What If Millions Marched, And No One Noticed?

Want to bet that tomorrow's 80-city rallies for immigration reform don't receive a fraction of the coverage that the astroturfed tea bagger rallies did? Wonkette has some reasons why the mainstream media will once again prove to be inadequate and clueless. Here's one of our favorite reasons:

"They won’t look as stupid as teabaggers. Lacking tri-corner Olde Hatts and misspelled signs with racist slogans, the somber immigration rallies just don’t make “good teevee” in this era of constant reality freak-show entertainment. Plus, it’s embarrassing to send Brit Hume or whoever out to a rally — who wants to make eye contact with your gardener and nanny out in public?"

Some weeks ago, an estimated 100,000 marched for immigration reform in DC, but the media coverage focused on the angry 2,000 Rethuglicans massed on Capitol Hill with their costumes and misspelled racist signs, so why change now?

Economy Grows 3.2 Percent

The economy grew at an annual rate of 3.2 percent in the 1st Quarter, the Commerce Department reported today. That's three quarters of growth in a row, following four consecutive quarters in the negative column. Mainstream media, let's hear it for the President's economic policies! =crickets chirping=

Let's Celebrate Union Victory Month Instead

As we count down the final hours of Confederate History Month in some states like Virginia, Mississippi, etc., it bears repeating that the New Confederate Party / Rethuglican Party is doing its best to bring back those good old days. From Texas Gov. Rick "Hair" Perry's virtually seditious threat of secession to Gov. Robert "Blowdry Bob" McDonnell's lapse of memory when it comes to slavery, the New Confederate Party is ready to lead us into the 1860s.

Today's overtones of threatened violence, brandishing guns, denial of the democratically-elected government's legitimacy, and racism was also present leading up to the Civil War. Celebrating a "cause" that defended slavery and led to secession from the Union isn't patriotic at all. But tell that to today's New Confederate Party and you'll get blank stares at best, because they've largely become a party of the Old Confederacy. And they're on the wrong side of history as a result.

Implementing Arizona's "Papers Please" Law

Arizona police official Major Strasser, center, confronts a suspicious person: "I demand to see your papers."

Mr. Unmentionable?

Think Progress observes that in Fux News' new promotional ad, a Fux personality is conspicuously missing: Boo Hoo the Hoot Beck. Could it be because Boo Hoo's ratings have dropped almost 30% since January? The advertiser boycott launched last year has resulted in many dozens of companies refusing to air ads during his nightly hallucinations, with the exception of gold-selling con men and makers of hemorrhoid creams.

Maybe Boo Hoo will address this oversight on his chalkboard soon; perhaps he can draw an analogy to the Soviets' habit of airbrushing purged commissars from photos.

Fux News Joins "Lamestream Media"

Wonkette reports on the latest dumbassery from Fux News' shining star, Winky You Betcha, this time on Sean "Heil" Hannity's cavalcade-of-wingnuts tee-vee show. Check out who she cluelessly tags as a "lamestream media" outlet where she saw a caption saying Arizona's law made it "illegal to be an illegal."

As they say, if brains were gunpowder, Winky wouldn't be able to blow her nose. Now, what does that say about the geniuses who hired her? And her fans?

Crist to Bolt Rethuglicans?

According to reports, expect Florida Republican Gov. Charlie Crist to announce this afternoon that he's going to drop out of the Rethug primary (which he's losing badly to far right, tea baggin' Marco "Boobie-o" Rubio) and run for Senate as an independent. Such a 3-way race increases the odds of two outcomes that are unfavorable to the Rethuglicans and their base (tea baggers): Crist wins as an independent (who knows, he might caucus with the Dems in the Senate), or Democrat Kendrick Meeks wins (much less likely, but more possible now). Meanwhile, the Rethugs just lost a guy who was one of the top candidates for their VP nomination in 2008. Speaks volumes about the extremists calling the tune on the right these days.

The Rethugs' Immigration Dilemma

One need look no farther than the op/ed page of today's Kaplan Daily to see why Democrats salivate over the idea of a full debate on immigration reform before the November elections. Dems believe it would lay bare a fundamental schism in the Rethug ranks, between two factions. One faction believes the Rethugs can co-opt a portion of the Hispanic vote by appealing to moral and social values; they also tend to be Roman Catholic Rethugs who identify with their Hispanic co-religionists. This side is represented in today's joust by Michael "Mushroom Cloud" Gerson. On the other you have the faction that firmly believes in "law and order," and strict interpretation of the Constitution (except, as Eugene Robinson noted below, when it applies to brown-skinned people who speak Spanish). Tory George "Quill" Will takes this side today. The topic is Arizona's anti-immigrant law. No wonder the Rethugs are desperate to put immigration reform on the back burner until after November! We say, let the bloodletting begin!

Look Who's Talking Ethics

MoDo has her own take on yesterday's Senate hearing into Goldman Sachs' scuzzy operation, and notices one posturing Rethug throwing stones from his glass house:

"You know you’re ethically compromised when Senator John Ensign scolds you about ethics. The Nevada Republican is under investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee and the F.B.I. for chicanery surrounding an affair with a staffer. His wealthy parents paid off the mistress and her husband, who was also on Ensign’s payroll.

“'I think most people in Las Vegas would take offense at having Wall Street compared to Las Vegas. Because in Las Vegas, actually people know that the odds are against them. They play anyway,' said the righteous Ensign. 'On Wall Street, they manipulate the odds while you’re playing the game. And I would say that it’s actually much more dishonest.'”

Heh heh. Of course, off camera, he later voted to kill debate on the financial reform bill. Perhaps a Senate hearing could be arranged where Rethug Sen. David "Diapers" Vitter could lecture us on the sin of adultery.

Quote of the Week

"[W]here was the Tea Party crowd? Isn't the whole premise of the Tea Party movement that overreaching government poses a threat to individual freedom? It seems to me a law allowing individuals to be detained and interrogated on a whim -- and requiring legal residents to carry identification, as in a police state -- would send the Tea Partyers into apoplexy. Or is there some kind of exception if the people whose freedoms are being taken away happen to have brown skin and speak Spanish?" -- Eugene Robinson in today's Kaplan Daily, on the racial profiling immigration law recently passed by extremist right-wingers in the Arizona legislature.

Rethugs Representing Wall St. -- Day 2

The Senate voted again today on whether to debate the financial reform bill, and the Rethuglicans voted unanimously to block the debate. Actually, this is good news, since every day that passes, and we have the Goldman Sachs pirates testifying and more news of fraud on Wall Street, the Rethugs are seen as defending the status quo. If the Dems can force the Rethugs to fillibuster, the spectacle of them on the floor of the Senate reading recipes and pages from the phone book to tie up the Senate's business in order to protect Wall Street would be priceless.

Boobie-o's Dilemma

Arizona's new law giving police the authority to stop people and ask for identification if they suspect a person might be an illegal immigrant is going to cause some gas pains for the Rethuglican party long-term. The demographics of not only Arizona but the U.S. in general indicate growing Hispanic populations -- and voters that the Rethugs are alienating. The law's clearly based on racial profiling and is something that will damage police relations with the community. It's another idea from the far-right, lily white Rethug fringe that will boomerang in the long run.

Ironically, one worried Rethug seems to be wingnut fave Marco "Boobie-o" Rubio, a Cuban-American who is running for the Senate in Florida. Boobie-o says he has "concerns" about the new law, saying, "it could also unreasonably single out people who are here legally, including many American citizens." True enough. In fact, Boobio-o could one day he be stopped and asked for "papers" in Arizona, since it's not that easy for the local gendarmes to distinguish between a right-wing, freedom-loving Cuban and an illegal Meskin drug kingpin. In fact, we'd be willing to test the law and buy Boobie-o a one-way ticket to the Grand Canyon state.

A Chicken Shit Health Plan

We've been remiss in not joining the crowd in exploring the lunacy of Rethug Senatorial candidate Sue "Cluck Cluck" Lowden, running against Harry Reid in Nevada. Here's TPM's (via Germantown bureau chief Brian) helpful breakdown of the implications of Cluck Cluck's health care "plan," which involves using chickens to barter for one's care.

What is it with Rethugs and chickens? After all, wasn't it Herbert Hoover that promised Americans "a chicken in every pot?" Maybe he was just being prescient in planning for his political descendants' use of the noble bird?

BREAKING: Blind Squirrel Halperin Finds Nut

Unless his blog's been hacked, Time's Mark Halperin, noted wanker and McCain BFF, has a remarkably upbeat piece about President Obama today. It's worth a read, even though we question some of its assumptions and characterizations. It might be noteworthy also in the fact that Halperin is a notorious adherent of the Beltway Conventional Wisdom, so this might be an indication that the prevailing media narrative over the past year or so, wherein "Real Americans are mad as hell and the Dems are going down," might be undergoing a course correction.

Those "Country First" Rethuglicans

As we noted last Friday, Senate Rethugs are representing Wall Street in trying to block financial reform, while pretending to want a deal with the Dems for public consumption. It appears as though the Rethugs are ready to fillibuster the reform bill coming out of the Senate Banking Committee. No doubt the Rethugs are positioning themselves to insert some Wall Street-friendly language in the bill as the price for allowing the bill to be debated. Meanwhile they continue to lie their asses off about "too big to fail" (which the bill addresses forcefully) and "bank bailouts" (which aren't even envisioned in the bill). The mainstream media, of course, is largely treating it as a Dem/Rethug sporting event, and themselves as mere observers unable or unwilling to call out the liars for fear of being accused of being "librul."