Teatard TV

Move over, Fux: Teatard TV has come. Some Hollywood wingnuts, including Kelsey "Bad" Grammer, are backing the effort to get right-wing pap aired on their own cable channel, cleverly named RightNetwork. Bad Grammer, who's been married three times and had substance abuse -- and spousal abuse -- problems in the past doesn't seem to be the ideal sugar daddy for the family values teatards who are expected to sign up. Also, there may be a problem getting the right-wing content to actually "entertain" anyone beyond the mouthbreathers. As Ithaca College journalism professor Jeff Cohen notes,

"Comedy requires irony. It can't be frothing with hate or fear. Drama requires complexity. It can't be all black and white."

Hmmm, comedy can't be "frothing with hate or fear." That excludes a lot of their material. Drama can't be all "black and white." Well there, the teatards might prove us wrong. After all, they've made a pretty good run at black and white drama for the past 18 months.

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday (59!) to Pretenders lead singer Chrissie Hynde, one-time lady of the Kinks' Ray Davies and a charismatic star in her own right.

The Beard Gets Clipped

Alaskan teatard and Rethug candidate for the U.S. Senate Joe "The Beard" Miller was cited for his part in a 3-car auto accident near Fairbanks on August 24. The Beard was cited for failing to exercise "due care to avoid a collision" after rear-ending a vehicle that had come to a stop. Apparently, he can't drive and groom his beard at the same time.

Undoubtedly, teatards will read this as a diabolical conspiracy against The Beard:

1. Alaskan State troopers made the citation,
2. Former State trooper Mike Wooten ran afoul of Winky and the Wasilla mob in "Troopergate",
3. Winky endorsed The Beard,
4. Therefore a conspiracy is underway!!

(photo: The Beard heard they were casting for a Brawny paper towel commercial)

Amnesia Epidemic

From this morning's Kaplan Daily:

"For the first time in more than four years, Republicans run about evenly with Democrats on the basic question of which party they trust to handle the nation's biggest problems. Among registered voters, 40 percent say they have more confidence in Democrats and 38 percent say they have more trust in Republicans. Three months ago, Democrats had a 12-point advantage."

Time is running short to turn it around. The Rethugs are counting on their obstruction and deceit paying off at the polls. Many Dems need a backbone implant. Time will tell.

Who Needs to "Come to the Middle"???

Steve Benen again, this time on McNasty's butt boy Huckleberry Graham, and the meme that Obama needs to "come to the middle" in order to govern. This while the Rethugs have lunged so far to the right that the "middle" to them looks like where St. Ronnie of Hollywood was 30 years ago.

The Streak Resumes

Perennial Sunday talk show guest Rethug Sen. John McNasty was missing from the shows during July, since he was fending off a primary challenge from reptilian challenger J.D. Hayworth. But rejoice! McNasty has returned to the airwaves (albeit on the Fux Channel), as Steve Benen notes:

"McCain lost a presidential election; he's not in the GOP leadership; he's not especially influential with anyone; he's not playing an active role in shaping any legislation; his re-election appears secure; and he doesn't appear to have any expertise in any area of public policy. The Sunday shows seem to book him out of habit. It remains farcical."

One of the questions McNasty's media followers should be asking is "where did the 'Maverick' go?" He changed his positions on critical issues so as to appeal to Arizona's Rethug base. Now that he's been revealed as another demagogic right-wing pol, will we see the Village media turn on him? Riiiiight!

The Headless Governor

Arizona Gov. Jan "Papers Please" Brewer has finally had to disavow her earlier errant comments about headless bodies appearing in the Arizona desert. She now says she "misspoke." And this dimbulb is still ahead in the polls against Democrat Terry Goddard. Shame.

Election Primer

We're just getting around to this interesting 2010 election outlook by Al Giordano. What would the media narrative be should the Dems end up holding both the House and Senate, against the current herd "reporting" meme of an imminent Democratic debacle? (Hint: something along the lines of "It's still bad news for Democrats!")

Before John "The Orange" Boehner starts measuring the windows in the Speaker's office, he might want to read Giordano's analysis (then again, let Boner ride his clueless hubris for the duration). In the final analysis, it would be amusing if the "Young Guns" are actually packin' ... pop guns.

Happy Labor Day Weekend Song

Wanker of the Week

Minnesota Rethuglican Governor Tim "No Good 'N'" Pawlenty. Yet another brave, courageous act, sacrificing the interests of his state for his own political benefit! (Wait, isn't that supposed to be the other way around?)

Miss Him Yet? Uh. . . .NO

A new USA Today/Gallup poll indicates that 71% of Americans blame former Preznit Dumbya for the current state of the economy. Not surprisingly, Rethugs blame President Obama for the economic crash he inherited almost 4 to 1, as they live in their state of bitterness and denial. Of course, that denial is one reason that the Rethug brand is so damaged, and why they've had to create the "Tea Party" to voice their radical message of tax cuts for the wealthy, corporate deregulation, and hate the Mooslims, Meskins, and Marxist usurper.

While the number is good news overall for the Dems, the percentage has fallen from previous highs, indicating that the Rethug disinformation machine is having an effect, and that the Dems are faltering in getting their message out.

(photo: Thinkin' 'bout economics made Dumbya's haid hurt)

Quality Will Out

As a public service, Hackwhackers (via Wonkette) would like to demonstrate the quality of Rethuglican candidates for office in just two states:

Arizona governor (Jan "Papers Please" Brewer); and

Colorado governor (tea bagger Dan "Secret Agent Man" Maes).

Question: Which one has a brain fart, and which one is a brain fart?
(Answer: Both have/are!!)

"The Sadness She Has Left In Her Wake"

Vanity Fair has published Michael Joseph Gross' explosive new article on former Alaska half-Governor and full time grifter Winky You Betcha that's going to raise more questions about her fitness for public office -- should she graciously decide to run in 2012. Much of the article centers on her weird anger and reputation for retribution. Among the choicer nuggets:

"This spring and summer I traveled to Alaska and followed Palin’s road show through four midwestern states, speaking with whomever I could induce to talk under whatever conditions of anonymity they imposed—political strategists, longtime Palin friends and political associates, hotel staff, shopkeepers and hairstylists, and high-school friends of the Palin children. There’s a long and detailed version of what they had to say, but there’s also a short and simple one: anywhere you peel back the skin of Sarah Palin’s life, a sad and moldering strangeness lies beneath. . .

Palin does not always treat those ordinary people well, however—it depends on who is watching. Of the many famous people who have stayed at the Hyatt in Wichita (Cher, Reba McEntire, Neil Young), Sarah Palin ranks as the all-time worst tipper: $5 for seven bags. But the bellhops had it good in Kansas, compared with the bellman at another midwestern hotel who waited up until past midnight for Palin and her entourage to check in—and then got no tip at all for 10 bags. He was stiffed again at checkout time. . .

Palin’s former personal assistants all refused to comment on the record for this story, some citing a fear of reprisal. Others who have worked with Palin recall that, when she feels threatened, she does not hesitate to wield some version of a signature threat: 'I have the power to ruin you.'"

Read the whole article: it's a thoroughly chilling profile of a public figure who could be described as a sociopath or megalomaniac. The self-aggrandizement, the delusions, the repeated falsehoods all fit a pattern of someone who should be kept as far away from the levers of public office as possible.

OK, Let's Give "Credit" Where It's Due

Now that President Obama has announced the end of combat operations in Iraq, the neocon chickenhawks who lied us into a war with a country that had nothing to do with 9-11 are demanding "credit" be given to former Preznit Dumbya. Their main point is that the troop surge turned the tide in the war, ignoring the fact that none other than Gen. Petraeus mainly credits the Sunni abandonment of al-Qaeda in Iraq -- the so-called Anbar Awakening -- with the decline in violence. That abandonment was triggered not only by heavy losses of Sunni insurgents, but also by greasing the palms of tribal leaders with millions of dollars.

So, let's give credit to Dumbya (and his puppeteer "Vice" President, The Dick) with knowingly lying us into the war with multiple falsehoods: the Iraqis possessed weapons of mass destruction, the Iraqis conspired with al-Qaeda on 9-11, our actions would bring about a flourishing of democracy across the Middle East, etc. Of course, it's done nothing of the kind, and in fact has emboldened a more influential Iran in pursuing nuclear power. Over a trillion dollars has been spent on this misadventure, while Osama bin Laden remains at large far away. Sadder than all of these consequences is the loss of over 4,400 American lives, some 37,000 wounded Americans, and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians killed and perhaps 3 million displaced from their homes. Let's never forget who gets "credit" for that.

Mid-Week Song

Take a tour of a house on Allison Road, courtesy of the Gin Blossoms. Lots of TVs.