Sure Enough, Obama Blamed For Ash Cloud

We didn't do a good job with our post last evening, 'Paging Bobby Jindal', about the erupting volcano in Iceland.



We should have known better, should have dug around, it was there ... It was there.

We wrote last evening;

I don't believe it has happened yet, but if this does drag on, you can plan that some Right Wing Freak Show Flying Monkey, Teabagger, or Faux News will find a way to blame this on Obama, the Democrats, mock Climate Change or, incredulously, tie it in to how the government is taking of heatlhcare (we can, perhaps, count on our seminal Ignorant Dolt, Michele Bachmann)

We were off, but not by that much, as this morning brings the news, thanks to Think Progress;

Limbaugh: Volcanic eruption in Iceland is God’s reaction to health care’s passage

Yesterday, hate radio host Rush Limbaugh talked about the volcanic eruption that’s affecting air travel over much of Europe, saying it was “God speaking” in response to the passage of health care:

You know, a couple of days after the health care bill had been signed into law Obama ran around all over the country saying, “Hey, you know, I’m looking around. The earth hadn’t opened up. There’s no Armageddon out there. The birds are still chirping.” I think the earth has opened up. God may have replied. This volcano in Iceland has grounded more airplanes — airspace has more affected — than even after 9/11 because of this plume, because of this ash cloud over Northern and Western Europe. At the Paris airport they’re telling people to head to the train station to catch trains out of France, and when people get to the train station they’re telling people, “There aren’t any seats until at least April 22nd,” basically a week from now. It’s got everybody in a shutdown. Earth has opened up. I don’t know whether it’s a rebirth or Armageddon. Hopefully it’s a rebirth, God speaking.

Is this more of a watershed moment, of Limbaugh muscling in, taking over Pat Robertson's patch of lunacy?

I don't quite follow El Jeffe de Dittoheads' logic.

I mean, for the sake of argument, why Iceland, what did they have to do with anything about our healthcare bill?

Especially, for the Flying Monkeys, for it to be, officially, Obama's fault, wouldn't it have to be an American volcano that erupted?

Wouldn't we have to see some red, white, and blue lava oozing out of it, the ash cloud canceling a Teabagger rally, or something?

Ann Althouse, defending the drug-addicted media clown, tries to slap Think Progress upside-the-head, for being "humorless", pointing that they didn't call out Obama:

Somehow Think Progress has no trouble seeing that Obama had to be joking when he said "There’s no Armageddon out there" but when Rush Limbaugh pointed to the Icelandic volcano that could only be crackpot religion.

This is what the President said, after signing the healthcare bill, which came after the War-Of-The-Worlds with the PartyofNoicans, the Teabaggers, and the Flying Monkeys of the Right Wing Freak Show, who called it a government takeover, death panels, and, of course, Armageddon;

“I’m not exaggerating. Leaders of the Republican Party called the passage of this bill Armageddon. Armageddon! End of freedom as we know it,” he told a rally in Iowa City.

“So after I signed the bill, I looked around to see if there were any asteroids falling, some cracks opening up in the earth? Turned out it was a nice day. Birds were chirping. Folks were strolling down the Mall,” he said.

This is what the Flying Monkeys do.

They ignore facts.

Nice try there Ann, but the President didn't pull his riff out of thin air - you left out the context.

And, I think we covered the "crack-pot religion" thing up above.

The Cheeseburger That Sweats (h/t Barry Crimmins) said it, which means Matt Sludge will, likely, scream it on his headlines, the Right Wing Freak Show will start picking it up (as evidenced with Althouse), Faux News will be chirping about it, and, before you know it, some mainstreamer, like a David Gregory, or Jake Tapper (or Mike Allen - He'll print anything!), will insert it into a comment, ask an administration official to confirm or deny it, and off we go ...

The week's meme ...


Bonus Rushbo Riffs

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

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

NFL Singing Rush's Tune?

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

I, For One, Hope He Lives A Long, Long Life

There was much hub-bub on the World Wide Web last evening, with the news that the "Cheeseburger That Sweats" (h/t Barry Crimmins), aka Rush Limbaugh was rushed to the hospital, ironically, in Hawaii, after suffering chest pains.



No doubt, there are people out there, mumbling like Solazzo, from 'The Godfather' this morning with the news that Limbaugh is resting comfortably.

Some of the Flying Monkeys, of the Right Wing Freak Show, were, already, last night, sending out shots-across-the-bow, dare anyone start making death jokes about one of our grandfathered Ignorant Dolts.

I, for one, hope he lives a long, long, life;

• Long enough to see the despicable garbage schtick he promulgates, promotes (proudly, no less), and, otherwise revels in, becomes totally repudiated, and becomes a neon pariah for the rest of his life.
  
  
• That he lives long, so that he can see the country bounce back, become great again, under Democrat Leadership.
  
  
• That he lives long enough to see a woman, perhaps a black, gay woman, elected President.
  
  
• So that he can see the people he cheerleaded - The Commander Guy, The Shawdow President, and all the dwarfs, finks, phonies and frauds of The Bush Grindhouse - take their Perp Walk, if not in this country, than in the World Court, to pay for their War Crimes.
  
  
• So that he can see millions of Americans become healthy, with a broad, robust Healtcare Plan, brought about by the Democrats
  
  
• So that, hopefully, a cured Michael J. Fox, can spit in his face

Will Bunch, on Attytood, shares this;

So, get well, Rush Limbaugh. And get well quickly, because I want to make fun of you for vacationing in that "exotic" Barack Obama-producing state of Hawaii.

So does James Akers Jr., posting on Twitter, perhaps the best of well-wishes;

I hope Rush Limbaugh is saved by a black homosexual doctor with a questionable immigration status

Adrian Chen, over on Gawker, points out the Prayer Vigils taking place;

Our buddies over at the Free Republic know how to save Rush Limbaugh: Internet prayer vigil! There are like 150 prayers already! Do you realize what this means? Tonight could be the night we find out if God exists

Yeah, what if God was one of him...

Mo Dowd Slaps Down El Jefe de Dittoheads

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



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

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

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

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

Dowd's Date With Limbaugh

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

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

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

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

It gives new meaning to pot, kettle and black.

Ouch!

Dissin' him for being a junkie!



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

NFL Singing Rush's Tune?

My, My, My ...

Oh, how the cookie crumbles for The Cheeseburger That Sweats (H/T Barry Crimmins)

Or, in the words of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Rush Limbaugh's chickens are coming home to roost.



Word is that El Jefe of the Dittoheads is out of the group looking to purchase the NFL franchise, the St. Louis Rams.

Rushbo was "complicating" things.

DUH!

Since the drug addict hatemonger likes to sing songs (you remember this little diddy he had a grand time with), we'd like to think the National Football League serenaded him, on the way of pushing him out the door;

We're Sorry

We're sorry, so sorry
That you are such a fool
You didn't know
Buying an NFL team could be so cruel
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Uh, oh
Oh, yes

You tell us mistakes
Are part of being a Dittohead
But that don't right
The wrong that's been done

Spoken:
(We're sorry) We're sorry
(So sorry) So sorry
Please accept our non-apology
But Racism isn't blind
And you were to blind to see
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Uh, oh
Oh, yes

You tell us mistakes
Are part of being a Dittohead
But that don't right
The wrong that's been done
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Uh, oh
Oh, yes

We're sorry, so sorry
Please accept our non-apology
But Racism isn't blind
And you were to blind to see
(Sorry)

There's a certain irony, for the heralded leader of the PartyofNoicans, to have the private sector, their lauded private sector, blanch and vomit at the prospects of letting him into their party.

Will Bunch, on his Attytood, had it down, with his "The free market comes back to bite Rush Limbaugh";

The NFL may be run -- at the macro level -- as the most socialistic major enterprise in American life, since every team gets an equal paycheck from the biggest pool of revenue, TV money, regardless of whether it plays in the Big Apple or tiny Jacksonville. Yet pro football players live a life that is Reaganism on steroids (it's just an expression) when it comes to embracing free-market capitalism, thanks to another "free," as in free agency. A top player lives the American Dream of freedom to pursue the highest paycheck he wants, or to spurn that top bidder for the city of his choice...or even the coach or team owner of his choice.

That freedom is the real reason that comedian Rush Limbaugh will not be owning the St. Louis Rams. Even if the de facto GOP boss really did have the cash and the clout to successfully partner on a bid for his former home state team, NFL players made it clear almost to a man that they simply would not choose to play for an owner with Limbaugh's views on race in pro football, or on race, period. Which made the Limbaugh bid dead on arrival.

Oh, but the Dittoheads, and Flying Monkeys, are screeching, flinging their feces around, that this is the end of America, that the liberals are punishing Free Speech.

Thers, over on Firedoglake, nails it with his most humorous "Late Night: RACISM ALERT!11! Rush Limbaugh Not Allowed to Own Football Team Because He Belongs to Oppressed Minority Class (i.e., Rich Screechy White Twits)";

Precisely. The most serious free speech issue in America right now is one rich white asshole being told by other rich white assholes that he can’t join their club. On that point we must all agree.

[snip]

Not sure which is funnier, though, the right-wing idiots now threatening to boycott the NFL, or the right-wing idiots saying Limbaugh has grounds for a civil rights lawsuit. The man is toxic, and that’s his own damn screechy needy tantrum-throwing wannabe-sports-involved fault.

It's very doubtful that Roger Goodall is going to sprint over to Limbaugh's studio today, apologize and kiss his ring, the way others have.

But sadly, all this only, to mix sports metaphors, grooves right into Rushbo's strike zone.

He can lighten up, take some pressure off of his boot on the throat of the PartyofNoicans, and go Jihad on the NFL for the next 10-weeks, plus playoffs and Superbowl.

Every fumble, every pass interception, every missed tackle, can be highlighted, complete with racial overtones, jokes, and, maybe a diddy, or two.

The NFL owners, if they don't know it, are now subject to legions of Dittoheads combing through their businesses, Googling their little paws off, maybe, even, digging through their home trash, to come up with embarrassing dirt that Mr. Drug Addict can spew out and mock (remaining, as he does, completely without any self-awareness, that he wanted to be ONE OF THEM).

No, Rushbo getting the boot isn't the end of something, it is the beginning of something else.

You know, the lemons/lemonade thing.

Almost, like it was planned, huh?


Bonus Loser Limbaugh Riffs

MediaMatters: Limbaugh's "color-blind" history of racially charged comments

Publius: The Demonstrably Racist Rush Limbaugh

Joe Sudbay - Rush: "I do want -- and I still want -- Obama to fail"

Gabriel Winant: Rush Limbaugh's race to the bottom ... Bend over, grab your ankles and submit to a mind-blowing rundown of the radio bully's obsessive butt talk!

Top Ten Cloves: Ways Rush Limbaugh Can Get Woman Not To Hate Him

And, of course, our inspiration for this post ...

Brenda Lee - I'm Sorry

President Palin! ... Good Bob Franken Spoof

Oh Man, when we espied this post last evening, it was like "Yikes", did we just wake up from a coma?

Veteran newsman, and former CNN Political Reporter, Bob Franken projects out, tongue firmly in cheek, of Ms. Ya'Bet'cha actually winning the Presidency in 2012, and it is a major hoot.

By far the largest voting bloc in the United States turned against Obama -- those who had no health insurance, which was everyone but government workers. The rich paid for their medical care at hospitals within their barricaded communities.

As to The Wasilla Whiz Kid's cabinet, it includes;

Vice President Newt Gingrich
Attorney General Greta Van Susteren
Press Secretary Sean Hannity

You gotta figure that Pinhead Faux Plumber Joe would wind up with some plum post, as would The Cheeseburger That Sweats (aka Rush Limbaugh - H/T Barry Crimmins).

Go read Bob Franken's "Sarah Palin 2013: A Look Ahead", it is extremely humorous, and with a killer punchline to end it.

Press The Applause Button

With the exception of scores-and-scores of hard-working men and woman being unemployed, it is, oh so rich, irony that as the Right Wing, Flag Waving Clear Channel is collapsing, and they are stuck with "The Cheeseburger That Sweats" (h/t Barry Crimmins).



This is the company that issued a Post-Sept 11th, jingoistic play list to it's empire, and then led the ban against the free speech of The Dixie Chicks, with their "Rally for America".

Eric Boehlert, over on MediaMatters, has a delicious tale of it all today;

Limbaugh's living large while radio boss Clear Channel implodes

Clear Channel's fall from business grace remains epic in its proportions. In 10 years time the company has gone from dominating a flourishing radio industry to a corporation that now teeters on the brink. (Clear Channel stock traded for $90 a share in 2000. When the radio company went private last year, pre-crash, the stock was already down in the $30s.) Lots of over-extended, debt-ridden media conglomerates are struggling through today's deep economic recession, but few face a future quite as perilous as the one staring back at the San Antonio radio giant.

And yet Clear Channel's most famous employee, Rush Limbaugh, remains oblivious to it all. I sometimes wonder what Limbaugh thinks when he reads about the not-so-slow-motion collapse of his radio employer while lounging in his 24,000-square-foot Florida estate or motoring in his $450,000 car to the airport to ride in his $54 million jet. Does Limbaugh feel bad? Does he feel a little guilty? And does he ever think about giving some of his riches back so that thousands of radio colleagues wouldn't have to be bounced to the curb?

[Snip]

Because here's the real oddity about Clear Channel's pact with Limbaugh: Last summer there was nobody else in a position to steal Limbaugh away. Clear Channel was basically bidding against itself and decided, in the end, to give Limbaugh a 40 percent raise, which included writing a $100 million signing bonus check to celebrate his contract extension. That right: A nine-figure signing bonus. At the time, it was a puzzler. Looking back at it today, the $100 million goodwill gesture, viewed against the backdrop of Clear Channel's doomsday woes, makes no business sense whatsoever. (That $100 million bonus could have saved maybe 1,000 Clear Channel jobs this year alone.)

Ah, yes, ....

Clear Channel, struggling for it's corporate life, only to pay off The Cheeseburger That Sweats.

Somebody, before they leave the studio, press the "Applause" button ...


Bonus Clear Channel Highlights

DownWithTryanny: CLEAR CHANNEL, REPUBLICAN PROPAGANDA NETWORK, OUT TO KILL SPRINGSTEEN'S MAGIC?

MediaMatters: Clear Channel radio host railed against Nick Berg's father, called him a "scumbag"

Paul Krugman: Channels of Influence

Say What, There, David Frum?

It's nice, David Frum, that you drew out your slingshot, and fired some rocks at The Cheeseburger That Sweats, especially knowing that the Flying Monkeys and Dittoheads will, likely, be sending you some nasty, vile vibes back at you.

Or that anyone in the PartyofNoicans would get behind you with it.

But, seriously, "Rush is to the Republicanism of the 2000s what Jesse Jackson was to the Democratic party in the 1980s"?

Frum penned the cover story for Newsweek, this week, "Why Rush is Wrong: The party of Buckley and Reagan is now bereft and dominated by the politics of Limbaugh. A conservative's lament."



Now, Frum is a former speechwriter for The Commander Guy, and "is credited with helping coin the phrase "Axis of Evil".[1]," who Wonkette describes as a "generally inoffensive conservative," and "no longer officially a wingnut because he left the National Review after acknowledging that Sarah Palin is a moron and John McCain is a loser."

Okay, we have his bona fides out of the way.

But about that line - "Rush is to the Republicanism of the 2000s what Jesse Jackson was to the Democratic party in the 1980s"

I don't recall Jesse Jackson being the face, or claiming the leadership, of the Democratic Party back in the 1980's.

Since you are a "real conservative", and paid homage to the Ronald Reagan Drool Cup in your sub-headline, I can see, possibly, why you would want to take a shot like that at Jackson.

Jackson, afterall, attempted to run against the actor President, in 1984, and then launched the Rainbow Coalition, in an attempt to push back on the destruction being brought about by Reagan and his cronies.

National Rainbow Coalition

The National Rainbow Coalition (Rainbow Coalition for short) was a political organization that grew out of Jesse Jackson's 1984 presidential campaign. During the campaign Jackson began speaking to a "Rainbow Coalition" of the disadvantaged and welcomed voters from a broad spectrum of races and creeds.[8] The goals of the campaign were to demand social programs, voting rights, and affirmative action for all groups that had been neglected by Reaganomics.[6] Jackson's campaign blamed President Ronald Reagan's policies for reduction of government domestic spending, causing new unemployment and encouraging economic investment outside of the inner cities, while they discouraged the rebuilding of urban industry.

And, his speech, in San Francisco, at the 1984 Democratic Convention.

After giving definition and life to the the Rainbow that is America (you know, the one not visible from the Reagan White House), he boomed out one of the best lines delivered at a convention;

But ultimately, we must judge people by their values and their contribution. Don't leave anybody out. I would rather have Roosevelt in a wheelchair than Reagan on a horse.

"I would rather have Roosevelt in a wheelchair than Reagan on a horse."

El Dittohead Grande, in his criticism of President Obama, isn't fighting for anything more that ratings, and media attention, let alone, actually trying to lead a movement that would help the downtrodden, the needy, the forgotten people.



You could have, just as easily said "Rush is to the Republicanism of the 2000s what Newt Gingrich was to it, back in the 1990s".

Remember, The Contract On America?

Or you could have just labeled him today's Lyndon LaRouche.

I mean, considering El Dittohead Grande's use of "Barack, The Magic Negro", or his past, job-losing-comments on Donovan McNabb, you single out for the comparison the black guy?

What's up with that?


Bonus Frum Flubs

Muriel Kane: Conservative David Frum tells 'Why Rush Is Wrong'

Damozel: "You Can Fool Some of the People All of the Time" Part 3: David Frum Bemoans the GOP's Domination by Rush Limbaugh

BooMan: David Frum Doesn't Get It

AEI/Bloomberg/McCain Hack Plays A Little Solitaire

Rush Limbaugh as Frank Sinatra/Major Bennett Marco?

No, I don't think so ...

Not in a million years, and all the CGI you can generate.

Kevin Hassett, on Bloomberg today, has a column calling President Obama "The Manchurian Candidate", because, after all, Obama has launched a War on Business and is out to totally destroy our economy.

I was immediately alarmed, until I got to the bottom of the post, and noted that was merely a one of the Right Wing Freak Show Flying Monkeys;

(Kevin Hassett, director of economic-policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, is a Bloomberg News columnist. He was an adviser to Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona in the 2008 presidential election. The opinions expressed are his own.)

Here's some of his drivel;

It is no wonder that markets are imploding around us. Obama is giving us the War on Business. 

Imagine that some hypothetical enemy state spent years preparing a “Manchurian Candidate” to destroy the U.S. economy once elected. What policies might that leader pursue? 

He might discourage private capital from entering the financial sector by instructing his Treasury secretary to repeatedly promise a brilliant rescue plan, but never actually have one. Private firms, spooked by the thought of what government might do, would shy away from transactions altogether. If the secretary were smooth and played rope-a-dope long enough, the whole financial sector would be gone before voters could demand action. 

Another diabolical idea would be to significantly increase taxes on whatever firms are still standing. That would require subterfuge, since increasing tax rates would be too obvious. Our Manchurian Candidate would have plenty of sophisticated ideas on changing the rules to get more revenue without increasing rates, such as auctioning off “permits.” 

These steps would create near-term distress. If our Manchurian Candidate leader really wanted to knock the country down for good, he would have to provide insurance against any long-run recovery.

[Snip]

It’s clear that President Obama wants the best for our country. That makes it all the more puzzling that he would legislate like a Manchurian Candidate.

Nate Silver, over on this FiveThirtyEight.com, has the lowdown on Hacket, who penned the book, "Dow 36,000";

To review, Dow 36,000 came out in October, 1999, within months of the tippy-top peak of the tech bubble ... this is when stocks were as overvalued as at literally any time in American history, including the Roaring 20's -- and Hassett was telling you to double -- nay, triple-down on them! It would be hard to identify an individual who better embodied the phrase "irrational exuberance" -- well, maybe the Pets.com sock puppet -- or who destroyed more wealth with charlatanic financial advice.

And this guy thinks it's all some big conspiracy against him. Literally.

Wikipedia notes, regarding Hassett's book, "Dow 36,000";

The Industrial Average reached a record high of 11,750.28 in January 2000, but after the bursting of the dot-com bubble, and the September 11 attacks of 2001, it steadily fell, reaching a low of 7,286.27 in October 2002. Although the Average recovered to a new record high of 14,164.53 in October 2007, it crashed back to the vicinity of 6,800 by the early months of 2009, amidst a global recession.

Also, Paul Krugman's assessment of McCain's campaign;

Controversy

In the course of the 2008 election campaign, Nobel-prize laureaute Paul Krugman criticised Hassett's position as an adviser to John McCain and implied that "Dow 36,000" was discredited

"We’ve known for a long time, of course, that Mr. McCain doesn’t know much about economics — he’s said so himself, although he’s also denied having said it. That wouldn’t matter too much if he had good taste in advisers — but he doesn’t. Remember, his chief mentor on economics is Phil Gramm, the arch-deregulator, who took special care in his Senate days to prevent oversight of financial derivatives — the very instruments that sank Lehman and A.I.G., and brought the credit markets to the edge of collapse... And last year, when the McCain campaign announced that the candidate had assembled “an impressive collection of economists, professors, and prominent conservative policy leaders” to advise him on economic policy, who was prominently featured? Kevin Hassett, the co-author of “Dow 36,000.” Enough said.[4]"

John Cole, over on Balloon Juice points out the irony of Hassett's use of "The Manchurian Candidate", in his "They Know the Title of the Book, But They Haven’t Read It".

Another irony is that, it is actually the hero/protagonist of 'The Manchurian Candidate' who defeats the Right Wing conservatives, and enemies, preserving and saving capitalism (yeah, that's a big hint, but I don't want to spoil it completely, for those that haven't seen the movie - the original, 1962 pic, with Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Angela Lansbury)

Maybe, in his next column, Hassett will declare "There are exactly 57 card-carrying members of the Communist Party in the Obama Administration at this time!"

Compared To What

Another rough day on the homefront, and any iota of creativity long left me, well before the noon hour.

Ahhh, but there is much percolating ...

The Cheeseburger That Sweats (or, as he decribes himself, a "harmless, lovable little fuzzball" - he must have shopped himself one helluva doctor to come up with that) has raised the stakes in his stunt, today "challenging" the President of the United States to come down to his radio studio and debate him on "the issues of the day".

Yeah, right ...

Can you imagine the cacophany, the deafening roar, say, if someone from Air America, or, better yet, Keith Olbermann "challenged" The Commander Guy to come of their program for such a thing?

Sorry, there, El Dittohead Grande, you'll just have to be satisfied with being ridiculed, sans the POTUS giving you a gigantic ratings bonanza.

And speaking of ridiculing, the The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee threw up a website today - I'm Sorry Rush - that is hysterical, giving the PartyofNoicans a point-and-click template to send their apologies in to the "harmless, lovable little fuzzball" (Greg Sargent reported, earlier today, and before the DCCC sent out their email announcing it, that the site ("We uncovered the secret Republican Apology Machine"), had already "nearly 150,000 visits, to which Sargent marvels, tongue firmly planted in cheek, "Amazingly, the site has gotten this number of visits despite the fact that it isn’t linked on Drudge!").

And, MediaMatters put up today their "Limbaugh Wire", where you can check for yourselves, the delusional rantings of that "harmless, lovable little fuzzbal, cheeseburger that sweats".

In other follys, Karl Rove and Harriet Miers will, finally, appear before Congress, in the matter of the firing of the U.S. Attorneys.

Yawn ...

Not that I don't want to see Rove (and Miers, and any-and-all other Bush Grindhouse cronies in cuffs and a perp walk), but I don't believe, after all this time, all this tap dancing, that either will offer anything newsworthy - nor will they be humbled and apologize for their insulting treatment of the Congress, in their longstanding refusal to comply to subpoenas.

If they need any help, or tips in how to apologize, they can ask this guy ...



Michael "Off The Hook" Steele.

All his theatrics the past few days (and month), will, probably, make a nice Wikipedia entry, one of the sub-categories detailing his short tenure as Big Cheese of the PartyofNoicans.

The Jeopardy theme music is blaring, based on numerous reports today of other, unnamed PartyofNoicans pretty pissed off with him, dissing that he's done jackshit, so far, for the party, that is, other then embarrass them.

This includes a post from Bryon York, whose cheeks still haven't come back to form, after eigth-years of sucking up to The Bush Grindhouse.

Josh Marshall was the only one to directly ask "How Long Does This Guy Last?"

Add in the tanking stock market, Jim Cramer adding his dementia, to compete with Rick Santelli, the corporate pigs at AIG, and you get a sense of something is in the air ...

Here's a classic you can use to help blow off the steam ... 

Compared To What Les McCann and Eddie Harris

Compared To What (LP Version II) - Les McCann & Eddie Harris

Steele Singing "To Rush With Love"

Oh my, this is schadenfreude at its' best.

My apologies for the lack-of-posting yesterday, it was a day of juggling, dealing with the Aunt, and also, having to remove the almost 10-inches of snow (made easier by the generous neighbor, offering use of his snow blower ...Yes, better than shoveling, but still a pretty good workout).

Despite the cumbersome endeavors, I still managed to keep an eye on things, and it is becoming riveting, almost a sporting event, watching the continuing meltdown of the PartyofNoicans.



Monday brought a gigantic pissing contest between the Cheeseburger That Sweats (H/T to Barry Crimmins) and RNC Chairman Mike "Off The Hook" Steele.

Seems the drug-addicted radio jockey doesn't like people trying to distance themselves from his dementia, which hip-hopping Mikey attempted to do, right on the heels of El Dittohead Grande's Constitutional-challenged ramblings at the Right Wing Rabid Fest.

Cutting Edge Steele did his, now mandatory, PartyofNoican's mea culpa, if they aren't masturbating to El Dittohead Grande 24/7, but he must have loaded up on the drugs before his radio gig and ripped apart Mikey's new gig, as the Big Cheese PartyofNoican chieftain.

It was really pitiful, seeing Mikey moonwalking as fast was he could, away from his criticism of El Dittohead Grande.



As Joan Walsh points out;

I emailed D.L. Hughey to get his perspective on Steele's sudden change of heart, but he may wait for his show to give his reply. What's clear is that Hughley and Steele had a long, animated conversation in which Steele argued convincingly and forcefully that Limbaugh is not the party's leader, he's an entertainer, and his views are getting entirely too much attention as the party tries to right itself after its thumping in November. It's just not the sort of conversation in which you can disavow certain "words" or say "I was thinking I was saying one thing, and it came out differently." It was a long conversation, not a soundbite.

Ahh, but what a difference a day makes, as the old song goes.

For that, as we did so often for The Bush Grindhouse (and others), we have to give Michael "Off The Hook" Steele a little soundtrack to go by.

We're pretty sure, by going Retro, he can pull off his pledge of being "cutting edge" with it.

And, considering we're writing about Mike "Bling Bling" Steele, and the Cheeseburger That Sweats, we get a bit of irony, in that we are using the big hit of, none other than, Lulu.

Sing, or hum along, even if you don't want to admit you know the song.

"To Rush With Love"

Those Misson Accomplished days, of telling tales and torturing detainees are gone,
But in my mind,
I know they will still live on and on,
But how do you thank someone, who has taken you from McNabb to Magic Negroes?
It isn't easy, but I'll try,

If you want the Party, I would write across the sky in letters,
That would soar a thousand feet high,
To Rush, with Love

The time has come,
For closing ranks and long last bipartisanship must end,
And as I grovel,
I know that I am gaining my new best friend,
A friend who taught that Obama is wrong,
And I will play along,
There's a lot to learn,
What, what can I give you in return?

If you want the Party I would try to make a start,
But I, would rather you let me give my heart,
To Rush, with Love

Bonus PartyofNoicans Meltdown Riffs

Al Giordano: Ugly and Incendiary

Media Matters - Limbaugh: "The dirty little secret ... is that every Republican in this country wants Obama to fail, but none of them have the guts to say so; I am willing to say it"

Ross Douthat: Rush and Oprah

Joe Gandelman: Rush Limbaugh, Michael Steele and the Republican Party: The Sequel

Greg Sargent: Rush Refuses To Say Whether Successful Obama Fix Of Economy Would Be Good For The Country

Top Ten Cloves: Ways Rush Limbaugh Can Get Woman Not To Hate Him


Bonus Bonus

Okay, here's the original ...

To Sir With Love

Top Ten Cloves: Ways Rush Limbaugh Can Get Woman Not To Hate Him

News Item: Limbaugh To Convene A ‘Female Summit’ To Figure Out Why Women Hate Him

10. Call for an Operation Chaos Riot - Against you, In your own radio studio

  9. Voluntarily take yourself off Armed Forces Radio

  8. Stop defending Corporate America

  7. Drop the act, and let his innner progressive liberal Democrat come out

  6. Go out and actually win a Nobel Peace Prize

  5. Start dating a transexual

  4. Call off your dogs and start crticizing Bobby Jindal

  3. Recant for playing up the "Barack The Magic Negro" - Produce and play "Rush The Ignorant Radio Host"

  2. Start sharing his stash of drugs

  1. Free the Dittoheads! ... Pull a William Shatner/SNL/Star Trek/Get A Life on them


Bonus Bonehead Rush Riffs

Rush Announces Female Listener Summit to Discuss EIB Gender Gap

Jill on Brilliant at Breakfast: Maybe it's because he's a misogynistic, soulless hatemonger who vacations as a sex tourist

Jill Miller Zimon: Rush Limbaugh Calls A Women’s Summit To Research His Gender Gap

We Wonder If Rush Lobbied For This, The Way He Did For The Nobel?

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

Smokin' Frank Rich Today!

"...the Republicans should either lead, follow or get out of the grown-ups’ way."

They gloat over their big "Goose Egg", much with the same elan as The Commander Guy dishing out birthday cake to Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain, as New Orleanians clung, precariously, to rooftops, their city filled like a fishbowl with flood waters.

Frank Rich's column today - "Herbert Hoover Lives" - lays it all out, that if they can be enough of obstructionists, if they can make it so President Obama fails, well, that is what will save their dying party, which Rich pegs as "At this rate the G.O.P. will be in Alf Landon territory by 2012."



More Rich;

The Republicans don’t acknowledge the need for this transformation, or debate it in good conscience, preferring instead to hyperventilate over the contraceptives in a small family-planning program since removed from the stimulus bill. All it takes is the specter of condoms for the party of Vitter, Foley and Craig to go gaga.

[Snip]

Obama no doubt finds Limbaugh’s grandiosity more amusing than frightening, but G.O.P. politicians are shaking like Jell-O. When asked by Andrea Mitchell of NBC News on Wednesday if he shared Limbaugh’s hope that Obama fails, Eric Cantor spun like a top before running off, as it happened, to appear on Limbaugh’s radio show. Mike Pence of Indiana, No. 3 in the Republican House leadership, similarly squirmed when asked if he agreed with Limbaugh. Though the Republicans’ official, poll-driven line is that they want Obama to succeed, they’d rather abandon that disingenuous nicety than cross Rush.

Most pathetic of all was Phil Gingrey, a right-wing Republican congressman from Georgia, who mildly criticized both Limbaugh and Sean Hannity to Politico because they “stand back and throw bricks” while lawmakers labor in the trenches. So many called Gingrey’s office to complain that the poor congressman begged Limbaugh to bring him on air to publicly recant on Wednesday. As Gingrey abjectly apologized to talk radio’s commandant for his “stupid comments” and “foot-in-mouth disease,” he sounded like the inmate in a B-prison-movie cowering before the warden after a failed jailbreak.

That they take their marching orders from a fat drug addict, I suppose, isn't so astounding, considering they selected The Wasilla Whiz Kid for their ticket in the last election.

A "Limbaugh with Lipstick", as it were.

The word "serious" doesn't seem to making its' way into their talking points.

As Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, said last week;

“It’s almost as if the election didn’t happen and that the message wasn’t received: that people in Washington need to cooperate a lot more than they have in the past.”

Maybe they need to tweak The Commander Guy's mantra, from "You're either with us, or against us", to "We're not with you, and we are against you"

They sure be playin' it that way


Bonus Gone-Out-To-Pasture Party Riffs

BooMan: Wanker of the Day: David Broder

Prairie Weather: Republicans go AWOL; Palin steps in, hair loose to shoulders

Steve Benen: HIGH BRODERISMS...

No More Mister Nice Blog: AN ASSERTION THAT SEEMS SELF-EVIDENT, EXCEPT THAT IT'S UTTERLY WRONG

Stand

(Ed. Note: Rough Day, and trying to fight my way off the DL)

Stand, they did ...

All the dittoheads ... All the dwarfs, finks, phonies and frauds ...

In other words, the Republican Caucus of the U.S. Congress.



Christ, could you imagine if they were staffing the Titanic?

I certainly wouldn't want passage on that trip, worrying that they would vote, en block, not to lower the life boats.

"Sorry, folks, but we want the Captain to use our plan."

Ahh, but they already have run us into the proverbial financial iceberg, and now, they want to nitpick over what type, or what size, buckets we should use to start bailing out the water.

Or, their whiny bleating about Tax Cuts, just who should be able to climb into those lifeboats.

There's some other noise, as well, but it's hard to make out - it's only Mark Halperin, talking with his head up his ass, again.

I'm with John Kerry, and Kathy, from 'Comments from Left Field' - Fuck'em (my choice of words).

Blast out the Tax Cuts, squeeze back in the Contraceptives, and tell the GOP nitwits to follow the advice of their Leader-in-Exile, The Cheeseburger That Sweats (h/t Barry Crimmins), that being, to bend over and grab their ankles!

It ain't their playground anymore.

They are the MINORITY Party, and, they don't get to call the shots, or grease the skids, as they did, so proudly and willingly, for The Bush Grindhouse.

All President Obama, and the Democrats have to do is keep up the Eddie Haskell routine, keep saying nice things about the MINORITY Party, invite them to join in at every turn, but keep the eyes straight ahead and get the business that needs to be done, done.

At some point, their own supporters, their own constituents, will see their obstructionism, and ask why they don't have their gloves on, why aren't they in the game.

Something tells me, that despite decades, and generations, apart, Sly and the Family Stone are singing this song to President Obama, and the Dems;

Sly & The Family Stone - Stand




Bonus Riffs

No More Mister Nice Blog: TIME FOR A FIRESIDE CHAT

Nate Silver: The Republican Death Spiral

Skippy the bush kangaroo: "oh yeah? well, just for that, we're going to sh*t in our bed again!"

Tristero: Ominous

Greg Sargent: Obama Allies Launch Ad Campaign Targeting Republican Senators