Wingut Crime Blotter, Fux Chapter

One of Fux News' reporters in New York City has been arrested on charges of sexual assault of a minor, according to Gawker. And by minor, we mean a 4 year-old girl. Charles Leaf, who was one of Fux's most enthusiastic bashers of the proposed mosque in lower Manhattan near "ground zero," is being held on $250,000 bail and will be arraigned on November 4.

(photo: We'd support Sharia law in this instance)

Reminding the Voters

(click to enlarge)

The red bars represent the job situation under Preznit Dumbya, while the blue bars show the situation under President Obama. We were losing nearly 800,000 private sector jobs per month as Dumbya and The Dick exited. Now, while slow and painful, the jobs have been coming back, despite every obstruction the Rethugs could throw in the President's path. So Dems, here's a suggestion: Remind the voters, show this graph, and ask them if they really, really want to go back.

(source: Washington Monthly)

Poll of the Day

While it's not a poll reflecting a 2010 race, TPM reports on a poll taken among Connecticut voters regarding Sen. Joe Lieberliar's chances when he's up for re-election to the Senate in 2012. The results for holy Joe? Grim.

Among Connecticut voters overall, Lieberliar has a miserable 31% approval rating; among Democrats it's a dismal 20%. If the election were held in November, Lieberliar would lose in a landslide. That would be a fitting outcome for someone who was on the Dem ticket with Vice President Al Gore in 2000, but who was denied the Dem nomination for Senate in 2006, and who actively and enthusiastically campaigned for the Rethug Presidential ticket in 2008. After receiving support from a gracious President Obama to retain his Senate Committee positions, Lieberliar turned around and fought real health insurance reform, holding back his vote in order to defeat a public option. He can usually be counted on to block progressive legislation, teaming up with the likes of Ben "Dover" Nelson. But thankfully, it appears as though we won't have holy Joe to kick around after 2012.

(photo: Consider it done, sir!)

The Rethug Mask Slips, Cont'd.

Maybe Rethuglican National Committee Chairclown Shizzle Steele is secretly running the Rethug advertising operation, or incompetence is contagious among the Rethugs. To wit: the Rethugs started running an ad against West Virginia Dem Gov. Joe Manchin, who's running for the late Sen. Byrd's Senate seat, that depicts three good ol' boys chatting about how Manchin would be an ally of President Obama if elected to the Senate. So far so good, but then the casting call and script were leaked. The Rethug ad agency said they were looking for "a 'Hicky' Blue Collar look" and went on to describe the clothing the "good ol' boys" should wear (including John "Deer" caps). The actors hired were found in Philadelphia.

The main point is that the Rethug politicians and the elites they represent never met a real working-class West Virginian; even their multi-millionaire candidate running against Manchin maintains his residence in Palm Beach, Florida. They think West Virginians themselves buy the stereotypical image that the Rethug elites have of them. Sadly, some low-information voters will buy the Rethuglican garbage, but it's always good to see the mask slip away -- if only for a moment -- to reveal the face of the Rethug / New Confederate Party.

Shocking News! Loopy Lou's A Hypocrite!

Hola and move over Mega Noggin Whitman! We have another Rethuglican hypocrite who has railed against hiring illegal immigrants only to be found to have... hired illegal immigrants. It would appear that all the while gasbag Loopy Lou Dobbs was making $6 million a year bashing people who employed illegal immigrants, he had at least 5 illegal immigrants tending to his estate grounds and to his daughter's champion show horsies. Yes, the same Loopy Lou who, night after night from his perch at CNN, bashed the government for letting those Messicans in, bashed businesses for hiring them, and most of all bashed illegal immigrants themselves in his own smug, pompous and, now we know, hypocritical way. So, from now on we can be certain that when Loopy Lou's lips are moving, he's lying.

(Image: Loopy Lou's shocked, shocked to discover illegal immigration in his establishment!)

Time to Dog the Rethuglicans

Yesterday, Think Progress published an investigative piece that exposed the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's funneling of foreign corporate contributions into campaign ads supporting Rethuglicans here in the U.S. Remember that the "U.S." Chamber fought hard against a Dem proposal to repeal tax incentives for businesses shipping jobs overseas; now we see the fuller picture.

The Rethugs, thanks to outfits like the "U.S." Chamber of Commerce, are rolling in contributions from corporate tycoons and the wealthy, who like things the way they were. Going into the final weeks of the election campaign, the Rethugs are outspending Dems by a margin of 6 to 1. In an interview with the Huffington Post, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi pushed back, saying that the Rethuglican love for big donors will end up boomeranging, once the public gets the message:

"If Democrats can't match them in spending, said Pelosi, the party would tar Republicans by connecting them to corporate cash. 'Of course, they all have euphemistic terms, 'For Seniors' or 'For Prosperity,' or whatever it is, but really it's just cover,' she said.

'Whenever you get hit with an overwhelming weight, you have to jujitsu it. So we want to turn it against them... I want to tattoo them right on to the Republican candidate,' she said, smacking her hand for emphasis. 'Big oil, big banks, big health insurance: We're going to tattoo you with that, so it's like doggy-doo stuck on your shoe. Wherever you go, people will know.'"

Yes, and recognize the odor.

(photo: No one can say the Rethugs haven't been hard at work at something -- click on picture to enlarge if you dare)

Consequences

"The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." W.B. Yeats

That seems to be the meme so far for this election cycle. We'll wait until all the votes are counted in November to see whether or not enough Democratic "unexcited" votes can match or overcome the Rethug "excited" votes (an unexcited vote counts the same as an excited one, after all). In the meantime, reading the posting about the Orange Boner below reminds us of one of the consequences of a Rethug takeover. Here are, summarized, a few more:

Rewarding bad policy decisions past and future: In a case of mass amnesia, voters would be rewarding the party that "drove us into the ditch" a short two years ago. The Rethugs haven't learned a thing from the market collapse two years ago; if anything, they've painted themselves into a more extremist corner by taking up the outlandish positions held by the tea baggers and Club for Growth crowd: cut taxes for the rich, starve government, repeal health and financial reform. So, to summarize: the more dangerous and destructive our actions and ideas, the more you want to support us. Hmmm.

Rewarding bad behavior: Even occasional readers of this blog don't need to be reminded of the Rethugs' bad behavior over the past 18 months. The hate, innuendo, and fearmongering at both the level of Rethug officeholders (Bachmann, DeMint, McConnell, Boner, et al) and their surrogates (the teahadist nation, Fux "News" Nutwork, hate radio, etc.) has reached unprecedented levels from our 40-plus years perspective in political observation. Voters would be rewarding and asking for more obstruction, deceit, reactionary retrenchment, and unfettered access to pols via massive plutocrat and corporate campaign donations (thank you, John Roberts' court!). Again, hmmm.

Stopping reform dead in its tracks: Notwithstanding progressive angst about the flaws in the health care and financial reforms, and the efficacy of the stimulus, voters would be sending the message that they want these reforms rolled back or repealed, and don't subscribe to the notion that government has a role to play in stopping the economy from going off a cliff. That's a recipe for disaster the next time the economy implodes and, more immediately, for those who are just now starting to benefit from health reform.

And if you need any more reasons to fear these consequences, let these names ignite whatever passionate intensity you may be lacking: (Senator) Rand Paul, (Senator) Christine O'Donnell, (Senator) Sharron Angle, (Senator) Joe Miller, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Jim DeMint, (Speaker) John Boehner, (Majority Leader) Mitch McConnell, (Chairman) Joe Barton, Eric Cantor, Dick Armey, Karl Rove, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck...Enough?

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert has a timely reminder of what we would be getting with a Rethuglican takeover of Congress, specifically the House of Representatives. Rethug Minority Leader John "Orange Boner" Boehner would be the presumptive Speaker of the House, and the Orange man has a seedy history of taking big money from corporate lobbies, most notoriously from the tobacco industry. In one infamous episode in the mid-1990s, Orange Boner handed out checks from the tobacco industry to his Rethuglican colleagues on the floor of the House. He was later chastised by embarassed Rethuglican colleagues, who are shy about exposing their corporate string-pullers.

Over the intervening years, he hasn't changed his, um, colors. As Herbert notes, Orange Boner can always be counted on to deliver for business interests:

"The hack who once handed out checks on the House floor is now a coddled, gilded flunky of the nation’s big-time corporate elite.
When House Democrats were preparing for the first floor vote on financial regulatory reform, Mr. Boehner and other Republican leaders summoned more than 100 industry lobbyists and conservative activists to a private strategy session. One could be forgiven for thinking that behind those closed doors they may not have had the public’s best interests in mind. According to Mr. Lipton, Mr. Boehner told the gathering, 'We need you to get out there and speak up against this.'"

It's staggering to think that a hack like Orange Boner could wind up as Speaker of the House; the big business influence and insider dealings that his teabaggers allies supposedly abhor would be back in spades. Even more reason to get out and vote so that this doesn't happen.

(photo: No checks this year for the Orange man)

UK Recognizes Druidry as Religion

Druidry - the worship of the natural world and its forces, which dates back to the Iron Age - is now officially recognized as a religion in the UK! Congrats! As an aside, we hope that this has opened the door for the long-awaited recognition of the Greco-Roman gods (if "By Jove!" isn't as British as kidney pie, we don't know what is!).

To honor Druids everywhere, we would like to offer this evocative, dazzle-worthy musical piece by Britain's ultimate Druid band - Ginger-root Baker, Jack Spruce, and Eric Thunderclapton - a.k.a., Cream:

Of Useful Idiots... and Just Plain Idiots

We have two articles to recommend for your Sunday morning edification:

Dana Milbank on Perfesser "Boo Hoot the Hoot" Beck's manufacturing "history" to conform to his crackpot worldview; * and

Frank Rich on Christine "No Dildos" O'Donnell's role as useful idiot to establishment Rethuglicans and their billionaire backers.

(Question to Hackwhackers readers: Is it just us or do you feel like you lose a few million brain cells as a result of reading about the Becks and O'Donnells of the world?)

*UPDATE: You must see this Glenn Beck meets Donald Duck cartoon before it disappears off the internet tubes!! Laff riot! (via Yglesias)

Why Are They So Afraid?

The next Nobel Peace Prize winner may be in prison when the award is announced. His name is Liu Xiaobo, and he's been in a Chinese prison since December 2008 on charges of subversion. He's the primary author of Charter 08, the Chinese democracy movement's call for peaceful transition to a democratic form of government. When you read about what he's been through, and his courage in standing up against the full authority of the Chinese government, you'll think to yourself, this is the one deserving of the Peace Prize.

The Chinese are so fearful of the embarrassment Liu's winning would cause them that they've warned the Nobel institute not to award Liu the Nobel. Now, that's not embarrassing, is it fellas?

[We're about to get borderline sanctimonious here, but stay with us anyway.]

The Chinese government must come to understand that intimidation doesn't work, whether at home or abroad. We fear it will be a long time before it learns that lesson in terms of its own people, but at least the world at large now has an opportunity to stand for the principles the Nobel Peace Prize embodies. Give Liu the Nobel.

Anchor Away

After a cringe worthy interview on Sirius Radio, in which he implied that Jews controlled the major networks and that CNN was discriminating against him, afternoon CNN anchor Rick "Dirty" Sanchez was fired by CNN. Cuban-born Dirty's initial target was frequent tormentor Jon Stewart of the Daily Show, who occasionally runs clips of Dirty being himself -- clueless and hyper. That led into this statement referring to Jews:

"Yeah, very powerless people. [laughs] He's such a minority. I mean, you know, please. What are you kidding? I'm telling you that everybody who runs CNN is a lot like Stewart and a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart. And to imply that somehow they, the people in this country who are Jewish, are an oppressed minority?"

Wow, that's some kind of hate speech there. In recognition, Hackwhackers is pleased to give the Aryan Anchor Award, Cubano chapter, to Dirty with a stiff-arm salute.

(photo: Dirty expresses regret over his statements)

Saturday Song

It's the beginning of a beautiful weekend on the east coast, after much tropical rain. "Fields of Gold" by Sting was playing on the radio yesterday, and it stuck with me.

News From Page 15

If you had the time and diligence to plow through to page 15 of the Kaplan Daily today, here's the news item you would would come across. Of course, we shouldn't be surprised at the placement, since displaying it more prominently would tend to clash with the media's carefully constructed narrative of the past 18 months.

Buh-Bye Rahmbo

As expected, "Rahmbo" Emanuel is leaving his post as White House Chief of Staff and all-around asshole to run for Mayor of Chicago (in the great Chicago tradition, we wish we could vote early and often against him). The powerful corporate Dem is being replaced by Pete Rouse (whose mother is Japanese American, making him the first Asian American WH Chief of Staff-- banzai!). Some are predicting the departure of the anti-progressive Rahmbo will enable Obama to move to the left in the remaining 2 years of his (first?) term. Let's hope so.

(Photo: Right back atcha, Rahmbo!)