Americans Released By Iran - And It's All Obama's Fault!

News Item:

Several Republican presidential candidates criticized the Obama administration's decision to swap seven Iranian prisoners for The Washington Post's reporter Jason Rezaian and three other Americans on Saturday.

Horrible!  Swapping the four Americans for seven Iranians!  Another sign of weakness and failure!

Uh, except:

A helpful reminder that Ronald Reagan traded arms to Iran for U.S. hostages (plus that illegal war in Nicaragua): https://t.co/K1ynrTIJ7O

— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) January 16, 2016

 St. Ronnie of Hollywood's Iran- Contra missiles- for- hostages? Now that was a deal!

UPDATE:  Wonkette has more commentary on reaction from right- wing shitsacks. 

The Republican "Insurrection" Metastasizes

Obama Derangement Syndrome. Yes, it is a bit like beating a dead horse, but the New York Times senses that we've entered a new phase in Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid Party efforts to undermine President Obama and his legacy:

It is a peculiar, but unmistakable, phenomenon: As Barack Obama’s presidency heads into its twilight, the rage of the Republican establishment toward him is growing louder, angrier and more destructive.

Republican lawmakers in Washington and around the country have been focused on blocking Mr. Obama’s agenda and denigrating him personally since the day he took office in 2009. But even against that backdrop, and even by the dismal standards of political discourse today, the tone of the current attacks is disturbing. So is their evident intent — to undermine not just Mr. Obama’s policies, but his very legitimacy as president. [snip]

If this insurrection is driven by something other than a blend of ideological extremism and personal animosity, it is not clear what that might be. But it is ugly, it deepens mistrust of government and it harms the office of the president, not just Mr. Obama.

There's a lot in the editorial between the "snip," so have a look.

All the key words are there:  "destructive," "rage," "denigrating," "insurrection," "animosity," "ugly," "mistrust," "ideological extremism," etc.  That we are even in this discussion, we believe, is a direct result of left and moderate voters not going to the polls in the 2010 and 2014 off-year elections, at the Federal, State and local levels.  It's what has saddled this country with a claque of ultra-reactionary office-holders who flaunt the popular will and Democratic governance, and who are determined to hold onto power at all costs.

BONUS:  Reinforcement of the above, via human/ reptile hybrid Dick "Dick" Cheney, from Jay Bookman at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"Terrible Conclusion" Quote of the Day

"That letter to Iranian leaders from 47 Republican senators could well destroy critical bipartisanship in U.S. foreign policy for years to come and treacherously undermine the bargaining power of the person constitutionally authorized to conduct American affairs abroad—the President of the United States. On top of what House Speaker John Boehner did by unilaterally inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress, this letter seriously points to one terrible conclusion: a formidable number of Congressional Republicans hate President Obama more than they love America." -- (emphasis added) Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, writing about the treachery of the 47 Senate Rethuglicans who are, among other things, signaling our adversaries that President Obama doesn't represent the U.S. in foreign relations.  Worth a read.

BREAKING: Rudy Giuliani Still An A-hole

Has-been former New York Mayor Rudy "Noun, Verb, 9/11" Giuliani yields to no one in his willingness to say the most vile things in his never-ending quest for attention:

“I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America,” Giuliani said during the dinner at the 21 Club, a former Prohibition-era speakeasy in midtown Manhattan. “He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.”

Koch brothers employee of the year Gov. Scott "Kochhead" Walker (R-Kochland) was the featured guest at the dinner attended by approximately 60 Republican plutocrats and media types. Walker just sat there like the cipher he is when Noun, Verb, 9/11 Giuliani slurred the President. (Walker still won't contradict Noun, Verb, 9/11 Giuliani.  What a coward.)

Apparently, efforts by right-wingers to de-legitimatize the President, to make him the foreign Kenyan usurper of their wet dreams, refuse to die despite two electoral landslides confirming his legitimacy and authority.  (If they want a real case study in political illegitimacy, they need look no farther than the 2000 election decided by the Supreme Court, in which Al Gore beat Dumbya by over 500,000 votes.) Sometimes, it's the dog whistle that's intended just for the racist dolts in the Republican base; sometimes, it's a more direct slur like Noun, Verb, 9/11 Giuliani's.  But it arises from the same animus that a Democrat -- a Democrat of color, no less -- has out-smarted and beaten them time and again.

Steve Benen makes another good point about Noun, Verb, 9/11 Giuliani:

... [I]n 2015, the cheap, toxic rhetoric lingers. Unwilling or unable to engage the president on matters of policy, too many Republicans find it easier to attack the president personally, based on imaginary slights against the country.  

Dear Rudy, at the height of U.S./Russian tensions, you went on national television to declare Vladimir Putin a great leader. Maybe the president isn’t the one whose patriotism needs questioning.

Unfortunately, the more attention that's paid to outlandish comments like these by this pipsqueak philanderer, the more airtime he gets and the more the cycle is perpetuated. Let's just all agree he's an irredeemable a-hole and leave it at that.

UPDATE:  The New York Daily News' Wayne Barrett has this devastating, epic takedown of Noun, Verb, 9/11's vile attack on Obama.  A must read.

Obama's War On Christmas - Journamalist Edition

Over at the Moonie Washington Times, reprinting a 2013 rumination by reporter and not- the- brightest- light- on- the- Christmas- tree Joseph Curl is becoming something of a holiday tradition (much like Clement Moore's "'Twas The Night Before Christmas," except with more entitlement and Obama Derangement Syndrome in the mix).  It seems President Obama's tradition of leaving for Hawaii before Christmas (and making White House stenographers reporters pay for their own travel!) has turned Curl into a churl.  He longs for the good old Republican family values days when Dumbya took the White House stenographers press corps to the "ranch" at Crawford, Texas, after Christmas and at cut-rate prices:

That was President Bush. And every year for the past five, I've thought about what that meant to me. (By the way, some years, I got holiday duty, which meant I was off to Waco, Texas, the day after Christmas. But once again, the Bush White House had us covered: A press plane flew out with the president, and back then, reporters could pay $100 per family member for the plane ride. So sometimes, the family went along. For the kids, it was an adventure; for me, well, we were all together.) 

All that has changed with President Obama. No more press plane, for one. Reporters are on their own — so taking family is, say, $1,000 a pop. Not likely. And this president would never delay his trip to his island getaway. He's off every year well before Christmas. Hundreds and hundreds head off with him, leaving family behind. 

No Christmas at home. Instead, the Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort. Nice, but not exactly home. 

Anyway, that's why I think of George W. Bush every year in the week between Christmas and New Year's. Probably will till I die. Thanks, GWB.

We couldn't top the observations of Charles P. Pierce and Digby on "Curl's Complaint," so here they are, starting with Charles:

It takes a special kind of man to confess that his devotion can be bought on the cheap, let alone one who will reprint the Bill Of Sale every Christmas season. (This column apparently is going to be come a regular holiday treat for the whole family, like that kid who gets his tongue stuck to the flagpole.) Of course, there are some 5000-odd Americans who won't get to be home with their families for Christmas ever again. Thanks, GWB.

Your turn, Digby:

Those awful Obamas force the press corps to go to Hawaii in the middle of the winter. The humanity. And I'd guess they don't feel they could get away with having the taxpayers foot the bill for all the reporters' families to go with them as George W. Bush did. After all, there's no doubt that the Washington Times would dog them mercilessly if they tried it. 

You can be sure "Curl's Complaint" will appear in the Moonie Times every Christmas season through 2016, to be followed by a slightly edited version for President Hillary Clinton's Christmas getaway to some other godforsaken place.

(Photo:  The entitled and sorely miffed Joseph Curl)

Putting The "Ass" In Class

Apparently not knowing or caring where the line is separating a political hatchet job from a personal one, Rethuglican House staffer Elizabeth "The Ass in Class" Lauten attacked President Obama's daughters's appearance at the annual "turkey pardon" farce in an unusually nasty way on her Facebook page:

"Showing a little class" is something Lauten needs to practice….intensively.  Here are two teenage girls, participating in a farcical ceremony to pardon a turkey for Thanksgiving, and they're supposed to dress up in evening wear and white gloves, not roll their eyes once and act like…..teenagers?  And the snark about not dressing for "a spot at a bar?"  They're only 13 and 16 years old, beotch.  Maybe the likes of Elizabeth "The Ass In Class" Lauten can restrain their venom against the President's family for the next two years, but then again Rethuglican operatives like her lack the class to do that.

UPDATE:  She gone.  We still despair of the rebranding.

UPDATE II:  Looks like The Ass In Class was arrested as a teen.  Karma's a b*tch.

Sunday Comics - "Thanks A Lot, Obama!" Edition

At the recent CPAC nutfest gathering, President Obama was blamed for, well, everything scary, bad, awful, no good!  So, thanks a lot, Weakling Tyrant Obama!

(click to enlarge)

(Mike Luckovich, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle)

Off Their Rockers

Dana Milbank, blind squirrel (d)emeritus at the once great Washington Post  Bezos Bugle, writes about the bizarre conspiracy theories and just plain dumbassery that the Rethuglican base is awash in, and detects a linkage:

Obama conspiracy theories have flourished in the Deep South, where wealth and educational levels are both low. This makes sense: Where voters are least informed, they are most susceptible to misinformation peddled by talk-radio hosts and the like.

For this reason, voters in reliably Republican states, which tend to be poorer, with lower test scores, are more vulnerable to misinformation. To use one measure, the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress test of eighth-grade reading, all but one of the top 10 states were in Obama’s column in 2012. Of the 19 doing worse than average, 14 were red states.

 Of course, as Milbank also reports, the many Rethuglican sufferers of Obama Derangement Syndrome are more than willing to say something stupid, even if they know better,

... as a chance to register their displeasure with the president. Obama has driven a large number of Republican voters — [Public Policy Polling's Tom] Jensen puts it at 15 to 20 percent of the overall electorate — right off their rockers.

Another variation on the theme of "Why we can't have nice things in this country."

Sunday Read & Cartoon: Rethugs "Desperately Flailing on Obamacare"

(click to enlarge)

(Chris Weyant, The Hill)

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a good editorial on Obamacare and Republican nihilism.  Here's a snippet (but read it all here):

The fact remains that even though some big insurance companies have refused to sign up, states that have created insurance exchanges have seen the “magic of the marketplace” — once a favorite phrase of Republicans — drive down the cost of individual health insurance policies. In New York, Oregon and California, rates have fallen as much as 50 percent.

And while the Supreme Court famously upheld the individual mandate, it ruled that state governments could not be required to expand their Medicaid programs. More than 20 states, including Missouri, have refused to expand Medicaid programs to include the working poor, despite the huge financial windfall it would create. To say nothing of healthier populations and lower costs for the privately insured.

This stubborn refusal is driven strictly by politics, by the perverse hope that by keeping people sick and costs high, Republicans — who still have no better alternatives — can salvage some form of nihilist victory. This is profoundly shameful.

But, as we've seen for over 4  years, when it comes to any and all things Obama-related, there's no "shame gene" in the Rethuglican gene pool.

Hard Choices Cartoon of the Day

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l. to r. Limpballs, Drudge, Murdoch, Beck, Rove

Wingnuttery involves making some hard choices sometimes.

Quote of the Day

"I think today is something [different], the venom, the absolute venom, whatever we think is really underneath it all, it is something quite horrible." -- Pulitzer Prize winning historian Robert Caro, in an interview with New York Magazine's Frank Rich, speaking about the conservative media's obsessive hatred of Dems in general and the President in particular.  Obama Derangement Syndrome prompts wild conspiracy theories (Benghazi Benghazi!!!), smears (too numerous to note), birtherism, and the list goes on.

The "Obama Haters Book Club"

John Avlon has an interesting, and very disturbing, survey of the scores of vile Obama-hating screeds that have been published in book form in recent years. Avlon's whole "review" is worth a look because it serves to remind us how un-hinged and radical the far-right New Confederate/Rethuglican party and its shills have become. Beyond hate radio and Fox "News" spewing lies and misinformation about the President and his administration, there's a fairly healthy cottage industry of these fact-free, paranoid "Tales of Barack Hussein Obama, Scary Socialist Black Man." Here's a fragment of Avlon's piece:

"Over the past four years, no less than 89 obsessively anti-Obama books have been published, as now catalogued by The Daily Beast. I’m not talking about cool statements of policy difference, but overheated and often unhinged screeds painting a picture of the president as a dangerous radical hell-bent on undermining the Republic by any means necessary. It is hate and hyper-partisan paranoia masquerading as high-minded patriotism.

"Here’s the worst part—this steady drumbeat of incitement is having an impact on this presidential election because it has poisoned the well of civic discourse for many voters and those in their radius of damage. It has helped divide the nation beyond reason, distorting the president’s real record beyond all recognition."

Photo: We're sure she's read all of those books - at least we think she can read.