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.