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!