting" coming from left and right.

It starts right away with a first paragraph that claims that only "liberal sources" estimated the protest crowd in D.C. last weekend as about 70,000, while conservatives say up to a million or more. Actually, virtually all mainstream media sources, along with nonpartisan factchecking organizations such as PolitiFact, cite the lower number.

[snip]

There's a scattering of extreme Beck quotes lost in many paragraphs on the money deals. And groups like Media Matters are accused of "cherry picking" the bad ones. But then, they are just part of the "rant industry" on the left. There's a long, long graf quoting Beck on 9/11 and the Freedom Towers but no mention of his attack on the 9/11 widows. It notes his assault on the Obama "czars" and "he has some radical-sounding sound bites to back it up."

Ignorance and possible racism are never raised, despite polls showing that frightening numbers of conservatives believe that Obama was born in Kenya or may, in fact, be the "anti-Christ."

There's more that Mitchell has, and, also Glen Greenwald, taking Stengel, and Time, to task in his "Time Magazine: the liberal bias of facts"

It is also rather odd that Stengel would opt to puff up Beck in this weeks' 'Time', considering, just yesterday, Salon ran with an excellent expose on Beck - "Meet the man who changed Glenn Beck's life: Cleon Skousen was a right-wing crank whom even conservatives despised. Then Beck discovered him."

Beck is idolizing, and preaching the word of, a man who both the Republican Conservatives AND the Mormons booted out, not wanting any part of him.

If you can't cut it with either of those two, man, you gotta be so far off-the-planet, the Hubbell Telescope couldn't find you.

Mitchell offers an Update in his post;

Just got the print edition. In editor's note, Richard Stengel actually writes, "One of our jobs as journalists is to be the referee, the honest broker who sorts through the accusations and says, This is fact, and this is fantasy." Then explains that's why they put Von Drehle on Beck.

I guess Stengel hasn't gotten around to reading the Salon piece, or anything much else on Beck, and just ran with "the fantasy" stuff.

Rick, how's about being that "honest broker" next week, and place on your cover The Garlic awarding you the Ignorant Dolt Crown and Sceptre.

You, Rick Stengel, are today's' Instant Ignorant Dolt.


Bonus Links

Jamison Foser: How Time magazine enables Glenn Beck's lies

John Cook: Leftist 'Terrorizer' of Children Is Now Glenn Beck's Official Portraitist

David Weigel: Time Magazine Disputes Time Magazine’s Reporting

Steve Krakauer: MSNBC Forced To Talk About Glenn Beck

Will Bunch: UPDATED: Where Glenn Beck gets his ideas

New Ignorant Dolt: Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins

Or, better yet, Congress's "Great White Dope".

That being Kansas Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins, for bursting through to grab the Ignorant Dolt Crown and Sceptre.



We go to the local Kansas paper for the call;

Jenkins' remark raises eyebrows

"Republicans are struggling right now to find the great white hope," Jenkins said to the crowd. "I suggest to any of you who are concerned about that, who are Republican, there are some great young Republican minds in Washington."

[snip]

The phrase "great white hope" is frequently tied to racist attitudes permeating the United States when heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson fought in the early 1900s. Reaction to the first black man to reign as champion was intense enough to build support for a campaign to find a white fighter capable of reclaiming the title from Johnson.

[snip]

Mary Geiger, a spokeswoman for Jenkins, said the reference to a great white hope wasn't meant to denote a preference by Jenkins for politicians of a particular "race, creed or any background." Jenkins was expressing faith fellow GOP representatives in the House would be key players in returning Republicans to a leadership role in Washington, Geiger said.

"There may be some misunderstanding there when she talked about the great white hope," Geiger said. "What she meant by it is they have a bright future. They're bright lights within the party."

Sorry, there Representative Jenkins (and Mary Geiger).

If you meant to reference the young, "bright lights" PartyofNoicans, then you would have said something like "we have some young bright lights in the PartyofNoicans"

There is no other context to "Great White Hope";

The phrase "great white hope" is frequently tied to racist attitudes permeating the United States when heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson fought in the early 1900s. Reaction to the first black man to reign as champion was intense enough to build support for a campaign to find a white fighter capable of reclaiming the title from Johnson.

If you don't want to go back to Jack Johnson, just go back to the early 1980's, and the Larry Holmes - Gerry Cooney fight;

Holmes successfully defended the WBC belt 17 times until December 11, 1983, when he voluntarily relinquished that title for the championship of the new International Boxing Federation. In 1982, Holmes gained some measure of notoriety when he fought Gerry Cooney, a white boxer who many thought had a chance to unseat Holmes. A lot of racial tension was involved with this fight, with Cooney considered "the great white hope" and the best white heavyweight since Rocky Marciano. During the prefight introductions, Holmes was announced first and Cooney second. Although champions are traditionally announced second Holmes himself had been introduced second when he won the title from Ken Norton. Despite bitterness and racial tension among fans of both fighters, the two became friends. In the 1990s, a movie called The Great White Hype starring Damon Wayans and Peter Berg was loosely based on the Holmes-Cooney fight. Holmes defeated Cooney by TKO in the 13th round.

We're fairly confident, that in referring to Gerry Cooney as the "great white hope", the boxing world wasn't articulating they thought Cooney was one of boxing's "young bright lights".

Ignorant Doltness of this level, the stupidity to say it, and then, the extra dollop of stupidity, to try to spin a different meaning on it ...

This should disqualify Jenkins for any elected office, at any level, including grade school government.

Let it be known, with our growing roster of Ignorant Dolts, Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins is one of our young, bright lights of Ignorant Dolts.

We can only look forward to more incredible denseness coming from her.



Bonus Ignorant Dolt Lynn Jenkins Riffs

Logan Murphy: KS Republican Lynn Jenkins Says GOP Struggling To Find "Great White Hope" To Take On Obama

Ta-Nehisi Coates: GOP In Search Of A "Great White Hope"

Colby Hall: Health Care Debate Gets Racial With “Great White Hope” Comment

Matthew Yglesias: GOP Member of Congress Looking for “Great White Hope” to Tackle Obama


Bonus Bonus

Hmmm ...

Wonder if Ignorant Dolt Jenkins will be putting this on her iPod?

Miles Davis - A Tribute to Jack Johnson(Remix)

Blaming Victim Gets Marriott Corp. Ignorant Dolts Title

This is, simply, astounding.

We have a roster of Ignorant Dolt building up, but this, this just almost drains the life out of you, the galaxy-high, Ignorant Dolt stupidity of, supposedly, human beings.



The Marriott Corp., through their property, the Stamford Marriott Hotel & Spa, is countering the law suit of a woman who was raped on their property, by blaming the woman, claiming she was careless, negligent and "failed to exercise due care for her own safety and the safety of her children and proper use of her senses and facilities,"

WTF?

And when you see how this woman was assaulted, you have to wonder, how on earth can the Marriott Corp., rather then harassing, and, attempting to intimidate this woman, wouldn't be front-and-center with helping her.

Or, at minimum, settle the suit out-of-court and go about their way.

Stamford Marriott claims woman was negligent in her own rape

The woman filed the lawsuit in May 2008, six months after Danbury native Gary Fricker, 56, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after a plea deal in the case.

On Oct. 10, 2006, Fricker stuck a handgun in the back of the then 40-year-old woman and forced her and her children, then 3 and 5, into their minivan as they left the hotel, according to court documents.

She let him go through her wallet and told him he could take it, but Fricker demanded she take off her clothes. Fricker sexually assaulted the woman for several minutes, pointing the gun at her and her children and threatening to sexually assault one of her children.

When another car pulled up, the woman screamed, and Fricker fled. Police arrested Fricker near White Plains, N.Y., three days later, and he immediately confessed, police have said.

Fricker, a transient carpenter, had been arrested 20 times before and was wanted in Florida on an arson case, police have said.

In front of her children, with a gun, and threatening, also, sexually assaulting one of her children?

And, what is behind Marriott Corp. countering this woman?

The Stamford Marriott Hotel & Spa, along with the firms in charge of managing the hotel and its parking garage, made the claim as part of a list of special defenses filed in state Superior Court in Stamford last month. Such defenses allow defendants in civil suits to argue they are not responsible for damages even if the plaintiff's story is true.

They're not responsible, even if the plaintiff's story is true ...

And, Marriott Corp. showed their heartless, Ignorant Dolt souls in going after her;

The hotel also subpoenaed several people involved with the family, including a Pilates instructor, friends, tennis partners and the children's baby sitter. The woman's attorneys argue the individuals subpoenaed do not know anything about the attack, that the subpoenas inadvertently identified her to those people and that it was merely an effort by the hotel's attorneys to intimidate her.

Hmmm ...

Maybe Marriott Corp, can open a Twitter account, and just begin smearing this woman daily, 140-characters-at-a-time.

Think about this, next time you are traveling, and choosing a hotel.

Do you want to patronize a company with this gutter-level of morals and empathy?

This could earn Marriott Corp, the Ignorant Dolts-of-the-Year title.

This is stuff of Ignorant Dolt, to the infinite power.

Instant Ignorant Dolt: Newt Gingrich

Now, one could argue, that this is redundant.

That former Congressman, and Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, would already be an Ignorant Dolt , grandfathered in, for his years of lying, hypocracy, and, if no other reason, his "Contract On America".



But today, on Mini-Me-Clintonite, George Stephanopoulos's 'This Week', Gingrich choose to stick his head up Sarah Palin's butt, a surely awkward manner in which to kiss her ass, but, nonetheless, he did.

Newt Gingrich and Howard Dean went at it on health care this morning on This Week. Especially over Sarah Palin's claim that Obama's health care plan will create "death panels" that would encourage euthanasia.

“Communal standards historically is a very dangerous concept,” Gingrich told me.

“You are asking us to trust turning power over to the government, when there are clearly people in American who believe in establishing euthanasia, including selective standards.”

(Click the ABC Link for the video, and watch Newt raise his hand, signaling he wants the Ignorant Dolt title)

We posted about this last evening, on Palin, and the Republican's meme that Obamacare means "death to the elderly", so, perhaps, Gingrich saw it, and is lobbying for a position in Trig Palin's administration.

Steve Benen places, nicely, the IID Crown on Gingrich;

There are two relevant questions here. First, why was Newt Gingrich, the disgraced former House Speaker who was driven from office by his own party 11 years ago, invited to appear as some kind of credible policy expert on "This Week"?

Second, what is Gingrich talking about? We're talking about a provision in the House bill that would allow Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling sessions on advance care planning. The idea came from a Republican senator, Maine's Susan Collins, who's argued that the measure would improve Medicare's "care for patients at the end of their lives."

Either Gingrich knows this, in which case he was lying, or he doesn't, in which case he shouldn't be spouting nonsense on national television.

Bet on that he knows he is lying ... Old habits die hard.

Also, from the same segment, watch Howard Dead bitch-slap Gingrich;

Dean vs. Gingrich On Health Care Reform



Next time you're in Boston Newt Gingrich, come around to The Garlic, and pick up your Ignorant Dolt Crown and Sceptre.


Bonus Newt Gingrich Ignorant Dolt Riffs

Zandar vs. The Stupid: Follow The Leader

Ron Beasley: About those "Death Panels"

Amanda Terkel: GOP Rep. Kingston Separates Himself From Palin: There Are ‘No Death Panels’

Another Instant Ignorant Dolt - Rep Virginia Fox (R-NC)

We are getting to like this.

We did one yesterday, on what we called IID (Instant Ignorant Dolt), awarding the FAA with the dubious title, for the Fly-Over-Manhattan Photo-Op.

With Ignorant Dolts flying out of the chute at sonic speed over the past few months, it was always a tough decision at weeks' end, to determine just which one would receive The Garlic's "Ignorant-Dolt-of-the-Week" title (our last weekly IDOTW winner was Dick Armey)

So, we will endeavor, with these shorter posts, to "pick'em off" as they come flying by.

And today, we've got a royally Ignorant Dolt to hip you to.

We defer to MediaMatters, for the introduction;

Summary: On April 29, 2009, in a speech on the House floor, Rep. Virginia Foxx claimed that Matthew Shepard's death was merely the result of a robbery gone bad. While his killers Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson did rob him, they also admitted that they were well aware of his sexual orientation and pretended they were gay to lure him away from the bar he was in at the time. The most striking feature of the case, of course, is that during the course of a normal, simple robbery, the victim is not generally beaten, tied to a post, and left for dead.

And, as they say in the big show, let's go to the tape;

Rep. Virginia Foxx Dishonored Matthew Shepard's Death On The House Floor



Oh yeah, we should mention that Matthew Sheppard's mother was sitting in the gallery when Rep. Foxx displayed her inner Ignorant Dolt.

Lest you think this was a sudden burst of ignorance from Representative Foxx, Mary Ann Akers, in her WaPo "Sleuth" column, points out;

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) has done it again. Earlier this month she dropped the racially charged term "tar baby" on the House floor ...

Dave Waldman, over on Congress Matters, hits it good, in his "Virginia "Muppet Sweater" Foxx calls Matthew Shepard's murder a hoax";

This is now the catch-all excuse for the opposition of the GOP and their nutbar secessionist allies for everything.

Everything's a hoax. Global warming's a hoax. Matthew Shepard's murder was a hoax. Swine flu is a hoax. The Holocaust is a hoax. The moon landing was a hoax. FDR's success in dealing with The Great Depression was a hoax.

Everything's a hoax to these guys.

Except the war and the WMD! That was real!

Wear the crown well, Rep. Virginia Foxx ... You are today's Instant Ignorant Dolt!

We have an outpouring, a bevy of links, of equally outraged, and astounded, folks.

John Aravosis (DC): Republican congresswoman says Matthew Shepard's murder was "a hoax"

Pam Spaulding: NC Congresswoman Virginia Foxx - evil to the core

Ali Frick: GOP Hysterical Over Hate Crimes Bill Because It Would Protect Gay People

Ernest Luning: Markey to House: Shepard, Zapata ‘two victims of hate crimes in my district’

Glenn Greenwald: Can someone explain to Rep. Foxx the difference between hate crimes and hate speech laws?

The FAA - Instant Ignorant Dolts!

While we have grandfathered certain people into our Ignorant-Dolt-of-the-Week (The Loofah Man, The Cheeseburger That Sweats, among them), we haven't had to instantly, on extremely short notice, drag out the crown and sceptre.

But today, we do, bestowing on the Federal Aviation Administration, for scaring the bejesus out of New York City, and surrounding area residents, today, instant Ignorant Dolt status.

Air Force One Backup Rattles New York Nerves

Updated, 11:59 a.m. | An Air Force One lookalike, the backup plane for the one regularly used by the president, flew low over Manhattan on Monday morning, accompanied by two F-16 fighters, so Air Force photographers could take pictures. But a lack of awareness about the flyover led to the evacuation of several buildings in Lower Manhattan and Jersey City, and perplexed officials at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and other authorities were inundated with calls from anxious ferry passengers, office workers and residents.

[Snip]

Later on Monday morning, the Police Department acknowledged that it had been notified about the event but said it had been barred from alerting the public. “The flight of a VC-25 aircraft and F-16 fighters this morning was authorized by the F.A.A. for the vicinity of the Statue of Liberty with directives to local authorities not to disclose information about it but to direct any inquiries to the F.A.A. Air Traffic Security Coordinator,” the Police Department said in a statement.

[Snip]

Unaware of the planned exercise, scores of office workers flooded out of buildings, worried about the prospect of terrorism.

“People came pouring out of the buildings, the American Express Building, all the buildings in the financial district by the water,” said Edward Acker, a photographer who was at the building, 3 World Financial Center. “And even the construction guys over by 100 North End Avenue area, they all got out of their buildings. Nobody knew about it. Finally some guy showed up with a little megaphone to tell everyone it was a test, but the people were not happy. The people who were here 9/11 were not happy.”

Incredibly Ignorant Dolts!

Joe Weisenthal: The Government's Rotten Explanation For Terrorizing NYC

Pareene: Airplane Flies Around Manhattan, Scares Everyone

Raw Story: Low-flying Air Force One lookalike freaks out NYC

Zachary M. Seward: N.Y. plane scare: From terrifying tweet to news report — in 4 minutes

IDOTW Update ... New Michelle Bachmann Meltdown!

In case you didn't notice, the Idiots are clamoring - big time - over the Stimulus Package.

Last week, it was IDOTW Brad Blakeman, complaining that Obama wasn't speaking "Presidential", that rather then telling us how fucked we are, he should have sugar-coated it, been more optimistic.

And this week, our seminal Ignorant Dolt of the Week, Michelle Bachmann is at it - again, with yet another, Chernobylesque meltdown;

Michele Bachmann: We're Running Out of Rich People"



Steven D, over on Booman Tribune has more;

Ahhh. I guess she had all her investments with Allen Stanford and/or Bernie Madoff. Still, this was a tough choice to make. However, her only competition was -- herself. Take a sample of some of her other comments:

* ACORN is "under federal indictment for voter fraud," but the stimulus bill nevertheless gives ACORN "$5 billion." [Not true, by the way -- ACORN isn't under any federal indictment and doesn't get a dime under the Stimulus bill.]

[M]any members of Congress have "a real aversion to capitalism." [Because the Communist Party controls Congress, naturally.]

It is continually breathtaking, watching the Republican Party become unhinged.

Bonus Bachmann Batshit Riffs

Avidor - Michele Bachmann: "They've Put Duct Tape Over the Mouths of the Republicans"

Steve Benen: IDIOCY WATCH....

Ken: Confidential to Michele B: Maybe we aren't actually "literally losing our country." Maybe it's just literally falling through the hole in your head?

Our Ignorant Dolt of the Week ... Dick Armey!

Boy, this guy just climbed over everybody to grab the IDOTW title.

He had to bowl over one of the Grand Ayatollah of Ignorant Dolts, the Cheeseburger That Sweats (aka Rush Limbaugh), for his cheerleading for President Obama's failure, which generated a nervous Congressman, Phil Gingrey of Georgia, who at first criticized the radio drug addict, only to come running, waving his IDOTW marker, by begging Limbaugh to take him back into Dittohead Land.

We previously noted Mark Halperin, making a fairly regular stab at being an Ignorant Dolt, and, there was also Glenn Beck, putting his IDOTW credentials on display.

But one guy, just one, lonely, pathetic guy cleared the competitive field this week to say "I want to own, I want to have it coursing through my body, to be one gigantic Ignorant Dolt of the Week."



And, it was none other than the dirty bag former Congressman, Dick Armey.

Appearing on Tweety's 'Hardball' program, facing off against Salon's Joan Walsh, Armey showed, gloriously, how empty and inept the Republican party has become, when he responded back to Walsh's argument about Obama's Stimulus Package.

Transcript courtesy of Crooks and Liars;

Walsh: Who are the income redistributionists?

Armey: Who, what..

Walsh: Who are the income redistributionists?

Armey: Well the biggest income redistributions was a Republican congresswoman, urr. Senator, but Charlie Rangel cracked me up, Charlie said you guys are giving her things that I wouldn't even ask for.

Armey: I don't want to get into that because then the controversy is that Dick Armey is assaulting somebody. There are income redistribitionsts that think they are going to curry favor with a voting blocks in both parties and it's wrong policy whether it comes Republicans or Democrats, it makes no sense. Armey's axiom. Don't let politics define your economics. Don't let politics define anything. Politics is silly, it's inane. Take what amusements you can from them but don't take them seriously.

Walsh: But this is serious business. The economy is a wreck, (Armey laughs) it's been wrecked by the Bush White House and by Republicans in Congress with a lot of help Democratic help, with ( Armey makes more noises and sighs)

Armey: Oh, give it a rest.

Walsh: President Obama, please stop saying 'give it a rest.' Do you have any anything else to say? President Obama has a mandate for change. (Armey laughs again) Your people have stood in his way. They are standing in his way in Capitol hill right now and Rush Limbaugh is making ridiculous statements and Republicans are crawling to him and groveling. That's the state of our economy and our world right now Rep. Armey and it's sad.

Armey: I'm so glad that you could never be my wife because I surely wouldn't have to listen to that prattle from you every day.

Walsh: Well, wow that makes two of us sir, that was really an outstanding comment...

Armey: Look ma'am, you're talking like a paid political hack making your political points.

Walsh: Am I sir?

Armey: Are we going to talk seriously...

Walsh" No, I actually care about social justice, I care about jobs, I care about the economy.

Take a look.



"I'm so glad that you could never be my wife because I surely wouldn't have to listen to that prattle from you every day."

Was he drunk?

What the hell kind of counterpoint is that?

Now, we have long known the kind of scumbag that Armey is.

He rode in on during the Gingrich Revolution, and was one of Newt's top boys, and Source Watch credits Armey "as the main author of the Contract with America"

In the past, he lobbed the gem of calling Congressman Barney Frank, "Barney Fag", and Armey further burnished his Flying Monkey, NeoNitWit stature;

"In September 2008, while commenting about Barack Obama's name, Armey stated that it could "give people concerns that he could be or have been too much influenced by Muslims, which is a great threat now."

Oh yeah, he also supported the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians.

"I'm so glad that you could never be my wife because I surely wouldn't have to listen to that prattle from you every day."

Yeah, that really rings in as constructive discourse, one of those alternative ideas the Republicans claim to have, to get our economy back on track.

A barroom taunt.

Joan Walsh, on her own blog, recounted and responded to this ignorant outburst rather sympathetically.

Ironically, there's a quote attributed to Armey;

Politics will sooner or later make fools of everybody.

In Armey's case, he's had the handicap of, not sooner or later, but constantly, 24/7, all-the-time, being a incredible fool

Added to that, for this past week, Dick Armey can also boast of being The Garlic's "Ignorant Dolt of the Week".


Bonus Armey's An Asshole Riffs

The Raw Story: Former GOP leader accused of sexism against liberal editor in chief

Steve Benen: YOU DON'T KNOW DICK...

Glenn Greenwald: Dick Armey and post-partisan harmony

Digby: Dick

John Cole: Armey’s Axiom: Don’t Take Me Seriously

Taylor Marsh: Self-Important Gasbag Alert

Blue Gal: Dick Armey, Love Muffin

Mustang Bobby: Sphincter of the Day

Jane Hamsher: Hey, Have You Heard the One about Joan Walsh and Dick Armey?

Our Ignorant Dolts of the Week ... Judie Brown and the American Life League!

While The Wasilla Whiz Kid, in her latest installment of "I Wuz Robbed", drew attention, that certainly put her in the room for IDOTW.

And, with The Bush Grindhouse shutting down, we could also have considered, as part of rousing farewell, The Commander Guy, and his Shadow President, Dick Cheney (or Keyser Soze, as we pointed out the other day).

However, much like larger-then-life idiots, such as Bill O"Reilly, Rick Santorum, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, we can, pretty much grandfather them, to the level of Grand Ayatollah of Dolts.

It's just a given.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made a strong case for grabbing the IDOTW title, over his strategy on dealing with the seating of Senator Roland Burris.

We all know that Reid used to a boxer, so it was a surprising revelation that he also graduated from Clown College, as well.

But no, our Ignorant Dolts of the Week came charging down the pike, in full, rampaging, Flying Monkey fury, certainly to the pleasing smiles from the Queen of the Flying Monkeys, Michelle "Stalkin" Malkin, who had her own irrational tizzy having to do with donuts.

The American Life League, led by Judie Brown gets the IDOTW crown and septer this week, for their comparison of a Krispy Kreme marketing promotion to abortion.



Yeah, I know, pretty, way-the-fuck, out there, not assuming they had their optic nerves banged around by a spoon.

The American Life League, according to Wikipedia, is "One of the largest pro-life organizations in the United States, according to their website, American Life League, or ALL, opposes all forms of abortion, birth control, embryonic stem cell research, and euthanasia. Its current president is Judie Brown and its headquarters are in Stafford, Virginia.[1]

And their mission;

American Life League, which claims to have 300,000 members, aims to persuade Americans and Catholics about its views on abortion, birth control and euthanasia. ALL is involved with issues pertaining to the sanctity of life, with an emphasis on abortion. American Life League describes itself as "pro-life—without exception, without compromise, without apology." ALL's mission is to end all forms of abortion without any exceptions for the life and health of the woman, rape, incest, fetal abnormality, viability, or IVF. According to its president, "Abortion is never necessary to save a mother's life."[2]

SourceWatch also adds that "ALL also opposes health insurance coverage of contraceptive medications"

So, I hear you cry, what the hell does any of this have to do with Krispy Kreme donuts?

Enter, the election, and forthcoming inauguration of Barack Obama



Krispy Kreme Celebrates the Freedom of Choice on Inauguration Day ...Customers Can Enjoy a Free Treat at Participating Stores Nationwide

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. (NYSE: KKD) is honoring American's sense of pride and freedom of choice on Inauguration Day, by offering a free doughnut of choice to every customer on this historic day, Jan. 20. By doing so, participating Krispy Kreme stores nationwide are making an oath to tasty goodies -- just another reminder of how oh-so-sweet "free" can be.

Sound like a pretty good deal, if you like Krispy Kreme donuts.

Now, here is a American League Press Release, written by Katie Walker;

"The next time you stare down a conveyor belt of slow-moving, hot, sugary glazed donuts at your local Krispy Kreme you just might be supporting President-elect Barack Obama's radical support for abortion on demand – including his sweeping promise to sign the Freedom of Choice Act as soon as he steps in the Oval Office, Jan. 20.

[Snip]

Just an unfortunate choice of words? For the sake of our Wednesday morning doughnut runs, we hope so. The unfortunate reality of a post Roe v. Wade America is that "choice" is synonymous with abortion access and celebration of 'freedom of choice' is a tacit endorsement of abortion rights on demand.

Now be honest, when you read the line from Krispy Kreme, about picking up a free donut - of your own free choice - you immediately stopped thinking about the glazed treat, and went straight to being consumed about abortion, right?

Katie Walker, Judie Brown, and the rest of the Flying Monkeys that make up the American Life League, might have actually had their heads outside of their asses, if, say, Krispy Kreme was running abortion clinics in their back rooms, if they announced that a certain percentage of every donut sold went towards the local abortion clinic, or, if they handed out discount coupons for contraceptives in every dozen donut box.

As you could see, it wasn't, it isn't anything remotely in the same universe of any of those actions.

Now, I'm all in on the First Amendment, people can say anything they want ... No Problemo.

However, when you come out with shit like this ... Jesus, your Freedom of Speech Rights are well intact, but you really dilute your message and come off as First Class Whack Jobs!

Emily Douglas, over on The Reality Check points out;

Best comment on the Miami New Times blog: "if they were abortion donuts, i don't think i'd want one. i assume they'd be taking them out of the oven way too early."

Only thing missing in this picture, to make it complete, is to have William Donohue running around, decrying someone is making a Jesus Christ out of Krispy Kreme donuts.

I mean, it is really an enormous stretch, something that would even challenge Elastic Man, to take a marketing promotion, with a common phrase, and build a abortion protest around it.

Since he does have a sense of humor, and the Obama Team certainly wouldn't mind making some more money off the Inauguration, President Obama should, in the middle of his Inaugural Speech, stop, hold up a glazed Krispy Kreme and announce that he has "exercised his Freedom of Choice today"

So, The Garlic, sans any Krispy Kremes, excersises its' Freedom of Choice today, for Judie Brown, Katie Walker and the American Life League, crowning (and no, that isn't anything do with being pro-life, as in a birth, the baby "crowning") them all Ignorant Dolts of the Week.

Bonus Abortion Donuts Riffs

Steve Benen: MUST BE SOMETHING ABOUT DONUTS....

Wonkette: Free Abortion Donuts On Demand!

Amanda Marcotte: Sanctity of Donuts Day

DougJ: Why does Krispy Kreme hate America?

Our Ignorant Dolt of the Week ... RNC Hack Chip Saltsman!

Jesus, you really had to be, overtly, strenuously, going-out-of-your-way, knocking people over, to garner the IDOTW title - during Christmas Week!

I fully expected to come up with a goose egg for our "Ignorant Dolt of the Week" honoree this past week.

I mean, everyone is on the down low, chilling out for the holiday.

Even MSNBC had given most of their Big Dogs time off, and running their venerable Doc Block pap.

It was time to kick back, chow down on the leftovers, and wait to zombie-out in front of TNT's marathon showing of 'The Christmas Story'.

So, if you thought you could sneak a big Christmas-wrapped dollop of racism under the ol' tree, you screwed the pooch.

And that is exactly what RNC Hack Chip Saltsman did.

Who is Chip Saltsman, other than a full-grown adult that continues to call himself "Chip"?

Chip Saltsman, via Wikipedia, "has served as chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party, senior political advisor to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and manager of Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign".

You remember the former Majority Leader, don't you?

Frist, also being a doctor, had the uncanny ability to make medical diagnosis via videotape, and was a deft player in the stock market, miraculously, selling his stock in a company, coincidentally, just before the stock crashed.

Mike Huckabee campaign?

Please ...

No, our IDOTW Chip, is one of those Republican hacks, and he's mounting a campaign to become Chairman of the Sarah Palin Party, err, we mean the other dying one, the Republican's.

He even has a cheesy website up, touting himself as the next hero, the guy with the juice to pull the party out of the ashes.

Leadership has impacted every milestone in American history. Looking forward at the opportunities ahead and examining the lessons learned from the past, it is apparent to all that now is the time for new leadership within the Republican National Committee.

Now there's someone with some serious vision, such prescience.

You just got your asses kicked in the Presidential Election, and your party is hemorrhaging seats in Congress, but you cut through all that and make the call for "new leadership".

Duh!

So, as a warming gift, a little trinket to get his name in front of the potential other hacks who would want this particular hack to be running the show, "Chip" handed out a little gift bag.

From 'The Hill';

RNC candidate Chip Saltsman’s Christmas greeting to committee members includes a music CD with lyrics from a song called “Barack the Magic Negro,” first played on Rush Limbaugh’s popular radio show. Saltsman, a personal friend of conservative satirist Paul Shanklin, sent a 41-track CD along with a note to national committee members.

“I look forward to working together in the New Year,” Saltsman wrote. “Please enjoy the enclosed CD by my friend Paul Shanklin of the Rush Limbaugh Show.”

A closet Dittohead?

Maybe a Gold Level Dittohead, the friend-of-a-friend, who has actually worked with ...

Or is Chip just one of the Flying Monkeys that lives in that alternate universe and believes, as Barry Crimmins used to call him, "the cheeseburger that sweats", actually is a great mind, and spews out pearls of wisdom?

You know, because the former drug addict Limbaugh passes it off as harmless parody, than that is what it must be, not that a majority of the rest of the country would think it to be vile racist slander.

Because that's what Chip is claiming, as he actual defends the "gift".

Please, RNC members, elect this guy to lead your party!

Having Chip with a direct hand in the national campaign of Sarah Palin in 2012.... Priceless!

And, look, he already has another endorsement.

He can proudly post to his website - during Christmas Week, mind you - Chip Saltsman, The Garlic's Ignorant Dolt of the Week!

Go get'em Chip!


Bonus "Chip-in-Mouth" Riffs

Michael Shear: RNC Rivals Discuss Racial Song; Would-Be Chairman Who Sent CD With Parody Blames Media

Steve Benen: RNC CHAIRMAN 'APPALLED' BY 'MAGIC NEGRO' CD...

Robert Stein: GOP Goes South But Obama Doesn't

Bob Cesca: Rush the Magic A-hole

Our Ignorant Dolt of the Week .... President-Elect Barack Obama

Yeah, you read that right.

Fully, we didn't expect for The Big O to pop up on our IDOTW radar until after he took office, perhaps due to some gaffe, or other, in the First 100-days, or some major policy mess down the road.

And we held out over the weekend, waiting, hoping, some other twit would come along, proving themselves IDOTW-worthy.

Dick Cheney, going on his victory tour, blabbing away about torture and stomping on The Constitution like he had dipped into the Christmas punch a little to much is in a league all by itself.

And that's part of the whole, on-going Bush Legacy Project, which we anticipate tackling between now, and when The Bush Grindhouse folds its' tent next month.

No, the choice of super-evangelist Rick Warren, for the Inaugural Invocation, rings the IDOTW bell for Obama.

And, it was just two-weeks ago, Rick Warren was our IDOTW!

First-and-foremost, and going with the whole "change" thing, we thought this bright, Ivy Leaguer would have looked at this aspect of the Swearing-In Show, remembering our thing about "the separation of church and state" and announced that he was going to run another one of those "I'm From Kansas" videos, to warm up the crowd, or maybe a new one, a montage of the history of the country, building up to a cacophonous crescendo, right to the exact moment, cutting in live, of Obama and Chief Muckity-Muck Roberts hitting their marks, Obama lying his hand down on the bible, with the backdrop of red, white and blue fireworks.

But, no, we get the Saddleback carny entering, stage right ... Make that entering, stage extremely far right, continuing his hustle of the networks, that he's the Big Cheese Bible Thumper these days.

And the networks are buying it, as we've heard, more than a few times, of Warren being referred to as "America's Pastor" which, I guess, is kind of like when the Dallas Cowboys were "America's Team", expect we drop the busty, scantily-clad cheerleaders for the Purpose Driven hustler.

If the Right Wing Jesus Freaks are in the middle of some kind of Hatfield-McCoy war, on who God is whispering to, let'em fight it out, but maybe, they can do in that infamous Saddleback Cone of Silence.

With Obama giving Warren center-stage, on his own, mega-big day, that seems like a pretty big chip to be tossing into the pot.

As, with the inclusion of Warren on Jan. 20th, he's kicking the LGBT supporters away from the table.

After all, comparing homosexuality to incest and child molestation, like, that wouldn't be offensive to anyone.

Yeah, Yeah ... This is the "reaching across the aisle" thing ... "Bipartisanship" ... Of sitting down with our enemies and talking, working through to find common ground ... Blah, Blah, Blah

It's really great that our next president likes to mix it up, that he's not afraid to step in shit, and then, clean his own shoes ...

But, Rick Warren?

America's Pastor? ...

Please, Shoot Me!

Last week, on Countdown', Keith Olbermann talked with Rob Boston, of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and Boston summed it up with a killer line;

Well, Warren, to me, is—he has a great P.R. machine. And he has people thinking he‘s a moderate, but he‘s really just Jerry Falwell in a Hawaiian shirt. And we don‘t need that again. You know, with the sort of passing of the guard of some of the old religious right leader, some of them have died, others of whom are sort of in semi-retirement, a lot of us are hoping for a more moderate religious voice to come to bear. And we‘re not getting that.

Jerry Falwell in a Hawaiian shirt ...

Well, whether or not President-Elect Barack Obama wears Hawaiian shirts, he's wearing The Garlic's "Ignorant Dolt of the Week" crown.

And both these guys are big-time, PR-savvy ...

Can't we see a "schedule conflict" or, some other excuse pop up, knocking Warren out-of-the box?

C'mon Guys! ... Get a glove! ... Get in the game, here!


Bonus Obama-Warren IDOTW Riffs

YouTube - Warren: The Bible says that God puts government on earth to punish evildoers

YouTube - Rick Warren Endorses Prop 8

YouTube - RIck Warren on gays, their immaturity and desire for multiple partners

Brilliant at Breakfast: Sorry, President-Elect Obama, you blew it big time with this one

Attytood: R-E-S-P-E-C-T...find out what it means, Barack

Joe Sudbay (DC): Rick Warren is a major fail and a total affront

Blue Texan: In a Surprising Development, Barney Frank Objects to Incest Accusations

Joan Walsh: Disappointed by Rick Warren

Mike Madden: How the hell did Rick Warren get inauguration tickets? Barack Obama knows liberals are upset he picked the conservative evangelical preacher to pray at the inauguration. And he doesn't care


Late Breaking

Think Progress: Warren’s church removes anti-gay statements from website

John Aravosis (DC): Rick Warren pulls anti-gay language from his Web site

TowleRoad: As Obama Bakes, Rick Warren Controversy Simmers

Pam Spaulding: Lowery, Rhue speak out on Warren debacle; Saddleback homophobe to keynote at King Memorial Service