Testing 1, 2. . .Hellooooo!

An embarrassing FAIL at the right-wing National Review Online (also known as the world's sh**tiest website), where Rich "Sarah Starbursts" Lowry posts his most significant thoughts of all time. You betcha!

"I Have Come Here To Seek A New Beginning. . ."

President Obama's historic address in Cairo today marks a potential new era in our relationships with Muslim countries. Obama hit all of the right notes in emphasizing the need to reject and to counter violent extremism in defending the U.S., while encouraging Muslim nations to become more tolerant of divergent religions and viewpoints. Especially moving were his remarks about the need for women to have an equal role in society in order to progress and to prosper.

He also spoke strongly about a "two-state" solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, often refering to Palestine as a future nation. He also insisted that the Likudnik government of Israel stop expanding settlements on the Palestinian West Bank, a source of great concern to those wanting peace in the region.

Huffington Post has the video and speech transcript, and some good sidebar stories and reactions throughout the Muslim world.

(photo: CNN)

Wingnuts Gone Wild

In the aftermath of the murder of Dr. George Tiller, it's good to see some officials are taking right-wing hate speech seriously. Crooks and Liars has the story of right-wing nutbag radio mouth Hal "Heil" Turner, an anti-Semite and white supremacist who was taken into custody by authorities for inciting violence against State of Connecticut officials on his website. In his website rant, he called for "direct action against these individuals personally. . .obey the Constitution or die." That was over the line of free speech, and the Connecticut State Capitol police executed a warrant for the nutbag's arrest.

One hopes that he'll spend some meaningful time behind bars, preferably as the girlfriend of the baddest dudes in the jail.

Quote of the Day

"For all the talk of a media love affair with Obama, there is a deep and largely unconscious conservative bias in the media's discussion of policy. The range of acceptable opinion runs from the moderate left to the far right and cuts off more vigorous progressive perspectives." -- E.J. Dionne in today's WaPo. You don't have to watch the Fuxed News Channel to see this; just watch CNN or any of the major networks, especially the Sunday talk shows. The far right has peppered the mainstream media with extreme voices that often go without a vigorous challenge.

Sometimes the Squirrel Finds the Acorn...

... And sometimes it's just a nut. Writing in today's WaPo, Kathleen Parker looks aghast at the "fire-breathers on the right" that are obscuring the Rethug Party "message" (what message would that be: the urban hippity-hop one, the socialist/fascist/democommie Obama one, the party of "no" one, the "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" one? etc.). She does, however, stumble blindly on a few truisms about the Limpballs, Mad Randall Terrys, and Alan Keyes of the conservative movement: i.e., that the Rethugs lack a moderating voice and are stuck with the blowhard of the day to represent them.

Our reaction? You reap what you sow, lady, and the Rethugs (the elected ones) have at minimum tolerated, and more often have actively and relentlessly encouraged, the nuttier, more fringe elements of the crackpot right. Now you act surprised when they can't be "moderated." Of course they can't be moderated: you wouldn't have anyone left in the party willing to go out and teabag, or shout "socialist," or in the most horrific case, assassinate the "demons" you've concocted.

Rethug Aide Wanted "Furry Sex" With Minor

Ah yes, Rethuglican family values. . .

Police in Pennsylvania have arrested Alan "Panda" Berlin for soliciting sex from a minor. Panda was an aide to Pennsylvania Rethuglican State Senator Jane Orie, who has taken strong stands against sexual predators. Apparently Panda was caught when he proposed sex with a 15 year-old while wearing a panda costume. Yes, you read that right. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says that Panda met his would-be victim on "an internet site for 'furries,' an online community of people who adopt half-animal, half-human personas." Oookaaay.

This makes former Rethug House page-predator Rep. Mark Foley look, um, conservative.

(photo: The symbol of Rethuglican outreach to teens)

Poot Goes 'Pfffft'

Former House Speaker and stinkbomb thrower Newt "Poot" Gingrich is retracting his smear of Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor as a "racist." We've been hearing that the Rethuglican "leadership" in Congress was furious that Poot and party boss Pills Limpballs were out in front of cameras with their smear campaign against Judge Sotomayor, at a time when Senate Rethugs are erecting the facade of "reasonable concern." Poot then decided to beat a hasty retreat.

With Poot's backpedaling, that leaves long-time racists Pat "Pitchfork" Buchanan and Limpballs as the pasty white faces alleging "reverse racism" in some benign comments several years ago by the Judge. We can understand their tantrum: racism is their brand, dammit, and nobody's going to steal it from them.

(photo: Poot, shown in the few seconds per day that his mouth is shut)

The Terrorist at Fuxed News

One of Fuxed News Channel's resident hatemongers, Bill O'Liely, has been under intense criticism for his years of incendiary language leading up to the murder of Dr. George Tiller. He has yet to acknowledge any remorse or responsibility for the ugly climate that the wingnut media has promoted over the years on the abortion issue. But watch this clip, via Think Progress, as former National Organization for Women president Patricia Ireland defends Dr. Tiller, and ends up making O'Liely look like the dangerous buffoon that he is. She won't be interrupted by him, and she gives him a nice slap at the end when he refers to the murdered doctor as "Dr. Killer."

Well done.

"Foaming-in-the-mouth Crazies"

Re frothing Sotomayor-induced wingnut seizures, Bob Herbert calls 'em like he (and we) sees 'em in this caustic salvo appearing in today's NY Times. Herbert lays into the sickening hypocrisy of the racist right and their cowardly minions in Congress. Read it.

And our brain-dead villager media? Transcribing the right-wing meme, as you would expect.

Shooter Had Broad Wingnut Beliefs

As we learn more about Dr. Tiller's alleged killer, Scott Roeder, it's clear that his radical beliefs covered more than just the issue of reproductive rights. According to USA Today, via TPM, Roeder was a classic wingnut of the Tim McVeigh variety, who called himself a "citizen of the Republic of Kansas," who refused to pay Federal taxes, and who is reported to be a member of Freemen, a right-wing militia group. Roeder's beliefs are not far from those of right wing Rethuglicans hinting about secession and pandering to the types of groups that the Department of Homeland Security warned about in their report in early April.

Also getting greater attention is the flagrant demonizing of Tiller over several years in the wingnut media -- prominently the Fuxed News Channel's Bill O'Liely, who continually referred to "Tiller the Baby Killer" and likened his work to that of Nazi death camps. As the investigation continues, we'll see whether Roeder was ultimately provoked to violence by any of these slimy voices.

Picture of the Day

"Bruno," a flamboyant gay Austrian "fashion reporter" played by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, appeared at the MTV music awards last night and, suspended by wires, descended on the audience, and specifically on rapper Eminem's lap upside down. Eminem's reaction having Bruno's bare butt in his face was not one of joy, and he walked out. Now they're saying it was rehearsed and staged.

Yo, Slim Shady, he waxed it just for you!

Forever Young

Just heard that today would have been Marilyn Monroe's 83rd birthday. She was only 36 when she died. CNN has previously unpublished photos of her at age 24, before her rise to fame. RIP.

Dumbya and The Dick Made Us Less Safe

In case you missed yesterday's op-ed article by Frank Rich in the New York Times, he has a terrific slapdown of The Dick's disinformation campaign about torture and national security. He cites the long-standing, probing journalism of the McClatchy Newspapers' Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Suskind in exposing the deceitful propaganda of the Bush/Cheney Administration over the Iraq War, while al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan had time to recoup and rebuild. All the while, cowed by insinuations about their patriotism, many Dems in Congress and the Beltway media villagers facilitated the deceptions and avoided asking the right questions -- if they asked any questions at all.

As Rich notes, Pakistan has been revealed as al Qaeda's true prize, a country with a ready-made nuclear arsenal and segments of the population ready to listen to al Qaeda:

"The harrowing truth remains unchanged from what it was before Cheney emerged from his bunker to set Washington atwitter. The Bush administration did not make America safer either before or after 9/11. Obama is not making us less safe. If there's another terrorist attack, it will be because the mess the Bush administration ignored in Pakistan and Afghanistan spun beyond anyone's control well before Americans could throw the bums out."

Wanker of the Week

Robert J. (for Jackass) Samuelson, yet another of the WaPo's poor excuses for "balanced" punditry, has an op/ed today with a startling, fresh, right-wing meme: the "media" is ga-ga for Obama!! Blimey, that Samuelson has found a darn good, original line of work-the-refs attack!!

Rather than linking directly to this sack o' steamin' shit, check out the "Pundit Round-up" in Daily Kos, which has a wonderful, lol summation that captures all of Samuelson's incoherent rage.

(Photo: Robert J. (for Jackass) Samuelson: photoshop a cigar and you've got Groucho!)

Listening To Right Wing "Dogwhistles"

The news that Dr. George Tiller, who performed abortions as part of his medical practice, was shot as he was attending his church was shocking, but not terribly surprising. Dr. Tiller is the fourth physician since 1993 to be killed by anti-choice terrorists, and was actually shot in both arms over a decade ago by another rabid extremist.

The shooting is also not surprising from the standpoint that right wing hate radio and the wingnut media have been sending out messages to their followers that Obama's going to confiscate their guns (so you better get armed and start the revolution/secession now). Remember how hate radio was agitated about the Department of Homeland Security report a few months ago that warned about right-wing terrorism here in the U.S., and how they juiced up the paranoia among their listeners that the Government was coming after them? This, and the usual far-right social conservative agenda that wingut media serve up as a daily diet.

Finally, it's not surprising that, after being on the losing end of two consecutive elections, the rabid right feels trapped and under siege. And their violence -- whether shooting police in Pittsburgh or a doctor in Wichita -- is being triggered by the not-so-subtle dogwhistles of the wingut media.

UPDATE 1: We noticed this little gem about some lunatic placing an ad in a Pennsylvania newspaper calling for President Obama's assassination.

UPDATE 2: Balloon Juice's John Cole connects the dots on this story. It seems that the shooter is a "sovereign citizen and tax protester" and fits the profile of the Homeland Security right wing terrorist.