The Lies That Made Milwaukee Famous

Well, this certainly, wasn't your father's CNBC Debate.

There should be milk cartons out there today, with a picture of the debate on a side, blaring out the headline "Missing: Facts"

The moderators of the PartyofNoicans Clown Car Crash in Milwaukee last night, all but took a flight down to Chicago whenever one of the clowns misspoke, and/or blatantly lied, about the facts of whatever softball question was thrown their way.

Pyramid Mogul Ben Carson managed to squeeze in Benghazi while defending the fabrications of his back story.

Ted Cruz forgot to show his Contractor's Union Card, as his big pitch was for tearing down almost the entire government, as a means to balance the budget.

Golden Boy Marco Rubio lumped his broken-record family history into virtually every question he was asked, and in one, put out a clarion call "for more welders" erroneously citing welders make more money then philosophers.

But Rubio's family picnic had a hornet's nest hanging over it, in Rand Paul (someone in his campaign should do the favor and tell him it's over), as Paul attacked Rubio's "Conservative Credentials" (not screwing poor people enough) over his tax plan, offering tax cuts for families, while increasing military spending.

More than one clown candidate belched out that too many regulations were the cause of the financial mess, when, in fact, it was "Foreclosure Phil", Republican Phil Gramm that led the charge on repealing the Glass-Steagall Act, which nearly bankrupted the entire world.

Fiorina parroted "We have to take back our country" so many times, I thought the old "HeadOn ... Apply directly to the forehead ... HeadOn ... Apply directly to the forehead ... HeadOn ... Apply directly to the forehead", had  bled into the audio of the broadcast.

If Industry Titan Fiorina happens to secure the nomination, she wants to put the military on steroids and go around the world kicking ass, and taking names.

And, Poor Jeb! ...

Team Exclamation Point! just watches him flop and flail at these debates, the brother-president-in-absentia, reduced last night to getting interrupted on a question asked to him, whining about having time to talk, having to fight off the interruption, and later, thanking The Donald for letting him speak - only forgetting to coat it with any sarcasim, and coming off more like offering Don Corleone a tribute.

The chef, there, Jeb!, is calling out "Stick a fork in him, he's done!" ...I'm sure some of your big-ass donors can help you bang out your withdrawal speech ...

Interrupting Jeb! was Man-on-Fire John Kasich, who was attempting to filibuster the debate, proudly boasting he was the man, that he balanced two budgets!

Remarkably, none of his fellow clowns challenged Budget Man, that the first time he did it, he was working for a Democratic President, and husband of all the clowns' arch-villain, Hillary.

Budget Man also attacked The Donald, scoffing at his plans to deport 11-million Illegal Immigrants - Jeb! also jumped on that - but neither clown offering an alternative, or, comprehensive Immigration plan.

But The Donald was, relatively, reserved, only getting worked up over the latest trade agreement, and citing it to use China (likely his Straw Man for the foreseeable future) as a punching bag ...

This debate was a Double-Ruppert Murdoch event, hosted by Fox Business Network and the 'Wall Street Journal', so no big surprise it was a fact-free affair.

So as not to have to sit in the corner wearing dunce caps, like CNBC, the trio of Maria Bartiromo, and Neil Cavuto, from the Fox Business Network, and Gerard Baker,  Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief, sat smiling, like lobotomized idiots as clown candidate after clown candidate played fast and loose with facts, with fear of a  follow-up question to challenge such statements might give them the Ebola virus.

Primary season will soon be upon us, winnowing out the field of these Clown Car Debates, but don't think this will make them more honest.

The untrue non-facts, and lies, will only get bigger, and more bold.

It's All Junkies and Guns, Says Peggy Noonan

Ronald Reagan's most ardant groupie, Peggy Noonan, today, clings, longingly, to her old Willoughby, bemoaning the changes taking place in our turbulent times.



And, she also "hypothesizes" that the Wall Street Meltdown occurred, because everyone on Wall Street is a junkie, and it was Sept. 11th that turned them into junkies.

But, the good thing about it, church-going is up!

In her weekly dreck, "There's No Pill for This Kind of Depression", Noonan utters not one single syllable of criticism at the PartyofNoicans, led, of course by The Bush Grindhouse, for taking a flamethrower to the laws, rules and regulations, over the past eight-years, that has led us directly into Little Peggy's "depression"

She blames it on Sept. 11th and drugs;

The sale of antidepressants and antianxiety drugs is widespread. In New York their use became common after 9/11. It continued through and, I hypothesize, may have contributed to, the high-flying, wildly imprudent Wall Street of the '00s. We look for reasons for the crash and there are many, but I wonder if Xanax, Zoloft and Klonopin, when taken by investment bankers, lessened what might have been normal, prudent anxiety, or helped confuse prudent anxiety with baseless, free-floating fear. Maybe Wall Street was high as a kite and didn't notice. Maybe that would explain Bear Sterns, and Merrill, and Citi.

Yet, she manages, through her pain, to toss one snipe at President Obama;

Yes, people fear Obama will take away the guns he thinks they cling to, but a likely equal contributor to what The Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch called a "gun-buying binge" is captured in the slogan on one firearms maker's Web site: "Smith & Wesson stands for protection." People are scared.

And, Peggy channels her Willoughby days (really, her emptiness of Life Without Ronnie);

Two, the economy isn't the only reason for our unease. There's more to it. People sense something slipping away, a world receding, not only an economic one but a world of old structures, old ways and assumptions. People don't talk about this much because it's too big, but I suspect more than a few see themselves, deep down, as "the designated mourner," from the title of the Wallace Shawn play.

[Snip]

To me, one of the signal signs of the times is the number of people surfing the Internet looking for . . . something. One friend looks for small farms in distressed rural areas. Another logs on late at night looking for a house to buy in a small town out West, or down South, or in the Deep South. She is moving all around America in her imagination. I asked if she had a picture in her head of what she was looking for, and she joked that she wanted to go where Atticus Finch made his summation to the jury. I don't think it was really a joke. She's not looking for a new place, she's looking for the old days.

See, there's the whole nut of it.

Obama, and the Democrats, didn't put any "old days" in the Stimulus Package.

We don't need a new direction, a new paradigm, all we need to make Little Peggy happy again is to bring back the "old days"

Don't they do any random drug-testing over there, at the Murdoch Street Journal?


Bonus Little Peggy Boo Hoo's

No More Mister Nice Blog: THE PEASANTS' LIVES LOOK SO SAD FROM MY MANSION ON THE HILL

Sadly No: The Very Serious Peggy Noonan

Brilliant at Breakfast: Let's not allow them to create their own reality

Blue Texan: At Least Bush Kept Us Safe, Except For That Whole 9/11 Thing

Noonan Gives Palin, McCain A "Full Detroit"

Our Ignorant Dolt of The Week .... Daniel Henninger!

Or: Oh No, Another Pinhead War on Christmas

Boy, if Santa Claus has made up his list, of who's been naughty, and who's been nice, and knowing the penalty attached to the former, if he follows Daniel Henninger's logic, Santa is going to have to strip mine the entire globe to come up with enough coal to stuff in those stockings.

It was a slow week on the Ignorant Dolt front.

We gave some thought to pinning it on our President-Elect, for calling out to Hillary to "C'mon Down", however it isn't official yet, so we may save that for another week.

Henninger is the Deputy Editorial Page Director of the Wall Street Journal, and he penned a column the other day that is a doozy;

Mad Max and the Meltdown: How we went from Christmas to crisis

Notwithstanding the cardboard Santas who seem to have arrived in stores this year near Halloween, the holiday season starts in seven days with Thanksgiving. And so it will come to pass once again that many people will spend four weeks biting on tongues lest they say "Merry Christmas" and perchance, give offense. Christmas, the holiday that dare not speak its name.

Okay, perhaps he's just looking to increase his bookings on the Faux News Network, sitting in the chair next to the Grand Ayatollah of Ignorant Dolts, Bill O'Reilly, so they can swap propaganda on the blazing firefight of their propped-up War on Christmas.

If only it was such pandering ...

Henninger wants to tie in the meltdown of our economy, blaming the non-believers, who by the way, are responsible for the meltdown, as adding a Petraeuseque surge in their War on Christmas.

"This year we celebrate the desacralized "holidays" amid what is for many unprecedented economic ruin -- fortunes halved, jobs lost, homes foreclosed. People wonder, What happened? One man's theory: A nation whose people can't say "Merry Christmas" is a nation capable of ruining its own economy.

One had better explain that."

"What really went missing through the subprime mortgage years were the three Rs: responsibility, restraint and remorse. They are the ballast that stabilizes two better-known Rs from the world of free markets: risk and reward.

Responsibility and restraint are moral sentiments. Remorse is a product of conscience. None of these grow on trees. Each must be learned, taught, passed down. And so we come back to the disappearance of "Merry Christmas."

It has been my view that the steady secularizing and insistent effort at dereligioning America has been dangerous. That danger flashed red in the fall into subprime personal behavior by borrowers and bankers, who after all are just people. Northerners and atheists who vilify Southern evangelicals are throwing out nurturers of useful virtue with the bathwater of obnoxious political opinions.

The point for a healthy society of commerce and politics is not that religion saves, but that it keeps most of the players inside the chalk lines. We are erasing the chalk lines.

Feel free: Banish Merry Christmas. Get ready for Mad Max."

WTF!

Jesus, if he stretched it anymore, his arm would have to pop out of its socket.

Did he stumble on this, a clip showing the GAID O'Reilly, talking with fellow pinhead John Gibson, babbling on-and-on, over-the-top idiocracy (way too many electrolytes!) and say, "I can beat that!"

Matt Corley, over on Think Progress sums it up nicely, saying "After cataloging a series of complex economic factors that do relate to the financial crisis, Henninger concludes that what really went wrong is that “the steady secularizing and insistent effort at dereligioning America” led to “subprime personal behavior by borrowers and bankers.”.

From dday;

Got that, secular progressives? Deregulation, predatory lending and corporate greed had nothing to do with this. It's you and your atheist friends who are promoting anarchy and the destruction of morals. If there were only crosses on top of Wall Street skyscrapers, the investment bankers and hedge fund managers inside wouldn't have given in to the temptation of greed. Your 401 (k) might have been saved if you practiced Lent this year.

Thanks a lot, heathens. Good luck heating your home with those Bibles you like to burn.

Hilzoy, on Obsidian Wings predicted that Henninger's tirade "has to be in the running for Dumbest Column Ever." and that "it launches itself off into the great empyrean of stupid."

And, this, from Steve Benen;

And yet, the editors at the WSJ continue to push the envelope in new and mind-numbing directions. The Journal published this piece from Daniel Henninger today, which aims to explain "how we went from Christmas to crisis." I've read the whole piece a few times, trying to understand it. I'm at a loss.

Henninger begins by repeating nonsense about Americans, en masse, being afraid to wish others a "Merry Christmas." This, on its face, is absurd. But he goes much further, connecting this non-existent trend in holiday-related rhetoric to the financial crisis, apparently blaming the prior for the latter: "A nation whose people can't say 'Merry Christmas' is a nation capable of ruining its own economy."

Why anyone would attach their name to such transparent foolishness is a mystery to me. Why anyone would publish such inanity is even harder to understand.

Foolishness and Insanity?

Oh yeah, royally, and that pushes Daniel Henninger into the winner's circle, for The Garlic's "Ignorant Dolt of The Week!"


Bonus Great War On Xmas Riffs

Wikipedia: Christmas controversy

Media Matters for America: War on Christmas

Wonkette: A Festivus Miracle: No Fannie/Freddie Foreclosures! (Until January 9)

Liza Featherstone: Merry Christmas, Bill O'Reilly!

Nicole Belle: The O'Reilly Fatuity: The War on Christmas has morphed into the War on Christians

David Kiley: O'Reilly's War on Christmas: Truth Takes a Holiday Again

Eric Boehlert: Battling the homosexuals, liberals and Jews, Bill O'Reilly and friends are making America safe for Christmas

O'Reilly Gears Up Next War; Says Will Battle To Save "Little Christmas"; Calls For New Laws and Mandatory Fines; Doesn't Hesitate To Make Up False Charges To Broadcast His Point

Firing It Up - My Wall Street Journal

From Danny Shea, on HuffPo;

My Wall Street Journal, a parody of the Wall Street Journal on newsstands this week to mark the April 15 tax deadline, has rankled News Corp executives so much that they're trying to make sure no one sees it

Oh, this is rich!

Sticking to the WSJ is delicious of-and-by itself, but seeing Sir Rupert react to it .... Priceless!

Murdoch Freaks

And they (News Corp. cronies) have attempted to buy up the copies!

It was not supposed to go on sale until this week, but some newsstands began selling it early. Last Thursday, Alexander Laurence was working at one such stand in Los Angeles, chatting with a customer, David Metz, when, both of them say, a man in a shirt with a Journal logo asked if anyone had seen a paper that looked sort of like The Journal.

"This guy comes by all the time to bring promotional stuff for The Wall Street Journal -- bags, coin trays, stickers," Mr. Laurence said.

Sure enough, they found what he was looking for. "He grabbed them all, said, 'I need to buy all of these,' " Mr. Laurence said. "He had been going around to different stands, buying them."

The man paid with a corporate American Express card. "At first he's saying they have to make a correction or it's not supposed to be out yet," Mr. Metz said. "But then he said these are not published by The Wall Street Journal."

Priceless! ...


Bonus Links

My Wall Street Journal Website

Gawker: WSJ Trying To Suppress Parody?

NYT: A Funnier-Than-Usual Journal Gets Snapped Up Early

We're Waiting, John Fund ... For You To Take Your Head Out Of Your Ass ... Lieberman Abandoned The Democrats To Run As An Indie, He Wasn't Forced To

Clock's Ticking Again - Some More Heads To Be Pulled Out of Asses ... Step Right Up Dorothy Rabinowitz ... And Richard Cohen To

Oh Ronnie, How I Long For You ...

More On Client No. 9 ... Brought To You By "On Cue"

I found it especially refreshing today, that there stood the Mississippi Primary, if only so we didn't hear the words "Eliot Spitzer" pass through the lips of every news anchor, every talking head, about every 30-seconds.

And a late day bonus of the Bush Grindhouse firing Admiral Fallon (more on that coming soon) certainly went to tamping down, though not completely clearing it off the radar

After the bucket of water dumped over heads yesterday, on the New York Governor' lascivious behavior, everyone unbunched their panties today, and hit their floor marks.

The late night television comics all took their shots.

Delivering, on cue, with stern editorials, alternately slamming and tisk-tisking Client 9, were The New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

The states' GOP hacks were huffing and puffing with threats and deadlines, to either get out of town, or we'll throw you out of town.

And the Governor's old enemy, Wall Street, was hooping and hollering in joy.

Last, but not lest, all of the above was the reason (or the excuse) to drag the old dirt bag, Heidi Fleiss, back to center stage and she pontificated her worldly wisdom on the whole mess.

Sigh ...

In the event anyone was nervous as this scandal unfolded, fear not, Barry Crimmins, heroically, took the reigns of the Empire State and guided her through the night (and with some excellent Executive decision-making).

Oh yeah, more and more, questions are being raised about just what the hell is going on.


Today's Spitzerpalooza, some of the better posts found

Larisa Alexandrovna: Remember the days when being linked to a straight, female, adult hooker was political suicide?

Larisa Alexandrovna: Spitzer's selective prosecution?

Digby: Parting Shot?

Richard Kim: The Spitzer Scandal

John Cole: A Comparison


And here is The Best - Must Read post, from the pen (or keyboard) of Attytood

Their ding-a-lings: Chuck Berry, Eliot Spitzer and the bizarre history of the Mann Act

Surprise, Surprise! ... Rove Blames - Can You Guess - The Democrats!

In the eerie, suspenseful Charles Laughton classic, "The Night of the Hunter", Robert Mitchum (yes, playing the bad guy), has tattooed on his knuckles the words "Love" and "Hate".

Has anyone checked Karl Rove's paws?

If he was to be emulating Mitchum, undoubtedly, he would have "Hate" and "Hate" on his.

The Turd Blossom has stuck his bloated cranium out today, penning the Sunday morning news show talking points, err, excuse me, an Op-Ed in Ruppert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal today, under the banner of "Opposite of Progress";

A Failure to Lead; The Democratic Congress is more interested in acting out than in taking positive action.

Hmmm ... Seems like that title "A Failure to Lead" could be applied, more aptly, to his former boss.

And, let's take another wild guess here, that this leaker of Valerie Plame will be all over Fox News today, dishing out the caveats of his diatribe like happy soup.

It's a rambling laundry list that everything, and I mean everything, that is wrong in our country today, the blame lies at the feet of the Democratic-controlled Congress.

And, boy, is he still pissed that his "New Math" failed so miserably in last years' Mid-Term elections;

"The Democratic victory in 2006 was narrow. They won the House by 85,961 votes out of over 80 million cast and the Senate by a mere 3,562 out of over 62 million cast. A party that wins control by that narrow margin can quickly see its fortunes reversed when it fails to act responsibly, fails to fulfill its promises, and fails to lead."

Hey, Turd Blossom, you lost, get over it.

But that's a pretty good epitaph you have there - for the Republicans;

" ... Quickly see its fortunes reversed when it fails to act responsibly, fails to fulfill its promises, and fails to lead ..."

And, your former boss, partly due to your advice and counsel, partly due to your warped, partisan policies, will be going down in history, in infamy, as the worst U.S. President ever.

Only, Turd Blossom, if you were to write an Op-Ed of The Commander Guy, you'd have to fly it under a banner titled "Opposite of Competent".

Bonus Mr.-Five-Times-Before-The-Grand-Jury Links

Rove Doing His Part to Help Shape a Positive Legacy for Bush

Are Rove's Missing Emails the Smoking Guns of the Stolen 2004 Election?

Rove Decries ‘Nutty’ ‘Vitriolic’ Bloggers Who Spew ‘Bad Words’

Developing Story! Rove Has Gone From “Bush’s Brain” To “Bush’s Drain”; White House In Crises, As Rove Takes Credit For North Korean Nuke Test; Sources Say ‘Bush’s Brain” Weary From Sinking Polls, Fundraising; Too Tired To Come Up With New October Surprise

Oxymoron of the Day: Karl Rove at an Idea Festival

Moyers Mashes Magpie Murdoch

I don't have a particular emotional investment in the Wall Street Journal - Great reporting, lousy politics.

But its' fight with, or submission to, News Corps' Rupert Murdoch ... Well, it does have a George Bailey-Mr. Potter element to it.

"...You're the Board here. You do what you want with this thing. Just one thing more, though. This town needs this measly one-horse institution if only to have some place where people can come without crawling to Potter ..."

So tonight, on Bill Moyers Journal, the great Moyers offered a blistering smackdown.

So thorough, that if it had happened on the street, no doubt, Murdoch's rags would have had the bloody mess splashed on the front pages, screaming headline and a Weegee-imitating photo.

"...But Rupert Murdoch is no saint; he is to propriety what the Marquis de Sade was to chastity ..."

...But THE JOURNAL’s newsroom is another matter – there facts are sacred and independence revered. Rupert Murdoch has told the Bancrofts he’ll not meddle with the reporting. But he’s accustomed to using journalism as a personal spittoon. In the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq, he turned the dogs of war loose in the newsrooms of his empire and they howled for blood ...

Read "Moyers on Murdoch"

Watch The Video "Moyers on Murdoch"

Bonus Links

Rupert Murdoch: Bigger than Kane

Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War On Journalism

Wall Street Journal reporters protest Murdoch bid for Dow Jones and contract proposals

Update

Keeping Rupert Murdoch at bay

Update II

Paul Krugman's "The Murdoch Factor"