A Day in the Park

It's too beautiful here to be indoors, so we went to Brookside Gardens (where something very special will be happening in about a month) to renew our souls. Crape myrtle, roses, angel's trumpet, Abyssinian banana, barberry, pyracantha, tulip poplars, and beautiful green swards of grass.

"Has Anyone Ever Told You How Cute You Are, Mr. Vice President?"

Fux News' Chris "Creampuff" Wallace makes no effort to hide his crush on former (Vice) President The Dick in his unctuous "interview" with the sinister one on today's Fux News Sunday. What makes the segment especially obscene is the discussion centered around The Dick's views of his regime's illegal torture progam. The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan compares the "interview" to a teenage girl interviewing the Jonas Brothers. The obsequiousness and fawning of Creampuff is nauseating and again displays the Fux Channel's continuing propagandizing on behalf of the Bushit/Cheney Assministration and the Rethuglican Party. And it's a recurring theme for Creampuff, who continues to be a big defender of Dumbya and The Dick.

(photo: Creampuff bends his head, better to smooch The Dick)

"Where's the Audacity?"

The best read this Sunday morning is this piece in the WaPo by Peter Dreier and Marshall Ganz, "We Have the Hope, Now Where's the Audacity?" The authors summarize what we've been addressing, sometimes piecemeal, as the puzzling incoherence - and, yes, lack of audacity - on the part of the Obama Administration in the struggle for health care reform. The article describes how we got to "this point" when, just months ago, an overwhelming majority of Americans not only had confidence in Obama to deliver reform, but backed a "public option" by a 3-1 margin. It also provides a strategy for rescuing reform, part of which involves overcoming corporate Dems like Rahmbo and the Baucus caucus/ Blue Dogs.

The New York Times agrees: stop retreating on health reform!

What The Rethugs Really Want: Kill Health Insurance Reform

It's been pretty clear for months now that the Rethug Party wants to defeat any health insurance reform regardless of the approach taken. It's politics over the American people. Increasingly, after the astroturfing nonsense of the town hall meetings that they promoted, the Rethugs see their opportunity to take down President Obama's presidency through the defeat of health insurance reform. And they're not even trying to hide it.

First it was Rethug Sen. Jim "Demented" DeMint who said such a defeat would be the President's "Waterloo." Now we have two more reactionary clowns basically saying the same thing. Think Progress has the story of Rethug Sens. Robert "The Undertaker" Bennett and John "Ass-o" Barrasso voicing support for the defeat of reform, despite Bennett's cynical co-sponsorship of a "reform" bill with Dem Sen. Ron Wyden -- which he apparently wouldn't vote for himself. Again, time to expose their game-playing for what it is, and move on.

The Cur Speaks

"He was given everything he had in life. He didn't earn anything. He is Thurston Howell III, and he has the nerve to say to people who built small businesses, restaurants and gas stations that they should have their money stolen from them." -- Grover Norquist, anti-government, anti-tax, "Gilligan's Island" connoisseur and all-around dimbulb, on Sen. Ted Kennedy. In other words, Norquist would have approved of Kennedy more had he been true to his "class," and been a selfish, conservative p.o.s. like himself.

Another Day, Another Boo-Hoo Moment

Pretty soon, we're going to have to rename this "The Glenn Beck Crack-Up Blog." Every night, the porcine psycho has something new that's got the bees buzzing in his muzzy head. But Boo-Hoo always tries to break it down for his intellectshally challenged viewers. Last night was no exception, as Boo-Hoo brought out the drawing board prop for some clever wingnut anagramming. Too bad Boo-Hoo never learned to spell.

But, as Steve Benen (who's cornered the bon mot market today) notes, if this matters to you, "you're not medicated enough to understand Beck's show."

"The New Ted Kennedy?" WTF??

Grizzled Villager greybeard Wolf "Man" Blitzer of Conservative News Network is trying to anoint Walnuts! as "the new Ted Kennedy." Yes, Wolfie, Sen. Walnuts McSame, whose most long-lasting (?) political gift thus far has been Sarah "Winky You Betcha" Palin... a man not afraid to stand up to lies and extremism. Perfect choice!

As Steve Benen over at Washington Monthly says, "We knew Ted Kennedy. Ted Kennedy was a friend of ours. John McCain is no Ted Kennedy."

The Pills and Boo-Hoo Show

Arguably two of the biggest crackpots on the far right (and that's saying a lot) were together (at least telephonically) the other day: Pills was a guest on Boo-Hoo Beck's un-reality show. The appropriately named Crooks and Liars has the vid and partial transcript. Boo-Hoo looks and sounds more and more like someone on the verge of a nervous breakdown, complete with crawly bugs with Obama faces, inside a FEMA camp with man-beast ACORN guards. Pills is just his odious, lard-assed self.

(Image: the ACORNS are coming!!)

Tin Man's Phony Prescription

We put politics aside on Hackwhackers yesterday to observe the passing of Sen. Kennedy. The legacy he most wanted was to have universal, quality health care for all Americans, and it's tragic that he didn't live to see his greatest wish fulfilled. Many opponents of health insurance reform are claiming that Sen. Kennedy would have made a difference in negotiations with Senate Rethugs, despite the fact that they've shown no willingness to do anything but stall, obstruct, and lie about the Dem proposals. The Rethugs had an opportunity in the years starting in 1994 that they controlled Congress, but did absolutely nothing, not surprisingly.

Now we have the clownish Rethug National Committee Chairman Michael "Tin Man" Steele writing an op-ed in the WaPo -- and shame on them for loaning the page to a propagandist like Tin Man -- about the evils of health insurance reform. But Steven Perlstein's column offers a good antidote to Tin Man's nonsense. He calls out the "lies, distortions and political scare tactics" that Tin Man and his Rethugs have used to "poison the national debate over health reform." Good work.

"The Greatest United States Senator of Our Time"

Those words are from a statement by President Obama on the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy last night. Kennedy, 77, was the last Kennedy brother of his generation, and was called "the lion of the Senate" by everyone, regardless of party affiliation. He was responsible for a range of legislation over his 47 years in the Senate that touched the lives of tens of millions of people.

Here is an excerpt from his "dream shall never die" speech to the 1980 Democratic National Convention. We won't see his like again. RIP.

Department of Outrageous Hypocrisy

Who better than former (Vice) President The Dick to comment on Obama's supposed politicization of the Justice Department for the CIA torture probe than someone who wanted to use U.S. attorneys to use phony "voter fraud" cases to diminish Democratic voter turnout? The Dick is in fine form, full of phony outrage that DOJ is investigating activities that went beyond the Geneva Convention (and U.S. law) in torturing prisoners, when his only concern is for his own criminal liability (see the case of Scooter Libby). President Obama, of course, wanted just the opposite -- no investigation, turn the page on the Bushit Assministration, etc. -- of what the Justice Department is now doing with the special prosecutor to look into charges of torture.

Here's a suggestion: get The Dick on the witness stand, and make him lie under oath, repeatedly. That should be fairly simple, since he's incapable of telling the truth. Then follow the evidence where it takes you, and let the chips fall.

"Please Watch Me, Or I'll Hold My Breath!"

Coming back on the air after a forced "vacation", Fux's resident mental case Glenn "Boo Hoo" Beck was pleading for people to watch his show this week, in response to over 30 advertisers (and counting) who have pulled their advertisements from his craptacular hate fest. It appears that lunacy doesn't sell advertising time after all, even on Fux.

Fux's viewer demographics amount to the slice of America that you could describe as paranoid, right-wing, angry, and racist so it's not that likely that Fux will drop Boo Hoo altogether. A different time slot for Boo Hoo? Maybe. . .if Boo Hoo agrees to wear a straight jacket on the air.

"All the President's Zombies"

Paul Krugman's op/ed today deals with the lingering effects of a discredited philosophy--Reaganomics--and the deleterious impact it's having on the health care "debate." The current Rethug/ wingnut/ Blue Dog boogeyman of "government-controlled health care" is a direct descendant of the Reagan "government bad, unfettered free market good" trope. A good read, as usual.

Advice Not Followed

A recent obituary for Wall Street Journal reporter Alan Otten contained this nugget of information:

"David Broder. . .said he considered Mr. Otten his mentor. Broder told Washingtonian that Mr. Otten had provided crucial early advice: Reporters should avoid becoming the buddies of those they covered."

David "The Dean" Broder, of course, was famous for cozying up to Bushit slug Turdblossom Rove, as The Dean himself memorably recounted:

"Let me disclose my own bias in this matter. I like Karl Rove. In the days when he was operating from Austin, we had many long and rewarding conversations. I have eaten quail at his table and admired the splendid hill country landscape from the porch of the historic cabin Karl and his wife Darby found miles away and had carted to its present site on their land." -- May 18, 2003, Washington Post

So the Dean dispenses advice that he himself ignores. Anyone surprised?

Obamacare: The Grand Unified Theory

In all the discussion (see below) of what is going on with President Obama and his seemingly inexplicable "strategery" on health care reform, there is an emerging scenario for the endgame. Given that Obama has promised to simultaneously "change the tone in Washington" and deliver health care reform, in reality he's got two "constituencies" (and, sorry, neither of them are progressives) he's got to convince: Senate "Blue Dogs", specifically Baucus, Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson, Kent Conrad, etc.; and swing Independents. With that in mind, here's the Grand Unified Theory that's emerging in the blogosphere of what the end game might be about:

1. Come mid-September, when no "bipartisan" bill emerges from the Senate Finance Committee, Obama can then forcefully and honestly say to Baucus, Conrad and the other Blue Dogs: "We tried your way, were patient, took hits from progressives only to arrive at this point. The Rethugs weren't negotiating in good faith. They don't want health care reform, they want a failure to hang around our necks in 2010 and 2012. Now it's time to try it my way." With the leverage of having sacrificed considerable political capital to allow the Blue Dogs to try a "bipartisan" approach, Obama could then insist on party unity in passing, through reconciliation if necessary, a health reform bill with a public option.

2. Obama can go to the American public and say, "I tried. I took the shots the Rethugs and their insurance industry patrons doled out. I even took hits from my own party to give the Senate time to negotiate a "bipartisan" bill, but the Rethugs put partisan advantage over the interests of the American people. I committed to working toward a new tone in Washington, and will continue to do that. But when the other side is committed only to finding ways to sabotage those efforts, the time eventually must come to say 'Enough, we need to get on with the nation's business.'"

It's possible Obama will redeem himself and his agenda after all. But, as many others have said, he needs to come out fighting before it's too late and show us that Democrats can govern in the public interest.

The Beat Goes On

Adding to the chorus, from the blogosphere, to Paul Krugman, Eugene Robinson, Robert Reich, Joe Klein, and Bob Herbert, we now hear from Frank Rich on Obama's mistaken strategy of accommodating Rethugs who want nothing other than his defeat and their return to power.

UPDATE: And Eleanor Clift.

Of Teeing Up and Teeing Off

Robert Reich asks the pertinent question, "Why is the Gang of Six deciding health care?" and answers by telling us it's because the Obama Administration wants the Senate Finance Committee to "tee up the final bill." Allowing Max "Insurance Industry Contributions" Baucus and Charles "My Assley Is" Grassley to tee up a final "reform" bill is asking for a 50 over par round and missing the cut.

Bob Herbert says Dems are concerned about Obama's apparent softness and what the hell is going on in the President's mind. Does teeing off your base while trying to "appease the unappeasable" (in Paul Krugman's words) make sense?

Wingnut of the Week

We would be remiss if we didn't bring you this look inside the birther/ teabagger/ freeper/ wingnut hive mind, courtesy of Wonkette. Seems Kristen "My Mom Couldn't Spell Khristian" Atkinson wrote a slimy little piece of pure wingnut scat over at Clownhall, and Wonkette felt honor-bound to mock it as the crazed nonsense it was. Ms. Atkinson foolishly decided to respond via email, and more hilarity ensues. (H/t to Germantown correspondent Brian-- once again, the check's in the mail, my man!)

Rethug Police Blotter, Teabag Edition

Idaho Rethug party official cum Paultard cum teabag enthusiast Challiss "Cuz Chalice Would Be a Sissy Name" McAffee has been arrested and charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon for pulling his penile compensator out in a confrontation over a foreclosed property. You da man, uh, Challiss.

The Party of Maybe, Maybe Not

It's hard to escape the lingering foreboding that the Obama Administration just doesn't get it when it comes to sizing up their opposition and how to win the health reform struggle. For all the savvy of people like David Axelrod (whom we admire greatly) and Rahmbo (not so much), much of what has occurred over the past few months can be interpreted, rightly or wrongly, as the Administration not having its message and act together. A Plan B? We're not sure there was a Plan A.

And trusting the Rethugs as good-faith negotiating partners? Rethug Sen.Kyl is all but pleading with the Administration to stop negotiating with his fellow Rethugs, saying he doubts "a single Republican" will vote for reform. Not one! Now that's party purpose and unity, however evil it may be.

Paul Krugman thinks its time for Obama to win back progressives' trust and change his high-Broder "bipartisan" strategy:

"It's hard to avoid the sense that Mr. Obama has wasted months trying to appease people who can't be appeased, and who take every concession as a sign that he can be rolled."

Eugene Robinson is in a similar quandry:

"Here's the least surprising news of the week: Americans are souring on the Democratic Party. The wonder is that it's taken so long for public opinion to curdle. There's nothing agreeable about watching a determined attempt to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory."

So, perhaps we're seeing the two parties aligned thusly: the "Party of No" Rethugs full of conviction and passion, against the "Party of Maybe, Maybe Not" Dems not sure they have the conviction to fight for anything.

Fox News - The New Liberals

Whazzat?!? It's Jon Stewart's hilarious take on the smarmy hypocrites that comprise Fox News.

"A Party of Nihilists"

That's Joe Klein's assessment of today's Rethug Party.

Quote of the Day

"This is not about the politics of populism. It's about the politics of the jackboot. It's not about an opposition that has every right to free expression. It's about an angry minority engaging in intimidation backed by the threat of violence." -- E. J. Dionne in this morning's WaPo, writing about the gun-toters at President Obama's public appearances. Read his whole article.

How long will it take for the mainstream media to pick up on this reality? After someone is shot?

Health Care Wednesday

We have two items for your consideration today - HuffPo's Jason Linkins on the anonymous White House aides dissing progressives about the public option. Now, to these craven asshats, we're the "left of the left," which in the real world makes them... Rethugs. These geniuses were shocked! shocked I tells ya' to find out the public option is more than Obamas's "sliver" in the overall reform package. To paraphrase Barney Frank (below), what planet were these people living on for the past 6 months?

In another take, the Onion reveals the direction our "leaders" are taking us (h/t to Germantown correspondent Brian - your check is in the mail!).

Barney Frank, Giving Them Hell

At a town hall meeting in Dartmouth, MA, Rep. Barney Frank was confronted by the usual tea bagger/birther/wingnut Rethug astroturfers trying to shout him down. Frank would have none of it. One nitwit was comparing health insurance reform to Nazi Germany, and that was when Frank pushed back hard on the winger:

"On what planet do you spend most of your time? . . .trying to have a conversation with you would be like arguing with a dining room table."

In another instance, one loudmouth insisted that illegal immigrants would receive health care under the House bill, before Frank pointed out the exact wording in the bill that excluded such coverage.

The bottom line is that the wingnuts only listen to hate radio and Fux, and don't bother to educate themselves on actual legislation, etc. We wish that Sen. Specter would have stood up to the dopes at his town hall meetings as Barney Frank has, but maybe that's why Rep. Joe Sestak will be running in the PA Democratic primary against the former Rethug.

Stakes

Two articles worth reading on the health care reform struggle: Jonathan Alter's piece in Newsweek calling out Democrats who have "forgotten the stakes...[that health care reform] is the most important civil rights bill in a generation."

AFL-CIO's Rich Trumka is one Democrat who hasn't forgotten. In his interview with HuffPo, Trumka says he's willing to use labor's clout to punish Democrats who take labor's support but don't vote on labor's issues - one being a public option. Maybe with more people like Trumka speaking up, the Obama Administration will get some steel in its spine and go after the Blue Dogs and the Senate grandees in its own party.

Sorry, But We're Not Sorry

No, we're not sorry to hear of Robert Novak's death at age 78. Churlish? Perhaps. But Novak, who proudly adopted the epithet "The Prince of Darkness," was a right-wing hack and shill for the powerful for over 40 years as a columnist and cable pundit. (Tellingly, among the first to rush out with press releases were Missy McConnell and Man Tan Boehner.) Infamously, Novak was responsible for gladly doing the Bush Assministration's bidding in outing CIA agent Valerie Plame in 2003, in one of his more scurrilous columns. He was neither a nice man nor an honorable "journalist." He won't be missed by us.

More Companies Say "Bye" to Boo Hoo

The number of companies pulling their ads from the Glenn "Boo Hoo" Beck show on Fux has reached 20, with such heavyweights as Wal-Mart, Best Buy and CVS recently pulling the plug on Boo Hoo's hour of right wing rage. It's dawning on these corporate advertisers that unhinged babble from Boo Hoo might not be the best thing for their companies to be associated with.

At this rate, Boo Hoo will have to resort to YouTube to get his hate message out, maybe from a psychiatric ward.

Rep. Anthony Weiner for Health Insurance Reform Spokesman

In watching the normally aggravating "Morning Joe" today, we finally had a person who articulated the progressive case for a public option: New York Rep. Anthony Weiner. Weiner had Joe Scarborough ("Douche-borough" in Jon Stewart's memorable smackdown) unable to counter his argument that the public option -- for Weiner, it would be expansion of Medicare eventually to all Americans -- was the most cost effective way of financing our health care. Rep. Weiner kept asking a tongue-tied Doucheborough to identify the contribution that for-profit insurance companies make to health care, and why should Americans pay tens of billions of dollars for insurance company overhead and profits that don't make us any healthier.
Weiner is smart as a whip, and the Douche-man was impressed enough to invite him back this Thursday.

Rep. Weiner also scores bonus points for getting engaged to Hillary Clinton's aide Huma Abedin, who turned heads during last year's Democratic primaries.

Quote of the Day

"It would be interesting to see if Mr. DeLay can do the Perp Walk. Does he know that step?" -- Andrew Wheat, of Texans for Justice, the group that helped produce the criminal investigation of Tom "The Bug" DeLay, who will be on this season's "Dancing With The Stars."

Hands Off Our Pubes!

Clearly the wingnuts protesting the provision of health insurance to all Americans, decrying "socialism"/embracing Medicare, and the lowering of their health care costs, aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer -- they also formed the tea bagger movement that was protesting the President's policy of lowering their income taxes.

Here's a story from Wonkette that shows that some "deathers" not only have a problem with a public insurance option, but apparently have a problem with a "pubic" option, too. One which presumably would call for Gub'mint take over of our pubes. Now, that's socalesm for ya!

(hat tip to Germantown bureau chief Brian)

UPDATED WITH PHOTO!

One, Two, Cha Cha Cha

Think Progress reports that former House Majority Whip Tom "The Bug" Delay will be competing on "Dancing with the Stars." The Bug, a former pest exterminator from Texas, left the House of Representatives under investigation for money laundering, and was one of the nastiest thugs ever to descend on Washington, DC. What a hoot it would be to see him in leotards doing a jazz number, or better yet in a bright ruffled shirt and Cuban heels doing a flamenco.

To The Bug, we can only say, "break a leg!" . . .literally.

(photo: After The Bug got trapped)

Quote of the Week

"Ultimately, if the President decides he's going to go with a reform effort that doesn't include a public option, what he will have done is spent a ton of political capital, riled up an incredibly angry right-wing base that's been told this is a plot to kill Grandma, and he will have achieved something that doesn't change health care very much and that doesn't save us very much and won't do much for the American people. It's just not a very good thing to spend a lot of political capital on." MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Meet the Press yesterday, responding to reports that the White House might be willing to sign a health reform bill that didn't include a public option. Oh, and one more "downside:" it will let the Rethugs and everyone in the world know that this is a President who can be easily rolled.

Sunday WaPo Reading

It looks like both Fred Hiatt and Broderella have gone on vacation and let someone else write their op/eds today. On the other hand, Kathleen Parker, whose occasional bouts of sanity we've noted here, is back on the "Bush-good, Obama-not-so-much, media-biased" wingnut train.

Hiatt goes over the "three camps" in the health reform debate, concluding that the camp represented by the Rethugs and their insurance industry financers ain't got nothing but fear mongering.

Broder, who must be taking a colonic in Florida while someone writes his latest entry into the conventional wisdom, passes modest, albeit of course highly caveated judgment on the efficacy of the stimulus on stopping the economy's slide into Great Depression II.

Parker is back from her walk on the sane side to argue that Obama has not been "treated to the same scrutiny" as Dumbya was on the subject of a Faith-Based Initiatives program in the White House. Well, lady, the reason Dumbya was "scrutinized" was because of well-founded suspicions that the primary function of the initiative was to funnel money to his Christian religious right base (hello, Revs. Dobson and Robertson, have a grant Tony Perkins). Had he not been "scrutinized," Turdblossom and his minions would have run roughshod over the system. Nice try, though.

"The Return of Right-Wing Rage"

There's an op/ed getting a lot of play around the blogs today, and rightly so. It's by the WaPo's Rick Perlstein reminding us why progressives should never be surprised by right-wing rage, particularly after they lose power to the Democrats. And why we shouldn't be surprised by the media's collusion. Here it is.

Related issue: how long before Fred Hiatt Froomkins Perlstein for his apostasy?

Umm. . . .Oops!

A couple of high profile "detainees" have made the news:

First, Bob Dylan was stopped by police in Long Branch, NJ while strolling through a neighborhood back on July 23. He was peering in the window of a house for sale. "How does it feel, to be on your own, with no directions home, like a complete unknown. . ."

Second, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan was detained for a couple of hours at the Newark Airport before the Embassy of India intervened, and Khan was released to continue his flight to Chicago. Indians regard Khan as we would regard a combination of Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, and the Jonas Brothers. . . except viewed by a few hundred million more people.

"DON'T TASE ME, BRO!!"

It's A Fact, Jack

While on a day trip to Baltimore, we noticed that the Baltimore Sun actually has a sports columnist by the rather penile name of Peter Schmuck. Just thought our readers would enjoy that bit of trivia. (Could his middle name be "Dick?")

Whole-ly Shit

By now you've no doubt heard about (W)hole Foods CEO and flaming Randian John "Galt" Mackey's op/ed in the Wall Street Journal (where else?), slamming "ObamaCare", unions, and social responsibility in general. As you walk through the deconstruction of Mackey's rant by Sadly, No! keep this tool's pernicious, yoyo (you're on your own) philosophy in mind any time you might have the urge to step into a (W)hole Foods again. If you must think "upscale, overpriced produce," think: Bloom, Harris Teeter, Balducci's, anything but (W)hole Foods -- and please tell your friends, too. (BTW, in the Sadly, No! post, check out the list on the produce board behind Mackey.)

(Photo: Ass-Whole John "Galt" Mackey)

Speaking of Boo Hoo...

... Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert take on the assclown and his rapidly shrinking advertiser base. (h/t to Rising Hegemon and HuffPo)

"Unreasoning, Unappeasable Opposition"

That's how Paul Krugman describes the Rethug approach to politics -- past, present and future. He also scores the "mainstream media," having predicted earlier this year that every outrage, lie and cynical tactic employed by the Rethugs would be

"...dutifully given credence by major media organizations that somehow can't bring themselves to declare the accusations unequivocally false."

Along with most progressives, we hope the time will soon come when all the phony "bipartisanship" is put aside and we get the health insurance reform the country voted for.

Boo Hoo's Got Something To Cry About

We're seeing more and more advertisers pulling their ads from the excreable Glenn Beck Show, hosted by Fux's premier mental case Glenn "Boo Hoo" Beck. Sargento Cheese, GEICO, and Men's Warehouse are the latest to pull their advertisements from the Dreck Boy's hour of hate. Proctor and Gamble, and Progressive Insurance had pulled their ads earlier.

Pressure needs to be kept on the remaining advertisers, who may be unaware of the Dreck Boy's unhinged daily rants and that their brands are being associated with his lunacy.

The Dick Takes Aim at Dumbya

The rift between former Preznit Dumbya and (Vice) President The Dick appears to be widening. In conversations The Dick has had with past colleagues, he's expressing disappointment with Dumbya for drifing out of The Dick's orbit in the second term, and becoming "soft" in the face of growing public dissent. Of course, The Dick's authoritarian nature objected to Dumbya listening to the people over his sage advice, for example, to invade an Arab country that had nothing to do with 9-11, among other excellent policy successes that The Dick can lay claim to. Of course, The Dick is still steamed at Dumbya for not pardoning his fellow felon, Scooter Libby, in order to assure Scooter's permanent silence about The Dick's central role in outing CIA agent Valerie Plame.

The Dick's memoirs should make interesting reading. However, everyone needs to understand that The Dick's disappointment in Dumbya is just the beginning: this sinister man really despises democracy and our most cherished institutions above all.

Vaya Con Dios, Les Paul

Sad news that guitar legend Les Paul, the virtual inventor of the electric guitar, has died at the age of 94. Paul's invention of the electric solid body guitar in the early 1940s paved the way for electric guitars, including the Gibson Les Paul, and rock and roll music. Paul is also credited with popularizing multitrack recording, which allows singers to record multiple tracks of themselves on the same recording. With his former wife Mary Ford, Paul also had a string of hits in the early 1950s, including "Lover", "Mocking Bird Hill," and "Via Con Dios." Quite a legacy.

The Wisdom of Solomon

With the release of documents relating to the Rove-inspired firings of U.S. Attorneys under the Bush Assministration comes evidence that John "Oink-Oink" Solomon, former Fred Hiatt fair-haired boy at the WaPo and now executive editor at the Moonie Times, was offering advice to the Bushies about containing damage as news of the political nature of the firings leaked out. What business do people like Solomon, Hiatt, and any number of anonymous hacks have being employed as "journalists" you might ask. Why indeed, since their only interest seems to be to serve the holy bottom line and cozy up to the powerful, Rethug-wired special interests that share their cynical view of life inside the Beltway.

(Photo: step away from the trough, Oink-Oink)

Wingnut Militias on Rise

Far-right wing militias are growing in several areas of the country, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Continued hostility to Hispanic immigrants, a poor economy and the first African-American President have served to mobilize wingnuts with a grievance against the government. The tea-baggers, birthers, and health scare mobs are tips of the militia iceberg, as seen in Portsmouth, NH yesterday, when a loon showed up with a gun strapped to his leg at President Obama's town hall meeting. He was carrying a sign which partially quoted Thomas Jefferson that the tree of liberty occasionally had to be watered with the blood of patriots and tyrants. Nice, but maybe we should start the watering process with putting these terrorists-to-be behind bars before they kill innocent people.

Wipe That, Um, Smile Off Your Face

One of the numbskulls at Sen. Specter's town hall meeting in Lebanon, PA was a woman by the name of Katy Abram. When called on for her question, she had a rambling speech, which sounded like a Glenn "Boo Hoo" Beck transcript. Miss Katy was later interviewed on Fux News, and, peering into the future, served up a world class howler:

"I don't want my children coming to me and asking me, 'Mom, why didn't you do anything. Why do we have to wait in line for, I don't know, toilet paper or anything."

BWAHAHAHA! That is what you get when you expose people of limited reasoning power to the lying bloviations of people like Boo Hoo Beck and Pills Limpballs, not to mention the health insurance industry-owned Rethuglican Party, who will always have plenty of toilet paper -- because of what they generate.

Rethug Rebranding Effort: Failure to Launch

Yet another Rethug "rebranding" effort has had a failure to launch. Rep. John "Man Tan" Boehner tried to get one up last year (heh). The latest fizzle, initiated by Rep. Eric "The Twit" Cantor, was kicked off with much Villager media buzz in May, but after the initial "listening" stop in Northern Virginia, there has yet to be another gathering or meeting. If only they had taken Stephen Colbert's advice!

Quote of the Day

"These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views -- but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades." -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, in an op-ed in USA Today.

Two points. First, the Rethug right has been misrepresenting this statement to mean that speaking out at town hall meetings is "un-American," when clearly Pelosi and Hoyer were talking about those that only want to disrupt and halt the town hall meetings so that discussions can't occur. In other words, typical Rethug tactics when the facts -- and votes -- are against you.

Second, in watching Sen. Specter's town hall meeting in heavily Rethuglican Lebanon, PA today, we were struck by the fact that the vast majority of the angry and misinformed audience readily declared that they were conservative Rethugs. So this was not a cross section of voters by any means -- something that CNN, for example, is avoiding mention of.

"I Am A Conservative American..."

AmericaBlog, among others, has this anonymous essay, entitled "I Am An American Conservative Shithead" (isn't the title an oxymoron...er oxymoran?).

Winky's Deep Thoughts On Health Care Reform

Well, we knew it wouldn't be long before former Alaska Gov. Winky You Betcha weighed in on the health care reform debate. Winky, of course, issues her major policy statements on her Facebook account, so we know this was an important missive. However, we were thrown by the Wasilla Quitta's reference to "Obama's death panel," which doesn't appear in any of the bills before Congress, not even in Alaska-speak. She thinks that this non-existent panel would deny her Down syndrome child care, while private health insurance companies already deny coverage to such children for their "pre-existing condition." So children with Down syndrome would be better served by reform of the existing system, not continuation of it as Winky would like.

We can only assume that Winky picked up the reference from one of Pills Limpballs' or Boo-Hoo Beck's fevered imaginings. Which is where most of Rethuglican "thought" originates these days. . .

(photo: Winky -- so much time, so little to do)

What Obama Should Do and How He Should Do It

Huffington Post brings us two enlightening pieces on the crossroads President Obama faces on the health insurance reform fight and, by extension, his presidency. For the "what" Obama should do, see Robin Wells' piece; for "how" he should go about it, see David Bromwich's piece. It's time for him to step up.

"An Unhealthy Debate"

That's the title of this morning's lead editorial in the WaPo. You think, "Finally. They're going to go after the teabagging, town hall disrupting, astroturfing crackpots and their Rethug and corporate backers!" Um...wrong!

After spending one (long) sentence dealing with Rethugs who "fanned the flames of uniformed opposition" to health care reform, the neo-con artists of the WaPo editorial board then spend 3 (long) paragraphs taking to task Democrats "vilifying the health-insurance industry," Speaker Pelosi's "round-up-the-usual-suspects demagoguery," and President Obama for "peddling health reform as an everybody-wins scenario." I'm trying to recall a more duplicitous, dishonest scoring of recent events in the health (s)care debate. Even though I don't read The Weekly Standard, Washington Times, or Wall Street Journal, I'd have to guess they'd be hard pressed to beat this p.o.s.

"GOP Freak Show"

Conservative radio talk show host John Batchelor is at it again - telling the truth about what's going on in the Republican Party.

Saturday Morning Read

Author! Author!
Bill O'Liely has been abducted and a libtard ghost-writer has written an admiring puff-piece in the nationally-syndicated Parade about President Obama!! Did O'Liely see what his ghost-writer wrote before he signed the check?? Was this run by Roger Ailes??!! How could you say such positive things about "President" Barack Mohammed Adolf Josef Kenyatta Obama!!??

"No Party of Einsteins"
Charles Blow discusses the birther, authoritarian, know-nothing hooliganism on display in the kook right's attempts to derail health care reform/ the Obama Administration in his NY Times op/ed. Citing polling showing 58% of Rethugs aren't convinced of Obama's Hawaiian birth (about the same percentage of Rethugs that believe humans were created 10,000 years ago), Blow concludes "This is no party of Einsteins." True. But, unfortunately, it is a party whose base is angry, well-armed, and responds readily to incitement.

Per Above, We Offer Exhibit A
As if further evidence were needed, Winky You Betcha has weighed in (if a lightweight could be said to weigh in) the health care scare derby, using her Down syndrome child Trig as a prop once again. No party of Einsteins, indeed. No party of truth or character either.

Rethugs "Political Terrorists"

This morning's column by WaPo business analyst Steven Pearlstein is a breath of fresh air in the paper's neo-con miasma. Pearlstein lambastes the Rethugs for their "cynical effort to gain partisan advantage" in the health care reform debate. Our favorite bite:

"Health reform is a test of whether this country can function once again as a civil society--whether we can trust ourselves to embrace the big, important changes that require everyone to give up something in order to make everyone better off. Republican leaders are eager to see us fail that test. We need to show them that no matter how many lies they tell or how many scare tactics they concoct, Americans will come together and get this done.

"If health reform is to be anyone's Waterloo, let it be theirs."

Bravo!

When Pigs Attack

There's an interesting spin on Pills Limpballs' recent statements on his hate radio show comparing President Obama to Adolf Hitler. Many of the people who were smugly condemning Moveon.org's comparisons of Dumbya to Hitler several years ago are being asked by Glenn Greenwald what they make of Limpballs' comparison of Obama to Hitler.

Let's see how many in the mainstream media and other institutions line up to condemn the leader of the wingnut Rethuglican movement. Glenn will be keeping score.

(photo: our apologies to pigs everywhere)

Tali-bye-bye To Mehsud

Some welcome news from Pakistan: Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud has apparently been killed by a U.S. airstrike. Mehsud's Taliban organization was responsible for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, and has been implicated in last year's terrorist attacks in Mumbai. The communications from the Pakistani Taliban have gone strangely silent, which indicates that Mehsud indeed has been killed.

One senses the noose tightening around the Taliban and al Qaeda, even as they step up attacks in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. The calm years that they spent during the Bush/Cheney Assministration reequipping and reestablishing themselves are over, now that the focus is back on the group that actually attacked us on 9/11. The killing or capture of bin Laden and al Zawahiri on President Obama's watch would be huge, and would contrast with Dumbya's fumbled and misdirected war against a country that wasn't involved in the 9/11 attacks.

You Drink First, Dreck

Less than one week after accusing President Obama of hating white people -- presumably including the President's own mother and grandparents -- Fux's mentally disturbed star Glenn "Dreck" Beck did a schtick on his program where he imagined poisoning House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's drink. The HuffPo has the video.

Apparently, Fux will allow Dreck to swim in the sewer as long as he likes, despite losing such sponsors as Procter and Gamble in recent days. Meanwhile, the rest of us are just waiting for Dreck to have a career-ending on-air psychotic breakdown, so that even his cynical, wingnut employers will feel a rare sense of shame and pity for this damaged person. Until then, fix that drink, but you go first Dreck.

Sotomayor Confirmed; Rethugs Weep

Court of Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor will be the next Justice of the Supreme Court. The Senate voted to confirm Judge Sotomayor today by a vote of 68 to 31, with only 9 Rethuglicans joining the Democratic majority. She will be sworn in shortly. May she have a long and distinguished term.

Aside from the fact that the Supreme Court will be getting a highly qualified and experienced jurist in Judge Sotomayor, the Rethuglicans' clumsy and transparent focus on ethnicity/race issues before and during the hearings will certainly hurt them with Hispanic voters, perhaps for a generation. Ah yes, a win-win of potentially epic proportions.

BONUS: As a well-deserved finger in the eye for Senate Rethugs, Sen. Al Franken, much reviled on the far right, was presiding over the Senate during the roll call vote and announced the results. SWEEEEET!

Guess Who's Coming To The Town Hall Meetings

Members of America's major labor organization will be confronting the right-wing mobs at the Congressional Democrats' town hall meetings this month, according to the AFL-CIO. If we were the health care-opposing wingnuts showing up to disrupt the town hall meetings, we'd be a little nervous about seeing a few dozen angry, physical steelworkers, mine workers or auto workers who have lost or may be losing their health care if the wingers have their way. It should make for some interesting group dynamics. This could be a good test of whether the wingnuts' health insurance covers all forms of bodily injury. BWAHAHAHAHAHA.

Fair and Balanced Lite

CNN is refusing to run an ad critical of the health insurance industry.

What, did Rupert Murdock just purchase CNN? Or did Loopy Lou Dobbs have that as a clause in his contract with CNN?

The Rump is Smaller Than We Thought

According to a new Gallup Poll, there are now 29 States plus DC with a "sizable" Democratic registration advantage, as opposed to only 4 with a sizable Rethug registration advantage. Note this is only registration, but it continues to highlight the problem Rethugs have with identification with their rump party -- even a number of Southern states they typically carry show sizable registration advantages for Dems. Now if we can only get those Dems to vote Democrat and get to the polls on Election Day...

(h/t to Germantown correspondent Brian)

Kathleen Parker, Sane Republican?

We hope Kathleen Parker is ready to get a huge wingnut hate dump on her eMail, thanks to her surprisingly honest op/ed in today's WaPo. In it, Parker, who once again takes a passing shot at Winky You Betcha ("a pretty gal with a mocking little wink"), largely agrees with Sen. George Voinovich's (R-OH) recent complaint about the Southern regional rump party the Rethugs have become. As evidence of her belief that the "ignorant, right-wing, Bible-thumping rednecks are ruining the party," she cites the birthers, who have assumed "kudzu qualities among Republicans in the South." The wingnut rage that's been fueling the "party of no" may work to galvanize a largely Southern, white base but, as Parker concludes, "before the party of the Great Emancipator can rise again, Republicans will have to face their inner Voinovich and drive a stake through the heart of old Dixie."

The Health Care Wars

As we noted yesterday, the manufactured "grass roots" movement that is seeking to derail health care reform is in full swing wherever Congressional Democrats are holding town meetings to answer their constituents' questions. It's good to see Democrats pushing back. Local papers are describing the astroturf protesters as "thugs" and "a mob," as they certainly are, shouting down the speakers and refusing to let a dialog happen. They're also acting on the instructions of the Rethuglican Party and the health insurance industry shills who are trying to keep the American health care system dysfunctional and profitable for them. What the thugs apparently don't understand is that they're the victims of the current system, which will boot them out if they lose their jobs, will deny them coverage if they have a preexisting condition, and which will jack up their premiums each year until they are bankrupted. Live and learn, or in this case, learn and die.

Happy 48th to the 44th

President Obama celebrates his birthday today. He was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii, making him a U.S. citizen, a fact accepted by mentally competent people. Speaking of mental competence, how about birther queen Orly "Taint" Taitz's out-of-control hysterics on MSNBC yesterday with David Shuster and Tamryn Hall? Wow, fit her for a straight jacket! Even (M)Ann Coulter called the birthers "cranks," and that's saying something.

Astroturfers Bedazzle Credulous Media

Firedoglake has two interesting articles on the recent frother bum-rushing of Democratic congressmen's town hall meetings, and the unquestioning acceptance by some in the media that this is "grassroots America." Check them out here and here. Fortunately, the Obama White House, Democratic Party and allied groups are going to engage in a counteroffensive aimed at exposing the astroturfing frother rent-a-mobs. But how long will it take for the Villagers to realize they've been duped by the Rethug frothers and the insurance lobbyists funding them? Tick, tick, tick...

(Image: word to the sheeple)

Is Loopy Lou Circling the Drain?

An Associated Press story reports that CNN's resident wingnut Lou "Loopy Lou" Dobbs has become an increasing embarrassment to his network. Last year, Dobbs was incessantly yapping about the threat of "illegal immigrants" spreading leprosy, etc. and creating a national security problem. Polls at the time showed that Americans were more concerned about hair products than about illegal immigration, but Dobbs pressed on. Recently, Loopy Lou been on a crusade about Obama's birth certificate, despite stories on his own network that proved the birther claims utterly false. Now, his cringe-worthy broadcast has fallen 15% in viewers, and CNN's brass is getting nervous about Loopy Lou. About time.

Birthers Find Smoking Gun, Shoot Selves

Birther uber-crank Orly "Taint" Taitz has found the true Obama birf certificate from Kenya! Yes, it's true! At least in her "mind." Unfortunately, the thing doesn't pass the sniff, geographic or historical accuracy tests. But the Russian-born Taint is... um... forging ahead, telling World Nut Daily, "I'm forcing the issue, where Obama will have to respond."

Oh, yes. We're sure President Obama has you on his radar screen. He tracks all the demands of crackpots, loons, tea baggers and racists in order to promptly respond to their legitimate concerns. Nonetheless, the response we would suggest would be, "Please take your smoking gun and eat it!"

(Photo: Orly "Taint" Taitz with her smoking gun)

We Rest Our Case

As if to prove Frank Rich's point, and the long-running meme of incoherent wingnut fury, we have this cautionary tale of a fevered Glenn "Boo-Hoo" Beck fan named Nancy Genovese who was busted for... oh hell, read the story.

Let this be a warning to the Boo-Hoo fans who take his and other crackpot blowhards' black-helicopter-paranoid-DT visions seriously. (P.S., she's not the only one who should get a psychiatric examination!)

Frank Rich on Beer and Birthers

It's always a pleasure to read the NY Times' Frank Rich. His focus today is on the "conversation on race" that the Gates episode and subsequent "beer summit" was supposed to engender. What is really going on, as Rich explains, is that it's exposing "racial and nativist panic", especially among the tony Tories (eg., Wee Willie Kristol, the blue bloods at National Review, the Fux Nutwork gassers, etc.-- in other words, the Rethuglican establishment), who are fond of stoking fears using white working-class "surrogates" (pawns) like "Joe" (not his real name) "the Plumber" (not his profession) and the New Haven firefighters, with whom they have nothing in common, to advance their reactionary worldview.

The Perils of "Bipartisan Consensus"

The wonderful (ex-WaPo) cartoonist Ruben Bolling has this take on President Obama's seeming fetish for seeking "bipartisan consensus" when bold action is required (sorry - we love the guy, but he's not perfect). LOL the last panel...

For a serious examination of the problem, see Steve Benen's posting at Washington Monthly.

"Boo-Hoo" Beck's Clunker Conspiracy

Fux's quintessential crackpot, Glenn "Boo-Hoo" Beck, is weighing in on the "cash for clunkers" program. His beef? Well, dontcha know it's more of the same wingnut melange of silly paranoia, misinformation, half-truths, and outright lies, seasoned with salty tears from Boo-Hoo's porcine eyes. Check it out here.

Has the Boo-Hoo trip-to-the-asylum countdown begun yet?

The "Quitta from Wasilla" Is Still Quittin'

Despite an announcement by the Simi Valley Rethuglican Womens' Club, former Alaska Governor Winky You Betcha won't be attending their event next weekend at the Ronnie Raygun Presidential Library and Movie Set. This is one of several events over the past 6 months where Winky has miscommunicated or cancelled out of appearances, and left her legion of faithful goofs to fend for themselves. Perhaps if they offered her a clothing allowance in addition to paying for her travel and lodging. . .

Southern Fried Idiots

A new poll out from Research 2000 indicates that while the vast majority of Americans believe that President Obama was born in the U.S., Southern whites make up the most obvious block of "birthers." As many as 70 percent of Southern whites may believe that the President was not born in the U.S., in contrast to whites in other regions of the country. Of course, that's the region with the poorest school systems and long history of racial bigotry. They can't accept the fact that America elected an African-American as their President.

The birther controversy was hatched on the racist far-right, and has managed to infiltrate its way into cable TV air time. Lou "Kill the Meskins" Dobbs on CNN is one of the most prominent weasels trying to pump the bogus story, and was recently told by CNN's president to drop his birther BS.