It Takes One To Know One

As The Nation's Chris Hayes so perfectly put it: "Just when you think the news cycle can't get any stupider, Mark Halperin publishes a book."

This quote comes from Glenn Greenwald, talking about Mark Halperin and John Heilemann's new book, Game Change, back in 2010.


This was post-campaign, where Halperin openly inserted himself into the Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain Campaign, giving McCain advise on how to beat Obama, of which the advice was openly racist.


Such so, that we wrote, in 'Some More Donuts, There, Mr. Halperin?' here on The Garlic, that;

About the only thing missing for Time Magazine's Mark Halperin, during his appearance yesterday on 'This Week with George Stephanopoulos', was having "McCain 08" tattooed on his forehead, and the Dead Campaign Express bus parked on set, behind him.

 


So, opening up the World Wide Web today, we were not, necessarily, surprised to see that Halperin, appearing on "The Morning Joke"program, called President Obama "a dick", which, naturally, has kicked up a dust storm of backlash, and hand-wringing.


Let's turn to Crooks and Liars for the replay;

Scarborough set Halperin up by asking him about yesterday's press conference where President Barack Obama "scolded" Republicans for not raising the debt ceiling.


"Are we on the seven-second delay?" Halperin asked.


"Yeah, sure," Scarborough said. "Come on. Take a chance."


"I thought he was kind of a dick yesterday," Halperin announced with smile.

Ha ... Ha ... Ha ...


Isn't that Mark Halperin a witty felllow ...


No, not really.


Merely staying true-to-form.


Steve Benen, over on 'The Washington Monthly' nails it;

If you can watch the video, note how Halperin, ostensibly one of the nation’s most influential pundits, was smiling, with a smug satisfaction. It wasn’t a word he just blurted out in the heat of a larger discussion — Halperin thought about it, asked about whether the broadcast was on a seven-second delay, and then took his shot.


[snip]


There are a couple of angles to keep in mind here. The first is that Halperin’s credibility as an objective observer of political events has long been dubious, at best, but this morning’s little stunt should remove all doubt. In candor, I don’t much care that Halperin sides with the right over the left, and takes cheap shots at Democrats. I care that Halperin is presented to the public as a neutral, even-handed expert, when that’s plainly not the case.


To this extent, the “dick” comment only helps bring an end to a thin pretense.


The other point that’s worth remembering is the larger dynamic. Forget Halperin’s choice of words, and instead consider the argument he and his “Morning Joe” colleagues were pressing. They were annoyed, apparently, because President Obama wasn’t docile and conciliatory during his press conference. He showed some backbone, and this seems to have troubled the political establishment to no end.


If the president stays cool, he’s an emotionless Mr. Spock. If the president shows some fire in the belly, he’s “a dick.”

Maybe, Halperin was secretly auditioning for a job with Faux News.


Halperin was long been a dick, as Benen put it Halperin’s credibility as an objective observer of political events has long been dubious, and he as long been a sycophant for the PartyofNoicans.


From our "Assforwards, For Mark Halperin";

It's a wonder that Time Magazine's Mark Halperin doesn't have, permanently, the imprint of ass on his face, for his obsequious kissing (and, often, at times, firmly planted up) the PartyofNoican's behinds.

Check his cheeks, and puckered lips, today, there should be a fresh imprint.


 


Bonus Riffs


Alex Pareene:  Mark Halperin comes up with great excuse to fire Mark Halperin


Steve M:  I THINK MARK HALPERIN IS FINALLY GOING TO GET WINGNUTTIA TO GIVE HIM A TUMBLE


DougJ in Damascus:  The mask slips


Scarecrow:  Breaking! Supreme Court Rules 9-0 It’s Okay to Call Mark Halperin an Adolescent “Dick”

Dances With Oil

Hey, why not?

BP (Better Profits) is so fucked, I mean they don't know whether to piss, or wind their watches, and the Obama people keep patting them on the back, rather than putting them in handcuffs and getting them as far away from the crime scene as possible.



Especially so, being that Better Profits has been low-balling the amount of oil flooding into the Gulf, so they can mitigate, and lower losses in future court cases.

So, whether this works, or not, it isn't anything worse than what these Oil Criminals have been doing;

Kevin Costner may hold key to oil spill cleanup

So reads the LA Times headline, adding "Costner has invested 15 years and about $24 million in a novel way of sifting oil spills that he began working on while making his own maritime film, "Waterworld," released in 1995."

Waterworld?



Scott Weinberg in his post "Kevin Costner Defends Waterworld" noted;

"But there seems to be a small fistful of movies that are "generally" accepted as big-time garbage -- and as this amusing Sydney Herald story points out, Kevin Costner's Waterworld is pretty much one of 'em."

[snip]

Kev, stop. You've got a better chance at making a Sizzle Beach U.S.A. sequel than you would at convincing people that Waterworld doesn't stink to high heaven. Sure, there are varying degress of movie suckitude, and Waterworld may have earned a little extra abuse because of its ridiculous production problems ... but the thing's a turkey, man.

Back to the LA Times;

Costner has invested 15 years and about $24 million in a novel way of sifting oil spills that he began working on while making his own maritime film, "Waterworld," released in 1995.

Two decades later, BP and the U.S. Coast Guard plan to test six of his massive, stainless steel centrifugal oil separators next week. Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser welcomed the effort, even as he and Louisiana officials blasted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for delays in approving an emergency plan to build sand "islands" to protect the bayous of his parish.

[snip]

"The machines are essentially like big vacuum cleaners, which sit on barges and suck up oily water and spin it around at high speed," Houghtaling said. "On one side, it spits out pure oil, which can be recovered. The other side spits out 99% pure water."

If all goes according to plan, he said, "We could have as many as 26 machines dispatched throughout the gulf. Our largest machine is 112 inches high, weighs 2 ½ tons and cleans 210,000 gallons a day of oily water. We are hoping to have 10 machines that size out there — meaning we could potentially clean 2 million gallons of oil water a day."

Oh My!

Giant water Hoovers - Brilliant!

The Right Wing Freak Show Flying Monkeys are going to be flinging their feces around over this one.

Big, bad commie-filled Hollywood riding to rescue?

Better, they will likely adopt our Ran Kan Kan man, Rand Paul's take, channeling Donald Rumsfeld with his "Sometimes Accidents Happen."

But wait, there's more!

This isn't the first time Hollywood has rode, not just cinematically, to the rescue;

Meanwhile, "Avatar" director James Cameron has said that he would make his underwater vessels available, and actor-director Robert Redford appeared in a commercial, sponsored by the Natural Resources Defense Council, that uses the spill as a clarion call to move forward on clean energy.

It is not the first time Hollywood has come to the rescue with cutting-edge technology. Paul Winchell, a versatile ventriloquist and the voice of Tigger in " Winnie the Pooh," was also an inventor who patented an early artificial heart in the 1960s. In 1940, glamorous movie star Hedy Lamarr helped design an un-jammable communications system for use against Nazi Germany.

So, perhaps there's a good vibe there for Costner, something other than 'Waterworld', and, maybe, maybe he can squeeze out a sequel, along the lines of "Sea of Dreams";

If you spill it, he will come ...

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."

Top Ten Cloves: If The Teabaggers Were Present At Other Historic Moments

News Item: Health care protesters say the Tea Party has only just begun

10. Likely would have protested, and possibly interfered, with Titanic crew lowering the lifeboats

9. As first immigrants arrive at Ellis Island, Teabaggers talking about "sending them home with a bullet in their head"

8. Would have heckled and laughed at the Lindberghs, for losing their child

7. Easily dismiss the Cocoanut Grove Fire as a "bunch of liberals" and probably "frustrated taxpayers"

6. Teabaggers would call for hanging, since he had the wrong crowd with him, President Jimmy Carter, for giving away Panama Canal

5. Port Chicago Disaster would have them going apeshit, charging the Democrats with being soft of security

4. Blame for the "Storm of the Century" would have been heaped onto President Bill Clinton

3. Would have found a way to blame deaths in 1980 Heatwave, and 1995 Chicago Heatwave on ACORN

2. If standing on Dallas's grassy knoll, in 1963, would have erupted with cheers, and celebration

1. Seeing President Roosevelt in wheelchair, they would have taunted him, throwing money at him


Bonus Teabagger Riffs

Pareene: Zombie Founders Weep As Obama Signs Socialist Health Care Grandma-Death Bill

Bob Herbert: An Absence of Class

mcjoan: Republicans Now the Party of Un-governing

Think Progress: Tea Party sign threatens gun violence if health care passes

BruinKid: Rep. Louise Slaughter's (D-NY) CHILDREN get death threat

Lance Mannion: The Constitution as Holy Writ

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...

I Guess They Want To Beat Out Oklahoma

Perhaps, Texas Governor Rick Perry, when he threatened secession last year, meant, only, intellectually.



Texas Textbook MASSACRE: 'Ultraconservatives' Approve Radical Changes To State Education Curriculum

The Board removed Thomas Jefferson from the Texas curriculum's world history standards on Enlightenment thinking, “replacing him with religious right icon John Calvin.”

[snip]

We’re just picking ourselves up off the floor. The board’s far-right faction has spent months now proclaiming the importance of emphasizing America’s exceptionalism in social studies classrooms. But today they voted to remove one of the greatest of America’s Founders, Thomas Jefferson, from a standard about the influence of great political philosophers on political revolutions from 1750 to today.

Matt Duss, over on Think Progress, shows how this dovetails with the NeoNitWit philosophy, and notes, with Texas being the second largest market for school textbooks , "It seems like a really bad idea to let the market determine the history we teach our children."



But wait, there's more!

Looks like they'll be buying white paint, by the tanker-load;

Efforts by Hispanic board members to include more Latino figures as role models for the state’s large Hispanic population were consistently defeated, prompting one member, Mary Helen Berlanga, to storm out of a meeting late Thursday night, saying, “They can just pretend this is a white America and Hispanics don’t exist.”

“They are going overboard, they are not experts, they are not historians,” she said. “They are rewriting history, not only of Texas but of the United States and the world.”

And, let's not leave the Good Lord out of this;

12:28 – Board member Mavis Knight offers the following amendment: “examine the reasons the Founding Fathers protected religious freedom in America by barring government from promoting or disfavoring any particular religion over all others.” Knight points out that students should understand that the Founders believed religious freedom was so important that they insisted on separation of church and state.

12:32 – Board member Cynthia Dunbar argues that the Founders didn’t intend for separation of church and state in America. And she’s off on a long lecture about why the Founders intended to promote religion. She calls this amendment “not historically accurate.”

12:35 – Knight’s amendment fails on a straight party-line vote, 5-10. Republicans vote no, Democrats vote yes.

12:38 – Let the word go out here: The Texas State Board of Education today refused to require that students learn that the Constitution prevents the U.S. government from promoting one religion over all others. They voted to lie to students by omission.

Holy Phony Longhorns, Batman!

Last year, when we wrote about Oklahoma, thanks to 75% of their high school students not being able to name the first U.S. President, was bucking to be the location for the Idiocracy sequel, we now see that Texas was planning to give them a run for it.

Tough call, could be a toss up, or maybe, Texas gets saved for the Prequel, on how the state actually sanctioned teaching their children to be dumber than doorknobs.

Just another chapter for the Right Wing Freak show, in their Sisyphus role of pushing that stone back up the hill, trying to make up their own facts.

Breaking News: Costa Rican Legislature Convenes Emergency Session To Ban Limbaugh

Country United In Not Wanting Right Wing Hatemonger; OAS Sends Out Advisory Calling for Similar Action

Even though it may not occur for five-years, Costa Rica is not taking any chances, its' legislature convening in an emergency session today, voting unanimously to ban controversial radio clown Rush Limbaugh from entering the country, or, otherwise establishing "any type of domestic residency," as he has stated he may do.



President Óscar Arias quickly signaled his endorsement of the vote, citing "the protection of our citizens from this drug-addict hatemonger is our utmost concern."

The country's Judiciary branch, the Supreme Court, in an unusual, and non-scheduled session, also voted unanimously, that the bill passed by the legislature is valid, and completely legal and, in strongly worded language, stated it would "not entertain any challenges" to the ruling.

Limbaugh, on his radio program yesterday, continuing to bash the pending healthcare reform package in Congress, vowed, if the bill passes, he will leave the country.

Think Progress has the details;

CALLER: If the health care bill passes, where would you go for health care yourself? And the second part of that is, what would happen to the doctors, do they have to participate in the federal program, or could they opt out of it? [...]

LIMBAUGH: My guess in even in Canada and even in the UK, doctors have opted out. And once they’ve opted, they can’t see anybody Medicare, Medicaid, or what will become the exchanges. They have to have a clientele of private patients that will pay them a retainer and it’ll be a very small practice. I don’t know if that’s been outlawed in the Senate bill. I don’t know. I’ll just tell you this, if this passes and it’s five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented — I am leaving the country. I’ll go to Costa Rica/

In a developing related matter, the Organization of American States (OAS) issued an rare advisory to its' member nations, urging them to adopt, and pass, similar legislation as Costa Rica.

In the advisory, Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza stated it should be "our goal to keep this racist, cheeseburger-that-sweats, wind bag out of our hemisphere."

In a flash survey conducted by The Garlic, over 89% of Limbaugh's Dittoheads contacted believed that "Costa Rica" was a "new, discount department store for Illegal Aliens" and over 65% wanted to know of the closest one in their area.


Bonus Limbaugh Riffs

NFL Singing Rush's Tune?

Jesus, It Sounded Like A Violation of the Rico Act!

Top Ten Cloves: Things Overhead While The Nobel Peace Prize Committee Reviewed Rush Limbaugh's Nomination

Paging Michael Douglas

I feel, sort of, cheated.

No Whammy Burgers.

We refer to, of course, yesterday's action of one, seriously deranged, likely-mentally-ill Joseph Andrew Stack, flying his airplane into the Austin, Texas building, that housed the local area Internal Revenue Services offices.

Subsequently, as Cable News went into DefCon 5, wall-to-wall coverage, a ranting manifesto was unearthed, with Stack writing that he was wronged, by just about everyone, except, possibly, SpongeBob SquarePants.

Yeah! ... Power to the people! ... Down with The Man!

Trouble is, for Stack, a serious lack of imagination.

We've seen this movie before, specifically, back in 1993, with 'Falling Down', starring Michael Douglas.

Douglas's character was an engineer, just like Stack, felt like he was getting screwed, just like Stack, and then snaps, just like Stack, except, this was in the day before flying airplanes into buildings was in vogue, so Douglas's character goes on a romping, engaging rampage through the city (Los Angeles), including, visiting, and shooting up, the above-referenced Whammy Burgers.



What did Stack give us?

A charred IRS office (if, indeed, he did hit their office, since other businesses also occupied the building), in the center of Nowheresville, Austin, Texas.



Not sure Douglas is gonna want to sign up for this sequel.

So, today, we had the usual follow-up, with the Flying Monkeys of the Right Wing Freak Show, throwing feces at anybody dare say he was one of them, or a Teabagger (with his flaming manifesto, this guy could have had a "E" Ticket to any one of about a dozen tinfoil hat entities), while others, including the Obama Administration downplayed the "terrorism" angle, leading David Neiwert, over on Crooks and Liars, to ask "Huh? Since when is attempting to blow up a federal building NOT an act of domestic terrorism?"

Now, this might have boiled over, and ruptured, with the heat of Three Mile Island, except, Mister-Flying-Into-Buildings-Manifesto, again, didn't plan this out all the way.

Tiger Woods held court this morning, causing Cable News to go to DefCon 6, and bring in every talking head following it, to parse every single word Mister Can't-Keep-His-Golf-Club-In-His-Bag had to say (and, for our money, Woods came off like the President of the National Honor Society, apologizing for getting caught drinking at the Home Coming Dance).

Tough going in the Lone Wolf Revolution biz.

Twisted

The one, absolute certainty of this evening, regarding the Wasilla Whiz Kid's reversed-Sally-Field-I Love-You-Tea-Party-Nation-I-Really-Love-You $100G speech, is that Peggy Noonan must have had a half-dozen, or so, orgasms, for the number of drippingly pandering times Mommy Moose gave (and encouraged) virtual blow jobs to Ronald Reagan.



The way the Teabaggers were lapping her up like happy soup, Ms. Ya'Bet'cha's could have just said the name "Ronald Reagan" for 90-minutes or so, and they still would have carried her off on their shoulders.

The way she opened the gig, the earth was rumbling at Forest Lawn, as Frank Capra had to stand up, from his grave, and applaud the way the former PartyofNoican clothes horse covered just about all there is in Americana, just short of baking an apple pie on stage, as she stuttered out how proud she was to "be an American", blew kisses to the soldiers, slammed CSPAN, let everyone know she wants to knit American Flag underwear for Scott Brown, and, of course, groped, and French kissed, for the first of many times, the old Gipper.

From there, it was pedal-to-the-metal boilerplate bashing, of Obama, Pelosi, Reid, the Democrats, liberals, and even poor Joe Biden.

And, surely, the MSM will grab onto her "Hopey-Changey" zinger.

It all their fault, all our debt, unemployment, that they are running a panty-boy National Security and Foreign policy, and all we have to do, to get our "economy soaring again", is cut spending and cut taxes.



In fact, it would be much later, when asked to describe, if, cough, cough, she was "President Palin", what her National Security and Foreign Policy would be, flags popped out of sleeves, and I swear, the Liberty University Marching Band came out on stage, playing "Stars and Stripes Forever" and she machine-gunned out;

We win, they lose

Yabetcha!

Give her credit, for knowing her rabid audience, as her jabs, slurs, misinformation and lies were often punctuated with a proverbial rim shot, and, she gave a nod to any geezer Teabaggers, with raising "high, high, high" the godfather of what used to be the Conservative Movement, Barry Goldwater (if he were in the mix today, the teabaggers would chase him down the street and beat him to death with their misspelled signs).

But the big moment, the money shot, came at the end, in a sandbagged Question and Answer period, with the money-grubbing Convention producer, Judson Phillips, who winked-and-nodded to the crowd, that the questions came from "Tea Party Nation".

If the Teabaggers didn't have flaming-arrows-in-the-eye blind loyalty, and love, of Palin, the room would have deflated, perhaps been torn apart and burned down, when, before the questions began, Mommy Moose advocated, after nearly 90-minutes of kissing the grass-roots ground they walk on, that the PartyofNoicans "embrace" the Teabaggers into their white-only tiny tent.

Come to think of it, not sure if that was an olive branch, or a fatwa, that if they don't, they will be hunted down, skinned alive and used for kindling wood, when the Teabaggers embark on that revolution Palin, earlier said, they were ready for.



Anyway, back to the money shot.

Phillips asked that, with the pending Conservative takeover of the House and Senate, in the Fall Midterms (he presented this, less as a hypothetical, and more as a given), what should be the three top points of their agenda?

Oh no, a wild card question, requiring the former abdicating half-term Governor to, yikes, think.

Onward Comrades, as Palin jumped right in, saying, first, we have to go back to our roots, and be a "God-fearing nation".

Then, it was okay not to have all the answers, you know, have ideas, vision, facts, she was giving her future government a pass on, you know, actually doing anything.

That's because she saved her best, for last.

The definitive policy of Sarah Palin;

Divine Intervention

Everybody just get down on your knees, start praying, start beseeching the Good Lord, to take away the scary monster in the closet, and make us okay again, you know, give us back OUR country.

Divine Intervention.

Oh, good grief ...

Take it away, Annie Ross

Twisted - Annie Ross

Tea Time, Avec Beignets

Oh boy, the Flying Monkeys of the Teabagger Uprising sure aren't gonna like this.

"This" being a tremendous Op-Ed today in that dreaded Obama-lovin', liberal media fortress, The New York Times, bringing attention to their rabble-rousing, and the parallels to the French revolt, in the 1950's.



Robert Zaretsky's "The Tea Party Last Time", will, (or should) have a lot of heads being scratched down in Nashville this weekend.

MORE than 100,000 angry citizens united in the nation’s capital to take their country back: back from the tax collector and the political and financial elites, back from bureaucrats and backroom wheelers and dealers and, more elusively and alarmingly, back from those who, well, were not like them.

These weren’t the incensed Americans who helped elect Scott Brown in the Massachusetts Senate race and who rallied around conservative candidates in the Illinois primary on Tuesday; this scene didn’t take place at the Tea Party demonstration in Washington last year. These protesters were gathered in France a half-century ago: Last week was the 55th anniversary of the mass demonstration in Paris of the Poujadist movement, a phenomenon that bears a close resemblance to our own Tea Party. For a brief moment, the movement threatened the very foundations of the French Republic. A comparison between France then and America now may be instructive.

[snip]

During the subsequent national elections, the Poujadists bulldozed their way into town meetings, shouting down opposing candidates and threatening violence: a grim rehearsal for Tea Party tactics during last year’s health care debates. Their tactics, if not their platform — they did not, in fact, have one — worked. Poujade’s party won more than 10 percent of the votes, taking more than 50 seats in the National Assembly.

The election, though, proved to be Poujade’s swan song. He had demanded the nation’s ear, but once he and his fellow deputies had it, they had nothing substantive to say. Slogans and placards were poor preparation for governance, and the group’s rank and file soon either retreated from the political arena or joined the traditional right.

[snip]

Historical parallelism is the duct tape of my profession: we apply it to the most disparate things. Sooner or later the tape frays, revealing unique fissures that require individual attention. Perhaps this is the case with the Poujadists and the Tea Partiers. Saint-Céré is far from Wasilla, Alaska; questioning Mendès-France’s origins is not quite the same as demanding President Obama’s birth certificate; the mendacity in the claim of France’s imminent coca-colonization is of a different order from that concerning the misinformation about death panels in the United States. In both instances, however, the despair and disconnect with politics seem similarly great and real, as does the common tendency to grasp for simple solutions to complex problems.

Tea Party activists might find it infuriating ever to be compared to the nation they consider the anti-America. But French observers of our country may be forgiven if they feel a certain déjà vu when they see a movement that brings nothing to the ballot box except anger.

Sacre bleu!

PrairieWeather says "In the end, the Tea Party fizzles";

Therein lies the problem for the Tea Party. As long as they reside in a fantasy land of alien, illicit presidents, elitists, and vague socialist threats, they will continue to alienate the majority of voters.

And, Will Bunch, over on Attytood, with his "Vivent longtemps la partie de thé!;

Today in America, we're seeing this already play out to some degree even before the fall 2010 elections, thanks in part to the fulcrum shift between the 60 and now (technically, as of Feb. 11) 59 Democratic votes in the Senate. People wondered if and how Obama would "pivot" in the State of the Union and related events, and I think the pivot was trying to place more responsibility on the GOP to...do something, anything. The "Party of No" may be offering a tiny ray of hope to the Democrats by giving them a chance now to run in November against the "do-nothing 41." (Although voters can and should also ask the Dems why they did absolutely nothing during those months that they had a supermajority.)

The other interesting parallel: Who is the Tea Party/GOP deGaulle?...no doubt this mass movement would rather rally behind an authoritative leader than all the hard work of holding rallies, carrying signs, etc. But who is that person? Sarah Palin? I think she'd only run for the job if they raised the presidential salary to at least $5 mil, right?

So, what's a saggin', non-swaggin' Teabagger to do?

They would rather be boiled in oil, with Freedom Fries, than line themselves up with beret-wearing, stinky cheese-eaters.

I don't know why I'm doing this, but I think we can bail them out.

And, they can stay in-character, all Apple Pie, jingoistic, Americana.

They need to go out, rent, and have a group viewing of 'Meet John Doe', one of the lesser shown Capra classics.

Wikipedia describes it as "The film, about a "grassroots" political campaign, created unwittingly by a newspaper columnist and pursued by a wealthy businessman."

Apple doesn't fall far from the Teabag Tree, does it?

Substitute "newspaper columnist" with a feces-throwing army of Right Wing Freak Show, and NeoNitWit Flying Monkeys, and replace "wealthy businessman" with "wealthy businessmen", the likes of Dick Armey, and all the other front-companies for the PartyofNoicans, as well as Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes, and the pool of smegma over on Faux News.

It's like a living, breathing remake of the movie, right before our eyes.

Well ... Almost ...

They'll need someone, like this, to step up, and pull the curtain back;

Meet John Doe: speech scene

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

A Cement Pond of Trouble

There have been growing reports, the past few days, on the upcoming Teabagger Convention, a seething unrest that it is turning into a shit train.

A Tea Party convention billed as the coming together of the grass-roots groups that began sprouting up around the country a year ago is unraveling as sponsors and participants pull out to protest its expense and express concerns about “profiteering.”

[snip]

The convention, to be held in Nashville in early February, made a splash by attracting big-name politicians. (Former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska is scheduled to deliver the keynote speech.) But some groups have criticized the cost — $549 per ticket and a $9.95 fee, plus hotel and airfare — as out of reach for the average tea partier. And they have balked at Ms. Palin’s speaking fee, which news reports have put at $100,000, a figure that organizers will not confirm or deny.

Interesting ...

After all, so far, all these feces-throwing, flying monkey Teabaggers have had to do, is show up at public spaces, with their own, hand-made, racist, slurring, defaming signs, at rallys supported by Faux News, and other PartyofNoican shadowy operations, and, on-cue, start foaming at the mouth, and make noise.



Boy, these Teabaggers sure don't get around.

Have they never attended a convention before? For work, as members of a trade association, and such?

As a former producer of trade shows, which included managing shows for associations, the fee structure for the Teabagger bash were not so far out-of-line.

And this faux outrage that the producer of the event is going to make a profit?

That's the entire reason for producing a show, whether you are a "For-Profit" entity, or a "Non-Profit" entity!

The producers' hard costs would include the renting of the exhibit space, breakout rooms, large hall/auditorium for keynotes, and dinner, which go in the range of anywhere from .50-cents, to $2, or $3/per square foot (typically, the more space your rent, the lower the cost).

Then there's the decorating company, to manage the logistics of said space, exhibit space booths, setting up, and cleaning, the breakout rooms, servicing the exhibitors, drayage, etc (this could also be done by the hotel, as a package deal). Also, depending what city (and/or venue) you are in, you may be mandated to use Union labor for this work, which adds a bit to bill.

And the hotel, as to per/night cost for attendees, the producer has to book/guarantee, X-number of rooms, to get the lowest rate. The size of the Room Block will determine the fee (and, depending what city you are in, there could be additional fees, surcharges, that cities like to levy, to raise revenue).

The dinner doesn't just magically appear, either.

The producer, based on what they are serving, can, pretty much, plan on a price range of $5-to-$10, per plate, which may, or may not, include beverages, coffee, etc (some halls, that is a separate deal). And, if you are serving alcohol, more fees, and, possibly, a insurance charge with it.



And, it varies, from show-to-show, as to the presenters, speakers, getting paid.

Frequently, it is done via an honorarium, or "corporate gift", but, as we all know, "celebrities" charge.

The bigger the "celebrity", the bigger the fee (we produced a show, where, for just a 15-minute video welcome from Tom Peters, cost us in the neighborhood of $75K).

So the Teabaggers are sagging that Mommy Moose is milking the event for a, reportedly, $100,000-plus.

Surprised?

Why do they think The Wasilla Whiz Kid, abruptly, abdicated her office, to go out and do charity work?

Pretty weak tea, to find out your hero is not much more than a greed-head.

As to getting to the event, some producers may, or may not, work out a deal with a specific airline, to offer a discount, usually done on an "Early-Bird", time-limited basis.

The way to lower the cost for the attendees, is via Sponsorships, everything from Presenting Sponsors, your various levels of "Gold, Silver, Bronze" deals, signage, Registration area, attendee badges, Show Bag (and charging exhibitors to have their items placed in bag), room key/other special deliveries to room, Breakout Room sponsorship, Program Guide advertising, early mailings to attendees, the above-referenced dinner, and, just about anything and everything you can think of, or, that has a flat surface.

Some of these sponsorships cover your hard costs, others are pure profit-makers.

So, while the feces-throwing flying monkey Teabaggers are feeling ripped off, it goes more to their unenlightened view of the real world, which, considering their ideology, doesn't have you falling down in disbelief.

The producer of the event has just done a shitty job in selling it, not knowing his audience.

He's got Beverly Hills dollars in his eyes, while his attendee base is, intellectually, a step, or two, below the Clampetts.

No Claude Raines moment here, of the PartyofNoicans exploiting a situation.