Voices In His Head

Dana "The Dick Whisperer" Milbank seems to be gradually smelling the noxious tea brewing on the far right. In his column today, he focuses on the calls to violence that are now becoming routine on Boo Hoo the Hoot Beck's televised psychotic episodes. The latest involves Boo Hoo's obsession with an obscure foundation, the Tides Foundation. In his fevered imagination Boo Hoo believes the Tides Foundation is a massive conspiracy out to destroy capitalism. One individual apparently took Boo Hoo's rant seriously enough that he packed up his car with weapons and headed out to shoot up the Tides Foundation headquarters and the ACLU for good measure. Fortunately, he was intercepted before he could carry out the mass murder. Unfortunately, two police officers were wounded in apprehending him.

With the mainstream media largely silent in the face of extreme rhetoric on the far right, the wingnuts are emboldened each time they push the violent language envelope and don't face repercussions. The next time we may not be so lucky, as a deranged individual who's been tuned into Beck, Limpalls or other hate merchants carries out his "mission" from them.

(image: courtesy Driftglass)

Birthday Boys

In honor of two birthdays coming up -- Jerry Garcia, who would've been 68 on August 1, and President Obama, who'll be 49 on August 4) -- we offer the following song saga, with the observation, "What a long, strange trip it was." Here's to Barry and Jerry!

As The Wasilla World Turns

There are reports that soon-to-be Winky son-in-law Levi "Big Johnson" Johnston may have impregnated his ex-girlfriend, Lanesia Garcia, while separated from Winky's daughter, Bristol, who is said to be heartbroken at the news of Big Johnson's "accomplishment." Paternity tests are being conducted, since Garcia (dang them Meskin aliens!) apparently slept with three different guys the week that she likely became pregnant. . .classy!! We're taking bets that Big Johnson's "little swimmers" got there first.

We can't blame Big Johnson for his randy behavior. What is there to do in Wasilla those cold winter nights besides boinking and consuming the meth that your family produces?

(photo: Somebody's been a bad boy. . .again!)

"Turning Point for Dems?"

Pollster Charlie Cook, who usually provides support for the CW that "it's always bad news for Democrats," surprises us with some analysis that goes in the opposite direction: i.e., that we may have seen the high water mark for Republicans. We thought we noticed that potential several times in the recent past, and the usual caveats apply in predicting outcomes. But it's always seemed odd that those in the incestuous circle jerk that covers politics in the zero-sum, who's-up-who's-down manner we're accustomed to were ready to declare 2010 the year of the Rethug tsunami -- a year ahead of schedule.

Video Clip of the Month

Well, the month's not over, but no one is going to top the magnificent Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY), who took the House floor yesterday to deliver a world-class smackdown of Rethuglicans over funding of a 9-11 first responders relief bill. He gets extra bonus points for having recently wed Huma Abedin, a major hottie and assistant to Secretary of State Clinton. We need many, many more Dems with Rep. Weiner's gonads and passion. Sit back and hold on to your seat:

Sue The Bastard

According to news reports, Shirley Sherrod is planning to file a defamation suit against right-wing smear artist Andrew "Not So" Breitbart for his role in disseminating the partial tape of appearing to make racist remarks. Sherrod, who resigned under pressure from the Agriculture Department, was later proved to be telling a story of her personal redemption and rejection of racism.

Not So Breitbart is infamous for driving smears against ACORN, ultimately forcing them to close shop, and former Obama aide Van Jones. We hope this opens the floodgates to everyone that's been harmed by his malicious work. One lawyer thinks not only Not So is in legal jeopardy, but Fux News may be vulnerable to a lawsuit for eagerly running with the smear:

"Defamation law clearly puts Breitbart in a tough position. He deliberately aired a video that was edited in a way to put Sherrod in a very bad light. Breitbart even said on Fox News that the purpose of the tape was to show that racism existed in the NAACP, even though the speech Sherrod gave was precisely the opposite -- it was about overcoming prejudice and stereotypes. Before the tape, Sherrod was not a public figure for whom a higher legal threshold of 'actual malice' would be required, though in this case it would be hard to say that malice or a reckless disregard to the truth wasn't present.

Fox, by way of offering Breitbart a forum, may be similarly at risk. Under the 'republication' doctrine, Fox may be as liable as Breitbart for recklessly running (and rerunning) the doctored footage."

This should be fun to watch.

(photo: Not So Breitbart looking for his tin-foil hat)

Quote of the Day

"The Republicans want to be mayors of crazy-town. They've embraced a fringe and proto-racist isolationist and ignorant conservative populism that has no solutions for fixing anything and the collective intelligence of a wine flask." -- Marc Ambinder in the Atlantic, 7/28/10 (h/t Washington Monthly). Too harsh? Nah.

The Prez That Wouldn't Go Away

Word that Dumbya's memoir "Decision Points" will be released on the eve of the November elections apparently has some Rethugs very concerned. Fearful of reminding the voters of the disastrous Bushit years, some Rethugs are calling the timing of the book's release "monumentally bad timing." Hee hee, snicker snicker. Of course the book itself will be as lame and uninteresting as Dumbya himself; on the other hand, if The Dick were to write a memoir, he'd outsell his former (nominal) boss ten-fold.

Much to their chagrin, the Rethugs can't seem to disentangle themselves from the Dumbya / The Dick traveling crap-circus, and the Dems are loving it. The Dems are building a mid-term elections strategy around reminding voters that Dumbya's policies almost wrecked the economy, after he deceived us into a catastrophic war of choice with Iraq.

Dumbya: the gift to Dems that keeps on giving.

(photo: Reading passages from his upcoming memoir to schoolkids, Dumbya remarks, "Hey kid, he who smelt it dealt it.")

Dems Roll Out A Message

The Dems are beginning to roll out their campaign themes for the fall, and on first blush, they're headed in the right direction. Conventional wisdom says that the Dems need to remind voters of the direction we were heading in 18 months ago with the failed policies of the Rethugs, policies which the Rethugs will bring back if allowed. If it's simply a referendum on the incomplete Obama agenda as defined by deceitful Rethug ads, that's not good for the Dems.

TPM has a video that the Dems will use to begin to draw the contrast. It will tie the Rethugs to the extreme positions of the tea bagger "movement" (i.e., the far-right Rethug base). The 10-point "Republican - Tea Party Contract On America" is a list of extreme policies which are featured prominently in the video. We like the choice of the word "On" in the title "Contract On America," as in a murder for hire.

The Next Battle

The Kaplan Daily rolled out all it's guns this morning --including an editorial!-- arguing against retaining the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy while keeping the low-and-middle class tax cuts in place. Obama will need to insert spine into the usual conserva-Dems in the Senate, including Kent Conrad and Ben "Dover" Nelson, to get this done. They've been making noises about letting earners over $250,000 keep their tax cuts against all evidence that, generally speaking, this income bracket has been doing rather well in the Great Recession compared to the rest of us, and raising their taxes would not harm the economic recovery. Good reads: Steven Pearlstein on why this is critical to Obama's agenda; and Ruth Marcus on the Rethugs' "quack medicine on taxes."

Winky's Golden Embrace

It's workin' fer Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire, you betcha! Please endorse every Rethuglican candidate running this year! Democrats all over are counting on you!

(Image: "Can I call you Schmo?")

"The Shame of the Fourth Estate"

You can add Charles Kaiser's piece to the growing oeuvre on the media's shocking failure to separate news from right-wing propaganda (as E.J. Dionne put it). Needless to say (but we'll say it anyway), progressives have to continue to push back hard at the lazy complicity of the media in the right's Big Lies. The media gets continual pressure/ badgering from the right to be "fair and balanced," whether or not there's any truth to the "story" the right is peddling (debunked but not gone: the ACORN "scandal," health reform "death panels," the Obama birth certificate, etc.). Push back must continue through the mid-term elections, otherwise the narrative will continue to be the one created by the liars.

(Image: Three-fourths of the estate)

Storms Hit D.C. Area

Powerful storms hit the D.C. area a few days ago, resulting in widespread --and continuing-- power outages. One family was particularly hard hit.

Getting His Life Back

Disgraced BP CEO Tony Hayward was forced to step down from his position at Big Polluter, effective October 1. As information seeps out about BP's corner-cutting and willful violations of safety regulations, it's obvious that Hayward was comfy with the rule-averse, bottom-line driven corporate culture at BP.

In a delicious twist, BP is assigning Hayward to (bwahahaha) its Russian projects to a "non-executive board position." We wonder if he can adapt to those cold Siberian winters, so far from his sailboat.

(photo: We hear that ice sailing is big in Krasnoyarsk)

Birthday Boy

Sir Mick Jagger was born 67 years ago today in Dartford, England. Here are a couple of the Stones' tunes, out of literally dozens that made them famous. Enjoy.
(P.S. - George Best was a famous soccer - er, football player, mostly for Manchester United in the 60's and 70's.)